Return of None · Something Unto Death · Boss Theme (Extended) - Honkai Star Rail 2.0 OST 

I would like to formally apologise to **checks notes** Sleepie.

People really came back to apologize to Gallagher’s dog.

It really was just penacony’s version of a pitbull named cupcake

2.0 hoyo: This is the most brutal and ruthless depiction of the concept of death we can get to. 2.2 hoyo: wdym it scared you? It's just a lil guy

Correction: Gallagher and his very interesting Method of Transportation

Average bartender and his innocent Pitbull

Gallagher: thats my dog, his name is sleepie dont worry it dont bite Firefly & robin: *YES IT DO!*

Before 2.2: D E A T H After 2.2: Awww who’s a cute little Sleepie…

GALLAGHER WHEN I CATCH YOU GALLAGHER GALLAGHER WHEN I CATCH YOU GALLAGHER GALLAGHER WHEN I CATCH YOU GALLAGHER GALLAGHER WHEN I CATCH YOU GALLAGHER Edit: It seems I need to apologize to him and Sleepie, I wasn't familiar with their game 🫡

elevator music for the ppl moving between dreamflux reef and the sweet dream

Something Unto Death in 2.1: 💀 Something Unto Death in 2.2: 😊😁

You get a death flag And you get a death flag Everyone gets a death flag

HOW I'M SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT HE WAS NOT A BAD GUY BUT JUST A LITTLE BIT VIOLENT IN ACT ??????

The fact you can hear a wolf’s howl around 2:00 is amazing foreshadowing lol

WE GETTING TRAUMATIZED WITH THIS ONE! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

in german it is called "keine überlebenden", which translates to "no survivors"

It's fine guys Sleepie is just working hard and was just misunderstood

I apologize, Sleepie. I was not familiar with your game.

Mofo about to be the most-killed weekly boss in HSR

Jazz horror… I like it

Me making my apology letter to sleepie for killing him over 200+ times and promise him to give headpats.

...Alright I forgive you Sleepie.

Both mechanically and thematically, this boss is portrayed very differently to the rest, and the music reflects this nature of Something Unto Death so well. This track is so pointedly aggressive and irregular, it reflects SUD's status as a primal horror of the human psyche being an entity borne of the PERCEPTION death. All of the theming in this track reflects horror (in the constantly escalating synths), anxiety (with the pounding beats), oppression (with the synth bass being loud and spatially close to the listener), isolation (in the distant, reverberated brass) and finally, naked and unfiltered aggression with the constant variation in rhythm and instrument panning. This thing isn't a weapon of galactic war, a corrupted leader, a grandstanding emanator of destruction OR an experimental rebirth of an Aeon's dead path. Something Unto Death embodies the primal feeling of mortality dawning on someone. It doesn't have a reason to exist, it simply does because sentient beings conceptualize it. There's no ulterior motive, there IS no plan. It embodies the moment where a bus zooms right behind your heel and you feel the air rush into your back reminding you that you could have been splattered on the pavement, it's the brief moment you feel like you just might fall when you step onto a glass floor terrace of a tall building, the fear of your breath fading as you swim towards the water's surface, the paralysis of a gun being pointed ANYWHERE near you. The Sunset cometh, make your final goodbyes. In three turns, night befalls us all.

They popped off so hard with this track. The frantic synth baseline is so tense, but the muted trumpet is so ethereal and off-putting - it feels like you’re actually trapped in a nightmare.

They nailed this boss. Design, theme, mechanics... It absolutely gives off a terrifying, menacing aura. I'll never forgive it for what it did, though...

"Who's stronger, you, or the meme?" "If Something Unto Death came after me while I was in the Dreamscape, it might be a little draining..." "Would you lose?" "Nah, I'd win."

He’s just a lil taxi driver

"It dont bite" "YES IT DO"

I hope this boss stays as an ongoing threat throughout all of penacony

SLEEPIE MY BELOVED

You still know it’s a penacony theme, but it just feels so… wrong, unsettling even. It’s perfect.

Perhaps i misunderstood you Little Sleepie

Sleepie has a sick soundtrack, i never realized

Big Band Acidstep is not a genre I would have expected to work at all but for an eldritch horror boss fight it's surprisingly fitting.

Going to be on sight with this mf

At first, I was scared. Now, it shall learn to love me. Edit: I wish to adopt it

This guy will be the most hunted boss ever.

I like how this mf can literally one shot everyone in the dreamscape if it wants

This guy heralds the moment when New Vegas turns into Yharnam 💀

Sleepie I forgive you ♥

I would like to apologize

I'm sorry sleepie for "killing" you everytime I could... And be thankful we didn't had a another Otto Apocalypse

I love how Penacony is based off of the 20s and most of the songs, including this one, play with that theme by using jazz and blues music. This one takes that and twists it on its head. This song is so out of place considering the rest of Penacony, that it makes Something Unto Death even more of an enigma. Its existance is bizarre, its upbringing is mysterious, and we dont even have a clue what the heck it is. It's so unnatural that even the music breaks all the conventions we know of Penacony, instead playing this oppressive, imposing song consisting of heavy bass. The only other track like this so far is Sam's, and even then, we know things about him bc of the Stellaron Hunters. We know NOTHING about this creature, making this song in particular more memorable.

My apologies to the homie Sleepie, we chill now.

before it was a cool boss now it's FKIN personal

unironically my favorite boss in the game. i love depictions of death in media and this one doesn’t disappoint

I love the one section that calms down a little and sounds like Penacony's general "Place Of Wonders" atmosphere with the piano reminding you "This is what this place was meant to be" then goes back to corrupted and kind of all over the place

hsr always consistent w these edm bangers. it sounds so offputting, foreign, alien (0:29 this sfx especially?). uncontrollable, just like death itself I suppose. mixing it w jazz genre is an interesting choice, the rampant, free rhythm suits it & penacony's setting ig

GALLAGHER‼️💢‼️💢‼️💢

Horror muted trumpet is actually insane.

they put the rave in grave

I love this theme's usage of dissonance! there's a lot of tritones and diminished sevenths here, both which are utilized in unsettling and creepy music, but then they add some major key themes to contrast and make it even more unsettling!

Upon coming back here I noticed that the only people that seem to mention Misha are the trailblazer (Beginning of the quest in 2.0) and Gallagher. Seeing the end of the 2.1 quest I do wonder if there is something special about him, since Misha is a nickname for Mikhail

Death stole everything from me...

Now I can't stop thinking about Gallagher dancing hard 🕺🏻 Listening to this song

That damn 13 year old... when I FIND YOU.

we dying with this one 🔥🔥🔥

Oh, now we know it's name Bingo! 😊

This reminds me of speed up versions of phobia battles in Omori. Love it)

I love the way that this sounds - with a distorted "big band" feel, the faraway, fading sound of trumpets, It really feels like you were not supposed to be here - how this nightmare is far from the dreamscape of Penacony - while still being part of it.

The slow frame it slice through your character is satisfyingly terrifying

Something unto… Dormancy?

perfectly captures the fun flapper vibes of penacony proper vs the prospect of something inside of that that could kill you. something like a scrape with death that you only realized could've killed you in hindsight. mustve been fucking impossible to convey to the composer, but its captured perfectly

We're *HUNTING* Death with this one 🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥

This sounds like being chased in dark hallways, feeling something ominous breathing down on your neck and your heart beating rapidly, i love it

"And on that day, Death learned to fear those who wield the bat..."

WE ARE BACK IN OMORI'S BOSS FIGHTS WITH THIS ONE 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

Genuinely my favorite track and one of my favorite moments in the story so far. They nailed the atmosphere in this section so so well

In the second phase where he starts twiching and making sounds after charging up for his ult...thats when this theme goes at its HARDEST

Facing this boss for the first time was terrifying due to us being stuck in that nerve racking Child's Dream, searching for a way out, only to then come across him.

Sleepie's eepy theme

sooo…. who’s revisiting this now post 2.1 story quest like me 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️

i like to think this theme is instead a reflection of Gallagher instead of the Meme. after all, since this theme mixes so many random genres, it goes in line with Gallagher's whole fictional character just being a huge mix of past Family members

This boss is how you innovate the turn based rpg genre.

It's incendiary, creepy and repulsive at the same time, I loved it immediately when I heard it....

"Anxiety" has to be my favorite music genre fr

Как же музыканты из команды хср круто совместили классическое хоррор звучание с джазом и синтезаторами.

This theme sure sends chills up my spine... for both good and traumatizing reasons.

Sleepie my beloved.

WE HUNTING TO EXTINCTION WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥🔥

me before the firefly incident: Oh god please don't be a weekly chapter boss me after the firefly incident: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! SKULL FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!! me after finishing the story (post-firefly incident): Understandable Have A Nice Dream!

this boss and track immediately cemented this as a psychological horror arc, especially with the subtle sense of wrongness that led up to it

Maybe I share an unpopular opinion here, but personally I think Version 2.0 of Star Rail is near to perfect until now. Luring you into an utopian dream before revealing the true nature of memoria and the dreamscape was narratively amazing. And now most of you will probably hate me, but I think the death of a character was good and necessary for this storyline. First, it strengthens the difference between "what the dreamscape was meant to be" and "what lies beyond". Second, it reminds you that this is not some boring cozy game. Characters can die here. Be watchful. Also its important for atmosphere and development of that Boss, the Meme. Now, it should be clear to everyone that this is not some boo-hoo punching bag weekly Boss to be forgotten. No, its a killer, a predator luring around the area, ready to slice you in half the second you get distracted. The Meme is such an amazing Boss, design, lore and music are perfect and I hope it will return (which it probably will. Its still somewhere on the dreamscape, I mean). Actually, I can't hate it for what it has done. In fact, I think the killing-scene made it even cooler (one of my favourite cutscenes so far). Letting you hope to rescue the poor girl, seeing her beautiful smile before bringing cruel death whithin a few seconds, quiet, precise, murderous, shattering your hopes into pieces. Or bubbles, whatever they were. Which brings me to my last point: Firefly. Don't get me wrong - I like her, I really like her - but letting her die was the best choice. She was perfect for the role. A stranger, tragic backstory and at a poor state, just at creating bonds to the trailblazer, yet somehow connected to the stellaron hunters and still full of mysteries. Her death opens tons of interesting ways to continue the Story. Either by bringing her back in a good way (I know of the theories with SAM and Glamoth, also you never saw her in reality, only in the dreamscape. It might be possible she returns or she's actually alive somewhere. I really hope they will bring her back and don't leave her dead) Or by now focussing on development on the other characters. How is the trailblazer going to react (# new Otto)? Will he finally join Adventurine out of hatred? Thats btw another reason why it had to be her: most of the other new characters are directly necessary for the Story and can't die (like black Swan protecting the trailblazer or adventurine being the shady guy who might help you out as well as be betraying you) and the others are "not interesting enough" (are there even people who care about Robins death?). But Firefly? Well yes, she's a fan favourite. There will be emotions, hatred, revenge, and so on. The more you like a character, the more it hurts when he is taken away and the more the horrorfull impressions of memoria feel. To sum it up, from the second we entered "a childs dream" over the backstab and SAMs impressive Bossfight to the last cutscene with sunday, this was the most shocking yet best (by far) Story I ever played in both Star Rail and Genshin.

they really outdid themselves with penacony. i am actually just in love

me before the firefly incident: Oh god please don't be a weekly chapter boss me after the firefly incident: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! SKULL FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!

I wanna pet Sleepie now😊

🔥🔥WE SETTING GALLAGHER ABLAZE WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥 edit: I sincerely regret everything I've just said

I absolutely LOVE this track ❤ Wish we could fight again against death One Fight is barely enough to enjoy it

Definitely my favorite boss as for now . I really hope they add him in MoC lol i bet he's gonna be hella challenging with more hp and dmg

this is why i love penacony music the feeling of creepiness emanates through the soundtrack, as if nightmare is lurking within the dreams

this theme is actually so badass

Wish they'd bring in boss osts to SU so bad... ;-;

Sleepie's theme...

Pitbull named Something onto death

bro was just an uber ride all along

1:00 - 1:30 are kinda the creepiest and most vibing part for me, really amazing and very fitting OST that combines the style and splendor of penacony with a uniquely menacing and almost alienlike entity. fitting design, fitting theme, fitting strategy/gameplay. the pressure is on and its serious business, the OST immediately lets you know with the badass bass and creepy sounds/voices all over the track.

I love this game with all my heart. Amazing soundtrack, amazing gameplay, and a cut-throat style of storytelling. Ahhh!!! Hoyo lovers are most spoiled with Star Rail

wow agatha christie reference

It's just me, or from 0:44 is possible to hear some glitch sounds in the background? Like how Gallagher appeared in 2.0 trailer glitching too

Swing and acid in one track. They really thought this track through, and it matches SUD's peculiar existence and its belongingness in Penacony.