😮 Amazing chiptune music !

i wish i heard this sooner loll    but now im listening to this with literally 2 hours left of rating time

this sounds really nice!! i really like how you really made the most out of the really limited sounds you have

idk if it's just me but i thought the tone of the square wave was a little too sharp in some parts?

That's great ! You handled well the chiptune music, it's lively ! My favourite is "The Forgotten World", I like how you handled the panning, it was pleasure for each ear !

I'm coming into this as someone who's used hUGETracker and Furnace before, and anyone who's used these trackers knows how difficult it is to create any kind of sound when you're more used to MIDI-based software like FL Studio, Ableton, or Logic Pro. With the release of modern trackers like FamiStudio or KiraStudio, working within the limitations of pre-32-bit era music has become a lot easier, thanks to interfaces that feel much closer to MIDI workflows.

That's why I'm genuinely impressed you went through the effort of doing this in Furnace! Which, I still don't fully understand how to use properly. and yes, I know it's not purely a Furnace Tracker product as the description notes, it was mastered in Logic Pro X. It's great to see you step outside your comfort zone, and putting together a really strong submission given those limitations.

Now, here are my impressions and inputs for each track:

1. The Forgotten World

A perfect fit for a title screen or ending theme, but beyond that, it's a great piece that sets expectations for the rest of the soundtrack. I really like the melodic motif you used here. A Song I can think of with a similar feel would be "Smiling" by 櫟井唯 (Lime), or Rainbow Road from the Mario Kart series.

2. Our Peaceful Home

I picture this as a home base or starting area song for the player.It nails that safe space/home feeling really well. A great example of a song doing something similar especially in the Game Boy or Game Boy SP era is Littleroot Town, composed by 一之瀬剛 (Ichinose Go). It's one of those perfect examples of a cozy, comforting theme.

3. Celestial Connection

On first listen, I had zero context for this track until I read the "Imagine Story" section. Where you describe Celia opening a lether book and a burst of golden light appearing with the score for "Celestial Connection" inscribing itself onto the first page. Most listeners would probably just hear this as a strange, messy 24-second track even though it clearly plays a crucial role in the story and the game.

4. Cozy Town

Still in the starting area song kind of vibe, but framed as the player heading outside their house to begin their adventure. The composition on this track is much more varied, and it does a good job evoking a fun, quirky sense of adventure. A song with a similar feeling is the Central Town Theme from Mega Man Battle Network 6, composed by 青木佳乃 (Aoki Yoshino), same quirky, fun, "heading out into the world" energy.

5. The Ancient Token

Closing things out, this one has a similar issue to Celestial Connection, it really needs a visual or narrative cue to give listeners context for where it fits into the OST.

Overall, great effort and a solid five-track compilation for Part 1. I know you mentioned plans on expanding the soundtrack. I love to hear the completed version in the near future and revisit this once it's completed. Nice job, and good luck developing it further!

Also questions (kind of curious): 

- Have you tried FamiStudio, KiraStudio, or hUGETracker before or any plans on exploring those software? 

- Also are you planning on making a Gameboy cart or just trying to get the feel of a Gameboy music? since i think this would be much easier to do with vital audio with Gameboy patches on Logic Pro.

The Forgotten World: This is some authentic GB goodness. You really know how to squeeze a lot out of 4 channels.

Our Peaceful Home: Some of the secondary dominant movements really give me a nostalgic hometown feeling. Reminds me of some of my favorite GB games (like Survival Kids).

Celestial Connection: I like that you don't necessarily use all channels, two lends to a nice minimal atmosphere that I'm sure you were going for.

Cozy Town: I definitely feel Pokemon inspiration here. Very strong composition!

The Ancient Token: Short and sweet. I really like the progression. I was expecting a resolution but we get that mysterious ending (which lines up with the "what could it mean?" from your itch page description.)

Impeccable chiptune. Great work!

I'd say writing in chiptune like this is now an almost lost art. The Forgotten World is such a great beginning! So much nostalgic happiness in here... I also love Our Peaceful Home, the music really says it all so well, the couch here, the dinner table over there, a family gathering, the simple vibe is incredible. And Cozy Town really feels like a walk around a small city, people smiling from shops and streets as you pass by... You did a fantastic job translating chiptune into story understanding. I'd say that in Chapter 2 Celia and Rin try to find who sold these books to their families, maybe a mysteriously old bookseller downtown who spent his life collecting tunes from every traveller who crossed paths with this place. They then find that some of these tunes actually belong to people who were once somehow connected — either they were once in love or were very good friends separated by some war. Once the tunes in the books "recognise" each other, they quickly re-bond and stay together as inscriptions in the books ;) Thanks so much for sharing! 

Really loved this soundtrack! You absolutely made the gameboy sing and the interweaving voices sound gorgeous. Cozy Town is my favorite and it works really well to establish the tone of the game. That's the kind of song I where would leave the gameboy running next to me and let it loop for a while.

The Forgotten World

Cool lively track, very interesting melodies and counter melodies. I loved the different sections. 

Our Peaceful Home

Lovely track. Once again, very great work on the melodies and the counter melodies. 

Celestial Connection

Interesting delay effect ! It was very catchy but had a mysterious feel.

Cozy Town

Very cozy track but with a cool rhythm and energy.

The Ancient Token

The end makes me want to listen to more

Overall, very great soundtrack ! I really liked the work on the melodical side, with the many lively melodies and counter melodies you had, each organised in different sections that kept the track very engaging. Great work !

Lovely chords and perfect for the vibe of the game! Really impressive chiptune work with the dynamics. Also I can imagine the OST being the absolute highlight of the game!

I really enjoyed these tracks. This is a textbook feel of the chiptune genre, I could almost see the characters running around on a gameboy screen! Well done!

I'm really impressed with the 4 channel format, limiting yourself pushes that creativity forward. The panning achieved within mixing the channels helps fill out the space, and was well utilized. Very much old gameboy vibes. 

Greetings and here we are! Was looking forward to listen to your works, and the moment I saw it was a chiptune OST it caught my attention: it's the first one of this kind I'm going to rate.

1. The Forgotten World

Love the secondary voices! The harmonies, the arpeggios, the panning. It feels sooo alive and yet so nostalgic. Also the chords chosen convey that kind of old memories vibe. Definitely a Title Screen track.

2. Our Peaceful Home

I feel so safe, but I also feel like I have to leave because something evil just happened outside the village and I have to fight anyone and anything to protect my loved ones.

3. Celestial Connection

The delay here was enough to create some catchy rhytmic pattern. Very interesting composition, despite being very short but it serves its purpose so well.

4. Cozy Town

I needed these chords in my life and didn't know it. They sound so good, they sound like you're familiar with and yet they sound so refreshing, so new. The chord at 0:49 made me genuinely smile because I really wasn't expecting it!

5. The Ancient Token

I didn't like this one because there were no other tracks afterwards :(


All in all, the whole production was so polished, and you really seemed to have been working with real hardware limits, it felt quite authentic to me.
The mix sounded very very good and pleasant.
Composition wise, it also felt so polished, so "simple" but not in the way when you take things for granted. It's been like someone I knew has been holding my hand but together we lived some new adventures, like good old times.
The only downside to me (I'll never stress this enough, it's just my opinion), is it felt quite generic, but the generic you can find in top class games. I couldn't really picture in my mind a specific game. Was it a modern setting, a fairy tale, a mythical world, a futuristic environment? Or maybe the truth is you managed to create something that just gets along well with anything.

Kudos for the very cute art! ^^

Looking forward to listening to more of your works!

Such a great chiptune OST! It really shows how much thought you've put into getting as much out of each channel as you possibly can to add depth to these tracks. Not only that, but the composition is fun and catchy and perfectly conveys the story you set out. Fantastic work!

Superb job! As many others have already said the way you worked with the channel limitations made the entire work so very alive. Thank you for your work!

This feels like it could've come straight out of an actual retro game. The loops are really well done too. Nothing ever started to grate on me or feel repetitive, and I could easily imagine these playing in the background for a long time without getting tired of them.

I especially liked the panning. Having different instruments bouncing between the left and right while the main voice stayed centered made everything feel way fuller than you'd expect from chiptune. There's a lot of substance here despite the limited sound palette, and everything has its own space.

Really well composed and really fun to listen to. This just feels like proper game music.

This is really good and high quality chiptune, plain and simple. I initially had this on in the background so I didn't notice until halfway through that there are only 4 channels. You get so much out of each one that to me it genuinely sounds like there's more. This soundtrack's inspiring me to go back and write some more chiptune myself lol.

This is such a fun soundtrack! "Our Peaceful Home" and "Cozy Town" really sound like they'd fit in an early-gen Pokemon game, they're so sweet and nostalgic sounding, but also really full and dynamic.
I think my favorite track has to be "The Forgotten World" though, it's just so exciting! It sounds like running around in a big exciting world, maybe even racing game energy.

The gameboy style box art and the story idea are both super cute too! The story really gives me Cardcaptor Sakura vibes haha. I've always thought a Cardcaptor Sakura style collectathon RPG would be fun.

Outside of retro games, I'm not typically a fan of chiptune music. This is an exception because it is so well-written for the genre. Superb job!

man i wanna live in cozy town... that aside this ost although quite short gave me hella nostalgia and a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest (especially cozy town!!!!) LOVE the mixing work you did here too when there were only 2-3 instruments to work with. not to mention the attached story to this ost as well (and the very cool art!!), would really love to see a chapter 2 if that ever comes to be!!!

The Forgotten World: What a fun theme! The GameBoy sound is so high quality and the 4 channel composition is really impressive. I hold composers who can compose in chiptune style in extremely high regard, and have even MORE respect for those who can make it sound like there are more than 4 channels. You have achieved all of this even from just this first track!

Our Peaceful Home: You probably have so many influences of your style, but Pokemon hometown themes stick out in my mind as something that I would compare this to. And that is quite a high bar. Beautiful and game-ready, most certainly!

Celestial Connection: This is an intriguing piece and I like to imagine how it would function in-game. It kind of has a similar soft yet unsettling sound like Mt. Moon or Lavender town (again from Pokemon, sorry for the double reference), but these are iconic because of those exact qualities! 

Cozy Town: Once again, another track that feels like it is already existing in a game! My highlight from this track is that beautiful final chord at the end of the loop. Buttery and warm…

The Ancient Token: This short jingle is reminiscent of short cues from Ocarina of Time. This seems like a motif that would later potentially be used in a climactic scene. I love the ending mysterious flourishing echoes.

I am so impressed with the quality of all that you were able to complete. I can’t even fathom that you were considering doing more! But if this is Chapter 1, then I certainly hope to one day hear Chapter 2! I don’t often share what specific ratings I give to people because I feel that everyone deserves 5/5 for their skill level as long as they worked hard on their project, but of course with this being a competition, I have to rate everyone relative to the project(s) with the highest regard in each of the categories. That being said, I did give you a full five stars in all five categories because: 1. I was wildly impressed and listened 2 additional times when it concluded, 2. The WAY you tell the story is particularly creative, especially with the addition of the Celestial Connection and Ancient Token pieces - something that sets you apart from other projects that I’ve heard that are also extremely high quality but maybe play it more safely, 3. The composition level is phenomenal AND you did it with only 3 voices (plus a single percussion voice), 4. The quality is professional and it sounds like it came straight from a published game, and 5. I didn’t need to read your description to know exactly how the story was unfolding or where I was (I did read it and that only added to the quality of story-telling). Wonderful work on this and thank you for sharing your music!