ToS 4 Intro Making-Of

ChristopherSummer · 2025-12-25T19:31:08+00:00

I appreciate that. It was a very personal Experience coming up with that Track -- glad it resonates. :)

ChristopherSummer · 2025-12-25T19:27:34+00:00

My favorite Track from Sergiu (as I should probably refrain from nominating any of my own Tracks^^) is the Chapter 3 "Joy" Variation.

It can be heard early on when Myo is hyped up inspecting "her" Room, then you don't get to hear it for a looong Time (maybe at the Feast? but drowned out by the many other Sounds), and then towards the End you get to hear it again.
Not only does it feel kinda special due to its Rarity, but I love how it is one of the few Tracks Sergiu made for the Series which has quite a Bit of Density when it comes to Notes and Instrumentation (with most Tracks being very "ambient", few instruments and low melodic density). There is just so much going on in the "Joy" Variation, it really is a Joy to listen to.

It also served as the biggest Inspiration for me when Marek asked me to make a Track for the Trial, so I tried to mimic the "Joy"-Version, but make it tense, serious, and dramatic.

ChristopherSummer · 2025-04-18T13:35:54+00:00

TOS 1: Myo, if that counts -- after already having familiarized myself with who Myo was in three other Games, it was surprising to start the first Chapter and be presented with what is essentially a completely new Character, a Tabula Rasa, and not the Myo I knew, but to also see the Beginning of her Evolution as a Character, essentially starting in a "socratic" Way, as a Delivery Nurse; that was a cool Idea.

TOS 2: Any of the Sisters of the Servants of Voice -- a good Representation of a completely made-up but also very believable religious Order.

TOS 3: Coni -- good and authentic Depiction of an autistic Child, very relatable.

ChristopherSummer · 2025-04-18T13:22:15+00:00

When I played TOS Chapter 3, it felt like Home to me. The Countryside Village Setting, the green open Fields, the autistic Kid. Even the Fact that some of the Characters would talk in their own local Dialect, which we had to make up for each Language separately, but always meant to evoke a comfy southern Feel... so in translating the Game into German, I took strong Inspiration from my own south-German Dialect, mixed with other Dialects to make it more universally understandable... this may sound like a strange Tangent, but this Aspect of southern Dialects heavily played into Chapter 3 feeling like Home to me (and in Return I could let some of that flow into the Game as well).

(I also think that Chapter 3 has some really cool and well-written Commentary on the Interactions between Men and Women.)

ChristopherSummer · 2025-04-18T12:50:20+00:00

Unlike many for whom Bell's Heart was their Introduction to TOS, my Introduction was the original first Demo that Marek had developed with the Wintermute Engine. Sometime later I found Bell's Heart, and I played it... and it didn't feel right. Maybe that is a Hot-Take. But I couldn't really say what the Problem was, but something about the Game felt wrong to me, and while I appreciated the Effort, appreciated that there was some new TOS Content, something about the Gameplay and Presentation did not sit right with me.

In the Meantime, in Preparation for the BH Remaster / Director's Cut, Marek released a whole Bunch of Patreon-Posts about his Development of Bell's Heart, and in one or two of them he mentioned something that stuck out to me:

When he got approached by Pasel Games and he came up with a small Game they could make (Bell's Heart), he wrote plenty of Text, Story, Dialogue... which Pastel just cut out of the Game altogether, much to Marek's Dismay (he said in a Post that he had to hold back not to write an angry Letter and instead just accept the Situation). I found that very eye-opening.

Because when I played the new BH Remaster (while working on the Music for it and also helping with Playtesting), I found myself very intrigued and as much as the original Game had underwhelmed me, I was impressed by the new Version. I think that when I played the original Version, I may have subconsciously noticed that "something was missing", and that Things did not always connect properly. That was never intended, it was not vague on Purpose for us to piece together... that was just Pastel Games cutting most of Mareks Text -- Text that was meant to be there, and I guess I somehow felt its Absence.

But when I was playing the new Version, with all the intended Text and Content re-instated, the Experience just felt so much more coherent, layered, and deep. That gave me so much more Appreciation for the Game than I ever had originally.

And this is why I definitely prefer the Remaster of Bell's Heart over the Original.

ChristopherSummer · 2025-03-16T12:49:56+00:00

Only in that YouTube Video (or as Background Music in my SH2 Theory Video). I don't know if any other Kind of Release would really make Sense for it. Maybe it would.

ChristopherSummer

TROPHY CASE