Hi everyone, I wanted to start a broader discussion about game music and atmosphere. I've been revisiting a lot of Japanese games from the 2000–2009 era, and I noticed a very specific trend: even in calm or quiet scenes, the music often feels unsettling. It's not just 'scary' music; it feels claustrophobic, like a 'closed-off world' or a place you shouldn't see. It's fascinating to listen to, but at the same time, it can feel genuinely terrifying.
I'm curious if anyone else here has felt this way about the sound design of that era. To give you an idea: some tracks are about 5% scary from the maximum, others are 10%. But something like the Killer7 soundtrack is 100% insane psychedelia.