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A jam submission

Aria's Quest: the Path to VirtueView project page

Original Soundtrack for Aria's Quest: the Path to Virtue by Austin Slade.
Submitted by AustinSlade — 9 hours, 46 minutes before the deadline
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Aria's Quest: the Path to Virtue's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Quality#294.2764.276
Composition#524.1034.103
Overall#963.8623.862
Impression#1433.7243.724
Correlation to theme#2013.6903.690
Creativity#2773.5173.517

Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
Aria’s Quest: The Path to Virtue is a narrative-driven Metroidvania adventure that takes players on a journey through the inner realms of a young girl’s mind, where dreams and fears come to life in a quest for virtue.

Message from the artist
Thanks for Listening!

Theme

Inside my world
Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
The title character is based off of the character in the picture, and the different places and characters that the songs accompany represent different parts of the her psyche, hence being "inside of her world"

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://youtu.be/U6DPxlTOItc

https://soundcloud.com/austin-slade-977930120/sets/arias-quest-the-path-to-virtue?si=6df71e7715d04191bd1102af120364c1&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Number of tracks
11

Genre

Orchestral

Soundtrack use permission

No

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I love that you have made a full-fledged soundtrack for a small metroidvania! It all sounds like an OST to one game, where there is an incredible layout, a combination of sounds, effects and soul ...

I like it! Cool!

Submitted(+1)

Good to see you here again :)

1) Oh, that classical "lovers progression" (I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-ii-V, or any approximation of it) is doing its magic, I know it must be! I love the vocals, really cool :D
2) I love that it starts out really calm - I often want to make over-the-top songs which sound nice, but often a bit of ambience can work wonders in games.
3) I feel like I heard a bit of 'Aria's theme' in here - that lovers progression, even when not played in full, is hard to miss. Nice leitmotif!
4) Love the chord progressions in this one!
5) Oh yes, a battle theme partly in 15/8, let's go! Very well executed too. I love me some odd time signatures. And I hear parts of the previous song, 'Sanctuary of Reason', in here as well, very nice.
6) Repeating that theme over and over with those "Crystal" songs is a good tactic for creating consistency and getting it stuck in our heads. Smart ;)
7) I love a 4/4 song that switches to 3/4! And it feels very "tranquil" indeed; very serene and calm.
8) This is starting to feel like we're reaching the end. Like it starts to get nastier from here... Nicely done.
9) Oof, a song that even I cannot follow. My instincts tell me that this is not a weird time signature but just a lot of weirdly off-rhythm notes. The background is simple enough for it not to overwhelm. Makes for a nicely complex battle :)
10) The final crystal song. Feels fitting that the vocals return. Makes for a satisfying ending :D

Your songs sound really good, all of them, and you know how to balance your complexity with your simplicity well. Very well done, you always manage to impress :D

Submitted(+1)

I love your orchestral colours! Some great melodies in there, especially Empathy Grove, and nice strong powerful writing on Nonsensical Sentinel. Really impressive!

Submitted(+1)

Great work with orchestra, submission with very good quality! Beautiful =)

Submitted(+1)

Very complete and high quality! Absolutely fits a Metroidvania type game

Great Job!

Submitted(+1)

A very thorough soundtrack. Feels like it could be in an actual game. Awesome work!

Submitted(+1)

I Love Aria's Theme leitmotif being present in a few of the tracks like Tranquility Crystal and Virtue Crystal. This was an amazing soundtrack front to back!

Submitted(+1)

Amazing job! Im impressed that you make that many well done tracks in one week, I find them really accurate and beautiful, mix and harmonies are really nice! also perfect choice with the title screen. 

Congrats for that great job!

Submitted(+1)

Great variety, lots of awesome and beautiful music! Great job on this!!

Submitted(+1)

This is so well done! Super clean work and creates a great vibe for the type of game you are going for. I would have loved a break down for what parts of the psyche the different songs represent but this is still top notch work. Great job!!!!

Submitted(+1)

Astounding work! I'm amazed at how you managed to arrange 11 tracks in just a week and make them so coherent! The vocals and orchestration are fantastic. Keep up the great work. This is definitely in my top 10 favorites.

Submitted(+1)

Great quality, great orchestration, tracks are well arranged and in an order that makes sense storywise. I enjoyed my experience!

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Aria's theme opening is beautiful and haunting with that voice :)

Empathy grove : I start to sense your work here. This track invites you to listen calmly, with empathy.

Empathy Crystal felt like the previous part was an effort and is now rewarded. 

Sanctuary of reason : i really like the ambiance in the introduction of this one. It feels like you have to make decisions based on the past, related to empathy and other people maybe, in my mind at least. Really beautifull progression in the middle!

Nonsensical sentinel : Wow !! So good orchestration here :D epic and moving, this one is amazing and conveys a confrontation really well.

Reason Crystal : aria's theme on cello, nice narrative touch after the previous fight.

Tranquility Peak : Calm as I expected. That melody is tinted whith bitterness or melancholia... But the chords at the end resolve to something more open and free, tranquility... nice progression through the song on a narrative side again :)

Aria then embodies that tranquility evoked just before with the piano. Your building process is neeeaat :D

Sanctuary of virtue : Solemn vibe here. Then it tends towards someting dramatic (slightly, I don't have max vocabulary ^^). Strenght from the previous experiences is felt here.

Umbra the guardian of virtue : this feels like the peak of the story ! Great mix of the previous instruments used i think.

Virtue Crystal : End game ? 

I feel like it could have go on and on haha, I was ready for more!


Amazing narrative building musically! The quality is there, but your main strenght in my opinion is that ability to build a world and characters out of your compositions. 

Excellent job ! 

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Aria’s Theme: Great way to set the scene right away and introduce a mysterious hero! Loved the vocals.

Empathy Grove: The oboe has an exotic and mysterious quality and fits so nicely over the pizzicato strings. I could really imagine this peaceful area. 

Empathy Crystal: Great return of the opening motif in this short stinger. I agree with the previous comment that I can learn a lot from how you did this!

Sanctuary of Reason: Your string quality is so professional. Every time without fail your tracks feel live-performed. Amazing! I usually use default Logic strings for melody lines and i have to spend a significant amount of time automating expression and modulation to get it to a point that I could convince myself that it is even remotely “human”. I’m curious if this is a similar process that you have, and if so how do you efficiently navigate doing this?

Nonsensical Sentinel: The war drums and cello ostinato sets the scene so well for this tense fight situation. I like that you exercised restraint in that you clearly nailed the fight theme, but it is clear that this isn’t a “final boss” theme.

Reason Crystal: I recognize the pattern you are using and I am loving it.

Tranquility Peak: Using piano to represent tranquility is the same choice I would have made! There is a Howl’s Moving Castle vibe to this one that feels very nostalgic to me.

Tranquility Crystal: The arpeggio at the end was a great touch to this one!

Sanctuary of Virtue: There is a calm tension in this track that works well for a final area theme.

Umbra the Guardian of Virtue: The clarity of your staccato runs makes those 16th notes sound so crisp. I love the introduction of the vocals again - boss music that reintroduces the main theme or a motif representing the main character is one of my favorite things to hear at a climax of a game!

Virtue Crystal: I’m also curious to know how you did the vocals? I honestly couldn’t tell that it wasn’t a live recording until this last track.

Overall: Stellar work once again! Your music speaks for itself and you have the makings of an entire OST ready to go. If I was a game developer, I would jump all over this idea! Thank you so much for sharing!

Submitted(+1)

Fantastic orchestration as others have said. I feel as though this could double as underscore for an animated film at points. Tonality, timbre and production are all top notch. Each piece felt unique and I appreciate the use of female vocals to really sell the theme. I could see myself coming back to these to try and learn from them, in all honesty. Great work.

Submitted(+1)

I loved it, as always very impressive, you really master the art of orchestration. Thank you for sharing your creations <3

Submitted(+1)

This was absolutely fantastic