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There are many video games in the world. Each has it's own style of gameplay, art, story, and music. When you play a video game, some of these things stick out and make your experience more enjoyable and memorable. For me, and many others, music is the thing that sticks out the most just because so many games have good quality music. So in this thread, post the 5 games that you think have the BEST quality music.

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And don't drive your car off a cliff like I did. Girl, no man is worth 10 points on your license.

Threads like these have happened before, but I'll post anyhow. Keep in mind that with these sorts of questions I never post the same way twice. No particular order.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (****ing awesome, Michiru Yamane is a genius; great atmosphere, going between creepy and groovy at the right times, unbelievable samples, some of the best game music ever)

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (while the game wasn't as good as it could have been, I have to say that its soundtrack is probably Sakuraba's best effort in a pretty damn good body of work)

Chrono Cross (Chrono Trigger is far and away the better game, but Cross is Mitsuda's masterpiece; while his talents are pretty diverse, he has an incredible knack for sounding "pleasant", and Cross has one of my favorite world map tunes ever)

Final Fantasy VI (this ties with FF IV to be my favorite FF soundtrack; if Uematsu's style really comes into its own with FF IV, this is the game where he gets the best out of the Super Famicom sound system, with excellent tunes and sound quality on all fronts)

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (this soundtrack, while not quite as epic as the four preceeding titles, really appeals to the metalhead in me; imagine the dark atmosphere from the recent PS1 and PS2 Castlevania games and then mix it with some crunchy death metal and tangy electronica - the combination is delicious)

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Silent Hill
Zelda
Final Fantasy
Mario
One spare undecided slot going for just 49.99. Paypal accepted.

This post has been edited by BASSsic on 31st January 2006 01:20

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Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.

http://slightly-bitter.blog.co.uk

Xenogears - (Mitsuda did well in Xgears. "Alpha and Omega" is awesome and 'Id" it's another good composition. His work in Chrono Trgger with Uematsu is also worthy of mentioning)

Mega Man- (I mean.. c'mon, Power Metal anyone. Ever since a lil kid, MM's fast metal music has hooked me on all the series' games. MM X 1 "STORM OWL" it's a gaming classic!)

Final Fantasy SERIES- (...)

Resident Evil- (A few sharths everytime I play this game, not only the scenaruio scares your ass off, the music adds more to the suspense)

Halo- ( AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA... <--- sorry!, the Intro music is one of my favorites)

... those are just some, AZURIK had some nice music too!

This post has been edited by SaffireWeapon on 31st January 2006 16:41

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

Quote (BASSic)

One spare undecided slot going for just 49.99. Paypal accepted.

Would you be willing to sell for only $30?

Quote (SaffireWeapon)

MM X 1 "STORM OWL" it's a gaming classic!

You might be thinking of "Storm Eagle" from MMX1. However, I happen to like Storm Owl of MMX4 more than that one. I LOVE the "i VI VII III" (minor key) progression.

Anyway, back to games with impressive music:

Before I really start, a disclaimer: I don't really know too many videogames, so I can't say too much about series I don't know--don't come yelling at me with "YOU FORGOT DRAGON QUEST AND XENOGEARS" or something like that, 'kay?

(Especially since I think that at least one DQ game should probably deserve an award, even though I can't say for sure since I haven't played them.)

For a first entry, let's go back to the old days, of the 8-bit NES. Immense talent was poured into that system, resulting in some stellar soundtracks. You might not have a taste for so-called "chip-tunes", but there are truly musically accomplished soundtracks on systems like this and the Game Boy. Candidates include...

Super Mario Bros. 3
Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse
Mega Man 6 (I'd put Mega Man 5 but both of them are about equally good technically and MM6 is superior musically, IMO)
Duck Tales
Final Fantasy III
Kirby's Adventure

The first standard-setting hand-held system, the Game Boy, had its set of great tunes. Candidates include:

Tail 'Gator
Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal
Tetris
Super Mario Land 2
Super Mario Land 3
Donkey Kong (1994 GB edition)

The SNES marked the beginning of the golden age of videogame music, to use a very cliché term to describe this topic. Often one of the several systems praised for having some of the best music, its candidates include:

Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 3: Super Mario RPG
Super Metroid
Super Castlevania IV
Dracula X
Tales of Phantasia (first of two nominations)
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI
Mega Man X
Mega Man X3
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
Super Mario Kart
Kirby Superstar

The Game Boy Advance, described by some to be essentially a portable SNES, brought both compatability with old GB chiptunes PLUS SNES-like quality, along with a horde of new and excellent games. Candidates include:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Metroid Fusion
Metroid: Zero Mission

As for newer systems, the Nintendo 64 and the Sony Playstation really upped the standard of quality for music on non-handheld consoles. Sound generators became extraordinarily powerful and detailed, and even independently-recorded audio was possible (starting with the PS). I am not too familiar with most of these systems, but I'll name a few games that have soundtracks that either I personally think rank pretty high or that other people have praised.

Playstation/Playstation 2:

Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy Tactics
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Katamari Damacy
Mega Man X4
Tales of Phantasia
Xenogears
Dance Dance Revolution (maybe this entry doesn't count because it's music-oriented and rather genre-specific)
Chrono Cross

Nintendo 64:

Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros.
Star Fox 64
Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness

Nintendo GameCube:

Metroid Prime

And a few more miscellaneous titles:

Mega Man Battle and Chase (Saturn?)
Sonic 2 (Genesis)
Sonic 3 (Genesis)

---Okay, hot darn, picking out the top five from this is going to be hard.

I'd say my top five choices would be (in no particular order)

+ Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA): slightly edges out the GBA Cv games and both GBA Metroid games. Accomplished symphonic style that matches the gameplay excellently, demonstrating beautiful command of instrumentation and situational choreography. (Despite the sucky plot.)
+ Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS): along with all the other great things about this game, the soundtrack just kicks ass. While it may not be perfect, the quality is analogous to the game's use of 3D graphics in a 2D environment. "Overkill", perhaps, but one that extraordinarily beautifies the game. (Just try not to cringe when the characters speak.)
+ Mega Man 6: Excellent musical ideas orchestrated exceedingly well. I don't know if this soundtrack can really be made much better, in fact. While some particular tracks (such as the boss battle track) could be better, the overall quality is very high, due to especially memorable and extremely well-written tracks like Wind Man's and Blizzard Man's stage themes. Bonus points go to a summary of each Robot Master, with stage theme clips, as part of the credits.
+ tie: Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI: Yasunori Mitsuda's magnum opus and Nobuo Uematsu's best soundtrack for SNES compete for this spot. I don't think I even have any more interesting words of praise for either soundtrack, having gone through a bunch in the preceeding paragraphs, but I don't really need to say anything for people to enjoy them and hear them shine. Near-perfect choreography (which Mitsuda does better), thematic quality (which Uematsu does better), and overwhemingly impressive orchestration (which is about a toss-up) define both of these soundtracks.

+ This last spot is left open.

Edit

ACTUALLY...several items are in order:

1. BASSic reminded me that I forgot to list The Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past in my list of SNES games with great music.

2. My listing of Katamari Damacy was purely out of reading other people's praise for its soundtrack on the internet. I have never seen the game in action--the closest I've come is seeing We Love Katamari.

3. I want to revise my choices. The following list is revised, because I think I forgot about Super Mario RPG.

REVISED LIST

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Mega Man 6
Chrono Trigger/Final Fantasy VI
Super Mario RPG

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 2nd February 2006 03:18

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Your buying my slot for 30 bucks and leaving it spare? Fine by me, just pay up.

PS: No 'slot' puns, this is apparantly a family site.

PPS: Oh yeah, the topic, I would just like to say, Katamari, good choice, GMH! (You don't show a lack of video game knowdledge at all, other than snubbing all the Zelda games!)

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Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.

http://slightly-bitter.blog.co.uk

5 games, eh?
In no specific order:
Halo/2 (had an amazing sound track IMO)
Final Fantasy 8 (really good music, though other parts could be better)
Final Fantasy 6 (you HAD to have seen this coming)
AIR (though i've only seen the anime, the music from it is straight off the game)
and, probably #1,
(drumroll)

Tetris

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Neneko is Neneko because Neneko couldn't be Neneko if Neneko wasn't Neneko!
--as quoted from Neneko, Mahoraba {Heartful Days}

I can stab a man with a thick paperback book thru the ribcage.

NES Games:
FFIII
Mega Man 2

SNES:
Chrono Trigger
FFVI
Illusion of Gaia

GBA:
Castlevania CoM
Castlevania AoS

Xbox
Halo

PS/PSII
FFVII
FFVIII
Chrono Cross


Top five: (Like GMH, these two were always a tossup for me)
5-Castlevania Aria of Sorrow (I especially love the arena song and the clocktower tune)
4-Chrono Cross
3/2-Chrono Trigger (was more... something, I don't know but it's good)
3/2-FFVI (Was more dramatic)
1-Illusion of Gaia (The flute themes are perfect with the story, and the although the quality isn't as good as my 2nd and 3rd choices, it still shows me how game music should be.)

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

Quote

You might be thinking of "Storm Eagle" from MMX1. However, I happen to like Storm Owl of MMX4 more than that one. I LOVE the "i VI VII III" (minor key) progression.

Yup, SDtorm Eagle thank you for the correction...

Other good music in gaming

Gran Theft Auto - (You have to mention it, altought it's not composed by a particular composer, the soundtract is awesome [for each game]..)

Devil May Cry SERIES

Mortal Kombat TRILOGY

Street Fighter SERIES ( Ryu's Stage in particular... and Guile's!)

Super Metroid - ( That part at the beggining when the aliens appear for the first time, so dramatic)

Contra Force ( I mean the music goes like peanut butter on jelly with the games [don't know after ALIEN WARS, didn't play the ones after that one YIKES!]... )

This post has been edited by SaffireWeapon on 2nd February 2006 15:41

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

1. Final Fantasy Tactics: I dig the real instrumentation.

2. Chrono Trigger: I have most, if not all, the music memorized here, it's so good (unlike laszlow, though, I think Chrono Cross is the better game).

3. Final Fantasy VI: just behind Chrono Trigger...

4. Secret of Mana: same reason as CT

5. Final Fantasy IX: Uhhh, well, I don't know...I just like it .

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Console RPG Cliches

Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy IX
Legend of Mana
Chrono Trigger
Tales of Phantasia

For the worse music my vote goes to Bahamut Lagoon and Legend of Dragoon. Never liked any music in those two, not even a little bit.

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Sayonara

You know what other game had good music, Tales of Destiny.

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VII
Phantasy Star II: I really enjoy the music in this one. I think games from the '80s had awesome music for its time, but the music quality in this one makes it one of my favorites for music.
Diablo and Diablo II
Metal Gear Solid

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

No particular order, since I'm so indecisive.

Xenogears
Chrono Cross
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy VIII

Honorable mentions:
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VI
Star Ocean: Til The End of Time
Lunar: Silver Star Story

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Music is a mysterious thing... Sometimes, it makes people remember things that they do not expect. Many thoughts, feelings, memories... things almost forgotten... Regardless of whether the listener desires to remember them or not...

- Shitan, Xenogears

well here are mine:

megaman x5
final fantasy 6
star ocean: till the end of time
chrono trigger
super freakin mario brothers

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

No order Here:
Final Fantasy VIII
Final fantasy Tactics
any sonic game (cept rush since music is odd...)
Tales of Symphonia
Final Fantasy IX

Thats it for me.

hmm. the five *best* video game soundtracks? that's tough, i guess, but i suppose i can narrow it down to a solid five.

1. chrono cross -- there can be no argument. without a doubt, chrono cross' soundtrack is the ubiquitous answer to any new face of best vg music query that can be thought up. not only is mituda-sensei the inimitable beau ideal of vg music composition that all other composers can only wish meekly to vaguely parallel, but in this game indeed he painted his masterpiece. he had songs on here to fit all moods, songs to answer every question, songs which reached from the most remote island town to the top of the most majestic and towering mountain into the farthest reaches of the most bleak and distorted future. as has been noted, cc is prone to the best world map theme(s) in any rpg (besting even the beautiful mix of tina's theme in ff6, which is one of the few acceptable pieces in that unforgivably mediocre offering of uematu's), but it has not been said, and i will say it then, that cc also has to its credit among the best opening and ending fmv musical themes for any game, ever. the chrono cross itself was an object of musical resonance; could anyone, after playing the cross to defeat the ntime devourer, still question the genius of mituda-sensei? we have not even begun to delve into mituda's flawless matching of the musical tracks to the locales and situations in which they play in the game...and, my God, what can be said of "radical dreamers~nusumenai houseki," the game's vocal track (with some especially apt fingerpicking)? all in all, if there is nothing good else to be said of cc (and, oh, but there is...but that's another topic to itself), it *still* scores impeccably if only by virtue of the irreproachable soundtrack.

2. xenogears -- is it fair to put two psx-era mituda titles in consecutive fashion? nearly anything that can be said of cc's ost can likewise be applied to xg's; only by a fraction does the former edge out as superior. in xenogears' soundtrack, mituda made excellent use of eerie ambience and tonal immersion to create the perfect aural backdrop for the happenings of what can only be described as the deepest, darkest secret of a game to have graced the ps1. people may dislike the suspicious paranoia that fed the xenogears' plot, and people may cry against the intellectual labyrinth of plot twists or the information overload that fleshed out its story borne of a sepulchral grandeur, but, like it or not, xg is what it is, and the soundtrack fits, and even more, *describes* the game, it's plot, it's characters, and the pervasive hopelessness that drives the heroes to confront their very souls. but it's not only pieces like "premonition" and "the wounded" that make the ost such a worthy offering; tracks like "flight," which intonate the struggles of the characters, or the final boss theme, which is flawless in context, or the theme for dazil (in which mituda demonstrates his ethnic prowess before cc even shows on the horizon horizon), the tracks in the ost not only complement but enhance the experience offered by the game. and of course, there is "small of two pieces," which is quite possibly the most sublimely elegant vocal track/ending theme song to ever have been put in a vgost.

now, it gets hard.

3. it was such a toss-up between 3 and 4, but i had to go with final fantasy viii. of course, as it's been said before, the psx-era saw uematu at his absolute prime as a composer, and ff8's ost was the zenith of even that powerful time period. while not many comparisons can be made between such facets off ff8 as its plot or its system and those of other games in the series, just about everything is better musically. who was not breathtaken the very first time they popped in the disc and saw the opening fmv, complete with the devilishly felicitous "liberi fatali" playing for full notice? who didn't find it even more masterful still when they understood the symbolism that the musical piece and the scene together created? nonwithstanding, from the regular battle theme to the music in the towns, every other ff's musical track finds itself sorely defeated in any comparison with ff8's (ok, maybe ff7 had better boss/airship themes). spectacular tracks like "man with the machine gun," fithos lusec wecos vinosec, and whatever the waltz is called only served to complete parts of the game already otherwise outstanding. the ending theme deserves special note, too -- though many of us were probably too caught in the visual whirlwind to have paid it much mind.

4. wild arms -- ok, to be honest here, i can't really remember which wa had the best soundtrack. i know they all have killer osts (except maybe wa4...), but somehow, wa1 reminds me more poignantly of the western excellence i have since come to expect from mdeia vision's composers than do any of the other games. it's been so long since i've listened to the wa ost (and at any rate i never made an effort to memorise the track names like i've done with a good few square games), i won't be able to give as solid a critique as i've done with the other games' osts; you'll just have to take my word for it (if you've played the game(s), likely you will).

5. well, a number of games could honestly go here, so i'll be rebellious and list banjo-kazooie up here. i was originally gonna put legend of mana, but zodiac already lsited that, and no one has thrown a bone to rare's masterwork game on the n64. yeah, banjo-kazooie had an excellent soundtrack (and banjo-tooie's was indeed just as good if not even a bit more aesthetically developed). favourite bits include the now-infamous rusty bucket bay theme (a take on the "watchtower" progression), the music that plays in grunty's quiz show, the theme from freezeezy peaks, and the theme from the beach level whose name escapes me...not jolly roger's lagoon, that's in bk2...anyway, this game had a peculiar convention of reusing to spectacular effect a musical motif that was apparent, in some form or fashion, in nearly every track on the ost -- and yet, the sounds never became stale! rare did an excellent job with this ost and the sequel and it's a damn shame they couldn't work out their problems with nintendo to finish bk3.