Chrono Trigger
Ok, now that I have said it, we can all move on.
I recently cracked open the ol’ DS and started playing Dragon Quest 5, the ocean theme that plays when you are on the first boat is just amazing. I honestly spent some time just standing there to listen to that song, slowly spinning the camera around the ship.
Really good.
Anyone else have any (non chrono trigger) favorites?
The first two that come to mind:
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Soundtrack 5 - The Bovinian Derivative
Age of Empires II Music 10 (Don’t know the name of this one, but love it nonetheless, especially at 0:28.
Chrono Trigger is definitely a good pick! Some of my favorites (including CT):
Shadow of the Colossus
Katamari Damacy
Final Fantasy (various)
Chrono Trigger
Legend of Zelda (various)
Oblivion
Ouendan
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is still my favorite of all time as an evocative soundtrack to listen to, even independent of the game itself. Around the time the game came out, I was reading Connie Willis’ Passage, and the game’s soundtrack is forever associated now with that book, which is very emotionally engaging.
As for soundtracks that are linked to the game itself to make it awesome, and not necessarily just judged on their own merits outside the game, I’d say Fallout is one of the best ones. As are Mass Effect 1 and 2, both of those just had the perfect soundtracks for the right situations in the game. But my absolute favorite soundtrack within a game is still Star Control 2. The Ur-Quan theme? The Thraddash theme? The Melnourme Trader theme? The hyperspace music? Quasispace music? It’s all just soooo perfect. It’s the first game I remember playing where the music for each situation was so different and so wonderfully fitting, and it’s still one of the best. I love it so much, I could never even get myself to switch to the 3DO version of the soundtrack, since the original is so perfect.
I can say that in many games the first thing I do is turn down the music sounds to 1/2 if not disabled, after playing a game for a while.
The one game where music made a big difference is Vampire: Bloodlines, but I am a bit taken by that game, and consider it one of the best games ever made. All the music was fun, fitting and sometimes made the scene.
Now if you want to go really old school, the opening credits for Space Hulk freaked me out, back then. I can’t find it, it was hard metal for 80’s rock. Or maybe it just sounded like that …way back then:)
Holy crap that takes me back.
Emperor of the Fading Suns
youtube links people!
This is cheating:
X-Com set to the There Will Be Blood soundtrack. To the point where the music brings me back to my first couple of hours of X-Com more than it brings be back to the movie.
yeah, shaffer just nailed that soundtrack perfectly. i love the hollywood hub in particular, it’s just got a draining, bittersweet casualness, and in my mind it’s like it’s describing an washed-up, regretful movie star drinking in a recliner with nothing left to accomplish. but that’s probably just me.
other than that one my picks’d be bailey in half-life 2, kondo in the zeldas, bergeaud in the ratchet series, the god of war crew, czartynski in painkiller, hibino and gregson-williams in metal gear solid 2, stanton in winterbottom, kyd in assassin’s creed, morasky in left 4 dead 2, uematsu in tons of stuff, and ben houge in arcanum, a game i’ve never gotten past the second screen of. i’m really jealous that he got the opportunity to score the entire game with a string quartet, it’s got this unmatched sense of intimacy for it.
I’m all about the '80s Commodore 64 scene, so my gods are Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, and to a lesser extent Jeron Tel, Ben Daglish, Mark Cooksey, David Whittaker. I still think Galway’s Parallax and Rambo suites, and Hubbard’s music for International Karate Championship, Crazy Comets, and Delta, are among the best videogame music composed in that or any era.
I find it repugnant and shameful that Chrono Cross remains unmentioned until now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46RY4PU8a8
Almost equally upsetting: no mention of Secret of Monkey Island.
A lot of games have nice orchestral soundtracks, but mostly sit in the background… Shadow of the Colossus is one. Good soundtrack, but I can’t recall a bit of it. In contrast, here’s some that stick out in my head:
Serious Japanese category:
Ico
Secret of Mana (another)
Legend of Zelda: so many good ones. I love the Temple of Time.
Silly Japanese category:
Incredible Crisis
Katamari Damacy
Other:
System Shock 2 had some nice techno tunes.
Command and Conquer: Red Alert’s Hell March. I can’t help but bang my head to this one.
Metroid: The tunes from the original are burned into my brain (Kraid’s Lair in particular). Check out Metroid Metal… you might enjoy that sort of thing if that’s the sort of thing you enjoy.
@Rock8man: good call on Star Control 2… I never owned the game myself, but I can still hear the Melnorme theme.
I know I’m forgetting something… I’m anxious to see what else you guys come up with.
The Halo theme music, its one of the few games i remember the music.
Got this from another thread here, it’s an online radio station that plays only game musics.
Minecraft music. I think that little piano piece that just kicks in every now and then is always perfect.
Martin O’Donnell, I loved the work he did for Myth as well.
Is this a list thread? Or should we explain why? :)
System Shock II; ambient noise + suspense + cyborg rants = total audio immersive heartstopping doom.
Planescape: Torment; the loneliness is almost unbearable. I think the composer also did the Fallout soundtracks, and it shows.
Bushido Blade - perfect short and sharp (and Japanese) musical stings to punctuate the bloodletting.
Tenchu/Way of the Samurai (Noriyuki Asakura) - the mixture of folk/classic Japanese instrumentation with modern themes has a lot going for it. See Yoshida Brothers.
Deus Ex - this one’s biased as I love the game, but I can listen to this soundtrack over and over. And have! And in the game! And even the second game, just because it maintains the theme!
Super Metroid and Metroid Prime - ditto the desolation of the lone explorer in a strange land. I’m particularly fond of Phendrana Drifts and the Overworld theme.
Mechwarrior II - martial, solemn, and occasionally triumphant. What else would you ask of a house-less mercenary?
Warcraft III - the ultimate almost ambient fantasy soundtrack. I haven’t even played the game and I find this stirring.
Finally, Crackdown. A very impressive lineup that I hope to capture fully one day. It introduced me to Amon Tobin, for one!