#y'all if you ever want me to talk about any of the music from mcsm i am HERE

[jessetheadventurer]

SO THE SONGS I LINKED IN THE LAST ASK

i’m going through each one individually and explaining why i like them because if i’m gonna hyperfixate on any one aspect of a video game, it’s gonna be the sound design

Jitter

alright this one is a favorite of mine for admittedly personal reasons, namely that it reminds me a LOT of the game Spore. which is a game i have been playing for twelve years now, and love to absolute bits. (one of the music beats from spore, for reference)

Spore’s soundtrack was actually partly composed by brian eno. if you don’t know who brian eno is, he’s more or less considered the father of all modern ambient music. he’s a BIG deal. and jitter honestly sounded like something he would have composed.

Soren’s Theme

soren is honestly my favorite of the old order of the stone. he’s eccentric, inspired, talented as HELL with building, and is an excellently multilayered character with a lot of depth. even though he’s an oddball, and even though he made mistakes, he cares a LOT for his friends and felt very guilty for what he did (or perhaps what he encouraged them to all do). 

his theme reflects all this perfectly imo. it’s strange, the chords don’t seem to quite play as they should, and there’s a hint of wisdom and experience behind the bass and almost static-y sound of the out of tune instruments. it sounds like someone who’s been around for a long time, who maybe doesn’t have themselves all together, but are still full of life and energy.

How Bright Your Life Could Be / How Dark Your Life Could Be

my theory for how this came about was basically telltale approaching antimo and welles like “alright you guys, we need a character theme for a slightly antagonistic character who is in charge of an excessively organized city but is pretty manipulative” and all antimo and welles heard was “antagonistic,” “organized,” and “manipulative” and proceeded to create the most UNHINGED pseudo-villain theme in the entire goddamn game.

how bright your life could be is excellent for champion city: the whistling sounds like birds straight out of a disney princess movie, WAY too cheerful and fantastical to be realistic. everything is pristine and beautiful on the surface.

and then how dark your life could be begins and the melody devolves into an absolute HORROR SOUNDTRACK. the background strings start a crescendo and go absolutely nuts, making for extreme tension and outright FEAR. stella is fucked up and antimo and welles will make sure you know this.

not to mention in how dark your life could be, the soundtrack gets so distorted it literally sounds like something out of marble hornets (flashing visuals & general creepiness warning on that link).

Ivor’s Theme

man this one should be self-explanatory dfksljfds

the main theme of season 1!! the menu music!! ivor’s leitmotif!! it drew inspiration from C418′s Aria Math, an absolutely gorgeous and classic minecraft song. it helped mcsm feel even closer to traditional minecraft.

i’ll be honest, i was charmed by episode 1 of season 1 when i first started playing it, but it wasn’t until this theme started and we saw ivor for the first time that i actually got really invested. the scene in endercon did an EXCELLENT job establishing real tension and plot. and the fact that the song continued into the freewalk through endercon, one of the best freewalks in season 1?

Mush Room

season 2 episode 3′s entire soundtrack is phenomenal (the synth instruments that reminisce of stranger things, whose telltale game antimo and welles ALSO worked on, are one of my greatest weaknesses), but this one is by far my favorite.

this is the song that says, “you’re trapped here. and you’re not getting out.”

i believe this is the one song in this episode’s soundtrack that has the beacontown leitmotif (you can hear it at 0:32 and again at 2:32), which. i am nothing if not a sucker for recurring leitmotifs. 

not only that, but the beacontown leitmotif in particular is extremely effective for this freewalk since radar and nurm are there with you. a small piece of beacontown, a reminder what you’re fighting for. you may be trapped, but there’s still hope.

Ellegaard’s Theme

i didn’t think i’d ever hear a harpsichord going into minecraft story mode, but BOY AM I GLAD I DID

the clock ticking like a redstone circuit? the gorgeous string instruments over a subtle background hum? 

it’s refined. it’s calculated. it’s hard at work, as brilliant and beautiful as the glowing redstone circuitry creating complex machines and new solutions to every problem.

and yet, there’s a hint of sadness behind that piano. regret? loneliness? we didn’t get to know ellegaard very well during the time we had with her, and i wish we did.

Harper’s Theme

i’ll be honest, if soren’s theme didn’t press all of my buttons, harper’s theme would be my #1 favorite.

i talked about how much i adore episode 7 of season 1 before, and this song exemplifies ALL of my points.

harper, who had been alone for years, maybe even a decade or longer, finally finding hope in strangers who appeared out of nowhere from the portal network she helped build. 

harper, who battled guilt every day for creating pama and letting it get out of control, to the point where she had to build statues that would give her pep talks and advice, which she named after her friends in crown mesa.

harper, who slept underground, reading to pass the time and trying to come up with a plan that would only have a slim to zero chance of working.

harper, who was proud of her work but horrified at what it had become.

harper, who was a genius and an inventor, intrigued by complex redstone creations and determined to do good in the world.

harper, who never gave up, not on herself, and not on the people of crown mesa.

harper.