Why Do Horror Games Sound So Beautiful?

If you want to hear more about horror games, sounds, and any song with strings, I'll be releasing a full-length video commentary for this essay on Patreon: www.patreon.com/JacobGeller

I don’t think horror works without empathy.

The audio: I lay there and watched the god I had created die. The screen: Dickslapper666

“It can’t be horror all the time. you have to give players a safe spot to rest” Dead space monsters posing as corpses to jumpscare you front of save stations: allow us to introduce ourselves

A few years back my girlfriend was killed in a car accident, I was able to walk away from a 70 mph car crash and for a while the survivor's guilt led me to drinking heavily and distancing myself from a lot of people. Out of the blue I decided to stream on YouTube and started a playthrough of silent hill 2. Playing through the game and having anonymous people to talk to really helped me out of a tough time. My first time playing SH2 I didn't realize there were more endings and I thought it was just the in water ending. Being able to play the game as James learning to let go of his wife and allowing himself to move on for the good ending really resonated with me and to this day everytime I here the songs from that game I can't help but get emotional.

"The world is a machine for pigs. We are all pigs" ... "Special K ceral is bursting with strawberries!"

I feel like you're missing the point with Claire de Lune in Evil Within. They didn't just throw in some pleasant-sounding music, they picked a real-world classical piece to play in a creepy asylum. It's not just game music that only the player hears, it's being played IN the asylum, over the speakers. It's intentional tonal dissonance; the room itself may be safe, but it doesn't feel safe, it feels sinister and morbid. The inclusion of a calm, lilting classical piece puts that feeling in stark relief. You don't feel calm, you feel like you're being calmed, like a doctor telling you "this won't hurt a bit" before sliding a needle into your vein. That makes it far more unsettling than any deliberately creepy music could accomplish.

I had a similar experience with Death Stranding. Without spoiling it, there’s a song hinted at throughout the game and the player finally hears it in its entirety in a crucial moment in the plot. Hell, the song was even hinted at in some trailers, before the game was out. Damn Kojima.

This reminds me of when I first found Eurydice when playing Hades. I went from desperately fighting for my life between lava pools and entered an unknown room and was met with the beautiful voice singing of the sweet release of death. I stopped and listened to the entire song before I touched my controls again.

Jacob, you've officially made my list of "can't sleep play a calming video" creators. The highest honor.

The Japanese have a term for this feeling; Mono no aware. It describes the feeling of knowing this moment is not permanent. Nothing is, nor will it ever be. Your happiest moment, your deepest despair. This too, shall pass. I think these pieces evoke that feeling. The knowing of time, the deep understanding that your best efforts, even your life, is futile in the face of time, in the grand scheme of the entropy of the universe. But I believe there is also a hope in this, some kind of happy joy to be had to know that none of this really matters, that we are the universe experiencing itself, and what else is there to do but experience it all?

Akira Yamaoka is a fucking genius, after so many years still listening to the entire SH soundtrack.

I'll be honest... every time I hear clair de lune, I remember The Evil Within, a game while not necessarily perfect it still has a special place in my heart.

There's no doubt in my mind that you have set a new standard for what a great video essay should be. Props, man.

"The Evil Within 2 Deserved Better." ... Welp, guess I'm spending 20 dollars because Jacob Geller told me to.

I have a feeling Jacob would like the Music, "Lillium" from the show "Elfen Lied"

5:10 "I also find it fascinating that the contrast to horror isn't happy, either, it isn't bright and bouncy. Happy music is just distorted by the scares. Instead, it's just a return, to something like, neutral." I'm a survivor of a 7 year long trauma before I was old enough to have a childhood. I'm plagued with several mental disorders, illnesses, and neurological conditions. This includes depression, anxiety, PTSD, and several others still. This really speaks to me for some reason. I've had an aversion to happy music and happiness in general since I've been through it all, and come out alive. I've tried to tell myself "you need to be happy" but I don't want to be happy. I want neutrality. I want to be safe. I don't want a smile across my face 24/7, I want peace. Without fear or pain, I want solace. I think that this line is enough to explain why I love good horror audio design. When the contrast is happiness, it's merely distorted and wrong, when the contrast is solace and peace, it's much more effective at putting you in their place. Thank you for allowing me to have some insight into myself as well

What you feel is what Portuguese speakers call "saudade". A longing for something or someone, but also a longing for the feeling you have when you're with that said person/thing. You can have saudade of a town, but it's not only by longing to be in this town, but the feelings and memories you have in this town. Same goes to the person, you long to meet someone, but you long to meet someone because of the experiences and the love and the memories you have for someone. And saudade is something that happens the most when something is outreach, you don't necessarily can have those experiences or memories or love, it can be out of your reach so you have saudades of it

Ever played Darkwood? After surviving a night, time freezes, any enemies who invaded your house vanish, the daily merchant appears and you get time to repair your defenses, and it all lasts until you leave your house so there is no stress or time limit. All the while this beautiful track plays in the background.

The “Mandus” piece along with the machine’s pleading made up for all the stupid parts of that game. I get chills listening to it now. Like you said, the inevitability is captured.