The soundtrack is an important thing in videogames. It can ruin everything or make everything better. What are your favourite soundtracks in videogames? Let's tell us in this very original thread.


I'll start mentioning the electronical-mystic madness of Metal Gear Solid 2's "Arsenal's Guts", of which I can't post the link to the song because, apperently, in GogGalaxy you can't copy/paste things and don't want to write all the URL.

Carmageddon 2 is the game that introduced me to Iron Maiden. It's hard to compete with Iron Maiden.

Final Fantasy IX got a beautiful soundtrack.

The OST to Stardew Valley makes me nostalgic even though I played the game a couple of months ago.

The Mega Man series OSTs is pure blipblop goodness.

Good OST: To the Moon

God of War, Shadow of the Colossus and a few of the Command & Conquers are my favourite. Some of my least favourites include Deus Ex and JRPGs especially Final Fantatsy. They're just awful.

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My favorites on GOG:
Monkey Island 1 & 2: the original OST is charismatic enough, but the re-recorded music in the special editions is astonishingly beautiful.

Not on GOG:
Age of Empires I & II: great to listen to, even if you have never played the games.

My favourite soundtracks include but are not limited to;

Bastion
Shatter
DustForce
Remember Me
Thomas Was Alone
Dark Cloud 2
Spyro the Dragon 1, 2, 3

Deadly Premonition had this strange soundtrack, sometimes it just didn't fit anything that was happening on screen. I remember a scene of tension, the main characyer was in real danger, the Other characters were like "Oh God he's in real danger! Lets find him quickly!" and then you search for him (slowly) with a very out of place song. Search it on Youtube, write: Deadly Premonition OST- Deputy Willie's One Though Chap.

But Deadly Premonition was a mess, so this was kind of fitting, I guess.

Outcast and lately Bastion.

Some GTA games, especially San Andreas, have introduced me to some older, quite good, pieces of music that have went under my radar earlier. Like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdOkQ6THDVw I think generall Deus Ex soundtrack isn't that great, but not that poor either. Just forgettable. But there is one combat music in the game that I quite like, this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3gp5XI0XCw

Just so suitable when enemy soldiers spot you and start the alarm. The music has enough sense of urgency. But the rest of the music, including the title music, is quite meh frankly. I think it is partly related to the music apparently being tracker music, when rest of the games in 2000 were already using fully digitized (pre-recorded) music.

It pains me to know that the PS2 version of Deus Ex had a better sounding, fully digitized title music:

PC version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxMf4BdVq_g

PS2 version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZU6XyFxCA0

Best: Dragon Quest series, much of the Final Fantasy series, Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight, Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie (and Donkey Kong 64), Elder Scrolls series (except Battlespire), SaGa Frontier 1/2, some Castlevania games, Gargoyle's Quest 1 and 2, The End is Nigh (even though (or perhaps because) it's based on public domain works), many others that I can't think of off hand.

Worst: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (it's one of the reasons I quit that game, another being Hard mode being a bit too hard), Crazy Bus (unless you're looking for bad randomly generated music)

Strange: Any game that uses aleatoric music or otherwise does things out of the box. For exmaple, Metroid 2, (from what I understand) Spore and No Man's Land, Pokemon 1st gen (when audio glitches are involved), Crazy Bus could go here.

So many good ones! Music in games has come a long way. Recent favourites of mine include Austin Wintory's Abzû (and Journey!), Laura Shigihara's Rakuen, Olivier Deriviere's Remember Me, Joris de Man's Horizon Zero Dawn, and, of course, Keiichi Okabe's NieR:Automata. These are just a few though, plenty of great soundtracks out there!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

MDK

Volgarr the Viking

... just to list a few of my all-time favorites.

Worst ones? Hm. Maybe the majority of Japanese arcade shooters, for me. Also, I remember being interested in Bayonetta, but being put off by some of the frantic elevator jazz pieces that I found super jarring in relation to the game's setting and overall atmosphere.

Outside of a few games that were already mentioned (Shovel Knight, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Nier: Automata, etc.), a few more come to mind:

-Sonic Mania
-Ori and the Blind Forest
-Mario Galaxy

As for the worst...I'm having a hard time coming up with any examples. I guess I could say Crazy Bus, but I'm not sure that would count (really seemed like that was made as a joke). It's just one song of the soundtrack, but there's this...thing from Resident Evil: Director's Cut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kcF7E69C6Q

Hm some of my favourites:

The Witcher, all of them are really good I think. Actually considering to buy that concert thats on offer here.

Myst/Riven

Anything I've heard by Jack Wall was great, especially Myst III and Mass Effect 2.

I also really like the soundtracks to Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Human Revolution (like others said the first one was kinda hit and miss. The Paris tracks were great tho). And similar: the Shadowrun games

Bioshock, original and licensed stuff fit really well I think.

Baldurs Gate, especially in Throne of Bhaal, very Basil Poledouris/Conan styled.

EDIT:
Forgot The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, really liked that one. Also some of the tracks in the Black Mirror games