As the music started, the calm relaxing tunes worked with the beautiful, exuberant and reposeful surroundings of the Eastern area. You would be immediately brought at ease by the sight of the bright sparkling waterworks, illuminating purple braziers and stoic statues that all show the success of the area's proud inhabitants - managing to create a lush peaceful ecosystem that could innately bring newcomers at ease. However, the disconcerting feelings brought about by the lack of the said proud inhabitants brings this visitor to a state of unease. "Where could they be? I'd quite like to meet them." A single inhabitant is present to "greet" you - draped in a black hood, they tell only of a massive and disfigured toad located somewhere towards the easternmost parts of this quadrant. And yet not a single one of these effigies seem to represent a toad, much less a disfigured one.. And then all of a sudden, the MESSED UP feeling you get when you finally get to see the rest of the locals.. But literally skinned, flayed and hacked to pieces by evil ninjas. Your encounter of the proud and prosperous denizens of the East is of them humbled, mortified and broken. Highly successful sentient beings - hunted down, enslaved and chopped apart, like animals for their pelts and as food. These proud people had not only their homes, but even their very own bodies gravely violated-their own skin, blood, and bones lining the sides and corners of their once proud halls for all to see. Their vast and impressive underground networks, now serving as a home for these cruel and predatory intruders. It's even worse when you realize that any survivors caught are duly brought up to be devoured by that evil Gamabunta. Still, the Drifter ends the madness, slaying the giant toad, and activating the monolith within the area - just as he had originally intended. Coming out of the temple where the giant had been slain, the peaceful music begins anew. The relaxing cascade of waterworks and the lush greenery of the area - in sight once more. Set by a flourishing civilization, now reduced to a handful of survivors.. It's ridiculous how the lively seeming brightness of the Eastern region helps present itself as one of the most optimistic and cheerful areas of the game - even having one of the most "upbeat" starting tracks, and yet has events take place in it that were honestly one of the most disturbing and depressing in the game... Warping back to the main hub, and the familiar depressing melancholic music plays again. You buy your upgrades, and head home to assess: Wrapping it up, you went to the East, and were brought to expect some solemnity. What did you get? A witnessing of the depressing end of a once proud civilization.
Oh heck! People actually read all that?! I thought my comment was gonna get hella TL'DRs. wafflecopter11 But, thanks much for your compliment, it wasn't actually really an attempt to write something "poetic", or "literary". The main reason I wrote all this was because I was soo deeply affected by what happened to them. Like, imagine living a life as a sentient being, but with the knowledge that your species is a particular delicacy to others. And so they just come, feast on your family's parts, and use your skins to turn your own home into theirs...
I know you didn't really mean for it to be literary or anything, but you still put a very clear picture in my head, you describe things very vividly and beautifully. I'm pretty sure if you put your mind to it, you could write paragraph upon paragraph, just based on the story of Hyper light drifter.
+Milked Well tbh your prose isn't super great, but you still capture ideas, atmospheres, and themes you seem to have been going for. if you were doing a polished review rather than an internet comment, it'd definitely be something worth reading.
If FromSoft ever makes a Souls game in a sci-fi setting, I really hope they get this same artist for the music, it fits so perfectly I need to download this soundtrack so bad to listen to while playing Dark Souls 3 when it comes out on the 12th
I just get the wildest nostalgia to the first few songs of this area, I think part of it has to be the old soundtrack to the first couple of series of Adventure Time or something, but I don't know. Feels faded. A filter of age. It's nice.
I'm a staunch supporter of the BEAR people myself :D Though... I guess OTTERS or STOATS make the most sense, even though it doesn't matter much in this case. I love the stylistically pure ambiguity of HLD and its sources of inspiration. At times it makes the hunt for lore and story all the more mysterious and challenging, and at others it allows one to interpret the world based on one's own preferences. It becomes a very personal experience!
As the music started, the calm relaxing tunes worked with the beautiful, exuberant and reposeful surroundings of the Eastern area. You would be immediately brought at ease by the sight of the bright sparkling waterworks, illuminating purple braziers and stoic statues that all show the success of the area's proud inhabitants - managing to create a lush peaceful ecosystem that could innately bring newcomers at ease.
However, the disconcerting feelings brought about by the lack of the said proud inhabitants brings this visitor to a state of unease. "Where could they be? I'd quite like to meet them."
A single inhabitant is present to "greet" you - draped in a black hood, they tell only of a massive and disfigured toad located somewhere towards the easternmost parts of this quadrant. And yet not a single one of these effigies seem to represent a toad, much less a disfigured one..
And then all of a sudden, the MESSED UP feeling you get when you finally get to see the rest of the locals.. But literally skinned, flayed and hacked to pieces by evil ninjas. Your encounter of the proud and prosperous denizens of the East is of them humbled, mortified and broken.
Highly successful sentient beings - hunted down, enslaved and chopped apart, like animals for their pelts and as food. These proud people had not only their homes, but even their very own bodies gravely violated-their own skin, blood, and bones lining the sides and corners of their once proud halls for all to see. Their vast and impressive underground networks, now serving as a home for these cruel and predatory intruders.
It's even worse when you realize that any survivors caught are duly brought up to be devoured by that evil Gamabunta. Still, the Drifter ends the madness, slaying the giant toad, and activating the monolith within the area - just as he had originally intended.
Coming out of the temple where the giant had been slain, the peaceful music begins anew. The relaxing cascade of waterworks and the lush greenery of the area - in sight once more. Set by a flourishing civilization, now reduced to a handful of survivors..
It's ridiculous how the lively seeming brightness of the Eastern region helps present itself as one of the most optimistic and cheerful areas of the game - even having one of the most "upbeat" starting tracks, and yet has events take place in it that were honestly one of the most disturbing and depressing in the game...
Warping back to the main hub, and the familiar depressing melancholic music plays again. You buy your upgrades, and head home to assess: Wrapping it up, you went to the East, and were brought to expect some solemnity. What did you get? A witnessing of the depressing end of a once proud civilization.
You should write. Books, fanfics or whatever, you have a way with words.
Oh heck! People actually read all that?! I thought my comment was gonna get hella TL'DRs.
wafflecopter11 But, thanks much for your compliment, it wasn't actually really an attempt to write something "poetic", or "literary".
The main reason I wrote all this was because I was soo deeply affected by what happened to them.
Like, imagine living a life as a sentient being, but with the knowledge that your species is a particular delicacy to others.
And so they just come, feast on your family's parts, and use your skins to turn your own home into theirs...
I know you didn't really mean for it to be literary or anything, but you still put a very clear picture in my head, you describe things very vividly and beautifully. I'm pretty sure if you put your mind to it, you could write paragraph upon paragraph, just based on the story of Hyper light drifter.
wafflecopter11 Well, thank you. I greatly appreciate it.
+Milked Well tbh your prose isn't super great, but you still capture ideas, atmospheres, and themes you seem to have been going for. if you were doing a polished review rather than an internet comment, it'd definitely be something worth reading.
Years later, this is still an incredible game and soundtrack. They killed it with the atmosphere.
Groundbreaking soundtrack for a game, this is serious talent
If FromSoft ever makes a Souls game in a sci-fi setting, I really hope they get this same artist for the music, it fits so perfectly
I need to download this soundtrack so bad to listen to while playing Dark Souls 3 when it comes out on the 12th
+babyBELUGAr a sci-fi souls would be so amazing.
"Hyper Dark Drifter". That'd be one hell of a thing.
A reboot of Armored Core ideally
INSTANT GOOSEBUMPS
22:50
The atmosphere this boss fight had was nerve-wrecking
+Chad Daddy totally agree, really set the tone for the fight. Probably my favorite of the boss tracks, very distinct.
+Chad Daddy Yeah seeing that frog eating that halpless person was kinda unpleasent.
who knew a frog would be really terrifying
until you can figure out that you can just stand behind him and not get hit
Chad Daddy Izzz chaa waaddeenn hheere.... aaaiight!
Yours is the only upload i've seen on youtube where Cascades is turned up to a reasonable volume. Thanks
10:08 game got real when I first heard this part
I just get the wildest nostalgia to the first few songs of this area, I think part of it has to be the old soundtrack to the first couple of series of Adventure Time or something, but I don't know. Feels faded. A filter of age. It's nice.
my heart is dead in the water
Best music in the game...or any game for that matter.
I don't care if the boss in this area is easy, it feels good to hack the shit out of him, executing the glutenous filth.
this sounds so fucking cool
The fact that this has this many views is a crime against humanity
The first track is so soothing, i just fell asleep
Omg at 22:40 I was just vibing to the calm ambient music and then all of a sudden my headphones just blasted my ears with the boss music
Poor mouse people guys
+Alex Baldwin i thought they were dogs, welp
i thought they were cows xD
I'm a staunch supporter of the BEAR people myself :D
Though... I guess OTTERS or STOATS make the most sense, even though it doesn't matter much in this case.
I love the stylistically pure ambiguity of HLD and its sources of inspiration. At times it makes the hunt for lore and story all the more mysterious and challenging, and at others it allows one to interpret the world based on one's own preferences. It becomes a very personal experience!
7:11 best for me
I find this soundtrack disturbing
22:50
+Dirpy Turtle that's actually the boss theme
LENNOZ k
I find it peaceful.
Exept after 22:50