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MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



Before anything else, what constitutes video game music? Well, for the purpose of this thread, video game music is any music that was created for the purpose of being used in a video game, visual novel, or kinetic novel.

In other words
  • If the music was created for something else and only licensed for the game, then it doesn't count.
  • Remixes are acceptable
  • Visual novel music counts

Rules

Only discuss music that fits into the above definition.

Because video game music has context behind many of the songs, if discussion points contain spoilers about plot, use a spoiler tag. If you aren't sure if it counts as a spoiler, use a spoiler tag, just in case.

This isn't PYF. Link to interesting music, but remember to talk about it as well.

No need to get angry about music. Video games music encompasses a wide range of music, and just because you don't like it doesn't mean someone else doesn't. No one cares that you don't like a particular composer's work.

Obey all other NMD rules


Useful resources

OC Remix - A site of VGM remixes that are more than just covers

VGMDB - A site that lists a ton of VGM soundtracks, both official and fanmade.


Popular Cover Artists

Smooth Mcgroove - Does acapella covers of songs from a wide array of video game soundtracks.

FamilyJules7X - Does a wide array of electric guitar covers for video game music, mostly metal, but branches out and uses instruments such as acoustic guitar, keyboard, and others.

MegaZeroX fucked around with this message at 23:30 on May 12, 2014

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MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



Goons' favorite VGM will go here. Here's how it works: Until September, you can submit 3 of your favorite video game soundtracks, and 3 of your favorite individual tracks, and at the end of the month, we will have a poll where you can vote whether or not each one is worthy of a spot. After seeing how many submissions we have, I'll set the maximum number of each that can go into the reserved post. Try to elaborate on why you like a particular soundtrack.

MegaZeroX fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Jul 30, 2015

gandlethorpe
Aug 16, 2008

:gowron::m10:
Thanks for making this thread. I'd like to start things off what something I've been wondering about.

Even though any song can be made to be in a video game, what is it that makes a song sound like "video game music"? Where you hear an instrumental song and think "that's probably from a video game" or "that should be in a video game", rather just any old instrumental. What makes it "video-gamey"?

MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



Let's start by talking about a legendary video game soundtrack, and then an underrated one.

Chrono Trigger's OST has been called by many the best video game soundtrack ever, and it really isn't much of a stretch. Chrono Trigger not only has amazing battle themes, but pulls off slow, beautiful songs better than any other game I know. Chrono Trigger's OST isn't just one of the best because it has awesome songs (which it does), or because there aren't any "weak" songs (there aren't), but because the music encompasses such a wide variety of tempos, rhythm, and feelings produced. It has the epic Magus Confronted, the beautiful Corridors of Time, the atmospheric Creeping Through the Sewers, and so on. Nearly every song in the game is varied, interesting, and catchy. If for whatever reason, you have never played Chrono Trigger or listened to the soundtrack, this should be on your to do list.

Shin Megami Tensei IV's OST is one of the most underrated video game soundtracks, in my opinion. Most of the songs are either of a metal/techno sort (or both), but the music does have variety, both inside and outside of that scope. Some of the most prevalent "types" of music you'll hear in the game are:
Note: Most of the battle tracks are listed as (letter, number) in the official soundtrack because their typically used names can contain spoilers. For this reason, I would like to request that all discussion about the battle themes use these names, unless it is under a spoiler tag.

MegaZeroX fucked around with this message at 23:39 on May 12, 2014

MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



gandlethorpe posted:

Thanks for making this thread. I'd like to start things off what something I've been wondering about.

Even though any song can be made to be in a video game, what is it that makes a song sound like "video game music"? Where you hear an instrumental song and think "that's probably from a video game" or "that should be in a video game", rather just any old instrumental. What makes it "video-gamey"?

Like I said in the OP, video game music needs to be music made for the purpose of being used in a video game/visual novel. It may or may not be instrumental, and it may or may not be a remix of a song that was made for that purpose. Music simply licensed and used in a game doesn't count, at least for the purpose of this thread. I exclude licensed songs since those are best left to their specific threads. I don't think video game music is defined by being instrumental, but is defined by simply being in a video game. Lelianna's Song I consider video game music, despite it not being instrumental. So I don't think video game music as any particular "sound," by definition, but certain genre's/decades have trends to the music. For example, 90's Square RPGs have a particular feeling to them. But this can't be generalized to video game music in general.

MegaZeroX fucked around with this message at 23:34 on May 12, 2014

Fat Turkey
Aug 1, 2004

Gobble Gobble Gobble!
I was looking for internet radio stations that played video game music with very little success. If anyone knows of any good ones, I'd like to give them a try :)

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Good thread idea. I've been wanting someone else to validate how loving awesome the Earthworm Jim soundtracks are. There's this wonderful self-awareness that accompanies all of the songs from each level, so you end up with weird poo poo like 16-bit iterations of Beethoven pieces. The original songs are terrific, too. One of the things I've found really interesting about the soundtracks as I grew up some is how much the arrangements differ for the various versions of the games. SNES versions are totally different arrangements than Genesis ones, which are totally different from the Xbox 360 HD port. I'd love to know what goes into making these kinds of calls. I assume in the 90's it had to do with hardware limitations, so your options for instrumentation were limited by the console you're working with, but it was awesome to see that the Xbox port rebuilt all the music again.

See Jim Run, Run Jim Run - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHQ1Y4scnsQ
New Junk City - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQtCYajY6O8

Voxx
Jul 28, 2009

I'll give 'em a hold
and a break to breathe
And if they can't play nice
I won't play with 'em at all

Fat Turkey posted:

I was looking for internet radio stations that played video game music with very little success. If anyone knows of any good ones, I'd like to give them a try :)

Rainwave is pretty good and has voting.

Earwicker
Jan 6, 2003

I like some video game music but something about the Chrono Trigger type stuff really rubs me the wrong way, it has a very "plasticy" sound and doesn't sound like it could stand on its own outside of a game.

The ambient music written for Homeworld was almost all very good. This is one of the better pieces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTKakINXjl8

The prog rock band Yes also wrote a song for Homeworld, but it sucked.

in terms of more recent games, the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack was pretty brilliant, especially the way it responded player actions. It would be sparse and atmospheric until you got in a gunfight and then it would pick up. If you got on a horse, the drums would kick in, etc. There are constantly different layers going in and out depending on what you do. It's heavily influenced by Ennio Morricone for obvious reasons but still has an original feel to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-yC0xcI9s

tThe soundtrack to GTA V has some ambient music that works in a similar way, though it's not as good IMO. But this particular track I like a lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN0yCygw1AY

in terms of more classic "video gamey" sounding music I have a soft spot in my heart for this one even though it is ridiculously cheesy and, like the Chrono Trigger stuff, can't really stand on its own outside of a game. But still a classic imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RqGeEsXJWY

Reive
May 21, 2009

I don't listen to enough game music outside of games as I used to, but there are a few tracks I keep coming back to, just ones that struck a chord with me somehow.
In no particular order:

Bad Girl's theme from No More Heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSfbb3WHClE

Max's theme from MDK2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGA-2Surc6Y

Rush, from the Power Play mission in Ace Combat Assault Horizon(the riff kills me every time):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=092r3PNG4JU

Stains of Time from MGR:R, my personal version (check the account for other tracks):
http://tindeck.com/listen/qqes

A filler track from the Syndicate reboot FPS, plays during a nightclub shootout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B82l5Mk4bg

Franz von Dada
Feb 10, 2014

A Boy and His Parasite
The Neverhood Soundtrack is one of my favorite things ever. So cartoony, so weird, so brilliant.

the numa numa song
Oct 3, 2006

tumbling through the ointment

Franz von Dada posted:

The Neverhood Soundtrack is one of my favorite things ever. So cartoony, so weird, so brilliant.

Came for "Operator Plays a Little Ping Pong," stayed for "Jose Feliciano." What a groove!!

Recoome
Nov 9, 2013

Matter of fact, I'm salty now.
I little gem I listened to as a kid and I think it's very unappreciated.

The theme for Centipede, from the Game Boy version of Centipede and Millipede.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrdG5b9nNgY

I think it really captures a great late 80's sound and a fairly complex song to have completely conveyed in 8-bit.

Venomous
Nov 7, 2011





Leo Showers posted:

I little gem I listened to as a kid and I think it's very unappreciated.

The theme for Centipede, from the Game Boy version of Centipede and Millipede.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrdG5b9nNgY

I think it really captures a great late 80's sound and a fairly complex song to have completely conveyed in 8-bit.

I had this on one of those dodgy compilation cartridges. Never really appreciated how drat complicated it sounded until now, fantastic stuff.

On that note, I have to mention the theme from Commando for the Commodore 64. Discovered it a couple of years ago and drat it sounds fantastic. Didn't expect anything like this on such an early console, and it still sounds great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQuR1LHAVI

MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



Speaking of good Commodore 64 music, anyone who hasn't given the Monty on the Run theme a listen to should remedy that! It is made by Rob Hubbard, the same composer as Commando. It pushes the Commodore 64 sound card to it's limit, has a catchy and complex theme, and takes almost 6 minutes before looping.

MegaZeroX fucked around with this message at 00:49 on May 21, 2014

puberty worked me over
May 19, 2013

by Cyrano4747
This thread is fantastic and the mention of SID music already has me giddy. I'll page ACID_POICE and see if we can get a nice history or technical writeup on some of the wonderful hardware/software used in the 80s and early 90s to produce and play back chip based music.

In the meantime I'll post a short list of some of the more prolific ZX Spectrum/C64/Amiga musicians:

Allister Brimble
Ben Daglish
Chris Hüelsbeck
David Whittaker
Martin Galway
Richard Joseph
Rob Hubbard
Tim + Geoff Follin

I'd like to see some more information about American musicians from the 1985-1995 era because the vast majority I'm familiar with are from Europe or Japan. In the case of the ZX/Amiga/Speccy it makes complete sense but I'm curious who game companies hired for stateside Sega/Nintendo/Panasonic/Atari titles. Howard Drossin came a bit later on the tail end of the pre-CD era (Sega Genesis, Comix Zone) but is one example.

This space will most likely be used for some write-ups about X68000, PC-88/98, shmup, and other more obscure chip music.

For now have one of Jesper Kyd's less known works for the Sega Genesis: Adventures of Batman and Robin. The sounds some musicians managed to pull off using these chips are truly amazing.

Earwicker posted:

I like some video game music but something about the Chrono Trigger type stuff really rubs me the wrong way, it has a very "plasticy" sound and doesn't sound like it could stand on its own outside of a game.

In some ways I feel the real test of a video game track to be truly amazing is that it can stand on its own. A lot of Tim Follin's works seem to fit that bill quite well. I'm not quite sure he really cared about how well any of his tracks fit in the game, instead choosing to crank out chip prog rock.

puberty worked me over fucked around with this message at 06:07 on May 21, 2014

MaxArtea
Dec 2, 2002

gandlethorpe posted:

Thanks for making this thread. I'd like to start things off what something I've been wondering about.

Even though any song can be made to be in a video game, what is it that makes a song sound like "video game music"? Where you hear an instrumental song and think "that's probably from a video game" or "that should be in a video game", rather just any old instrumental. What makes it "video-gamey"?

Modern video game music is different from regular music because when video game composers put the music together they usually are restricted to a certain structure they have to follow in order for it to flow seamlessly from part to part, but also sound like the song is not over yet!

Most of the time the music has a distinct intro, then proceeds to the loopable part, sometimes fading out, or if they are good, they have an outro that flows to the next scene. There might also be flourishes depending on what is happening in the game, like when danger is near, or if everything is quiet. This restriction is helps with the overall immersion in a game if the feel is supposed to be about giving a certain feeling. An early attempt at this is in final fantasy games, where the music makes a woosh sound. It breaks from whatever music is currently playing and the sound is jarring enough to transition to more upbeat battle music.

Another example that comes to mind is in the game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory composed by Amon Tobin.

Here is a track called battery with a lot of the cues added in. Notice it feels a lot more aggressive in parts, and its obvious this is cued in when there is tension and battle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsxhy_9iijg

This is different from the album version of battery, which is much more mellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adh99_Q735w

When music is seamlessly connected in a game, it sounds cool, "feels" right and is a lot more fun to listen to.

Another reason why video game music feels more "video gamey" is partially due to the looped music. Depending on how long a loop is, you might hear the same melody over and over again. You might have heard of the popular song structure AABA where the song goes verse, verse, bridge, verse. Of course that does not include the intro and outro. There are variations on this especially in modern music but its basically like this. Modern video game music doesn't really need to follow this structure because the music must loop, so you might get a song that pretty much goes ABABABA or AAAAAA ad nauseam. Keep in mind a lot of composers are getting a lot better at giving much more variation to the songs these days!

A final reason I can think of for the "video gamey" songs is because pretty much all video game music is meant to be atmospheric. It has to serve the gameplay. I can't think of a single non music video game where the music is the focus of the game. If the music distracts from playing the game in a bad way, then the game probably wasn't designed very well.


To add to this post, a VG soundtrack that I love that I never really hear much about is the Drag-on Dragoon OST. I've never played the game, but I love this music. The tracks are all pretty different and spooky in a way. I used to play other video games to this music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKV15WG5pKs

And I've got to add the Secret of Mana OST. Especially the track Meridian dance. Even when I listen to it now I still love the sound of the whole ablum, and I wonder how many people love electronic music now just because of how great this soundtrack was.

Here is the song Meridian Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qy4-VeSnYk

MaxArtea fucked around with this message at 02:12 on May 30, 2014

Gamma Nerd
May 14, 2012

Really great post, thanks!

One of my favorite video game soundtracks, if not my favorite, is Manabu Namiki's Battle Garegga OST. It borrows liberally from Detroit Techno, even basically plagarizing parts of Underground Resistance tracks, but it's amazingly fitting nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szr0TSXcWok

Shmups tend to have really amazing soundtracks, actually. I like the Hellsinker and Touhou ones quite a bit. (Touhou games also have some really good remix albums - the arpeggios lend themselves really well to shreddy power metal.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_nDadpGCEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okDBNnAjItU


Speaking of guitar shredding? Motherfucking Guilty Gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_S43AP1tgc
:rock:

Shadow of the Colossus should also be mentioned. One of the best orchestral soundtracks ever in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2SMcn_p92Q

El Estrago Bonito
Dec 17, 2010

Scout Finch Bitch
Chrono Trigger's OST is poo poo compared to Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers. CT has, like, a good song or two (Frogs Theme?) but CC has objectively good music that could stand alone as it's own thing regardless of being attached to a popular video game. Radical Dreamers, Time's Scar, Dream of the Shore Near Another World, and Dreamwatch of Time are all really amazing songs and it's a huge shame there isn't a good arranged version of the entire soundtrack.

emdash
Oct 19, 2003

and?
I loving hate most game music and I liked Chrono Cross's soundtrack. Thanks for reminding me of that, haven't thought of that game in years.

MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



El Estrago Bonito posted:

Chrono Trigger's OST is poo poo compared to Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers. CT has, like, a good song or two (Frogs Theme?) but CC has objectively good music that could stand alone as it's own thing regardless of being attached to a popular video game. Radical Dreamers, Time's Scar, Dream of the Shore Near Another World, and Dreamwatch of Time are all really amazing songs and it's a huge shame there isn't a good arranged version of the entire soundtrack.

TheQat posted:

I loving hate most game music and I liked Chrono Cross's soundtrack. Thanks for reminding me of that, haven't thought of that game in years.


I find that people who don't like video game music tend to love Chrono Cross's OST and people who love video game music tend to dislike it. I fall under the latter. Personally, to me, the only decent songs in the entire 65 song soundtrack are Drowning Valley, Home Guldove, Home Marbule, Zelbess and the victory themes, which are taken from Chrono Trigger. The rest of the songs don't hold up very well outside the game.


MaxArtea posted:

:words: generalizing video game music

These are generalizations that can be made, but aren't accurate at depicting all video game music. Some modern video game music is melodic (such as SMTIV or Etrian Odyssey 4), while others are not (such as most of Skyrim's OST). Some video game music has vocals (such as Lelianna's Song), while most do not.

MegaZeroX fucked around with this message at 11:05 on May 30, 2014

Venomous
Nov 7, 2011





MaxArtea posted:

To add to this post, a VG soundtrack that I love that I never really hear much about is the Drag-on Dragoon OST. I've never played the game, but I love this music. The tracks are all pretty different and spooky in a way. I used to play other video games to this music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKV15WG5pKs

This was released overseas as Drakengard. It is a terrible game. Just read the LP if you're ever tempted to give it a go.

However, there is one good thing that came out of Drakengard. It was called Nier, and it's one of my favourite games of all time, not least because its soundtrack by Keiichi Okabe, Kakeru Ishihama, Keigo Hoashi and Takafumi Nishimura is beautiful. For example, this is the main theme on the overworld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNZmzLzvJo8

You need to give Nier a try, or at least listen to the soundtrack, because it all works really well.

Punch Card
Sep 13, 2005

by Ralp
eh, nevermind, sorry

Punch Card fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jun 1, 2014

Gamma Nerd
May 14, 2012
You know what's also amazing? The Gothic 3 OST:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLyqSQhS6E0

the numa numa song
Oct 3, 2006

tumbling through the ointment
Having played Wild Arms before seeing The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I was quite tickled to hear this for the first time.

The Wild Arms track is a ripoff, of course, but at least she was able to expand on it. Nicely, too! And it makes sense: Wild Arms has western influence, and like most RPGs, the size of the game and story basically allow a composer to make a game score more like a film score.

Chrono Trigger OST haters, don't play like it's the hype that turns you off. I know the truth.

The Cleaner
Jul 18, 2008

I WILL DEVOUR YOUR BALLS!
:quagmire:
I remember an interesting thing about certain Playstation 1 games is that sometimes you could put the games in a regular CD player and get instant access to the full soundtracks.

The original Twisted Metal and Blast Chamber come to mind.

Venomous
Nov 7, 2011





The Cleaner posted:

I remember an interesting thing about certain Playstation 1 games is that sometimes you could put the games in a regular CD player and get instant access to the full soundtracks.

The original Twisted Metal and Blast Chamber come to mind.

There were sometimes bonus tracks as well, for example in Symphony of the Night.

funeral fag
Jun 23, 2004

I loved how minimal and effective the use of music in Dark Souls was. The only spots in the game that are accompanied by a soundtrack are the character creation screen, the first bonfire hub and boss battles. The barebones sound design actually did a great job of emphasizing how alien and depressing the world of Lordran is.

Here's the strangely soothing and melancholy music from the final boss arena

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tms-MKKS714

Nadir
Apr 12, 2003

It's only up from here
Rare's David Wise made the best video game music ever.

Exhibit A: Wizard and Warriors NES Intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ9xwkMr3e4

Exhibit B: Donkey Kong Country Aquatic Ambiance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPpVplHiDE

Art Alexakis
Mar 27, 2008
Awesome thread, folks. As a fan of the Kong franchise, I've nearly always have some media device filled with my favorite Kong songs on my person. I also like to make playlists based on the characters from the Kong franchise. This is a little off topic because I mix in non-Kong music. For example, my Cranky Kong playlist includes all of the Cranky motifs from the game, but also music that I associate with both the Cranky character and the feeling of being Cranky. In the first case, I might include something that I feel really gets at the very notion of Cranky Kong, say "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones . Dickie's voice perfectly sums up the essence of Cranky Kong: gruff, yet wise. If I'm in a more playful mood, I'll hit up my Candy Kong playlist and jam it to something like "Rascal King" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

Beyond the scope of the Kong Franchise, I really love the OST of Megaman 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-0p8K6eJs8

Farecoal
Oct 15, 2011

There he go

MaxArtea posted:

To add to this post, a VG soundtrack that I love that I never really hear much about is the Drag-on Dragoon OST. I've never played the game, but I love this music. The tracks are all pretty different and spooky in a way. I used to play other video games to this music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKV15WG5pKs

You post this but not Growing Wings?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lDOeb_Geec

Slippery42
Nov 10, 2011
I've been listening to a lot of Bravely Default's music lately. It blows me away that what's probably my favorite soundtrack from the past decade was released on a handheld! The soundtrack is basically a love letter to music made for 90's JRPGs, so you can expect to hear a lot of hard/prog rock, Celtic influence, and very distinctive lead parts. Here are some samples:

Main theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNkp_EtVFg
You Are My Hope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCa17qVOTNM
Depressed Land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA54S3pipvw
Conflict's Chime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a-8pqvm298
That Person's Name Is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CAhqCAzkxg

They even did a live concert for it over in Japan in late 2012. Much to my chagrin, the videos from the show were removed from Youtube a couple months ago, but I recall that in one of the songs, the guitarist from Megadeth put in an appearance on stage :rock:

forpush
Jan 6, 2006

We don't like it when the city light start fading
When the city lights fading then we can't get down
I can't allow this thread to go on any further without mention of Hideki Naganuma. Best known for the Jet Set/Grind Radio soundtracks, but also the brilliant Sonic Rush and Ollie King OSTs, he is one of the few VG composers I've come across who works primarily in the realm of Breakbeat, Hip-hop, Funk and Soul. Pretty much everything on the JSR/JSRF and Ollie King OSTs stand up on their own as amazing music, the Sonic Rush OST being far more "gamey" in its sound but still really drat good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mizSUxxuCiY JSR - Humming the Bassline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2680ciixQc JSR - Let Mom Sleep

JSRF definitely has a more early 90s rave vibe to it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLK13n91Q8 JSRF - Fly Like a Butterfly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWzYRoOJwgM JSRF - Teknopathetic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ-Y5IHBigU Ollie King - Brother Goes Away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDCc-Z9Q-c Ollie King - Boarder 70 (Somethin' Jazzy for your Mind)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t84_O7J6QaU Sonic Rush - What U Need
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRsp5iwFzQE Sonic Rush - Back 2 Back

MegaZeroX
Dec 11, 2013

"I'm Jack Frost, ho! Nice to meet ya, hee ho!"



Slippery42 posted:

I've been listening to a lot of Bravely Default's music lately. It blows me away that what's probably my favorite soundtrack from the past decade was released on a handheld! The soundtrack is basically a love letter to music made for 90's JRPGs, so you can expect to hear a lot of hard/prog rock, Celtic influence, and very distinctive lead parts.

It isn't really surprising that Bravely Default's OST is so great. It was made by Sound Horizon (AKA Linked Horizon), the same group that made the Attack on Titan opening themes, which have to be some of the best in all of anime. I seriously can't wait for whatever soundtrack they do next!

heard u like girls
Mar 25, 2013

teh

MaxArtea posted:


A final reason I can think of for the "video gamey" songs is because pretty much all video game music is meant to be atmospheric. It has to servethe gameplay. I can't think of a single non music video game where the music is the focus of the game. If the music distracts from playing the game in a bad way, then the game probably wasn't designed very well.


Your entire post perhaps makes sense if the only games you ever played are post 2000 twin stick shooters or something. I can see what you're gunning for but i feel like you are ignoring about 100 years of history here.

E, for content;

I played the poo poo out of Megaman games if only to listen to stuff like this for extended periods of time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNn19YkGDks

heard u like girls fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Jun 7, 2014

heard u like girls
Mar 25, 2013

teh

Fat Turkey posted:

I was looking for internet radio stations that played video game music with very little success. If anyone knows of any good ones, I'd like to give them a try :)

Maybe not quite what you're looking for but there's this:

http://keygenjukebox.com/

Terrible and fantastic keygen musics in a big list for all to enjoy!

stay depressed
Sep 30, 2003

by zen death robot
the only video game music that matters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=301acFz0a_A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhG2cbX6eM

grieving for Gandalf
Apr 22, 2008

Some of the best video game mashups come from Team Teamwork:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut5RiXX0cV4 (Bonecrusher, Killer Mike, and T.I's "Never Scared" mixed with the Dark World Overworld theme from A Link to the Past)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XD4EjeXe1A (Clipse's "Virginia" mixed with the Lost Woods theme from Ocarina of Time)

I also really like a Donkey Kong Country mashup mixtape released by Norwegian Recycling called Donkey Business:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOfXlCS42k (Skee-Lo's "I Wish" mixed with Funky Kong's theme from DKC)

And I'm pretty sure this is from one of the oldest video game mashup mixtapes out there, just called Chrono Trigger Mixtape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8S-IafRpFE (Kanye West's "Get'Em High" mixed with Chrono Trigger's "At the Bottom of Night")

grieving for Gandalf fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jun 18, 2014

Punch Card
Sep 13, 2005

by Ralp

I was ready to get pissed off at whatever I was clicking on for some reason, but you know your poo poo. When it comes to that game, however, I have to go with this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLWU_Oq1rZk

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its curtains for Kevin
Nov 14, 2011

Fruit is proof that the gods exist and love us.

Just kidding!

Life is meaningless
I have a shitload of varied VGM hanging out in my current playlist, so I'll go through some of the more exciting ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqbai7bKdH4
The theme that plays when you fight the second series of 8 gym leaders in Soul Silver/Heart Gold. The Black/White soundfont does adequate justice to how great these arrangements were back in the 90s.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGORm3P0F1w
Seconding the SMT IV OST. Holy poo poo this ost is great. The choice of timbre in the music on these songs is incredible. My favorite part is when the second half of the theme rolls around and they change the instrument that does the melody to a really big and goofy 'BONG BONG BONG' sound that really captures that 'this is a midboss fight, but it's not like you're fighting to save humanity or anything' feel. Kind of like the FFVII boss theme or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkT9W7xAl64
The pacing is exciting and energetic, and does a great job of setting up the stage for You VS. Tough Dude.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-yWuiBwWd4
I've never played this game, but a friend of mine who's super big into poo poo like Ys recommended me this OST, and I really dug it.



Man I'm a sucker for these kind of themes.

its curtains for Kevin fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Jun 20, 2014

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