Get Used To It + A Proper Story –

Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme) –

Ha, so remember how I mentioned I didn’t choose the obvious first and last song that most people are familiar with for the Journey OST? Yeah…well that’s bascially what I chose this time around from this week’s LP ^^;

Bastion (2011), a game from Supergiant Games, composed by Darren Korb. It’s funny, as for the actual game, Bastion is almost a complete 180 from Journey. While both games take very unorthodox methods of telling their stories, their similarities end there. With Journey, not a single word is spoken or written, but with Bastion, the entire game and the player’s interactions are constantly being narrated by an elderly, gruff-voiced man.

The story is largely narrated in the past tense creating the illusion that the game is some famous folk-tale being told generations later. The player controls someone the narrator refers to only as “the Kid” after an event called the Calamity destroyed and fractured the great city of Caelondia. You are armed with the knowledge that in times of trouble people were instructed to gather at the titular “Bastion” at the heart of the city, which would presumably be a safe location. And from there, the rest of the action role-playing game unfolds.

The game’s story and world is fascinating, but it’s the inclusion of Korb’s excellent soundtrack that really help bring even more character to the game’s decimated landscape. The music sits somewhere between the Wild West, the Far East, hard rock, and electronic hip-hop. It makes extensive use of acoustic instruments to give it that frontier sound, but also underlays several drum samples and string parts to give songs a distinct drive and atmosphere. A single song will effortlessly switch from an acoustic guitar, to an Eastern-styled instrument, to a violin, and then on to an electric guitar. Once all pulled together, the music is able to help paint the unique fantasy setting of Bastion.

I chose the first song off the album “A Proper Story” and included the spoken opening to the record “Get Used To It”. The spoken part is voiced by the actor who provided the narration to the game and I wanted to include it to give you an idea of what that sounds like if you weren’t familiar with it. The music kicks in with a lone guitar played in an almost bluegrass styled manor before bursting open with a wall of sound and other instruments.

The second song chosen for this blog entry is titled “Setting Sail, Coming Home” or also known as the “End Theme” since it is played during the credits. Personally I feel like this one is a little harder to appreciate just by itself. Its brilliance actually lies within the two songs it combines. Not counting this song, there are only two other songs with lyrics (plus a third bonus track added on the album). These two songs act as two different themes for two of the surviving individuals discovered in the story that clash in ideals and background. Without explicitly spoiling the game’s ending though, this track beautifully combines and overlays both sets of lyrics on top of one another and reworks the score to compliment both. Darren Korb provided the male vocal performance along with the very talented Ashley Barrett (who would return on Korb’s next soundtrack Transistor).

While it has actually been a few years since I have played the game, it’s story, characters, and especially its music have since stuck with me. There is very little music out there that sounds even remotely similar and the record consists of over a solid hour of music. Even if you’re not a gamer, I’d encourage you to go give Bastion‘s soundtrack a good listen through at least once ^^