Videogame soundtracks

[Knower of nothing]

What do you think of videogame soundtracks? What are your favorites? Do you listen to them outside of playing? Any and all videogame ost discussion is welcome.

I listen to OSTs plenty. I pay attention to them in games a lot too. Many games have fairly uninteresting soundtracks as they function more as tone-setters and silence-fillers. It depends on the genre of course, but sometimes you come across select few tracks that are really good and you end up listening to them outside of playing. Even rarer, sometimes the whole album release of the OST stands on its own as a work.
I love the highly melodic and funky stuff, as well as anything with strong emotional pull in whatever direction. I'll be using this thread to share some I consider good to exceptional. I figure it's enough of a different feeling from listening to regular music to warrant its own thread.

Starting with this giant of a track as thread theme:

 

[Forest Cat]

Haven't heard this in 25 years or so, still as good now as it was then.

 

[Knower of nothing]

Shoot 'em ups have famously good soundtracks as they are rather linear games where the music is allowed to be more in your face to convey the intensity of the gameplay. As well as being neatly synced to a set amount of time you'll spend hearing it thanks to very controllable stage lengths. This track in particular though seems to take even that a step further. A treasure of synth layering, absolutely mental. Great turnarounds and ceaseless pulse without becoming dull.

 

[Stuttermabolur]

Hooooh boy! I have a lot to share here, though since I spent approximately 2 hours writing a response to this thread, my response here will have to wait till Sunday or Saturday. Most of the music I buy and listen to nowadays is video game music. It's a big interest of mine, so I could go forever on the topic, but I'll be nice. Later...

P.S. Just a taste. Beach Buds, Somewhere in the Woods and Boat buds from the "A short hike" soundtrack are also great:

 

[grommet]

What do you think of videogame soundtracks? What are your favorites? Do you listen to them outside of playing? Any and all videogame ost discussion is welcome.

I listen to OSTs plenty. I pay attention to them in games a lot too. Many games have fairly uninteresting soundtracks as they function more as tone-setters and silence-fillers. It depends on the genre of course, but sometimes you come across select few tracks that are really good and you end up listening to them outside of playing. Even rarer, sometimes the whole album release of the OST stands on its own as a work.
I love the highly melodic and funky stuff, as well as anything with strong emotional pull in whatever direction. I'll be using this thread to share some I consider good to exceptional. I figure it's enough of a different feeling from listening to regular music to warrant its own thread.

Starting with this giant of a track as thread theme:

Half Life: Alyx. It is so good they sell it separately if people want it. Some games have such wonderful music. I cannot remember the others like but they are really nice.

 

[Misery]

Shoot 'em ups have famously good soundtracks as they are rather linear games where the music is allowed to be more in your face to convey the intensity of the gameplay. As well as being neatly synced to a set amount of time you'll spend hearing it thanks to very controllable stage lengths. This track in particular though seems to take even that a step further. A treasure of synth layering, absolutely mental. Great turnarounds and ceaseless pulse without becoming dull.

Omigod someone here who actually knows what Futari is. Or about shmups at all.

Yeah, big bullet-hell fan here. Though I am currently trying to resist the urge to wave videos of said games at you.
Nobody else I talk to ever has any knowledge of these.

*ahem* But I'll stick to the topic this time.

Game soundtracks are one of my secret interests that I usually never discuss with anyone (because I dont see the point, nobody ever seems to care and fewer share my bizarre taste in music).

I do a lot of driving. Like, a *LOT* of driving. Sometimes to get places, other times as a hobby. But I always, always, ALWAYS have some sort of game OST on while doing it. I've got way too many of them (thank you, Youtube OST downloader site). Honestly at this point I could fill 20 pages with these.

I will say though that when going through my stuff, there's a few themes that come across in terms of what I like:

1. Anything with a lot of tension. Boss themes in particular.
2. Horror themed stuff. If it sounds "haunting" somehow or mildly deranged, I'm probably going to like it
3. Pipe organs, violins.
4. Did I mention tension

Though I'll vary these up for this post since I'm going off of what I can easily access without having to go into my CDs.

First, Corpse Party because I've been playing that a lot:

Second: Freaking Necrodancer. The entire soundtrack is bloody amazing. All of it. But this theme in particular always gets me:

And this one:

Lessee.... ah, here's one from Baroque, I cant not put this here. Give this one a bit, it takes about 30 seconds to really get going. It's the only energetic track in the game, mostly it's a super atmospheric OST, but this track is different:

I dont really play the SMT games much, but I still really liked this (and a few others):

I have to split this into two posts...

 

[Misery]

Next, half of the Isaac soundtrack, but particularly these two:

Also, Dark Spire, which is a game that somehow manages to sum up my general taste in music into one OST.

Back in bullet hell land, we have this (I'm eagerly awaiting this game to hit the Switch later this year!):

And then last for now, is whatever this is:

Okay that's enough. I could post list after list after list, or just talk ABOUT them, for like hours, but I'll spare you that sorry fate. For now.

 

[Azul]

A big percentage of the music I hear at work are from OSTs. I think the experience of "living" in video-game worlds makes the emotional attachment much stronger.

I tend to like the more melodic and slow paced music, usually. Some OSTs I hear sometimes: Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag ~sea shanties~, Okami original OST and covers, Minecraft, Oblivion, Skyrim... these are the ones I'm mostly hearing now.

A few of my favorites:

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Wings of Kynareth

Okami - Rising Sun & a cover for Theme of the Celestials
Rising Sun always elevates my mood

And AC4 - Roller Bowler
They're historical sea shanties, in truth. Once people at my work said it sounded like church music.

 

[AprilR]

I love Touhou osts, esp this one:

 

[Knower of nothing]

P.S. Just a taste. Beach Buds, Somewhere in the Woods and Boat buds from the "A short hike" soundtrack are also great:

A short hike is great indeed. I mostly love the final track for the ending. It's simple but hits the heart.

Omigod someone here who actually knows what Futari is. Or about shmups at all.
...
First, Corpse Party because I've been playing that a lot:

I had the suspicion you were into shmups haha. I'm a rather basic player, can count the number of 1CCs on my hands. But I do really love the genre.
Anyway, that specific corpse party track is one of my favorite tracks in games in general. I'll randomly get the melody stuck in my head. The baroque track is really good synthwave too, I'm intrigued by the game now (in fact I just bought it).

The dark spire one sounds very much like some shmup stage track as well, very cool. CAVE's boss music makes me afraid, the game I'm currently being horrible at has an intimidating boss theme that you might like too:

A big percentage of the music I hear at work are from OSTs. I think the experience of "living" in video-game worlds makes the emotional attachment much stronger.

I tend to like the more melodic and slow paced music, usually. Some OSTs I hear sometimes: Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag ~sea shanties~, Okami original OST and covers, Minecraft, Oblivion, Skyrim... these are the ones I'm mostly hearing now.

A few of my favorites:

Strong agree and Oblivion might be the quintessential example of music that breathes its own world into wherever you hear it. (also what kinda shanty church do your colleagues go to haha).
Though the music itself isn't much to speak of, I feel this a lot with the Gothic soundtrack.

I love Touhou osts, esp this one:

Who doesn't? My favorite is this for the moment it plays in I think being the coolest bit in the whole series to this day.

 

[Misery]

I had the suspicion you were into shmups haha.

Oh yeah, just a bit.

I did this a number of years ago:

This was before the game was released on Steam (long before) so I was running on an emulator... I didnt realize until MUCH later that all the slowdown was missing. I also didnt know how to use recording software yet, what a choppy mess...

I just wish the genre wasnt such a complete pain to play. Like, one of my personal favorites of all time was Dodonpachi Daioujou, the Death Label mode specifically, which was a bonus mode with the PS2 version of the game... I used to play that A LOT (and came very close to a 1cc once, I actually did get that on video too but the quality is even worse). But I havent played that in YEARS because it's freaking impossible to do. Cant really buy the bloody thing except on the original hardware (and I'd rather not put up with the old PS2) and the PS2 emulator has... issues. Useless program, that. I'm all for emulators and whatnot but that's the worst one I've ever used.

And then there's lots of other games... I used to import these from Japan, mostly on the PS2 and 360. But I dont have ANY of those anymore. Both consoles eventually broke, and the games got put away (and I moved on from those devices anyway), and.... yeah. Being able to go back to some of the really great ones on there is very hard to do.

Though Steam has been helping of late. One of my all-time favorites, Shikigami no Shiro 2, finally showed up on Steam recently, that's been getting a lot of playtime. I will say though, the music in that aint as amazing as many of Cave's games (a bit of a low point for the game, really).

Speaking of Steam, I'd not seen Devil Engine before. That looks (and sounds) good. I might pick that up later today.

I'm a rather basic player, can count the number of 1CCs on my hands

Honestly you're probably better at them than you realize. That's the one problem with the genre: it has a tendency to make the player think they suck, entirely regardless of their actual skill. I know it did that to me a lot.

Though, if you'd like a more approachable (yet still super satisfying) 1cc, play Giga Wing (the original) if you havent already. It's the one that got me into the genre in the first place (and was my first 1cc too). Such a great game. The true final boss is also very accessible, you dont have to do some utterly demented series of things to get it to show up.


But anywaaaaaaaaay, that's enough of my shmup rambling.

A couple more OST things:

Here, the boss theme from Dark Spire, my favorite in the game

That game was freaking HARD. Like, "I cant get anywhere in it" level of hard. Why cant devs make more turn-based RPGs like that? That genre is usually too easy. This though? Nope. I always referred to the boss theme as the "you're dead, LOL" track, because that's usually what it meant when it started playing. Havent been able to play it in years (since I dont have a DS anymore). I should really see about getting it again, would love to take another shot at it.

And speaking of RPGs, I did like this one a lot too:

Ah, and since I'm rambling about game OSTs, it'd be blasphemy for me not to bring up Demoncrawl:

Demoncrawl is such a freaking weird game (roguelike/lite + Minesweeper) but also a favorite of mine. The entire soundtrack (which is LOTS of tracks, it's a big one) is just incredible.


And one more for now... I present to you the greatest piece of game music ever made:

That is STILL funny even though I've heard it like 50 billion times.

The baroque track is really good synthwave too, I'm intrigued by the game now (in fact I just bought it).

Just as a quick note, that track is from the remake version of the game. The remake is *very* different from the original. I actually havent played the original, but I adored the remake. It got me into the roguelike/lite genre.

Actually havent played the remake in a long time though, now that I think about it. I keep wishing for it to show up on Steam or the Switch or whatever, but nooooooooo. If I want to play that, it's Wii emulation time (ugh).

 

[Knower of nothing]

Something calm because it's late. I still haven't played Ico, but running into this track somewhere was a godsent. It does what it says.

 

[Knower of nothing]

One of the first pieces I ever transcribed. Should redo it sometime. Cathartic melancholy inch-deep beneath a cheery attitude.

 

[AprilR]

I loved this game although never managed to finish it

 

[Knower of nothing]

I loved this game although never managed to finish it

Superb game and superb artist behind the soundtrack! You should absolutely try beating it one of these days. And check out Samorost too.

 

[AprilR]

I will try to, it's one of those games that stayed with me with its atmosphere, and music.

Here is something from the Longest Journey, April Ryan is one of my favorite characters from anything ever.

 

[Billthecat]

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

The Legend of Zelda, Sonic, Shantae, Mario, and Pokémon games always have amazing music. Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts typically do as well although there are some that is pretty bad .

 

[maycontainthunder]

 

[Knower of nothing]