Favorite game soundtracks?

[Eldan]

Wrong thread.

[J-H]

All I know about Chrono Cross is that it's set something like 5 years later, and most of the characters from CT are dead and most of what they did has been rendered meaningless.

So, yeah...not interested.

[zlefin]

I also quite liked the music from Tales of Maj'eyal.

[Razade]

All I know about Chrono Cross is that it's set something like 5 years later, and most of the characters from CT are dead and most of what they did has been rendered meaningless.

So, yeah...not interested.

It's not said how long it takes place after (and really "after" in a game about time travel is iffy already) Chrono Trigger. All the game ever says is its the same world. It also doesn't do anything to render Chrono Trigger useless. The only thing it does do is explain where Schala went. That's literally its only connection to Chrono Trigger, along with some setting elements.

[danzibr]

All I know about Chrono Cross is that it's set something like 5 years later, and most of the characters from CT are dead and most of what they did has been rendered meaningless.

So, yeah...not interested.

It's not said how long it takes place after (and really "after" in a game about time travel is iffy already) Chrono Trigger. All the game ever says is its the same world. It also doesn't do anything to render Chrono Trigger useless. The only thing it does do is explain where Schala went. That's literally its only connection to Chrono Trigger, along with some setting elements.

Not to derail my own thread...

Admittedly, I played Chrono Cross when I was on the younger side. Like, 13 maybe. Took me a few attempts to beat it (lost interest early on). I was hoping for/expecting a game more like CT.

After the earlier talk on CC in this thread, and me admittedly bashing it, I thought alright I'll do some reading on CC. Gotta admit, plot-wise it's much better than young me realized.

Two threads on CT and CC tie-ins: link link.

I mean... I still prefer CT in (pretty much?) every way, but maybe at some point I'll give CC another playthrough.

[Yael]

Most Zelda music is great for whatever you're doing, from relaxing environmental tunes to epic-greatness orchestas and music. I absolutely love them, and tend to switch favorites from time to time (althouth Majora's Mask Orchestal Soundtrack is my absolute favorite), right now I just can't get Mipha's Theme from Age of Calamity out of my head, with Revali's being a close second.

Ace Attorney music is always nostalgic and great to listen to, but if a soundtrack has ever gotten my attention to the point of finding it and buying it, is The World Ends With You's. I adore that game's artstyle, gameplay, story and characters, but the music puts them all together, and makes the experience even better! Gotta say, Neku's got a good taste in music.

[Razade]

After the earlier talk on CC in this thread, and me admittedly bashing it, I thought alright I'll do some reading on CC. Gotta admit, plot-wise it's much better than young me realized.

It's still a convoluted mess with some parts that really really slough.

I mean... I still prefer CT in (pretty much?) every way, but maybe at some point I'll give CC another playthrough.

Don't get me wrong, as I'm the only one here really championing CC, I think CT as a game is much better than CC. Head and shoulders better. But this thread isn't about which is the better game. It's about our favorite video game soundtracks and I still believe CC has better music than CT by any metric and even if others don't agree, Time's Scar is still one of my favorite video game tracks of all time and that's all I was really posting to say.

[The Hellbug]

Many of the ones I like have already been mentioned (FF6, F-Zero X, Super Metroid), but I'm going to zero in on basically anything Supergiant has made. Transistor, Hades, and Bastion all have great music but the one that sticks with the most is Pyre--Darren Korb is phenomenal.

Also, don't know if it's just that I've been playing it a lot recently, but Slay the Spire's music sticks in my head these days, and Outer Wilds' soundtrack is, I would say, absolutely essential to how the emotional payoff worked for me in that game.

[Dire_Flumph]

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.

Nice to see the Quest for Glory love, I feel a bit less weird owning the soundtracks to IV and V.

Hard to narrow down just a few favorites, love the Elder Scrolls music, "Reign of the Septims" in particular.

For recent stuff the soundtrack for Persona 5 was just fantastic, though I blame it for getting "Beneath the Mask" stuck in my head.

I'll also end up playing "Tetris Effect" just to listen to the music.

Fallout, Zelda, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Bastion, a whole mess of Lucasarts classics...just so hard to choose....

[GloatingSwine]

It's not said how long it takes place after (and really "after" in a game about time travel is iffy already) Chrono Trigger. All the game ever says is its the same world. It also doesn't do anything to render Chrono Trigger useless. The only thing it does do is explain where Schala went. That's literally its only connection to Chrono Trigger, along with some setting elements.

It's set 20 years after the "present" of Chrono Trigger and all of the main characters of Trigger are unceremoniously done away with offscreen by ****ing Dalton.

[Lurkmoar]

It's set 20 years after the "present" of Chrono Trigger and all of the main characters of Trigger are unceremoniously done away with offscreen by ****ing Dalton.

Don't forget, Prometheus aka Robo, being deleted onscreen for no reason then to incite some reaction from the player. Someone who never played Chrono Trigger would likely be confused "Who the heck is this and am I supposed to care?". Someone that HAS played it would likely get annoyed or angry about it.

Oh, and to get back to the topic:

I would like to add Borderlands 2 to my list. Even though the music for Digipack Peak is very simple and loops quite a bit, I enjoy it a lot. Same with the rest.

[Saintheart]

No love for Witcher 3? Really? Perceval Schuttenbach contributed some absolutely gorgeous tracks to that, enough that it took about five minutes after the TV series came out for people to start putting up vids with game soundtracks over the (otherwise very ordinary) TV cues. And your heart is dead if the Kaer Morhen theme doesn't inspire you to play the game again, or go and play some D&D, or just go and climb a mountain somewhere.

[KillianHawkeye]

Chrono Cross was actually a great game that unfortunately was doomed to be compared to the best RPG of all time, Chrono Trigger. Everyone at the time expected CC to be CT2 and judged it accordingly, and it sort of was and it sort of wasn't. It mostly wasn't. And while I agree that the music was one of the strong points of Chrono Cross, it wasn't enough on its own because of course Chrono Trigger also had great music.

To this day, I use the term "the Chrono Cross effect" to refer to unfairly comparing something to its predecessors.

Like, I haven't played Mass Effect: Andromeda, but I would wager that its bad reviews are mainly caused by "the Chrono Cross effect", and that it would have gone over better if it just had been its own game and not been related to the Mass Effect trilogy at all.



My biggest complaint on Chrono Cross was that it just had too many characters. 40 playable characters, when a lot of them aren't very unique and it takes three playthroughs to unlock them all, is just too much. Final Fantasy 3/6j only had 14 (at least two of whom were completely optional bonus characters with no story), and that's the most they've ever tried in a main line Final Fantasy game as far as I know. (I haven't played FF12 or FF15 or any of the MMO versions, so maybe I'm in the wrong.)

But getting back to the musical discussion, the biggest weakness of the Chrono Cross soundtrack is also the lack of character theme songs. Because obviously they couldn't do theme songs for 40 characters. But that just made the characters that much more forgettable. Chrono Trigger had unique songs for each character. Final Fantasy games have theme songs for each character. That's a pretty important part of the music for an RPG, and Chrono Cross completely missed it.

[Brother Oni]

Most of the Supergiant games that I've played (Bastion, Transistor).
The Banner Saga
Doom Eternal (not played the game, just like heavy metal)

[Razade]

Like, I haven't played Mass Effect: Andromeda, but I would wager that its bad reviews are mainly caused by "the Chrono Cross effect", and that it would have gone over better if it just had been its own game and not been related to the Mass Effect trilogy at all.

Doubtful, considering the majority of reviews were bad because it was a buggy mess that was created by the B-Team of Bioware so they could work on Anthem. It having a weaker story and being compared to the trilogy really didn't enter into it considering just how badly broken it was at launch and how much of a buggy mess it still is.

[warty goblin]

Doubtful, considering the majority of reviews were bad because it was a buggy mess that was created by the B-Team of Bioware so they could work on Anthem. It having a weaker story and being compared to the trilogy really didn't enter into it considering just how badly broken it was at launch and how much of a buggy mess it still is.

The irony being that, for all Andromeda's vast mediocrity it's still way, way better than Anthem.

[MinimanMidget]

Everyone talking about Chrono Trigger, but no love for Golden Sun?

[Razade]

The irony being that, for all Andromeda's vast mediocrity it's still way, way better than Anthem.

A dead fish between two moldy buns would be better than Anthem so not a high bar really. Bioware as a company is dead, especially with the recent people leaving. EA does that though. They buy popular, well regarded studios and then instead of promoting and allowing them to keep doing what they were doing to get popular with more money they force them to follow a hideous corporate doctrine that is all but universally reviled because they know they can still make record sales. Which I blame on the general gaming populace. We could all tank EA if we just decided to stop their objectively predatory anti-consumer practices buy not buying their games but instead people shell out for the regurgitation of the same football game they've been making since 1999 while in the same breath complaining that Triple A games aren't as good as they used to be.

[Rockphed]

Homeworld (and, generally, its sequels) has an awesome sound.

[KillianHawkeye]

Everyone talking about Chrono Trigger, but no love for Golden Sun?

I played that game a super long time ago and unfortunately don't remember the music at all. I vaguely recollect that it was a good game.

[Zevox]

Golden Sun definitely has some good music. Venus Lighthouse is a probably my personal favorite.

[Grif]

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

Spoilers in all of those links.

Seconding this, though he did have a wealth of prior titles to draw on as well.

[yohayemo]

[DanswordMaia]

"Killing in the Name" (Rage Against the Machine)

[Vorenus]

I find it interesting that nobody has mentioned any of the Dark Souls trilogy. Here's the thing about the Dark Souls trilogy's musical score: It is beautiful. Here's the other thing: Most of the game does NOT have background music. There are generally one or two areas in a game that have ambient background music, and then other than that the only time you hear music is during the boss battles. And the music in the boss battles is quite simply amazing. If you have Spotify, I recommend creating a play list that has the original musical score for all of the Dark Souls games plus Bloodborne.

[The Hellbug]

Everyone talking about Chrono Trigger, but no love for Golden Sun?

Oooh, yeah, that was a good one. (Though I admit that was my 'middle school jrpg' so may produce an amount of nostalgia)

[DanswordMaia]

I forgot to add this legendary track (G.T.A Main Theme Song)

[thirsting]

Carmageddon II had amazing soundtrack that fit the game so well. Iron Maiden's greatest hits, essentially. I often played it just to listen the music.

[NeoVid]

The Guilty Gear series chief developer is a composer, and it shows.

[Grognardsw]

The Conan movie sound tracks are rousing backgrounds when playing my Hyborian 1e game.

With the ability of music services like Pandora and Amazon Prime Music to play “songs like”, one can stream all sorts of appropriate music and discover new albums and artists to give a deeper listen to.