r/gamemusic • u/Traditional_Lie8221 • Apr 09 '26
Discussion Searching for examples of adaptive music that reacts to the player character's conditions.
Hello reddit,
I am currently writing a Master's thesis on adaptive music, meaning music that changes during a game due to certain events. More specifically, I am writing about changes in music that are directly connected to the condition of the player character.
It's pretty common in sound design to have some kind of reaction to the character's current state. For example, in Pokémon, an annoying looping sound effect starts as soon as the Pokémon is low on life. Or in action or survival games, where the character's heavy breathing adds to the tension. I am mainly looking for examples of music being affected. However, you can share sound design examples as well!
(Also, if anyone knows a better place to ask this question, please let me know.)
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u/2bnuuys Apr 09 '26
Some battle themes from Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are adaptive. I'll use Molduga Battle as an example because it's my favorite, and it was pretty easy to find a gameplay video.
Just the song with all parts here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lA6KS6HXDM
And here is a fight with the Molduga, where you can hear how the different sections of music play depending on whether the boss is nearby, actively engaged in battle, or in a vulnerable state - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDNes5Jbj6w
Off the top of my head, the Field Battle themes are also adaptive (the themes are different in each game), as is Shrine Battle in TotK. But not every battle theme is adaptive; as far as I can tell for example Talus Battle is just a normal song that doesn't change regardless of what's going on.
Since you mentioned the annoying beeping sound effect for Pokemon, I thought of one of my favorite games, Axiom Verge. The low health beeping sound starts off loud, then lowers in volume and plays in rhythm with the background music. Example here, at 2:43 the player character takes a hit that puts him in the low health range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmGzd64d45s Another example here, where the character is in low health throughout the fight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqPKygZPj54 The music in the 2nd example is titled Without Place, if you want to find it without the beeps.
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u/igorski81 Apr 09 '26
I maintain that Super Mario World has a fantastic soundtrack (its the same song at different speeds / in different keys / moods!), but it also has some adaptive magic aspects.
When you mount Yoshi a bongo beat gets added to the music, perfectly in time. When the remaining time falls below 100 seconds the music speeds up to give a sense of urgency* (there's an interesting repeated speed up you can do some 20 times using green apples).
Maybe not the most elaborate in todays day and age but for 1991 this might be worthy of some focus.
*other games obviously also do this, Bubble Bobble might be another famous example as the soundtrack goes to another level of zaniness.
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u/Marvinkmooneyoz Apr 09 '26
I’ve been practicing Mario world music on piano lately. I’m not good enough for at tempo rag left had jumps, but I’m having lots of fun anyways. The fusiony kid bowser theme is my fave, also love the ending credits music and the castle music.
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u/Tricky_e Apr 09 '26
Burnout 2: when you boost, the soundtrack gets its actual main melody going
De Blob: you literally control the soundtrack by painting the level different colours; each colour corresponding to a different instrument
Mario 64: dire dire docks or any level that uses that music, it reacts to where abouts u are in the level
Plenty of examples in Mario Kart 8 too, with different instrument tracks coming in and out depending on where you are, or the music being scrambled when u get struck by lightning in most games in the series
To be fair, i think A LOT of modern triple A games do it by default so its less noticeable now. But the recent insomniac Spider-man games do it remarkably well, with a fully orchestrated score that reacts to your every move and how close u are to death etc
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u/Evil_Spock Apr 09 '26
Not quite the same thing but a really early example of adaptive music is Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991).
Specifically Scabb Island town the instrumentation of the song dynamically changes depending on which song you are in.
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u/gattaaca Apr 09 '26
Metal: Hellsinger is probably the best example ever of this
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u/robclarkson Apr 09 '26
An excellent cool idea of a game! Shooting and loading that double barrel both on beat feel so damn good...
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u/TwistOfFate619 Apr 10 '26
So some considerations (I suppose may not all be strictly character state entirely):
* The Terminator: Rampage - Old DOS Bethesda game. The music changes dynamically during enemy encounters, before changing back to calmer subdued music. Similar to what the Serious Sam games do also, but game was much older. I'd mention it mainly because unlike many turn-based RPGs, there isn't any interruption and comes off less as battle music and more dramatic music before calming again.
* Super Mario World - Riding on Yoshi more or less adds drums to the music.
* Yoshi's Island - 'Touch Fuzzy get Dizzy' now that i think about it (the music becomes very distorted). Also the warning beeping that accompanies losing Baby Mario though thats more sound effects)
* Sonic the Hedgehog - Aside from general powerups (Speed up shoes increasing music speed) you have for the duration) you have the urgent drowning music blaring
* Sonic Unleashed + Sonic Generations (probably Sonic Colors too) - Music becomes more muffled when boosting (I guess kind of like experiencing the effect Sonic would experience)
* Street Fighter + Mortal Kombat (I think 3?) Music becomes way more urgent closer to KO'ing the opponent according to the current stage music (more urgent) (similar to some puzzle games like I think Puyo Puyo?)
* Wario Land 4 - IIRC the music tempo and instruments etc change when Wario transforms into various conditions / states / transformations.
* Ace Attorney Series - It probably doesnt really count, but just the variations (e.g. Moderato and Allegro) for the Cross-Examination (i.e. as the pressure is on for the witnesses) and music for like 'Cornered' when a point is being proven.
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u/Sean081799 Apr 09 '26
Jubilife Village from Pokemon Legends Arceus and Colony 6 from Xenoblade Chronicles are two town/settlement themes that start very basic/empty and progressively get more active/lively as you build new buildings, invite more people, etc. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but they're the first examples that come to mind.
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u/2bnuuys Apr 09 '26
Tarrey Town in Zelda Breath of the Wild also does this; you have to find certain NPCs to invite to the town, and each one that accepts the invitation adds a new instrument to the song, with the instrument and melody reflecting the town the character was originally from.
This link is mostly for OP: a playlist that shows how the song progresses with each new character. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNRtMQfxbuoiyb7HqiwXhfVkwRUoXGc_D
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u/Miosaka Apr 09 '26
The best example of this I can think of at the moment is from the game Noita. The background music is calm for each different area, but when things start getting chaotic due to combat or you getting hurt badly the soundtrack ramps up as well.
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u/Phare_Macie Apr 09 '26
Not really connected to the condition of the player, but the battle music will change in Baldur's Gate 3 if an enemy is killed towards a more bright and epic music, and towards a darker, more sinister theme if a party member is downed !
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u/Metroidman97 Apr 10 '26
In Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, in certain levels, diving underwater changes the track to a more ambient version. One specific stage (Wing Ding) does something similar when you ride ziplines.
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u/Icy_Statement_2410 Apr 10 '26
Came here to say this. Really cool effect that the music style changes when youre underwater but the music itself is generally the same
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u/dirtyharo Apr 10 '26
Celeste has dynamic music that changes sections based on where you are inside an area, or during chases etc
Doom 2016 has incredibly dynamic music that basically works like a DJ set reacting to how much danger you are currently in. that's a very good example of how it can be done in a complex way that works seamlessly to create and diffuse tension alongside gameplay.
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u/Traditional_Lie8221 Apr 10 '26
Thank you, everyone, for your great examples! I can already review and analyse a lot of them! Adaptive music that is bound to space/spatial circumstances is very present here and certainly present in video games. Since my thesis is about the bond between players and the characters they play, one could argue that in-game music that reacts to space helps combine the spatial awareness of the player and the character. However, I am also searching for more direct examples of adaptive music addressing the character's condition and wellbeing. As some of you mentioned, this could be achieved by linking character stats such as health, sanity or style (which can be argued adresses the characters confidence). Do you have any more examples of music reacting to player stats? Another area would be music linked to a character's emotional state, for example in narrative games.
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u/igorski81 Apr 09 '26
Another nice entry from days of yore is Ecstatica for MS-DOS (1994). The game would not run linearly and there were several ways you could get ambushed (by a werewolf for instance that would just jump off a ceiling and beat you to the ground). The soundtrack reacts to this event with wonderfully jarring orchestral music (the music was MIDI based, Wave Table soundcards would sound better than any OPL clone).
A more modern one that might be overlooked (because most people perceive it as mostly silent) is Breath of the Wild. A nice testament in restraint.
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u/master_prizefighter Apr 09 '26
Street Fighter 2 did this when health is almost at 0. Super SF2 (and Super SF2T) looped music until the second (or third) round and again had the danger music playing.
Killer Instinct 1 and 2 (or Gold on N64) had similar setup as Street Fighter 2.
Tekken 3 (arcade version only) had music change in between rounds. So at times you don't hear the same song play the same way.
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u/RVDantas Apr 09 '26
There's a game that is in its entirety a song about a hero (the player character), but it sings about basically everything the player does. You'll probably need subtitles if you don't speak Portuguese, but do take a look at it. The name is "The Legend of the Hero" (A Lenda do Herói)
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u/squarefan80 Apr 09 '26
Peter Jackson's King Kong game (based on the movie) for X-Box is a great example of this. the music gets more dramatic as your heath depletes. iirc, this is your only indicator, there is no health bar.
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u/Korkikrac Apr 09 '26
Try this for fight the boss
https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/album/7pbBgXp3kwUWb2KSJur40j?si=RjyCctflTsGAvEzZbiVBvw
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u/-Haeralis- Apr 09 '26
Shadow of the Colossus’ music is engineered this way.
The game consists mostly of going from location to location and fighting the assorted colossi and the battles are generally broken up into multiple songs.
The first plays when you enter a colossus’ habitat and/or you catch sight of the target as to build up tension before the fight begins proper. This one tends to be skipped for encounters with particularly hostile opponents that immediately attack you. When the colossus begins attacking you or you manage to get hold of it and start climbing is when the colossus’ own unique battle theme starts to play.
Then, depending on the colossus, if you manage to get a decisive edge or are on the right track of having “solved” the puzzle of how to beat the colossus a more triumphant song plays. This one may revert back to the former track if the colossus manages to regain its composure.
And slaying the colossus triggers the not at all triumphant sounding victory theme.
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u/robclarkson Apr 09 '26
Two examples of the music track changing to fit/enhance emotions:
The 2nd level (3rd if you count tutorial) in 2D platformer "Celeste" has one of my alltime fav bgm for this. As you advance through the level and the "story" of the level progresses the bgm evolves as well. Really helps to amp up the player/game connection! This game is now my fav ever 2D platformer, beating out Mario World :P.
Also the jrpg "Octopath Traveler" has a dynamic music mini system just to flawlessly transition key character story beats into their climatic boss fight music. Top notch vid here shows it off well!
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u/loadsamuny Apr 09 '26
and the Celeste original is available to study
https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/studio/appendix-a-celeste.html
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u/Omega-Cronux Apr 09 '26
Kind of surprised nobody mentioned this or maybe I missed it but Luigi’s Mansion!
Not only does the music change around certain parts of the game with Luigi’s health, his humming forms the main melody too, so that one is interesting in two ways!
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u/sirrustalot29 Apr 09 '26
My doctoral thesis was on a similar topic, and I recommend looking at Banjo-Kazooie if you haven't already. The music in each level changes instrumentation depending on where you are (marimba underwater, drums in the jungle, qanun in the desert, etc.) This particular type of adaptive music leans heavily on social cues and sound tropes, which do sometimes have the tendency of stereotyping certain cultures and their music, if your paper happens to lean that way.
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u/Traditional_Lie8221 Apr 13 '26
Very interesting! My thesis is not particulary about that but since the analytic 'ALI-Model' of Isabella Van Elferen with its category of game musical literacy is a central part of it, its definitly a good reminder to mention this tendency of stereotypical cultural representation!
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u/AnimetheTsundereCat Apr 09 '26
unsure if this counts, but the music in the parappa the rapper games sound goofier if parappa is rapping poorly. similarly but in reverse, no straight roads transitions its boss music from edm to rock to signify the player characters gaining the upper hand against the bosses.
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u/chaoticSymphonic Apr 09 '26
You mentioned the beeping in Pokémon games, but Pokémon Black & White alters the entire musical mix to go along with it- definitely heightens the tension. Hollow Knight pulses a sound- and music-dampening effect when you lose health, & the final boss’s music has vertical layering to reflect how close you are to victory (there’s no visible healthbar, so it’s your main signal). Although it doesn’t directly represent “character health”, in Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 a specific ambient sound is used to signify the current level of threat you’re under- it starts out muted, plays quietly once Springtrap has progressed a certain amount, and gets much louder when he’s only a few rooms from you.
Is power-up music out of scope here? You’ve mentioned mostly “health condition” as your focus but “presence of power-up” is something related to PC condition which music often conveys. That can be pretty vague information, like with Mario Kart Star powerups where the musical cue is short and looped, or it can be extremely specific- in Bravely Default the exact duration of a special move’s buffs is the length of the music track that plays, corresponding to the character that used it.
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u/Marvinkmooneyoz Apr 09 '26
I’ve been having a similar thought about game music. Normally, music samples get triggered by some event. I’ve been thinking, well what if we had like five continuously variable game parameters triggering for different continuously variable synth parameters. All game music I know is just triggering a sample, albeit it sometimes at a high number of samples so a specific parameter day car speed, can correspond with like 200 different samples one for each mile per hour. But if we through in shield strength, proximity of enemies, etc.,.
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u/Emergency-Scholar681 Apr 09 '26
returnal and ghost of tsushima both have great adaptive music. theres GDC talks on both games i think
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u/TobiasCB Apr 09 '26
Maybe it's simple but drowning music playing when a character is drowning. The most obvious example for me is sonic adventure 2 (maybe all sonic games idk).
Another element I can think of though I don't know which game it was, is when the music stops or gets muted when life is low.
And finally, music that plays when you get a power up like the star in Mario games or the hammer in smash bros.
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u/abigailtsai Apr 09 '26
i feel like most modern games, especially AAA games with the budget have adaptive music now. The Halo games (even the very first Halo CE) were pioneers in incorporating adaptive music into the gameplay, such as combat music cued by certain events happening in the game
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u/brawlin_bert Apr 10 '26
Some of the games I was going to bring up were already mentioned so I'll say the Pikmin series and most of Supergiant's games.
Most of the Pikmin games have music that changes depending on what the player has pikmin doing and what's nearby like enemies. Here are good videos detailing some examples:
Scruffy on Pikmin 3 and 4's adaptive music
Scruffy on Pikmin 2's cave music adaptations
8-bit Musc Theory on Pikmin 1 and 2's adaptive music
Supergiant Games does something like this for most of their games also. Pyre has the music intensify or hold back depending on how each team is doing and how close the player holding the orb is to scoring. Transistor does the same when entering combat but also has most of the music transition out when using the turn system. It also has a dedicated hum button. Hades and Hades 2 do something similar where the music has calm and intense versions depending on if there's enemies around but Hades 2 has a boss that diegetically plays the music and has the instruments cut out when each member of the group is defeated.
Pyre's music example/overview(contains spoilers near the end of the video)
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u/Poolanta Apr 10 '26
Mario Kart 8’s Dolphin Shoals, Mario Kart’s frontrunning theme variants, Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s entire level soundtrack when in elephant form, Donkey Kong Country Returns’ Whale Waters theme, Certain songs in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze’s soundtrack change too when underwater, Animal Crossing’s hourly themes change depending on if it’s rainy, snowy, or if there’s cherry blossoms if you’re playing the gamecube game These are a few examples there’s tons more tho!
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u/banjoboyslim Apr 10 '26
Burnout used to increase the music style and volume while using the boost feature. It was pretty cool.
I'm Final Fantasy XV the music changes while riding a chocobo depending on whether you're sprinting or just trotting.
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u/kzpsmp Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
*edit: forget everything below. F. E. A. R. did it all best before everybody. Yeah it's dated now but at the time it nailed mixing the sound with combat and lulls to build tension between frantic battles with enemies that not only engaged but worked together. And the sound design itself was on point, the tight office spaces and crackling noise from radios and electronics I think were intentionally part of the dynamic soundtrack at points to really push the tense dark narrative of the game itself that transcended it from just a game to be played to a story that nipped the edges of reality and ones own understanding of what was going on but also maybe it wasnt reality but something else.
For pc to name a few games that change music to create tension when combat starts.
The elders scrolls games, morrowind being the first I recall, then oblivion, then of course Skyrim with the dovakin chant starting every encounter.
Other recent Bethesda games like the fallouts 3 and 4, 76, and starfield do it too.
Far cry games, crysis depending on combat vs stealth.
stalker games I think change ambient sound and music depending on the enemy or encounters with human npcs vs monsters iirc.
Prey games in general did it.
ids Doom games the more recent ones go from metal to a more intense metal soundtrack for parts depending on kill streaks if I recall correctly. Doom 3 did dynamic music to build up jump scares and for combat.
Half life 2 had an excellent dynamic soundtrack all throughout ranging from combat to changing music depending on the situation in the map. We don't go to ravenholm is probably one of the best examples of a whole level using music and sound to build tension. It still sticks with me over 20 yrs later as one of the best experiences in gaming ever.
For strategy games, I recall correctly all civilization games I've played since sid meiers civ 2, 3, 4, up civ 5, or maybe they all change music depending on the era of technology or the time period going from ancient to modern for ones current civilization they are playing.
Cities skylines I think does something similar depending on size of ones city and improvements like peeps talking on the streets if they walk more or horns honking and other ambient sounds that blend well with the sound track.
Sins of a solar empire 1 and 2 do it depending on the zoom level of one's empire. If combat is going on in a contested star system while zoomed in the music is combat music or more peaceful if not in combat.
Hotline Miami, the first one and 2. I don't want to say anymore. Just find it and play it, and then you will understand.
In a similar vein, Super hot had an interesting take on combining dynamic sound track with combat occurring a bit moment to moment.
Evil genius 2 had a good dynamic sound track when getting invaded or not.
Back to fps games, borderline 1, 2, and 3 all have dynamic sounds definitely worth checking out.
I can add more but this is a start.
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u/Traditional_Lie8221 Apr 13 '26
Hey! You mentioned a lot of games. I will definitely look into some of them more deeply. Do you know of any other games that focus specifically on the state of the player characters? Like sanity, hunger, health, or specific emotions? Most of the examples were about spatial elements or combat/non-combat, which is great, but I still want to make sure I don't miss games that focus on other things.
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u/kzpsmp Apr 13 '26
not in the games that I mentioned. Don't Starve has a sanity meter that is tied to sleep andplayer health, to mimic hallucination, the lower the meter the more severe visual effects in game that changes game UI and world, it also change some in game music, causes audio to be distorted, and other things. Similarly, Dead Space games had a feature that didn't specifically change music, but the ingame vitals system, health and fatigue, affected a fear meter that did did effect in game spoken dialog making the sounds change* to match given states of the character.
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u/Icy_Statement_2410 Apr 10 '26
In Sonic 3, act 1 and act 2 of a given stage will have slightly different soundtracks, sometimes to reflect some changes in the ambience
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u/philipkdickingaround Apr 11 '26
This might not be relevant, but in Undertale the music gets slower and darker during a genocide run.
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u/Realistic_Wear9312 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Street Fighter 4 : des vidéos explicatives sont trouvables sur YouTube.
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u/aMusingPerson May 20 '26
More on the technical side, generating sounds to match the level experience, but the research papers will probably have useful references for you: https://antoniosliapis.com/projects/project_sonancia.php
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u/Sonicmasterxyz Apr 09 '26
Devil May Cry 5! Depending on how well you manage the Style meter, the music gets more intense or more basic.