all the soundtracks of the games i've played, personal ranking
all of it! the entire soundtrack! at least, what's intended as music - battle music, atmospheric bgm, story tracks, character themes - a soundtrack with good battle music but weak bgm will fall pretty low on the list.
in fact, i'll go one step further: how it's used within the game also weights it. games that maximise emotional impact by playing music at the right time will be high up, while soundtracks that waste good tracks on trivial situations get marked down.
also, compilation/collection soundtracks, ie hotline miami and project sekai aren't included - those are songs not originally made for the game, or based on songs not originally made for the game.
(and it should be obvious, but only games i've listened to the soundtrack of enough to be able to rank. DLCs are included as part of a base game, as said DLCs often use music from the base game too.)
nb: apart from dragon age origins, rrootage and sonic chronicles, i AM a fan of all of the soundtracks here! maybe i will edit this here and there
let's go!
in fact, i'll go one step further: how it's used within the game also weights it. games that maximise emotional impact by playing music at the right time will be high up, while soundtracks that waste good tracks on trivial situations get marked down.
also, compilation/collection soundtracks, ie hotline miami and project sekai aren't included - those are songs not originally made for the game, or based on songs not originally made for the game.
(and it should be obvious, but only games i've listened to the soundtrack of enough to be able to rank. DLCs are included as part of a base game, as said DLCs often use music from the base game too.)
nb: apart from dragon age origins, rrootage and sonic chronicles, i AM a fan of all of the soundtracks here! maybe i will edit this here and there
let's go!
104 Games
the story and atmospheric music is JUST as good as the level music, and that's saying a lot. ultimate "get amped" playlist jams (flowing is now the official song for whenever i'm on a plane and it takes off)
1
somehow packs more of an emotional punch than the soundtrack to the first mystery dungeon games. several of these i refuse to listen to on a normal day because they make me cry. BGM does see reuse but i don't really care given how many dungeons there are, and each of them is memorable enough anyway. story tracks are a notch above the rest, but they're all good enough that despite having last played explorers a decade ago, sometimes they play in my head during everyday situations still. there are no weak links in this soundtrack.
2
a soundtrack that just will NOT quit. my favourite soundtrack for moving through the city at high speed
3
REALLY fits the "floral cyberpunk rave" aesthetic the game has going. it's good enough that i bought this off a suspicious-looking gumroad clone like 10 years ago (that has since shut down)
4
while the ambient bgm isn't as crushing as the battle music, it keeps the door open for it and keeps that sense of tension going. it's really good. one of the few soundtracks i can confidently call influential.
5
i feel like this is one of the few soundtracks i can genuinely call influential, but this is one that REALLY pushed the envelope, and i respect that so hard, not to mention it's just. really good.
6
i mean, of course this was gonna be high up given the soundtrack is the main part of the game.
7
this did not need a soundtrack this good, but it had one anyway. there is not a single weak link and is memorable in its own way, and typical of darren korb's soundtracks, is REALLY good at emotionally conveying what it needs to, and perfectly conveys the melancholy vibe the story's situation calls for.
8
it doesn't help that i've read every single blog entry the composer wrote for every single track about the behind the scenes for this soundtrack, but it's amazing what went into this - the way he uses different instruments to convey the vibe for each location, for example. the seasonal tracks are magical, which is what oshima was going for, full well knowing you'll hear all of them a lot, and the story tracks are very strong; there are no weak links on this soundtrack.
9
even the music owns being cheesy, which i respect. this game's soundtrack has been part of my "get amped" playlist since the 2000s, and was there for the beginning. it might have BEEN the beginning of those playlists
10
peak supergiant games
11
i always found zone 2's music kinda lacking, but zones 4 and 5 have SUCH good music to balance it out. this is a music-based game so ofc more care will be put into the soundtrack
12
the fight tracks are among the best music ever made, but. the ambient bgm lets it down, and is a lot of what the player hears unfortunately, so this isn't at the top :(
13
there is such a feeling of hope permeating this ost, and it's so refreshing
14
17
this soundtrack's BGM does a really good job at showing the character of its locations, which makes sense given the player only sees termina once (this game) and the soundtrack has to do a lot to make sure they care about it. there's plenty of ingame music cues too that add plenty of flavour - ALL the music link can play (song of healing, song of time, etc) and all the situations that arise out of the instruments they can be played on. there's so much atmosphere, especially in clock town - however, battle music isn't as memorable, and bosses all share music outside of majora, which marks this down
20
you'll spend most of this listening to battle tracks, and they go HARD, esp w the dynamic music feature. atmospheric tracks + bgm are weaker by comparison and kinda let the soundtrack down a bit, though, but story tracks are pretty good!!
21
it takes a while to get started, admittedly - not many are gonna be singing the praises of newcomer's bridge or cargo hold, but once the story gets going (ie disc 2), so does the soundtrack. hack your way! is one of my favourite vgm tracks of all time, good enough to make me cry, and so is the theme for a certain emotionally charged late-game showdown. however, disc 1 kinda lets the side down a bit and is mostly just run of the mill mmo-style music, which is the POINT of it, but still, which is why this isn't as high as it could be
(a new home isn't here as despite having a different composer, you're also going to hear base game music in that, which makes it a weird situation to rank)
(a new home isn't here as despite having a different composer, you're also going to hear base game music in that, which makes it a weird situation to rank)
22
24
25
amazing fight music! atmospheric location music! everything to do w the princess league! an entire part dedicated to music and dance! this is it babey
26
i ADORE the remade music. it adds all the character the original tracks were going for - cianwood and ecruteak in particular. everything to do with ho-oh and lugia is glorious, unown music is just as intimidating. this is truly a soundtrack that goes above and beyond what it was supposed to
27
there's such a heartbreaking, melancholy vibe to this soundtrack, and i am HERE for it. for most of the actual gameplay though, the music won't be doing anything special
28
platinum has the battle frontier going for it in addition to diamond and pearl's music
30
i feel this has the strongest soundtrack of the sigcorp series as less of them feel like "filler" - the game is tension all the way through, and has the emotional weight in the soundtrack to back it up. it's not like gameplay has much else to back it up, so it's gotta count!
31
33
sakuraba did this one well; while the instruments remain mostly the same on this soundtrack, it does a good job at showing the character of the bosses, and firelink shrine is always a breath of fresh air to hear.
35
without dialogue, the music has to pull more of its weight than the other sigcorp games, and so has been adjusted for that (ie is a bit better than it would have been had there been dialogue!)
38
51
55
thank you BLANKFIELD
58
OK BUT WHY WAS THE GRANDMASTER THEME THAT GOOD
61
miror b............
66
VERY underappreciated
67
this one is. a mixed bag. the battle themes are all really good, but tend to wear after you get your skell and end up running everything over. major boss themes (The key we've lost, NO.EX01) i would argue are at the top for xenoblade series boss themes, but black tar is an Acquired Taste (i love it, but others don't) and the nla tracks, which will be most of what you hear, are. not good.
68
THE SELFISH DEED IS NOT FREEDOM
72
i feel like the re-orchestrations kinda put TOO much gloss onto the music; the delicious bass is gone from the admin battle music, and the whole thing can feel a bit too clinical in places, but the delta episode's music is GORGEOUS
76
FIGHT ME
79
perfectly conveys Fast
80
the hover car mission music didn't have to go that hard
87
while monsters can have good themes in monster hunter, i've just...never felt much impact from it? monster shows up, music plays, but that's most of it really
89
this soundtrack has a jam kind of vibe going to it but. in a really good way. it's enough to take the edge off, and it helps that this is one of the best bullet hell games of the last 15 years
90
admittedly since it's a visual novel it's not really meant to take centre stage. but the ones with "80s mix" in the soundtrack are SO charming and see a lot of daily listening
92
unfortunately falls into the trap of trying really hard to be a cinematic movie score without accomplishing much
93
not actively bad, but...not that memorable?
95
battle themes are good, but i'm sorry, but i really think sakuraba phoned it in here. he copied his own homework from zestiria for the bgm, and even then, it wasn't that interesting there. it's outdated as opposed to being "classic", and a lot of the bgm just sounds like generic jrpg fantasy music. which is a shame, bc there are some standouts; the final dungeon's track is really good, the battle themes are all really good, and the boss themes range from good to REALLY good, but they're not enough to save this one
96
100
2 Comments
reading over this list i'm starting to think i'm a little biased against orchestral soundtracks. they can be good of course but i think part of it for me is the mainstream ONLY seeing orchestral soundtracks as "good" and ignoring all other soundtracks, and for me it's like, hey, you don't have to pretend your game soundtrack is for a movie for it to be considered valid. video games as a medium is fine itself and it's fine to venture outside of purely orchestral music sometimes
coralqueenkanans
1 year ago