Formative Albums, Part 10: Changed OST

Changed Original Soundtrack

(Buy on Steam)
(Listen on YouTube)

And coming full circle, we conclude with another video game soundtrack! Unlike the mystery surrounding The Cat & The Castle, this one is very obviously just pure NES/Famicom chiptune.

We've posted about Changed before. We went in expecting a horny furry latex/transformation fetish game, and it is still very obvious that the author has a kink or two, but we were surprised by the depth and quality of the game underneath all that--the emotional story and characters and dialogue, the lovely art style, and of course the amazing soundtrack. A fantastic game through and through, the only reason it didn't continue the "same game wins Golden Pheasant and the Woodlings' Choice overall GOTY" trend in 2019 was because I gave Golden Pheasant to The Way Remastered, and even that was a coin flip that came very close and could have gone either way. It still swept Woodling's Choice for both Sara and me, and Sara gave it Golden Pheasant as well.

She loves NES/Famicom chiptunes, you see.

While one would think Changed too recent to be formative, the sheer brilliance of the soundtrack's composition is one half (along with the Mega Man Unlimited soundtrack) of what continues to inspire me to want to pick up FamiTracker and do something with it myself. (I may just have a link to plug in that regard in the next entry.) Meanwhile, the game has had a surprisingly large effect on our plurality as well. When we played Changed, Sara ended up relating so hard to and falling so in love with Puro that we ended up buying a Puro plush for her shrine. Months later, we think at least some of that energy, some of the parts of Puro's personality that resonated so strongly with her might have fallen into the giant soup of things that would eventually give rise to Ardei.

There is an awkward postscript to the Change soundtrack that I am obligated to mention, even though this part of the story sucks and I hate it. The exact nature of the relationship between DragonSnow (artist/programmer/main creator) and Shizi (music composer) has never clearly been stated, because DragonSnow is private and doesn't talk about his personal life much anyway, and even when he does English is not his first language. However, the two are seen cuddling and spooning in the developer's room-style self-insert portion of the ending to Changed, so they are clearly close somehow... or were. Unfortunately, Shizi (who was somehow in charge of DragonSnow's finances) got taken in by a scam and accidentally lost all of DragonSnow's money, including everything he'd earned from Changed. This has left DragonSnow completely broke and reliant on his Patreon to bounce back, and reportedly put an "I'm not sure how I'll face him again after this"-level strain on their relationship.

It sucks because Changed was something very special for us, something that meant so much to Sara and to me that we might still be seeing its ripples in Ardei. DragonSnow and Shizi were adorable together, and the game was made all the better because of their combined efforts, the amazing art and storytelling along with the amazing music. Even the cover to the soundtrack is a picture of Shizi drawn by DragonSnow and it is the cutest thing, and I think that in itself is the perfect encapsulation of why this entire situation is awful. Money can be recovered (DragonSnow's Patreon seems to be doing well enough, at least,) but driving a wedge between the two people who brought such a gift to the our lives is unforgivable.

...

And there you have it! Ten formative albums. This was fun to do, and to explore and get into. Hopefully you enjoyed learning a bit more about us along the way. Like all good social memes, this one is supposed to end with a "Tag X friends to make them do it" forward but we're all rebels here. I mean, we did it because we saw davidn doing it and decided it looked like fun; he didn't have to formally tag us. Likewise, if any of you want to poke around with this, go for it! Otherwise, ehh.