Games Soundtrack Appreciation / Discussion Thread

Ok, here's some quick ones:

After you're done with the game, go back and listen to The Witcher 3 soundtrack. It's wonderful. I played Geralt of Rivia and a couple of other tracks for a friend of mine who studies classical music composition (something like that), and all he could say was "That's from a video game?!?" Yes. Yes it is.

You might be on the fence about Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, but Solar Fields' techno tracks are outstanding. I play them when working out and it's a perfect match. If it's a day where I'm lifting some heavy weight, you have to start the day with Tim Wynn's Squad Loadout from XCOM2.

My nephew is in the Marines, and he told me they played "Stand strong, stand together" from Mass Effect 3 during some motivational video that him and his teammates had to watch. Adam Corolla uses it sometimes on his podcast.

Ey, look we got a shout-out on the podcast, as the 'thread of the week'.

I lost track of this thread a long ago to be honest (I never took it off favorites but yeah), but kudos to you guys for carrying it on!

ps. Holy good god, it HAS been almost 5 years.

We sure did. And this thread is so totally in my favorites. Guess it's time to post some more!

The Normandy Reborn (Jack Wall) - positively sends shivers down my spine and up my arms

To Know, Water (Austin Wintory)

Gravity Ghost (Ben Prunty - yes, the guy who did FTL, that guy)

(and skip to 4:30 for my favorite)

Gah, I kept on intending to come back and 1) thank you guys for the suggestions, I did manage to pull some from those varying sources, and 2) share some of a soundtrack I've greatly enjoyed. Hollow Knight. Paid the extra $10 on pre-order for the game's bonus goodies, and the OST has become my new "soundtrack for writing". Here are some of my favorite selections.

I ran across Hollow Knight recently as well. I thought it might be a dlc of Shovel Knight, but it sure doesn't sound like one. And Abzu is very nice. A calming soundtrack for sure

Tap My Katamari

Kyle Landry
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0...
Katamari on the Jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDqZ...

Jeremy Lim
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGf...
Katamari on the Swing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TnG...

PixelJunk Eden
Baiyon
http://baiyon.com/en/
Summer in Winter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOGS...

Just Shapes and Beats
Danimal Cannon
https://danimalcannon.bandcamp.com/
Long Live the New Fresh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGNb...

Songbird wrote:

I ran across Hollow Knight recently as well. I thought it might be a dlc of Shovel Knight, but it sure doesn't sound like one.

It's definitely got a love of old skool style game design (very reminiscent of games like Metroid, Zelda II, Castlevania and even Mega Man), but yeah, it's definitely its own thing (that also takes inspiration from Dark Souls because what doesn't these days).

Gotta love that soundtrack.

Eleima wrote:

The Normandy Reborn (Jack Wall) - positively sends shivers down my spine and up my arms

Whenever someone on my FBs says "I have Taylor Swift on my workout mix, does that make me a nerd?" I guffaw, because this is how I make it up the final hills on my ride:

The mobile game Final Fantasy Record Keeper will sometimes bust out themed variations of iconic tunes, such as this Opera theme they used this Christmas. Yes, this is an excessive 31 minute version, but it also has the delightful choir of women's sprites.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

[m
Whenever someone on my FBs says "I have Taylor Swift on my workout mix, does that make me a nerd?" I guffaw, because this is how I make it up the final hills on my ride:

Oh definitely, good call! That one really gets me going as well, just perfect for that last burst of energy during a run.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

The mobile game Final Fantasy Record Keeper will sometimes bust out themed variations of iconic tunes, such as this Opera theme they used this Christmas. Yes, this is an excessive 31 minute version, but it also has the delightful choir of women's sprites.

And if you like that Square-Enix has 3 X'mas themed arrangement albums you can buy.

http://vgmdb.net/album/21311
http://vgmdb.net/album/41797
http://vgmdb.net/album/47712

OMG. Falcom Sound Team jdk has a ton of their music on Spotify. I know what my car ride home tonight is gonna sound like.

With 17 pages I might have missed this comment - however if you have Amazon Prime the Doom Soundtrack is included with the free prime music service.

https://music.amazon.com/albums/B01L...

I don't know which Doom this soundtrack is from. There are plenty of other free soundtracks on prime music like Mass Effect, BF 3, and Halo. Take a listen.

Nü Doom (the 2016 one). Bobby Prince did the soundtrack for the first two games (with plenty of "inspiration" from other bands).

Rob Hubbard was a genius.

jamesisnext wrote:

With 17 pages I might have missed this comment - however if you have Amazon Prime the Doom Soundtrack is included with the free prime music service.

https://music.amazon.com/albums/B01L...

I don't know which Doom this soundtrack is from. There are plenty of other free soundtracks on prime music like Mass Effect, BF 3, and Halo. Take a listen.

This is also on Spotify, for those of us who have Prime, but under their spouse's account, so don't technically get Prime Music.

Been resisting the urge to post Nier: Automata tracks since Tuffalo gave it so much love himself, but I decided I'd break the nearly two month (!) silence in this thread with a tune from Fire Emblem: Echoes. I think this is the first of the games I've played where some of the tunes have actually been sticking with me, but once I hit Act IV I was tempted to just sit and listen to the new world map music. Very haunting, and very much similar to the soundtracks of Yoko Taro games.

Plenty of other good tracks, though. It's just a shame that a lot of them sort of get lost as the game is pretty much changing which track is playing every five seconds, leaving the various rhythms and melodies a mish-mash that's only memorable in chunks.

Since I'm playing Dragon Age: Inquisition at the moment, it would be rude not to mention how lovely the soundtrack is. I love how some of the tavern music is music from the first two games remixed. For example -

and

The 4th Distant Worlds album came out at the end of last month. If you're a fan of orchestral game arrangements and Final Fantasy this will get you some great arrangements of stuff from the PS1 era and the more recent games.

(The album is also on iTunes and probably other digital stores if you're so inclined)

I listened through it recently and I really enjoyed it. A really solid collection that has me fired up for another Distant Worlds concert.

So I've been listening to game soundtracks a lot more recently while doing my games writing. Ironically, I listened to Nier: Automata's OST last week working on my FFXV piece while listening to FFXV's soundtrack while working on a Nier: Automata draft.

Yo dawg, some of these tracks are more rocking than I ever noticed while playing the game. Reel Rumble is just super intense for a fishing tune. It goes full on heavy metal double bass pedal at one point! That's mah jam! Maybe it's one of the reasons I enjoyed fishing so much?

But even the Hammerhead theme gets some crazy guitar action going on and it's like "How did I never notice how metal this game is before?"

Somehow I missed the existence / release of Final Symphony a while back, which is a three LP series of suites from FF VI, VII and X performed by the LSO. I've only listened to snippets so far, but it sounds like rather than performing tracks from the games, the themes have been reworked into fleshed out symphonic suites that explore and develop the themes in interesting ways. It's on itunes and vinyl. I do wish there was a lossless option somewhere.

Looks like there's a Final Symphony II but I don't see an album release of it yet.

https://itun.es/us/7G4H5

Whenever I'm going to the gym to lift heavy I play Stand Strong, Stand Together from ME3 and basically blow through all my max reps. #meatheadpost #sosad

All day and night, every day and night, this...

In my on-going desperation to start getting more of you GWJers going to MAGFest, I've created a thread for the 2018 event. Registration starts in just a couple of weeks, and it would be awesome to see some of you folk there.


On another note, I've been listening to the Legend of Mana OST today and man does it have some good tracks. I need to better familiarize myself with Yoko Shimomura's works.

Really been enjoying Tim Follin stuff lately. Crazy good, especially for the time.

The last one's my absolute favourite. By no means should a NES Pictionary game has such a pounding tune. Haha, I love it!

ccesarano wrote:

I need to better familiarize myself with Yoko Shimomura's works.

You're probably familiar with some of her stuff, you just don't know it

Just checked her Wikipedia page, and you're right. Lots of good stuff in there. During my next writing session I'll likely be breaking out the Radiant Historia OST.

This is probably the best live videogame music I've ever heard. Been jamming this whole gig all day.

Is it time to post Yoko Shimomura?

(I love Vector to the Heavens so much. It's a little off key and strange on purpose, to fit the mood of its scene.)

Was just listening Bastion OST. Highly recommend it.