Izuka

• Name: Beautiful Ruin (Summer Salt)
• Composer: Masafumi Takada
• Game: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
• Mood: Summer, Relaxing

The Danganronpa series is now a well-known game series in the visual novel universe. Mostly known for featuring eccentric high school students trying to survive in a killing game (please don't try this at home) set up by the most sadistic of all teddy bears Monokuma, it also features an incredibly huge variety of songs that can set the mood from pure calm and relaxing moments to absolute despair. 「Beautiful Ruin (Summer Salt)」 tends in the first direction, accompanying the player while he's walking around an abandoned "paradise" island. A great track to listen to set the mood during summer times, hoping that your well-deserved holidays won't end up being like the life of those poor high schoolers.

• Name: Surfing on a Sine Wave
• Composer: Fearofdark
• Mood: Happy, Motivational, Jazzy

When it comes to electronic and chiptune music, Fearofdark is a reference I love to get back to. While this song has been originally created in 2010, this version is out of the remastered Motorway album Fearofdark released in 2021, described by the author in those words:

The jazz and funk grooves composed with changing times and new adventures in mind, taking inspiration from the fact of moving away from home, and being away from family for the first time in life.

This is the kind of tune I like to listen to when I wanna enter a "today I'll get stuff done while dancing and being happy" mood. I feel like riding a car towards the future, surfing on this sine wave.

• Name: All That Can Wait
• Composer: Chris Geehan & Dan Byrne McCullough
• Game: Iji
• Mood: Sad, Nostalgic, Melancholic

Iji is a really interesting Indie title debating about the extent to which a race could go to survive in this world, even if it means hurting others. While the game is short, the messages it leaves are really powerful.

The game has mostly nothing happy for it, it's sad from beginning to end. In all this despair, 「All That Can Wait」 is a piece that invites the player to a pause, a sad yet melancholic break in all the hells the main character is going through in the game. It's simple yet beautiful.

• Name: Secure!
• Composer: Takayuki Negishi
• Anime: Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
• Mood: Motivation, Success, You can do anything

Cardcaptor Sakura has always been a nostalgic favorite of mine for its just overall magical and cute universe. I was always looking forward to which new card would appear in the episode and how Sakura and her friends would be able to catch it.

Many people would immediately recognize the original anime's capture themes, but I love what Takayuki Negishi did with the OST of the newer manga arc called Clear Card.

「Secure!」 yet again perfectly accompany this moment where Sakura will use all her determination and extremely powerful let's not lie to ourselves magic potential to secure a new card. A perfect song to listen to when you're aiming for the finish line.