a_lilian asked for a link to that Zelda song I posted on stream yesterday and I thought: Why not make it a thread about video game soundtracks in general?
I thought about my favorite pieces of music from various games and here's what I came up with.
(I tried to limit myself to one or two tracks per franchise. Picking favorites is hard!)
Zelda:
Arcanum:
Turrican:
Unreal:
Deus Ex:
Gubble:
The Sims:
Evil Twin:
Fable:
Icewind Dale:
Harry Potter:
Feel free to share your favorites.
Ok, I have talked about “If Found…” a dozen of times here, but there is this one song called High Cost of Living that is just fantastic, but some context is necessary.
In the game this song is written and performed live by a band composed of 3 teenagers/young-adults, they all fled their homes due to problems related to LGBTQ+ hate and are now living in a squat, and there is just something magical about hearing some trash rock being played by a youth angered at society.
Like this music, it almost doesn’t have lyrics except for the occasional “HIGH COST OF LIVING” and it feels so rustic… It’s such a cathartic experience, you don’t really need to say anything else for this music to make sense, like… Hell yeah! Living DOES have a high cost and IT SUCKS and IT ANGERS me, and my only outlet is head-banging to some Trash Rock!
https://youtu.be/-0qlgvsQ9_o?si=6VaPDuF2kwSKnCLb BROO FORCEE
Celeste:
Celeste Strawberry Jam (a massive mod to the game, this deserves a separate category I swear):
The Messenger:
BallisticNG:
You’ve hit a special interest of mine! :)
I like a lot of video game music, but I’ll use my time to put a small spotlight on the music from an obscure Japanese computer architecture some of you may be familiar with: the PC-98.
Though a lot of the content on the system is more of the “adult” variety, it was the start of many game series and developers who are still around to this day (e.g. Corpse Party, Touhou, many VN’s, etc.) The music of the architecture is probably some of (if not the best) FM synthesis you’ll hear, especially if your a fan of City Pop or dark and moody synths. I’ll leave a few suggestions here, but unfortunately, a lot of it is now somewhat lost due to the takedown of the YouTube channel AccelJoe who archived a lot of it:
One place that has a lot of PC-98 Music is Zophar’s Domain, if anyone wants to do a little more digging. There is also the Sharp X68000, which has very similar musical specs if anyone want to look into that as well.
hollow knight:
(literally the entire soundtrack that game is AMAZING)
mantis lords fight
animal crossing wild world:
the roost
the last of us:
main theme
tears of the kingdom:
light dragon
disco elysium:
martinaise district theme
fatum betula:
drifting
cherry daydream
splatoon:
calamari inkantation 3mix
Recently I’ve been playing Persona 5, which is one of the most stylish games I’ve ever seen. Part of what’s cool about it is that it has a really excellent soundtrack, featuring both some serious bangers and some more mellow and laid back songs to vibe to. All of it is in a jazzy style that feels very Noir.
Bangers:
Rivers in the Desert (Cover by Lollia & Sleeping Forest)
Last Surprise
Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There
Downtempo:
Beneath the Mask - Rain
Confession/Secret
No More What Ifs
Oh, and several of these were then edited by Silvagunner to incorporate parts of other popular songs, often in ways that made them even better:
Life Skrill Change
Confession/Secret vs. Billie Eilish
No More What Ifs vs. Lovers Rock (Sade)
Nice, never really took any interest before in Persona music outside of some things from the first game overheard during a let’s play. Liked the downtempo stuff more, so I’ll recommend the Ecco the Dolphin Sega CD OST. It’s a bit samey after a while, but it’s still some great ambient synth (I almost purchased a copy of the game just to have the official CD to listen to [an interesting byproduct of early CD games]).
I feel like the Sega CD OST is a good addition to the regular Genesis/Mega Drive OST, but some of the original compositions are just too iconic to not mention: The Lagoon and Ice Zone being my favorites.
I like the ice zone music! I feel like music from ice zones is always great.
Here’s a couple more:
Sisters of Snow Dissent (Epic Battle Fantasy)
Ice Cap Zone (Sonic The Hedgehog)
The City Must Survive (Frostpunk) (well, technically the whole game is an ice zone, but this is the boss storm music)
This is the background music on loop 24/7.
If I’m not listening to music, this is playing in the background of my thoughts.
It’s like a computer process that can’t be killed
But sometimes this one can take over for a bit.
There isn’t an escape, but it doesn’t bug me much.
Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I hit post I suddenly remembered a dozen more songs I could have included.
I’ll just mention one company: Infogrames, a French video game publisher.
Back in the 90s they made a bunch of licensed games for Franco-Belgian comics. Those always had good music.
My favorites:
oh man, hidden village is a real blast from the past. I still remember that section of twilight princess
Of these I like WASTE3, Botox Forever, Very Very Rich Town, and the Kuldahar theme.
I know most of this Celeste music, incl. the Strawberry Jam stuff, but In Saturn’s Rings stands out to me from this, it’s smooth and fluid
@rest_ashamed
Out of the earlier-posted stuff, the thudding bass on the Possessioner opening really stands out to me. It’s got a deep oppressive atmosphere that’s super cool.
@catankitty
Mantis Lords fight is great, yeah, and the Roost theme threw me immediately into nostalgialand. calamari inkantation is also a certified banger
@zqlk
how the heck does a smurfs game have music this good???
It goes really well with the intro cinematic as well, showing off a cyberpunk 2035 Tokyo and the impressive graphical capabilities of the system. Too bad it’s an “adult” visual novel (from what I hear) like much of the rest of the PC-98 library.
quietly places the entire OST of Night in the Woods on the table.
disc 1 | disc 2
also, TWEWY! i had no clue what they were saying in half of the songs growing up (including Twister, Calling, OOParts, etc.) through a combination of the DS sound card and me emulating it to avoid parental supervision tehe
and there’s already quite a bit of Persona music here, but Memories of You to cap off my first playthrough was such a hard punch to the feelings…
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and a few more from that era also have really good music, but i can’t think of a specific tune off the top of my head at the moment.
I’ve always liked the Metal Gear Solid games’ soundtracks, but MGS 3’s title theme, Snake Eater, is genuinely amazing.
Greetings! Allow me to share a few of my favourite songs, of varying vibes.
Currently I am playing through “Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth”, an oft overlooked spin-off title of the Persona series. The game features the casts of characters from Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, and one character from Persona 3 Portable. Each of these entries has a different singer associated with them, who sung the songs for their respective games in their original release. In this crossover, these singers return, and perform a song together. Notably, this song has 3 versions. The first includes only the singer from Persona 5, Lyn, as you are only able to access the cast from Persona 5 at the beginning of the game. However, as you acquire the cast members from previous games, the song is slowly built upon until the full version is complete! The slow buildup as you progress through the game makes this already fantastic song even better. It is a rather upbeat song. Please give the full version a listen.
Cinematic Tale - Full Version - Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth
The second song I’d like to introduce is from the “Nier” series. It is the theme of Kainé, a party member in the first entry of the series. This song has many variations, here I have chosen to post the more tension-filled “Escape” version. Feel free to listen to it.
【ニーアレプリカント ver.1.22 BGM】カイネ ／ 逃避 ｜ NieR Replicant ver.1.22 OST - Kaine / Escape
I have many songs from Final Fantasy XIV I could link, but I would like to show off “Dedicated to Moonlight” here. It is a song that, in universe, is meant to be a prayer to the Moon goddess, Menphina, who, apart from representing the moon(s) of FFXIV, also is the goddess of love. This love, however, is not strictly romantic. Menphina does not discriminate! Please give it a listen if you get the chance.
“Dedicated to Moonlight” (Menphina Theme) with Official Lyrics | Final Fantasy XIV
The last song I’d like to post is from a visual novel, which is not strictly considered a game, however, this is my reply so I make the rules. Thank you for understanding. The song is named “The End of the World”, and it is from the visual novel “Umineko: When They Cry (Answer Arcs)”. It is a beautiful song that plays when the detective chooses to save the one who needs help the most. Please give it a listen if you wish.
I could post more, however, I will refrain for now. My next post will likely detail some more obscure games. Please look forward to it. Thank you for reading!
Trying to fall asleep when this pops in my head. Oh, the memories
I love pajama sam and the other humungous entertainment games! My family had to get a home computer with a disc drive for these. When I wasn’t digging around the computer’s settings changing cursors and icons (which was a decent amount of the time I spent on that thing) I would be trying to speedrun pajama sam: no need to hide when it’s dark outside, hunting for those damn socks