Games Soundtrack Appreciation / Discussion Thread

So here's a neat cover of some Castlevania music.

And for those more into the classic/symphonic rather than the hard rock/metal:

Full performance

I was listening to Random Access Memories again today and the bit at the end of Giorgio reminded me of something you would hear in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Am I crazy?

https://youtu.be/5m4ZkEqQrn0?t=8m21s

Timestamp is 8 minutes and 21 seconds if it doesn't work.

Okay guys, I'm really wanting to expand my "study" playlist with some cool, chill tunes. Sometimes I just really like to relax to game music -- it often stays in the background, making it easy to get in the zone. Other times, I just really want to play a game and not study...So it's a nice little bit of catharsis.

Ambient, slow, jazzy, I'm all ears. I'd love to hear your suggestions. (I have a slight bias towards Nintendo jams, in case that's that evident by my current selections!)

I recently discovered the fantastic synthwave Nex Machina OST thanks to the Rebel FM podcast's year end game music special. The game itself looks too frenetic for me, but the tunes were good enough for me to buy them on Amazon. Here's a sample:

A_Unicycle wrote:

Okay guys, I'm really wanting to expand my "study" playlist with some cool, chill tunes.

I was going to throw a couple at you, but I got carried away. Tried to stick to tunes you might know, as opposed to some of my more niche games.

Mantid wrote:
A_Unicycle wrote:

Okay guys, I'm really wanting to expand my "study" playlist with some cool, chill tunes.

I was going to throw a couple at you, but I got carried away. Tried to stick to tunes you might know, as opposed to some of my more niche games.

Aaand, you've just made my night. This has made my readings so much more tolerable. Starting out with my favourite Final Fantasy song (tied with Dancing Mad) is just perfect.

Thankyou!

Edit: Small world. I know the guy who did this cover! We used to chat a lot on an old Australian Nintendo forum. We had a few meetups in Sydney, and he'd always jump on the keyboard and play tunes. Him and another forumer busted out a really impressive Donkey Kong jam as a duo -- it was incredible!

A_Unicycle wrote:

Okay guys, I'm really wanting to expand my "study" playlist with some cool, chill tunes. Sometimes I just really like to relax to game music -- it often stays in the background, making it easy to get in the zone. Other times, I just really want to play a game and not study...So it's a nice little bit of catharsis.

Ambient, slow, jazzy, I'm all ears. I'd love to hear your suggestions. (I have a slight bias towards Nintendo jams, in case that's that evident by my current selections!)

Jazzy you say?

Obviously Mario games are good with their jazz/samba influence. Animal Crossing is probably a good one too.

Next obvious suggestion is Persona 5 which has a very strong acid jazz influence and chill vibe throughout:

Going more into deeper cut territory... A number of older Maxis games had a strong jazz component in their soundtracks during Jerry Martin's tenure as the head of the music team

The Simcity 3000 and 4 OSTs being perennial favorites for when I'm programming at work as they also include a fair bit of minimalism and ambient tracks which you might also be interested in

And for a really deep cut... the OST for Gunpoint

Not sure if this is also something you're looking for, but here's some selections from the Shin Megami Tensei IV OST which is another 'programming time' favorite of mine:

Fantastic! That is exactly the sort of stuff I'm after.

SMTIV has some cool tunes, I didn't expect that. I really need to dig out my 3DS and have another go at that game.

A_Unicycle wrote:

SMTIV has some cool tunes, I didn't expect that. I really need to dig out my 3DS and have another go at that game.

The soundtrack improves a lot once you get past the first dungeon. Usually when I'm listening to the OST I just skip about the first quarter of it to get to the good stuff

I know I've posted bits of the soundtrack, and I have no context for this song as I haven't gotten far enough in the game to have reached the point it is used, but I just needed to share Sealed Vessel off the Hollow Knight OST again.

What I love about this track is effectively what happens around the 2:10-2:15 point of the song. It starts soft, builds into something bombastic and harrowing, but then, suddenly, breaks into melancholy strings. This transformation makes it feel like more than just background music, and more story-telling. It has me actively wondering what happens in the game when this tune plays, because there's such emotion to it that it brings to mind some epic yet sad stuff.

A great piece.

So glad he came back for the second game!

I think I might have to get that game.

Garion, while you're here, post some Falcom soundtrack picks. Evidently they rock pretty hard.

Is it really coming out in March? I thought it was super delayed for some reason. That soundtrack is going to be fun!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Is it really coming out in March?

The marketing seems to have picked up so I'm assuming yes. March was the post-delay launch window I believe.

shoptroll wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Is it really coming out in March?

The marketing seems to have picked up so I'm assuming yes. March was the post-delay launch window I believe.

Woohoo!

ccesarano wrote:

Garion, while you're here, post some Falcom soundtrack picks. Evidently they rock pretty hard.

I prefer Xenoblade soundtracks, especially Mitsuda composed ones, but Falcom is great when you're looking for cheese up and down a fretboard or keyboard.

That said, I'm a big fan of their Zanmai albums which is the Falcom band redoing songs.

Or just whenever the band can do their thing in general.

Speaking of Mitsuda, I just barely learned there was a symphonic Xenogears soundtrack, which was a great reminder of how magical that soundtrack is, and how transformative it was to play this insane game about giant robots, Gnosticism, psychoanalysis, Nietzschean existentialism, and love as a 20 year old.

Adding my faves from Braid:

Perfect study music imo.

Braid was so good.

The soundtrack for Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is freaking amazing. That is all.

Since we're getting over a foot of snow dumped on us today, here's some of my favorite winter/snow themes:

Anyone else have some favorites they'd like to share?

Perfect opportunity to actually get around to posting some of the Secret of Mana remake's freshened up tracks. I've heard a lot of negative regarding the game's covers, and to that I say hooey.

It probably doesn't fit the mood of a snow day (in Boston), but...

Humorously enough, the winter themed tune from Donkey Kong Country to come to my mind is Ice Cave.

And, of course, the opening credits of FFVI always come to mind when it comes to snow at night.

Video game adjacent due to chiptune but not video game, Winterstorm by Machinae Supremacy always takes me back to snowy winters walking the College campus in Rochester at night.

Just wanted to drop by and share this. I was listening to the random radio feature on Spotify that collects a bunch of similar tracks to a chosen album (I was listening to the Horizon Zero Dawn Soundtrack).

Apparently the Chinese Room have another game, it's a VR experience for your phone. As usual, they got Jessica Curry on-board to do the soundtrack and it's absolutely beautiful.

This is my favorite recent snowy game thing (music and art):

That music really captures the magic of being out on a non-stormy snowy evening.

A remix of Zelda music.

Hey ho, I've been really loving Divinity: Original Sin 2 these last few weeks and a big part of that has been the soundtrack by Borislav Slavov.

At the risk of being a dirty skimmer (I couldn't go back to 2017) I thought I'd share one, being one of the combat tunes.

This acoustic Dire, Dire Docks cover came up in my Spotify Discovery Weekly playlist. It's absolutely beautiful and I am not ashamed to say to made me a tad watery. Just put my son to sleep with it too!