Favorite game soundtracks?

[danzibr]

(admittedly I play all my phone games on silent)

I was thinking recently, and maybe it's just me with my utter lack of musical talent, I take music in movies/shows and games for granted. I saw a poster once, something about life would be so much better if we had background music.

Then I was thinking... imagine watching your favorite movie or playing your favorite game with no music. I bet it would make a huge difference, one I didn't think about it, again me taking the music for granted. Well, except for music-based games.

Note there are at least 2 metric we can use here, either the music standalone, or the music integrating with the game.

With that said, I'll throw a couple out.

1) Hollow Knight. The entire thing. Sometimes I Youtube Hollow Knight soundtrack while I'm working. It's great music by itself, and really adds to the atmosphere of the game.
2) Undertale. A couple good ones, I really like Bonetrousle in particular. Music is good standalone. Overall works pretty well in game, but in particular the integration with Bergentrückung is AMAZING.
3) One of my favorite songs of all time is Eyes on Me by Faye Wong. Good standalone, lyrics relate to the game, but man it kind of fell flat for me with the Squall-Rinoa outer space thing.

[Whoracle]

The only Soundtracks that stick in my ears are those that both integrate with the game and are a pleasure listening to outside of the game. With that being said (in no particular order):

- Hollow Knight
- Morrowind
- Chrono Trigger
- Doom 2016/Doom Eternal (dunno if those deserve 2 distinct spots)
- Deadly Premonition
- Silent Hill
- Terranigma
- Guild Wars

These are the ones that I can mention off the top of my head, and that instantly get stuck in my ears just thinking about them.

[Cephor]

Quite a few stick out for me.

Stellaris
Dustforce
BATTLETECH
Skyrim

[J-H]

Mechwarrior 2
Chrono Trigger
Mega Man...many, mostly 2, 6, X.
Super Castlevania IV

[Lurkmoar]

Xenogears and Valkyrie Profile always stick out to me.

I still enjoy At Doom's Gate from the OG Doom too.

[The Glyphstone]

I still know most of the species themes from Ascendancy ny heart.

[Clertar]

Vampyr. That cello, man.

[DeTess]

In no particular order:
- Persona 3, 4 and 5. I haven't played 1 and 2, maybe they should be on there as well. I actually got into these games because of the music, and there's just so many great tracks on there, that are generally great to listen to stand-alone as well. If I had to pick one I'd probably pick 'beneath the mask', but it'd be an incredibly hard pick.
- final fantasy 14. I mean, the game has around 20-30 hours of music now? But there are so many great atmospheric tracks, as well as fantastic battle themes and the theme songs for the expansions are great too. Picking just one from this soundtrack is pretty much impossible, and changes with my mood, but to give a couple fo examples: This is the theme to the final boss (pre-post-launch contente) of the Shadowbringers expansion, while this is a great zone theme
- Aegis rim. This game has a great number of greatly atmospheric tracks for the story sections of the game to underpin the investigating and exploring you do, but the combat tracks are great too. There's also a great variety of the latter, with the boss fights having their own tracks that really set their individual moods. This is a nice example of a relaxing theme, while this one is a great boss theme.

[Zevox]

The Persona franchise is on top, no question in my mind. Whether its the mainline games (not counting 1 and 2) or the spin-offs (especially Persona 4 Arena), they always have fantastic music that goes amazingly well with the games. If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be Persona 4, and specifically Reach Out to the Truth, the main battle theme.

Other fantastic personal favorites: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the Bayonetta franchise, the Devil May Cry franchise, the BlazBlue franchise, and the Super Smash Brothers series (which is arguably cheating since it draws all of its music from other games, but oh well, it does do some new remixes as well). Oh, and Sonic the Hedgehog - the music's the only thing about that franchise that stayed good over time. At least, up until I last played it, which was.... Sonic Generations, I believe.

(Also, Hollow Knight, really? I'm surprised to see it mentioned, since I just played it, and I can't even remember the music. It apparently made no impression on me whatsoever. *shrug*)

[LibraryOgre]

Quest for Glory 1. Magic Meadow, the fight music, even the work theme. They even sounded good in MIDI.

[AlanBruce]

So many to choose from, but here’s my list:

Hollow Knight

RE: Code Veronica... the majority of the RE titles, really.

Bloodborne

Nier

Nier: Automata

Transistor

Legend of Zelda series

[PhoenixPhyre]

- final fantasy 14. I mean, the game has around 20-30 hours of music now? But there are so many great atmospheric tracks, as well as fantastic battle themes and the theme songs for the expansions are great too. Picking just one from this soundtrack is pretty much impossible, and changes with my mood, but to give a couple fo examples: This is the theme to the final boss (pre-post-launch contente) of the Shadowbringers expansion, while this is a great zone theme
[/URL].

This. I'm partial to almost all the FF music, but XIV has amazing music. I'm a sucker for the vocal ones. Especially Answers (in the Distant Worlds arrangement).

[KillianHawkeye]

Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 6
Mega Man X
Illusion of Gaia
F-Zero X
Castlevania "Symphony of the Night"
Lunar and Lunar 2



These are the best soundtracks that I remember from my teenage years. I'm not sure if newer games have less memorable music, or if I just don't remember them because I stopped having time to play a game over and over, but only older game music has stuck with me.

[Hunter Noventa]

Some of my favorites have already been mentioned. Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile, FFXIV, Symphony of the Night...

Going to add a few of course.

Final Fantasy Tactics has a great soundtrack that covers all the bases.
Chrono Trigger is amazing, and being by the same composer as Xenogears it ought to be.
Final Fantasy VII, both the original and the remake, are full of memorable tracks.
Front Mission 3 has a soundtrack that perfectly fits the constant giant robot fights, full of bombast and trumpets.
Pokemon Shield, for all its faults, has a killer soundtrack that does nothing but bop.

My absolute favorite though? Probably Xenogears on the top. You know stuff is about to go down when Emperor of Darkness starts playing, Knight of Fire gets you fired up for those boss fights. It nails every tone it needs to, from hopeful, to blood-pumping, to creepy, to downright sad or mournful.

[Corvus]

Got quite a few.

Top of the list is;

Morrowind
Mass Effect 1
Emperor of the Fading Suns
Age of Conan

[Razade]

I see a lot of Chrono Trigger here but not a lot of Chrono Cross which has, inarguably, a better sound track. Especially it's opening song. Time's Scar is without a doubt one of the greatest songs to come out of video games and I'll fight any person that would disagree.



The Persona series is another solid choice especially post 1/2. Anything that Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades) comes out with is on top as well. Supergiant Games does an astoundingly good job.

I haven't seen mention of Guilty Gear here however and that's a damn shame. Awe of She and Feel A Fear are absolute bangers, as are Holy Order (Be Just or be Dead) and Colors.

[danzibr]

Thanks for the responses! I've used them to spruce up my work music.

While listening to them... I mentioned Eyes on Me earlier, from FFVIII. I also really like The Man with the Machine Gun, and uhh, whatever song plays before Balamb Garden can float.

Also, @Zevox, there are some good Youtube videos on Hollow Knight music. Kinda sounds like you're not interested, but hey, if so, link (video 1 of 3).

[KillianHawkeye]

I see a lot of Chrono Trigger here but not a lot of Chrono Cross which has, inarguably, a better sound track.

I agree that Chrono Cross has great music (and it's the best part of the game), but I will argue this point. If for nothing else, because a lot of the music in Chrono Cross (including Time's Scar) is echoing themes from the Chrono Trigger soundtrack.

[veti]

I disagree with the basic premise that everything is better with music. There is way, way, WAY too much background music in the world today for my liking. And I play many games on silent. I really appreciate Fallout for giving me the option to just turn the damn radio off.

Having said that: I'm a fan of the music of Zelda, and Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim. But they all get pretty repetitive after a while. I wouldn't listen to them outside the games, not intentionally at least.

[Eldan]

Hollow Knight is a good suggestion. Especially the Hollow Knight bossfight theme is an absolute earworm to me.

Morrowind's main theme (Nerevar rising) is probably the best overall and the one I'll never forget.

Also, the Karaoke song in Disco Elysium is amazing. Both versions. I genuinely love the "bad" version.

[Hunter Noventa]

Just punching in for FFXIV again. Soken is a mad genius.

Spoilers in all of those links.

[LibraryOgre]

Morrowind's main theme (Nerevar rising) is probably the best overall and the one I'll never forget.

I like Obivion's Reign of the Septims... but I'm kinda surprised no one has mentioned Skyrim, given how ubiquitous the Song of the Dovakhin was for a while.

[Eldan]

I like Obivion's Reign of the Septims... but I'm kinda surprised no one has mentioned Skyrim, given how ubiquitous the Song of the Dovakhin was for a while.

It's a good song and was a fantastic trailer, but I think it suffers a bit for me because the game didn't have that many memorable moments.

[TaRix]

Sometimes I get to some head-bobbing at work with Crypt of the Necrodancer tunes. Perfect Dark had some good dynamic tracks for both intense and not-so-pressing times. All of the Katamaris Damacy are silly and Eastern, but I enjoy 'em (except for a specific few songs.) Konami made some great soundtracks in the SNES/16-bit era, too: Sparkster, Prince of Persia, any of the Castlevanias, and especially Axelay. More recently, Xenoblade Chronicles X and 2 let me leave the music on when I'm doing other things.

Just throwing out other stuff that no one else mentioned.

[zlefin]

Chrono trigger
Seiken Densetsu 3
really a whole lot of Nobuo Uematsu's work (squaresoft's music guy for a long time)



maybe Europa Universalis IV, to think of something more recent.

[danzibr]

I see a lot of Chrono Trigger here but not a lot of Chrono Cross which has, inarguably, a better sound track. Especially it's opening song. Time's Scar is without a doubt one of the greatest songs to come out of video games and I'll fight any person that would disagree.



The Persona series is another solid choice especially post 1/2. Anything that Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades) comes out with is on top as well. Supergiant Games does an astoundingly good job.

I haven't seen mention of Guilty Gear here however and that's a damn shame. Awe of She and Feel A Fear are absolute bangers, as are Holy Order (Be Just or be Dead) and Colors.

Not to be contrary, but I don't think *anything* about Chrono Cross is better. Not the plot, characters, art, or even the music (sorry).

Well, maybe the magic system.

I disagree with the basic premise that everything is better with music. There is way, way, WAY too much background music in the world today for my liking. And I play many games on silent. I really appreciate Fallout for giving me the option to just turn the damn radio off.

Huh, I never thought of that as some sort of basic premise. I've encountered some great uses of silence in media (and real life for that matter).

[Razade]

Not to be contrary, but I don't think *anything* about Chrono Cross is better. Not the plot, characters, art, or even the music (sorry).

Well, maybe the magic system.

It's ok, you're allowed to be wrong.

Chrono Cross gets a lot of hate, and I generally think it's unjustified. If it hadn't been a follow up to Chrono Trigger I think it would have been far better received. The character and battle mechanics are unique and deep, the plot up until it had to have Lavos was engaging even if it wasn't The Best Ever, and I'm sorry but the music is just way better than Chrono Trigger simply by merit of not being on the SNES music chip.

[warty goblin]

I still listen to the OG Halo soundtrack pretty regularly, it's excellent background for more intellectually challenging bits of math or coding. Christopher Tin's [ICalling All Dawns[/I] is fantastic if one is feeling in a more classical vein.

I'm not sure if they're good or not, but I'm pretty sure the soundtracks to Age of Wonders and Sacred are much inscribed on my brain. I played an absolute ton of AoW in particular back in the day - even beat the campaign, which was both long and very hard in places.

[Battleship789]

Starcraft, Diablo 2, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Warcraft 2 have amazing music. Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 soundtracks are also pretty good, though I'm not as fond of them (probably due to nostalgia).

The Kingdom Hearts series has some great original tracks mixed in with the classic Disney/Final Fantasy music.

I'll second Metal Gear Rising Revengeance's OST, especially the vocal tracks. DMC5's main theme is awesome, too.

[Rodin]

Quest for Glory 1. Magic Meadow, the fight music, even the work theme. They even sounded good in MIDI.

Also Quest For Glory IV. Particularly the Necrotaur and Chernovy fight music. Erana's Garden is a great update of the Magic Meadow theme too.

My other favorite soundtracks are Ghost Trick and Ace Attorney. I don't think those games would work without their soundtracks.