Halo CE. In my opinion it redefined the standard of video game music, I mean come on if you listened to it now you could tell what game it's from in the first thirty seconds 
A Modest Rant on Video Game Soundtracks
- Thread starter ScrubberDucky
- Start date
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I agree with the general opinion floating around, that just because the music doesn't boom molten emotions into your ear, doesn't make it any less epic. Granted, some tunes are there for purely background moments, while some exist to intensify the situation, but as long as they're actually good, nothing else matters.
With that said, let me jump the wagon as well! I hope I haven't been ninja-ed on most of these.
I'm going to do a double feature first, because honestly, both of these themes are just beautiful.
With that said, let me jump the wagon as well! I hope I haven't been ninja-ed on most of these.
I'm going to do a double feature first, because honestly, both of these themes are just beautiful.
I am sad no-one had mentioned the Myst soundtracks yet. In my opinion it's Jack Wall's better work compared to Mass Effect.
Better than Mass Effect in my opinion, but I'm a fan of large orchestra and choirs.
Ambient, melodic and mysterious.
And then there's the main theme:
Better than Mass Effect in my opinion, but I'm a fan of large orchestra and choirs.
Alright people, let me just end this.
WARNING: There's a good chance you will end up imagining yourself with a guitar, make sure you're the only person in the room.
/thread
In all seriousness, I do agree with the OP. There are excelent soundtracks to be found? Sure there is, however considering the amount of games (specially AAA's) available there's definetly not as many. Rare were the times where I actually went after the soundtrack after playing the game.
EDIT: If you're into WW2, take a look.
WARNING: There's a good chance you will end up imagining yourself with a guitar, make sure you're the only person in the room.
/thread
In all seriousness, I do agree with the OP. There are excelent soundtracks to be found? Sure there is, however considering the amount of games (specially AAA's) available there's definetly not as many. Rare were the times where I actually went after the soundtrack after playing the game.
EDIT: If you're into WW2, take a look.
I don't really see what you are talking about. Space marine for example, pretty bland game, but listen to the soundtrack.
Pretty damn good in my opinion and suited the theme of epic battles and the feeling of being a hero etc.
Pretty damn good in my opinion and suited the theme of epic battles and the feeling of being a hero etc.
The thing that bugs me about most Game Music is that it is becoming way too common with Orchestral and vocal instrumentation. It all sounds like big blustery epic soundtracks with screaming choruses and huge brass sections.
Now that is fine, but when fifty games start sounding similar because of it, then it gets a little aggravating. Which is why I've chosen the Portal 2 Soundtrack as the best score of 2011.
Now that is fine, but when fifty games start sounding similar because of it, then it gets a little aggravating. Which is why I've chosen the Portal 2 Soundtrack as the best score of 2011.
Thank you. Excellent videos aside, you've pretty much made my point for me: A great deal of music is ambient background stuff in video games (take, for instance, Metroid), and almost all of it is meant to compliment something or the other, which means it will often be a bit less impressive by itself. Still pretty great on a regular basis, mind you, and the west finally seems to be paying more attention to music (before, Japan seemed to put a bit more emphasis on it in games, though that could just be me).Zhukov said:
Now, I hate to be that one guy who has to inject Touhou into every discussion like some sort of internet plague - albeit one that I happen to like - but given that the games were created so the designer would have something to make music for, and the stages are set to change just so they sync with the music... well, I figure it's worth a mention. For instance, stage four of Perfect Cherry Blossom.
Or if you want music by itself...
I thought the music made for Heavy Rain was outstanding, was certainly done better than the voice acting at any rate! Plus, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but I think developers make a big decision to go with their own scores instead of licensed tracks. That maybe why they're less about simplistic rythms that could make them a bit more memorable and instead concentrate on making them epic. Just my opinion.
The soundtracks to Assassins Creed (the whole series is brilliant but my favourite has to be AC II) are a prime example of music really adding to the the feeling and atmosphere of a game.
Another stand out for me has to be Mass Effect, especially Mass Effect 2's
A piece that really grabs you, and holds you through the Suicide mission.
Another stand out for me has to be Mass Effect, especially Mass Effect 2's
A piece that really grabs you, and holds you through the Suicide mission.
I'll see your five (awesome) American examples, and call you with a few from some mainstream Japanese games.Vrach said:
Given enough time, I don't doubt that this could become as iconic as the original Mario theme. The rest of the game sounds this awesome too.
Regardless of what you think of the actual game, it's hard to deny that this is a pretty damn awesome track, particularly for a climactic boss like, say, King Arthur.
Margaret only wants to be remembered, and playing her song for Travis definitely did that. And everyone else who hears it. Which now includes you.
Choirs are always awesome. And most people with enough nostalgia will find this better than those without, not that they'd find it bad either. Sure, the game is kinda brown, but it could look (and sound) a lot worse.
Yeah, I like the Wii, but it's what I have and I like what (I think) it stands for: forgoing modern conventions in favour of what made all those retro games so good. Also, aesthetics over graphical horsepower (both versions of Okami look better than any shooter you can pull off the shelf.)
A unique art style, with music to match, and some interesting bits of Japanese lore that doesn't take as many artistic liberties as Touhou or Hell Girl. I dare you to find another game like it. (Okamiden doesn't really count.)
Hans Zimmer, End ofkman123 said:
I Agree, that game had a brilliant score. THe fact that he's not doing MW3 is the reason im not getting it
One of my favourite soundtracks in this generation has got to be Call of Duty 4. It's a cinematic-style soundtrack, and sometimes cinematic soundtracks end up kind of disappearing into the background. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the primary purpose of the music is to amplify the mood of whatever's going on. Though I personally prefer soundtracks with catchy and memorable themes, and Call of Duty 4's soundtrack manages to serve both purposes.
Best part is in the opening scene where it's from the point of view of the soon-to-be-ex-president of Unspecifiedistan being driven through the streets during a bloody coup. I love the way the music rises and falls with a mix of layered ethnic and electronic percussion, and some kind of string instrument playing a repeating melody over the top.
Best part is in the opening scene where it's from the point of view of the soon-to-be-ex-president of Unspecifiedistan being driven through the streets during a bloody coup. I love the way the music rises and falls with a mix of layered ethnic and electronic percussion, and some kind of string instrument playing a repeating melody over the top.
Never played Persona, have you? These games have truely unique music, you can hear the production value in the songs. They are just truely beautiful.
You've basically just said everything I wanted to, but could never find the words to. Thanks very much, that's helpful. I don't think the Halo games would be nearly as good without the score, but it's a score that also wouldn't fit anywhere else. Unique.Thaius said:
I also think there are plenty of other great game soundtracks out there. Homeworld's are typically masterpieces of ambient music (example [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R82FCwl9PmA]), though it can also do great action tracks. I think HL2/Portal also succeed on the first front (though they fail - hard - on the second). I've also been warming to the original Mass Effect's soundtrack recently (I used to think it was a resounding "meh", now I'm beginning to see how fitting and atmospheric it really was). So what if some games have generic soundtracks? So do most films, and most other types of media with soundtracks. It's the resounding successes that stand out.
Has anybody already said Total War?
All games have that peculiar good WAR-DRUMM appropriate battle music I rarely find elsewhere.
It's very fitting, conveys a lot of emotion inside the game and can even been enjoyed outside of the game:
Rome Total War
Medieval II - Total War (This music just makes my skin crawl every single time)
Empire Total War
Shogun II Total War
All games have that peculiar good WAR-DRUMM appropriate battle music I rarely find elsewhere.
It's very fitting, conveys a lot of emotion inside the game and can even been enjoyed outside of the game:
Rome Total War
Medieval II - Total War (This music just makes my skin crawl every single time)
Empire Total War
Shogun II Total War
Mass Effect music to me is the epitome of your rant (at least the first one) anyway, on to my moderate rant response. First and foremost, I am a student in violin. I have played in many orchestras and I guess, somewhere along the way of my life, music in general makes a lot more sense to me. Not in the usual "sense=understanding" but being able to comprehend and isolate multiple tracks of a single song or piece at once and really comprehending what they are doing. It really makes for cool music if you can hear it. Anywhoo, recently I began to agree with you about the entire "music video game soundtracks are becoming backround and nothing else" rant however I did realize something recently hear that makes it not entirely true (basically beyond even the understanding that only certain games have great soundtracks). It was indeed something that "kman123" stated in the fact that mw2's soundtrack was pretty good. Indeed, it was pretty good, the problem was in the fact that you never heard what was being done because of the other noise. Most games, I have found, are just like this. If you take a moment to listen to just the soundtrack and nothing else, you may find you either really like it, or really hate it. Think about this, if Nobuo Uematsu's music was put at a level of three decibals in comparison to the rest of the sound to the older Final Fantasy games then it would pass as "unremarkable". From about the dawn of video games, there have been people hired separately to compose whatever they think sounds best. That's their sole purpose, so unless they really suck at music composition, they should be able to do moderately well at their job. Instead of complaining about backround music being prominent in a lot of the games you play, might I suggest, if you honestly are curious to what the soundtrack sounds like, go to audio options and see if you can turn everything down except for the music.
For example,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cIYeBy0eU4
Anyone who's played through this game has realize that this song, played at the very end of the very last mission, has been some of the most intense and excited songs they've ever heard (myself among them) but what most people don't realize is that the song, in the same mission, played right before is just as fitting for beauty and qualifies as a good song on it's own right as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvukZNJYok
It's not that songs are becoming more backround, it's just that they're being phased out by other noises. It may be very enlightening to you to just turn off all the other sound and listen just to the music
For example,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cIYeBy0eU4
Anyone who's played through this game has realize that this song, played at the very end of the very last mission, has been some of the most intense and excited songs they've ever heard (myself among them) but what most people don't realize is that the song, in the same mission, played right before is just as fitting for beauty and qualifies as a good song on it's own right as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvukZNJYok
It's not that songs are becoming more backround, it's just that they're being phased out by other noises. It may be very enlightening to you to just turn off all the other sound and listen just to the music
OK history Lesson here
When it comes to the western and Japanese devide nothing is bigger than VGM imo.
Sinc the start of the 8bit era the Japanese have taken VGM seriously as something on par with popular music. VGM Composers and groups like Zuntata are popular enough to put on live shows and concerts just like rock stars.
[youtube.com/watch?v=icrBdnbZ874&feature=related]
Mirror this with the west especially US devs who tought of game music as an after thought, so much so that the soundchips in many 8bit and 16bit consoles were of a lower quality and cost compared to the Japanese consoles like the Famicon and Master System and SNES. Go listen to the western and Japanese version of Phantasy Star on YT youll be amazed at the difference.
Great western VGM producers from the old 8/16 bit days would have to be European producers like Rob Hubbard, Richard Joseph and David Whittiker who wrote music for home computer games aswell as the megadrive (eg Bitmap Brothers games).
[youtube.com/watch?v=aKKNBjFz9XE&feature=watch_response]
Fast forward today and VGM is the west has caught up in quality but I still prefer Japanese as western composers tend to copy film composers or also work in the movie industry. Japanese write more melodic music which probaby stems from their status as something appoaching popular music.
Anyone with a passion for VGM needs to check out the music by CAVE their games have fantastic tunes with great arrange remixes. Infact check out lots of new & old shmups like Recca and Battle Garegga they all have great music.
[youtube.com/watch?v=SayBSfK3gB0&feature=related]
[youtube.com/watch?v=gjgkTsZzZFk&feature=related]
Fave composers include Manabu Namiki (CAVE, and other genres like Odin Sphere, Tactcs Ogre, Valkyria Chroncle), Noriyuki Iwadare (Check out his Masaya era eg Warsong / Langrisser series), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)
Also Ryu Umemoto (CAVE including Nin2Jump on XBLA, FM synth in visual novels) who passed away recently he was a great talent. Psyvariar the mix on the 2nd vid is my personal fave
[youtube.com/watch?v=ClluchrWNJA]
[youtube.com/watch?v=uRR6rGiUsVo&feature=related]
When it comes to the western and Japanese devide nothing is bigger than VGM imo.
Sinc the start of the 8bit era the Japanese have taken VGM seriously as something on par with popular music. VGM Composers and groups like Zuntata are popular enough to put on live shows and concerts just like rock stars.
[youtube.com/watch?v=icrBdnbZ874&feature=related]
Mirror this with the west especially US devs who tought of game music as an after thought, so much so that the soundchips in many 8bit and 16bit consoles were of a lower quality and cost compared to the Japanese consoles like the Famicon and Master System and SNES. Go listen to the western and Japanese version of Phantasy Star on YT youll be amazed at the difference.
Great western VGM producers from the old 8/16 bit days would have to be European producers like Rob Hubbard, Richard Joseph and David Whittiker who wrote music for home computer games aswell as the megadrive (eg Bitmap Brothers games).
[youtube.com/watch?v=aKKNBjFz9XE&feature=watch_response]
Fast forward today and VGM is the west has caught up in quality but I still prefer Japanese as western composers tend to copy film composers or also work in the movie industry. Japanese write more melodic music which probaby stems from their status as something appoaching popular music.
Anyone with a passion for VGM needs to check out the music by CAVE their games have fantastic tunes with great arrange remixes. Infact check out lots of new & old shmups like Recca and Battle Garegga they all have great music.
[youtube.com/watch?v=SayBSfK3gB0&feature=related]
[youtube.com/watch?v=gjgkTsZzZFk&feature=related]
Fave composers include Manabu Namiki (CAVE, and other genres like Odin Sphere, Tactcs Ogre, Valkyria Chroncle), Noriyuki Iwadare (Check out his Masaya era eg Warsong / Langrisser series), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)
Also Ryu Umemoto (CAVE including Nin2Jump on XBLA, FM synth in visual novels) who passed away recently he was a great talent. Psyvariar the mix on the 2nd vid is my personal fave
[youtube.com/watch?v=ClluchrWNJA]
[youtube.com/watch?v=uRR6rGiUsVo&feature=related]
OK history Lesson here
When it comes to the western and Japanese devide nothing is bigger than VGM imo.
Sinc the start of the 8bit era the Japanese have taken VGM seriously as something on par with popular music. VGM Composers and groups like Zuntata are popular enough to put on live shows and concerts just like rock stars.
Mirror this with the west especially US devs who tought of game music as an after thought, so much so that the soundchips in many 8bit and 16bit consoles were of a lower quality and cost compared to the Japanese consoles like the Famicon and Master System and SNES. Go listen to the western and Japanese version of Phantasy Star 1 on YT youll be amazed at the difference.
Great western VGM producers from the old 8/16 bit days would have to be European producers like Rob Hubbard, Richard Joseph and David Whittiker who wrote music for home computer games aswell as the megadrive (eg Bitmap Brothers games).
Fast forward today and VGM in the west has caught up in quality but I still prefer Japanese as western composers tend to copy film composers or also work in the movie industry. Japanese write more melodic music which probaby stems from their status as something appoaching popular music.
Anyone with a passion for VGM needs to check out the music by CAVE their games have fantastic tunes with great arrange remixes. Infact check out lots of new & old shmups like Recca and Battle Garegga they all have great music.
Fave composers include Manabu Namiki (CAVE, and other genres like Odin Sphere, Tactcs Ogre, Valkyria Chroncle), Noriyuki Iwadare (Check out his Masaya era eg Warsong / Langrisser series), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)
Also Ryu Umemoto (CAVE including Nin2Jump on XBLA, FM synth in visual novels) who passed away recently he was a great talent. Psyvariar the mix on the 2nd vid is my personal fave
EDIT Its worth pointing out that while Western AAA is cinematic, indies have some cool talent making great melodic VGM. VVVVVV springs to mind (plus the bit tune scene)
Christ this site needs some Std BB code buttons!
When it comes to the western and Japanese devide nothing is bigger than VGM imo.
Sinc the start of the 8bit era the Japanese have taken VGM seriously as something on par with popular music. VGM Composers and groups like Zuntata are popular enough to put on live shows and concerts just like rock stars.
Mirror this with the west especially US devs who tought of game music as an after thought, so much so that the soundchips in many 8bit and 16bit consoles were of a lower quality and cost compared to the Japanese consoles like the Famicon and Master System and SNES. Go listen to the western and Japanese version of Phantasy Star 1 on YT youll be amazed at the difference.
Great western VGM producers from the old 8/16 bit days would have to be European producers like Rob Hubbard, Richard Joseph and David Whittiker who wrote music for home computer games aswell as the megadrive (eg Bitmap Brothers games).
Fast forward today and VGM in the west has caught up in quality but I still prefer Japanese as western composers tend to copy film composers or also work in the movie industry. Japanese write more melodic music which probaby stems from their status as something appoaching popular music.
Anyone with a passion for VGM needs to check out the music by CAVE their games have fantastic tunes with great arrange remixes. Infact check out lots of new & old shmups like Recca and Battle Garegga they all have great music.
Fave composers include Manabu Namiki (CAVE, and other genres like Odin Sphere, Tactcs Ogre, Valkyria Chroncle), Noriyuki Iwadare (Check out his Masaya era eg Warsong / Langrisser series), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)
Also Ryu Umemoto (CAVE including Nin2Jump on XBLA, FM synth in visual novels) who passed away recently he was a great talent. Psyvariar the mix on the 2nd vid is my personal fave
EDIT Its worth pointing out that while Western AAA is cinematic, indies have some cool talent making great melodic VGM. VVVVVV springs to mind (plus the bit tune scene)
Christ this site needs some Std BB code buttons!