There’s some games I really love and like to listen to the soundtracks of them to put me back in the headspace of playing it. I can listen through and remember the levels, the moods and the beats of the story. It’s my favourite way to ‘replay’ a game, without having to actually replay it.
Some of my favourites are the Final Fantasy’s 6 and 7, Undertale, Night in the Woods, OFF, The World Ends With You and (video game adjacent) Friends at the Table.
Anyone do similar or just love any particular game soundtracks for the feel they give the world?
A recent automatic classic for me would be Nier: Automata, which is a case where I can’t bear to listen to the OST while doing anything else because I don’t want to give it new associations. Apart from that, I like the Final Fantasy XV OST a whole lot. Not too many other examples jump to mind in terms of things I’d listen to without prompting.
The World Ends with You is definitely a good call. I should give Night in the Woods a listen out of context.
My favourite part about listening out of context is that a lot of good soundtracks do fade into the background but worm their way into your brain regardless. I listened to Night in the Woods, and started to recognise songs despite not remembering them.
Crypt of the Necrodancer is my jam right now. It’s… kind of perfect?
I also always try to remind people of Kid Icarus Uprising’s OST.
Not only is it just great, the shmup sections have perfectly timed music, so action, dialogue and sound are always in sync. It’s awesome. (too bad the controls in that game are so cumbersome)
The Tony Hawk 4 Soundtrack is an all time classic. Where else can you go from De La Soul to Iron Maiden to NWA? For the more chiptunes feel Shovel Knight is my favourite of recent.
I think the soundtrack for Axiom Verge is one of the best in terms of how much it contributes to the aesthetic of the game. It’s also just really cool.
Gotta agree with @robowitch, Nier: Automata’s soundtrack is absolutely breathtaking.
Journey, The Banner Saga, and most of Austin Wintory’s work is pretty high on my list, too. Disasterpeace’s work on Hyper Light Drifter is incredible, and I will always love the Witcher 3’s soundtrack.
So many of these but some of the ones that have stuck with me over the years or new ones I love, or just stuff that really inspires me as a composer are:
Mega Man 2 (Takashi Tateishi)
Faxanadu (Jun Chikuma)
Turrican 2 (Chris Huelsbeck)
Monkey Island 2 (Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian)
Grim Fandango (Peter McConnell)
Little Big Adventure 2, Twinsen’s Odyssey (Phillippe Vachey)
NieR: Automata (Keiichi Okabe)
Chrono Trigger (Yasunori Mitsuda)
Shadow of the Colossus (Kow Otani)
Harlequin (Barry Leitch)
Journey (Austin Wintory)
Risk of Rain (Chris Christodoulou)
Goodness, there are so many. I feel bad that there’s only one woman on that list since I know there are plenty of great game composing women who deserve more spotlight. Who am I missing?
I’m kinda holding off on listening to Nier’s soundtrack because of spoiler aversion. Which seems silly, but there was a moment in Final Fantasy 1 that I didn’t get spoiled on because I made this choice, so I’m sticking to it.
I never really played any Final Fantasy 13, but I remember one of my flatmates played a lot of it around release. The song “The Yaschas Massif” I believe was a theme for an area good for grinding, at least I hope it was because he spent a long time there and that song is now ingrained in my soul.
It now serves as a reminder of my early university years and first time flatting, that, and the awful sound of those plastic Rock Band drums.
I always have the Elder Scrolls soundtracks on standby for when I need some good chill-out background music. Likewise with Halo. The Halo Reach and Halo 3 ODST soundtracks in particular (dat sax).
The Persona soundtracks are always incredible as well. Persona 5 is quickly becoming a top 10 soundtrack for me with P3P/Persona 3 FES already in my top 5.
Outside of those big series, another few stand-outs for me would be Remember Me, Shatter and Hotline Miami.
