Darkstalkers: Morrigan theme

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kensuguro
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Darkstalkers: Morrigan theme

Post by kensuguro »

Another game centric tune, this time from the fighter game Darkstalkers, or Vampire Hunters depending on region. I played the first of the series just a little bit. Didn't really get too deep in to it, and don't remember much of it. I actually don't even remember which character I played, so that kind of indicates my level of investment in the game.
Image
The series continued though, and the characters lived on in many off shoots. (which I didn't play either) Ever since I started working in the game industry, I stopped playing console games since they were in a different realm... But anyway, seems like Demitri the vampire dude, and Morrigan the succubus girl who looks very much like a vampire seems to have had many incarnations. I remembered Vampire Hunter generally had strange music, or a particular sound that sounded kind of like a synthesized piano.. and with each incarnation of the characters, they actually got new themes. The tradition with these characters is interesting. The theme is actually never kept intact, or most of it changes, but the main idea, or motif carries through "somewhat". Each rendition is a reinterpretation of the motif, and while the general mood is kept somewhat consistent (because the character still looks the same) the melody is completely different.

Anyway, so I decided to take the succubus Morrigan's theme, and did some research so I could reinterpret her theme. Demitri is a literal freak so I was like forget him... I learned the massive back story and all, but I'll spare you the details. She's a succubus, so you can pretty much imagine what she's like. (pic above... she's... optimized for seduction so to speak) But she's not outright evil, and mainly is looking to have fun because she's immortal and.. uh, bored I guess. And she can't be outright aggressive since she needs to seduce, and that tends to not involve preemptively destroying her prey. So that creates an interesting conflicted character who is a nice succubus who's going can really mess you up if she wanted to, but otherwise she's pretty safe.

Here's a video with most of her themes so you can see how it evolved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhFU8Jms8bs

I mainly took the piano line and the "attitude" of the melody and just ran with it. The big beat-esque approach is inspired by Marvel vs Capcom 3. My bassline is pretty much lifted from that tune as is, though it's still a somewhat generic line so I wouldn't say the composer really invented it. I also emphasized the piano sound, since I think a mystical and sexy sound was important to offset the super macho bass and aggressive groove. She is a succubus, so there needs to be an element of sexiness since she needs to seduce people to take their life force. Piano is mostly played jazz style on a Bluthner model since the usual Steinway, Yamahas, or Kawais didn't have enough mystique in the sound. Chord progression is based on the main progression that seems to run through the iterations, but changed it up a bit since hitting a minor aug 5 sounded kind of corny.
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morrigan jam.zip
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