Which video game has the best soundtracks?

**Azmoden** · 2020-03-07, 10:57 PM

FFXIV and Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3.

**s_bushido** · 2020-03-07, 10:57 PM

Chrono Trigger

Killer Instinct 2013

**Miyagie** · 2020-03-07, 10:58 PM

From Jurassic 5 to Rob Zombie great mix.

**Sencha** · 2020-03-07, 11:05 PM

Command & Conquer 1

**Dead Moose Fandango** · 2020-03-07, 11:12 PM

Overall, Castlevania series.
Nier. People overlook the first game, but I honestly think the music is vastly superior to it's sequel.
The Witcher 3.
Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2.
Ultima 7 gets an honorable mention from me. Especially "Hail Britannia" from part one.

**jzhbee** · 2020-03-07, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by scelero

Tony Hawk & Tony Hawk 2

/discussion

**Skildar** · 2020-03-07, 11:36 PM

ff ix, crashbandicoot and uncharted serie, warcraft, starcraft and diablo have crazy good soundtracks

metal gear original theme is still one of the most enjoyable, too bad it had to be dumped.

Special mention to the track used in the closing credits of Rime, portal and portal 2.

**Nurvus** · 2020-03-07, 11:39 PM

**scelero** · 2020-03-07, 11:53 PM

Originally Posted by jzhbee

takes me back. this is one of the last of the 'remasters/HD' to make it back to current consoles. Can't wait.

**Queen of Hamsters** · 2020-03-08, 12:03 AM

I love threads like these, because I can get so many things to add to my library!

As for my favourites:

WoW (obviously, the music in the Nelf city in Nazjatar is literal heartbreak)

RDR2 (The final ride and the music makes me bawl like a baby even after 5 playthroughs)

Super Mario Odyssey

Anno 1800

Overall I'm too bad at playing a wide library of games, and as such I don't hear much music neither.

**Mirishka** · 2020-03-08, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by Outofmana

The ones with the instantly recognizable sounds/same atmospheric vibe throughout the games.

Fable1, Mass Effect, Halo1, Diddy Kong Racing, Perfect Dark spring to mind, super enjoyable and really setting the mood for all of them.

I loved Diddy Kong Racing, and the music was a big part of that.

Brings back memories!

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Queen of Hamsters

I love threads like these, because I can get so many things to add to my library!

As for my favourites:

WoW (obviously, the music in the Nelf city in Nazjatar is literal heartbreak)

RDR2 (The final ride and the music makes me bawl like a baby even after 5 playthroughs)

Super Mario Odyssey

Anno 1800

Overall I'm too bad at playing a wide library of games, and as such I don't hear much music neither.

I don't think that I've heard that Nazjatar theme before, holy chills Batman - what an incredible piece of music!

**Aeula** · 2020-03-08, 12:31 AM

I know I toot this mod’s horn whenever I get the chance but...

I adore the music in Enderal. Everything from the atmospheric soundtracks to the boss music to the tavern songs. If you own the legendary edition of skyrim, get this total conversion. It’s free on steam and is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Especially where narrative is concerned.

**Mehrunes** · 2020-03-08, 12:37 AM

Mass Effect 2 and 3, Final Fantasy X (the monster arena theme is my life-long earworm), Dark Souls 3, God of War (the new one), Skyrim, Crash Bandicoot 1-3, Spyro 1-3, Nier Automata and Witcher 3 would be my top.

**G3 Ghost** · 2020-03-08, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by Nurvus

Oh man. I knew I was in for a fun night when I came home from work and my roommate would have NWN2 blaring from both of our computers...

**McCrazy** · 2020-03-08, 12:46 AM

I like the Divine Divinity OST. Especially The Four Seasons Singing
I'm not sure if it's the one song that can be heard in a variation in Divinity: Original Sin 1.

One alltime favourite: The Witcher 1 Main menu theme

Then there are lots and lots of WoW music, most Elder Scrolls music, Icewind Dale.

**Captain N** · 2020-03-08, 01:59 AM

In terms of games with a licensed soundtrack.

1. Grand Theft Auto - Vice City

2. Mafia III

**The Oblivion** · 2020-03-08, 02:06 AM

Donkey kong country 1 and 2
Halo 3
WoW
Destiny 2
FFXIV
Too Human

**Val the Moofia Boss** · 2020-03-08, 02:12 AM

A list of my favorite composers, determined by going through my playlist of my favorite tracks and jotting down how many tracks each composer did.

If a track was arranged, I have given both the original composer and the arranger a boost. I have a lot of arranges on my playlists over the original compositions. An arrangement really can bring a song to life.

(long list)

Spoiler:

My favorite composers

Masayoshi Soken (FFXIV) - 110
Hayato Sonoda (Trails, Tokyo Xanadu, Zwei Illvard) - 69
Nobuo Uematsu (FFII, FFIII, FFVII, FFVIII FFX, FFXI, FFXIV, Granblue Fantasy) - 47
Takahiro Unisuga (Trails, Tokyo Xanadu) - 44
Shota Kageyama (Pokemon BW, XY, ORAS arranger) - 41
Russell Brower (World of Warcraft) - 32
Saki Momiyama (Trails, Zwei Illvard) - 26
Go Ichinose (Pokemon RSE, SM) - 26
Yukihiro Jindo (Trails arranger) - 25
Hitoshi Sakimoto (FF12, Valkyria Chronicles) - 22
Wataru Ishibashi (Trails) - 15

Russell Brower: I am placing him here as the amount of work he has done is understated. Blizzard albums don't list individual tracks. Ie, this composer did this specific track. Instead, we only generally know what themes the composer worked on. Ie, this composer did Mogu music (and there are multiple Mogu tracks). I'll chalk it up to Blizzard's "we don't want to glorify individuals because we want the whole team to take credit for the game" mantra. You can find out who did each specific track by ripping the tracks from the game and looking at the embedded information, but that would be an incredibly laborious process, so I am only going off of what I can find credited on WoWpedia and on WoWMusicAble. Russell Brower has composed 32 themes I really like, and if you separate those themes into individual tracks, the number of tracks I like would probably be at least 50 or 60. Brower's music imbues emotion into World of Warcraft, from the surreal Eversong Woods, to the majestic and stirring anthems of Quel'Thelas, the Dwarves, and the Alliance, to the relaxing atmosphere and dorky themes of Pandaria, to the contemplative moments of respite on the Broken Shore, to the grim, climatic final confrontations with evil in Siege of Ogrimmar and Blackrock Foundry. Among many other themes. His music was awesome, and he will be missed.

Masayoshi Soken: given I have favorited 110 of his tracks, it may seem like he is my all time favorite composer. Unfortunately, no, as the number is deceptive. If you factor in all of the songs Soken has created for FFXIV (discounting those he collaborated on with other composers, like Uematsu or Narita), then Soken has put 110 great songs out of 448 tracks. So about 25% of the stuff he puts out is great. Soken isn't a bad composer, and he has created a lot of great tracks, but it's most by the sheer volume of his work. Final Fantasy XIV is the current Guinness World Record holder for most original tracks in a video game, after all. A second composer should be brought on so he can focus on making really good tracks over making fifty a year. I'd suggest Tsutomu Narita, who has already done work for FFXIV. (NOTE: according to an interview with VGMO for Shadowbringers, Soken said that the arrangements for the Eden raid were made by two other people. Yet, Soken is credited as the composer on Apple Music. That means VGMDB is the only correct source of information I can find... which may mean that my ratios are incorrect. To be updated later). http://archive.md/ge7P9

Let me be clear: I have tremendous respect for FFXIV's sound team. Coming from WoW, FFXIV has so many musical features. They have boss battle themes. Unique boss battle themes for each trial boss. MULTIPLE boss battle themes for a single boss that changes depending on the phase. A ton of cutscene tracks (WoW hardly has ingame cutscenes at all, just a handful of prerendered cinematics). Day and night tracks for each zone. They also have 40 vocal tracks that are NOT packed with epic choirs singing unintelligble lyrics or singing in latin, but singing clear English lyrics.

Hayato Sonoda: arguably one my most favorite composer of all time. Of the games he worked on that I have played (Zwei, Zwei 2, Sky, Crossbell, CS1, CS2, and TX), I like 69 out of 195 of his tracks. So about 35% of his tracks hit the mark. In retrospect, Soken isn't that far off. Both Sonoda and Soken have a huge volume of work. Perhaps I'm more biased towards Sonoda because of the presentation of his work. Sonoda's tracks are spread out across multiple games that have multiple composers, so his tracks stick out in each individual game. When you hear a great track in Falcom game, I go "wow, that must be Sonoda!". Contrast that with FFXIV, where you hear Soken's great tracks and his okay tracks back to back. When I hear a great track in FFXIV, I go "Aha, Soken made a really good one!".

Nobuo Uematsu: I will be frank: I don't get the love for this guy. Yes, he has put out a lot of great tracks over his career, but he doesn't put out a high ratio of great tracks. He has been composing for three and a half decades. He has created 641 tracks for the mainline FF games (FF1-11, FF14) and the 19 tracks for Granblue Fantasy, I can only think of 44 tracks I really like from him. That's less than 7% hit rate. Even if we are generous and remove, say, 50 tracks to account for the remixes of prelude and the Chocobo theme,etc, that's still only slightly more than 7%. That is atrocious. Most of the time, when I like a track that was composed by Uematsu, it's a version arranged by someone else, not the original version (or even Uematsu's arranges). I think the reverence for Uematsu comes from him doing every track for the first nine Final Fantasy games. That, along with the prolific nature of the franchise, has associated his name with what is regarded as the golden age of JRPGs.

Shota Kageyama: this guy made the Pokemon soundtracks great. He created many, many iconic themes, as well arranging otherwise forgettable compositions to make them memorable. It's a shame he left.

Go Ichinose: like Uematsu, he was the most prominent name for a prolific franchise. Like Uematsu, I don't think his music is that good, and his compositions only became interesting when Kageyama arranged them.

Yukihiro Jindo: does the sweeping orchestral music for Falcom, both composing his own pieces and arranging other people's compositions. Josef criticizes him, saying he is "creatively bankrupt". It's true that his tracks have a tendency to sound stereotypically "epic orchestra", but he doesn't do that much music anyway, and has a relatively high hit rate IMO. Nothing particularly amazing, but nonetheless memorable enough to make it onto my favorite's list.

Hagiuda: does great tone setting music, such as CS2's "Relief Towards Tomorrow".

Jeremy Soule: he can put out good ambient tracks, but his battle music is terrible. His music sounds very samey.

**Dead Moose Fandango** · 2020-03-08, 02:14 AM

Also, Metal Gear Solid 3. Hearing most of them tears me up half the time too.

**Onikaroshi** · 2020-03-08, 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss

Nobuo Uematsu: I will be frank: I don't get the love for this guy. Yes, he has put out a lot of great tracks over his career, but he doesn't put out a high ratio of great tracks. He has been composing for three and a half decades. He has created 641 tracks for the mainline FF games (FF1-11, FF14) and the 19 tracks for Granblue Fantasy, I can only think of 44 tracks I really like from him. That's less than 7% hit rate. Even if we are generous and remove, say, 50 tracks to account for the remixes of prelude and the Chocobo theme,etc, that's still only slightly more than 7%. That is atrocious. Most of the time, when I like a track that was composed by Uematsu, it's a version arranged by someone else, not the original version (or even Uematsu's arranges). I think the reverence for Uematsu comes from him doing every track for the first nine Final Fantasy games. That, along with the prolific nature of the franchise, has associated his name with what is regarded as the golden age of JRPGs.

It's all personal opinion, I like a vast majority of tracks that Uematsu has put out for FF games, very seldom do I come across a track I DON'T like, I could even sit and listen to the old 8 bit tracks from the first ones all day long.

I find much less with Soken that I truly like, but the ones that I do like I REALLY like, but out of all FFXIV's songs... my favorite is actually one from Uematsu, Answers.

I don't find a lot of WoW songs I actually like honestly... And I don't really know who composed the songs I do like.

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