Little Nightmares
Released: April 28, 2017
Developer: Tarsier Studios
Composer: Tobias Lilja (plus a little bit by Christian Vasselbring)
It may not be spooky season, but it can still be time for spooky games. One game in particular was released on this day 6 years ago. I didn’t know much about Little Nightmares, but I saw it on sale one day and decided I’d try it out. I was instantly a fan afterwards, and I even ended up pre-ordering the sequel before it came out. With almost any spooky game there must come a spooky soundtrack, so let’s see how spooky this soundtrack is by Tobias Lilja.
When it begins, there’s a brief cut scene. There’s silence… it’s cold… it’s dark… and there’s someone that does not look too friendly. This is some of the most foreboding dark ambience imaginable, and describes what’s heard through much of the game. You start out towards the bottom of some great big vessel within the sea called the Maw, so of course you feel like you’re in the deep dark depths of a pit.
I feel isolation, even though I know that I’m not alone here…
When the ambient gets not so ambient-like is when the tension builds. Listen to the track “Parasites” for example. Those high notes aught to give you the willies and put you on edge! The tension comes when the bad guys are after you, and one of the first you encounter is the janitor with his long arms. He keeps reaching out like he knows you’re there, and he’s so close!
One of the greatest enemies of this game, however, is the darkness within. There’s a motif commonly heard throughout the game. Six’s Theme is a good example of where this is heard, and when those kids sing the motif it makes me very uneasy! The main character Six gets hungry at multiple points in the game. What is she hungry for? The music uses the motif to tell us that it may be more sinister than we realize.
What I found to be the coolest moment of Little Nightmares was when Six finally got to see the outside, and where we get to see the guests entering. These guests are corrupt beings who are looking for anything to eat… including you. The track titled “New Arrivals” literally sounds like a giant ship boarding and blowing its’ horn. You can feel the signaling of something unpleasant coming.
And then there’s the track “March of the Guests”, which quite literally sounds like a march. It’s a shocker when we see the plan of The Lady unfolding, even though we don’t really understand what it is. The fact that we have to walk right through it is even more horrifying.
One of my favorite track plays during the credits, and it’s referred to as “Prison Toys”. It’s different than the rest of the soundtrack. Instead of sounding dark it sounds more optimistic. As for what this means after going through this really dark story, that can be up to your interpretation. I don’t have the answer to that.
There’s some music not included on the official soundtrack also. For instance, there’s these 3 unsettling notes that The Lady sings over and over again as you’re trying to not let her see you.
There’s also that creepy song that plays when you accidentally bump into a TV and turn it on. If it didn’t seem creepy enough already, just read the (supposed) lyrics that go along with it.
I believe what we have here is an overall nightmare-inducing soundtrack, as the title implies. I feel the darkness growing as it goes along, and as we get to the top of The Maw I feel the evil rising. The feelings I feel cannot be described in a way that does it justice, so you just need to go play this for yourself. For overall spookiness I have to give the soundtrack 5 out of 5 stars.
★★★★★
Video Game Harmony 
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