The Dualliste changed the way I see music (SPOILERS)
The Dualliste from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 genuinely changed the way I think about music in games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXk8wJLrDc - The Dualliste Scene for Reference (SPOILERS) : )
During my first play through, I wasn't thinking about the use of adaptive music during the scene, how immersed I was, or the audio design. All I was thinking was "daaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmm, top 3 bosses ive ever encountered."
What stuck with me wasn't just the visuals (Mr Dualliste over there just radiating aura), and the amazing voice acting performance, but it was the music. GOD! I really love the soundtrack.
Before the encounter, the soundtrack is super sorrowful, melancholic and emotionally heavy which I felt perfectly reflected Maelle's dread of all the straight DEATH around her during the Forgotten Battlefield. Suddenly, the Dualliste ambushes the expedition and then his kickass powerful theme plays which completely switches up the mood from that sorrow to a true sense of urgency and determination. Felt like a real adrenaline rush and just it's MWAH! Such a great scene.
And the more I thought about it, I realized the music wasn't just there with the scene. It was actively shaping my experience.
This led me down a lil rabbit hole.
For a college research project, I spent weeks finding things about game music. Adaptive music systems, how developers use FMOD and Wwise to create these soundtracks change or respond to the player's actions, environments and gameplay states. The music is more than just a background element, it's apart of the gameplay and experience itself. Before this researched project, that was like a "no duh", ignorant (unnuanced?) thought to me when thinking about video game music before. But now knowing more, it's so fricking awesome.
Immersion in games is more than just the graphics, storytelling, or the mechanics. The music is such a key player in immersion, it's telling our brains that what we are experiencing matters. When the soundtrack responds to certain moments in games, it's connecting the player's and game world more closer than they ever could be. Like I said before, it's. So. Fricking. AWESOME!
Thank you Pontiff Sulyvahn inspo for being the catalyst to my research project on game music.
But I am curious, has anyone else felt the same way? Have a video game moment that made you rethink music in games?
Also, for the people who've also played Expedition 33, is Dualliste's theme not one of, if not, the HARDEST themes in the entire game? We Lost is definitely up there and Until You're Gone is also up there for me.
One last thing, here are some of my favorite sources in my paper I'd thought to add just in case anyone was curious : )
Audiokinetic: Documentation on Interactive Music
https://www.audiokinetic.com/en/public-library/2024.1.14_9084/?source=Help&id=creating_interactive_music
Krishaang Kaushik: Comparing FMOD, Wwise and DAW
https://www.ijfmr.com/research-paper.php?id=39384
Emad Saedi: Arguing Adaptive Music NEEDS to be in video games.
https://rshare.library.torontomu.ca/articles/thesis/Storytelling_with_Music_Adaptive_Music_in_Video_Games_and_Beyond/25164551?file=44450306
Karen Collins: THE author of game sound and audio design from what I've researched.
https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/2460/Game-SoundAn-Introduction-to-the-History-Theory
Patrick Hutchings and Jon McCormack: An experiment comparing Adaptive Music to Traditional Static Music
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8735930
EDIT: Here's the Theme Song For Dualliste as well. Kinda Forgot that lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF11KimKdFo&list=RDHF11KimKdFo&start_radio=1