Description
This is an OST for an imaginary 00-10s JRPG game, called "The Forgotten City".

Game music from this period of time was usually done using instrument samples or soundfonts, fitting in consoles like the NDS or the GBA. Specifically, the LMMS DAW and the Touhou Soundfont (Creative Commons) were used.

The main story
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The story starts within a little town, in a forest/jungle setting. You are a young adult and skilled warrior, included in a reconnaissance team to explore a subterranean cavern, to gather food, materials, and documenting what you see there: new beasts and plants, mapping the cavern, etc.

One day, in one of your expeditions, you go deep enough. You start seeing a very bright light, something too unusual for a cavern... Then, you see a whole different world! It's an enormous space inside the cave, where the ceiling seems to be hundreds of meters from the floor. There is what it looks like a city inside: small buildings covered with a lot of vegetation, some kind of fungus growing at the ceiling, shining almost like the Sun... But, more importantly, you see people walking in the streets, people like you! This is... The Forgotten City.

You are immediately caught by the city guards, and brought to the city leader. You explain your intentions, and the leader seems to trust you. She said that their city was cursed hundreds of years ago. Apparently, the city was at the surface once, but someone did a thing that no one should do, ever. A mage opened a portal to the world of the monsters. He was the only one who knew how to open and close the portal. When he opened it, monsters started coming out. They quickly pounced on him, leaving not even his bones...

Thus, the only way to save the world from the danger that the monsters were posing at that moment, was to conjure a spell to bury the city and their surroundings deep underground, so the surface was out of reach for the monsters. This way, both the city and the portal got buried underground.

However, the portal ended up buried somewhere at the caverns too. There are guards protecting the city now, as it's usually attacked by the monsters. Almost no expedition team was formed to find the portal, since they can't craft good enough equipment with the few and weak materials that the cavern provides.

Days after returning from your expedition to the Forgotten City, a monster arrives to the surface! You and your team defeat it, but this makes everyone start thinking about the worse. It seems that, just like you found a path to the Forgotten City, the monster can use the same path to reach the surface.

After these events, you are given the special task to find materials in the surface, to craft equipment that can effectively confront the monsters' nest in the cavern. You will travel through the world, collaborating with the Forgotten City, to make weapons and equipment good enough to defeat the monsters, ending their nightmare, and making your town safe from the monsters again.

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The story gets their inspiration both from the "Etrian Odyssey III" videogame, and the "El Bestiario de Axlin" book trilogy.

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⚠️ Clarification: in this game, a beast is NOT a monster. Beasts are dangerous living beings, like snakes, wolves, or even dragons. But a monster is a grotesque creature, sometimes not resembling a beast at all, and much stronger than a beast.

About the tracks
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NOTE: be sure to read the "Main Story" section first to understand the feeling of the tracks better :)

Sounds of a Forgotten City
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This theme is used both in the title screen and in the Forgotten City. This theme is so cool, because when you are in the expedition, reaching the Forgotten City, this theme starts playing. Slowly, you start looking at the bright light, brought by the fungus, in the ceiling you can't almost spot. The buildings, covered by moss and plants. The people walking in the streets, at hundreds of meters below the surface. It's a magical moment in your adventure, and probably in your life.

The Cavern of Nightmares
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After collaborating with the Forgotten City, you get materials found in the city and the surface. The craftsmen of the city, use all of this to make special equipment for your team to continue exploring the cavern that continues below the city, to find clues about the portal, where is it and how to close it.

This theme sounds when you venture towards the cavern below the city. There are signs of monsters at the caves, like footsteps and marks in the walls, and the atmosphere is tense, since a monster can appear at any moment.

Hope at the Front
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A beast appears! Your team prepares to fight and planning their next moves. The battle won't be easy. Everyone knows that today could be their last day living in this world. But everyone wants to end the nightmare that both your town and the city is suffering, and get to live in a better world. And the only way to do it, is to face whatever obstacles appear in your path. We can do this, team!

Message from the artist
I would've loved to make more tracks for this collection, but I mostly had time for this at the weekends. Still, managed to do 3 different tracks, so I'm proud of it. ^^

It's my first time participating in a jam like this, and I enjoyed it so much. Looking forward to compose more music in the future and improve as an artist!

Also, if you plan to use my soundtrack, please look at the original submission, where I licensed the work as CC BY SA. I didn't have that license option in the submission page, where I chose CC BY, which is a more permissive license than the one I used for my work.

Theme

Songs of a Forgotten World

Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
As described in the main story, there is a city who was buried centuries ago to save the world. The main point of the history is that you discover this city, and then some events happen, which change the curse of the whole world.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
Scritch editor (link to the itch project): https://siesta-cat.itch.io/the-forgotten-city-ost

Number of tracks
3

Genre

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY)

Any project