If you have not already listened to the podcast of this category, this is the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
Have you ever tried to learn a musical instrument? It takes so much time, effort, and practice to make music and make it sound even passable. But then you get the privilege of listening to musicians at work, the way they can make the simplest of sounds send shock waves through you- it’s inspirational. This year we wanted to celebrate three tracks that gave us comfort, shivers, and motivation in 2024.
The Winner
Maybe Everything Will Be Ok… by Ockeroid (Crow Country)
Friends… things have been very rough lately. Maybe not as rough as Mara has it exploring a dangerous and haunted amusement park, but the horrors of the unknown may be preferable to the horrors of reality. The game is a throwback to games like Resident Evil 1 and Silent Hill 1 in it’s presentation and aesthetic, and one aspect of those games is the concept of the Safe Room, a place in survival horror where one can do inventory management and save data in peace. But more then that, they provide a place of calm in the turbulent storm of zombies or eldritch abominations. The problem is many safe room tracks are good pieces of music that sometimes fail at their stated goal of making a place feel… well, safe. Crow Country’s soundtrack has clearly taken the time to think about those stumbling blocks, and Ockeroid worked to compose a simple track that is just… beautiful.
The use of dissonant tones at the beginning still give that sensation of being in a dangerous place, but you’ve found a small pocket of the world that is safe from the danger. As the plinking piano fills the soundscape with sustained synth tones, it’s warm and comforting… while not being too inviting. The world is filled with unspeakable danger, a world you will have to return to at some point. But here, in this moment, you have a chance to breathe and feel some security. This is such a simple but marvelous achievement in music composition, because Safe Room music is on a knife’s edge of being too warm, too creepy, or some other factor that keeps it from capturing that delicate sensation of experiencing solace in a terrible place. Ockeroid walked this balance perfectly, being just unsettling enough where one wouldn’t want to stay forever, but peaceful enough to find refuge in the horrors. This piece does so much with so little, and we couldn’t help but recognize that achievement.
The Runners-Up
Heir to the Dragonlands by Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Yoshimi Kudo, Rikako Watanabe, Richter, Toki Takeda, and Denys Fontanarosa (Unicorn Overlord)
Our mispronunciation of the title not withstanding, this song is striking in a soundtrack full of gorgeous music. The intensity and short attack length of the violin’s notes create this sense of urgency that imparts the importance of this battle, a heroic but desperate rallying cry against an impossible foe. Moments of intense focus are followed by several measures of easing tensions, the strings sustaining low notes that give off a sense of calm within chaos, swelling to a ballad of triumphant sounds as you march further towards the enemy… only for the track to begin again and snap you back to the task at hand. It’s a simple song that captures the emotional core of Unicorn Overlord and so many of the tracks in that game do this so well, but this one stands above the rest.
The Yokai Trail Trio by Hannari and 籽糖,残实 (Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya)
Have you ever had to work a dinner shift at a restaurant? It is so stressful! If you’re a chef, wait staff, front of house, etc- working at that time can really be taxing! But Mystia’s Izakaya is a game focusing on the joys of food service, of which there can be many joys! In that spirit, the songs accompanying the act of cooking and serving are really fantastic. Composed of three select songs that mix together in game play, there is just something so calming in the composition of these tracks, slowly ramping up in the joyful intensity while you make personal dish recommendations to regular customers and making the most out of the closing hours of the night. Many games claim to be “cozy” when it comes to things that are stressful, but these tracks remind us that there is a special feeling in a job well done in making others happy. Just don’t let Tewi screwing up your combo get you down.
One more category this week, but it’s a big one! We will be awarding the Best Anime/Manga of 2024!
Our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.
