Mario Paint - Higurashi: When They Cry Medley

Описание: Track list:
1. 0:00 - You
2. 1:19 - Dancers #5
3. 2:34 - Digital Network
4. 3:40 - Boy in the Windmill
5. 4:56 - Dancers #1
6. 5:45 - Ancient Times
7. 6:42 - Frozen to Death
8. 8:11 - Fascism
9. 9:20 - Dawn

Another big Mario Paint Secret Santa project! Same as last year, I took the plunge into the OST of an unfamiliar game series, in this case the Higurashi visual novels that my recipient AlexGamingSW said they're a fan of. There's plenty of cool tunes, some funky, some atmospheric, some emotionally tense. Similarly to Overcooked, a lot of the OST seems to be in an odd limbo of being royalty-free music instead of being composed specifically for the game. But I think it works really well despite that, and there were a bunch of cool songs that caught my ear to potentially do for Secret Santa. And just like last year, I found myself thinking, there's so many great ones, who could pick just 1??

So here you have it: a big ol' 12-minute medley across a wide range of different styles and vibes (and a mish-mash of different entries in the series and points in time, since I'm pretty unaware of its continuity flow). My favorite part was the tricky puzzle of coming up with transitions between the themes without sounding too abrupt. I definitely should've started all of this sooner than 10 days before the deadline... but I'm still really satisfied with the result, and hope you enjoy it! It warmed my heart to hear Alex's positive reaction to it - it even made me maybe want to try seeking out the games to play for myself. I do love that early 2000s vibe (the portraits remind me of early Touhou), and I've enjoyed Doki Doki Literature Club (a similar creepy visual novel experience), so perhaps I'll add it to my ever-growing backlog.

It took Alex 3 guesses to figure out this was by me (an increase over last year when I got guessed in 1 try), and took me 2 to figure out who made the awesome song I received, AurenTheGuy (a decrease over last year when I took 6 guesses). Check out both of their channels to listen to some really cool and detailed compositions! 2025 was a beefy year for Mario Paint, both for myself (the most new Paints I've posted since the first year of my channel) and our ever-growing passionate community. Let's hope 2026 and beyond are even better!

AlexGamingSW's channel:
   / @alexgamingsw  

AurenTheGuy's channel:
   / @aurentheguy  

The full playlist for this year's Mario Paint Secret Santa (lots of great stuff here):
   • Mario Paint Secret Santa 2025  

As with all my music arrangements, everything was done by ear, no sheet music or MIDIs used.

Original soundtrack playlist (composed by Dai, Koji Kusanagi, and SB Yune):
   • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni VN Chronological...  

Image sources:
Album cover art: Jadice (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Wiki)
Mion: Sparkadillia (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Wiki)

Playlist of all my Mario Paint videos:
   • Mario Paint Composer  

Google Drive archive with my video thumbnails, music MP3s and other stuff:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Arrangement created 2025-11-30 to 2025-12-09
Video produced 2026-01-01

Programs used:
Audacity - Audio editing
Giant Mario Paint v1.4.3 - Song arranging
Inkscape - Thumbnail and lyrics layout
Magix Vegas - Video editing
OBS Studio - Video recording
Paint.net - Thumbnail and background graphics