Fog Walker OST

Fog Walker - soundtrack for a game that doesn't exist

Behold, my grand project for this week. "Fog Walker", inspired by the OST Jam 8 written theme "One Summer Night",  follows the story of a teenage boy who doesn't want the summer to end. I took inspiration from OFF, Earthbound and Undertale, and decided to envision this game as some sort of RPG itself. 

I modified the prompt from "one summer night" into "the last summer night", and I feel track 1 (the main menu track)  perfectly encapsulates the feelings of bittersweet solitude felt by the main character. (By the way, most of the story takes place during a storm, which is why most of the tracks include rain in the background.)

 During the evening of the last day of summer,  he wanders deep into the forest for the last time, seeking a final moment of tranquility before the stress and sleepless nights of school.  During this period of exploration and independence, track 2 (Fog Walking) would play. 

It is only when the sun falls and the protagonist decides to head back do we start to see the more ominous and unreal part of the story.  Accompanied by Track 3, The protagonist finds himself lost in a thick fog, unable to recognize any of his surroundings. Figures take shape and vanish in the distance, distant footsteps grow closer, and the night grows darker. 

 Soon, he finds himself face to face with something unimaginable. A man mutilated by relentless aging and insanity staggers out of the fog and charges towards him. (Track 4 would be looping during this interaction, until the player proceeds to battle.)

Track 5 is my battle theme, and after the fight, the gameplay loop would be something along the lines of the protagonist journeying through a maze of forest while fighting for their life against disheveled and insane old people. Throughout their journey, they will occasionally see the ghost of a girl observing them in the distance.

If the player is to lose one of these fights, track 6 will play.

Eventually, the protagonist finds himself in an ethereal, dream-like suburbia, extending far beyond the fog in every direction. Track 7 will play here. Lamps illuminate the streets in an eternal night as a sense of safety, though fleeting, fills the air.

After a treacherous and frustrating navigation of the seemingly infinite neighborhood, the protagonist finally finds themself in a unique area, that of an old cottage standing alone amidst a flourishing garden. 

Dwelling in this house is the mysterious ghost girl herself. She is incoherent and aggressive, while strongly expressing the desire to keep the protagonist within this place. 

The player is presented with the choice to stay or leave. If they choose to stay, the game will end, the game over theme will play, and the ending is left to the players interpretation.  If the player chooses to leave, the ghost will become erratic and hostile, while track 8 plays. This track will play as she is speaking, and will loop until the player ends the dialogue to trigger the battle.

Track 9 plays during the final battle between the protagonist and the girl. The player cannot harm her due to her being a ghost, and is instead forced to persist through an onslaught of psychological spells and attacks. During the battle, there will be dialogue checkpoints, where she tries to persuade the player into staying with her, and to forsake the real world, in which the player must consistently express the desire to return. Eventually, she will begin to remember her past life, where she will collapse under the pressure, and the fight will end.

Track 10 plays as we share a flashback with the girl, learning that she too used to wander the forest many years ago as an escape from life, but got lost within a thick fog and died. She confesses her incredible guilt that she felt, obsessing over the idea of the townspeople looking for her forever and never finding her.  We learn that the dream world we have journeyed through was her personal afterlife, a mixing of her and the protagonists consciousness, that the people we fought stemmed from her idea of what happened to the townspeople, and that she just couldn't bare being alone in her fake world again. After the protagonist informs her of the current year, she fully accepts her reality,  acknowledging that the people she knew are also long gone and probably waiting for her somewhere else. The two say their goodbyes, and the the protagonist emerges from the forest just in time to witness the sunrise.

Track 11 plays as the credits roll and we see a montage of the neighborhood and forest basking in sunlight. The game ends with us seeing an empty housing lot crossfade into a time when the girl's cabin was once there, and then a fade to black.

I hope whoever finds this soundtrack enjoys its story. I'm fine with anyone using this soundtrack for their personal projects so long as they ask beforehand and give credit.

Screenshot of track 5

Screenshot of track 1-2 (I made both of them in the same project and exported their separate areas)