Day 8: Best soundtrack.
Noooooo! The impossible question D: There are so many good soundtracks, and I believe I addressed this question before myself on one of my Final Fantasy Fridays. There I named FFIV as the game in the franchise with my favorite soundtrack, but VII has many honorable mentions, VI is the game that fully got me into soundtracks in the first place, and Final Fantasy in general just has amazing music.
You can’t talk about soundtracks without bringing up Legend of Zelda, because Zelda is just as good as Final Fantasy when it comes to the music. Most of the songs on my YouTube writing/editing playlist are from those games.
This medley has gotten me through many an editing session.
This is the best version of Kakariko Village you’re ever going to hear.
This is the most serene song every composed.
This is obviously just a sampling of wonderful music.
So what game has the best soundtrack? Ironically, impossible for this music lover to answer. I can hear the merit in any great composition. Not only that the music perfectly fits whatever mise en scene it’s been written for.
What game/game series do you think has the best soundtrack? Discussion time!
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I’m going to cheat and say Final Fantasy XV, since it contains a lot of great music from most of the entire series. Otherwise, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is tied with Undertale.
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Haha I’ve heard that before about XV. I’m sure the quality of the music is kickass though.
Every love’s LoZ (as they should), and I’ve heard good things about Undertale (another one on my backlog).
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Ooooh the Legend of Zelda theme played by the London Philharmonic is just glorious. The MGS2 theme is excellent too.
If I have to pick a best soundtrack though (and I’ve mentioned this elsewhere), I would go for Furi. Every piece fits its scene perfectly. From the environment to the enemy you’re facing, it feels hand picked for that moment. It’s dramatic synth awesomeness!
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I wonder if I’ve heard that before..I might have. I’ve listened to a lot of LoZ music.
I have not heard of this Furi! Either game or soundtrack. I love when composers do their homework and do that. It makes the experience so much more immersive.
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Furi isn’t an original soundtrack (I think), but I’d never heard any of the music or artists before.
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Best soundtrack is a hard one. And like favorite game, my answer probably fluctuates depending on my mood. Any of the Final Fantasy soundtracks with Nobuo Uematsu as composer are at the top of my lists. FF VII was the first OST I ever bought, so that one obviously holds a place of affection for me. The Marty O’Donnell composed Halo soundtracks are excellent with Halo 3 being a high point for me. But I think my favorite soundtrack falls to the Yasunori Mitsuda composed Xenogears soundtrack.
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I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Halo soundtrack. I need to check them out. Since I’m more of a PS girl than MS, I haven’t really seen a lot of Halo (and it’s not really my type of game anyway), well barring the animations and whatnot. I obviously can’t fault you for spending money on FFVII’s soundtrack. Oddly enough it’s not my favorite overall for FF though One Winged Angel is (arguably) my favorite song. I actually like the soundtrack for FFIV better overall! Like every song in FFIV is really good, but VII was going for a more cyberpunk feel whereas IV is still more of that medieval slightly steampunkish setting. Xenogears is another one in my backlog!
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Shovel Knight, Nier, Actraiser…I’ll just stop there or I could go on forever.
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Ah Actraiser! Yasss, dude, so many people discount old school video game music. The music that played during the action sequences was amazing in that game. It reminded me a lot of Faxanadu, because they were both platformer/RPG type games, and Fax has great music, too. I’m not surprised NieR has good music since it’s a Squeenix game. That’s another one on my backlog.
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Awww yeah Faxanadu. Well I hope you get around to Nier someday, it’s quite an experience.
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FF VI is my fav, VII is second. After that is probably LoZ Wind Waker, then Megaman 2.
After that the “best of” Sonic 1-3. And Ocarina of Time
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FFVI was the game that got me into video game music! I would create save points at particular parts to I could hear a song again. This was of course in the age before they had OSTs (not that I could afford them when they first came out anyway) so it was my only way to listen/relisten.
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*takes deep breath and cracks knuckles*
Legend of Zelda (orchestral versions, or Twilight Princess anything haha), Metal Gear Solid 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Mega Man 2, The Last Story, Dragon Age: All of Them, Mass Effect 2 and 3…. I’ll stop there haha
I LOVE the Twilight Princess renditions you’ve posted here, by the way. They took great themes and brought them in such an interesting direction that really compliments the thematic differences between the, for instance, Kakariko Village of OoT and of TP.
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There’s this amazing 20 minute Zelda medley I have on my YouTube Editing Music playlist, and I’m *think* Twilight Princess has my favorite version of Kakariko Village. I’m so happy to hear The Last Story has a good soundtrack, though I wouldn’t expect anything less from something created by Sakaguchi lol.
I’m thinking I might do a Music Monday post after I’m done with the 30 Day VG challenge. It’s been in a my head for a while, and I have so much freaking video game music on playlists and everywhere that I can share.
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My favorite game soundtracks are Mirror’s Edge and Shadow of the Colossus. Totally different styles and love them both. As far as whole series soundtrack, it is hard to beat Zelda.
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I’ve heard so many good things about Shadow of the Colossus! It’s been on my backlog for a while now. Zelda is on par with Final Fantasy with me. I think Koji Kondo is on the same level as Nobuo Uematsu with talent. I can’t even imagine what would happen if they ever made an album together o.O
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Not a game, but you just gotta listen to Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtrack by Brian Eno. It’s amazing!
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Definitely the Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy soundtracks. I’ll never forget the battle music, Lightning’s various themes, The Promise, and the amusing Death Metal version of the Chocobo theme song in XIII-2. I also loved how the final boss music in Lightning Returns sounded like a chaotic mashup of the big battle themes throughout the series. It really set the stage for Lightning’s epic conclusion.
Also Ocarina of Time, the Metroid Prime trilogy, Donkey Kong Country, Banjo Kazooie, Diddy Kong Racing, Yoshi’s Island… *rambles on forever* 🙂
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Ahhh! Nope, not going to pick just one. I’m going to sit here and list all my top favorites!
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Yoshi’s Island
Chrono Cross
Okami
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series
Ghost Trick
Wario Land: Shake It
Punch-Out!!
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
Xenoblade Chronicles (and X)
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I love that good game soundtracks are so plentiful that it’s impossible to just pick one, you have to catch them all *runs away* I love the opening to Chrono Cross. It has that Celtic sound to it. Ah Phoenix Wright has a good soundtrack, too? Not surprised about Bravely Default since it’s Squeenix nor Xenoblade Chronicles for the same.
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Chrono Cross does have the Celtic sound, similarly to Chrono Trigger, both masterpieces by Yasunori Matsuda. The Phoenix Wright games also have some of my favorite soundtracks ever. I used to listen to it all the time years ago. Bravely Default’s music is great too, and fun fact, the composer and band REVO have also produced the opening music for Attack on Titan and Sailor Moon Crystal. So they’re pretty well known!
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oh man… I think this is literally impossible to answer. I can’t help but think about all sorts of memorable music in gaming from when I was 5 years old until now. I’m simply going to just have to list game series instead of a specific game, too tough to answer.
Final Fantasy
Mega Man
Street Fighter
Metroid
Zelda
Xenoblade Chronicles
I’m sure my answer will be different each time I answer this 🙂
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It really is an impossible question! I’m going to need to listen to Mega Man’s soundtrack. I’m glad you threw Street Fighter on there! I feel like it was underrated in the music department, but I really loved the ending theme to it. Zelda is timelessly good, and I keep hearing wonderful things about Xenoblade.
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