Sentinel Worlds had some of the best music I’ve heard in a PC game, and it came out in 1988.
Icewind Dale had a wonderful soundtrck as well. Soule’s stuff in Morrowind and Oblivion was great, but I first heard him in IWD and it’s probably my favorite.
There’s a Soviet march in the most current Red Alert game that’s awesome and sets the mood perfectly.
I think I have 70 different video game soundtracks. Man, where to even begin?
No Youtube links, I’m at work right now, but let’s see.
“Dearly Beloved” from every Kingdom Hearts game – the menu music – is a beautiful, beautiful piece, but my favorite track from Kingdom Hearts can be found on one of the Piano Collection CDs, and it is “Hollow Bastion.” There’s an Overclocked remix of Hollow Bastion called “Above The Rising Falls” that gives me chills just thinking about it.
I have every Final Fantasy soundtrack from VI through Dissidia 012, so let me name one track per game that I’d rank as my favorite. Obvious ones like One Winged Angel, Dancing Mad, Liberi Fatali, etc. I’ll try to pick other ones.
Final Fantasy VI - Phantom Train! I love the music on the train, and I also love the strings/piano version on the Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale album. Evocative and moody.
Final Fantasy VII - J-E-N-O-V-A. It’s unsettling and creepy to begin with, but the bridge is almost hopeful and uplifting, and that makes it more unsettling. Phenomenal boss music.
Final Fantasy VIII - The Castle. This plays after time is compressed and you head off into the compressed world to fight Ultimecia. Piano into organ into ominous atmospheric music.
Final Fantasy IX - Vamo Alla Flamenco. I have no idea where this plays in the game anymore, but for me it makes me think of a moogle in a musketeer hat dance-fighting.
Final Fantasy X - A Contest of Aeons. All throughout the game, you’ve heard the Hymn of the Fayth as soothing and relaxing, then slightly unsettling and worrisome, and then back to soothing, so much so that it soothes the final boss. Then you hear A Contest of Aeons, where it becomes the driving force behind an uptempo boss battle theme. Excellent use of recurring themes.
Final Fantasy XI - This is one I zone out on more than the rest since I have no pull to listen to it, but I am a big fan of Ronfaure, especially the Distant Worlds live recording.
Final Fantasy XII - Esper Battle! Especially the mix of it in Dissidia 012. It evokes exactly what it says on the tin - a chanting choir and powerful bells put you in the right mindset to fight an otherworldly being who sought to overthrow the gods, and the Dissidia version adds some es posthumus-style drums. Terrifying and awesome.
Final Fantasy XIII - I hated the game, but found the soundtrack to be pretty good. Blinded By Light probably gets my vote here, but it was in the trailers so let’s find something else. Ah! Dust to Dust, there we go. More wistful than sad, more chilling than haunting, very, very evocative.
Final Fantasy XIV - Navigator’s Glory - the Theme of Limsa Lominsa. I have no idea what that means, but it puts me in the mindset of a traveler coming across a fantastic new land, and the fatigue of a long journey disappearing with the promise of new adventures to come.
Okami’s soundtrack is five discs of fucking brilliance. Shinshu Field, Ryoshima Plains, Ushikawa’s Dance, and The Sun Rises are my favorite tracks there.
Shadow of the Colossus - okay, I used this in my wedding! The attendants walked to the front of the ceremony to The Sunlit Earth, though Prologue - To The Ancient Land and Revived Power/Counterattack are stellar pieces.
NieR. Okay, Matt Keil, I’ve been meaning to call you out on this, because in some thread you said that NieR had one of the best soundtracks you’d heard in years. I went out and bought the soundtrack after that and listened to it. You sold it short – this is one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard, period. The track that has captivated me like none other is Kaine / Escape, and I used that in the RPG I run to show a journey through time, where the locations and the actions all changed, but the goal remained the same, and it fit that perfectly. The music in NieR is incredible; it never does just what you expect, there’s so much depth and nuance in it. I have listened to this soundtrack over almost anything else for a month now.
That’s not getting into the mad love affair I have with the Chrono games, my adoration of Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Mega Man, anything Hitoshi Sakimoto or Yoko Shimomura does, Xenogears, almost everything on Overlocked, PERSONA how could I forget Persona, and The World Ends With You, etc. Let me sum up by saying that every vacation I have taken over the last two years was to see live performances of video game music and leave it at that.
These are 5 of my faves:
Icewind Dale
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy IV
Metroid (original NES game)
Baldur’s Gate 2
Honorable mentions:
Killer 7 and Persona 3 and 4. Can’t say I loved every bit of music in these 2 but I thought their take on a video game soundtrack was unique. Oh, Arcanum also, for the same reason.
That post was arousing, and reminded me I still need to check out Nier. I am hoping the lack of Final Fantasy Tactics was a harmless mistake…
Oh god, I love, love, love gaming music, have hundreds of soundtracks, and there are so many choices I could pick, but my favorites include:
Really just anything from Jeremy Soule, including:
I could go on and on, as I really love all of his work that I’ve heard, but to continue, I also love:
Emperor of the Fading Suns for just how broody and dark it gets.
Fantasy General is one of my all-time faves for just being so damned good.
Interstate '76 for being one of the most funkadelic soundtracks ever, as well as fantastic driving music.
Any of the music from the Age of Wonders series for just being so perfect.
Any of the music from the Heroes of Might and Magic series, which I listen to all the time.
Homeworld for making me feel like I’m really in a space opera.
A new one to the list is inFamous for feeling epic, tense and having a lot of great musical momentum.
While I love all of the Mechwarrior music, my favorite has to be from Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries for being really the pinnacle of the music for the series, as well as, I feel, the best game.
Terminus is another favorite, but I couldn’t find any music for it. Probably my favorite music in any space sim.
I’ll stop there, though I could go on and on.
Really, that good? I’m gonna snag a copy for my own self and give it a listen. Thanks! :)
This is great, thanks!
I like the music from The 7th Guest by The Fat Man and Team Fat.
I’ve also enjoyed a lot of the music in the Myst series.
I think it’s worth mentioning that while I really like Jesper Kyd’s score for the Assassin’s Creed series, his Freedom Fighter’s soundtrack is equally fantastic.
Also, Amon Tobin’s work on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is worth mentioning again.
Looks like Lennie Moore’s score for Outcast hasn’t been mentioned yet, so I’ll throw that in. If you root around the web I think you can find MP3s, or just buy the game cheap off GoG.com…
Holy crap, is Nier the game anywhere near as awesome as its soundtrack? I am totally loving this.
And yeah, Jesper Kyd does some fantastic work.
shakes fist Ruuubinnnn! Beat me to I-76 and Emperor of The Fading Suns, blast you! But I still have:
Chalk up another vote for PS:T. I liked the music so much I ripped it and set it up so that it would play during Simcity 4.
Railroad Tycoon 2. The blues music in that went with the game perfectly. I ripped that and stuck it on a CD to put in my car. It’s hard to believe that no one has mentioned this great soundtrack yet.
Finally, a shout-out for Stones from Ultima. I happen to like the U5 Lazarus remake version the best. http://www.joxter.net/stones/stones-bard.mp3
Stones is lovely, though if I had to pick a single tune from the Ultimas I’d probably go with the “towne” theme from Ultima IV.
Definitely Daggerfall. Although it never sounds the same when I listen to it these days via youtube or something. Oh misremembered youth.
Oh yes, Outlaws, fantastic soundtrack. :)
Ahhh Daggerfall, yeah, it definitely sounds better through rose-colored headphones. ;)
Lots of great picks here!
I’d throw in also:
Uncharted 2 (particularly around the 1m mark)
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
For something more peppy and video-gamey, I like the music by Kinuyo Yamashita from most Castlevania games:
How about licensed songs in a game? I really loved the intro to Borderlands. It sets the mood quite well.
Also: Crazy Taxi. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!
Not to mention yer Rock Bands, Guitar Heros, and Grand Theft Autos…
Hah! I became a fan of The Offspring because of Crazy Taxi, and that’s still one of my favorite songs by them. Was so sad when all of that music was removed from the latest iterations of the game. :(