While gameplay is the most important part of any game, music is an essential part of setting the mood or getting you pumped for the action that’s to come. Over the years I’ve played thousands of games, and in a few rare cases the music was so good I had to stop what I was doing, and listen.
These are soundtracks that are worth tracking down the CDs for, or loading up a Spotify playlist.
10
Nier Automata
The beautiful environments of NieR Automata and main characters 2B and 9S.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Nier Automata is in my top five personal best games of all time, and the soundtrack is a big part of the reason. The atmosphere of the game is quite important to the setting, and the lush post-apocalyptic stages are elevated to another level thanks to the beautiful music, featuring choral vocals often singing in a made-up language.
Sometimes, I’ll put the OST on and simply listen to the whole thing with my eyes closed. Yes, children. You can listen to music all on its own. It’s not just background noise.
9
Doom 2016
The original DOOM game in 1993 was not only some of the first proper video game music I heard, since we finally had a sound card at that point, it was also one of my earliest exposures to thrash metal, which would become a lifelong love of mine.
As good as classic DOOM’s music is (and the recent re-release has an awesome live-recorded version of it), DOOM 2016‘s soundtrack is life-changing both for gamers and fans of music in general. Created mainly by composer Mick Gordon, the music in DOOM 2016 is highly experimental, sonically-dense, and infinitely interesting. Gordon combines traditional heavy metal sounds and fuses them with industrial synths and, I kid you not, the actual modified recordings of a real chainsaw.
8
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is at the top of most “best JRPG” lists you’ll find online, and it absolutely deserves it. This game is one of those rare titles that really has nothing you could improve or change about it. It’s not that every aspect of the game is perfect, it’s just more than the sum of its parts. So if you fiddle with just one aspect, the whole thing might lose it’s shine.
The music in Chrono Trigger is an essential part of that recipe. This is mainly the work of legendary composer Yasunori Mitsuda with a little help from even bigger legend Nobuo Uematsu. Mistuda also did the music for Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Both games that themselves have amazing soundtracks. Just have a look at Mitsuda’s video game music career and I bet you’ll see more than a few classic titles you love.
7
Halo
I’m not the world’s most avid Halo player, though I’ve finished the campaigns for all the mainline games except ODST (yeah I don’t like it) and Halo Infinite (I’ll get to it). However, while I’m ambivalent about the gameplay in these games, the story and score are both top-tier in my book.
The Halo main theme has been on my in-car play list for years. The only reason I stopped listening to it during my commute is that I work from home now.
I should really extend this to the entire Elder Scrolls series, but I think the most refined versions of Jeremy Soule’s music is in the fifth game—Skyrim. It’s also one of my favorite tunes to doodle when I find time to actually pick up my guitar.
Obviously, the main theme is the star of the show here, but there are just so many beautiful pieces, particularly the ambient ones, which makes this a favorite OST for me to put up while I work.
5
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II is still the best fighting game in history in my opinion, but then I’m biased because I was lucky enough to grow up with the arcade cabinets of the game in my dad’s small arcade. Which also means I got to hear the proper music, rather than the stripped-down chiptunes we got on home consoles.
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Guile’s Theme is the most famous track, mainly thanks to meme culture, but it’s a certified bop as some people who used to be kids said at some point. It goes way beyond that one track though. Most of the major characters have their own distinctive tracks and this might actually be one of the first times I heard real music in a video game. So it definitely left an impression on me.
4
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I have a strange relationship with the Zelda games. I know they are excellent games, I know that people love them, and many of them should be the type of games I like. Particularly Breath of the Wild, yet despite spending a ton of money on Zelda games, I always drop them after a few hours as I lose interest.
Now, the exact same thing is true for me when it comes to The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time, but during the bit of time I played the remaster on my 3DS, I was extremely impressed by the music. This game in particular has a strong emphasis on music as part of the gameplay and story, and the songs are simple, catchy, and really do a good job of establishing the vibe if the game section you’re in. It’s just good fundamental music composition.
3
Every Final Fantasy
Most Final Fantasy music is the work of maestro Nobuo Uematsu and I could write an entire article just about the best tracks (in my opinion) from all the various games. My personal favorites include Liberi Fatali, Vamo’ alla Flamenco, One-winged Angel, and so many more.
There have also been a ton of covers and reimaginings of the music from these games. My absolute favorite is one of Uematsu’s own side projects—The Black Mages. There are several albums from the group, with the best Final Fantasy music reimagined as virtuoso heavy metal and rock music. It’s some of the best-produced and arranged music I have ever heard.
2
Journey
Is Journey really a game? Well, if you ask me, not really. It’s solidly in the “walking sim” category of titles where most of the time you’re just pushing forward on the stick, and occasionally you have to jump over something. It’s very linear, not very long, and it’s also an absolutely amazing experience.
Journey is really more a piece of digital art, with the sights and sounds evoking emotion through simple and effective storytelling. I don’t really want to spoil the whole thing, but once you’ve played through it, you’ll want to go back to the soundtrack from time to time because of the memories attached to the songs.
1
Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus is another game that lives near the top of my all-time favorites list, and I have particularly intense feeling about this one, because the first time I played it, I had only 24 hours to complete the whole game on my PlayStation 2 before the game had to be returned to the person I borrowed it from.
The titular colossi are tragic figures with their own unique personalities, and the music of the game reflects that perfectly. It manages to be both beautiful and pulse-pounding. It’s not an OST I listen to on its own much, but it definitely left an impression on me at the time. Well, maybe the sleep deprivation also had something to do with it.
There are, of course, so many more games I could talk about when it comes to music. Like movies, video games seem to be one of the last bastions where classical music composers can still find work. So, from that perspective alone, it’s worth dipping into the world of game music if you’re interested in modern classical music. There’s a reason so many orchestras have events where they play video game music. Even people with season tickets who don’t know the source material can still appreciate it.
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For those of us who are gamers, these songs can take on an even more special meaning. After all, this is what was playing while you were in the heat of battle, or discovering something marvelous in an open game world. Like music you hear in other parts of your life, it’s that connection to a time, a place, and a feeling that really makes a difference, but it also helps that some of the most talented musicians in the world work in this industry to all our benefit.
