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The Soundtrack Update — 2026-07-03

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@mtklein mtklein released this 03 Jul 20:11
2026-07-03-soundtrack
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A GBA demake of Baldur's Gate 3's Nautiloid prologue in the style of Final Fantasy IV. This update is (mostly) about the music.

To play: load nautiloid.gba in any GBA emulator (mGBA recommended), a flashcart, or Delta on iOS. On the title screen, press SELECT to open the jukebox.

An 11-track jukebox
The soundtrack grew into a small album, each track written in a specific idiom by a dedicated composer:

  • Kind of Azure — modal jazz, cut the Kind of Blue way (four players tracked their parts without hearing each other).
  • Gaia — the movement Holst never wrote for The Planets, complete with a 5/4 heartbeat and a Jupiter-style hymn.
  • Tadpole Twist — a Dick Dale surf instrumental; the square wave does the tremolo picking for real.
  • Under Selûne — a Faye Wong / "Eyes on Me" ballad. Press A on it in the jukebox for synced karaoke lyrics.
  • Baldur's Bossa — a João Gilberto seaside bossa, one held note drifting over a walking harmony.
  • Draw Steel! — the battle theme, reborn as Daft Punk four-on-the-floor house.
  • Commander Zhalk — the boss theme, reborn as System of a Down: drop-tuned chug, odd meters, and the mind flayer's clean croon cutting through the chaos.
  • Plus an enriched Prelude and the original score (Fleshy Halls, Victory, The Long Fall).

Audio fix: the ROM now initializes SOUNDBIAS, so sound plays on real hardware, flashcarts, and VBA-M-based emulators (including Delta on iOS) — not just mGBA.

Every release is verified end-to-end: scripted playthroughs for all four classes plus stealth/ambush scenarios, a counterpoint linter over every track, and a 247,702-check native test suite for the 5e rules core.

Includes content from the System Reference Document 5.1 / 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast, licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Non-SRD creatures are original homebrew stand-ins.

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