Perfect Insanity

“Border of Insanity” by Shōji Meguro is a song you’d probably never listen to casually. You might enjoy the melodic rhythm of the percussion at first. It might even give you goose bumps. But then the piano and drums flare up and nearly rupture your eardrums, raging for twenty painful seconds until suddenly the song returns to the same few melancholy notes of the intro, which repeat for nearly a minute. The song feels empty, and it’s difficult to enjoy listening to it on its own. But when played in its proper context, “Border of Insanity” chills to the bone, and shines as a genius work of video game music.

In the blockbuster game, Persona 4, “Border of Insanity” starts up when the player confronts the boss of a level. The melodic piano plays behind the dialogue exchanged between the characters and the boss, creating a sense of unease. The brilliance of the song comes in how the repeat of only a few notes perpetuates the dread.

Meguro designed this segment to last as long as it took for the player to progress through the dialogue – be it five minutes or an hour – always looping those notes seamlessly. The never-ending loop keeps the player on the edge of madness.

When the fight is about to begin, the crescendo feels more in place since it mirrors the rage of the boss monster. It matches the dynamic of the game, to ensure that the player feels the right emotion – in this case, excitement – at the right time. But outside the game, it’s merely noise.

A few days ago, I sat down with a few friends and asked them to listen to “Border of Insanity.” They sat there, quiet for the first half of the song. But after the first crescendo, one of my friends said, “This sounds like something that would be good for an action movie or a video game.”

When the song ended, I asked everyone what they thought. They all agreed that it sounded like background music, not an independent song. And so I asked, “Would you ever listen to this song again?”

Everyone said no. No one would want to hear this music without context. But I’ve heard plenty of people listen to the Halo theme, and they’ve never played the game.

Certain music works outside of its game. “Still Alive” from Portal 2, “Suketi da ne” from Final Fantasy X, and even “Never More” from Persona 4 can all be listened to on their own, but not “Border of Insanity.” Those songs are meant for cutscenes or credit sequences. They have a calculated length, and so they are written more like movie tracks. When played in the game, they still create the desired mood, but they’re not strictly great video game music, just great music.

“Border of Insanity,” because it doesn’t work outside its game – because it was written to change and match the dynamic on screen – is a great work of video game music. It may be a crazy tune, but that craziness makes one perfect song.