Best Video Game Soundtrack -- Ever

[Tasoth]

It hasn't been mentioned yet. So I shall.


Castlevania: Symphonies of the Night.


Heathens! *starts to opening riff to Bloody Tears*

[SylasGaunt]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time had a great soundtrack.

Robot Alchemic Drive has some great moments with its music though not enough to qualify it really.. I just love the way the music kicked up when Vavel went into Genesis mode.

Mercenaries also has some great music.

The war chants in Republic Commando rock.. especially since they're cued well (like the very end of hte Assault Ship stage)

[Dooey Jo]

Castlevania: Symphonies of the Night.


Heathens! *starts to opening riff to Bloody Tears*

Bloody Tears isn't in Symphony of the Night (only in the Saturn version of the game)

I second SotN, and also nominate Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (only thing missing was Bloody Tears), Castlevania 64 (I liked it damnit!), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 007, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Castlevania 3.

[wautd]

Super Mario Bros on the NES, simply because after all those years, I still know how it goes

[Kuja]

Difficult...very difficult. I can think of many games to nominate for this...

Ulitmately, I think my choices come down to three: Halo 2, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VIII. Halo 2 had a fantastic action soundtrack that built wonderfully on its predecessor and stood over it by a huge amount. Chrono Trigger created a masterpiece of adventurous music that suited every scene like a hand to glove. You simply cannot deny that the music draws you into the game before you even know it.

Beyond the two of them, however, I simply couldn't walk away from this thread without mentioning Final Fantasy VIII. The opening sequence, set the extraordinary music of 'Liberi Fatali' is so attention-grabbing that it puts everything else I've played to shame. Beyond that, the game's music is suitably atmospheric, ranging from the peaceful bells of Balamb Garden to the synth-gone-wrong of Lunatic Pandora, from the powerful tempo of Force Your Way during boss battles, to the freakish and truly disturbing chanting of "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" in times of distress, along with the enchanting Waltz for the Moon during the dance sequence and the strings of Esthar's space station which evoke memories of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and finally the love theme Eyes on Me and the tribalistic-drums-meet-heavy-rock of Maybe I'm a Lion. The music of FFVIII takes the breath away.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

It finally arrived today from Amazon.co.uk and it far surpasses anything I've heard lately gamewise and even tops Harry Gregson-Williams' latest movies (I rate this better than even Man On Fire, Shrek 2 and Team America).

I could name others, but right now, this is simply superb.

[Faabio]

Yes homeworld's soundtrack was excellent, but the best soundtrack in a game ever is in Mechwarrior 2. I still listen to it frequently.
Honorable mention to C64 Ocean loader,

[Uraniun235]

Mechwarrior 2 is simply a great game soundtrack. The tempo and tone were perfect accompaniment to the pace and flavor of the game.

[Batman]

BG/IWD series and DSA 1&2. Hell, I bought the DSA trilogy (okay, at 5 Euros but still) just for the audio tracks.

[Vendetta]

Ace Combat 5. The Hangar song (in the first half of the game) is just great. Again, the game's composer (I assume it's the same guy) manages to mix classical orchestrated instruments with guitars and rock n roll type drumsets seamlessly together. The music is great and after some reflection, really blows AC04 out of the water. I used to think the opposite and to be certain, AC04 has some great songs, but it doesn't have nearly the quantity and the quality is at best, marginally better, although I now believe AC05 beats it out there too.

Ace Combat 5 certainly has some thoroughly excellent pieces, but too much of it's music is good videogame music. It sets the mood perfectly for what you're doing, but is actually fairly unobtrusive otherwise.

The notable exceptions are, I think, First Flight and The Unsung War (mission 4 and mission 27+ respectively).

(Ace Combat 5 doesn't actually have 'a composer', there were five people who composed for it's soundtrack. Four of them worked on AC04 as well)

The problem with game music for listening pleasure is that it's usually based around a two to three minute loop, sometimes shorter, which means that it's value as a piece of music with a start, middle, and end are somewhat diminished.

For an actual soundtrack that works seperately from the game and the feelings evoked by it, I'd have to point to Rez and Jet Set Radio, Neither are based on looping without variation, and both fit their respective game perfectly. Burnout 3 is high on the list as well, but that's for a few outstanding tracks, not the whole being interesting.

Obviously with JSR and Burnout 3 the music is all lisenced and compiled, rather than composed for the game, but the art of picking appropriate tracks that a gamer won't tire of if five minutes is just as important. I played Burnout to death without killing the music, whereas Gran Turismo's tends to go straight off.

JSR and Burnout 3 also have the distinction of having made me go out and buy albums by bands I heard in the game (Guitar Vader and Franz Ferdinand)