No original compositions (that I am aware of), but a brilliant selection of medieval, Classical, and Romantic music that amply set the right atmosphere for one to imagine themselves at the court of Charles VI or taking to the battlefield to square off against Wallenstein.
The coolest aspect was how the game played the music appropriate period of time you were currently playing. In other words, starting in 1419, you had to play a loooooong time before you heard any Haydn or Bach.
They went to original compositions for EU3, and it sucked mightily IMO.
If you had a decent sound card, the classical music midi files in Frontier Elite II sat very well with some of the moments in the game. Especially the terribly cliched Blue Danube for docking with space stations.
No thread like this is complete without a mention of Earthbound. It has the most battle themes of any SNES RPG I can think of, each with wildly different styles ranging from beatnick bongo beats to crazy 70s disco. A few of the tracks were even inspired by Beatles songs. Its quirky soundtrack fits the tone of the game perfectly.
I’ll second Legend of Zelda and add The Secret of Monkey Island - especially LeChuck’s Theme. I still load up the game once in a while - mostly because of the soundtrack.
Age of Conan has some of the best scoring I’ve heard in recent memory. There’s 3 different styles to enjoy – a modal style for the Roman-based Aquilonians, Celtic sounds for the Celt-based Cimmerians, and Middle Eastern flavor for the Egyptian-based Stygians, and it’s all outstanding. Unfortunately, the music is about the only thing I liked about the game.
Also, while the scoring for the original Everquest sounds very dated and obviously synth by today’s standards, the very first time I logged into the game and approached the tree city of Kelethin, and that synthesized accoustic guitar faded in as the forest mist parted before me, I was completely blown away.
Plus, there’s the aforementioned Deus Ex and Civ IV. And I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t give a shout out to the ending credits of Portal (which is a spoiler, btw).
I was getting a bit worried that there wasn’t going to be enough 8-bit love going on. Zelda does have an excellent soundtrack and I find myself humming it on occasion.
Super Mario Bros. also has a pretty good soundtrack. I defy anyone on these boards to swim through an area infested by killer fish and jellyfish while collecting coins without humming the theme to the water levels.
I have to third (fourth?) this. Case indeed closed. Scars of Time is the best opening song for a game ever; it gets you in just the right mood. I often listen to the soundtrack at work, it’s so soothing and stress relieving.
Katamari’s soundtrack is fun and playful, always cheers me up.
I had the fortune to see the Australian symphony Eminence play a Yasunori Mitsuda themed concert (with some Miyazaki themes thrown in) at Otakon 2007.
Check YouTube for their version of Scars of Time. I was so thrilled to watch it!
My two personal favorite soundtracks are Final Fantasy Tactics and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I could spend an hour writing about these soundtracks.
FFT (which was NOT composed by the same guy who does the main FF games, but does borrow the popular themes from it) is an amazingly well composed orchestra score. Whenever I want to get really psyched up for something, I listen to the “Character Introductions” theme.
Castlevania SOTN also has an amazing score, and it is sooo well-rounded. There are classical pieces (the Library theme could be mistaken for something composed by Bach, and the chapel theme is medieval-style chanting and organ), acid jazz (the amazing Underground Lake theme and the Colesium theme featuring an amazingly rocking harpsichord part), techno, and Iron Maiden/Dio-inspired metal – the metal band I was the keyboardist of in college used to cover Young Nobleman of Sadness (the clocktower theme) and 99% of the audience probably had no clue it was originally from a video game!
Special mention should also go to the earlier Castlevanias, especially 3 (the Japanese version had a special sound chip which made the best sounding music to ever come out of the NES) and 4 for the SNES – the sunken city theme, which is a combination baroque and jazz piece, was called the most elaborate video game song ever made by Nintendo Power.
This thread cannot go without mention of the Baldur’s Gate 2 soundtrack. I had six or seven of the songs from that game on my playlist back when I had a playlist.
I’m also a fan of Matt Uelman’s work for the original Diablo, especially the Tristram theme.
I just want to say, if you haven’t played Chrono Cross, you really ought to. It not only has an amazing soundtrack, but is one of the best games of all time.
It’s essentially the Firefly of games. Yes, it’s that good.
I loved Loom, though I don’t remember loving it for the music. I never got to see his face, though. Does anyone have a picture of his face, which you got to see if you played it a certain way?
Man I would be so happy if I could find music online from RR2…
Sonic 2 had some great level music, 3 as well.
I think original Super Mario for snes deserves mention.
There was also the rather meh-ish game Alien 3 for Sega Genesis that had some really good level music.
More recently, The Hellmarch from Command and Conquer Red Alert is pretty awesome.
