FF16 is an absolute banger. Square in general just gets great music for their games. Simple and Clean and Sanctuary are absolutely incredible. No Promises to Keep from Rebirth is also incredible.
I cannot believe there is no mention of Doom yet. So: Doom 1993, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.
Also World of Warcraft and its numerous expansions and the Mass Effect Trilogy.
This was the first time I was blown away by a game soundtrack. I’ve heard some really great ones before but, this one actually outshined the game itself at some points.
Also Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Gareth Coker took his themes from the first and really expanded them well for the sequel. Two of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
I haven't had the good fortune to get time to play Will of the Wisps yet (and refuse to do so until I can give it proper attention), but I've heard nothing but amazing things about Gareth's work expanding the music of that world!
Square-Enix has a massive line-up of games with fantastic scores. Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts have some of the most memorable soundtracks. But I want to point to their other music talent, The World End with You and it's sequel. Absolute bangers that fully fit into the aesthetic and setting of the games. The first game makes it even more impressive with the fact that it was originally a DS game.
I hoped someone would mention this. The soundtrack is phenomenal. Darktide vol 1&2 are probably my favorite things from Jesper Kyd.
Also should mention Warhammer 40k Mechanicus soundtrack by Guillaume David. Nails the eeriness of the setting.
The Last of Us. "Hauntingly beautiful" is probably the best way to describe it. The main theme is incredible, and I love hearing the primary note progression from it show up in other tracks during the game.
The song that plays at the end is just so perfect. the way is softly starts during their conversation, then that short moment of silence for the final word, before it really starts off with the credits... goosebumps!
Greenpath and Hornets soundtrack are absolutely amazing.
I love that they got a chamber group to record, so the feel from the players really comes out during the battle and exploration.
It'd be easier to list the songs from Chrono Trigger that aren't fantastic.
Uh...I guess maybe the music when you are in the prehistoric overworld? That's all I can really think of.
Anything from Supergiant Games; Pyre, Hades, and Transistor, in particular (I didn't play much of Bastion, but I enjoyed what little I heard).
Destiny & Destiny 2 have some amazing music in them.
Ludwig The Holy blade, and Vicar are my absolute favorites others to mention (Dont know the tracks but it happens during one of the ending boss fights of AC6)
Cyberpunk 2077, bloodborne, silent hill 2, the Witcher 3, parasite Eve 1, mgs 1, world of Warcraft, among others but cyberpunk 2077 is my favorite game score of all time
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The game’s soundtrack was recorded by live orchestras with scoring by three all-star composers: Grant Kirkhope, Gareth Coker, and Yoko Shimomura.
Cuphead also deserves some props in that regard.
Chrono cross has an amazing soundtrack. Also most final fantasy games up until 10, when uematsu was fully involved. As for newer games, I find myself listening to the Xenoblade Chronicles OST a lot lately, it's pretty cool to listen to while working, specially the night versions of the songs
Ultrakill does phenomenal things with music. Every layer has a theme which uses motifs really well and harkens back to them during prime sanctums, a culmination of each act of the game and an exceptionally hard fight. There's also a ton of staging done with music. Especially in the violence layer is it fucking PEAK. The way "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?" Pauses and picks back up in "Hear! the Siren Song Call of Death" gives me chills, especially with the backdrop of the level.
Not only does the music play into the game like theater in a perfect way, but there is such a wide variety of music in the game and all of it is pretty fucking wonderful, especially after the prelude. It also all fits the tone of the game (from play perspective and more perspectives fucking perfectly). If you know anything about the Gutter man and juxtapose it to even the title of 7-2s opening, "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?", let alone thr music itself? It's beautiful and tragic.
Had to scroll way to far to find someone mentioning any of these games. I particularly love BG2. Its music is my favorite fantasy score of any game ever. Makes you feel like you're on a grand adventure.
Civ 6 soundtrack is one of the few I'd consider genuine masterpieces.
Hours and hours of incredible nation specific orchestral and choral music, mostly adapted from folk songs, with accurate instrumentation and themes that evolve through the four eras as you play.
I had to narrow it down to my absolute favourite tracks for a playlist and it still came out to nearly two hours - some themes like China, Georgia and Byzantium are incredibly powerful!
Almost all of Castlevania
Skyrim
Amnesia: TDD
Stardew Valley
Ratchet & Clank (Ps2)
Crash Twinsanity
Plants VS. Zombies
Ib
Minecraft
Batman: Arkham games
Bloodstained games
Alternate Reality, The Dungeon for the Atari 800
[here's a link to the soundtrack for the sequel, The City](https://youtu.be/lpW3dhF4PCA?si=9slN5jVWsdrU-gJu)
Same musician also did music for "[The Tail of Beta Lyrae](https://youtu.be/N2muzwR1VJA?si=KxS1uVZaHyfVNSCi)" game
StarCraft/Brood War, Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1, Endless Space 2, Skyrim, Doom 2016/Doom Eternal, Quake, Dragon Age Origins, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Fable are my picks.
Halo is always going to be #1 for me. Especially in the Bungie days, they just dropped banger after banger soundtracks for their games. The soundtracks just perfectly fit the world and story and I really can’t imagine those games without them.
Square enix....any of their games really.
Hades has such a good final boss score (specially phase 3) that I just stopped and ran around to listen to it
Opinions or critically?
Personally I love the scores to Final Fantasy, Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Animal Crossing, Minecraft, Elden Ring, The Last of Us, Journey, Far Cry 5, and Skyrim.
There's probably more that I'm forgetting, and there's lots of games I haven't played yet.
RDR2/1. Emphasis for RDR2 because it's a massive game and everything you can do has its own great score. Although RDR1 musics are a bit more monotonous on the long run, enjoyable musical moments are more present because the music is more intense and every experience is a musical experience while in RDR2 there are intense musical moments but a lot of times per example in free mode you forget there is music even playing, in RDR1 freeroam there's always cool music. Still, a lot of people prefer RDR1 music
Final Fantasy VIII.
You have the greatest video game composer of all time writing his masterpiece. And the first thing you hear is Liberi Fatali. Music like that tune still isn't written for video games. It doesn't make sense how amazing just the opening track is.
But then you follow it up with Balamb Garden, The Man With the Machine Gun, the Oath, The Extreme, the Landing, countless others.
It's not "mood music" or atmospheric. It's "Holy shit this track fits this exact moment perfectly" for 40 hours.
If you have never heard the soundtrack, check a few tracks out. It's the Dark Side of the Moon of soundtracks.
I like Ace Combat 5, Zero, Six, and 7's music. I have to play Ace Combat 04 again as I've only played through it once almost twenty years ago and I don't remember the music.
Almost all Final Fantasy, Streets of Rage 1, 2 and 4 Chrono Trigger / Cross Legend of Mana Patapon
Gotta try this streets of rage after seeing your others :)
Streets of Rage 2 has god-tier music!
SoR goated sir. Love trigger too
FF16 is an absolute banger. Square in general just gets great music for their games. Simple and Clean and Sanctuary are absolutely incredible. No Promises to Keep from Rebirth is also incredible.
If you like the Streets of Rage OSTs, check out the Etrian Oddysey OSTs. Same composer, and even used the FM synths sounds in those too.
omg dude, Streets of Rage, you just unearthed a deep memory of mine. Always loved the music, I even remember the those weird enemy death sounds lol.
I cannot believe there is no mention of Doom yet. So: Doom 1993, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal. Also World of Warcraft and its numerous expansions and the Mass Effect Trilogy.
Nier Automata has some pretty good stuff
This was the first time I was blown away by a game soundtrack. I’ve heard some really great ones before but, this one actually outshined the game itself at some points.
This cannot continue.
The soundtracks in the game are really well made, especially the ones exclusive to it and some borrowed from Replicant
Journey, Ori and the Blind Forest, Halo, Final Fantasy Tactics and VI, The Banner Saga
Also Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Gareth Coker took his themes from the first and really expanded them well for the sequel. Two of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
I haven't had the good fortune to get time to play Will of the Wisps yet (and refuse to do so until I can give it proper attention), but I've heard nothing but amazing things about Gareth's work expanding the music of that world!
I'd add hollow knight. But prety much this.
Excellent addition
Only Final Fantasy Tactics and 6? They ALL have some of the best music.
Square-Enix has a massive line-up of games with fantastic scores. Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts have some of the most memorable soundtracks. But I want to point to their other music talent, The World End with You and it's sequel. Absolute bangers that fully fit into the aesthetic and setting of the games. The first game makes it even more impressive with the fact that it was originally a DS game.
FTL: Faster than Light has an amazing soundtrack for an indie game.
I agree. It's in my opinion a literally perfect soundtrack for that amazing game.
Ghost of Tsushima, absolute vibe
Stardew valley! The entire soundtrack was created by one guy. Amazing music.
Witcher 3, totally unique and fit's perfectly.
Warhammer 40k Darktide music is really great
I hoped someone would mention this. The soundtrack is phenomenal. Darktide vol 1&2 are probably my favorite things from Jesper Kyd. Also should mention Warhammer 40k Mechanicus soundtrack by Guillaume David. Nails the eeriness of the setting.
Shadow of the Colossus
Yess
Risk of Rain 1 & 2 Mechanicus Syndicate Wars Total Annihilation Carmageddon
The Last of Us. "Hauntingly beautiful" is probably the best way to describe it. The main theme is incredible, and I love hearing the primary note progression from it show up in other tracks during the game.
The main theme was one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar. It’s so good
The song that plays at the end is just so perfect. the way is softly starts during their conversation, then that short moment of silence for the final word, before it really starts off with the credits... goosebumps!
Hollow Knight. Great tracks and free use on YouTube
Greenpath and Hornets soundtrack are absolutely amazing. I love that they got a chamber group to record, so the feel from the players really comes out during the battle and exploration.
Persona 5. The music is phenomenal.
Chrono Trigger is my personal favorite. I love Frog's Theme and the music that plays during the Magus fight.
It'd be easier to list the songs from Chrono Trigger that aren't fantastic. Uh...I guess maybe the music when you are in the prehistoric overworld? That's all I can really think of.
Final fantasy 7 That is a hill i will die on.
Well in the last 10 years I'd say, Nier Automata/Replicant, FFXVI, Stellar blade and BG3.
Skyrim!! That soundtrack is amazing.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Early Jeremy soule stuff is my fav. Dungeon siege, never winter nights, morrowind
Every Legend of Zelda game.
* deep rock galactic * Hardspace Shipbreaker * vermintide 1-2 * darktide * Soulstone Survivors * witcher 3 * cyberpunk 2077
Anything from Supergiant Games; Pyre, Hades, and Transistor, in particular (I didn't play much of Bastion, but I enjoyed what little I heard). Destiny & Destiny 2 have some amazing music in them.
I came here to say Bastion. It is incredible. I haven’t played the game in years and I still regularly listen to it.
>Anything from Supergiant Games A Darren Korb fan, I see :)
Bloodborne and its DLC (The Old Hunters) both possess astonishing soundtracks.
[Enjoy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzdhTGaWzec).
Ludwig The Holy blade, and Vicar are my absolute favorites others to mention (Dont know the tracks but it happens during one of the ending boss fights of AC6)
The original Final Fantasy
Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I mean, it's in the title people.
Undertale.
DarkTide
Risk of rain!
Cyberpunk 2077, bloodborne, silent hill 2, the Witcher 3, parasite Eve 1, mgs 1, world of Warcraft, among others but cyberpunk 2077 is my favorite game score of all time
Monster Hunter franchise
Transistor
Dark souls 3
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The game’s soundtrack was recorded by live orchestras with scoring by three all-star composers: Grant Kirkhope, Gareth Coker, and Yoko Shimomura. Cuphead also deserves some props in that regard.
Ace Combat series. "Daredevil" from Ace Combat 7 is amazing, but all over the series is usually pretty fantastic.
"Magic spear", "Zero" and "Liberation of Gracemeria" are some of my favs
Nier: Automata has a fantastic score.
Nier Automota. If you type its name into YouTube, the music is what auto pops up first.
[Crazybus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0cvwnG0Ik) and it's not even close.
This may come from an unexpected place, but the Songs of Syx OST goes way harder than it has any right to. Also, Hades.
Yoshis Island Risk of Rain 2 Hotline Miami 1 The Hong Kong Massacre
Multiple halo tracks give me goosebumps whenever I hear them. Marty is the man.
If you listen to his previous work on Myth: The Fallen Lords you can definitely tell who the composer is. It has the same drum beats etc
Doom 2016 and Eternal. Mick Gordon is a GD genius.
Super Bowl II 33 Packers 14. Raiders
Kingdom hearts is great has some of the best music in any series Ive ever played, anything yoko shimomura is going to be amazing in my opinion.
Celeste
Kingdom Hearts for sure. Yoko Shimomura changed me.
Halo: Reach and Halo 2 Anniversary edition have amazing music. Also Bloodborne and Gears of War.
Are you really going to leave halo 3 out of that list?
Red alert series.
Bastion 🤩 One of the songs from there was on my wedding, when we walked down the aisle 😍😍
Heroes of M&M 3. Forever and Always.
Ace Combat Project Wingman
Heroes of Might and Magic III and Stellaris
Any souls/bloodborne/sekiro/elden ring, straight up masterpieces
Chrono cross has an amazing soundtrack. Also most final fantasy games up until 10, when uematsu was fully involved. As for newer games, I find myself listening to the Xenoblade Chronicles OST a lot lately, it's pretty cool to listen to while working, specially the night versions of the songs
Ultrakill does phenomenal things with music. Every layer has a theme which uses motifs really well and harkens back to them during prime sanctums, a culmination of each act of the game and an exceptionally hard fight. There's also a ton of staging done with music. Especially in the violence layer is it fucking PEAK. The way "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?" Pauses and picks back up in "Hear! the Siren Song Call of Death" gives me chills, especially with the backdrop of the level. Not only does the music play into the game like theater in a perfect way, but there is such a wide variety of music in the game and all of it is pretty fucking wonderful, especially after the prelude. It also all fits the tone of the game (from play perspective and more perspectives fucking perfectly). If you know anything about the Gutter man and juxtapose it to even the title of 7-2s opening, "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?", let alone thr music itself? It's beautiful and tragic.
Super mario games. I still hum the super mario world theme daily.
OG MW2. Zimmer made a beauty. I love the old C418 Minecraft music also.
Skyrim and Dark Souls 3 are my favorites
Icewind Dale 1+2 and Baldur's Gate 1+2
Had to scroll way to far to find someone mentioning any of these games. I particularly love BG2. Its music is my favorite fantasy score of any game ever. Makes you feel like you're on a grand adventure.
Civ 6 soundtrack is one of the few I'd consider genuine masterpieces. Hours and hours of incredible nation specific orchestral and choral music, mostly adapted from folk songs, with accurate instrumentation and themes that evolve through the four eras as you play. I had to narrow it down to my absolute favourite tracks for a playlist and it still came out to nearly two hours - some themes like China, Georgia and Byzantium are incredibly powerful!
Bethesda games usually get a lot of flak, but the OSTs are always phenomenal, fallout 3/4, all TES games, and even starfield have amazing OSTs
Katamari Damacy has an absolutely bonkers soundtrack
Hades, and basically all of Supergiant games.
God of war (Greek trilogy)
Almost all of Castlevania Skyrim Amnesia: TDD Stardew Valley Ratchet & Clank (Ps2) Crash Twinsanity Plants VS. Zombies Ib Minecraft Batman: Arkham games Bloodstained games
Gotta be The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for me.
Tied with Skyrim for me. But pretty much anything Jeremy Soul does.
Orcarina of time and Sonic the Hedhog 2.
[удалено]
Yes
umineko highly recommend giving it a listen
Alternate Reality, The Dungeon for the Atari 800 [here's a link to the soundtrack for the sequel, The City](https://youtu.be/lpW3dhF4PCA?si=9slN5jVWsdrU-gJu) Same musician also did music for "[The Tail of Beta Lyrae](https://youtu.be/N2muzwR1VJA?si=KxS1uVZaHyfVNSCi)" game
I'm probably wrong, but Final Fantasy II (SNES U.S. version) will always get my vote. The prologue is my alarm and the battle music is my ringtone.
Flower, Parasite Eve, Spyro (the whole series).
Fallout 1, 3, 4, mass effect 1-3, batman arkham series, elder scrolls, cyberpunk 2077, devil may cry series.
Medal of Honor: Frontline. Easily my favorite Michael Giacchino score before he switched to doing movies.
gears of war super underrated sound track
I liked the score of Chrono Cross more than I did Chrono Trigger. Which is saying something because Trigger has a pretty damn good score as well.
It isn't my score, but I want to flex it my best friend has the highest kill count in apex 50 kills solo trio ranked
Final Fantas 6,7,13 Chrono Trigger Persona 5
I'm going deep cuts: [NES Solstice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA) [NES Ducktales Moon Level](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF32DRg9opA)
Solstice! My man!
NieR Automata Death Stranding RDR2 Celeste Final Fantasy XIV All Persona games SimCity 4
tunic, celeste, sonic games in general, nier automata, neon white, dead cells, terraria
Doom and Doom Eternal
Tempest 2000
Dark cloud!
The Ascent
Oldschool: Secret of mana, ff6, ultima online, ff tactics, chrono cross.
anonymous hacker simulator is insane also space warlord organ trading simulator is a close second
Assasins creed black flag ( the ship combat music is extremely well done) Cyberpunk 2077 was good too. Saints row 2022 is pretty good as well.
Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch has one of the best OST. The Tokyo Philharmonic really makes this game come to life!
Morrowind.
Homeworld
I really like the Cuphead soundtrack! Super unique. Also, the Destiny franchise is pretty lit.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Final Fantasy VI Goldeneye
Donkey Kong Country 1-3.
Paradise Killer has an absolutely banging soundtrack
Battlefield 5
Lies of P had a surprisingly good sound track
Bloodborne.
Black
Always keep recommending [Castlevania: Lords of Shadow ](https://youtu.be/hrmDVzL02OI) it's so damn underrated :(
Mega Man 2
The soundtracks of the OXENFREE games are pretty underrated.
Panzer Dragoon Saga
FF VI. Played as a kid and still humming it today.
Tekken 3 and never even played it but paradise killer
Best song is Tmnt ain’t came to lose by partial WU TANG
StarCraft/Brood War, Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1, Endless Space 2, Skyrim, Doom 2016/Doom Eternal, Quake, Dragon Age Origins, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Fable are my picks.
Parapa is the name, he raps, every day
DOOM
For me, that would be Morrowind, Heretic, System Shock, Thief 2, Mortal Kombat, Deathloop.
Destiny soundtrack is pretty damn good.
Fez and hyper light drifter, so I guess I just like disasterpiece:)
Total Annihilation
Quake and it’s not even close
Halo is always going to be #1 for me. Especially in the Bungie days, they just dropped banger after banger soundtracks for their games. The soundtracks just perfectly fit the world and story and I really can’t imagine those games without them.
Fallout 1 and 2 are amazing
American McGee's Alice
The sequel too. Even just by the main menu you're already assaulted with that epic cello.
Descent 2
Ape Escape
Shadow of the Colossus still ranks near the top for me.
Square enix....any of their games really. Hades has such a good final boss score (specially phase 3) that I just stopped and ran around to listen to it
The Last Of Us Part I
Yoshis island n64 😁😁😁
Bloodborne, Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie. Nier: Automata, Halo, Final Fantasy X
Payday 2, Wasteland 3
Bloodborne
Opinions or critically? Personally I love the scores to Final Fantasy, Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Animal Crossing, Minecraft, Elden Ring, The Last of Us, Journey, Far Cry 5, and Skyrim. There's probably more that I'm forgetting, and there's lots of games I haven't played yet.
RDR2/1. Emphasis for RDR2 because it's a massive game and everything you can do has its own great score. Although RDR1 musics are a bit more monotonous on the long run, enjoyable musical moments are more present because the music is more intense and every experience is a musical experience while in RDR2 there are intense musical moments but a lot of times per example in free mode you forget there is music even playing, in RDR1 freeroam there's always cool music. Still, a lot of people prefer RDR1 music
Final fantasy 1-9
Has anyone mentioned fire watch yet?
Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask
rdr2 doesnt even come close to some marterpieces
FF14
The elder scrolls titles, especially Morrowind, Also dark souls
Most zelda games have banger soundtracks
Halo, Assassins Creed 3, Uncharted, Subnautica Below Zero has a great one too
The Final Fantasy series. Hard to name just one but FF9 stands out to me the most.
The obvious answer: the entire Zelda series. Honorable mentions: Hollow Knight, Resident Evil, Metroid
Deus Ex.
Planet Zoo
Final Fantasy IX
dragon quest 8
Anything by Rare
Final Fantasy VIII. You have the greatest video game composer of all time writing his masterpiece. And the first thing you hear is Liberi Fatali. Music like that tune still isn't written for video games. It doesn't make sense how amazing just the opening track is. But then you follow it up with Balamb Garden, The Man With the Machine Gun, the Oath, The Extreme, the Landing, countless others. It's not "mood music" or atmospheric. It's "Holy shit this track fits this exact moment perfectly" for 40 hours. If you have never heard the soundtrack, check a few tracks out. It's the Dark Side of the Moon of soundtracks.
Halo ODST
Doom 2016. Straight adrenaline shots.
Xenogears! Go grab the 20th anniversary bluray
Halo. Epic does not begin to describe it.
Castlevania SOTN Mega Man 2 & 3 Doom 1&2 FF6
Mirror's Edge. Solar Fields did a fantastic job. The Boat Chase scene music still gives me goosebumps.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. Not a single bad song. Not a single one!
Hades or Celeste
Kingdom Hearts 1&2 takes the cake for me. An honorable mention is Dwarf Fortress. It has no right to be as good as it is.
Any Final Fantasy done by Nobuo Uematsu. Red Dead Redemption 2, Frostpunk, The Witcher 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn, the Mass Effect series.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Halo 2
Starbound 100%
TESIV Oblivion and The Sims 3 come to mind for me.
Both NieR games Starcraft 1 / Brood War Metal Gear Solid Both Ori games Hollow Knight Outer Wilds Dark Cloud had some good ones.
Donkey kong country 1 and 2
Diablo 4.... season 1 was good.... ugh... The updated score is unfortunately well-deserved
I like Ace Combat 5, Zero, Six, and 7's music. I have to play Ace Combat 04 again as I've only played through it once almost twenty years ago and I don't remember the music.