Arrangement of the Week: Moonlit Beast

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This week, we’re going to look at music from a more recent game. One of the newer releases that I’ve been playing through is From Software’s action horror title Bloodborne. When music does make an entrance it’s usually when you fight against one of the game’s many bosses. Even though the game’s only been out for a few months, there’s already a healthy supply of arrangements coming out from the game music community.

Today’s Arrangement of the Week is an orchestral arrangement from Alex Roe. Alex has in fact created a four track arrangement album titled Bloodborne Remixes. There’s even one track in the style of a Castlevania ^[2] tune. They are all excellent interpretations, but today I will be focussing on the track “Moonlit Beast.” The arrangement is a combination of the “Cleric Beast,” from Bloodborne’s first boss; “Dark Reality,” from King’s Field IV; and the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

The music from Bloodborne and King’s Field IV blend very well together, owing partially to the fact that both pieces were composed by Tsukasa Saitoh. The opening starts off with Beethoven’s familiar “Moonlight Sonata” movement, but soon starts morphing to become accompaniment for “Cleric Beast” and “Dark Reality.” The arrangement moves fluidly between the two themes and maintains the foreboding mood of the original soundtracks. The constant and insistent rhythm in the accompaniment strings really helps maintain a sense of tension throughout the piece. The “Moonlight Sonata” material more or less acts as a bookend for the beginning and ending of the track.

Despite having to rely on orchestral samples, the arrangement still sounds great. I particularly like the use of woodwinds for some of the melodic motifs. It helps distinguish the arrangement’s sound from the original “Cleric Beast” piece, which is significantly more string, choir, and brass heavy. With all that said, it’s an interesting combination of pieces, that make for an eerie but enjoyable listening experience.

Were there any new game music arrangements, remixes, or covers that caught your attention this week? Let us know in the comment section below. You can download and listen to “Moonlit Beast” and Alex Roe’s other Bloodborne arrangements on his Bandcamp ^[3] site.