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A jam submission

Rotslayer OSTView project page

The leaves whisper, the forest calls, and fate beckons... Arise, Rotslayer.
Submitted by BodoTheSerf — 20 hours, 46 minutes before the deadline
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Rotslayer OST's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#24.4744.474
Composition & Arrangement#24.5794.579
Sound Design & Production#24.6324.632
Emotional & Atmospheric Impact#34.5794.579
Overall#34.5664.566

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

About the track
Rotslayer OST

Watch as one connected OST here on Youtube!
https://youtu.be/4IG1hlGRwfo

The leaves whisper, the forest calls, and fate beckons... Arise, Rotslayer. Cleanse this realm in the Rootmother’s name.

This submission is designed as an OST, taking you on a journey through the Rootmother's Grove. Explore, battle, rest, and triumph — all through the music of the forest.

Made in Cubase, art by sleepytea

Track 1: Rootmother’s Reverie
The main theme and exploration music for Rotslayer. Immerse yourself in the Rootmother’s Grove, an ancient forest untouched by the outside world. Wander through sun-dappled glades, uncover secrets in the shadowed undergrowth, and race along the soaring canopies of this enchanted woodland.

Track 2: Slay the Rot
The combat theme of Rotslayer. A darkness has crept into the Grove, spreading corruption with its blighted touch—the Rot. Draw your blade, face the Rotlings, and reclaim the forest in the Rootmother’s name. The driving rhythmic patterns evoke the sensation of darting through tangled underbrush, locked in battle with the forces of decay.

Track 3: Intermezzo in a Twilit Grove
The save point theme for Rotslayer. A gentle melody greets you as you rest and recover within sacred groves scattered throughout the forest. These havens offer a brief respite as you journey ever onward. The lilting rhythms and soft textures reveal the forest’s more tranquil side — a peaceful sanctuary of healing and reflection.

Track 4: Rotmother’s Requiem
At the heart of the forest awaits the Rootmother—or what remains of her. Arise, Rotslayer, and fulfill your destiny. The Grove must be cleansed… no matter the cost.
This piece aims to capture the vast, ancient majesty of forests — living realms that have endured for eons before us — and the unstoppable fury they can unleash.

Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoyed the music!

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Comments

Submitted

Congratulations!!!

Submitted

Wow these tracks sound professional! It is also impressive how much you completed for a jam at this quality.

Rootmother's Reverie: this is a vibe! The instrumentation selections feels spot on and layered in a way that feels ethereal. The voice parts in particular feel mix in with lovely sound staging. Even when you give a hint of a dissonant harmony half way through I still feel I am in a safe place and making progresses in a place I want to say in forever. I really appreciate the build up in intensity and then a return to the intro, that moment of rest feels so light and well earned.

Slay the Rot: The rhythmic drive traversing through different harmonies go from danger, to turning the tides, and then to feeling like the danger is greater than we original thought. The mix felt a touch muddy on one of my headphones (Fiio ft5) but gave another listen on Sennheiser HD600 and things were much more clear, so I think that is more on my end of the equipment I am using. I don't know if it is worth another listen on you end on different devices and see what you get? It is a busy track and everything feels weighted just right. I like how it sounds like a single violin coming in through the frantic choir and then takes over into getting its own backing instruments, sounded great!

Intermezzo in a Twilight Grove: I am catching that non functional harmony chord alternating pattern Blue Lava mentioned from Chrono Trigger. I remember trying to write something similar as an exercise once but couldn't come up with anything original. This sounds very much like your own, I think I might have missed that reference to Chrono Trigger if didn't read the comments. Like a mix of Chrono Trigger and the  voice parts sounding in the same genre as the outros to Outlaw Star. I really appreciate the harmonic progression at about the 3/4 mark of the track. I felt like the piano sustain and the voice sustain were fighting for some space at times in the first half. I don't know if that would be worth checking again to see if that would tighten up the mix a bit. I am not trying to downplay how great I think this track is. Really just a curious suggestion on my part. The bells have the right amount of attack and reverb though! It really help compliment the vibe instead of cutting through everything as bells have the power to do. I think I really just wish the track was longer cause I enjoy it so much!

Rotmother's Requiem: I can definitely feel a powerlessness against the forces of nature. That hard stop into the music box sounding instrument and then a build back into every more danger than before feels real! It sounds like the strings from there are backed by horns which helps them shine through when they sounded like they were fighting for a voice before,  a great contrast between sections! Ending with the music box instrument sounds like a tragic defeat took place! All these tracks took me on what felt like a an emotional journey that was very well crafted and intended. Thanks for sharing!

Submitted(+1)

Very diverse genres in this soundtrack! I really like the attention to detail such as the bird calls being used as an instrument / being lined up with the downbeat in the Reverie. I also love the idea of a tree just standing up to annihilate you. 

The music overall is pretty repetitive but there is just enough change both instrumentally and dynamically that I am not dissatisfied, although I'm craving a second section to these melodies apart from a bridge in the middle of the track. The exception to this is Slay the Rot which is very varied but also short.

I can't imagine these would blend together very seamlessly in a game, but this soundtrack is immensively creative and well executed, also ambitious for a game jam submission.

Submitted(+1)

Rootmother’s Reverie: The drive of your percussion with the ethereal mallet instruments gives this a really wonderful sense of adventure and magic. The swaying panning of the percussion and the gentle wind rustling sounds is a really creative idea that gives the sense that the player is running through the forest - I’ll probably try this idea out in my own music! The vocals are very impressive and are the icing on the cake that puts this on par with Nier music! This is really great as an exploration track!

Slay The Rot: Once again, your percussion stands out to me as a highlight - it is really well balanced while having constant forward momentum. The low strings really help with this as well. Your violin writing is also really beautiful, and I especially love the fast ornamentation. Doubling the violin with the voice is also a really great idea to add a lot of energy to the middle part. I’m also a fan of the chanting vocals, that always adds a war-like quality to tracks and makes it sound quite cinematic. This is a very strong song!

Intermezzo In a Twilit Grove: I think this is my favorite of your tracks! This one out of all of them captures the theme the best in my opinion. Using piano with chord extensions leaving the third out is a really beautiful way that makes music sound “forest-like”. There’s something about the 9th of a chord that really adds to the mystical aspect of the overall sound, and your addition of the b7 (in particular the Gm/C chord) wins you all the points for the atmospheric impact in my opinion. I wonder if you may have used “Secret of the Forest” from Chrono Trigger as inspiration? There are a lot of beautiful similarities and that track is a quintessential video game forest track. The light percussion is also a nice touch which also gives it a Octopath Traveler feel to it. Excellent work.

Rotmother’s Requiem: Which library do you use for your solo strings? I really like the cello in this track and the violin in your second track. The vibrato and expressiveness is something I haven’t quite found in the strings I’ve used before. The sound effect of the crackling tree falling to represent the Rotmother is really creative and works great to emphasize the theme. I particularly love the addition of the trumpets in the final repeat of the requiem motif before the Rotmother is defeated. Overall this is a really comprehensive and cohesive OST that captures many important elements of a game in only 4 tracks. I also loved the artwork and how the Youtube video is timed with the music. Great work and thank you for sharing!

Developer

Thanks for the in-depth comment, really appreciate it! For the Intermezzo, I didn't really think about it, but yeah, maybe some part of my mind was thinking about that classic from Chrono Trigger! "Secret of the Forest" is such a good forest BGM. For the solo strings, the Violin is Stradivari Violin, and the Cello is Tina Guo Acoustic Cello Legato. The Violin came as part of a Kontakt bundle, and the Cello I got on sale last summer. Highly recommend both! The Violin is really versatile, and the Cello is amazing at slower melodies, but struggles a bit with faster passages.

Submitted

This is really helpful! Thank you, I appreciate it!

Submitted(+1)

Peak

Submitted(+1)

Really good work! Each song does a good job capturing the moment you were trying to convey. The production and mixing quality is executed very good as well. Would go well in an Rpg/jrpg.

Developer(+1)

Thank so much for the kind comment! Glad to hear it sounds like an RPG soundtrack, it's my favorite kind of music!

Submitted(+1)

I really like your work, it sounds so great. I was clearly into it while listening.

The FX in the beginning of the last track took me a bit out of the vibe, though.

Massive preference for "Slay The Rot", by the way (even though the end of Rotmother’s Requiem is reaaaaally nice). I could picture myself fighting for the entire song, haha. I would have prefered a bit more realistic choir VST, though.

But this track is awesome! And your entire OST is, for sure :D

Developer

Thanks so much! Really appreciate the kind comment. I'm happy to hear you liked the combat theme, I struggled a lot to come up with a good one, it took like 4 rewrites!

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