ComposerAkira Yamaoka, best known as the mind behind the music for theSilent Hillseries, will be bringing his talent to a new third-person action horror game,Stray Souls. This won’t come as a huge surprise for fans of Yamaoka’s work becauseStray Soulsdraws inspiration fromSilent HillandThe Blair Witch Project,and the game is being directed by a former member ofBlair Witchdeveloper Bloober Team.
Yamaoka has worn many hats while creating memorable audio for video games and films since he joined Konami in 1993. Usually, this was as a composer for titles likeContra: Hard Corps, Shadows of the Damned,and Bloober Team’sThe Medium,but also as music director and sound producer. His iconic and recognizable music will also be reprised for the upcomingSilent Hill 2remake.
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One of Yamaoka’s next projects will be as a guest composer forStray Soulsby indie developer Jukai Studio. The latest trailer for the action horror game features one of the songs, titled “Splintered Minds," by the veteran musician.Yamaoka will also be contributing to the soundtrack ofSlitterhead, another long-awaited horror game that is being directed bySilent Hillcreator Keiichiro Toyama.
As revealed in the trailer and the game’s Steam page,Stray Soulsputs players in the shoes of Daniel as he travels to the creepy town of Aspen Falls, where some spooky things are going down. Like many unluckyhorror game protagonists, Daniel has inherited the house of his estranged grandmother and makes the unwise choice to accept it. Thus begins a journey into a world of sinister creatures, unsettling environments, and a mysterious woman.
It turns out that Daniel is an unwitting feature of an evil plot set in motion by his grandmother, and the teenager must uncover the secrets of his family’s past while taking down what’s described as “hordes” of monsters with “soulslike precision.” The game will also include the expected puzzle solving and resource management, as well as changing weather patterns and paranormal happenings. Though Jukai Studio hasn’t yet provided a concrete release date, the developer already let players check out analpha demo ofStray Soulsa couple years ago, so perhaps there will be another demo to tide over survival horror fans until the game’s launch.
In addition to composing music forStray Souls, Slitterhead,and theSilent Hill 2remake, Yamaoka also contributed to the soundtrack ofDecarnation,another psychological horror game that came out in May. There’sanotherSilent Hillmovie in the worksas well, which will follow the story ofSilent Hill 2and protagonist James Sunderland. Though there haven’t been many details provided about the film yet, it’s hoped that Yamaoka will lend his talent to its soundtrack, much as he did with two otherSilent Hillmovies in the past.
Stray Soulsis currently in development.
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