Game Audio

doctoremmet said:

I remember playing Ys on my MSX way back when.

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Earliest I can go back on that series is III on the SNES. Still love the music, though - always have. The newer Falcom stuff is so good. This one remains a favorite:

liquidlino said:

My personal favourite of recent years for both gameplay and audio is Ori and the wisp. Such a beautiful game. I read an interview and it's a mix of samples and live instruments for exposed lines.

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It was recorded in Air Lyndhurst.

Well, for racing really have to go with this:



For the platforms Tomb Raider 1-2 were gold, Banjo-Kazooie had a weird charm that fit the game,
and even something like Castlevania 64 with it's mix of sound design and score elevated an otherwise
flawed (yet underrated) game. More recently respected what I was hearing in 'A Hat in Time'.

But there are great works in really any of these genres, so to a large degree it will fall to personal
tastes and of course dreaded nostalgia.

The JRPG's were among the most thematic, but for every FF6/7, Chrono Cross and Vagrant Story, there were works that in retrospect aged unremarkably in the sense that the music itself was either much less compelling, or worse that it was somewhat 'trite' and kind of detracted from the overall experience. Always have to give mention and credit to how great some of the old stuff of the 80's truly was though, often only with a handful of channels to work with - real Joker breaking and throwing down the poolstick stuff.

Ah, so when we’re going to 1980s route, one HAS to mention this genius:



I’ve posted my favourite SID tune many times already, but here it is again:

If we're talking C64 SID chip music, we need to mention the wonderful Marin Galway too!

Someone already mentioned Ori and the Blind forest, absolutely amazing soundtrack.
Some of my favorites though, most of the legend of zelda series, but especially Wind Waker, Majoras Mask and Ocarina of Time.

And a few indie titles i wanna highlight that really has some breathtaking music are Hollow Knight and Gris. They are a masterclass in setting mood. Hell, Gris half of the experience is the art, the other half the music. Absolutely amazing.

I think hollow knights only recorded instrument is the viola, so it might be a good inspiration for you.





Two others i really enjoyed is the Celeste soundtrack and Bastion (same developer as Hades, and i think same composer? It was his first game soundtrack).

Gotta shout out Martin Stig Andersen too for being probably the most adventurous composer working in games imo:
And Jessica Curry for making me cry with basically every score:

I joined VI-Control because of another discussion about game music (here, just for reference: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/videogame-music-recommendations.93629/page-4#post-4605989).

Some of my favorites:
Everybody's gone to the rapture, by Jessica Curry. I only finished this game because of the awesome soundtrack...


Outcast, by Lennie Moore (here is a nice article about this soundtrack: https://www.greatestgamemusic.com/soundtracks/outcast-soundtrack/)


Tearaway, by Brian D'Oliveira and Kenneth C M Young.


Shadow of the colossus, by Kow Otani. Not sure how long I would listen to this without knowing the game, but this greatly improved the atmosphere of the game.


The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, by Marcin Przybyłowicz, Mikołaj Stroiński & Percival.


ok, ok, I could go on like this for a while, stopping now...

Except maybe, more C64 SID music?
Chris Hülsbeck:


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

So fun to see some love for game audio and music!
I have way too many to post here. A few of them are; Soma (Sci-fi horror), Hunt Showdown (dark western setting with monsters) and Elite Dangerous (spaceship simulator).
Here's something from Elite

Snarp said:

Tearaway, by Brian D'Oliveira and Kenneth C M Young.

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I love Brian, but I have some really hard time coping with this screechy and untuned car accident of a soundtrack. :D It's original and refreshing and fits the game like a glove, but I still can't be sure what I think of it in general, haha!

Still love the Skyrim OST

Henu said:

I love Brian, but I have some really hard time coping with this screechy and untuned car accident of a soundtrack. :D It's original and refreshing and fits the game like a glove, but I still can't be sure what I think of it in general, haha!

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I am sometimes in the mood for screechy and untuned car accident music. I once tried to create a MIDI mockup of the Tearaway title song, and failed miserably.

gtrwll said:

I'd like to add my favorite soundtrack (and game) from the current generation, and that's Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

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Strong agreement here! XC2 is maybe my favorite game soundtrack of all time, and one of my favorite soundtracks, full-stop, game or otherwise. I'm glad you posted Leftheria, that's my favorite of the whole bunch, but it's full of gems. (My wife is a massive fan of the Torigoth nighttime theme.)

I just recently started XC3 and it does not disappoint. Surprisingly different-feeling tone to both the music and the game, and it shares a lot of commonalities with another Mitsuda masterpiece, Chrono Cross – my previous favorite game soundtrack.

I read somewhere that the XC2 soundtrack ended up taking about 22,000 pages of sheet music for all the various ensembles involved! Mitsuda has a team, of course, and doesn't do everything himself. But he's clearly one hell of a great lead composer. I'm a huge fan!

proggermusic said:

Strong agreement here! XC2 is maybe my favorite game soundtrack of all time, and one of my favorite soundtracks, full-stop, game or otherwise. I'm glad you posted Leftheria, that's my favorite of the whole bunch, but it's full of gems. (My wife is a massive fan of the Torigoth nighttime theme.)

I just recently started XC3 and it does not disappoint. Surprisingly different-feeling tone to both the music and the game, and it shares a lot of commonalities with another Mitsuda masterpiece, Chrono Cross – my previous favorite game soundtrack.

I read somewhere that the XC2 soundtrack ended up taking about 22,000 pages of sheet music for all the various ensembles involved! Mitsuda has a team, of course, and doesn't do everything himself. But he's clearly one hell of a great lead composer. I'm a huge fan!

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I’m under the impression that while Mitsuda composed some essential pieces for XC2 and XC3, most of the score is by Kenji Hiramatsu, ACE and Manami Kiyota. Especially Hiramatsu wrote some stunning themes for both games.

proggermusic said:

Strong agreement here! XC2 is maybe my favorite game soundtrack of all time, and one of my favorite soundtracks, full-stop, game or otherwise. I'm glad you posted Leftheria, that's my favorite of the whole bunch, but it's full of gems. (My wife is a massive fan of the Torigoth nighttime theme.)

I just recently started XC3 and it does not disappoint. Surprisingly different-feeling tone to both the music and the game, and it shares a lot of commonalities with another Mitsuda masterpiece, Chrono Cross – my previous favorite game soundtrack.

I read somewhere that the XC2 soundtrack ended up taking about 22,000 pages of sheet music for all the various ensembles involved! Mitsuda has a team, of course, and doesn't do everything himself. But he's clearly one hell of a great lead composer. I'm a huge fan!

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Oh man. Xenoblade 2. I'm so glad it took me 2 years to man up and finish the last 2 hours of that game because I hated the ending so much while I loved absolutely everything else about it. So I got to enjoy perfection for 2 years before ruining it for myself. I'll take that as a win.

Counterattack is probably my favorite piece of music in the world. I just can't hear that song without... feeling things.

Crowe said:

Oh man. Xenoblade 2. I'm so glad it took me 2 years to man up and finish the last 2 hours of that game because I hated the ending so much while I loved absolutely everything else about it. So I got to enjoy perfection for 2 years before ruining it for myself. I'll take that as a win.

Counterattack is probably my favorite piece of music in the world. I just can't hear that song without... feeling things.

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I rarely, next to never, cry when playing a game, watching a movie or stuff like that. But the ending of XC2 was one of those occasions. The whole game builds up to that very moment. Can’t say much more without spoiling stuff.

I know it’s a controversial ending, but for me the game was perfection from the opening cinematics ’til the very end.

And to think I just bought it because it was on sale and I was only thinking of buying a Switch…well, it was a good enough reason to buy one.

gtrwll said:

I rarely, next to never, cry when playing a game, watching a movie or stuff like that. But the ending of XC2 was one of those occasions. The whole game builds up to that very moment. Can’t say much more without spoiling stuff.

I know it’s a controversial ending, but for me the game was perfection from the opening cinematics ’til the very end.

And to think I just bought it because it was on sale and I was only thinking of buying a Switch…well, it was a good enough reason to buy one.

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Haha. To each their own. I thought it was the most rote and clichéd thing I'd ever seen. I was able to predict each and every beat, like they came straight out of one of my books on fiction writing.

It still bothers me, because as I said, I really love that game and everything else about it. Much more than XB1, which I was simply not able to finish.

My advice: If you love fiction, never ever study creative writing.

Crowe said:

Haha. To each their own. I thought it was the most rote and clichéd thing I'd ever seen. I was able to predict each and every beat, like they came straight out of one of my books on fiction writing.

It still bothers me, because as I said, I really love that game and everything else about it. Much more than XB1, which I was simply not able to finish.

My advice: If you love fiction, never ever study creative writing.

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True that. It definitely felt like a cliché even without studying creative writing, but I felt it kinda had to end the way it did to simply milk that resolution. In comparison XC1 or XC3 don’t have that kind of a steady build-up, they’re just good stories with some nice plot twists, but that’s about it IMO. Although I have yet to finish XC3, but I’m getting there, currently at ~150h, finishing side quests before the finale.

This game has one of the best scores I've ever heard, and is incredibly fun and deep if you love RPGs with unlimited freedom and choices.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has some of the absolute best world building I've ever experienced, and 1 and 3, while being good games, don't even come close to that feeling of scale and adventure I get with XC2. Currently playing thru 3, enjoying it, but man the characters and world is really a step backwards compared to 2.

Civilization VI has beautiful, relaxing and immersive music, so many cultures and instruments are included. The menu theme is grand and regal, and quite inspiring.



Civilization: Beyond Earth also has an incredibly ethereal and moody score, even though the game isn't as good as Civ V or VI.

Some well know names in these circles and a single example of their contribution to game music:

Troels Fohlmann & Colin O’Malley:



Christian Henson + Joe Henson / Alexis Smith (the latter also did all the Brunel loops for Iceni IIRC):



Paul Thomson: