A bullet-hell dueling game with a soundtrack that has no right being this beautiful. Maiden & Spell is a 2020 Windows indie gem where witches and maidens blast danmaku patterns at each other, and every stage theme sounds like it was composed for a fantasy cathedral.
Read more
"地下都の水道塔 ~ The Buried Capital Aqueduct" opens with haunting, echoing melodies that make you picture flooded ruins, while "輝きの都 ~ The Shining Crown" rises into something triumphant and crystalline. The bilingual track titles in Japanese and English give each piece a storybook quality.
"永遠の薇発条 ~ The Foreverwound Mainspring" is the kind of track that stops you mid-dodge to appreciate what you're hearing, mechanical and eternal and sad all at once. "小雨の図書館 ~ The Drenched Archives" turns a rainy library into one of the most atmospheric battle arenas in any indie game.
Then "towards the light, to the light." drops the dual-language naming convention entirely for a moment of pure, unguarded emotion. "宝石箱 ~ The Wyrm's Jewelbox" glitters with exactly the danger its name promises. The late-game tracks hit hardest.
"メイデン・アンダー・スペル ~ The Maiden Under Spell" is the climactic battle theme that ties the whole experience together, and "真・マグナス ~ A True Challenge" delivers on that name with intense, layered composition. The two ending tracks, "An Ending" and "Another Ending," suggest a story with more than one conclusion.
"君を待つ ~ Waiting on You" sits quietly between them like a breath held too long. Genuinely one of the most overlooked indie soundtracks of 2020.