I recently started playing GTAV again and sometimes I’ll get in my car and let the radio stations play while I do house stuff. Favorite stations are the 80s one with Kenny Loggins, and West Coast Classics and Rock Radio.
I’ve been listening to the FTL soundtrack since high school!
Into the Breach’s soundtrack is also outstanding, by the same composer for the same developer.
I used to put this on to drift asleep to. Fantastic soundtrack.
Nier Automata and Nier Replicant, also Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. Id mention more but my other picks are probably already mentioned here.
This. I’ve played hundreds of games from many decades and nothing comes close to how amazing the Nier and Nier Automata soundtracks are.
There are games with amazing music that sets the perfect atmosphere — Celeste, Hades, Zelda (especially BotW/TotK).
And then there are games soundtracks I would also happily just put on to listen to — FFXIV, Persona 5, one particular song from Hades (Eurydice).
Fez
Disasterpeace is amazing. Also did the soundtrack for It Follows.
Outer Wilds
Aaand now I’m reliving that awesome existential crisis/awakening
I just break out into tears any time I hear the title menu theme.
Risk of Rain 2 with Celeste being a close second!
I’m surprised not to see any of the Monster Hunter games yet! Maybe that’s because most MH soundtracks are more a collection of individual themes than a unified soundtrack for a world, but a lot of those tracks are pretty great.
I don’t know whether it is considered polite to link to youtube recordings of tracks here. My particular favorites from World are all zone themes: “Rulers of the Wildspire”, “Dancer in the Coral Highlands”, “Roars across the Hinterlands”. You hear these tunes a lot - whenever you’re fighting something in that zone that doesn’t have its own theme - so they’d better be good. Fortunately almost all of them live up to that standard!
Fallout got me, a Metal Head, listening to 50s rock and lounge music.
In no particular order:
Final Fantasy XIV and XVI (Soken is a genius)
Transistor
Nier Automata
Genshin Impact
Destiny 2
The World Ends With You
Persona 5
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1/2
Honestly though the FF series as a whole kinda deserves its own special mention. The games have always had stellar soundtracks.
Nier Automata has a great storyline and the ost just elevates that totally in nearly all occasions. It’s an one of a game which just mesmerizes you in it’s soundtrack while playing the game during any time.
Ugh yes, +1 for Final Fantasy and especially XIV. At this point I think I mostly run content for the music. Shadowbringers and Endwalker have some bangers.
Hollow Knight
- Bastion
- Castlevania (series, special mention for Symphony of the Night)
- Chrono Trigger/Cross
- Dead Cells
- Destiny 1/2
- Dragon’s Dogma (mainly Into Free, but still…)
- Final Fantasy (series, but special mention for XI and XIV)
- Persona 4/5
- Portal 1/2
- River City Girls (probably 2 as well, but still waiting on my LRG copy)
- Scott Pilgrim vs the World (the game (the soundtrack))
- Tony Hawk (series); a bit of a cop out, as they’re all licensed songs
- Zelda (series, special mention for the Cadence of Hyrule soundtrack)
And then just a lot of old nostalgia for NES games (Duck Tales, River City Ransom, TMNT, etc) and SNES/PS1 RPGs (Lufia, Super Mario RPG, Suikoden, Thousand Arms, etc)
But that main list contains the ones I either bought or downloaded because I loved the music so much.
The Chrono Trigger soundtrack is a goddamn masterpiece. I haven’t played it for years and the songs still randomly pop into my head.
Spotting Super Mario RPG in there, you might appreciate knowing some people actually recreated some songs with the original synths used by Yoko Shimomura herself.
Maaannn, the Tony Hawk games introduced me to so(!) many(!) great songs, bands, and genres of music! I’m so damn thankful for those games and their soundtracks. They definitely had a hand in shaping who I am today.
You can usually find playlists people have put together of the soundtracks for each game (at least the songs that are available on the platform) on YouTube and Spotify. I still listen to them! Naturally, they hold up really well.
- Celeste
- Dead Cells
- Hollow Knight
Witcher 3 soundtrack. The exploration and combat wouldn’t be the same without it.
Honestly love the Doom soundtrack.
Rip and tear until it is DONE.
Mick Gordon is amazing! I tweeted to him one time and he hearted my tweet. My friends and I played this soundtrack a ridiculous amount. Great pick.
I’m honestly a bigger fan of the classic DOOM I/II (199X) soundtracks. Despite being obvious parodies of existing rock/metal songs, they had a certain appeal. Especially when someone makes a very good cover.
I get why people like 2016’s DOOM’s more “metal” approach, but for me nothing beats an adrenaline-rush song when ripping and tearing those damned demons.
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Deus Ex Hotline Miami Unreal Tournament Journey Cyberpunk 2077 The Witcher Jet Set Radio All the Silent Hill (even Downpour) Colony Wars
There is so many good ones…
