Does bad music ruin your immersion in Otome games?

[TurtleLover]

I've seen many discussions about visual style, character designs, etc, but I've always also viewed the music and sound design as important. If the music doesn't match the atmosphere of the story, or it's too repetitive, then it takes me out of the immersion more, rather than if they put more effort into making it match everything else. I sometimes end up even zoning out if it gets too annoying. Does anyone else have a similar opinion?

 

[lst]

Personally, I've never thought the music in a game was bad. It can just get repetitive at times. If a scene goes on for too long with the same song, especially a high-pitched one, it gets annoying to the point where I turn the volume off and only turn it back on once the mood of the scene has clearly changed, or I just take a break from the game.

 

[Arisara]

Yes. Especially if the same music plays for too long or sounds annoying. Also when the music doesn't match the action on screen. Sad event but happy music.It immediately ruins the atmosphere. I choose a game based on its graphics or LI, but the first impression is created by the music. ( sorry google translate).

 

[Mutamento]

My English isn't very good, so I use Google Translate.

I think it will. Just like suitable background music can enhance the atmosphere of a game, bad background music can reduce the enjoyment. In such cases, I usually choose to turn the background music volume down or to the minimum. However, I haven't encountered this situation yet.

 

[vivonne]

Not really. I'll just lower the volume if I find it really annoying

 

[angelnextdoor]

honestly idk if it's just because i'm very picky with music but like 80% of the time i have to mute games and listen to my own spotify playlists lol. i try to refrain from doing it (and i never mute games that have horror elements) but i feel like in romance and otome games the sound design (most of the time) doesn't really add too much value to my personal experience and enjoyment

 

[dark.moon]

Not really. I care more about the story, characters, and voice acting. Bad or repetitive music can be annoying, but it doesn't completely ruin the experience for me.

 

[koko36]

not really

 

[6161xx]

Most of the time, I don't have this problem. I generally don't like loud and boisterous background music, so whenever I start playing a new game, I choose to adjust the volume. If the music suddenly becomes intense during the game, it can be very uncomfortable, even if I have turned my computer's system volume all the way down. (I think part of the reason is that I like wearing headphones, which makes the sound more concentrated)

 

[mitsumitsu]

Yeah I get the repetitive part, there was that one track in Mistonia that kept playing over and over I genuinely ended up disliking it lol.
Bgm won't necessarily ruin a game for me but it can really elevate the experience. A couple of days ago a friend and I were sharing our favorite bgm tracks and one of the games was Nightshade, we agreed that while the game itself wasn't exactly our cup of tea, the OST was pretty nice and made it memorable.

 

[aquari]

Maybe yes, I have met some annoying cases. Such as music that is noisy and repeats for a long time. At first I wouldn't notice it, but the longer I play the game I would start to be aware that it is the same song playing for many scenes, and it starts to nag me at the back of my mind.

Some indie games I played before did not balance their tracks well too. They would have a loud track followed by a very quiet track that I could not hear anything, then suddenly back to something loud... I had to adjust the volume on my own.

It also depends on how interesting the story and how good is the writing, I can tolerate, but if I am bored I will nitpick the music and become more annoyed.

 

[otofr3ak]

I'm not one who pays attention to music (I really should-) so I only ever notice if the music is really, really good, or if it is really, really bad. it would ruin my immersion if it was cartoonishly bad, but only because I think it's funny how bad the music is.

 

[AkinaSR27]

A great ost can really enhance a scene so I prefer a good BGM! I'm pretty ok with any kinds of music as long as it fits the scene that is played. There are tons of games with royalty free music that still tugs at my heartstring or make me cry of laughter

Repetitive music can be annoying but it isn't a huge deal breaker.

 

[Somniari]

bad music 100% can ruin my experience with the visual novel... but the thing is, i don't think i've ever encountered really bad music like, the type that makes me to stop and think "man, this music's really bad, i need to turn it off"

 

[7Senses]

Not really. I do find most music repetitive after hearing it for hours, so the music ends up as white noise for me. But I never mute any music. However, if there's any voice acting, I tend to focus more of the voice acting and lower the background music.

 

[NiyteShaeyde]

I think it depends, I've had otome where the sound wouldn't have mattered much to me and I've had ones where I refused to play because it wasn't voice acted. A lot of otome, the sound has very fine controls so that helps a lot too.

 

[bugpudding]

Yeah, I think if the bg music starts to annoy me I end up re-reading the same sentence more frequently. Or if the sound effects aren't properly balanced and some of them tend to blow my ears out. But I feel like I notice it more if the sound design is really good vs when it's not very good.

 

[Shikuromi]

I find it annoying when theres a lot of good ost, but have long segments of silence where I feel music would benefit the scene.

Though the first thing I do when loading up a VN is to lower the BGM + SE and adjust it alongside character volume as needed.

 

[junjonn]

Short loops of music tend to annoy me, some can get really distracting adn take away from the scene rather than add to it.

 

[Gappy]

I can usually tune out a bad ost or outright mute it. But what always gets on my nerves is bad sound effects, especially when they're repetitive. Nothing gets me skipping through a scene quicker than continuous sword clanging noises.

 

[hbkkbh]

oh yes, the soundtracks used in fighting scenes of a game i played recently just sounded cheap to the point they stood out in a bad way

 

[sunfrvr]

I usually mute the music lol.

 

[Mikata]

Not much, but it sometimes ruins the mood tho.

 

[saphirre]

It surely an unpopular behavior but I don't listen to any music of any of my game (I simply mute games that I play). So in fact I'm not bother by it.

 

[Koori]

Generally speaking ? Not really. A track has to feel really jarring to really go as far as ruin something when in most cases a 'bad' track mainly amounts to just being too boring so it doesn't really register as proper music.