A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 4 Jul 2021 to 10 Jul 2021.

WILT_2021

1. The Night Unfurls (BGM: Title Screen) – Ryan Amon
2. Hunter’s Dream (Location: Hunter’s Dream) – Ryan Amon
3. Cleric Beast (Boss: Cleric Beast, Vicar Amelia) – Tsukasa Saitoh
4. The Hunter (Boss: Father Gascoigne) – Ryan Amon
5. Blood-starved Beast (Boss: Blood-starved Beast) – Tsukasa Saitoh
6. The Witch of Hemwich (Boss: The Witches of Hemwick) – Michael Wandmacher
7. Hail the Nightmare (Location: Hypogean Goal) – Ryan Amon
8. Darkbeast (Boss: Darkbeast Paarl) – Tsukasa Saitoh
9. Watchers (Boss: Shadow of Yharnam) – Yuka Kitamura
10. Rom, The Vacuous Spider (Boss: Rom, The Vacuous Spider) – Yuka Kitamura

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2021-27

Notes

This week’s notes are going to be pretty straightforward because I barely did any active listening. For work, I have been experimenting with binaural beats and sine doping, and these methods have been very effective for me to immediately immerse into focus mode, which is oftentimes one of the biggest obstacles for me when it comes to desk work. As you can also imagine, there is not much I would like to feature on that by way of this playlist.

One thing I can feature though, is a playlist of music I have been listening to passively during my after-work hours.

To decompress, I have been re-attempting to complete the 2015 classic video game, Bloodborne, develop by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computing Entertainment. It is known for its its Lovecraftian plot and cosmic-horror environmental storytelling immersive level, character, enemy, and boss design, as well as its punishing and grueling difficulty. In fact, it has become a bit of a mark of pride when a gamer can say that they have completed a game by FromSoftware, but at least only to other fans of the developer. In any case, I completed another game prior (Dark Souls 3 sans the final two bosses of the Ringed City DLC), and I thought it was about time to re-attempt this task because it was one of those things I wanted to achieve.

I have not been disappointed. Something has clicked in me this session and I have managed to get more used to the pace of the game’s combat system, because that was something I struggled with when I first attempted Bloodborne years ago. As such, I have been having thorough fun exploring the created worlds, learning about the lore behind each story beat and setting, as well as holding my own against some of FromSoftware’s most difficult boss fights.

To that end, I have decided to feature the music that accompanies each boss encounter in the order that I have successfully defeated them, as well as music from some of the iconic moments within the game.

And while it does not need to be said that the music and scoring for Bloodborne is phenomenal, the music and scoring for Bloodborne is absolutely phenomenal. Treat yourself to choral and orchestral arrangements that are both enchanting and harrowing all at once. One moment you are being swayed by an ancient rite of horror calling upon a Great One to deliver you, and the next you are screaming in terror as the staccato of violin notes assail upon your flesh and render you an eviscerated flesh heap as your mind recoils in madness.

It is rare for the background music of a video game to be given such a generous featuring in the medium, but for fans of the game and the developer, FromSoftware games do feature music prominently because they recognize that music and atmosphere are important elements to create unparalleled immersion into a created world. Here is the behind-the-scenes look of the musicians that performed on Cleric Beast, one of the first bosses you encounter, as well as a medley performance of music composed by Ryan Amon for Bloodborne.

If you are curious also, here is me defeating the bosses, Shadow of Yharnam, and Rom, the Vacuous Spider. It looks pretty slow and uneventful on screen, but trust me when I say that these were methodical tactics to ensure survivability, damage potential, and visibility on what the bosses were telegraphing for eventual success. You did not see me dying up to five times per encounter to learn from my mistakes, and what was going through my mind as I made split second decisions to not die, because everything in a FromSoftware game kills you. (Background: Most video games make use of UI or a HUD to explain to the player that this something might kill you. FromSoftware believes they have given you enough help in the game, and that your skill and willpower is enough to carry you through.)

So yes, this week is about a video game, and about music I listened to in a video game. In my opinion that still counts as What I Listened To.