Chris Christodoulou - You're Gonna Need a Bigger Ukulele | Risk of Rain 2 (2020) 

Album out now: smarturl.it/ror2ost Get the vinyl : smarturl.it/riskofrain2vinyl Get the album on STEAM: smarturl.it/ror2oststeam

Mithryx when he sees a shrimpy boot camp dropout, a dog-lizard on depression medication, bootleg Wall-e, and a girl with a weapon that became obsolete in the 16th century:

A small warning to new players: Caution, the hammer man is not slow *I REPEAT! THE HAMMER MAN IS NOT SLO-*

*pulls out comically large ukulele*

"Hey Mythrix can I get some lunar coins?" "only a ukulele-full" *pulls out a bigger ukulele*

you've heard of guitar hero, now get ready for UKULELE VILLIAN

Mithrix, stealing all my shit: You can't defeat me Me: I know, but he can My single missile drone:

As we can see, Providence has presented a rather large ukulele to his brother. The humor in this logbook stems from the fact that Providence would like to save every species, but Mithrix retorts at him, saying he can only have a single stack, nothing more. Providence then suddenly changes his expression and body language to reveal that he is indeed in possession of a stack. And not just one stack, it is a massive fifteen stacks of wooden ukulele. This is funny because you would never expect someone's music to casually be electric to save every species. It is completely unorthodox and uncalled for. This is why the logbook is so humorous and was found on the Eclipse 8 run in Risk of Rain 2.

Everybody gangsta till the human sized boss shows up

1:24 I love the transition from hard rock to elevator music

This dude was hard to fight. I picked Loader, which helped, but the downside was also that I picked Loader.

Everybody gangsta until your brother throws all your gummy worms into a wishing well

"WEAK, WITHOUT YOUR BAUBLES AND TRINKETS." ~ King of Nothing

Jokes on you, Chris, this song is totally playable in a regular sized ukulele

When a sequel is made, often it is tough to make real innovation to the music, while keeping the "soul" of the first game there. Chris has done the impossible by calling back to the old with new sounds. Amazing work.

"Oh fuck he's naruto-running at me with a warhammer!" - Me on the first encounter

Mithrix stealing all my items one by one Me with a royal capacitor and 20 fuel cell : you shoudl've gone for the equipment.

the mad lad really did just release double f*cking rainbow 2 on us

Imagine being as badass as commando. 1. Survived the first game 2. Killed a demi-god 3. Was traumatized by the events on the planet 4. When rescued, returns to the planet with Cap 5. Kills another god just out of spite

when I first saw the small boss in the very large arena I laughed at his strange appearance... he didn't like that

"For instance, how am I gonna stop some big mean Mother-Hubbard from tearin' me a structurally superfluous new behind?" "The answer? Use a ukulele. And if that don't work, use more ukulele."

Who would win: The perfect lifeform, wielding a giantwar hammer, with the ability to create explosions and summon machines Or A bunch of drug addicted hobos covered in garbage

*cutscene starts* oh my... I can handle one last boss, i think. *cutscene ends* OH HECC, I FORGOT ABOUT THE SWARM ARTIFACT!!!! HE HAS A TWIN NOW!!!

Chris you nailed all of it, the ending to risk of rain 2 has become one of those very few unforgettable moments in gaming and none of it would be half as good without your music. Thanks for keeping up the fantastic work.

I didn't notice that the screen shakes during the metal moments, because I was too busy bobbing my head.

Everyone is talking about how this is DFR reimagined, but did anyone notice the part at 1:24 is a nod to Precipitation - original RoR Providence theme?

I love how it's called "you're gonna need a bigger ukulele" and ukuleles are ineffective when fighting mithrix

Mithrix: You're gunna need a bigger ukulele *laughs in glass artifact loader* Me: YOU'RE GUNNA NEED A BIGGER HEALTH BAR

0:00 Phase 1 "Dark Souls Boss" 1:24 Phase 2 "The Halftime Show" 2:28 Phase 3 "MMO Max Level Raid Boss" 4:09 Phase 4 "Everyone is Crippled" phase 4 music is probably my favorite when im playing, cause ur like 'oh god oh fuck im nothing' and the boss is like 'i can barely walk these items are cursed' and he starts hurting himself to try to attack you

Engi:Mr. Commando, i think we can trust the president of the moon. Commando: *hands items over* Commando: "Now give it back." Mythrix: "Give what back?"

aside from all the jokes here, this music perfectly encapsulates what i think mythix is feeling, uncontrollable rage and hatred towards the living, almost doomguy-eque. that hard hitting beat ramping the train of unbridled power chugging towards you at full steam, before mellowing out into the foreboding and ominous synth, reminding the player that this being is a god, a god banished to the moon for eternity, and after such an eternity in hatred, the very team that killed his brother show up, and it's time to get revenge on them... even if it costs him his life.

Commando walks up with the ukulele in their hands. The final boss walks up with a hammer that has the same effect in their hands. "THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!" ...Their music was electric, and their battle was legendary.

Mithrix stealing your items was one of the most genius twists ive ever seen in a game. Those items you grew to rely on so much are taken from you like they're nothing. It surprised me so much. You crushed everything around you with them, and now Mithrix will do the same to you, with much less effort.

Main stage music: it sounds so sad. Like someone is soon to be lost. Boss music: ohh, BRING. IT. OOONNN!!!

Running the Swarm Artifact and seeing 2 Mithrixes coming at me full-sprint was one of the most terrifying moments of my life so far.

Mithrix: You're in danger My Commando after showing up 3 hours in: *i am danger*

god i still can’t get over the way the transition happens in this track at 1:25 You only kinda get that jarring sudden shift in the game, it feels so much more amplified in this version

Once again like in RoR1, instead of this being Mithrix's boss theme, it may be the *Player's* boss theme. On the first part, a new, real threat is presented to the King of Nothing, reflected in the ominous melody as they begin fighting. On the second part, he makes a retreat while backup comes in. The music makes it seem (to me) like he's there in the background, both thinking on how to proceed next and watching as those machines are all slowly being taken care of by the player, one by one. On the third part, he comes back in full force, going all out in his attacks. He's desperate. He's shouting at the player now. The first melody is back, with new underlying tones that reflect that desperation, and the guitar now sounds more like wailing in despair. He's losing this fight. Final part. He's broken and beaten, just barely standing on his two legs, almost all of his spirit drained from his body. This is just one sad last ditch effort to survive. A futile one.

It'd be hilarious if the items Mithrix took would appear on his model, even more with the mod that -melts your pc- visually stacks items on top of each other for each duplicate you get.

THAT. PHASE. 2. GOT. ME. JAMMING.

Mithrix with a big Shattering Justice: "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Ukulele"

Ah, yes. The sounds of desperately trying not to get one shot.

over a decade of research proves that scientifically, physically and mentally, it is impossible NOT to vibe to this music

please never make my mistake and never bring genesis loop into this fight

The main melody sounds like it's weeping in pain, which is exactly what I do when I try fighting this boss on monsoon lmao

The guitar makes me think of Mithrix just sitting on the moon, trapped, and just wailing in pain, betrayed by his brother, with no-one but him and his machinations.

This entire soundtrack is amazing. The music is perfect for what became one of my favorite games of all time. I cant wait to hear what you have in store for the expansion.

I beat this guy for the first time today, and wow what an experience. This game really is something special and so much of that is because of your music. Thanks.

"Hm. A weird black hole. Wonder if that's some kind of interactable." [MUSIC BLARES] "Okay, nope, that's a death machine." The intro to this one is just perfect, even if not all of it plays in the boss intro(?)

1:24 my fav part! Great work!

1:25 actually sounds like what i imagine moon would sound like, idk how to describe it but it certainly has the lunar feel to it.

1:25 CHILLS EVERYTIME the fuckin.... machine thing phase always happens here,,, as someone whos read the lore A LOT for this game before hand hearing how soulless and mechanic these apparently alive creatures where made to be thru this music is so satisfying.

This sounds like Double F*cking Rainbow honestly. Except a hell of a lot more done to it to make it better.

Jokes aside Chris, I think you did an excelent work here(as well as the other ones). With the other boss songs you "notice" you are in a boss fight. With this one you FEEL IT. Man I was scared when I arrived to the final boss, the music, how he was running towards me. This song is literally Mithrix. Good job :D

The first time I fought Mithrix, I was playing with two others. They both died in the second phase, so I had to fight through the last two phases and escape on my own while playing Rex. It was very intense.

“You truly were the Risk of Rain 2” -Mithrix

This song is the embodiment of the feeling when a malachite horde boss spawns

king of nothings face when i have more than one hoppoo feather (impervious to his attack pattern)

Actually i have RoR2 for only 2 months because i wasn't expecting it to be great with the 3rd dimensional shift and then my spotify made that playlist with "Songs you maybe lost on 2020" and there was "con lentitud poderosa...". That shit gave me thrills and when i got the reference from "Coalescence", looked at the names of titles on the álbum and saw the title "You gonna need a Bigger Ukulele" i snaped "Here comes DOUBLE FUCKING RAINBOW 2!" Love your work Chris 💕

Me: has 50 Ukelele-. Mithrix: *You're gonna Need a Bigger Ukulele, kiddo* _(yeets me with a hammer back to stage 1)_

Now we need a mod where Mithrix wields a giant ukulele.

Everyone's a badass until 1:25 Seriously though, awesome song. I was pretty horrified when the rest of this song started to play for the first time lol

You know real shit happens when you realise you need a bigger ukulele

Teleports behind you "This is personel, kid"

Oh, I am highly looking forward to this coming to console. Can't wait to hear this blasting through my TV.

Chris do you plan on doing another music commentary on RoR2 like you did for RoR? Not saying you should but I'am really curious of the process you went through

Mithrix: Scream, vermin. Engineer and his turrets with 30 or more Bustling Fungus: *y'all hear sumn'?*

I will always remember this as the song i killed god to as a rogue multi-task robot. I feel like i need to explain just how funny this is looking back: *never actually played or seen any footage of ror2 *didn't know how to loop, i was initially trying to unlock "sword commando' as i called him *didn't know about the (now removed) time where you can obliterate him by attacking him during his zucc faze. I will always laugh at the fact that my dumbass UNINTENTIONALLY killed GOD as a tiny multi-task bot who decided to escape his ship.

everything about the music for the final level is a perfect example of how to compose for the gameplay. the player first spawns in a dark empty room with only a long dark hallway as an exit. they are greeted with slow and calm music, a stark contrast from the louch energetic heavy metal from the boss battle they had just left behind. for most new players, the point at which they venture out of the hallway and take in the vast open view of the blindingly white moon tends to match up with the point of the song where it ramps up into heavy metal again, which realy fits the visual scene infront of the player. the player then gets to the final boss and is greeted by this masterpiece of hard electric guitar that realy hammers home the idea of mithrix looking at the character with an expression that says "alright you little punk, you made it this far, but now im going to smash your skull in". the music then shifts when mithrix leaves and summons his lunar chimeras. personally, ive always felt like this part of the song had a some sort of clock ticking feeling to it, symbolizing mithrix taking a break to catch his breath. mithrix returns and the music shifts back to the fast paced heavy guitar it had before. phase 4 begins and the pacing of song grinds to a halt. to me, this always felt like a giant red flag to the player saying "HEY! this is the time to slow down, find some cover, and take a more strategic approach!" this to me is the pinnacle ot using music to talk to the player. no pop-up text or other visual cues needed (tho mithrix taking your items away is a pretty bit red flag as well). just a clever change in musical tone. *chef's kiss* you've realy outdone yourself with this track and con lentitud poderosa. you have my applause

me: ahoy! mithrix: ahoy?!

God... This fight. (Spoilers) When Mithrix took my items, I was at first fucking piss terrified that I had just let the boss take everything from my broken build, all my antlion guards, all my Crowbars and hard earned passives, but once I learned that I could knock everything back into me, I got this strange, raw energy that I never ever felt before toward a videogame boss, where I wanted to tear the fucker apart for taking my hard earned items, to the point where I was gritting my teeth demanding "Give me back my SHIT" while everyone watched me on the Discord call. I don't know how a boss could bring something like that out of me, but it did... And so I left, heart still racing.

I'm a sucker for leitmotifs in music, and when I realized this is a reprise of Double F*cking Rainbow from ROR1, my brain freaking exploded. Excellent work, man. The soundtracks to both ROR's have become new favorites of mine since I found them.

It's all shits and giggles until the song is named "You're gonna need a bigger ukulele"

Today, I played Risk of Rain 2 with my friend for the first time ever, it's probably the best roguelike I've ever played. During a run after I unlocked Loader and was doing a run with her and got a really good build, my friend lost wifi on the last stage, so I was forced to fight this guy for the first time in a solo fight. Never have I been on such a power trip and humbled so hard.

Never played this game but good lord does the music go hard

“When I’m through with you, you’re going to remember why they name storms after people.”

"Bfg Division" vs "You're Ganna Need A Bigger Ukulele" Who will win?

1:25 A momentary abatement, having brought Mithrix to his knees, his devious machinations in piles of smoldering rubble, and ash around him. Through the smoke, the hellbringer comes forth, unrecognizable, covered in thier ill-gotten gains, their tools of war. Malformed with misintent. The King of Nothing rises one final time, and sees his assailant ready thier weapons. But he doesn't move to attack. He simply stretches his finger out, pointing at them. 2:25 A nauseating feeling, as time and space dilate and contract around the destroyer. An uncomfortable weight placed and removed all at once. A deja vu that you remember but hasn't happened yet. Pain and peace become one and the same. Then, the needles fly from their leg, the rings and crystals from thier fingers, the plates of metal and shields ripped off thier back, the glasses and contorted headresses flee from thier head, abandoning their former master, now towards the King. No longer the god they once were, they fall to their knees, their soul and curios depleted, now merely mortal. Drained from the brief, eternal torment. "You are a pathetic creature. Weak. Powerless. Without your glittering gold, trinkets and baubles... Paid for in blood. You are nothing. My damnation, my anguish, my pain ends today. But yours... yours is only just beginning. I've suffered you enough. Now suffer. ME. NOW!" I'm quite happy with how this came out. :D

I never realised precipitation was present in this song till now, really makes me love it even more

After beating Risk of Rain Returns I realized that the second phase theme has Providences theme Precipitation in it. Dope as hell.

"Why the hell is there a giant hammer man teleporting at me?"

0:26 Verdant Moon players be shivering rn

After the first dozen Mithrix fights you never hear the full theme again, either you are so stupidly overpowered you kill him before it can even build up to the good part or you've been scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of items and Mithix puts you out of your misery shame, because the theme perfectly captures the fight

Hey Chris, I just want to say I LOVE, I cannot understate this, LOVE how you used acoustic drums, and that you used them at all, on what's an otherwise "electronic-y" soundtrack. Not sure how to put it properly, but hearing the different cymbals and the overall texture is something I immediately recognized that made me think "yo this soundtrack is sick." I love hearing the drums in particular whenever I play. Have a good one!

After reaching Mithrix I called my mom, she sat on my chair, got my headphones and was absolutely impressed by the sound design. Whenever Mithrix swung his hammer against my Commando, she would be impressed. Every sound and movement caught her by surprise. After dying to the Slam attack, she took the headphones out and told me "It feel like I was really there".

" Then it all crashes down, and you break your crown, and you point your finger but there's no one around. [...] Where's your crown, King Nothing? "

Me: having a hard time trying to dodge the boss’s attacks My engineer turrets: 🗿

Whenever I hear the beginning I feel the adrenaline rush in anticipation for a hard battle

I like thinking about these songs a lot. One detail I especially like to think about is how the callback to Precipitation plays during the phase where the Chimeras attack you. I find this interesting because Providence was seen as a sort of protector of the monsters (at least, from what I remember). There’s also the fact that the ground lunar chimeras look very similar to the temple guardians/sanctuary guardians. And Providence summoned two of those sanctuary guardians during his fight. Did I mention that this song sounds amazing (and catchy)? Your songs are always a treat, man. Keep it up.

Who would win: 1: All-Powerful God who wields a warhammer which can disrupt the rifts between time and space 2: Small soldier with a ukelele and a pair of glasses

I heard precipitation in this. This is amazing Chris.

The amount of shooting and explosions sounds never made me realize that mithrix had a music

i was playing this with friends at around 3, when i finally beat him i cried out of joy, then i discovered he had multiple phases

"WEAKLING!!" Mithrix yells while limping and with half of his face broken off.

Ooh I wonder what the new boss is-- *"IT'S HAMMER TIME."*

You knocked it out of the park for this update. Both the final level and boss have incredible themes, they really sell the "oh crap" moment of being stuck on the moon and set upon by this enraged banished god.

This song in some way feels like a duel between two beings of almost unknown power, the player now showing they are able to challenge and fight against a being who calls himself a god and that god like being understanding that he is fighting something of the same species that killed his brother, a human, a being who seems hell bent on his death and in a way ending something it personally didn't start

I can't believe it's been seven years (Thereabouts) since your amazing score for the first RoR. Coalescence is still burned in my memory so hard, I can hear it sometimes still in the moments before I fall asleep and wake up.

yep got oneshot by the boss while hearin that banger, NOICE

god i love all of the phase themes so much! though ive gotta say that Phase 2 with the Lunar Chimera is probably my favorite of them all, its a perfect sound for an intermission between phases of the big final boss, while still having the feeling that even this phase isnt one you can put your guard down in.