Headbang beats meet campfire romance

I hardly remember Bastion, at all . Just that it was an action brawler with an iso perspective, with a combat system that you had to learn and get to grips in numerous challenges before it was really fun. You could decide which buildings you wanted to build on your flying island and then there was some story twist at the end, some betrayal - that was it. And of course, as far as I know, it was one of the first indie games that I consciously bought because a review explicitly emphasized the good soundtrack. Even back then it was a reason for me to buy it, as it was still the early days of my hobby and I had no idea that I would one day start a website about it, let alone still be listening to individual tracks from the OST nine years later.

The score

As the title suggests, Bastion takes an unusual path when it comes to the background music. Composer Darren Korb dares to experiment and mixes country with psychedelic rock and intersperses strong strings here and there to create an interesting final composition. However, this rough classification would do the OST an injustice.

Instead, I would divide the soundtrack into three musical genres: Firstly, there are the quiet, reflective pieces with reduced instrumentation in the form of guitar and drums. The Sole RegretDarren Korb4, Slinger’s SongDarren Korb4, Faith of JevelDarren Korb3 and Pale WatchersDarren Korb3 - all pieces that are reminiscent of Borderlands 1 or that could be used to characterize a cyberpunkesque future city.

Next up are the vocal tracks with a narrative component such as Build That Wall (Zia’s Theme)Ashley Barrett4, Mother, I’m Here (Zulf’s Theme)Darren Korb3, Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)Ashley Barrett, Darren Korb5 - a reprise of Mother, I’m Here (Zulf’s Theme)Darren Korb3 - and The Pantheon (Ain’t Gonna Catch You)Logan Cunningham4. Beautiful, soulful songs that are reminiscent of Booker and Elisabeth singing together in BioShock: Infinite which I like a lot, even if they lean very heavily into the lone-cowboy-with-his-guitar trope at times.

The rest of the soundtrack could now simply be described as a funky, action-packed disconnect. But while the tracks are similar in terms of tempo and tenor, the instruments are varied. Of course, we hear a harmonica or a banjo (Spike in a RailDarren Korb4) for the perfect Western cliché, but also seemingly incongruous sounds reminiscent of Asian climes (A Proper StoryDarren Korb5) or paan flutes (Twisted StreetsDarren Korb3) and harps (Faith of JevelDarren Korb3). These are joined by tracks whose melodies sound like variations on well-known game-series. Bynn the BreakerDarren Korb5 has something of Age of Empires, Brusher PatrolDarren Korb4 sounds like a Super Mario-remix; The Mancer’s DilemmaDarren Korb4 , on the other hand, sounds like Final Fantasy. And Mine, Windbag, MineDarren Korb4 could come straight out of the Splinter Cell-series.

The Bastion-soundtrack is a nice mix for me, which largely meets my taste with its stylistic execution. Although there are only a few shortcomings, a number of the tracks are unfortunately just too laid-back for me, while conversely the action tracks are sometimes a bit over the top and in my opinion clash with the generally calm country mentality. Of course, this doesn't mean that the tracks are bad, it just means that not every track makes it into the 5s for me. Others may see it differently, opinions are welcome!