Lo-Fi Games

Either their own theme song, or something added to the ambient layer...

Like the Sephiroth theme song when you fight the Leviathan. Except they'd say "Leviathan" in place of Sephiroth.

As long as it has an option to disable. Personally I'm not a huge fan of background themes/scores playing in specific situations. I like the background music that Kenshi has but that's enough for me.

would kinda ruin the surprise of finding a Leviathan or a pack of dogs coming around the corner.
music would forewarn you of their coming.
Not sure i like the idea of themed music for each type of fight either. prefer the standoffishness of the current score of if you're working or in battle. it does its own thing as you do your's.

How can a pack of noisy dogs, or a giant desert elephant beetle, sneak?

Granted, what would be cool all to hell, is if we did autopsy's on them, and discovered that they evolved to be sneaky, that would be cool..

but have the music kick in when we are a few meters from the animal

and when someone dies, play this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKdcjJoXeEY

This is on this theme so I want to put this here. How about the Leviathan makes the screen shake ever so slightly? Not like a big bad jump. But a barely perceptible hop. Like the T-Rex from jurrasic park. You'd just know one was around by every step of its colossal feet.

The most impressive music system i've seen in a game was one where the music was dynamic based on variables that would indeed put the player in suspense.. I cannot give you an example, as I don't recall the game I saw it in (i'll think about what it was... it's that "right on the tip of my tongue" thing)..

But it would be that you have different music types. There would ofcourse also be another music type for battle, but often times i recognized that when I was really focused on the battle, due to the difficulty, complexity, or something, making the battle difficult (often resulting in my failure or verge of failure), the music was this certain suspense-type music, rather than the normal music.

So, to put it into context of a kenshi, if you're in a situation where you've got a base, 8 crossbowmen on the walls, and a leviathan comes around the corner, and you just stand there watching as it gets filled with bolts, and the leviathan dies, it's not really a suspensful moment. In that dynamic system, the music would just seem normal. But if that leviathan trompled through your gate, and had downed 90% of your people, some of them have died, and you're down to two people remaining, trying desperately to finish off the leviathan before it kills them aswell, the music would be in high suspense..

But.. again.. if you've got one unit fighting the leviathan and not even struggling at all, then it would be normal calm combat music.

A dynamic suspense music system is absolutely amazing if done right.

I like when music fits situations. alot of anime are made 100 times better, same for movies. when the music matches the feel that the scene is supposed to inspire. it can be extremely hard to the point of being a for a lack of not knowing any word for it a "Genius Talent" because you'd have to be a musical genius to be able to match perfectly the music with the movement.

and the scenes themselves.

to me the background and the music is what brings the game to life . its what determines how long you play without background noise without the music. games tend to become boring and bland quite quickly. without the music, with out the background images/sounds. a movie where people are talking , would become the most boring thing ever. yet

if you add in the right music the right tone the right volume. you can take that other wise boring scene and make the audience feel moved. and inspired ,or saddened. you can make them outraged , or pacified.

its profound the effects the right audio can have.

I don't think animals should have there own 'theme' songs so much as they should have themes to match what they're doing.

if its just passing by with no intent of doing anything then there shouldn't really be anything to make you take notice.

if it starts pounding on your gate there should be some kind of alarm , along with music that speaks of potential desperation on your part. and it should as battles progress gradually change to a more heroic stand type sounding music.

Music to me is the most important aspect of a game its what captures you and keeps you playing. when the audio repeats to much. and becomes predictable its not always as good.