After releasing his debut studio album Worlds (2014), a deviation from his earlier, aggressive sound, Robinson struggled to create a follow-up; he underwent a period of writer's block that was intensified by depression.

Porter Robinson was initially known for his aggressive electro and complextro sound, with releases such as the 2010 single "Say My Name" and the 2011 extended play (EP) Spitfire.

He became highly fixated on the EP and devoted large quantities of time to making it; his passion supplanted his feeling that he should focus on projects with commercial potential, which he believed Virtual Self did not have.

[7][9] In particular, he became "obsessed" with the general feel of the early 2000s present in The Matrix (1999), DeviantArt visuals, forum signatures, and rhythm game backgrounds.

[13] Robinson wanted to combine the idea of "cyber, sensibility, technology" from that time—which he felt was associated with the "Eastern European vibe" given by grunge, Linkin Park, and t.A.T.u.—with "the sense of magic", which he related to the Final Fantasy franchise and the video game Phantasy Star Online (2000).

[7] Robinson also cited influences from a design trope in digital abstract art of the year 2000 "where people would put tiny text everywhere—little floating sentences that are partially blurry and transparent.

[12] According to Robinson, he listened to "every" song from 1998 to 2003—a number he claimed to approach 100,000—tagged as trance, jungle, drum and bass, breaks, and techno on Beatport.

[7] Robinson had to research how to authentically recreate sounds from PC Music's "hyper-modern, complex productions", by looking into early 2000s sample packs.

[7] However, he also stated that he did not want Virtual Self to be exclusively made of references; he tried to include compositional turns that would not be expected in the genres and time period to which he was paying homage.

[7] As such, while still using mostly early 2000s sounds, Robinson also tried to implement modern song structures,[7] stating that he wanted to "morph 2001 tropes into a 2017 production sensibility".

[7] The EP begins with the Technic-Angel track "Particle Arts", which Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork described as "a 175-BPM juggernaut of trance stabs and happy-hardcore breaks".

[19] The next track is Pathselector's "Ghost Voices", which combines deep house and trance elements[19] while, according to Kat Bein of Billboard, having "soulful, halftime garage vibes".

[17] The trance-like "Eon Break"[19] ends the EP with "a break-neck, glittering, happy-hardcore tune", according to Bein,[22] while Sherburne felt it "deals in hardstyle cadences and machine-gun snares".

[17] On October 25, 2017, Robinson released the EP's first single, "Eon Break", announcing his then-new alias Virtual Self via his Twitter page.

[34] Kat Bein of Billboard described the Virtual Self alias as "high concept musical nerdiness" with a strong Final Fantasy influence and that the entire EP "plays like a killer soundtrack to the best mid-2000s RPG Nintendo forgot to release".

Sherburne finished his review by saying that Virtual Self's revamp on trance meant "the boundaries of taste are always in flux" and that, in the end, "nostalgia will rehabilitate even the shaggiest underdogs.

"[17] Andrew Rafter of DJ Mag praised Robinson for experimenting with new influences and sounds, but lamented that some of the tracks didn't fully meet his expectations.

[35] In an interview with the same magazine published in February 2018, DJ Calvin Harris stated that "Ghost Voices" made him enjoy dance music again.

In a statement to Billboard in January 2019, Robinson said he had not even realized "Ghost Voices" had been submitted for consideration; being nominated made him feel like he won.