Poll: Game Soundtracks You Consider Perfect

[Elvis Starburst]

A thread was recently made about "Games you considering being 10/10" and I made the comment that no game can be 100% perfect. This goes for an entire game's soundtrack as well (Despite me feeling like it can be a little easier to attain this, cause music doesn't bug up or glitch through walls). This sort of opinion is 100% subjective, but, I am rather curious...

What game soundtrack (Meaning every song in the entire soundtrack, no exceptions) would you consider "perfect?" This can range from the feeling that every song fits, every song suits your tastes, every song can suit multiple places, all of the above, or more. Let's hear your thoughts!

My personal choices? Kid Icarus Uprising, Hexyz Force, Shadow of the Colossus, and Cave Story I feel all had "perfect" soundtracks. Uprising for how beautiful the orchestrations are, Cave Story for how good it all sounds, and Hexyz Force for how well every song fits the events of the game. Shadow of the Colossus, well... Cmon, do I need to say much?

 

[MysticSlayer]

Xenoblade Chronicles: I always enjoyed listening to the music in the game and would often pause just to listen to it, and I sometimes look up the more memorable songs on YouTube. I personally don't remember ever disliking a song, and many were both memorable and enjoyable.

Medal of Honor: Airborne: I love the music from the WWII Medal of Honor games. Airborne didn't have a lot of original music, but it did bring together all the best songs from the series very well, both in their own right and for nostalgia. The few songs it added were also good.

Super Mario Galaxy: Actually, one of the reasons I prefer this to Galaxy 2 is I preferred the soundtrack. Yes, many of the songs are similar, but I prefer Galaxy's take in every case. It's fantastic at accompanying the sense of a massive adventure, and it is nice to listen to on its own.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

TLoU - perfectly compliments the melancholy mood of the game, and adds atmosphere to the game environments while you are playing. It's just another amazing aspect of a truly god-tier game.

 

[Saelune]

Mystical Ninja starring Goemon. I love every song, listen to them often, and there is so many cause most every area has its own music.

One must wonder though, do I like music with Japanese instruments cause of this game, or do I like this games music cause I like Japanese instrument. Probably the first since it was my first exposure to them, and a lot of other traditional Japanese culture...minus the canned laughter.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The BlazBlue games always have an awesome soundtrack, there are so many tracks in CP:EX and none of them have that "oh really? Who picks THAT crap" feel when you don't have control over who picks the soundtrack. Though in my case whenever I pick the music it's Blood Pain II all day. Panning into the stage and the character intros with that music is so hype.

Spoiler

Honourable mentions go to Guilty Gear Xrd but as godlike as the tracks are in that game, the majority of them don't really portray the character they are supposed represent. Ky has a good one, Bedman has a good one, May has a good one and El has a good one. The rest aren't bad songs but it almost feels like you could swap the character specific songs around and not really notice. Whereas every character in BlazBlue has a very distinct song, if you know much about a character you could likely pick their theme out just by listening to it. Also Faylan did the openings to CS:EX and CP:EX and they are both great songs.

Then there would be the Persona 4 soundtrack which is basically perfect.

 

[Chanticoblues]

Enemy Zero. It's pretty unlike anything else in gaming, and it makes me wish producers branched out a little more in finding composers. Have a listen if you're inclined:

Spoiler

Okami would also be up there. Nier as well, which I haven't played, but appreciate the soundtrack's strangeness and audacity.

Edit: Forgot ICO. ICO's soundtrack is impeccable.

 

[FalloutJack]

I can think of no reason why Shadow of the Colossus' music shouldn't be considered perfect.

I'll also say that Persona games have had wonderful soundtracks. I love their games.

Finally, last one to come right off the top of my head: The music in Metroid Fusion really sets the moods it's trying to convey as you trek through the research station infested with the X. It works. It damn-well works.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Mass Effect as a series the music is what really makes the whole thing feel like a space opera. It's done so well that one might not even notice the music is playing, but when you do notice it's adding just the perfect notes to emotional moments.

Dark Souls it doesn't have much in the way of music in the game, most of it is environmental sounds, that's kind of what makes it just perfect.

Then there are only 2 more to mention, Mega Man 2 and Shovel Knight these two take 8-bit chip tunes and make master piece art of those technological limitations.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I can think of no reason why Shadow of the Colossus' music shouldn't be considered perfect.

I dunno how I forgot this one. Fixed!

 

[Neverhoodian]

The Neverhood Chronicles. The soundtrack fits the game's tone and aesthetics to a tee. Terry Scott Taylor crafted a hilariously surreal score that defies genre, convention and sanity...and it's absolutely sublime.

Spoiler

 

[RedDeadFred]

Bastion

Every song manages to be catchy while perfectly capturing the atmosphere of the location. I consider the section where you discard your weapons and carry Zulf to be the most beautiful moments in all of gaming. A lot of that is due to the song playing over top, perfectly capturing what is happening on screen.

 

[Kyrian007]

I can only think of one "perfect" one. Lucasarts' Outlaws. Fantastic spaghetti western BGM for the best first person western game made so far. So good I use it on loop as mood music for tabletop gaming Pinnacle's Deadlands.

Chrono Cross had a really good soundtrack but the b side songs pale in comparison to it's "singles." Silent Hill 2 has a similar problem, the theme song "Theme of Laura" is so iconic it kind of overshadows the really good atmospheric music on the rest of the soundtrack.

Games like the NES classics Metroid, the first 3 Castlevania games, the Megaman games... they had amazing music considering the limitations they worked with. Hearing some of the orchestrated or otherwise updated versions of those classics generally proves how good that music was. However, that still doesn't make the soundtracks sound less like MIDI music.

 

[CellShaded]

Anything by Supergiant games. So Bastion and Transistor. STill listen to the Soundtracks today. Just so lovely.

 

[otakon17]

First two that come to mind are Chrono Trigger and Undertale.

 

[the December King]

I have to say that Diablo II had a beautiful score.. might be my musical favorite.

 

[MythicMatt]

Halo, Portal, NFS:U2, Epic Battle Fantasy and BlazBlue.

I could spend all day trying to tell you why, but I'll just leave you to consider them.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

As far as OSTs go, Grim Fandango.

 

[Qizx]

I will always have a special place in my heart for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles music... It just brings me back to my childhood with friends gathered round.

The opening song is also quite beautiful.