Soundtrack Sunday
Welcome to Soundtrack Sunday, where a member of the PC Gamer team takes a look at a soundtrack from one of their favourite games—or a broader look at videogame music as a whole—offering their thoughts or asking for yours!
Since British developer Lowiro launched Arcaea back in 2017, it’s had a real knack for feeling like a full-fledged arcade rhythm experience without ever having actually ventured beyond mobile. It makes sense, considering the game was heavily influenced by mainstays like Sound Voltex and other Japanese arcade rhythm games.
That’s a tough feeling to capture. Other app store rhythm games like Project Sekai are fun to play, but feel distinctly mobile. PC rhythmers like DJMax are in my regular rotation, but I could never imagine seeing the game encased in a plastic cabinet in my local arcade—despite the fact that there was a DJMax arcade game many moons ago.
Watch On
It’s a testament to Lowiro, then, that the developer manages to bottle up exactly what gives Japanese arcade rhythm games that juice. Top-notch visuals, crazy charting, and classic composers that you’ll see across every rhythm cab in an arcade. All of which are loud and present in the demo for its upcoming game, In Falsus. And hey, this one’s on PC! Hell yeah.
There are criminally few songs to rinse in the In Falsus demo—okay, there are five, which is actually a healthy number by rhythm game demo standards—but that tiny setlist has been all the convincing I’ve needed to know that this is going to be the rhythm game I’m pouring hours into when I can’t get to the arcade.
It certainly helps that some of my personal rhythm game GOATs are included in this demo. Japanese composer Camellia has contributed all sorts of songs to the scene—Project Diva, Beatmania, Sound Voltex—as well as remixing Undertale songs and finding some popularity among the Osu! scene. His original In Falsus song, Cryogenic, is easily my favourite of the bunch. A poppy electronic track with soft and dreamy vocals from vtuber Petra Gurin.
Both Aran—who I love for songs like Chobit Flavour—and long-time Arcaea composer ak+q have also contributed originals with à la mode and Hyaloüyne. The former is a quirky electronic tune splicing vocals together to form the beat, while the latter is a bouncy artcore vibe with bassy beats that lead into more melodic (though still distinctly electronic) segments. They’re both fantastic tracks, though I’d be lying if I didn’t say that ak+q’s track has formed most of my playtime in my six hours with the demo so far.
There are two non-original contributions here, too. Feryquitous—who’s composed some of my fave tracks for gacha game Nikke and a host of rhythm games—with Ordirehv, a song that carries a lot more emotional weight behind its melody than the rest of the demo tracks. It’s another artcore piece as piano punctuates an electronic backing track while a computerised voice delicately lays down some vocals.
Then there’s the collaboration between Beatmania mainstay Qlarabelle and Japanese DJ crayvxn with Ghost Ray. It leans more into hard dance than any other song here, which makes sense considering both composers’ penchant for the genre. It also has the benefit of coming with my favourite chart In Falsus has to offer so far, which has put it in close contention with Hyaloüyne for my most-played.
Enlisting so many popular, well-established composers in the rhythm game scene to contribute to In Falsus really does help cement it as a serious, fleshed-out game. So many non-arcade rhythm games are prone to falling into the trap of feeling a little underbaked, but that couldn’t be further from the truth with the In Falsus tracklist.
With the gameplay trailer revealing some other composers on-board—like BlackY, Blacklolita, and kanone—In Falsus might actually end up being one of the most accessible arcade-feeling rhythm experiences we’ve ever gotten. I, for one, am absolutely buzzing with excitement for its full release.
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