Discover Top Posts Tagged with #inkstriker

Nintendo’s new multiplayer shooter Splatoon features a fantastic soundtrack by Shiho Fujii and Toru Minegishi. Something about the soundtrack not everyone might have noticed, however, is that Splatoon features dynamic music; music that changes depending on what’s happening in the player’s surroundings. More specifically, most of the tracks in the game have an alternate version for when the player is submerged in ink. This dynamic music is used brilliantly for Singleplayer Theme 4, which plays on missions 9, 15, 21 and 27. These four missions are the ones that feature the Octostriker enemy, and require the player to try to stay submerged as often as possible to avoid being targeted.

Back to the dynamic music. All of the “submerged” song variations alter their respective song in the exact same way: The percussion is taken out, everything is muffled, and other minor details are removed to minimize the amount of notes happening at once. It definitely feels as though you’re listening to the song underwater, or, as the case may be, underink.

What the Octostriker theme does is play off of the dynamic music in a brilliant and mindful way. The track is designed to that, when the submerged theme plays, there is a feeling of tension. Once you’re out of your own ink, the track morphs into its true form, and gives a sense of panic through semi scare chords and heavy, booming percussion. The Octostriker can see you! it says. Run!

An even more brilliant touch, though it is a minor one, is that in the four levels the track plays in, there’s a brief moment upon entering the level where the octostriker doesn’t notice the player. during this period of time, whether you’re in human or squid form, the submerged version of the music will play, as evidenced in the video below.