Welcome to my final thoughts on Rain World’s Survivor campaign!! Just covering a few loose ends, and talking about the OST!! Please note, that I’m not a professional musician, so if I’m wrong about anything, please feel free to educate me (constructively) in the comments 🙂
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I find it funny, how you focused so much on the "Arrays" part and completely went over the "Farm" part in Farm Arrays 😀 Really excited for the next campaigns!
i like seing someone theorizing or simply interpreting parts of the lore from what little they have, even if some of the theories are wrong its still a nice thing to see how some people still speculate by themselves at the end of the game rather than jumping into watching the 924th identical lore video
Amazing speculative work there, right or wrong, who cares thats the fun part of putting pieces together from a puzzle.
I think before going into the next campaigns you could have fun finding some of the lore by yourself (idk if you already know the "method" in which non-environmental lore is aquiered) and contrasting that with your current theories, further developing into those theories.
I love the part where you speculate about what each region could be and i know some of those are actually answered directly by some sources i wonder how it would shapeshift your theories and perception into different ones as new info comes by.
I'd also put a small warning that the DLC content was made by a different team with a different creative vision from the original devs, a vision which is way less subtile when telling a story, still amazing work but thats a important thing to keep in mind
main downside to listening to your thoughts is that I worry they'll corrupt my own lol, but I just can't help it, plus maybe thats a good thing, new thoughts, views and understandings are important for any fandom's theorizing. Our iteration will adapt this thinking!
hahaha.
One thing you said… Them having to build near water… You've picked up inadvertently on something very important for their society, or well, infrastructure. I won't say anymore than that, but I'm sure by now you've figured out that for them, water was supremely important for some reason.
I wanted to say that memory crypt's boxes are 'assumed' to to contain flesh. You've seen how colorful the game can be, I think the dark environment encourages people to think them as flesh. I said way earlier some more details but you either passed them or rightfully ignored them because I think they were a bit more spoilery than i should've commented at the time.
I presume comments will try to correct me because of file digging but I wouldn't worry about that because theres a lot of things in the game with weird names in the files that doesn't line quite up with our general understanding.
I reccomend doing hunter before jumping into the DLC content to have the full vanilla experience before starting to check DLC content which feels qute different. Hunter can be some big spike in difficulty mainly because it needs a lot of planning and resource management but is still a worth checking experience.
Came for interesting lore ideas (not saying whether they're accurate or not), stayed for music theory. Also Snoodle makes great stuff!
I'm looking forward to whatever next game you play. If you're looking for a nice palate cleanser, may I suggest OFF? It is a short but very surreal RPG, and one you would surely enjoy. It's also completely free.
Mini music analysis?
Brother in Christ that’s half the video lmao! /pos
But all things considered I wana say that I really appreciate and enjoy you looking into rainworlds music! It’s one of the most unique soundtracks I’ve heard and it’s really hard to ignore how good some of the songs are
Oh and btw, be careful checking the downpour ost because you could easly get spoiled on region names, and a lot of regions names could spoil an entire section of the dlc
Also about the question of where does random gods play, it plays on the general systems bus, the part before you meet pebbles!
Also don’t rush the other campaigns! They will take ALOT of time to fully do if you want to just play through them so I’d recommend playing them once you feel ready for the challenge!
Note that some of the songs you played in the soundtrack like "pulse" and "the coast" were scrapped songs and are not in the game, you may have confused them with "deep light" and "lonesound" as to where they play in game, however the DLC gives some use to most scrapped songs
Onto the music… I just want to draw attention to the very last song you'd hear from the game if you play through all of it. I don't think you should listen to it yet because its definitely one of those things that does its own degree of worldbuilding but also I don't think its actually a spoiler without the context (definitely don't look at comments for any videos if you find it online).
Its called The Cycle. You're definitely more perceptive than I am so I'm not going to give away the unique effect this song utilizes and let you discover it for yourself whenever you hear it and while I personally think Random Gods is the most, well, ear catching track in the game I think the way that The Cycle ties the game up is phenomenal.
You will love undertale if you're that good at analyzing music
For future campaigns, please consider installing two mods from the workshop that fix some small bugs in the game. One is Superstructure Fuse Fix, it fixes some visuals that used to load correctly in an earlier version of the game but broke when Downpour released. The other one is a slight spoiler for a new creature that appears in a few regions.
Yeek Fix, they do not behave as intended without it. The description doesn't spoil anything beyond Yeeks, but don't play the video as it does contain major spoilers.
If the technology is water-powered, maybe we should think about how much water the superstructures must need…
I also recommend looking more into the core concepts of Buddhism. Not that they're represented 1:1 within the game, but there is a lot of inspiration for theories there.
I like the idea of 'environmental motifs'. A big one in this game for sure is graffiti, most of which is just some weird art that isn't very instructive about the lore, but what it does communicate is that people lived here. It feels realistic that way, most people doing graffiti aren't writing out their life's story on the wall. Also, graffiti drawn by scavengers has its own distinct visual style, and actually can give you some clues, so keep an eye out for it next time you're in their territory.
I'll be honest, I don't understand music theory and nothing will ever make me. But, I was really excited that you showed me connections I'd never heard before in some of the tracks! I don't think there's such thing as 'reading too much into it' here, art exists to be interpreted.
If you ever check out Downpours music I'd highly suggest looking at The Cycle.
ITS HERE! Thoughts on the video:
I love how you researched the source material, buddhism is incredibly interesting, and this game really demonstrates that
the echoes and the creatures in the depths are slightly different, but they are totally related, good catch!
I will say, you are incredible at theorycrafting, it is kind of unbelievable how well you've picked up on the hints the game gave you
I love the region theories, I also just love the regions in general, they're so well made in terms of lore and environment (apart from a region you havent seen yet which makes very little sense)
I'd argue that the downpour slugcats don't REALLY expand on the cycles, etc, but more the current world and how it came to be, which I honestly prefer
The soundtrack is FIRE
We love James Primate, his music works so well with the environments. The motifs in the themes are beautiful, I personally use sun/moon down for my D&D campaign for a certain area
Kayava 🔥🔥🔥
Rainworld does try to alienate players, in the sense that it removes any relation you could have to the main character, to the enemies, or anything. The only relation everything has is survival, which creates an almost 'forced' roleplay of the slug cat, which I LOVE
I never noticed the detail with white lizard, thats really cool!
Those notes remind me of my notes, messy and only legible to the writer lmao
you're a wonderful music teacher, and a wonderful music history teacher
actually I have a question, why do you have so little tabs, i find it quite strange
I love pictures of the past and its motif, it is such a beautiful piece
Minor and major and their properties reminds me of this piece I played called "Auld Lang Syne" on the violin. The original is major, but there's a minor key variation that makes it sound like I'm playing the theme of a cartoon evil villain, very interesting how MINOR changes can change the mood of a piece (i hate myself)
Thank you for making this video, its really great to see someone appreciate, and grow to love Rainworld, because the majority of people end up hating it, there's a reason the game has a cult following though! Cheers Leo!
Kayava and Random Gods (theme III) have always been my favorites of the og soundtrack, the former is a fun song and something that always gets me to stop and do a little dance, and the latter is a perfectly encapsulating song of the build up to (what i consider to be) the most important turning point in the game, and i also feel it captures that feeling of overwhelming power and something so much greater than you beyond your mortal body, that feeling of some great struggle and intense, burning emotion that you cant yet understand from where or why! there are so many gems in the rain world soundtrack and the dlc has some really good ones too i think youll enjoy!
34:20 absolute lies, it sounded wonderful!
honestly would love to hear you sing more, your voice sounds amazing! <3
I learned more about music from this video than I did in my entire music classes in school.
It was a really, really good playthrough and I love how you approached everything. It was fantastic as a watcher even when you were at your most painful. I haven't watched all, but I see people in the comments talking about MUSIC ANALYSIS in this video and I am excited to get to it.
Also since I just realized. Maybe it's a good idea (if you want to play all the campaigns) play a different game, then rw, then another game etc. or play both at the same time bc playing all camapigns takes a LOT of time
Random Gods plays on Five Pebbles, in General Systems Bus and less prevelantly in an area on the left bottom.
40 minutes of music theory goodness?!?! Aw yiss!
I do have to say with my basic understaning of music theory was very cool and clear enough.
Thanks once again.
<3
(lovely singing voice ^^)
aaaa i've been busy lately so i just got to finish the last rain world episode and watch this one! honestly, this has been such a journey. can i just say thank you for being a consistent friendly precence in my life these past few months, i really began to look forward to these videos and they always made my day. not to sound too parasocial lol. this has been a really fun and unique first playthrough, and i've especially loved your attention to detail and the theories you've made throughout this all. the music analysis here was also a pleasant surprise! in the vanilla game i mostly noticed the connection between Moondown and Random Gods, which always made sense to me given how those themes are connected to the two iterators who clearly have a connection, but I never payed much attention to the main theme repeating elsewhere. (By the way, highly recommend checking out the kazoo cover of Random Gods made by Northflowo, it's glorious lmao)
About Gourmand: yeah, the playstyle is very different compared to the Survivor, and i think even more so given your own rather cautios playstyle. If after a while you don't feel like it clicks, i think it might be worth it to actually go back to Survivor and just try to learn how to fight as Survivor first – I feel like Gourmand is a much more combat-oriented slugcat, and it might be difficult to jump straight into the expanded combat controls of Gourmand when you don't have much experience fighting things "normally". Though this is just my hunch on this, no need to take it into consideration if you feel like it's not needed ofc!
I really enjoyed the music analysis. Myself, i don't have much musical knowledge, however i would still like to contribute to the topic as the using music for storytelling has always fascinated me. I will avoid spoilers throughout and will bring up only what you've mentioned in this and previous videos.
What i'd like to mention is that i think finding intervals in Black Moonlight and The Coast are likely false positives. I am most certain about the latter, as the track is actually a remix of one of the older works of James (Sunset Intermission from Night Animals album), and if I’ve heard it right, the middle synth has very similar progression to the Sundown motif. Other thing is, Coast doesn't actually play in vanilla game in Shoreline, it's a bonus track like The Pulse. So i believe that Black Moonlight is safe to cross out as well as it's the only track making appearance in the game, as neither Coast and Pulse actually can convey the story to the player.
However, the main 4 Sundown motif tracks use the theme for sure, and your explanation of the cadence makes a lot of sense in the context where the tracks play:
Sundown, as the "cleanest" example of the re-appearing theme, signifies the world itself, and what it is to you as a player. As it plays in the main menu – it generally conveys the tones of the game. Mysterious, somewhat adventurous and with an uncertain ending which is both happy and melancholic. I really liked your interpretation of the progression, as it speaks of the actions you are going to go through.
Moondown is sad in nature. As you hear it when meeting Moon and observe the state she's in, the finalizing chord is lower. The scene itself speaks of weakness and sort of misery, and is a build-up for the ascension of The Leg. It is somewhat desolate with very few other instruments (even if you can call the whispering noise a proper instrument), which also how "barebones" and small Moon is. Or, what is left of her.
Random Gods is extremely imposing and i would even say crushing. This is a brisk contrast to the previous theme – emptiness gives way to all-consuming noise, not even a second of rest, showcasing the absolute power of Five Pebbles compared to the condition of Moon. The interval is itself, however, is more happy, as it signifies the signs of resolution for the player. You have ascended the superstructure and got the mark, and finally found a clear direction and a purpose in this world.
Deep Light is special. While it is the catharsis of the story, the ending itself is vague and uncertain. Slugcat cannot directly interpret or even grasp the events happening around it, so the motif itself is muffled and fuzzy and ending of the track itself is somewhat mysterious. This is a sign to the player to try to come up with own interpretation as an outside observer, and maybe even doubt if the ending itself is factual or not.
Otherwise – I loved the video very much. There's a very interesting article named "Rain World: Reaching Enlightenment Through Unfairness" (not posting a link due to a risk of it getting automodded), which goes in depth about philosophical implications of the game and how it achieves them via both gameplay and story, however, there are story spoilers in the third part so i wouldn't recommend reading it at all if you wish to explore more of non-Downpour lore.
Hmm, your lore ideas are… interesting. I definitely didn´t expect most of the video to be about music.