Risk of Rain 2 - Antarctic Oscillation | Reacting To Video Game Music!

[@AstronautDown]

Hey Jesse, thanks a bunch for checking the piece out! I wish I could catch the premier but it was 4am here in Greece! As you said, this one kinda represents me both technically and musically-a calling card of sorts. Of course, I doubt I could get any VGM job using it as a demo (not many Devs are as crazy as Hopoo) :P I fluctuate a lot when asked about favourites from ROR2 but this one is always on the list. Definitely one the most difficult to put together but at the same time very enjoyable from start to finish (which is extremely rare for me) :) I particularly enjoyed your reaction to the blast beat, it's one of my fav moments in the entire OST! Jordan Ruddess is a major influence. Thank you for the kind words, I truly appreciate it!

[@Nikowo1610]

Yo Chris! I took your recommendation from Dan's stream and listened to LA Noire's soundtrack, and it's beautiful, good stuff right there

[@keng3162]

Hey Chris, love your work, keep it up!

[@stairfall12345678900]

Yeah this is very Dream Theater-esque. Sounds awesome!

[@unfortuitousash]

ahhh jordan ruddess. i totally hear the dream theater/liquid tension experiment influence. such a cool sound.

[@BotoxBotox]

I wonder if dream theater is part of your inspiration for this piece specifically, cuz i hear DT all over this part 3:53

[@xLucidityMkIV]

"What? Where did we get double bass from?!" Ah yeah. That'd probably be the 57-leaf clover we picked up. Don't worry, it's part of the build.

[@himkoto249]

ah, the theme of a either a group of solus probes dying in 3 seconds or the teleporter event taking 10 minutes based on how good your run is going, love this theme

[@Sequencer37]

the theme of being burned down by blazing grandparent

[@shadowforge25]

I love the "hesitancy" this song has. This song, contrary to many, almost feels like it struggles to move forward. A bit hard to put to words, but if many songs are well oiled machines with seamless moving parts, this song is a machine with gears jamming, the motor is stalling, but its somehow keeps running. You can really feel the friction here . It's a bold creative choice, and it works really well here.

[@nikhill5340]

yeah and the interlude that comes in between certain parts (like 4:14) really gives a kinda "where the fuck am I and what am I doing" kinda vibe, I love it

[@balkanbully]

@@nikhill5340 that feeling is insanely fitting for the game! at some point you start becoming overwhelmed with enemies, overpowering everything in your path in a desperate struggle to survive, and it can feel like there’s so much going on. you have no idea what’s happening but you still push onwards because if you stop you die

[@nikhill5340]

@@balkanbully indeed bro

[@thegreendude2086]

Describes the gameplay pretty well tbh

[@Revanchism]

This is the theme for the teleporter event on the stage Sky Meadow. Most stages have their own theme, some share a theme. Each stage has a teleporter that you activate to start a teleporter event(basically a boss fight + stand in the zone until teleporter activates.) Teleporter events have their own themes, several of the stages share themes. Antarctic Oscillation only plays for Sky Meadow teleport event. Sky Meadow is special in that it either leads to the last area where Mithrix(think of him as an actual boss fight,) is or where you start a new loop. One of the other songs you reacted to, The Rain Formerly Known as Purple, is the stage theme for Sky Meadow. Part of the reason Risk of Rain 2 OST is my favorite OST is this song.

[@BigfootGolem]

Much like a good sequel in a game series, the RoR2 soundtrack stands on its own as a magnificent experience in itself, but also makes subtle call backs to the previous entry that are a neat little nod for those who know but won't leave new people left out. I'm excited you're going back to RoR1 as well and seeing if any of the songs picked have that link to the second soundtrack.

[@CyanBlur]

The names of the songs are primarily references to precipitation, but sometimes other meteorological terms make the cut like aurora borealis. Antarctic oscillation is one of those times, referring to the shifting of air pressure to and from the south pole, but more than that it's a callback to the title of a ROR1 song Arctic Oscillation (which is the same term but for the north pole). This song borrows the rhythmic synth line in the opening from its predecessor, and maybe there's more references within it, but beyond that I'd say it has an "opposite vibe" of it. Maybe his intention for it was to be interpreted as "Anti-Arctic Oscillation" Also it's uncanny how every time I watch someone react to Risk of Rain OSTs they inevitably bring up Dream Theater. I could make a bingo sheet and that'd definitely be on there.

[@vaxellimus]

This one is one of my favorites as well, but I think Con Lentitud Poderosa is still on my top spot.

[@praneelprasad5042]

Well I guess you are yet to listen to the dlc soundtracks - specifically “They might as well be dead”….enjoy!

[@CarkeysLive]

It's crazy how emotional of an experience this game's soundtrack is. This is technically a penultimate boss battle theme on a stage that's very nostalgic and meaningful to players of the first game. And technically this game does have plenty of lore and story that's really cool and interesting hidden away in optional logbooks. But also, this game's experience to the average player is just running around, shooting things until you either die or win, and then starting over and doing it again. This song, despite its progression and length, plays for about 90 seconds by default. This stage is hard and most players will probably still be in it beyond the 90 seconds minimum, but it's possible to only hear this song for 90 second. In fact, it's even possible to lower that minimum and hear this song for even less. Most songs in this soundtrack do not need to be as long as they are, but they are all so much better for it. (Also, before "You're Gonna Need A Bigger Ukulele" inevitably gets suggested, it's probably worth mentioning for context that the most iconic item in the games is a Ukulele who's description reads "...and his music was electric." No further context is needed. The rest should be self-explanatory.)

[@catblackburn7486]

Dude, I was already massively enjoying watching you react to ROR2 music (easily my favorite game soundtrack since I first started obsessively listening to game music back in the NES days), but this is absolutely the track I was waiting to see you listen to. Totally worth it during the blast beat section. Also hell yeah, the shout-out to Hidria Spacefolk! First person I've ever met who's heard of them other than me! Anyway, appreciate all your videos, keep being awesome!

[@phantomkor]

"Is this a long stage or something?" Me looking at The Raindrop that Fell to the Sky: "If only you knew..."

[@treagoplays]

This is my favorite track in ror2, never had to request it because I knew with 100% certainty it was coming even without the list :p Tracks in ror2 are a longer than you'd think because it's pretty common to stay in a stage and get more powerful by finding nearly everything. 10-15m in a level isn't that uncommon

[@takeachance5881]

"Where did we get double bass from?" Well...from keeping the teleporter event longer than 220 seconds. It generally takes 90s to charge the teleporter, even if in MP with halved speed from having half of the player count out of the radius, it's still not gonna reach even 200s. Most of the teleporter music gets tonal change at ~90s mark (full charge time) and around ~180s mark (the average charging slow time). Normal stage music gets tonal change at 250-300s mark (as is considered by devs as a turning point of if you stayed on a stage for too long or not). This piece is the final stage teleporter music, even more unique in that it only plays at this specific stage unlike other teleporter music being reused for multiple stages. It also is more special in that stage 5 of the game has no alternatives unlike the previous 4 stages having 3 total possibility for each, and this music piece is the stage 5 teleporter music.

[@TAGORDI]

Time to pull out the umbrella because there’s a 100% chance of rain ☔️

[@AspieOld]

Antarctic Oscillation is a teleporter track. You'll only hear about 2 minutes of it in a good run, and you'll probably hear it loop if you are having trouble with staying in one place without dying.

[@Mrinsecure]

I think one of the most extraordinary things about modern video game music that I want someone to talk about is the birth of reactive music, songs that are intended to organically shift and change as you play through the game, or as conditions evolve according to specific scenarios. This includes stuff like Risk of Rain, where the music gradually intensifies as the difficulty ramps up, or Metal: Hellsinger, where more instruments are added to the background track as your combo increases, or Devil May Cry V where every song shifts to a new part as you perform more and more stylishly. It's an entirely different way to look at, and compose, music, and I feel like it's underappreciated because it's not considered "mainstream" (even in cases where literally millions of people have listened to the song). And a lot of academics are slow on the uptake here, too, although I suspect that will change over time.

[@snowiu]

"...con lentitud poderosa" has to be next.. its imo the most powerful track of this ost. instantly became one of my favourites of all time. i love this game so much and its music

[@gamegalaxyzone7763]

Great to see more people getting to experience the ROR and ROR2 OST. Absolutely amazing job and shouts out to Chris. With that said I think if you check out some of his work from the first game that would be really cool. Chris incorporates many of the musical notes and beats that made up the first into the second. It's a nice bit of references to the series. Personally, any of the songs from the first OST are worth checking out but for sure if you ever react to more of risk of rain in the future, I highly recommend taking a listen to Coalescence, or Precipitation. They have a very different feel to some of the other songs and have a lot of emotions behind them. Anyhow loved the video and was recommended by KZbin! Definitely will check out more.

[@thend4427]

U need to hear the whole ost of this back to back

[@zombieboss5178]

I can't wait for the reactions on the rest of the ROR OST series

[@HK_BLAU]

lmao "resume song" made me laugh. the risk of rain ost videos are always welcome. my personal pitch from ror2 would be "the raindrop that fell to the sky"

[@JessesAuditorium]

Song mentioned in this video; Hidria Spacefolk - Amos Ame kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnW9YZukl7SUaNU

[@AyyPinkShades]

Hell yea, I always thought some older stuff from Their Dogs Were Astronauts had some of the same vibes as chris' use of rhythms

[@--Lumiinous--]

Glad you're doing more RoR2!! Easily one of my favourite video game soundtracks :))

[@okojona]

Incredibly hard to pick a favourite track from RoR2 but this has to be near the top.

[@protossinator]

If you plan on listening to either Coalescence from RoR1 or Con Lentitud Poderoso from RoR2, I highly reccomend listening to them back to back in that order! (For reasons I will not explain ;)) In addition, Coalescence recontextualizes a lot of leitmotif in the second game in general, and is an awesome listen :).

[@KaitoGillscale]

Hey Jesse, would you be willing to give a particular song from Pathologic 2's OST a listen? It's a slavic/steppe horror game about being a doctor returning to his hometown during a plague in the early 1900's (or late 1800's, since the game is unclear) where superstition and a religious community are unable to help you...while entire districts get infected and blocked off by the town's police, and eventually the military, as you have to race to find a cure before the town is shelled. The whole game is based around rushing to do as much as you can while the clock is always ticking...never able to do everything as the days feel shorter and the tasks growing more ridiculously complex. The track is called "Darkness", and in particular you'll wanna listen to the "Steppe Language version". I find it ungodly haunting, but uniquely beautiful. The language is fictional, so there's no real meaning to it, but it conveys such mysterious tones.

[@antoniosandoval7680]

You have to listen to con lentitud poderosa

[@JessesAuditorium]

soon

[@georgemassora6373]

Btw jesse, if you like organ instrument, maybe you should check out Gothic Neclord theme from Suikoden 2.

[@samforpanek8401]

This one always reminded me of Jason Becker, particularly Dweller in the Cellar

[@JessesAuditorium]

love jb

[@DeviDoesNothing]

I dunno, this one never did much for me. Now, ...con lentitud poderosa on the other hand? That one FUCKS. Would be really interested to see your reaction to that one.

[@fernandomalpica1870]

Uncle please, do Ender Lilies' North!

[@TheJoyfulDealer]

You need to hear Anarchy Rainbow and Calimari inkantation 3 mix from Splatoon 3 they're absolutely awesome!

[@DBCOOPER888]

I'd say the genre is prog rock.