As the title. (slow day at work today) When you’re feeling in the mood to be emotionally moved by music in a video game, do you have favourites?
Right now I’m loving the rendition of ‘Prelude’ in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It’s a short, repetitive tune, but it electrifies me every time it repeats.
I’ve also discovered ‘The Last Chapter’ from Tales of the Abyss, which sounds awesome.
And finally one from my childhood, the credits theme to Terranigma on the SNES. And I’ve found this stirring arrangement.
Of course, for many the emotions stirred by the songs are bound up with the experiences and stories surrounding them, but I hope they are still nice to listen to nevertheless.
The Darkest Dungeon’s music (and the whole sound design with the narrator and the sound effects) stands out from the bunch of games I’ve been playing recently. Every boss has their own music (here is Siren’s) and every dungeon’s music changes according to your light level, getting grimmer, more haunting and more urgent as your torch sputters and light dims.
Best sound design in any game I’ve ever played, really. And I’ve been playing games for 30 years.
NES Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (I think that was IV in the United States). In the inn in Brittania, there’s a bard you can talk to who says “We have been waiting such a very long time”, and then the background music changes to the song he’s playing for you.
The Katamari Damacy series had music so awesome they released a soundtrack.
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy on the PS2 had a level called the Desecrated Temple where the music was an EDM version of monks chanting that was really cool to play at loud volumes.
Lots of people seem to dislike Mass Effect 3, particularly its ending - but I love it, and one huge reason for that is this piece of music. Stick around to the end.
(The Mass Effect series has some great music in general - check out this, and this).
Stellaris has the best background music ever, imo. I wish I could have it playing on a loop in my real life. Its ambienty and somehow is enjoyable but doesn’t effect that part of the brain that is involved in concentration.
It’s not musical, but Sinistar’s “Beware, I live!” still causes me to tense slightly, and I haven’t played it (or even seen an arcade version of it) for about thirty years.
