End of Year 2022: Favorite Game Music

General Discussion Events
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When our hands are busy, our ears are open. Music in games has this way of sticking with us. As we play around in their world, music sets a backdrop for the lives we lead inside it.

In this thread, you’ll be able to share some of your favorite game soundtracks you heard this year. How did it enhance your experience? How did it set the mood? How did it move you? In 2022, like any other year, we got to hear a huge range of styles, from upbeat jams to melancholy ambiance. But no matter what style of music you heard, this scored your experience elegantly.

[Hub Thread]

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The Live a Live remake has some serious bops. A favorite is Go! Go! Steel Titan

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Megalomania from Live a Live is the easy winner. Sadly Square Enix are much less fun that the games they make and it’s almost impossible to find the song on YouTube so here’s a remix:

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This is where I’m gonna throw in a nod for Pokémon, a series that has been putting out nothing but banger soundtracks for a quarter century. inevitably, whenever a new one of these comes out, I manage to forget this — and in the first couple hours, some track comes along and reminds me how goddamn good Masuda and Game Freak’s whole composition team are at making music. This time, it was the Team Star Grunt Theme.

This theme plays, at most, 10-15 times in the entire game. You don’t fight a bunch of grunts like you used to, since they overhauled that whole system, and most of them are also pretty weak trainers with at most two underleveled pokemon. And they made maybe the best enemy battle track in the series for it. (One that also feels oddly fitting for a bunch of outcast, generally queer-coded victims of bullying). It rules.

And then you fight their “boss,” and that theme is even better (not embedding because the thumbnail is a bit of a spoiler and I don’t seem to be able to blur it). Ahhhhhh!

We’re not done though. From the other end of the spectrum, here’s the theme for the Treasures of Ruin

This track is for a quartet of dark-type legendaries that all developed from a set of cursed objects and were sealed away for millennia. It’s incredibly eerie, matched by their designs (which rule). It’s so atmospheric and excellent and good.

And you know what, I’ll throw in the Tera Raid theme too. Because, while it is kinda silly the level to which people on social media platforms that begin with T have been crediting everything in on this soundtrack to Toby Fox, this is the one he said that he made, and you can really hear it.

Listen, I don’t want to clog this thread with every track I loved from these games, because I would end up writing a thousand words and probably get deservedly flagged for spam. I just need to say that spending a couple of hours surfing this OST, even if you have no commitment to Pokémon at all, is a good time.

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First off, Citizen Sleeper cycles through a lot of tracks while you play, setting up a relaxing yet kinda sad atmosphere, ideal to immerse yourself in the world of the Eye:

The Spiderheck OST is full of energetic, swinging and banging tunes:

Olivier Deriviere made a very good soundtrack for Plague Tale Requiem this year… but also for Vampire Swansong, which has some fantastic brooding tracks:

The character themes in Potionomics are fun and become more familiar and cozy as you spend time with them, almost in the Ace Attorney style:

Signalis has the perfect mix of percussive violence and wistful arrangements:

And the Case of the Golden Idol accompanies his macabre mysteries with some truly discomfiting music that I still keep listening to anyway:

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Spoilers for Metal: Hellsinger:

It’s not that there are any really bad tracks in Hellsinger. It’s all solid music; well-executed by some great studio musicians plus some big names in metal. But you know Serj Tankian’s supposed to be here. Suddenly it’s time for the final boss. The Red Judge towers above you, prepared to strike you down. And then this track starts:

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I could chill out and read to this tune all day

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I can’t find the live a live remake ost on YouTube either. Here’s some 30 sec samples from the game though:

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It’s not been a year where many soundtracks have made it into my music rotation. Perfectly pleasant to nod my head to while I’m playing the games, but not too much I’d listen to on Bandcamp or Spotify.

Except NORCO. A very solid electronic atmospheric soundtrack that, also, has some incredible anarchist doom metal. It takes a great game to feature both of these tracks and still feel like there’s a unified sound to all of it, and NORCO totally pulls it off. It’s also kinda rare that I really love a video game trying to do metal, most of the time it just feels like ‘video game music that someone is shredding aggressively over’, but wow! I ended up listening to most of Thou’s discography after playing this game; I’m just enamoured with their sound.


Also, my spouse is leaning over my shoulder to ensure I give a shout-out to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and specifically the Moebius Battle theme. It has several variants, but here’s the main one:

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When it comes to grand orchestral soundtracks, there’s no topping Elden Ring for 2022 games that feature the most dramatic strings, horns, percussions, and Gregorian chanting.

The title theme reflects Elden Ring’s clear tonal shift from the dark, oppressive atmosphere of the Souls games to an epic adventure that’s not without its daunting challenges but ultimately wants to see you basking in glorious triumph.

i mean how can you not get pumped up to start your heroic journey in the lands between after hearing that when you load up the game for the first time

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The game pulls off the remarkable feat of making a memorable melody out of this bombastic style that can so easily sound like a cacophony in the heat of the battle with the Godskin Apostle theme:

sure it helps that you fight these assholes multiple times in your 100+ hour playthrough, on top of the repeated attempts because they’re also fucking hard as shit

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From Software hasn’t completely distanced itself from the macabre mood of its previous games’ soundtrack, as evidenced by Godrick the Grafted’s theme. It echoes my favorite track in Bloodborne (and in all of From’s games tbh), which is the theme of Ludwig the Accursed/Holy Blade, in its use of sinister strings, big brass and percussive hits, and the 3/4 waltz beat that melds both majesty and madness that the two figures represent.

godrick may be the red-headed step-child of the golden lineage, but he’s got the godliest track of them all

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okay that was a lie because the theme of the first elden lord is also sick as hell

Elden Ring Soundtrack OST - Godfrey, First Elden Lord - YouTube

It’s more appropriately dignified in the first half than his desperate and shameless scion’s theme, with the vocals being more pronounced and the strings more stirring. Then there’s the relentless driving sound of the second half that captures the boss’ primal rage finally unshackled.

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There are a couple more tracks I want to highlight, but I’ll reserve them for the other End of Year topics where they also showcase how much Elden Ring can create such unforgettable moments with its music.

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Also just wanna mention OlliOlli World for its super cool licensed chill-hop/jazztronica soundtrack!

This is the first track that plays whenever you boot up the game, and it couldn’t be any more different than the tone of Elden Ring’s title theme, but it accomplishes the same goal of setting the vibes immediately, and the vibes are, as the kids say, immaculate.

Before I completely flood this topic with YouTube links, I’ll just drop a handful more standout tracks (that I didn’t already mention in my write-up in the What game are you playing thread):

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It’s my GOTY so I’ll probably end up mentioning it in a ton of these threads but… Kirby and the Forgotten Land has some absolute bangers in it. The Kirby series in general has some fantastic music but something about this one’s whole OST just hit for me. Especially the intro song.

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Also gotta shout out the Tunic ost for having some of the best ethereal moods this year.

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A stellar year for game music for me its soooo hard to narrow it down. First up, Genshin Impact got a new area and with it a massive new soundtrack. The music of this game continues to blow me away and Sumeru’s use of sitar, ouds, tar, and other instruments from South East Asia, the Middle East, and the Caucasus allowed them to explore new sounds to mix in with some of the game’s signature motifs. The stand out track though must be the Port Ormos theme which is a hard swerve from the slow, dreamy atmosphere of the sountrack into stright up dance music.

We Are OFK. They did it y’all. They put out a game OST that truly stands on its own as a pop EP. I haven’t listened to a game OST this often since Sayonara Wild Hearts. I wanna share the second track which is where the album and game really clicked with me; cross post with best moments of the year.

Judy’s Theme, Bells of Laguna Bend, from Cyberpunk 2077. God what a strange game. Wandering into this quest feels like walking out of the game entirely. A slow, quiet exploration of memory as a physical place accompanied by by a haunting track you swear you’ve heard somewhere, sometime, but can’t quite recall.

The bonfires of Dark Souls. When you play a game using speakers, the music will spill out into the rest of the house and come to color it with those experiences. Standing in the kitchen after losing a difficult boss fight or while planning where to explore next with the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil drifting in; opening the front door after a quick store run to be greeted the tones of Majula, these sounds became embedded in the long nights of play, the unwinding from school and freelance work, and the frustration and elation of the series.

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Santa brought me Pokemon this year and I have new answer to this question:

(Spoilerering because it is a spoiler)

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - Penny Battle Music (HQ) - YouTube

I think my brain is exploding listening to this. I would freak out so hard at the club to this track.

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As a lover of rhythm games, who would I be if I didn’t give a nod a to a rhythm game in this category? That said, gotta give a shout out to my girl Miku and Project Diva Megamix+.

Also hell yeah @DiamondDay, glad to see We are OFK getting some love. Fool’s Gold is great, but I think my fave is Infuriata.

Also I can’t get that damned Bobapocalypse jingle out of my head and whoever came up with it deserves a raise.

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I rarely listen to game OSTs outside of games but there are two this year where that wasn’t true:
Citizen Sleeper and Neon White

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I didn’t actually get a chance to play it, but it’s Machine Girl, so I’ll definitely second Neon White