How Music Matches Gameplay in Ori's "Shadows of Mouldwood"
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
- The Shadows of Mouldwood level from Ori and the Will of the Wisps shows how developing a theme across multiple musical tracks within a level can enhance the emotional effect the game is trying to create. Enjoy!
Composer Code podcast episode I referenced: composercode.com/gareth-coker/
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0:00 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
1:05 - Shadows of Mouldwood
4:34 - Mora the Spider boss fight
8:17 - The Darkness Lifted
12:05 - Outro
#oriandthewillofthewisps #gamemusic #8bitMusicTheory - Ігри
Thank you for this excellent and more importantly, accurate, analysis. The game allowed me to develop and re-use themes throughout all the key environments. Theme development for me is composing 101 when it comes to game scoring. Not enough to have a theme, it's how often you can vary it in different ways and also in appropriate ways. Thanks again.
This is amazing. Garreth I’m friends with Matt Kenyon and discovered you and Ori in ComposerCode. I will definitely do a reaction/breakdown of your Ori ost in the future. Keep it up!
The music of this entire game is beyond spectacular. I wish I could play this game again for the first time. You did an amazing, amazing job
Ori has been part of my daily life for the past 9 years and a large part of why is the music. You, my friend, are a genius! Thank you for this!
Ori is the perfect masterpiece of the genre! Impeccable graphics, awesome gameplay, compelling story, and a memorable soundtrack to stick forever in our memory! 🥰
Is A* masterpiece, there's a few others as well :D
Come on it wasn't that great
@@IlMerluz ohh I really enjoyed it! Can you give me more of that? hehe what other titles of the genre you would recommend too?
@@SterbsMcGurbs I thought it was
@@SterbsMcGurbs cap.
The theme that plays at the chase sequence (7:11) is Ori's theme, and the main theme of both this game and its predecessor. It's cast to 3/4 time and significantly sped up. Rather effectively, it acts as a callback to the first game's Ginso Tree escape, which was one of its cinematic highlights.
Yea! And at 8:17 it for the last part of the fight it goes into the Ori theme as well but unfortunately it gets cut off here. Was hoping to hear him bring that up but oh well. Definitely a cool part of the tracks where Ori's theme is nowhere to be found in the first section, in the second section but warped to be more frantic, and then bursts to live in the last segment as Ori finally gains the upper hand.
Isnt Ori's melody in most of the boss fights/chase sequence? Not as a reference, but to show that he's gaining the upper hand over the situation
I love Gareth Coker's compositions so much. One of my favorite video game composers of all time.
Please make more videos on Ori music!! It’s one of my all time favorite game soundtracks and this video helps me to articulate why that is!
Dude, I love that Ori is getting more love. Mora's theme goes HARD
The Ori and the Will of the Wisps soundtrack might be my favourite game OST ever. I remember struggling with Mouldwood Depths my first playthrough because the music was so amazing that it was completely distracting me from the game. My brother had warned me about this since it happened to him as well.
I wish you took the time to bring up the end of the high string melody, the lingering on the G for an extra bar and the gorgeous revolution on that high C. I physically feel that resolution every time. I understand it didn't fit the approach you took in the video, though.
One of the best soundtracks ever. One of my favorite things is how not only is the main theme/Ori’s theme used to represent Ori, but it is also used in instances to reflect hope and the emergence of new life, such as in the chase sequences (Escaping a Foul Presence, Escape with the Memory of the Forest, Escaping the Sandworm) or at the end of the game (Ori, Embracing the Light). Likewise, the antagonist Shriek’s theme isn’t just used in instances where she’s involved, but it is also used for the things she represents, that being decay, despair, and darkness; with some examples being Ash and Bone, Decay, and Remaining in Darkness. And it’s so masterfully done where the final boss music, called Shriek and Ori, is a combination of these two themes just like the chase song Escape with the Memory of the Forest. Such a beautiful game and such beautiful music. Everyone who worked on this game should be super proud of there accomplishments. And thank you for uploading this video.
Yes! I love the WIll of the Wisps OST so much, and the Mouldwood tracks are so good!
I agree, that darkness exploration really creeps me out while playing. But the musical developments are just too good that it pushed me to finish the section in just one playthrough.
I’ve never clicked so fast in my life. I love this piece so much
I'll never forget playing through Mouldwood for the first time; such a masterpiece marriage of game design, sound design, and music. Hearing that dark, creepy melody playing while the whispers increase in volume until your light is snuffed... chills. And then, post Mora-fight, I'll never forget the release of hearing "The Darkness Lifted"--I cried as I heard the track suddenly shift into major and realized that this once terrifying hive of darkness has now been re-contextualized as simply the home of the insects--we no longer fear them, and can enjoy the space for what it is. Great analysis of a brilliant piece!
The music has always been a highlight in the already great Ori games. And the reharmonization of the Mouldwood theme is one of my favourite musical moments in any video game soundtrack.
Gareth is a genius.... All Ori's music are amazing, but the way "Shadows of Mouldwood" turns to "The Darkness Lifted" is something that always hits me. It's difficuilt for me not to cry during the final strings in The Darkness Lifted. Thanks for this in-depth music explanation, great video!
Out of all the environmental scores in these games, I'm so glad you covered this one. It made such an impression on me. This theme, and the atmosphere of the level, not only plunged me into the deepest state of immersion I'd felt in the game, but it stayed with me long after the level was finished. The build is masterful, and its one of those levels where YOU KNOW what lies at the end just based on all the context clues (the webs, the small spider enemies, the feeble flutter of countless trapped gnatlike insects that almost punctuate the already tense music). This whole part of the game, musically, was chills from beginning to end and it was amazing seeing this analysis; it shows i wasn't the only one so emotionally moved.
I've been waiting for some Ori music on this channel!!
This is one of my favorite soundtracks. The music all over it is perfect for their respective themes. My favorite is Windswept Wastes. But every track is perfect.
Oh man, that first descent into Mouldwood Depths, though.... ugh. One of my favorite musical moments in any game. Ori is chock full of excellently designed music.
Ori's music really is stellar and profoundly atmospheric in almost every aspect of the game. Really a great example of game and music design in both succinct and symbiotic harmony.
On a similar note, in the newest Pokémon game, Scarlet & Violet, the final battle against the professor has a very similar bittersweet "dangerous encounter, but a triumphant perseverance to overcome" vibe that the latter half of this Ori boss theme employs. Would love to eventually see a review of it, or honestly any of 9th gen Pokémon's deeper emotional themes. They really are unexpectedly powerful for a Pokémon game.
Amazing video as usual! I think a thing that could have even been touched on even more is how the even the actual Mouldwood melody is derived from the light of nibel motif, not just the I-V-bVI-bVII pattern, which is partly why it feels so full of determination to hear them reunite for the final Mora phase! Coker does this with so many other pieces throughout the series, squeezing so much out of a single idea and constantly finding new ways to contextualize it, that I think the Ori series is worth many more videos similar to your Hollow Knight series! Keep up the great work!
I love Ori OST, I always get excited when anybody covers this game
Yessss!!! I was waiting for a video from you on Ori :) the whole Mouldwood area and especially Mora The Spider's battle theme is incredible at story telling. Another amazing video, thank you!
The first time I heard that glissando as you enter Moras lair, it didnt just give me chills, it made me tear up with how powerful it was. This whole theme was incredible, it even had an outro. When the sopranos make that descent into hell, it made me, on some level, scared of Mora.
Mora's theme is my favorite by far. Everything about the moulwood level was incredible, in music and design overall. Seeing the breakdown of the music makes it so much more interesting
Ori devs really looked at Deepnest and said "we can do that too"
and they did do
I'm already nostalgic for Will of the Wisps and it's not even 3 years old as I type this.
Really appreciate you demonstrating the move from bVI to I while talking about it at 11:20. I'm not as fluent in thinking about chords outside of the basics, and being able to hear it (the moment I thought "which one is that again"!) made it easy to follow and helped me build chord vocab ("ohh, that one yep").
I'm sure you've been doing this for a long time, but thanks for this moment that caught me perfectly.
This was such an amazingly in-depth analysis! I really hope that this isn't the last time you will cover the music of Ori!
I just finished the game few days ago, it's so cool to see a full, well detailed analysis of a theme. I especially like that I-V-bVI-bVII moment 😎
thank you so much for this, the Ori games are incredibly close to my heart and the way you broke down Gareth Coker's genius was delightful!
While I absolutely adore the entire Ori soundtrack (both games), I think that Mora the Spider is my all-time favorite track. The sheer determination of the piece really gets to me.
Have you seen Caliko's piano cover of it? ua-cam.com/video/-Qz3tvxkdbE/v-deo.html
Shriek and Ori (the final boss battle theme) and ash and bones (silent woodlands soundtrack) are up there too
Wow I just recently finished both games! It's an incredible experience. I still can't stop listening to the soundtrack.
Thank you for covering this piece, it's one of my favorite piece after the escape themes.
Ori's gameplay, art and soundtrack are outsanding. I would love to hear you talk about this game more!
These games are MASTERPIECES. What an experience it was to play these for the first time
I remember very clearly that, when playing the game with my cousin, it was my turn to have the controller when we got to Shadows of Mouldwood and after a short time, I had to stop moving and tell her : "Wait, I have to stop for a moment, I'm too distracted by the music: I have to listen to it." It was just so hauntingly beautiful, I couldn't focus on what I was doing anymore.
If you want more examples of stuff like this, I highly recommend looking into Kwolok's theme and how it evolves over the course of the game. The melody itself is just a minor chord, yet it manages to represent curious exploration, a majestic throne room, a boss battle, and a somber death. Absolutely one of my favorite parts of the game.
Another interesting one is what I call the "Growth" motif. First heard in Blind Forest in the song "Inspiriting," it plays every time you gain a new ability or grow in power, until the very last song of the game, which includes a surprising subversion on it, making it more of a spark of hope rather than a grand expansion.
And as a bonus, the final song, _Ori, Embracing the Light,_ actually plays the very same melody at the end that the first song in the first game, _Ori, Lost in the Storm,_ starts with. It's an extremely satisfying conclusion, ending with exactly where we started.
Literrally just yesterday finished replaying the Definitive edition of the first game.
Always loved it, and I played the original like 5 times already. This was my first go with this edition, and I put 2 100% runs, a quick run, and 2 failed no death ones in it.
In fact, I loved it so much that its sequel was the first game I ever bought on release day.
Safe to say, I had high expectations for the Will of the Wisps.
And it surpassed all of them. In every conceiveable way.
I've raved about it on reddit, wrote a lengthy steam review, and this is far from my only comment on youtube about it, either.
I adore everything about it.
But even I was shocked how much better the second did yesterday. I played just an hour of it, literally minutes after I finished my 19-hour 3-day marathon of the Blind Forest.
Visuals, audio, game feel. Everything is just on a next fucking level.
Oh, and "Mora the spider" was like my #8 song in this year's Spotify Wrapped, and Mouldwood Depths can't be far behind
POPTROPICA DO POPTROPICA this game was in its prime when I was in elementary school and it brings me so much joy to play it now even with the maps it has left the music though is fantastic and would fit the channel perfectly
I listen to this all the time. The whole soundtrack really, but especially this piece
I hope you do one for the luma pools segment.
I don’t know why, but there’s something unique about “resolution in paradise” that I can’t get over.
You didnt played the whole Mora music the best part just got in and literally what fills you with determination >:O
Also The leitmotif that plays during 2nd phase is the best
A year later, but I just watched this video and loved the entire thing. The Ori scores are very dear to me, so I voracious consume any content I come across. That being said, my favorite part of "The Darkness Lifted" (at ~1:15 in the soundtrack) wasn't included, and I was a bit bummed. Minor gripe, though -- thanks for the video!
Superb analysis sir
More Ori, please - there's SO MUCH to cover!
I've been a fan of this channel since discovering (and watching probably half a dozen times) your series on the Hollow Knight soundtrack, so I was really excited to see you analyzing one of my other favorite scores! I'd adore further videos on this score, as it has much more to offer-the entire Kwolok suite, for instance, shifts in much this same way, but over a greater number of tracks with more variety in both mood and instrument. Loved this, thank you for doing what you do so well!
I LITERALLY JUST 100%’d ORI YESTERDAY
9:59 I'm glad I'm not the only one to refer to dissonance as 'crunch'. I wasn't sure if I picked that up somewhere in my youth or just made it up.
Oh this was a blast to see! I love the mouldwood theme a lot
The combination of music, art style and story is just MASTERPIECE. This game belongs in art museum and has to be studied by all kinds of game developers. I can't express how much I love the game and how it deserves way more recognition
The Darkness Lifted is one of my favorite Will of the Wisps sound tracks. I find myself humming it all the time, and I spent forever in that area of the game just to listen to the music
Hey there 8-bit... Could we get a multi-part series deep dive into the music of both the Ori games? Kinda like what you did with Hollow Knight? That series was phenomenal and I think the Ori games definitely deserve something like that.
Cheers! love your work!
I really appreciate the choice to use an uneasy melody as the main source of tension in the first track, it makes it so much more effective than simply spooky extended techniques.
This area definitely has my favorite music in Will of the Wisps, it always invokes such strong emotions.
Another example reinventing one theme would be the Kwolok-themes: "The Eyes of Kwolok", "Meeting Kwolok", "Kwoloks Throne Room", "Kwoloks Malaise" and "Strength of the Forest".
I’ve never played this game, but this piece of music is one of the most beautiful and well-crafted things I have ever heard!
This is one of the best Video Game scores of all time.
Always brightens my day seeing your purple thumbnails in my sub box. You rock, dude.
I would love to see Shriek's/Silent woods theme, it has a few different variations throughout the game, it'd be a great case study into how the presence of a villain is made to be felt throughout a game.
this video was made exclusively for my benefit, i'm convinced of it
I love Ori! I’m so happy you did a video on it!
I wish I had played this game. What a stellar piece of music.
I'm so glad you're finally covering the Ori music! It's such a wonderful soundtrack and it's so hard to find analyses of it; this is the third one I've ever found. I would love to hear your further thoughts on these games!
Great musical analysis as always! always love your content :)
This was an awesome video man!!!
Omg you did it. I don’t know if my comment had anything to do with it, but I’m so happy! :D
Finally you did an Ori video 😍I've been waiting for years for this! ❤
Spectacular video! Your choice of music to analyze is fantastic and your thorough analysis is sublime, as always!
absolute master work of a game. great analysis. looking forward to gifting a copy to my friend who is a Metroid fan but hasn’t enjoyed any indie vania’s.
one of the best songs in the game
I remember having a semi argument with someone if that part in Mora the spider @7:52 is Ori's leitmotif or Mora's leitmotif with me arguing that it's Mora's since its the same melody that present in both shadow of mouldwood and darkness lift and not elsewhere. I'm happy I found this video!
You're one of the few youtubers I prelike.
What an incredible channel youtube suggested to me, if possible I would like you to analyze the music of one of my favorite snes games, Tales of Phantasia, in my opinion it has as much quality as chrono trigger, it's a shame that it doesn't be so famous
Man I was just on a listening kick of Mora the Spider and how incredible it gets during the second phase! Music like this never fails to give me goosebumps from excitement!
Goddamnit i wanna compose like gareth coker
Wow, thank you so much for making this video. I've been absolutely obsessed with Coker's work for the past 3 years of my life, but the Mouldwood area has been a sequence that I've been particularly amazed by. I've never had a formal understanding of music theory and still don't, but it's super cool to finally see the theory explaining why these tracks are especially incredible to my ears.
Also, if you haven't yet given Coker's Ruined King soundtrack a listen, you should consider changing that. Coker does some crazy stuff with that soundtrack to create an extremely immersive experience, and works some really bizarre music theory magic that I've never heard anything quite like. I've had the track 'Pride of Buhru' stuck in my head all day, and I honestly can't complain because it's just so *woah,* you know?
Expertly covered
Great video!! I like it!!
This video makes me wanna play the game again... maybe its time for another run.
Continuing more on Coker's work, maybe you could take a look at leitmotif in the ARK soundtrack, as I hear some motifs a lot there.
Such a cool soundtrack, I need to check this game out
8:35 a SUS cord you say?
The Mouldwood Depths theme is literally a variation of Ori’s theme
Nope, Mouldwood/Mora isn't connected to Ori's theme at all, which makes it that much more epic in Mora stage 3 when they finally do appear together.
@@FieldofReeds They sound extremely similar! They even have the same sort of leap up into the descending part that Ori’s theme is known for…?
@CODEShadowYT Maybe they sound similar to you at the moment, but with time and study you'll decide they aren't at all. Just because each of them has a 6th interval at some point doesn't mean they're related, it's just not quite as common a leap to use in general. Anyway, exclusive mouldwood melody!
@@FieldofReeds Damn, welp, time to adjust the next “Behind the ScORi” video! Thank you for clearing it up for me, I swore on so many things that it was just a variation of Ori’s theme!
The first time I was going through Mouldwood, I noticed that the background music almost felt like a lullaby. Of course a distorted one thanks to that F# thing you note, but I could still distinctly feel a sense of comfort and familiarity in the song. It really made me feel like by to the residents of the Mouldwood, this place wasn't creepy or weird like it was for players. Despite all the twitching wings and shifting legs, this was all familiar and comforting to the residents here, so while I could take away the literal darkness and corruption placed onto the region artifically, I wasn't going to "make the place not creepy" by restoring light. I was just going to make it go from the creepy bug place with literal all consuming darkness to... uh... the creepy bug place with regular all consuming darkness...
Plus I was happy to see a nice spider mom character. A lot of people forget what lengths most bugs and arachnids go to for their children. Just because they have like 100 kids at a time, it doesn't mean they don't care about them either.
Such a good game. Great analysis.
Hey it's my favorite theme from my favorite game!
ori atwotw is probably the most underrated game ever, the soundtrack is good, the fighting is a lot better than in the prequel, the visuals are amazing and the exploration is fun and feels rewarding. The only thing that isnt good about the game is the story
Just three more hours of awesome OST to make videos about.
PLEASE do mare Ori videos! Both Ori soundtracks are amazing!
I dare you to make the same analysis of the "windswept wastes / desert ruins area /escaping the sandworm" section. Those are perfect if you ever want to make a video about phrygian or double harmonic major scales aka "the oriental scale"
2:27 - Maybe I'm the only one who hears it this way, but that D to F# sounds eerily like a tritone, even though it's actually a 6th. It's most likely because that F# is tonally so far away from C minor. Also, I like how the "outsider" notes F#, F, E, and Eb outline a descending small step motion; thematically speaking, this descending pattern evokes the incremental descent of the outsider, Ori (and thus the player) takes, slowly going into unknown depths. A minor second-heavy melody is also good for representing creepy crawlies like spiders, too!
More from ori please
Will you ever do an in depth analysis of Shadow of the Colossus? Kow Ootani really needs more recognition for his work!! (He also did the music in the shinsenguni series called Hakuouki, based on the Otome visual novels of the same name, which also gives major shadow of the colossus vibes and I love it!!)
a S+ Tier song
Don't know if it's worth a video but I've noticed that the A flat/ G# major key tends to get used in a lot of melancholy or lazy summer themesin video games. Ideas that come to mind are the theme for twilight Town in Kingdom hearts, home from fez, shop and snowdenn village from undertale. There are more out there that I've noticed but I can't think of them right now. It would be cool to understand why that major key evokes that feeling of comfort and laziness but also sadness
fun fact: Ori is a common hebrew name and it means "my light"/"light of mine"
ORI !!!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on transformed themes in Cult of the Lamb (Amdusias & Leshy or Baal & Aym as examples) 🙂
If you'd like to discuss more of Coker's compositions, I suggest Ascension, from ARK: Survival Evolved. It's got this wonderful sense of wonder to it, building to a triumphant climax. It's also short, so bonus.
WHAT THE FUCK, I JUST BOUGHT AND FINISHED THESE 2 GAMES, AND NOW THIS AND GaMetal's THING...
This is a good fuckin few friggin days...
I don't know a lot about music but thanks to being a native German speaker, one thing I _can_ contribute is the pronunciation of "Leitmotiv" which is in fact very close to how you would say "light motif".
Cannot wait to the upcoming action rpg from moon studios, i hope it's like death's door in terms of difficulty and gameplay but with more depth in combat and even better visuals and soundtrack (although death's door nails those as well)
first i’m hearing of it, can’t wait. wonder if the visuals will retain a 2D style
@@noahsabadish3812 it's gonna be an action rpg like diablo, so they'll most likely use 3d objects (which they also used alot in ori) but my hope is that it's fantasy and they use the ''painted'' artstyle again. Also hope gareth composes the music again ofcourse