Games

My favorite soundtrack ever, of course, is that of The Secret of Monkey Island (MT-32) by Michael Land. A lot of nostalgia there.

I also very much like the soundtrack to Dune by Stephane Picq. There's an edition that combines the Adlib, Adlib Gold, and MT-32 versions which is "chef's kiss". Alternatively, I can recommend the Space Opera edition.

Strike Commander by Nenad Vugrinec on MT-32 is also great.

For chiptunes, I really liked Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 by Alex Mauer.

Or, for a real classic, Earthbound by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka.

Yes, I have a bit of a thing for retro sounds. 😁

RimWorld

There's a lack of Ace Combat in this thread so I'm going to single out 7's but they're all pretty good.

Also Redout has a soundtrack to spike your heartrate

Endless Legend OST

• Risk of Rain 2
• Hollow Knight
• Earthbound

Non-game instrumental artists:

• GoGo Penguin
• Floating Points (especially "Promises")
• Kiasmos
• Max Cooper
• Boards of Canada
• Reid Willis
• C418

FAR: Lone Sails

What Remains of Edith Finch

Divinity II: Original Sin

Frostpunk

These are all (mostly) non-vocal, great for some background noise. Great games too!

Need for Speed 3 -- the original hot pursuit has an amazing techno and rock soundtrack.

GTA V has an awesome soundtrack (listen to the original score, not the music they licensed)

The very first Hitman and Hitman Contracts had some killer techno/electronic soundtracks.

Any of these are great to play in the background while you work.

Here's 7.5 hours of music from Horizon Forbidden West:

https://youtu.be/uy7lXNaGaSg?si=lLPHbTC95k_Jti4f

Hyperlight Drifter - disasterpeace

Fez - disasterpeace

Scott pilgrim vs the world - anamanaguchi

How is there not a Single mention of celeste? It is one of the few things that can keep me focussed for hours.

Subnautica has a long and beautiful OST. It's been a long-time favorite of mine, and just a great instrumental jam to fuel my creativity lately. Stardew has my other favorite game soundtrack!

TUNIC. I also highly recommend the game, it's in my top 5.

starfield the game is divisive to say the least, but i cant imagine anyone would talk bad about the soundtrack. inon zur's best work so far, and the death metal songs in there are fucking awesome too

Ultrakill has some bangers, didn't even play the game Injust stumbled on the OST.

The Witcher 3, I love BANANA TIGER.

Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2.

No Man's Sky

Lost Ember

Gris

Deep Rock Galactic

Route 96

Cyberpunk 2077

So so so many more

Orchestral my pick is Journey, with Uncharted as a close second

Actiony my pick is Scott Pilgrim vs The World The Game. Love the band.

Retro - Chrono Trigger/Spyro 1-3/Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald.

I would suggest "quake 2", it's rock /metal and put me in a good mood when I work. Now if you like instrumental metal, it's no game music, but I would suggest Aephenemer (their official instrumental playlist is on YouTube).

Child of light

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a music focused game and god damn but it is funky. State of Mind and Condensed Milk are my favorites but the range is wide and excellent. No two songs really share the same style.

If you're a metalhead, Metal: Hellsinger won a bunch of best music awards with such offerings as Stygia and This Devastation. It's not instrumental, but it's worth a listen and if you like what you hear it's worth a play as well. Think if Doom was a rhythm game.

Generally speaking, all of the Persona soundtracks are also top tier ambient chill tracks, especially so if you've actually played the games and have an emotional connection to these songs like myself. Persona 5 is a little more generally upbeat but I like it the best, but P4 and P3 have plenty of low key jazzfunk. I don't have specifics to recommend here but know that all three of the P3/4/5 soundtracks come with my seal of approval. EDIT: I have specifics to recommend here. Persona 5 - Rivers in the Desert Persona 4 - The Poem for Everyone's Souls ( <- This one appears in all three games with minor differences and is close to what I expect you're actually looking for from this thread) Persona 3 - Living With Determination

Offworld Trading Company. Haven't played the game but it's a great sci-fi soundtrack by Christopher Tin of Civ IV fame.

Thomas was alone OST is superb.

Lost Odyssey, Fantasian, Halo 1, Desperados 3, Arcanum, Pillars of Eternity, and Bastion are pretty good to listen to when trying to focus.

Look at all these normie answers, and no one mentioning Minit. https://invidious.private.coffee/watch?v=zRIRyK2pHh8&listen=1

Persona 5. I have p4 tracks also.

XCOM 2 Legacy Soundtrack. Some darned good beats on there.

Transistor

Total Annihilation

The persona series has some great songs

Wh40k: Mechanicus has some amazing music.

• Octopath Travler
• Octopath Traveler II
• Winter's End (I Am Setsuna)
• Piano Collections NieR:Automata

Portal 2, Minecraft, Half Life 2, Black Mesa, Team Fortress 2, Battle Block Theatre, Doom 2016, Doom Eternal,...

• NieR Series
• Outer Wilds
• Gris
• Death's Door
• A Plague Tale: Innocence
• Kingdom: Two Crowns

No-one has suggested Baldur's Gate 3?

Tropico 3

Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

My brother had a string quartet play one of the songs at his wedding. It was so beautiful.

Guild wars 2 has so much variety i would not know where to start. Would just search it on youtube and find the fitting mood i guess.