#zettel #gaming/music sourced from: [[Cave Story]] tl;dr Music's meaning can change even if the song stays exactly the same. # 'Geothermal' makes the Core Lab section of Cave Story Feel Impactful Through the way its feeling transforms through the events in the Section The feelings I feel when entering the space where the song 'Geothermal' plays is very thought-provoking and it takes on three entirely different feelings The first feeling is the idea of mystery before you open the blast door. When you're exploring the area with all the blast doors and computers, the music presents the room as a mysterious and perhaps mystical space. The calm music suggests there's no immediate threat, but perhaps that there's something very important in the space. This is confirmed by Curly's exposition dumping / hypothesizing and the lore provided in some of the computers and piles of dead robots. The second feelings is guilt and shame. I definitely felt horrible when I had to leave Curly behind after she saved me the first time I played this game. I didn't know you could save her and that part of the game hit HARD. The melancholy is absolutely real in that moment and I think everyone should miss getting Cave Story's best ending at least once. You can't pick Curly up, you can't take her with you. And once you know that you can't, you start to move towards the exit. Walk a little further, and the blast door rumbles down one final time, sealing what remains of Curly's mechanical body inside forever. And you have to walk away from that and keep moving forward. And the third feeling is determination. If you grabbed the tow rope before talking with Curly after opening the blast door, you can still save her by tying the tow rope to her. Odds are you probably fucked up the first time, and now that you know you can actually save her, this music tells you that "Yes, you can still save her. It won't be easy, but you have to take her with you". To me, this part of Geothermal reminds me that I can save people who saved me, and that I can bring Curly back to life if I believe enough. And of course, that means you have to go through all the extra steps of getting her back which are NOT communicated very well, and are, again, easily missable. But the start is here! the feeling is here! Essentially this is a perfect example of music adding meaning to a scene. One can also compare this to [[Absence of Music in Media Can Create New Meaning in Scenes]].