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Ruins Immemorial/At Your Back

Track 5-2: Ruins Immemorial

This might be my favorite dungeon theme in the game. Combined with the mystical HD-2D visuals, it often stops me in my tracks in-game.

My thinking for this piece began with the D minor Dorian scale, which can be heard throughout it. (This the scale D–E–F–G–A–B–C–D. The D natural minor scale has a flatted B; when the B is natural, it’s called the Dorian scale.) I was intrigued by the idea of this scale to calmly repeat as a melody unfolded above, and that was the nucleus of the idea for this track.

Add in the timbres involved, and I think the result is highly effective at evoking a mysterious feeling, as if time had stopped.

In terms of chords, the Dm→Cm movement going back and forth from the Dorian scale creates a sense of unease through key changes, which is another important element in the effect.

As for the refrain, the point to note here is that the strings backing the melody are harmonized not in thirds but in fourths. As I believe I wrote earlier, the fourth is a sonic relationship with a very hollow resonance, and that hollowness works in the song’s favor here, contributing to the overall eerie atmosphere.


Track 5-3: At Your Back

I hear this is a favorite of director [Keisuke] Miyauchi, haha! As I recall, I originally envisaged and sketched out a different piece, but that version didn’t feel right to me, so I played through my stock of ideas for Miyauchi. He was very taken with the phrases found in this piece, and asked if he could use it as an event theme. I was fond of the melody myself, so I’m delighted that it got to see the light of day.

Speaking about the technical details of this piece would be a little boorish—it’s all about the melody that came out, and the arrangement presents the material straightforwardly rather than aiming for eccentricity.


Translation: Matt Treyvaud

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