Homestuck - Carne Vale | Reacting To Video Game Music!

[@undeadMonk]

".. when I think carnivals, I think of the opposite - I think of kind of scary, gloomy - associated with weirdos..." ... As a Homestuck fan, this line of thought spoke to my very soul.

[@Kayta-Linda]

Welcome to the Dark Carnival, brother....

[@OlaAremu]

❤

[@ChronosTachyon]

This is just one of many amazing songs from Homestuck. Homestuck is... an experience like no other.

[@kdog1000Again]

Homestuck is one of the most interesting pieces of media because even in it's original form, it's a little bit of everything. A webcomic, a visual novel, a point and click game, an 8 bit adventure game, a flash game, maybe even an anime depending on who you ask. It has no one form, but at it's core it's very videogame oriented. Even the plot of the game itself centers around a videogame technically.

[@outcastedOpal]

Its my favourite anime

[@Kayta-Linda]

Regardless of how exactly it's presented, I think at its core Homestuck is a play. It has all the marks of it. The "Name: Line" format for dialogues, the narration style... those are the most obvious. But thematically it also completely tracks. Kinda wonder why nobody else made that connection.

[@chainsawguyyy]

@@Kayta-Linda suddenly the theatre veils sometimes seen in homestuck make a whole lot of sense

[@ShockedHearts]

for *some* perspective, this song is played during a cutscene where a LOT happens to a LOT of characters, the instruments swinging in and out of the main theme represent certain characters for example.

[@jazzydominion1411]

My heart fucking stopped when i saw homestuck, never in my lifetime have i seen someone react to homestuck songs. Been into homestuck for about 6 years! Great content as always

[@respectable-username]

Check out Matthew McKenna's video on reacting to Homestuck songs too! It's the only other one I know

[@jazzydominion1411]

@@respectable-username thank you my brudda AHJDSHAJS

[@zillyvivi]

I hope this opens the floodgates for more homestuck requests, there are so many amazing tracks

[@ByrneBaby]

Aight, I'm breaking my personal 1 comment per vid code to explain something else worth explaining cause this is literally one of my fave pieces of media ever: As others have mentioned, Homestuck is a hodgepodge of media. There were interactive games, gifs, MP3 files used as jokes, sometimes even the actual webpage the comic played out on was part of the story... But most importantly, there were flash animations. The biggest moments in the story were all punctuated by flash animations and these animations ALWAYS played out to songs, many of the iconic songs and leitmotifs used in these moments (like Toby's crown jewel, Megalovania) have the animation played out to beats and shifts within them. The cover art you're seeing is the album art for the Cherub themed album, Cherubim (Cherub's are a whole alien race in the comic but I ain't going down that rabbit hole). Now, idk if this question actually popped up for anyone but myself, but which came first, the flash or the song? The answer is the song, as far as I know. Albums and songs were simply produced by people that joined the wave since the comic was so dang HOT when it came out, and those songs would eventually be chosen for flashes if they fit the mood of the events in the story. Some songs from HS were meant to loop, but most of the iconic ones were progressive and covered whatever genre they flippin' felt like. In Carne Vale's case, it covered a more sinister sounding, carnival theme since it's associated with Caliborn, the more sinister half of the two cherubs in the story, he's on the left. The other half of the album was listful and calm, representing Calliope, the one on the right. The album was split between this duality, with equal amounts of songs for each of them. And I forgot to mention this, but Carne Vale was chosen for one of the flash animations, presumably because the character it's for actually shows up in the flash and some insanely sinister and punctual stuff takes place in it. If you're curious, the animation was called Game Over, and warning: blood was spilled.

[@Byakkoya11037]

Seeing Homestuck made my heart do a backflip, hopy shit. Homestuck is a GOLDMINE when it comes to music.

[@seekittycat]

Bless the mad lads who requested homestuck 🙏. I love any media where the genre is "yes". A huge collaborative effort by many musicians though alot of the main themes are done by Toby Fox

[@Sekainoowaride]

I'm so happy you had such a positive reaction to the Idea of Visual Novels.

[@Shockt0pus]

Fun fact, while not for this song I believe the creator of Undertale worked on a number of Homestucks music tracks

[@dreamhubproductions753]

Yes he also worked on undertale in Andrew hussey's basement

[@gristen]

he was actually was made head of the homestuck music team after awhile. there was an entire squadron of musicians that contributed to the soundtrack and one of toby's jobs was to organize them and assist them in adding the story's many leitmotifs where required so the soundtracks maintained a sense of consistency and emotional resonance despite having more composers then you can count on both hands. this is why toby got so good at leitmotifs, pretty much all the homestuck albums are just remixes of each other

[@multigrandmarquis]

his work culminated in one of the last used tracks being called "oppa toby style" because they couldnt think of an actual name for it

[@varsity.1]

The producer of Carne Vale was Malcolm Brown. Both he and Toby “Radiation” Fox have distinct styles of music that play off of each other amazing in the Homestuck music volumes

[@hellscarnage]

yep! part of what made homestuck kind of great was that it was very fan driven up to a certain point. all the music was made by fans, a lot of the art was made by fans, to a point where they got added to the team to help it by the end iirc. it's been awhile but honestly, the fanbase was homestucks biggest strength, but also it's biggest weakness. toby fox was making music before he started making it for homestuck as far as I'm aware, but homestuck actually has a version of megalovania in it. i remember downloading it and listening to it on repeat for hours years before undertale came out haha

[@Ang3lUki]

The name "Carne Vale" is a very direct reference to very core ideas related to the story's mythos and philosophy. If you don't want spoilers don't read on: During the animation this song plays on, the readers witness the doomed timeline they were reading from the very beginning, coming to a close. Fate was sealed, all that was left of meaning and relevance on that timeline, the "meat" on the bones so to speak, is destroyed. "Carne Vale" "Remove Meat." Most of the cast of characters is killed off brutally in a chaotic animation, each of their deaths fufilling a prophecy foretold subtly through in-universe symbolism and mechanics. Our heroes, who we once thought were unstoppable, invincible, who we bonded with and grew close to over 6 acts, are dead.

[@AMTRAX]

My next Homestuck suggestion is either “Oppa Toby Style” which is a Toby Fox song, or “Heir of Grief”

[@enmakozato8894]

Already requested it! I threw in a bunch of homestuck requests along with Carne Vale.

[@infinityheart_tm9270]

You really are just throwing him into the lions’ den now aren’t you.

[@HamazuraGOD]

I hope he does Doctor, it may be an easy pick, but it's my favourite track.

[@pipaliveshere]

HEIR OF GRIEF IS PEAK🙏🙏🙏

[@theshadowherself]

Is it bad that the entire [S] panel was playing behind my eyes the whole time he was listening to this? Anyways, Homestuck has a bit of everything in its soundtrack. A million leitmotifs that get mixed and remixed into new and exciting shapes. The OST itself is quite the ride, and I'd love to see you react to more of it!

[@Ang3lUki]

It happens to me too. That animation is burned into my retinas.

[@clownsdontbite7385]

What I enjoy about this song is that its a palendrome. Its melody and style play out similarly regardless if you started at the end or beginning. This is an allusion to the characters the song is for. The creatures depicted in the art work are based on the Orouboros. A snake/dragon eating its own tail. Which thematically fits the work of Homestuck since Endless Cycles is a major theme. Carne Vale is the aggressive version of another song called Stellarum Slave. The album Carne Vale is in, Cherubim, contains many songs that allude to these two characters who share a body. A gentle and compassionate side and an aggressive and violent side. So the songs play off each other. Going back and forth between the two states. Sharing melodies but different tones to better fit the character. Theres a lot of fun allusions in this album with a lot of nice detail. The music team did an amazing job.

[@tintedpalette653]

Homestuck is a multi-media webseries. It has elements of a webcomic, music, animation, point and click flash games, website sleuthing, etc. There have been full spin-off videogames, such as Friendquest and Hiveswap. This song you listened to appears during a dramatic animation sequence in the webseries titled GAME OVER. I will not divulge too much cause of spoilers, but essentially it’s a pivotal moment of conflict where shit hits the fan hence its dramatic and tense feeling. There’s so much music made for Homestuck, BandCamp has dozens of albums dedicated to the webseries. Majority of it never even appears in the webseries itself. This submission has opened the floodgates, there are some truly amazing music in Homestuck and I’d be surprised if this is the last we hear of it on the channel now.

[@Zero-zc4st]

I never thought i'd ever see Jesse reacting to Homestuck, i really hope you keep listening to tracks from this series because it has some of the best songs i've ever listened to in my life

[@ThePoltergust5000]

I love those high pitched "scare chord" pairs of notes that pop in occasionally throughout the song, in one ear and then the other-- they add such a frantic, horrific feeling to what's already a brutal, high-octane song. If you're curious as to what kind of circumstance this plays in, imagine an especially violent, horrifying and heartrending Total Party Kill. When you hear this, shit is _fucked,_ like, Jason-Voorhees-breaking-down-your-door-and-butchering-everyone-you've-ever-loved-in-front-of-your-very-eyes-after-he-set-your-house-ablaze fucked.

[@nekorion]

Homestuck classically gets called a webcomic because it was released day to day rather than all at once but its more game than most traditional NVs are. NVs usually consist of read a page, button to advance dialog or swap the panel and repeat, with maybe a couple choices left in. homestuck still has a lot of text and reading, but it has long movie like animations and tiny little minigames and some basic looping cutscenes that you can click on to see the loop. It's thousands of pages long with some pages having no text, just a picture for story telling, and some having entire paragraphs of conversation. homestuck as a story is actually insane though. The premise is that 4 kids buy and play a game that destroys the universe. This plays during one of their animation sections, where no less than 6 separate main characters get stabbed clean through (2 of them are technically stabbed into each other), a clown gets cut in half with a chain saw, and a teenager gives a demon alien a wedgie and in theory each of these events is as important as one another. Homestuck was gigantic in its heyday. Conventions always had a metric shitton of cosplayers, new animations kept breaking their hosting websites and there was a real community sense of excitement when new content dropped. It's just a blip on the radar now, but at the time, it was impressive how much community showed up for this

[@roar104]

Plenty of VNs have animated things or playable sections you know.

[@Nepeta-Leijon]

Thanks for this reaction! It's really cool to see someone react to Homestuck music.

[@hiccupasterisk]

Oh I hope you do react to more Homestuck songs. It's a treasure trove of GREAT music, a mass of collaboration of many musicians and where some like our famed Toby Fox started. I really hope more tracks from it show up here because it's by all intents and purposes a visual novel.

[@Vithedel]

Really interesting soundtrack. Always something happening with mood changes. Will go to my play list for sure.

[@Zhanael]

Homestuck is a visual novel by the strict definition of the individual words. A traditional visual novel is typically fully text-based with visual and audio aids (character portraits, background music and sound effects, sometimes voice acting, etc.), and also typically romance-oriented, though not always (Danganronpa and Library of Ruina come to mind here). They tend to be kind of "choose your own adventure," as well, though again, not always. Homestuck began as an interactive flash webcomic that branched into other media types, including a couple genres of videogames, with animated cutscenes featuring music from some amazing composers... one of whom you'll have heard of, since you've listened to a couple of his pieces already--Toby Fox. It's one of the most convoluted pieces of media you'll ever have interacted with, because it's nigh impossible to simply summarize. IIRC, it would count as one of the longest novels in history if it were an actual novel.

[@NErDy-pr1jf]

Homestuck is not a visual novel but it is somewhere between reading, playing a game and watching a movie. I can’t listen to this without seeing the animation in my head.

[@Jewelielie]

Homestuck has soooo much music, only a small portion is in the actual comic itself. Undertale's Toby Fox got famous in the community, as he contributed many songs for Homestuck back in the day!

[@astralrumpus1891]

I just wanted to say that after recently finding your channel, it has been all too fun watching you not only react but give your commentary on each music piece you listen to. I can feel a genuine joy from you when you react to each new piece of music. I especially loved your reactions to the two A Hat in Time tracks. On the topic on Homestuck, I can already see a variety of people explaining what the webcomic is to you. So, I'll focus on the music aspect of it. Homestuck has a large catalogue of album volumes in accompaniment with the series, not including all of the additional tracks introduced with the Hiveswap games and Homestuck^2 spinoff. It is something unique to Homestuck that while it has a lot of music made for it, a large portion of it is actually never used within the comic itself. The genres of music that the Homestuck soundtrack covers is incredibly expansive, that one could find almost any type of music they can think of in it. I've been a huge fan of the Homestuck soundtrack even after my interest in the series itself has waned, and even I haven't listened to every track. I would genuinely recommend giving an ear to the rest of the soundtrack that Homestuck has to offer. I see that multiple others have already given recommendations of commendable music from the series already. So, I'll end off my comment with some as well (listed in alphabetical order): Ascend A Taste For Adventure Cascade Creata Crystalmethequins Dance of Thorns Descend Dogfight Do You Remem8er Me Freefall Heir of Grief Moonsweater Noirscape Omelette Sandwich Oppa Toby Style The Blind Prophet THIS Pumpkin Umbral Ultimatum You Killed My Father (Prepare To Die) I don't expect you to react to all of these, but I do hope I gave you a decent selection of suggestions to choose from next time you wish to react to and give your thoughts on another piece of Homestuck music.

[@Lazypackmule]

Man, I can still see the animations in my head so clearly

[@respectable-username]

Oh hell yeah, underrated Soundtrack fr

[@enmakozato8894]

Glad you enjoyed it and super intruiged by your analysis of it! Normally I'd drop some trivia about the song and what it's associated with, but honestly no words would do justice to the sheer amount of insanity that is associated with it. It has it's highs, it's many MANY lows, a constant bombardment of emotions that leaves you feeling so lost afterwards, but in a good way. The best way to describe the song and everything associated is, as you said, chaotic. As for your interest in reading visual novels, it really depends on what you're into. The genre itself is so vast with so many subgenres to pick and choose from. Homestuck isn't at all a bad choice for your first, though I'd recommend it as a personal readthrough as opposed to anything you might share with the community since the Homestuck fandom is.. Wild, to say the least. They're signifficantly quieter these days, but they will jump onto anything homestuck readthrough related and it can get very hectic with people being VERY opinionated. I'm sure there's plenty of VN fans in the discord that will recommend you a lot of other stuff as well. Just know that it is an absolute rabbit hole, but your experience with it will usually defined by how much you enjoy your first. Unrelated piece of trivia: But Blazblue itself is a visual novel sort of! It's one of the few games that mixes visual novel storytelling with fighting games and does it in an amazing way, with all the branching story paths and dialogue choices that have defined the VN genre. For me personally, if you'd like to have a taste of what Visual Novels are, Blazblue would be my top recommendation. Unrelated piece of trivia 2: Toby Fox, the creator and main composer for Undertale, worked on several tracks for Homestuck (Including a unique rendition of Megalovania, which was originally a part of Earthbound before being used in Homestuck and then being used again in Undertale) . If you ever wonder where Homestuck's gigantic fanbase disappeared to, that's where. Almost every Undertale fan is basically a former Homestuck fan that loved Toby's work.

[@schobii5643]

but i wanna watch a new blind Let's Read :0

[@Grevnor]

Carne Vale is Latin for "farewell meat", and is the origin of the term carnival, as the carnival takes place just before Lent, which in traditionalist Christian denominations like Catholicism is a 40 day period of partial fasting, ending at Easter. Traditionally, to go with the Medieval Catholic version, you were typically forbidden from eating (mammal) meat, but fish was okay. Because of this long period of austerity, the week just before Lent almost universally became one hell of a party, which is the origin of, among other things, both the Rio de Janeiro Carnival and Mardi Gras. The more you know.

[@wower342]

This was a great reaction and analysis, homestuck is a huge piece of media with lots of moving parts and people involved. Since you’ve already done pesterquest I feel like hiveswap would be the logical next step, watching you analyze all versions of Ticket to ride from hiveswap act 2 would’ve amazing.

[@shrimpyshrimp2243]

i So recommend listening to more homestuck music! the entire soundtrack is so varied (bc. a lot of people worked on it-including toby fox, who actually began developing undertale while living with the creator of homestuck) my favorite songs come from the openbound section of homestuck! with songs like Darling Dolorosa, Iron Infidel, Olive Rogue, Teal Seer, Hate You, and vocal tracks like GameGlr and G4M38L0RG. (aka im hoping you get more homestuck patreon requests lol)

[@karcino77]

the absolute whiplash i had seeing homestuck here wow i wonder what other songs will pop up from here there are some absolute bangers i still put on repeat 10 years later

[@carcinoVantas]

ahh.... carne vale. the song that made every homestuck weep. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE HAVE A HATER ;)

[@Hildragon]

Homestuck is something that people literally grew up reading, It took some people's entire childhood and early adulthood to see the finale. It is a experience, it is a ride... It started out as 4 kids in 4 bed rooms...

[@varsity.1]

[S] GAME OVER The most traumatizing flash us HS fans had to watch ❤ HS is very choreographed to its music so it makes more sense to watch it in tandem with the music, even if you don’t know the characters.

[@HomeWingGamer]

Oh. We’re branching out, it seems. Good choice to start off on, if a bit weird to pick one so late in the story

[@Ang3lUki]

This track played during the darkest and most shocking plot twist of the series, that legitimately sent many fans into spiraling depression. It's hard to describe how demoralizing, depressing, and frustrating it was to be a reader at the time of this song's release.

[@fullmetaldancer1]

YOOOOOO thank you so much for doing this!!! It means a lot to me!!! I REALLY hope you do more homestuck music in the future! If you ever do more PLEASE do one or more of the following; 1) Three's a Crowd 2) Sea Hitlers Pumpkin Party 3) Fuschia Ruler And, for a long 13ish minute piece that might break your heart without even knowing the context behind it, 4) Cascade

[@skylord_lilalna_8667]

At its core, Homestuck is a story about a group of friends playing a game, and at its base, it's a webcomic. It is one of the most genuinely fascinating pieces of media I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing and now that I know that its music is on the cards for you to possibly take a look at, I'm incredibly excited to see more. There are a couple hundred songs just for Homestuck alone, not counting the other properties under that title. The range in genre that it displays is staggering. I desperately hope that one of your Patreon people requests Oppa Toby Style because it'd be HILARIOUS to watch you react to that.

[@ByrneBaby]

Everyone else already said it best: HS has top tier music. I read the comic as a young lad and it helped shape my taste in music today. Had no clue what was going on til I reread it, but hey, the tunes slapped. If you want more hype, I recommend the following: Oppa Toby Style, Ascend, Umbral Ultimatum, Cascade, and Descend note: I def associate the hype of those songs with the moments that play out in the comic with them.

[@schobii5643]

i havent even reacted to it yet and already need more!

[@ACKat04]

Eternity served cold is one of the soudtracks i rly love, I hope you listen to it!!

[@ninjafox1344]

totally not expecting any of this, what a banger and what a discovery!

[@JadedMuse_]

Let’s goooo, please react to more homestuck music. They have a wide area of different music and I’d love to see an outsiders perspective on it all.

[@ShiroNekoDen]

Homestuck the web comic has a tonne of bangers it's a flash animation webcomic with video games, videos and music all in one cluster fuck of a story.

[@hongchina1873]

Best way to describe a visual novel is a novel that replaces a lot of the environment exposition with, well... visuals. Your standard visual novel "scene" has background art with two standing portraits of the characters talking to each other above a box with dialog and some action description, but usually not much text is dedicated to describing the environment or what the characters look like - you can see what they look like, after all. Larger more pivotal moments (or, you know, fanservice moments) will generally replace the "background and standing portraits" setup with a full-screen art piece, where the artist generally gets to go wild with perspective and details and make something that looks amazing Some games are purely linear reading experiences (kinetic novels), others having dialog choices or even branching routes (like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure), and others even have gameplay added into the mix to break up all the dialog scenes (Two most well known examples are probably Danganronpa and Phoenix Wright) A lot of them will be properties that live and die by their story and their music, though a lot of the bigger productions will have absolutely breathtaking art as well

[@theironicmonster]

Yes. Hell yes. Hell fucking yes. i hope you do more pft. (it is what the refrance. (im not sorry.))

[@seandun7083]

It's less a visual novel, but more a mix of webcomic with several other forms of media mixed in. There are chat logs between the characters in online chat rooms, flash animations with music (this was used in one), walk around games, and more. There is also a lot more music than was officially used in the comic (more than 600 songs over more than 20 albums) and the comic itself is over 8000 pages long. While a few parts didn't age the best, I think most of it still holds up pretty well and if anything, it is worth a read because there isn't anything quite like it in terms of format and style. If you ever do try it, I would recommend using the unofficial Homestuck collection as when Viz Media got it and then flash died a lot of the games and animations broke and were just replaced with KZbin videos of them. Also, don't be surprised by a fairly large amount of sort of inane commands early on since for about a quarter of it readers could vote on things to prompt the characters to do. Here's a couple other songs to check out if you just want to try some of the music: Sburban Jungle Black Explore Heir Conditioning Moonsetter

[@Maukustus]

this is one of the most intense moments in the story.

[@TheJeSTeR7530]

I would love to see you react to more of the Homestuck soundtrack. It is such an insane collection of fantastic and underappreciated music. If you react to any more soundtracks from Homestuck, i would recommend some of the following; Even In Death Cascade Heir of Grief Eternity Served Cold Umbral Ultimatum Descend Black Hate You Rex Duodecim Angelus Pumpkin Party in Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse (Yes, the song is really called that). MeGaLoVania (Yes, Toby Fox worked on some of the soundtrack for Homestuck as well)

[@HamazuraGOD]

Ah, one of the many songs that broke the internet. This song takes me back to the pandemonium after the GAME OVER flash was released.

[@StinkySeaGoat]

Homestuck I literally one of those things that break conventional medium that it’s in its own right a powerful thing to witness. Science says the universe is infinite and brother, if this shits legitimately going on out there, then that thought alone gets me out of bed.

[@literatemax]

Thank you Aiden

[@FFF12321]

Late to the party but this is going to open up a giant can of worms! If you're opening yourself up to VNs, then OMG do you have a lot to take in! There are so many great tracks in that sphere and some absolutely amazing OSTs out there. Umineko no naku koro ni's OST is LEGENDARY, massive and masterful. You could spend days just listening and reacting to that if you wanted. VNs as a genre vary a lot and the edges can get blurry depending on how you want to define them. The style everyone will agree on are VNs where you have a background, character sprites and a dialog box. "Gameplay" in this style is just hitting A to advance the dialog. Some VNs in this style have choices to make so the player can pursue different routes/romance options/endings. Then you get into ones that are more like old-school "adventure" games where the player can participate in activities to build stats to impact the outcome of the game but where the actual meat of the experience is the VN sections. You also have games like Zero Escape and AI the Somnium Files which have long VN segments combined with gameplay sections (escape-the-room for ZE and "Somnium puzzles" for AI) that blur the lines between "pure" VN and RPG/adventure games. As a sound guy, you would really enjoy what some of these games have done, especially the 07th Expansion titles (Higurashi, the aforementioned Umineko and Ciconia) as they put a lot of effort into the sound design. Having the sounds to accompany the passages truly elevates the experience as you surmise. There are also standout tracks in the other "big" VNs like Stein's;Gate, Clannad and many others.

[@draconis17]

Homestuck music really give you a sense of both how serious and how goofy it can get. Just look at some of these song titles- Eternity Served Cold Heir of Grief Umbral Ultimatum Black Rex Duodecim Angelus and compare it with- Pumpkin Party in Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse Do The Windy Thing Nic Cage Song Ohgodwhat Ohgodwhat (remix) Ohgodcat Crystalmethequins The Beginning of Something Really Excellent and this is with me trying to avoid ones that don't really mean much without context

[@Venas254]

Man Homestuck has some of my favorite songs ever so i can't wait for you to eventually listen to them haha

[@cloudkitsune17]

Homestuck is a very interesting visual novel, especially as there are animation with these sorta songs spliced together. Basically think of it like an FF7-9 cinema-cutscene. Hope more Homestuck/Pesterquest/Hiveswap songs get picked down the road~!

[@Stephen-Fox]

The way I'd describe the visual novel genre is... Err... You know those Adventure game Books such as Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy? They're basically those with pictures (mostly static images of characters showing mood overlaid onto backgrounds showing location, but you also often have setpiece images for critical scenes or endings), music, and sometimes voice acting. Some are more or less interactive than others - I think there are some that barely gives you any options at all - some have lots of choices with hidden or revealed variables in a way that the analogue games I just compared them to struggle to do (for example, they might track how much various characters like you and change how they interact with you based on that), and some have entire subsystems that involve more traditional gamey elements. Most that I've played are in first person, with all narration firmly from the protagonist's perspective, and extremely dialogue heavy. The most recent Digimon game, Digimon Survive, for example - was an ~70 hour visual novel with a tactical RPG (Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc) subsystem to handle combat and which tracked your affinity with each of your 7 classmates to determine when they got their digimon partners to evolve (And if they survive), along with your alignment (determining what evolutions of your partner digimon you get). Lots of small choices that add up via stats rather than any single choice that diverges the narrative (and some sequences where it feels like they'd have to play out differently if the characters that died in my playthrough survived but I'm not sure _how_ they'd change or if those survivals would have had a cascade effect on some of the B plots of chapters that would make less sense without them to me. It's a game I'm intending on doing a replay of due to that just for a glimpse under the hood.) I want to play more VNs than I actually do - Definitely an underdog genre in the West, you're starting to see more indies use the genre, but they're a fairly notable genre in Japan, I believe, and allowed the Famicom to deliver narrative in a way that very few Western games at the time were capable of.

[@calebgoodman3028]

It’s actually a webcomic rather than a video game but I highly recommend reacting to the (multiple) soundtracks anyway because they’re absolutely incredible.

[@misterbin00]

Actually, Baldr Sky, which you reacted long ago is a hybrid of visual novel with action game. It has segments where characters talk with each other mixed with segments where they fight in a robot. Besides, you're interested in music from visual novel, huh?😏 Considering they almost reach the nerdiest of the nerdy spectrum they are pretty overlooked, and most of these games really don't have much production value, but there are a few gems here and there which are considered too good than it deserves to be. My first and foremost recommendation with be 夏影(Natukage - summer shadow) from visual novel 'Air'. The non-vocal version is the OST played in the game, and the vocalized version is recorded as a part of the released album.

[@Neragith]

You can't peer into the vast homestuck music library without checking out it's magnum opus Cascade from volume 8!

[@remjoleea5560]

My favorite part of this song and it’s sister song, Stellarum Salve is that the titles work in both English and in Latin. Carne Vale is obviously carnival, but also literally means “goodbye, meat” in Latin because this character sees other people as disposable meatbags. Stellarum salve can be interpreted in English as a Spacey Balm or healing Salve, but also literally means “Hello, stars” because that character sees other people as her idols.

[@remjoleea5560]

Also this album gives such feel good spooky vibes I put it on every Halloween :)

[@jhozan]

"So how many characters do you want to kill off in one page?" "Yes"

[@pejman3]

I would love some reactions to Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous" OSTs, especially Mythic power and all the mythic path theme, I find these quite great (main theme is also bonkers)

[@iguessmynamesriya7658]

A classic. If love to hear your reaction to more

[@etimun]

Not me getting reminded how hard homestuck music slaps years down the line

[@toonblade4231]

I check and see someone cheeky sent in Homestuck. Hah! Just to note, Homestuck's not a game, but rather a webcomic that implemented flash animations and flash games to facilitate and play around with it's story. It had a whole music team making songs for it, including the critical darling, Mr. Toby "Radiation" Fox of Undertale fame. While not a game, I would still recommend the Homestuck soundtrack in general. It has so many bangers in there. The whole of the Alterniabound Album, Prospit & Derse Album and the Strife! Album are among my favorites. Songs I would also recommend are "Black," "Umbral Ultimatum," "Unite Synchronization," "Pumpkin Party in Sea Hitler's Underwater Apocalypse," and "Descend" to name a few. Many people cringe away at the mere mention of Homestuck, but I still try to recommend the soundtrack, both because it's good, but also to send some listeners to the original artists that made these songs.

[@Shockt0pus]

On the visual novel part I'd say they're effectively choose your own adventure books to some extent, with art and probably a bit of music to go with them, the archetypical example being some of the older Fate games. As we've gone on though they've evolved and while I dunno if others would consider them visual novels I'd say things like Citizen Sleeper and Disco Elysium are effectively them in spirit just with some RPG elements. More or less very fancy picture books if boiled down to the basest elements? Certainly if you like reading and wish it had a bit more flaire then visual novels are great.

[@NeroLordofChaos]

Yes the title is a play on words. It also means "Farewell to flesh" so take that as you will.

[@texasred8424]

"reacting to video game music" ah yes, my favorite video game, homestuck

[@kdog1000Again]

I feel like you can call Homestuck anything and it'd be completely accurate.

[@eeeeeegbert]

I mean, technically homestuck counts as a game

[@KertaDrake]

Pandora's Game of Sburb has been opened.

[@oct91988]

let me tell you about homestuck tee hee

[@otherhand]

Ah, yes. The theme for when a shitty little gremlin shows up, clowns on everyone, and chaos ensues.

[@draconis17]

WAIT HOMESTUCK COUNTS? it's only a video game like 1% of the time so I thought it wouldn't

[@gardenagnostic4138]

Oh my god? I didn't expect to see Homestuck when I started looking through your channel. They do have an amazing catalogue of music though so I guess I shouldn't be surprised! There are two albums called Strife and Strife 2 that you can find on KZbin by the musician Tensei that are more metal inspired you'd probably love! Beautiful guitar on every track in those.

[@NaNiUxY]

love it, you need to listen more of homestuck, their soundtracks are insane

[@dreamhubproductions753]

I recommend also checking out the fandom albums the fandom is insanely dedicated.

[@bitarctic4859]

hate that i can visualize GAME OVER nearly beat for beat while listening... Black, Beatdown (Strider Style), homestucks version of MeGaLoVania, and Crystamanthequins are all fantastic songs id recommend listening to as well, even if not for a reaction

[@theshadowherself]

If a song was associated with a flash, it's a fair bet that said flash will be playing behind a fan's eyes when they hear the song.

[@hoppefrosk]

I'm not sure if this would've been more or less confusing if you had heard it alongside the animation it was paired with in the webcomic.

[@iguessmynamesriya7658]

More

[@derekstryder2281]

"Reacting to Video Game music!" ...I mean, it started off as a webcomic about 4 kids trying to play a game called Sburb so I guess that checks out.

[@iguessmynamesriya7658]

Shame these videos don't get more views, I'd watch you listen to every song on every album for homestuck

[@TheGreatRio]

A lot of music in Homestuck is made by Toby Fox, creator of Undertale. You might recognize his style in other songs.

[@JessesAuditorium]

I can totally hear that now..

[@davidanderson5939]

the context of this song is SPOILERS: it takes place during a massive multi planet shattering battle which by the end of this animation, of the more than 50 total major characters, there are only 6 left alive, including the main villain. 2 of which die from their wounds shortly after, and one of which blames himself, and wanders off never to be seen again edit: i forgot some details aside from the 6 i mentioned, one more character survives for a few panels, and other survivors include betty crocker,(who is a fish alien hitler queen) 2 omnipotent murder puppys and a robotic bunny.

[@bookswithike3256]

I mean yes, that's where it was used in the story, but Carne Vale was written and released years before Game Over.

[@dacap279]

Hell yeah homestuck

[@OlaAremu]

Carne = Meat Vale ~ Valley Carne Vale ~ Meat Valley But also a reference to Carnivals

[@Kaytenorg]

Jesse, you need to listen to more homestuck music. That "game" is a freaking goldmine of amazing tracks! I recommend a playlist here on KZbin called: Best Songs of Homestuck! ;)

[@TheSnowconeMachine]

the absolute irony of you knowing pesterquest, the visual novel spinoff, but not Homestuck, the leviathan itself. you have merely glimpsed the dark shape in the waters- beware that it does not pull you to the depths

[@davidanderson5939]

there is a truely ridiculous amount of good music in homestuck, you have already reacted to carne vale, and a remix of beatdown. some other songs i highly recomend are at the price of oblivion (an epic mix of choral for jaspers,) even in death, explore, black, decend, and cascade(if you are down for a 13 minute song) most of these were used at pivotal moments in homestucks story and really enhance the experience

[@turking25]

a homestuck video? in my 2022?!

[@tabbottinator]

I really recommend reading the original Homestuck if and when you have a chance. It's certainly an experience. There is a Homestuck^2, but it kinda flopped and isn't as good imo, but each to their own.

[@JazzyWaffles]

I mean... I guess Homestuck could be considered a video game? Most video games don't have 30 albums (not including re-release compilations or the albums for the spinoff media). Yes, really. 30 albums. 1 Homestuck Vol. 1 2 Homestuck Vol. 2 3 Homestuck Vol. 3 4 Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead 5 Homestuck Vol. 4 6 Homestuck Vol. 5 7 Alternia 8 Squiddles! * 9 The Felt 10 Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent 11 Strife! ** 12 AlterniaBound 13 Medium 14 Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido ** 15 Homestuck Vol. 7: At the Price of Oblivion 16 Sburb ** 17 The Wanderers * 18 Prospit & Derse ** 19 Homestuck Vol. 8 20 Song of Skaia ** 21 coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A 22 coloUrs and mayhem: Universe B 23 Homestuck Vol. 9 24 Symphony Impossible to Play 25 One Year Older ** 26 Genesis Frog ** 27 Cherubim 28 [S] Collide. 29 Act 7 30 Homestuck Vol. 10 * this album is no longer available to purchase or download ** this album has been moved from the Homestuck bandcamp to its creator's bandcamp

[@noloxjexting8266]

Here’s hoping for umbral ultimatum next

[@billyrob612]

Explain Homestuck? I don't think anyone can

[@mun7087]

Simplemente epico

[@Cheesieburgie]

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@BadyearOakarus]

homestuck is interesting to see although i don't think it'd warrent the "reacting to video game music" title for the video, don't get me wrong homestucks ost is one of the few things i like about the webcomic and i think it's cool to see someone covering it, but it's not exactly a game, i mean there is some game elements but i don't think they makes homestuck a game

[@omeg5473]

this song is pure ptsd for the homestuck fandom. watch [S] GAME OVER. to understand more

[@astrobear4205]

Homestuck is NOT a visual novel. Just a regular, video-game inspired webcomic, with minigames, videos, and interactive pages

[@Daikyu9.47]

oh damn, 413 likes, nice!