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Crafting Audible Excellence: Terraria Soundtrack (Review)

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It’s no surprise that Terraria should end up on the Indie Game Music Bundle 3 [2], given its underground popularity and addictive gameplay style. Re-logic’s sidescrolling adventure RPG did well for itself against Steam’s mainstream hits like Portal 2 and The Witcher 2 and gained a following for its “Minecraft meets Castlevania” type of impressive 2D gameplay mechanics.

Re-Logic also managed to grab an equally impressive composer to craft the melodic background of the game with Scott Lloyd Shelly providing the score, who does a fantastic job as such. With indie games being what they are, it takes a unique type of talent to really make a soundtrack shine and pop out to the audience, and Lloyd gives it a go and steps up to the challenge.

So lets dive into the construction of the musical awesome that is Terraria!

One of the first things you may notice about Terraria‘s music is its use of both synth, chiptune-like music and live instruments. This creates a nice blend of different melodies that are produced for each track that can be used to convey a diverse amount of emotion in each.  Many of the main stage themes, such as the “Overworld Day” and “Jungle,” do a good job of meshing the two together into effective background music which comes out as musically effective for each of their respective areas. You know what I’m talking about — when a stage’s music ends up being melodically appropriate for that stage’s theme.

The boss themes on the other hand rely almost solely on heavy synth work in order to reflect the proper harshness and edgy feel that we all expect when beating down a big baddie. All three of the boss tunes are the most charged, powered-up tracks on the album. “Boss 1” is a personal favorite of mine for this album for its fast-paced rhythm and for injecting a fun ‘dire straits’ feeling.

Both “Hallow” and “Underground Hallow” combine a certain amount of mysticism and electronic beats with a slight dash of whimsy that help round out the soundtrack. “Hallow” especially makes you feel as though you’re walking through a storybook fantasy world — which, considering the game, makes it spot-on for representing its content. And honestly, who wouldn’t want whimsy in their game whilst dutifully constructing one’s domicile and forging one’s weapons?

Shelly does a fantastic job of just plain having fun with the Terraria soundtrack, and it’s evident. It’s not some grand and over-reaching epic piece of musical majesty, because that’s not what the game is meant to represent. Exciting bleeps and synths with some violin and keyboard work do a fine amount of justice to a fun indie game that has gathered a small cult following. Honestly, I can’t think of what more you could ask for.

Be sure to listen for yourself with the Game Music Bundle 3, or if you’re looking to just nab Terraria solo, hop on over to their Bandcamp [4] page and grab it for the more than reasonable pricetag of $4.99 and give it some well deserved love.

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#1 Comment By ShawnS On June 1, 2012 @ 11:56 am

I’ve been waiting for a whiiiile to see Terraria’s soundtrack in a bundle. It’s the main reason I bought the Game Music Bundle this time around and I’m so happy to finally have a copy of it. My only possible complaint is I wish there were more! Since day one of the game’s release it’s the music that made the experience for me.

#2 Comment By Ran On June 26, 2012 @ 12:27 am

The Terraria soundtrack is great, but the FLAC version of their Overworld theme has a strange scratchy property that isn’t audible in the lossy version found in-game. =/ Still incredible VG music though!