Lancer – DELTARUNE Chapter 1

About game/music

This is “Lancer” from the RPG “DELTARUNE” created by Toby Fox.
This is composed by him as well.

OST is here.

The story is about a world where monsters and humans live together, and the main character, a human, wanders into a strange world at school.
Like UNDERTALE, the game continues to use a unique battle system that you can win without killing enemies by winning their hearts.

And, as you probably know as you’ve come to this page, DELTARUNE Chapter 2 was released last September!
(You can download it from the official page)

Analyzing

This is a shuffle rhythm.
As you can see from my performance video, it is difficult to keep the rhythm 😵

In part A, the chord progression is i-II-iv/bII-V7-i (Am-B-Dm/Bb-E7-Am).
I think the II is a Lydian modal interchange, but it sounds to me like it’s indirectly connected to V7 as well.
I interpreted the chord in bar 6th as iv/bII, that adds bII as a bass to iv. The movement of the bass from bII to V in diminished fifths sounds a bit unique.

Part B has more momentum.
subII7-V7-i7-IV (F7-E7-Am7-D) is a series of dominant motions or fourth-degree ascents, giving a sense of forward momentum.
(IV isn’t a diatonic chord, maybe Dorian modal interchange.)
Also, the bass becomes a quarter-note walking bass, and there’s a contrast with the shuffle rhythm.

Note: In the video, I’m playing with capo fret 2.
(Capo fret 4 makes the string tension stronger and hard for me to play…)

Original: