Which video game has the best music?

[Squares, the Cube]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

Soundtrack I used to jam to growing up was Jet Set Radio/Jet Set Radio Future. Had the entire soundtrack on a burned CD.

[ilikexd]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

early runescape, it's amazing how memorable it makes the game

[DaBackpack]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

I've prolly said this already but Castlevania 2

just can't beat this

[PixlSM]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

the answer is still yume nikki btw

[EzExZeRo7497]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

From what I can recall:
KIKIYAMA - Yume Nikki
C418 - Minecraft: Volume Alpha
Grant Kirkhope, Graeme Norgate & David Clynick - Perfect Dark
Josh Whelchel - The Spirit Engine 2
Junya Nakano, Masashi Hamauzu, Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy X
Michiru Oshima - ICO
Kan Gao - To The Moon
Siddhartha Barnhoorn - Antichamber
Yoko Shimomura - Legend of Mana
Various Artists - Life Is Strange

Yume Nikki is by far the strongest (in the sense that I can listen to the entire OST in isolation and consistently enjoy it) OST, though I find myself listening to individual tracks from the ICO, Perfect Dark, and Final Fantasy X OSTs more.

Can't really answer which OSTs that I feel enhance the experience of the game the most reliably, though I personally find it really hard to separate Journey, Perfect Dark, and Antichamber and their respective OSTs.

[flipsta_lombax]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

I thoroughly enjoyed the Donkey Kong Country series tracks growing up, but of course I would take a more biased route and share with y'all the Ratchet & Clank (2002) OST:

- David Bergeaud is an underrated, multi-instrumental genius
- futuristic, funky, orchestrated tracks that elegantly coalesced with the platformer gameplay
- it fails to fade in the background, it's all catchy as fuck (i.e. Rilgar [Sewer Escape])

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/vgm/bestvgm2011.htm

thank you for this!

[DaBackpack]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

The Sakura Taisen series has some really great songs

Aaaaa~ subarashii... Paris kageki-dan!

Great animation too:

with the lyrics, the music gives off a few Muv-Luv vibes

[MixMasterLar]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

I know posted in here before but without looking at my old answers right now I would have to say my top off-the-head-at-this-point-in-time 5 would be

Ridge Racer R4 (Just ordered the 20th Anniversary Soundtrack)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake (those arrangements are sick af dawg)
Metal Gear Solid (any of the first 3)
Castlevania NES Series (2 is probably the best inho. Silence of Day is GOAT)
THPS1 (Recently replayed this for the channel and it's awesome)

Probably the best of all time is Smash Ultimate but that's almost cheating

BRB finding my old post

-----------------------------

I am legit surprised I haven't posted in this yet. I actually really value OSTs in games and anime, and have been considering doing a video on the topic. A video that will likely never get made because that would be a massive project.

That said---I'll use DPB's category to answer the thread

individual songs?
Are these songs judged in a vacuum, or are they judged in the context of the games they came with?

Assuming we're excluding titles such as DDR and IIDX (which I always found to be weird, but I get they kind of suited for their own thread) the one single track that will always pull me back into the game it's from is The Best is Yet To Come from Metal Gear Solid. This is very much in the context of me playing it as a 9 year old.

I'm also a huge fan of You're Not Here from Silent Hill 3, especially the full version with that kickass guitar in the last half. I don't particularly have strong memories paying this before hearing the song and I think it stands up fine in a vacuum.



Is it the most consistent soundtrack?

The most consistently kickass and recommendable soundtracks are easily Guilty Gear XX, Ridge Racer R4, Medal of Honor / Medal of Honor Underground, Katamari Damacy, Most of the older Final Fantasy titles and Chrono Trigger. I would imagine that if you like any track off of any of these then you probably just don't like the OST itself. I personally think they hold up well outside the game.

In context of their games; Again both Medal of Honors, Silent Hill 2 and 3, The Mega Man and Megaman X series, Parasite Eve and Resident Evil 7 are pretty good and do what they need to.

Somewhere in the middle is Mirror's Edge. I liked it in the game, but it's better on it's own.



"best of all time",
or "best of THEIR time?"

So the thing here is that "Best of their time" has pretty agreeable winners for most eras of gaming. Of course anything Koji Kondo touches is in the running, and honestly the same goes for Hip Tanaka, Nabuo Uematsu, Yoko Shimomura, etc. I find this version of the question to not be near as fun unless you try to find the ones people forgot.

For instance, Pyscho Soldier has the first recorded vocals in a video game on hardware predating the Neo Geo. It was actually a pretty big deal and the 2 pop songs used are catchy enough on their own. For the time (mid 1980s) there wasn't anything near that level and it would get a nod just on those merits. But is it a good OST? Nooooooooooope. Unless you're listening to the 2 pop songs re recorded to not sound like theyre being played on a potato there is nothing there worth going back to.

So I like to try and judge it of all time, the issue there is nostalgia is powerful and makes us think that the Genesis had a good OST on there that wasn't Sonic. So we will likely never come to consensus on Gaming's OST GOAT unless we all still just say Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI like we've been to try and sidestep the arguments....because everyone can kind of get behind those on some level.

But if I had to pick my favorite OST of all time I have way too many found memories of Super Mario Bros 3 not to pick it. More objectively, I might choose Xenogears as the Best of All Time.

I feel like I barely even talked about some of my favorite OSTs and I already gave too many answers, lol. Namco in the late 90s and 2000s had really good music for their games. Yoko Shimomura's work with Capcom was kickass and her work in Square has been a joy. I will always love Koji Kondo, and to be honest I really, really love most fighting game OSTs, especially SNK's (which is admittedly better if you listen to the live versions).

Chrono Trigger, Mario 3, and SNK are absolutely worth mentioning

[xXOpkillerXx]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

In terms of music that fits the vibe I had playing the games, the impact is has on the game, and with a super biased opinion:

- DKC2
- JSRF

[ULTIMEGA]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

Any of the GTA games.

Those don't count since it's mostly copyrighted music.

[_DJ Vinyl_]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

Super Mario Galaxy

[FirstMaple8]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

persona 5

[Shadow_God_10]

Re: Which video game has the best music?

Suikoden II