Phantom Pains Song Composition

[CanOwl]

Hello! So for the past few days I've been going crazy over this one song at the beginning of the game with Apollo. My first run through I did completely random choices, and got a really energetic, excited Apollo at the end, he actually smiled and said it was okay!

The problem is- this doesn't happen in pure red, pure green, or pure blue. Or any of the other full color combinations (etc Red path Green choices, Green path Red choices)

The only time this happens is when you take the red path, and go 'Red, Green, Red, Green' for your choices, I think. The song just has a much more happy/hopeful tone to it, I wanted to share!! Now I need to scour the rest of the game looking for secret versions tucked away in specific paths 😂

Do you guys know any other special paths like this? I'd love to hear all these amazing, alternate versions of songs!!!

I'm a little annoyed this game isn't more popular, and doesn't have a full reddit of other people just as in love with this game 😔😔😔

[stinkbug]

The way the songs work is one of the first three dialogue choices (varies by song) will decide the song you are listening to. For example, choosing green first in Apollo's song will play 'Phantom Pains: Thousands of Years' (the best one), whereas choosing red plays 'Phantom Pains: The Next Thing'. From there all the dialogue colors are relative to the song you've chosen rather than being their own path.

For example, if you choose a more somber version of a song the kickass dialogue choices will still be somber, just kickass compared to others. So for any song you can find out which dialogue choice chooses the song you're listening to (there is a guide in the game's community hub for Maestro achievement that will tell you) then continue to choose based on words rather than colors to find out how it changes the song and story.

Each song has 3 versions (besides Aphrodite's having 8) and will play out based off of the dialogue choices made after the one that sets the song. In your case, you chose 'Phantom Pains: The Next Thing' which is the version of the song focusing on moving on. Then by alternating between green and red you were switching between the choices that show him compassion and urge him to keep moving and not let his past ruin his future. Which led to him being happy and driven by the end of your song.

TLDR:
After you make the dialogue choice to define what song you're hearing the characters respond pretty accurately to the words you say and you don't have to worry about color when trying to find 'secret' paths in songs.

[tyrianheart]

To add on to what humphrey already explained so well - most songs have 3 versions ie 3 main themes you can explore and then change but aside from The Ritual, The Throne also has more than 3. For The Throne you actually have 5 main themes/song versions you can choose from and then mix and match to your heart's content. One is decided in the first choice (you get 3 different options here) and the second is based around your answer to Orpheus' question (only 2 real options here because the Clever one only leads to Orpheus showing off, not to a new theme being explored). Once you've chosen your two themes these then criss-cross across the song and make for different experiences and endings. Of course, also based on what you decide to do with the throne itself.

Another song that is way more complex than it may look at first sight is Challenging a Queen. Here you do have those main 3 themes but the choices connect and influence each other in SO many different ways that you can get very and I mean VERY different songs if you experiment a little. For example the first choice influences the second here but it also influences the third AND the fifth. The third is interlinked with the fourth and sometimes the first choice in combination with those fourth and fifth choices leads to a completely different ending. I might be missing something because I'm still in the process of picking this particular song apart but suffice it to say it is definitely complex. And if you want to have an idea of how complex, well, it has 17 (17!!!) different endings you can achieve by making different choices combinations.