How Octopath Traveler Changes Key 

game awards are just oscards aka just random bullshit wins

Celeste was in the running too which is another stellar soundtrack. Makes me want to check out the RDR2 soundtrack just to verify it's actually bullshit

RDR2 soundtrack is ok, but not in the same league as Octopath. It's the sound engineering, making tracks dynamically change as the action does, that impresses.

People are suckers for nice John Williams/Joe Hisaishi/Early Hans Zimmer pastiches, but it's important to realise that there's other ways to write music that can be very, very good, and arguably work better than Octopath's music does contextually. If all music for films or games was just the type that Sounds Nice in the classical sense, scores like Psycho's or Dunkirk's (to use very well known examples) wouldn't exist.

All the other nominees for Best Score/Soundtrack were better than RDR2

10/10 best comment

Modulaten if thou darest!

Take my thumbs up dammit

Wonderful! (Where's the nearest tavern?)

My boi cyrus

both you and 8 bit posted about octopath at same time haha. was it planned?

Love your vids and style.

Ok I'm into this music stuff but holy crap this game looks awesome! And I love RPG's! How come I never heard of this game?!? 😮

You guys should collab more! I love the quantitative side that this channel focuses on, and I also love the qualitative side you largely focus on.

Not to mention how well it ties into the themes of the game itself. The melodies travel between keys as often as the party travels between towns!

I mean... you may not be too far off from the truth. Composers often start with a vague plan or concept for their music before writing any notes.

@@crono303 Yeah, maybe, but I would think that a main motif and some basic harmony would be laid in place before the composer thinks about modulations.

1. Find a key 2. Find a second key 3. ??? 4. PROFIT

@@pietermantel9498 I'm only speaking through my own experiences but I find it much easier to pick the keys first and then compose because it is much easier to work backwards from a target key then to blindly try to find it from the first chord.

@@sporeguy99 I do not disagree with having a key first, the thing I was making a joke about was that the composer supposedly also picks a second key first. I would definetly reccomend picking a key first.

It got the classic RPG flaw of *massive* required grinding, and the characters interactions are just not enough. Otherwise, it's a great game, who deserves more. I'm proud to love it since it has first been announced, and to still have the first demo on my Switch

That's a really interesting way to put it!

But like in a good or bad way?

@@miltonmendoza9874 Usually good. Whereas a key change down feels like it's saying "you don't know the worst of it, bro.."

specifically the v-I7-VI

I mean isn't ii-V-I the basis of most jazz chord progressions?

LMAO

This soundtrack is great, especially for casual listening. You can’t so much do that with RDR2’s soundtrack, but RDR2’s soundtrack compliments the game and it’s moments perfectly. That’s why it won

Big Red That’s why it deserved best audio design. Octopath’s soundtrack isn’t as well implemented in the game as Red Dead’s, but it’s songs are just better made. And best soundtrack should go to the game with the best soundtrack, not what game implements it the best, that’s for best audio design.

NinjaBunny audio design is for every sound in the game, not just music....

Big Red well I know that, but I just feel that best soundtrack should go to the best soundtrack, and a soundtrack isn’t made any better by how it’s used in a game. A game is made better by how it uses a soundtrack.

I don't watch award shows but I heard that robbery happen and I got so fucking pissed off. RDR2 really only won what it did because it was new and large.

tarquinnff3 BREAK

When can we get some side door ii-Vs?

I was expecting to see Sab here since she loves Octopath Traveller so much. Plus her Music Theory Videos are really good. Have you ever considered doing any Music Theory Videos, Carlos?

Are you going to do a jazz version of any songs he analyzed here?

Hold on a sec...this channel and logo look awful familiar...is there a community for the big name, super-talented video game music makers between channels, or is RU-vid essentially "the community"? (You've done collaborations on your channel but I wonder if it's like the Vsauce, minutephysics, Veritasium (science guys) sorta collaborations that also exist). [Edit: Nvm made it to the end of the video for the shoutout lol]

isn’t a backdoor a iv - bVII tho?

Lol

Shame shame, haha love it

LOL

Pazzo, That Fool I played it Allllll summer

The peak of this is the whole intro to the Cave Story video.

11:46

Scared the hell out of me ^_^'

I LOLd so hard right here

Replying to an old comment, but you put it so perfectly I just had to say I'm in a similar boat and agree wholeheartedly, these videos are a goldmine for inspiration.

Chromatic mediants, my dude

chromatic mediants rock!

Best girl!

Ooh, I'll keep this in mind.

I know this is a very old comment but wanted to point out Hollow Knight also does the add2/add9 chords very well in pieces like Dirtmouth.

I think that he didn't even actually count them, based on the 'disclaimer'. Although, the 8 would be an interesting coincidence.

The MPT is probably at least 1.8 tho

@Tao Amanti We haven't worked on it in a while since he no longer goes to my school, but we will get around to it again in the future. We are going to call it Gun Caster. It will be dungeon crawler game with a large overworld. The setting is a fantasy world, but the main weapons are guns. Each race in the game will specialize in different types of guns, with different levels of magical capabilities depending on the race's exposure to magic. Also, 2 years later, my musical style has changed so much that when I get back to it, I will rework most of the tracks I wrote for it back then. If you want to see what my music sounds like, I have posted on my channel for my fan-made soundtrack for the manga series *Tower of God*

Sleigh bells.

Right, he did one video on one song saying it's sleigh bells, but a bunch of songs I mentioned have no sleigh bells. There's more out there, and Winter Music sounds distinctly wintry, so what makes that wintry feel?

A lot of those songs might not use sleigh bells but they do use bell type instruments like xylophones with lots of echo/chorus effect added (often emulating the sound of ice) like in Cold Man's stage and a few others you mentioned. There is also the classic 'wind' fx or drone chord often added low in the mix like in the Ice Cave Theme in OoT, Blizzard Buffalo stage, or North Hemispheres in DKC. Long drone chords (often minor) make the song sound more desolate as you could imagine in a snow storm. I don't think a few of these themes sound very wintery though such as Chill Peguin or the Himalayas theme... maybe just your brain visulizing the level when you hear it.

You'll pay for it? Make it a Patreon request then.

I believe the answer is Dm7b5

Ah sorry I didn't give you credit in the video!! I've seen a few different people request octopath, this was just the request that pushed me over the edge!

@@8bitMusicTheory No hard feelings! :D

I literally subbed this morning I'm so happy lol

Welcome friends

Octopath literally the only reason I bought the game was the soundtrack

@@StewNWT It's crazy how effective this soundtrack is!! It's the first time music has such an impact on my will to buy a game. Even the praised Final fantasy's music or Xenoblade didn't hit me this hard... If I wasn't poor I'd have bought it a month ago! Happy 2020, by the way.

@Nullatrum Yep it is, i didn't know that word existed in english!