It’s been a little while since I covered a track from NieR as an amazing VGM hasn’t it? The last one I did was “Weight of the World” from NieR Automata and that was at the end of December of last year. This time, I’m going to cover one of the more underutilized and thus underrated boss tracks in the original game; “Gods Bound By Rules.” https://guardianacorn.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/nier-gods-bound-by-rules.mp3

In the previous pieces I have done about NieR, I went heavily in depth in regards to their story context. I would love to do so in regards to this track but unfortunately there is none. It’s just given this one off usage against this complex boss fight that Cavia likely blew most of their budget on in the early stages. While the fight plays well, it really doesn’t have much story context other than being a mandated end of dungeon boss when the game hasn’t decided to convince you that it’s more than a typical Zelda clone yet.

So instead, let’s just talk about how amazing this track sounds. That opening is probably the best part of the track. That fucking choir, those strings, and those bells harmonize perfectly and create an overwhelmingly divine sensation. Such a track is normally reserved for a final boss theme in any other game but we all know that Yoko Taro would have his team go starving or resort to cannibalism than have a soundtrack in one of his games that is just “good” ….this isn’t based on anything in reality it’s just a joke, which I need to clarify because I’m pretty sure this is EA’s policy only without the part about being good.

The rest of the track afterwards is a bit on the soft side but still manages to build itself up and be a solid boss track. It’s certainly well arranged and beautiful to listen to, but I think I see why it was not used more. It just doesn’t fit combat quite as well as Deep Crimson Foe or The Dark Colossus Destroys All (both of which definitely need future pieces) yet it was too good not to use at least once so they decided to stick it in a random boss fight, and thank fuck they did.

Anyway there isn’t much to say about this track. It’s beautiful, elegant, and brilliantly arranged. Anyway see you all next week.

Previous VGM

Next VGM



–

If you would like to support me or this site, then please support my Patreon if you would like to see higher quality content with more resources to put towards it. If you don’t want to spend any money on me, then you can also help out by simply sharing my blog on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, or anywhere else where others will see it. You can also follow this blog if you would like to be kept up to date on my stuff, or you could follow me on any of my social media pages (listed at the bottom of the page) and could stop by The Guardian Acorn Discord chat if you would like to talk to me and my homies.