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The Best Game Music

Started by The Boston Crab, July 19, 2019, 05:13:30 PM

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Before we begin, could I please ask for even one sentence to explain your choices because this kind of thread devolves quickly into a series of links (see Oscillations for further details).


My first one is the Dark Souls character creation music, called Souls of the Fire:


https://youtu.be/cVa-ZeW0Tgo


It's a bit grandiose to say that it encapsulates everything about the game in musical form, but that's what I I'm going to say. It's beautiful and hopeful and uplifting on some level but wrought with melancholy and decaying grandeur. It's also very repetitive and gradually fades and slows and feels close to dying but it also feels like it could go on forever, very much like the accursed world of the game. Whenever I start a new game and I'm not sure whether I fancy getting stuck in again, this hooks me every time.

Poobum

I'm choosing a snippet from the soundscape of the Gravemind level of Halo 2. High Charity is stunning visually and conceptually, it's a fantastic sci fi landscape that really delivers on the premise of the Covenant being this ancient unassailable power so much greater than humanity. I think the music is surprisingly sensitive, it conveys the melancholy of this old and magnificent civilization tearing itself apart. Uprising does a good job of carrying on theme, that something great has been lost. The Covenant were a great enemy in the original trilogy, beautiful, brutal, treated by Bungie with a certain empathy. I hate that the were redesigned to be so monstrous in the newer ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekSPl1tt84&t

Cerys


bgmnts

This is basically just going to be Akira Yamaoka and Nobuo Uematsu. Maybe Harry Gregson Williams and Graeme Norgate (Killer Instinct soundtrack is fantastic)

Probably a contested opinion but Uematsu's best ever work was on Lost Odyssey, not a Final Fantasy. Listen to this absolute belter:

https://youtu.be/9vbsI9xFuo8

If that isn't a piece of endgame boss battle music I don't know what is.

Kelvin

Metroid Prime's soundtrack is one of the things that elevates it from a brilliant game to an actual masterpiece imo.

Main theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfGsArRQjKE

Just really captures the alien nature of the world you're exploring, as well as the corrupting nature of Phazon. Bit where it crechendos near the end always gives me chills.

samadriel

As always, I'll nominate the Ultima IV soundtrack, which can be summed up in a bit over 7 minutes, but which I find both beautifully simple and fiercely nostalgic.

The Toejam & Earl soundtrack sounds a lot like the peppier bits of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters album, and really fits in with the game's take on the 'stoner double-act' archetype.  Here's "Toejam Jammin", which is pretty much the main theme: https://youtu.be/301acFz0a_A

Thursday

Haven't we done this thread dozens of times? Not having a go, just not sure what's supposed to be different about this one?

Cerys


Sin Agog

Genuinely spent a whole summer playing the Vib Ribbon soundtrack every morning.  It's just so, damned, joyous, with its fantastic j-pop songs slowed down and sped up like a kid using their big brother's decks for the very first time.  I think Sunny Day is my fave thing on there.  Never listened to the sequel (or the other Katamari album for that matter), though I doubt it'll sound anywhere near as vital.

NoSleep

Quote from: Sin Agog on July 21, 2019, 12:49:49 PM
Genuinely spent a whole summer playing the Vib Ribbon soundtrack every morning.

Every audio CD that you owned? The Barcode Battler of audio.

kidney

Nominating the Neotokyo OST by Ed Harrison (0edit). It's over 2 hours of excellent IDM with fantastic, intricate instrumentation and some drum and bass influences.

Poobum

The music levels from Rayman. Dragon Slayer drove me to near insanity, and there's the fact you gotta do it again on the 8-bit, god the 8-bit levels were tricky bastards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NDtULPpCxk Normal Dragon Slayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K0gXL2PmFU 8-Bit bastard.

The music from Shovel Knight gave me the boost I needed to carry on, cause I'm so very shit. Sad to say my gaming brain is shot, just an empty hive of dumb bees making moron honey.

Mole Knight theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2-1OWLCGMQ
Propeller Knight theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ViaW63n2dQ&t

druss

Deus Ex Human Revolution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7fNPiNiNc

I remember when I first heard this I was so pumped to play it, having been a big fan of the original. Felt so epic, and then the reviews came in and I thought "this is it, a game for the ages".

I still listen to this song all the time.

Despite owning it for nearly ten years, I have yet to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

magval

Quote from: Thursday on July 21, 2019, 09:15:55 AM
Haven't we done this thread dozens of times? Not having a go, just not sure what's supposed to be different about this one?

Surely not everybody posting here now was around the last time the thread was done.

More surely still, people like talking to other people about the things they love, and more than once at that.

Twed

Remake the threads, I say.

TBC, the answer to most of your recent threads is "FF7". Nothing wrong with that, of course.

Jakey Chesterton

Theme from when you save by sitting on the couches with the girl in Ico:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVVc2TOQ3NE

Didn't even really enjoy playing Ico that much, but that captures the vibe of it perfectly - poignant/simple/tender/naive.That sequence being repeated in different areas built up your connection to the girl more than plot detail could.

Abnormal Palm

Quote from: Jakey Chesterton on July 21, 2019, 11:53:01 PM
Theme from when you save by sitting on the couches with the girl in Ico:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVVc2TOQ3NE

Didn't even really enjoy playing Ico that much, but that captures the vibe of it perfectly - poignant/simple/tender/naive.That sequence being repeated in different areas built up your connection to the girl more than plot detail could.

What a beautiful selection. I have never played Ico but I can hear that this music is truly special. I feel peaceful and melancholic. There is one sentence from Winnie the Pooh, "we didn't know we were making memories, we just thought we were having fun".

My selection is from Tomb Raider which I have not played for many years until this week. The oboe, the harp, the chorale. It is an incredible music. It sounds like the ancient civilisation, natural world, a man in a dignified civilisation, fear of the unknown. It is a true beauty.

https://youtu.be/fIWLT0QVPzw


Jakey Chesterton

#17
Quote from: Abnormal Palm on July 24, 2019, 09:58:38 AM
What a beautiful selection. I have never played Ico but I can hear that this music is truly special. I feel peaceful and melancholic. There is one sentence from Winnie the Pooh, "we didn't know we were making memories, we just thought we were having fun".

My selection is from Tomb Raider which I have not played for many years until this week. The oboe, the harp, the chorale. It is an incredible music. It sounds like the ancient civilisation, natural world, a man in a dignified civilisation, fear of the unknown. It is a true beauty.

https://youtu.be/fIWLT0QVPzw

Nice, that. Didn't play Tomb Raider enough to remember the soundtrack, so surprised to hear that's what it's like. Reminds me of some of the terrain music from heroes of might and magic 2, which was really ambitious and often operatic soundtrack-wise:

https://www.greatestgamemusic.com/soundtracks/heroes-of-might-and-magic-ii-soundtrack/

Jakey Chesterton


Abnormal Palm

Indeed, this makes me feel like the new age music of Yanni, sounds like from both the future and the past. Let's look at some crystals and grow a moustache! Beautiful, strange music. I've never played this game but I can appreciate the beauty nevertheless. Perhaps the 90s will be remembered as the best, the last days before we lost our innocence. I mean, society.

I present another beautiful piece from the best decade, 90s. Although I express no originality with this selection, it is nevertheless a true beauty. The slow sadness of losing hope in a house of desperation. It is from Resident Evil 1 and it always makes me think about save the game. It is the Save Room music and it's never change for one hour.

https://youtu.be/Vu3RGFkfVgI

Thursday

Since I've gone through the usual Final Fantasy/Silent Hill stuff when we've had these threads in the past, I'll pick something from Destiny 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf8q95gPAMU

The music from "The Whisper" mission, for being very distinct. 

It's important to highlight how this was introduced into the game - with absolutely no mention or hint that it was happening at all. Just waited for plays to discover it and then word of mouth spread across the community that people had found this thing. The area itself had a very different structure to a usual mission, and there's not really any dialogue during the quest or anything that really explains what's happening. Just allows the music and environment design to speak for itself.

bgmnts

Has anyone posted any Jesper Kyd yet?

Twed

Parappa the Rapper has tunes that will stay with me until the day I die (because I. Forgot. To. Close. The. Door.)

Cerys

There's one piece of game music that has stayed with me for almost thirty years, despite the fact that I only encountered it a couple of times, while babysitting.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwVxi0FZE4U

NoSleep

The awesomely strange and wonderful Captain Blood on the AtariST had title music by Jean Michel Jarre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFrcwk5my7g

Mister Six

The Super Mario Bros. theme. Pure, simple, brilliant fun that perfectly encapsulates the bright 'n' breezy tone of the opening level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTa6Xbzfq1U

Shout-out to the underground theme with its deranged breakdown about 10 seconds in, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0SuIMUoShI

Twed

Hah, it's enjoyable to listen to that with the words "deranged breakdown" in mind.

Kelvin

The Donkey Kong Country series' music is possibly the best thing about it.

A few highlights from the original games:

Aquatic Ambiance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPpVplHiDE  (i suppose there might be a couple of people left on Earth who haven't heard this)
Mining Melancholy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6257KUeIA
Stickerbrush Symphony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J67nkzoJ_2M

And then shit gets real with Tropical Freeze:

Scorch and Torch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFP4wn0dejc
Seashore War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boqy0Q-4c_M

And special shout out to Smash Bros Ultimate's incredible remix of Gangplank Galleon, complete with nonsense rap:

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

Some really wonderful stuff there, Kelvin. I've never even played DKC2 but those two pieces are amazing. I think I'll give 2 and 3 a go, in fact. One thing that gets me about the DK games is that there's no reason for the music to be so deep and emotional. It could all be this vaguely Um Bongo Jungle Book catchy groove stuff but instead, you've got David Wise making forty year old blokes cry on YT. And Aquatic Ambience does that for me more often than not. It's so unnecessarily beautiful.

This is my favourite from Tropical Freeze; it sounds a bit like the theme from a morning chat show or home renovation programme at first but once you get into it, there's something about the melody and instrumentation which cuts deeper. It's Windmill Hills.

https://youtu.be/o92S2YsarnI

Kelvin

DKC3 is okay, but unremarkable. DKC2 is the best one. Too easy, but with really good level and charachter design, a nice, creepy atmosphere (for a game about chimps fighting crocodiles), and obviously a wonderful soundtrack.