24 replies to this topic

[Legendary Emerald]

First off, I did a search to see if a topic like this already existed, and it showed up negative... but I find that a bit hard to believe; if the mods want to merge this post with an existing topic, they should do so.

Anyways! Video game soudtracks! God, do I love them. When I was a wee child, the only music I would voluntarily listen to came from various game console's soundchips. While my tastes became more ecclectic as the years went on, I never stopped loving a good game soundtrack. And chances are, if you're on a website dedicated to videogames such as this, you have a few favorite soundtracks of your own.

So, share them here! Preferably with at least one youtube link, to give people who are interested a taste. That's what I'm going to do right now.

Favorite Game Soundtracks: Final Fantasy VIII

First off, I love Spoony. I've watched 90% of his videography, and he is a great entertainer. But... nothing he or anyone else could ever say will change the fact that my favorite Final Fantasy is VIII. I love all of the characters, I love the ATB system, I love the junctioning, I love the Guardian Forces. I may hate the cardgame, but I love the romance, and I love the episodic storyline. But perhaps my favorite aspect of the game is its phenominal, and sadly overlooked, soundtrack.



I just love nearly every song included in the game. The action music is fast-paced and catchy, the town and overworld theme are simultaneously relaxing and engaging, and the sound quality trumped Final Fantasy VII hands down. The only reason I can think of that people don't talk more about the soundtrack is that most people either don't have the same nostalgia for FFVIII that I do, or they've just been led to believe by secondhand account that there is nothing worth playing the game for. Those sad, sad people...

Now, what are some of your favorites?

[Chili Dawg]

First one to come to mind is definitely Donkey Kong Country 2. Dave Wise is amazing. He can do a somber gloominess like "Forest Interlude," upbeat jazz like "Snakey Chantey," and of course the famous song of pure beauty that is "Stickerbrush Symphony."



And a bunch of others I can't be arsed to list right now.

And hey, since we're a Sonic forum, I might as well mention every main series Sonic game ever. But that one needs no explanation.

I also love the shit out of the Mario Galaxy games' soundtracks. So many games get orchestras and just end up doing generic film score type things, but Mario galaxy manages to keep its Nintendo charm while injecting some good old fashioned epicness into the mix. Quality stuff.


And while I haven't heard all of it yet as I'm still working through the game, Shadow of the Colossus is already very quickly working its way up my favorite soundtracks ever list. Music is pretty much nonexistat when you're Wandering (HA HA) around the overworld,bt when you get into a Colossus fight, shit gets absolutely amazing. The songs manage to be epic, dark, triumphant, depressing, and more all at the same time. The whole game is truly a thing of beauty, and the music is no exception.

[Super Soniko]

Metroid Prime/Fusion Original Soundtrack

As a kid growing up my uncle heavily invested in the Nintendo franchise and got me into the games alongside with him, one of these games was the Metroid franchise, playing the 2D side scrolling space shooter as a kid i almost didn't recognize Prime as a Metroid title, my uncle bought it for my christmas way back in 2003 i think it was and the music captivated me and terrified me and has always stuck in my head since, i used to skip the title screen as quickly as i could to avoid the main theme as it truly was spine chilling, i still get goose bumps to this day


Daytona USA Original Soundtrack
probably the most memorable soundtrack i'll ever hear, my dad was a massive SEGA fan (ha funny my uncle/his brother being the rival Nintendo fan!) and he totally boycotted the SEGA Saturn, bought every accessory for it, including the Saturn Racing wheel, hearing the soundtrack instantly makes me think back to 1999 holding onto that wheel waiting for the Rolling Start to begin the race from 40th place.

Panzer Dragoon Original Soundtrack
This was one of the games i wasted most my life playing, i never knew there was more game after act 3 on normal difficulty... because i always used to play easy mode, regardless i never got past the second level with the sand worms anyway xD



Banjo Kazooie

what can i say about it? i know all the song's off by heart all the themes, jingles, everything, so much so i went and bought the soundtrack, Rare truly had musical prowess in their games.

Mario 64

again i can't pinpoint what is so amazing about the score for this game... 2 songs come to mind though



there are loads more i can go on about, but i'll let someone else have their turn first

Edited by Freckles, 18 January 2012 - 06:50 AM.

[Sean]

Freckles, list posts are not allowed. Put some more effort into them next time, like the above posts have done.

[Super Soniko]

Freckles, list posts are not allowed. Put some more effort into them next time, like the above posts have done.

i was about to, but it wouldn't let me fyi

revising post now =/

anyway since Sean split the post between mine i might as well post some more examples of the above mentioned soundtracks



the main theme to the South quarter of Tallon Overworld, one of the most famous tracks within Prime, and a personal favourite

also worth noting is the under rated game Clock Work Knight, the music was pop and fun and matched the "toy theme" going on perfectly



man this music gives me chills of Nostalgia...

Edited by Freckles, 18 January 2012 - 07:07 AM.

[Soniman]

What can I say? I just simply adore this soundtrack, it has so much meat to it and is incredibly diverse and original. Each track has it's own unique style and flavor to it. You want rock? You get Rooftop Run. You want something serene? You get Cool Edge Night. It's all fantastic and it fits wonderfully.

The main themes aren't bad either. Endless Possibility is very optimistic and u[beat, Dear My Friend is kinda sweet, and Th World Adventure sounds very grand and fits the game rather well.

I just love how each theme is perfectly adapted to the setting it is based on, my personal favorites are the Chun-nan hub themes, Holoska Hub and stage Night Themes, and of course, the best tune in the game....



Amazing...





This was a 3-way tossup between OoT and WW, but this claims the spot for me.

I think it's mostly because of the tune "Final Hours" which is one of the most somber, emotional tunes I ever heard of in a video game, especially if you listen to it within it's appropriate context. It's just another reason why this game is so damn brilliant.



That's not to say there aren't other amazing tunes as well. Great Bay Temple's theme sounds very empty and quiet at the beginning, but it picks up and evolves into an awesome steampunk-esque rhythm. Stone Tower Temple song is great rightside up, but becomes very surreal and otherworldly when you hear the upside down version.

All 3 variations of Clock Town are great, you can really 'feel' the tension and general emotion of the game as each version gets faster and becomes more darker. The main overworld theme of Termina brings back the classic Zelda theme we've all grown to love, but it has a very somber edge to it, it makes the world of Termina very much feel like a dying world that you have to save. Love this soundtrack.

Ill probably post some more later if im up to it.

Edited by Grooseinator032, 18 January 2012 - 07:00 AM.

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Armored Core. Like, the whole damn series. Particularly AC3 and beyond, but as a whole, the series has an amazing soundtrack. It's difficult to describe the exact style of series composer Kota Hoshino and his band FreQuency, but for a game about giant war machines, I have to give it credit for not just blasting generic rock while I gun the shit out of everything my cannon can lock on to; there's some... nobility and atmosphere to this music. Tracks can range from hyper and cheery to slow and solemn tone, but they never fail to be catchy and dynamic; the melody seems to revolve around a short set of notes while the bass acts dynamically, sometimes making it hard to tell which is which. (It makes sense considering Hoshino is on the bass guitar.) These are some of my favorites:

Morning, Lemontea ~ youtube.com/watch?v=ow-SoBFe1nM
Apex in Circle ~ youtube.com/watch?v=Rst4SvxMt3A
Thinker ~ youtube.com/watch?v=JZcJ-Gc2NAc
Panther ~ youtube.com/watch?v=tz7HtXQzF7g
Cosmos ~ youtube.com/watch?v=adG6G8gd4BA
Remember ~ youtube.com/watch?v=WEsY1Wljl0w
Why Don't You Come Down ~ youtube.com/watch?v=4CRSO5GM278

As you might see, another thing that makes them unique is their almost-but-not-quite-comprehensible lyrics. Some might find it annoying, but I like it. Personally, I find lyrics usually take away more from a song than they add, but without context or comprehensibility, they act more as an instrument than a monologue.

Edited by SuperStingray, 18 January 2012 - 07:04 AM.

[SKANKFUNK]

Rock Band.

.... :3 No I'm not kidding.

http://www.rockband.com/songs/finder

Look at this, (I can't use WIkipedia at the mo', since it's blacked out, but it's the single biggest, most diverse soundtrack to any game ever. It's got over 3000 songs! And hey, around 20 of them are from MY BANDS >XD


EDIT:



Okay, here's a sampler of something really awesome that happened in Rock Band Network, which is the "open source" song submitting thing, where if you have contracts with a band or artist, or own your own music, then you can author and put it in the game. We (the testing community) were poking around with the idea of making a 12 song "Mashup" of some of our community-made songs, and then it got serious, and then we asked if we could submit it through RBN, and Harmonix (The company that made the game) took a bit to respond, but told us that if we could keep it under wraps, that they'd personally officially publish the track as a free download for all Xbox 360 users. (and if all of the songs had made it to PS3, they'd have put it there too).

(The song at 7'ish minutes in is MINE. Frontier Factory! Woo! I was official DLC for Rock Band!!)


Other such gems that you guys might be interested in that I know about: (Barring all of my bands...xD)

Airbrushed - Anamanaguchi
Blue (Da ba dee) - Eiffel 65 (yeah, THAT song)
The Ultimate Showdown - Lemon Demon
BRODYQUEST - Lemon Demon
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!111 - James Silva
Electricity is in my Soul - Steam Powered Giraffe
An Exercise in Futility - Single White Infidel
Frostbite Cavern - Wolfblur

:3 And many, many more.


EDIT 2: Groosinator, I liked your post because of Majora's Mask. <3

Edited by Aptiva, 18 January 2012 - 11:11 AM.

[krazystitch]

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks



I absolutely adore practically every song in this soundtrack. As I was playing the game, I was just blown away by how amazing every single song sounded. The duets that you would play using the flute were absolutely beautiful, the boss fight music was dramatic and got you into the mood, character's themes were great, and this overworld theme. My GOD this overworld music! No matter how long a train ride took in the game, no matter where I was going, or what I was headed to do, I always loved every last second of this song and I honestly still go back to Youtube every once in a while just to listen to it, along with other songs from the soundtrack. Overall, it's just brilliant.

The Ace Attorney Series



If you've played any of the Ace Attorney games at all, then you would know what I mean by this soundtrack being incredible. Well, actually, they're all incredible. The Phoenix Wright games, Apollo Justice, and AAI, all soundtracks have stuff that I just love. It was intense, suspenseful when it needed to be, it would always fit the characters and the mood that was going on. The sad Reminisence themes would actually make you feel bad for the characters they were applying to..and when it got intense, it got intense. The music did just what it had to do make sure you felt like a total badass in court.

[SKANKFUNK]

^ I love that game's (Zelda's, but Ace Attourney's too) soundtrack too. ;____; I just forgot how much I loved it. Afdsfkgdsgfds.


EDIT: Also, Blast Corps by Rare had a great soundtrack too. C:

Edited by Aptiva, 18 January 2012 - 12:02 PM.

[sniffy]

this one is soooo awesome

[Edward_Elric]

One of my particular favorite OSTs is from a game called Okage Shadow King. Each song has a particular charm where it matches its location quite stunningly really, like this song for example from a mundane fishing town:



Another good example of the OST charm would be this song from a shady business building:



Also, AWWW YEAH.

[Ash Crimson]

The Jet Set Radio series. I just absolutely love it. It never fails to get me in the zone (or to just get up and start dancing).

Seriously, I can't be the only one that watched the intro sequence to JSRF more than once (for the awesomeness of it and for the epic win that is The Concept of Love), right?


and of course, everyone likes a bit of Richard Jacques, right? Right??

[Nix]

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has a pretty bitching soundtrack and if you aren't in lesbians with it don't love it shame on you. I think it won best soundtrack of the year from IGN in whatever year it came out, it really deserves it, there's not a single track I don't love in it. Pretty awesome game for $10 (is it still $10? I haven't checked) too, very old-school feeling and is a blast with friends.



I mentioned the Ace Attorney series has a pretty awesome soundtrack when I said it was my favorite video game series in the 30 Days of Video Games topic over yonder, and I meant it. The Ace Attorney Investigations (above) has a lot of my favorites from the series, along with the one above I particularly love the Ace Attorney Investigation's "Confess the Truth". Truly amazing stuff.

[KingMan]

No More Heroes, probably the best soundtrack to ever grace a Wii game:



Other good soundtracks:

Super Mario 64
The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Super Metroid
Final Fantasy 6 & 7
Shadow Of The Colossous
Katamari Damacy
Banjo Kazooie

[Gen]

My personal favorite video game soundtrack...
Well, Mega Man 3. I love this soundtrack so much, that I would give each song 5 stars. It's that good, to me anyway.


Other OST's include:
Sonic CD (Both)
Sonic Colors
Super Mario 64
Most of the Classic Mega Man games
Ocarina of Time
A Link to the Past
Sonic 2
Banjo-Kazooie

[Shade Vortex]

Of course with me, Sonic and Mario are a given, but I also like the soundtracks in many other games, including ones from Capcom (Megaman and Resident Evil) a lot- but my special mention of the day goes to a somewhat overlooked series which I made a topic for a while back ago.

Ys. I'm gonna use Ys Origins as the primary example here, with this song specifically:

It just seems pretty intense, and is really fitting for where it gets used. The rest of the OST is just as good, and that applies for the OST of Felghana too.

[Gabe]

Too many to list for me, although some notable soundtracks come from the Mario and Sonic franchises, as well as others.

I'll just choose one to speak of, and that would be the soundtrack of the Fancy Pants Adventure games (consisting of the music from all three worlds, as well as the console version). It is unbelieveably underrated. Quite surprised that few has bothered to upload the entire OST for them.




I suggest checking out some playthroughs/walkthroughs of the console version to hear the game's soundtracks.

Edited by Zinos, 04 August 2012 - 01:47 PM.

[Discoid]

BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY



I actually wrote about this particular song in the 30 Days thread, so I'll go dig that up in this case (spoiler'd for size):

Spoiler

FFFFF- I love this song so much. Like I said in my last update, Persona 3 is a game that I adored for being stylish and creative from the get-go. The music is no exception, of course, and the same goes for the rest of the games in the series. In fact, it was Persona 4's soundtrack that introduced me to the entire series. But we're not here to talk about P4, are we. Mass Destruction holds this spot (a very honorable one, might I add, considering I listen to a *lot* of video game music) for several reasons. As one would expect from battle music, the song is very fast-paced, very intense, and does a great job of getting me pumped for battle. But that's not why it got this spot. Before playing Persona (the "BP" days, as I like to call them), my only exposure to rap/hip-hop was the garbage that most people listen think of when the term is brought up. You know; Lil (IT'S SPELLED WITH TWO T'S AND AN E, GOD DAMMIT) Wayne, 50 Cent, and those other losers. I absolutely loathed it then, and I absolutely loathe it now, and because of that, I was convinced that the genre was completely unsalvageable and was utterly doomed to suck by concept alone. Again, BP. This song changed all of that. Hell, this whole game changed that. I love the rhythm, the vocals, the lyrics.... everything. I love everything about this song.

If you don't like rap music, give it a listen. You just might enjoy it. If you already do, then I'm sure you'll enjoy this as well.

Oh, and it was this song that actually got me to try and rap at one point. Not trying that again. >.>

I hold Persona 3 and 4 in very high regard for a multitude of reasons; the gameplay is unique and intuitive, the stories are fantastic, and the soundtracks are absolutely awesome.

The two games cover a really wide range of genres, but Shoji Meguro just keeps showing time and again that he can handle whatever style is thrown at him, and do it fantastically. Hip-Hop? He makes it awesome. Rock? He makes it awesome. Jazz? He makes it awesome.



Other fantastic songs include but are not limited toooo~

Burn My Dread (Opening) - Persona 3 (Electronic/Rock)
Burn My Dread (Final Battle) - Persona 3 (Hip-Hop)
Memories of You - Persona 3 (... Not sure what to call it )
Never More - Persona 4 (Also not sure. Bite me.)
I'll Face Myself (Battle) - Persona 4 (Rock)
Heaven - Persona 4 (Jazz)
Pursuing My True Self- Persona 4 (Electronic)

Also I can never stress this enough but uh hey guys if you care even a little bit about JRPGs you're doing yourself a major disservice skipping Persona, what with P4 being the best game ever and all that.

Edited by Dissident, 05 August 2012 - 08:17 PM.

[Ekaje]

@KingMan

Speaking of violent Wii games, Madworld and it's successor Anarchy Reigns/Max Anarchy both have some pretty catchy music.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbXq9lUAkPY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iITxyr5p7Ug

Edited by Ekaje, 04 August 2012 - 06:46 PM.