Let's try and keep it below
1011 entries:- Disco Elysium
- Outer Wilds
- Hollow Knight
- Shadow of the Colossus + Ico
- Pyre (+all other Supergiant games)
- Valkyrie Profile
- Banner Saga trilogy
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Chrono Trigger + Cross
- Eastshade
Honestly nowadays so many games have great soundtracks, it is a joy to behold! Makes it harder to chose favorites though...
- Chrono Trigger
- Undertale/Deltarune
- The World Ends With You
- Jet Set Radio
- Them's Fightin' Herds
- F-Zero GX
- VVVVVV
- CrossCode
- Crypt of the Necrodancer
- Shatter
FTL
My top four haven't changed in a while:
- Chrono Cross
- Nier Gestalt/Replicant (original version)
- Persona 5
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I love EDM, so any game that uses it or is inspired by it holds a special place in my heart, like Streets of Rage, Rez, Dance Dance Revolution, or the Trails of Cold Steel games (especially the second one).
Chrono Trigger
A lot of great choices already: Persona 5, Hades, Katamari Damacy.
A kind of odd left-field one I'd like to add specifically for great music in-game, is Guacamelee 2. I don't know that it's the kind of music I'm likely to put on just to listen to randomly, but as far as in-game atmospheric music goes I think it's both tremendous and refreshingly unique amongst the landscape of video game music.
I'll skip the obvious ones with multiple artists like Furi, Katana Zero, Hotline Miami, Crypt of the Necrodancer...
Remember Me (2013) composed by Olivier Derivière
Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus (2018) composed by Guillaume David
Bastion (2011) composed by Darren Korb (anything by Darren Korb)
Styx: Master of Shadows (2014) composed by H-Pi
140 (2013) composed by Jakob Schmid
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is a close 2nd Edit: almost forgot about FEZ!
Halo Reach, hands down. Phenomenal, all the feels
To The Moon
I have played that game five times (so I could share the experience with other people) and have broken down into tears at the end every time.
Deus Ex and System Shock 2
Metroid Prime
- FTL Multiverse (Kix et. al.)
- Touhou
- Supergiant Games
- Blue Archive
- Minecraft
Minecraft
Nier Automata
Subnautica
- Shovel Knight
- Chrono Trigger
- Unreal Tournament 99
- Quake II
All you young'uns and your fancy moderns music.
Nothing beats Gone Jackals songs in Full Throttle.
Unreal Tournament 2004 is my favorite OST by number of tracks that I love. It has several absolute banger tracks, like Morpheus3, Hyperblast-Redux, Convoy, Atlantis and Level11. I often keep a number of those tracks on my playlists.
Although I don't like the game itself much (I suck at it), Cloudbuilt also has some awesome tracks, my personal favorite is Aurora. The guitar chords at the apex is just heavenly.
Rebel Galaxy has some very nice stuff to feel like a 'merican space cowboy, it's mostly licensed music as far as i can tell.
Assault Android Cactus usually gets your blood pumping hard, which is great because the game is a pretty fun twin-stick arena. The tracks Assault and Licorice are just 👨🍳😙👌
... Come to think of it, looking at my list, I'm a real sucker for sci-fi OSTs, huh. I do want to make honorable mentions to Mass Effect (mostly 2), Skyrim and Smash Bros. Ultimate
Bit dated, but at the time Descent II’s Redbook sountrack was pretty good for ‘96.
Hard pick because I listen to a game or series for a while, then another. Just today I went and listened to a lot of Sonic tracks, which I do once every few months. I guess Atlus games (SMT, Persona, EO), Metal Gear Rising, Ace Attorney, TWEWY are in the lead off the top of my head, but after a month I might give a different answer. My relaxing music playlist is mostly the official classical arrangements of Etrian Odyssey 1+2, so let's go with that.
Bloodborne OST is the first that comes to mind for me.
Feeling nostalgic and I was just listening to the Pokemon gen2 soundtrack
Outer Wilds (and Echoes of the Eye) technically qualifies with the community's rules, but I think the answer more in keeping with the spirit of things is Shadow of the Colossus. The Opened Way is the most "fighting a building-sized monster as a normal guy but still winning" piece of music I have heard
Undertale, Celeste, Katamari, Syonara Wild Hearts, Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid, Persona 4G, Persona 5R
Hollow Knight, though I don't really listen to it outside the game.
Cyberpunk has some great songs on the radio.Aquaria: Original Soundtrack by Alec Holowka
Such an underrated game. RIP Alec.
SimCity 4 ❤️
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Anything handled by Nobou Uematsu.
Morrowind and project wingman are peak. FFXIV is fantastic with a persistent leitmotif across each entire expansion. The final endwalker boss basically wrapped up YEARS worth of story and that fight music was a medly featuring every expansion's leitmotif and holy shit I can't get over how incredible it was. Also the pandaemonium raid music. And Alexander. Seriously you can rabbit hole for HOURS on FFXIV music.
Gravity rush is pretty damn good. Haven't played the second one yet
The Sims 2
The Last of Us 1 & 2, all the Katamari games, Death Stranding
mantis Lords from hollow knight
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2, OBVIOUSLY.
Trepang2
I've been listening to alot of Amateur composers like Boris Harazanov, Baltic House Orchestra, Mathias Fritsch and Filip Lakovic.
Mechanicus and
Ixion
Both games came out fairly recent and have OSTs by Guillaume David. They are both good games on their own, but get great due to the OST.
You can check tehm out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLsX9WUdYnU&list=PLnSG0OA5vYnTLQ77f5EmLoW52vIX5jAAK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhTXyUERugQ&list=PLLIWYDpOq7WJYefSkcfYujE5JaLmB0Ezf
Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Lunar SSSC, Final Fantasy, Wild ARMs
I’ve started recognizing when a section of a game feels baller, but it’s 99% because of the soundtrack. They can have the most generic basis for an emotional scene, and then as long as the music nails the mood it could be just blocks on a screen.
Final Fantasy XIV has had awe-inspiring tracks for the finales of each expansion since Shadowbringers; pretty much starting at the final zone through the final dungeon and trial.
Ace Attorney always gets it with its confrontation tracks; it could just be two people arguing in a hallway and it turns the battle of words into the most epic thing.
I’ll also give a shout out to Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps. For both of those, it’s not just a few banger tracks for the exciting moments; even the downtime tracks are so memorable.
- Rome Total War
- Anno 1602
- Stronghold
I suspect I'm driven by nostalgia and by literally hundreds of hours of repeat exposure.
right now i'll have to go with "The Neverhood Chronicles", it's stuck in my head since i started playing it again last week on a PS1 Emu.
Ash of the Gods and Pilgrims
Metal Gear Rising Revengence Need for Speed Most Wanted Hi-Fi Rush
Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.
Civ 3 had some killer modern music.
No game will ever have a better soundtrack than Halo 3
Pokemon USUM. If there was a looped version of the tracks, I‘d probably listen to it every day lol, it just boosts my mood. Sadly, the soundtrack (that I have) has them at 1-2 minutes.
I listen to Stellaris OST a lot these days. Turns out that good music to plan galactic domination is also good music to design and build software.
Don’t really play the game much anymore though. That was one of my main pandemic games.
The old Deus Ex and Endless Space are the ones I listen to the most.
Nier Automata, Cyberpunk, System Shock 2, GTA Vice City, Doom 2016 (I cannot listen to Eternals soundtrack knowing how Mick Gordon got ripped off there)
