Welcome, one and all!
Across our various updates, we’ve talked a lot about the mechanics of Zodiac Legion, but a true chivalric epic can’t be accomplished through dice rolls and adventures alone. The artistic layer plays as key of a role as all the other aspects, and today we’d like to focus on the game’s music, as handled by our composer, Alcibiade.
Given Zodiac Legion’s focus on authenticity, it was important for us to have the music follow the same principle. We wanted it to sound more “genuine” than “fantastic,” and Alcibiade’s background in classical music lets us achieve just that. Early on, we recognized that our theme of a knightly order in a medievalesque setting would be perfectly complemented by the use of Gregorian chants, and combining that with classical orchestrations has yielded us tremendous results.
https://soundcloud.com/alcibiade-minel/te_deum
But apart from reinforcing the themes, we also wanted the music to interplay with the gameplay mechanics. Since our levels are largely open-ended, and we can’t predict the player’s actions, we aren’t able to influence the soundtrack through simple scripts and triggers. This gave rise to adaptive music.
Adaptive music allows us to change what’s played depending on the situation in the gameworld. This can either switch tracks completely or (de)activate different sound layers within the same piece. For the former, you can listen to Alcibiade’s most recent work, which includes variations on the same theme that change as you toggle through different menus on the world map. With that, we can maintain a coherent soundscape across the menus, while giving each one a slightly different flavour that is more appropriate for its function.
The dynamic approach to music is also very important on the tactical layer. There are a number of factors that govern how the current music should be played. If nothing’s going on, then it’ll be just the most basic, low-key melody. But once enemies are spotted or you start losing units, more instruments and layers will kick in.
For an example of escalating combat music, you can listen to the recording below. The track consists of a number of levels that go up or down depending on the circumstances. The progression from the subtle zero-level loop to the next ones with additional chants and more intense instrumentation follows the way the stakes increase during combat, and when the player’s situation becomes more perilous. Finally, when one of the Zodiac Champions falls in the middle of the recording, an entire new sombre melody overrides the regular music to underscore just how dire things will now become.
Yet these are only three short samples of what we have in Zodiac Legion. There are also different tracks depending on a mission’s setting, whether it’s a dungeon, a cave or an ancient ruin, all with adaptive measures included.
Stay tuned for more news and diaries in the future as we continue to work on Zodiac Legion. We intend to bring you the greatest chivalric experience we can, and that idea will reflect in every aspect of the game. Our honour demands it!