Music in Video Games

If you ever felt sadness during a sad cutscene or overcome by a rush of adrenaline in a really intense gameplay section, then chances are the music that's playing in the background helped building up the atmosphere quite a bit.

I found myself listening to a lot of video game music and part of it is definitely due to better access to these tracks thanks to Youtube, Steam, or sometimes even the games themselves through ingame menus or bonus CDs. It's even up to the point where I stopped caring completely about mainstream music. {XD}

Some of my favorites include Chrono Cross, Castle In The Darkness, Final Fantasy 6 and Shovel Knight.

What are some of your favorite games in terms of OST and what tracks could you hear over and over again?

My favorite has to be the soundtrack to Black Mesa Source. I can't do it justice explaining why I like it, but it captures the spirit and mood of the game very well, be it a dark underground corridor or fighting the military in the desert sand.

Probably far cry 3 and Sonic generations

I would have to say that my favorite games when it comes to OSTs are the Silent Hill games. They have always been my favorites and I almost always listen to them. There are so many from the songs that I really like, and it would take me a long while to say all of them, but I especially listen to the ones with vocals on it since I'm a huge fan of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, as well as every song from Silent Hill 2, and a few of the background songs for the games.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, Chrono Cross probably redefined what I desired in video games. It undoubtedly nurtured my love for video game music so it'll probably always keep the top spot for me. That being said, I'm a big fan of the SRW series, Wild ARMs, Ys, Xenogears, Lufia II, Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 and any Nishiura Level-5 composed game, in terms of music.

Trails in the Sky SC and Ao no Kiseki stand at the top of of my list by a far margin. Plenty of variety littered throughout, and there isn't any hesitation to bust out a rocking violin (I.E Silver Will and Inevitable Struggle), all of which fulfill my criteria. In general, Falcom Sound Team jdk usually create my ideal soundtracks, haha. So, in turn, I adore the OSTs from Zwei, Ys, Xanadu, etc as well.

For non-Falcom related songs, Xenoblade and Xenosaga Episode I's soundtrack are an absolute joy to listen to. A lot of the Dept. Heaven and Sting games in general, have some great OST, I still hum Yggdra's Sortie every now and then, haha. Fire Emblem's actual quality may be wavering here and there, but at least the consistency in the soundtrack is still there. I love most of Yuzo Koshiro's work. Honestly, there are far too many composers and OST, to be able to list them all.

Meloetta said:

Also, a special mention is going to Tales of Zestiria's four temple themes. That game was disgraceful, but the quality of its soundtrack was a cut above its peers; even some of Symphonia's better tracks would have trouble competing with this in my opinion. Sakuraba really outdid himself with these themes, after years of recycled mediocrity in the OST department.

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Except, Sakuraba didn't have a hand in the temple themes. All the credit for those compositions go to Go Shiina.

Whenever I think of Favorite Soundtracks or music I immediately think of Sonic The Hedgehog CD. Supposedly there are 2 OST's for CD, so my favorite is the Japanese version. Stardust Speedway is my favorite track in any Sonic Game, Sonic Team may be terrible at making games, but they always deliver quality music. Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 backs that claim up.

At the moment i'm playing through Tales of Zestria for the first time, even though I hate the game, the OST on the other hand is something that stays in my mind. Specifically the temple themes which are by far the best songs in the game, and the theme of Zaviida. Other than that most of the OST is sadly not onto par.

NieR is definitely another game I think of, which also has one of my favorite battle themes of all time. Kaine Salvation and Emil Karma being my favorite OST's in the game. This game picked me up after experiencing the tragedy that is Final Fantasy 13. It's a great OST.

Before getting into Sonic, I grew up with Eiyu Densetsu and basically all of the Falcom Games, like Ys and the Kiseki series. Zero no Kiseki Evolution is probably my favorite of the Falcom OST's. It's great, especially the rearrangement of Get Over The Barrier, which I suggest listening to, it's the main theme of the game in battle version basically. I also love Sora no Kiseki SC's OST. Unfortunately I just bought Evolution and they messed up a lot of my favorite songs including "Looking Up at the Sky"

My first Playstation 2 game was Xenosaga, which one of my favorite PS3 games, my favorite being Tales of Symphonia or Shadow of The Colossus. I'm a huge fan of the Xeno Series and their music, it's always almost flawless. Xenoblade Chronicles brought in the sacred hand of Yoko Shimomura for the main theme, and the rest of the OST is godlike. I ean Xenoblade Chronicles is almost at the top list of my favorite games, and ost's ever. The Story and music fit so perfectly together. Especially Engage The Enemy with the cutscene at the bottom of Valak Mountain. Unfinished Battle during the only time it plays,Refugee Camp, this OST is flawless,

I had finally got my hands on Xenoblade Chronicles X for a month, and I don't see what the fuss is all about with the OST. I personally love most of the tracks, seriously Sawano did better than I thought he was going to do, and i'm happy about that. If you haven,t just listen to these tracks: NO EX01, MONOX, Mira, Oblivia(Day), Sylvalum(Night), Noctilum(Day and Night), The Way, Uncontrollable, ZField. It's a great OST to listen to while playing through such an expansive game, as good as Xenoblade Chronicles OST? No, but it's great for the tone and feeling of X.

One thing Final Fantasy still does right is it's music. As much as I despise the Final Fantasy 13 Series I do like a couple of the songs like Sabers Edge and Eclipse Aggressive. Some of my old FF OST's being 8 and 6.

Some good mentions are the Kingdom Hearts 2 and Dream Drop Distance OST, Beat The Angel from Tales of Symphonia, Life or Death from Tales of Xillia.

Chrono Trigger is probably my favorite OST. I can't think of a single tune that annoys me or that I dislike. I love it so much, I went out of my way to get a physical set of the soundtrack. I listen to it in my car fairly often, as well. While the songs are standout all the way through, some of my favorites are more towards the end, like World Revolution, Ocean Palace, Zeal Palace...just amazing.

Before CT knocked it out of its throne, my favorite OST was Twilight Princess', which I'll thankfully have a copy of soon enough. But the atmospheric dungeon themes are what really pulls me in. TP, out of all Zelda games, has the most dungeons and they all stand out in aesthetics as well as music. Plus all the bosses get amazing themes too. Fyrus, who isn't even that difficult of a boss, has one of my favorite themes in the game. And how the music in boss fights shifts when you attack them? Amazing. It really makes you feel heroic, like what you're doing is helping.

Nakasu said:

At the moment i'm playing through Tales of Zestria for the first time, even though I hate the game, the OST on the other hand is something that stays in my mind. Specifically the temple themes which are by far the best songs in the game, and the theme of Zaviida. Other than that most of the OST is sadly not onto par.

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I couldn't agree with this more. I don't outright hate the game, but I have some less than popular opinions on it. Regardless, the soundtrack is the most standout part about this game. I feel like it's a huge step up compared to other Tales games OSTs, that I have played of course. Haha, I was actually coming in here to talk about this OST, but you beat me to that front. Zaveid the Exile is my absolute favorite song in this game. Earth and Wind Trial are great as well, and so is Rising Up. The opening is astounding as well...er, the Japanese one. I'm not super happy they took out the lyrics to White Light for everyone else, but OKAY.

We'll just call that my top three and settle it there. I could go on and on about video game soundtracks. I listen to them a lot. And by the way, we do have a dubtrack room to listen to VG songs and such if anyone ever wants to stop by sometime.

Favourite Video Game Soundtracks

One of my all time favourite video game soundtracks is the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 soundtrack. Let me tell you what, this ost is hip-hop happenin' with some jive grooves that make me wanna move.

When it comes to games that I like based on OST, I tend to think in terms of who composed the music.
So some of my favorites include the following:

Halo OST (composed by Martin O'Donnell)
Final Fantasy IV OST (composed by Nobuo Uematsu)
Mass Effect OST (composed by Jack Wall)
Assassin's Creed OST (composed by Jesper Kyd)
Skyrim OST (composed by Jeremy Soule)

Getting on the hype train here and just gonna say the Undertale soundtrack blew my mind when I was playing it. <3

Also, I have all of the Splatoon music in my phone. Not ashamed. :)