For me it will always be the first Dead Space. The sountrack (and sound effects) were beyond chilling.
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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Many games feature amazing music, but certain games take it beyond even that.
Games like DOOM are known for the "procedural" composition they use to marry gameplay and sound, and not only that, the way the music is a perfect tonal match to what is happening.
What games have you played that feature music that doesn't just make you notice it, but also pulls you further in?
Pretty old now, but Jet Set Radio/Jet Set Radio Future
Cell-shaded skating/graffiti game from my childhood will always have a place in my heart, and my playlists
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Wasteland 3's soundtrack is full of bangers. The ambient music and generic combat music is good, but the game has a lot of special tracks that play over specific combat moments. They are religious or nostalgic songs being covered by modern bands, giving the soundtrack a kind of distorted feel. It's very good.
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Lately I’ve been playing Angel Pop! It’s a tough little bullet hell from playdate, I’m not very good but the soundtrack is great https://studionnnn.bandcamp.com/album/angel-pop-playdate-soundtrack
I can't believe nobody's mentioned Furi!
The game is a boss rush fighting game that's incredibly fun to play, and the developers worked with multiple different artists to make the soundtrack. Literally gave them spec sheets for the boss fight they were making music for and info on how the stages progressed etc. So the soundtrack is a living part of the fights themselves. 10/10 highly recommended
Furi is fantastic. The mechanics are arguably even tighter than the music.
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Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
Rain World.
Super Metroid.
Nier Automata. There aren't even any words in the lyrics, it's amazing.
Except for the "final" track, "Weight of the World", which is just amazing and chilling, especially in the context of the game and lore if you make it to the end of true ending e. Apparently the Japanese version uses a take where the vocalist started crying during it, and in the English version you can hear the vocalist struggling towards the end.
And there's the one track that's name escapes me with the robots chanting "become as gods".
A lot of the other tracks have chanting, but it's intentionally not in any language, despite every track having a pretty heavy emotional feel to it.
Diablo 1. I have a hard time playing the game anymore, it's super clunky, but the guitar music from the overworld fucking slaps
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Terraria and Stardew Valley
My day gets 200% better whenever I hear that summer song
Doom 2016
Oh. Just actually read the body of your post!
I mean it's a damn good pick.
So not quite what you’re asking for, but right when deeprock galactic came out I found this artist on bandcamp called dreamsaboutdogs. They make electronic music, and their album Cursed quickly became my unofficial deeprock soundtrack. It just meshes super well with the gameplay, I dunno.
I told my deeprock homie about it and now he does the same thing, so it’s not just me lmao
Katamari Damacy
Wytchwood has a soundtrack that goes unnecessarily hard. Especially by the docks. Everything about that game is satisfying.
Myth II Soulblighter.
RimWorld - see the YouTube comments for people telling stories of what each song reminds them of.
Shoutout to 'simple' music that works well in a game - Project Highrise, Shapez, or Outbound for example.
FTL and Celeste have basically the perfect soft background music; once you’re played them it is remarkable how many YouTube videos reuse one or the other for their turned-way-down background music
That, and then Grand Poo World 2 has basically the best retro action game soundtrack I have ever heard
The artist behind Celeste's soundtrack Lena Raine is really good at that kind of music, her Bandcamp is good for listening
From the top of my Head:
- Hotline Miami 1&2
- My friend Pedro
- OTXO
- FIGHT KNIGHT
- Savant Ascent Remix
All of those have certified banger OSTs that blend perfectly into the game
Literally every game by Supergiant. Most recent would be Hades 2, when I finally beat the 3rd boss and start slashing into the fourth area, the music was so hype I was smiling all the way through.
A better pick may be Transistor though. It's kind of a half action half strategy game, where you kind of pause to plan out and execute your next moves. During that pause phase, the music would turn into a muted version, and main character would hum to it in sync.
Also, Journey and Abzu. They simply are experiences that should not be had without good headphones.
Bastion's soundtrack still sticks in my head to this day, Darren Korb does amazing work.
Chants of Sennar has an amazing soundtrack, as does Tunic.
So uh..... Fun thing about Transistor.
As the credits roll, Red sings for the first time in the game. The death of her lovers turns her mute, which is why she only ever hums to the music in the game. During your first play-through. At the end of the game, the credits roll to the tune of "Paper Boats" which is the first song in the game to have lyrics, sung by Red.
It's emotional high point that hits hard. She can sing again!
But there's more.
In new game+ Red no longer hums during all pause screens. She now sings the previously unheard lyrics of several songs in the game!
I NEVER PLAYED NG+ SO I DID NOT KNOW THAT. WTF LOL😂
Well shit, I guess I have something to do this weekend now
Today feels like a good day to play Transistor again... I keep getting owned in Hades 2
Hollow Knight and Celeste are the two that come to mind for me.
Breath of the Wild which also does dynamic music that shifts and changes as you play/encounter enemies
Most modern games do this. It's a little different depending on implementation, but usually there are short loops of music which can transition into one another, and the game attempts to detect what's going on and make smooth transitions to the appropriate new loops so that the music is seamless but still reactive to what's going on. When it's done well, it's basically totally invisible that anything special is even happening, which I'm sure is irritating if you're the one who had to do the ball-busting labor of getting it all to work.
Fun fact, LucasArts was already doing this all the way back in 1991, back when video game sound beyond the bleeps and boops stage was still bleeding edge technology. One of many ways in which they were ahead of the curve by about 20-30 years if not more.
Like good CGI. The best work is the one you don’t notice.
Wonder how they did that back then? Shifting the tones up and down?
The wiki article goes into it; the canonical example (if you know to pay attention to it) is walking around in Woodtick in Monkey Island 2, and you can hear how the melody that’s playing is continuous, but some of the backing instruments will insert or change depending on which buildings you go into. You can probably find Let’s Play of the game on YouTube or etc to hear it in action.
Thanks. Read it and yeah, that had to be hard with a limited set of sound channels.
The entire arrangement would have to be smaller chunks that are flowed one into another or swapped out when an event changed.
Considering the memory and code space limitations of the time that was no small feat.
Both n64 TLoZ and Diablo II are great
Nier Automata
The soundtrack is integral to the experience.
The credits sequence, IMO, is the current high for games as a medium.
When the chorus kicks in on end of yorha, after you ask for help, still gives me goosebumps.
Not normally that kind of person, but the way all aspects of design, music, story, and user input collide make it the most impactful experience I've ever had in a game.
It's a magnum opus, to be sure. I'll be blown away if Yoko Taro finds a way to top it.
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As spoiled by the picture I chose for the post, my pick is Katana Zero.
Each stage has it's own track, and it is not just background noise. Zero carries with him a walkman, and each level begins with him pulling it out at putting his earphone in, then starting the track as the name of the song appears on screen.
Whenever Zero isn't himself listening to something, any music heard is environmental, like the soft background music of a hotel lobby, or the annoying low tones passing through the walls from a party at the neighbors.
If you're a fan, and didn't know, there is an expansion coming to Katana Zero. It's been teased with a few gameplay clips, and a new OST track.
Yeah Katana Zero is crazy good, I've had Meat Grinder (Ludowic) on repeat for so long, that song is just perfect in terms of beats to focus to
I know it's cheating since the game is basically a playable soundtrack but "Hi-fi-Rush" brought me immense joy. On of the only games where I was actually vibing at my desk and rocking my head around to the beat.
You have no idea how hyped I got as the beginning notes of "Invaders Must Die" played.
RIP Tango Gameworks.
The closure of tango and the IP in Microsofts hands is a tragedy