Music in games

[likalaruku]

I loves me some rock & roll, but if I hear a guitar or drums playing in the background of a game, that distracting shit is getting turned off.

I find that the more mediocre games tend to have much nicer soundtracks.
~American McGee's Alice. (Creepy mood, unconventional instruments).
~Fable: The Lost Chapters. (Gregorian chants).
~Heroes of Might & Magic 4. (Opera).
~Anno 1503. (Upbeat, ye olde instruments).
~Ahriman's Prophecy/Aveyond. (Chiptunes).
~Sonic 1-3, Knuckles, & Spinball. (Chiptunes).

& from casual games: (These relaxing tunes could put a baby to sleep).
~Hidden Expedition titanic.
~Plant Tycoon.
~Atlantis Sky Patrol.
~My Tribe.

I have played over 50 MMOs & have yet to find one outside of MapleStory with a soundtrack I'd burn to a CD.

 

[Kyrian007]

Chrono Trigger (Corridors Of Time is still astonishing), Command And Conquer (the first one)

I'd have to say I prefer Chrono Cross and Command and Conquer: Red Alert for soundtracks. But they all had really good music. The only 2 vg soundtrack albums I actually own though is the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack and the soundtrack for Lucasarts' Outlaws, which is perfect spaghetti western mood music for a game of Deadlands. And it actually was on the same disc (cd) as the gamedata.

 

[smithy_2045]

F-Zero X has far and away the most memorable soundtrack in my mind.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Then there's the varied soundtrack of Final Fantasy XII; I think the game as a whole is underrated but the sheer amount of music for the many varied areas of the environment alone is amazing enough but each piece of music is also so well designed for each specific area and so great to listen to

The victory theme of FFXII is my favorite. FFXII is really nothing but FFX done right with a battle system that keeps you out of needless menus and without that god awful linearity. Under-the-hood, the battle system is exactly the same as FFX. FFXII is basically FFX with gambits and better characters (Fran and Balthier are better than anyone from FFX).

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I can't believe no one has mentioned Metal Gear Solid, the whole series is full of great music. MGS2 is my favorite with music, the main theme is the best of the series along with the ending theme.

Spoiler: Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday

Also, no Shadow of the Colossus yet?!?! Shame on you all.

 

[Battenberg]

Then there's the varied soundtrack of Final Fantasy XII; I think the game as a whole is underrated but the sheer amount of music for the many varied areas of the environment alone is amazing enough but each piece of music is also so well designed for each specific area and so great to listen to

The victory theme of FFXII is my favorite. FFXII is really nothing but FFX done right with a battle system that keeps you out of needless menus and without that god awful linearity. Under-the-hood, the battle system is exactly the same as FFX. FFXII is basically FFX with gambits and better characters (Fran and Balthier are better than anyone from FFX).

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I can't believe no one has mentioned Metal Gear Solid, the whole series is full of great music. MGS2 is my favorite with music, the main theme is the best of the series along with the ending theme.

Spoiler: Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday

Also, no Shadow of the Colossus yet?!?! Shame on you all.

Funnily enough I was thinking of including both MGS and SotC but I haven't fully played either (yet - I'm working on it though) so I felt like it would be cheating to include them.

Also I think I'd actually have to disagree about the characters in FFXII as much as I like the game. Fran and Balthier were both great (Balthier especially) but virtually every other character in the game was a bit flat and uninteresting for my liking, especially Vaan who had about as much personality as a baked potato. I think unfortunately this nulls the story somewhat as well. You can get away with a fairly overused story as long as you have interesting characters (e.g. The Last of Us) but conversely having dull characters can make even the best story seem a little worse. It's a shame really as it's one of my favourite games of the PS2 age but I just can't find anything to like in all but two characters, if I could I think I would rank it even higher possibly up to the dizzying heights of Resi 4 (my favourite game of all time).

 

[Aeshi]

I've always had a soft spot for Spiral Knight's soundtrack, it's the perfect mix between Retro & Modern in my opinion.

Spoiler: Here's a few of my favorite tracks

 

[MrSir231]

I am fond of the Kingdom Hearts series soundtrack, particularly boss battle music. Dark Impetus is still one of my favorite video game songs.

 

[Poetic Nova]

My favorite OST's are from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro 2033/Last Light, such an amazing ambeance that manages to be bone chilling and yet awesome.
The soundtracks for MDK and Total Annihilation are both second on my list, they kick as much ass in their own way.

 

[Crowns18]

The OST for Shadow of the Colossus it's just epic, although it only appears at the fights. It just fits so well with the gigantic rock monsters.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The Persona 4 soundtrack is fuckin' great. Reach Out to the Truth is brilliant.

Vampire: The Masquerade has some good ones, especially the ones in the various clubs.


But the game with the best soundtracks is BlazBlue. I absolutely adore music that is written around a character, music that encapsulates everything that character is and the majority of the music in BB is character music. Damn fantastic character music at that.


They managed to capture Hazama's playful trolliness while also keeping it a villainous action song. That piano doing whatever the fuck it wants in the background is genius.

 

[Soundwave]

The original Doom, and the cd-version of Descent. Both were really fantastic. I still find myself humming them from time to time. Also Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Silent Hill 3

 

[MCerberus]

Two that really stick out to me are UT2004 for being just perfect fits for the gameplay and maps, especially the assault maps and Beyond Good & Evil.



edit- and Golden Sun was amazing considering the hardware limitations

 

[Someone Depressing]

The Goddess Reincarnation games.

"Oh look, a penis thing, I'm gonna kill i-" *Face blown off with insane rock music*

The third game, Shin Megami Tensei's battle theme in particular.

Of course, Capcom and Chunsoft deliver. For all of 999's stupid plots, dumb endings, annoying, one dimentional characters with WAAAY too much backstory, the aggravating puzzles, and the fact that 7 is either a blatant stereotyping of black people in anime, or completely the opposite but it's impossible to tell, the game has a unique, amazing soundtrack that actually fits in with the theme - imminent death, and tragedy of wrongly placed trust.

It's still a terrible game.

 

[Launcelot111]

Persona 3/4 can't be beat. Also, Final Fantasy 12/13 might have had their flaws, but the music was not one of them.

My random choice is the Binding of Isaac, which doesn't have much variety, sure, but I never get tired of that little riff that plays right when you start a new game.

 

[ViridianV6]

The original Spyro trilogy's OST by Stewart Copeland. The music he composes adds magic to the world and really creates the ambience of the levels, and if you listen to it carefully, you can fully appreciate the complexity of the music.

Other mentions:
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game by Anamanaguchi
- Hotline Miami's OST
- Super Meat Boy by Danny Baranowski
- To the Moon by Laura Shigihara
- VVVVVV by Souleye
- Cthulhu Saves the World by Gordon McNeil
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon by Powerglove
- Bastion by Darren Korb
- Okami's OST

 

[Arctodus_Simus]

My particular favourites (I.E. the ones that end up being bought so I can listen to outside of the game) have been Bastion, Mass Effect, and the first Fable. The latter is particularly good for relaxing to before bed or sleeping to

Other mentions:
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game by Anamanaguchi
- Okami's OST

Oh, and these two

 

[SKBPinkie]

Halo 3 ODST.

I'm a sucker for good music, to the point where I can excuse "meh" gameplay for it. Seriously, just listen to this greatness (skip to 0:45 if you don't care for buildups) -

 

[mysecondlife]

I hope one day, I'll be wealthy enough to own a large garage filled with my car collection. Then I'll walk through my garage with this song in the background.