darkSpyro

Right, so the creation of this topic was inspired by my recent discovery of "Primordial Dreams", a five minute long track featured in Sim Cities 4.

Ever played a game, where everything is relatively happy, where everything is sunshine and rainbows, or maybe just a light drizzle. Yes? Amazing soundtrack to back up your experience?

What happens when that soundtrack takes a darker turn? When you begin hearing music that sounds vastly out of place, eerie dark music that paints a desolate, foreboding atmosphere in an otherwise normal game?

This is often a case of (deliberately) out of place music, music that is different from the rest of the soundtrack. This music is typically creepy and more suited to horror games.

I present to you my example of an out of place, creepy game track.

May your feelings of hopelessness and loneliness consume your soul.


I encountered this music through a Cities: Skylines music mod. This track is normally only encounter when you obliterate a city in SC4. Very fitting use of it, but still out of place in relation to the rest of the soundtrack.

Since I mentioned a while ago, Drought from Pokémon Ruby/Omega Ruby.



It doesn't use even half of the soundfont's capability in both versions, and it's always so eerily slow compared to the rest of the soundtrack - even its counterpart Rainfall is much more groovy and composed in comparison. Considering I only had Ruby for a good while until discovering Emerald existed when I was younger, this stuck to my mind a lot

Next one is 100% spooks so actual trigger warning, it has stuff like distorted music and mumbling voices and other things you don't want to be listening at night.



Extremely out of place in the otherwise fast-paced soundtrack from Skullgirls, let alone its gameplay. It also completely lacks the Castlevania inspiration everything else had, making it double unfitting as that series also liked to keep the tone even in abysses of hell and friends. It's different even from the song that comes right after originally, Bath of Sekhmet, which is in a MUCH darker part of the story but is extremely actioney.

Kind of breaks the ice for me when I notice they recorded Mike-Z and Alex Ahad for the creepy chanting though : P

^Actually kinda soothing TBH...

Nowadays, I don't get creeped out by music anymore, but the Wilikin Village was WAY more unsettling than it should have been.


And the future in PMD remains the most unnerving place in video games for me for some reason.

Out of place music?

Atlantica in KH2.