Topic: What are some of the best video songs or soundtracks you've heard?

Celeste has the best of all time, I'd say. Hollow knight close second. the galaxy games and links awakening (the remake because of enhanced audio quality) are phenomenal as well. Ocarina of Time is third favorite, though. Hades has some good songs, as well as Cuphead.

The Ori games have some of the best soundtracks of recent games. Really magical and fits the tone of the game amazingly.

I played Celeste muted for the most part, might try it with the sound on after your recommendation.

Various pieces of Zelda music, Persona 4/5 music, Final Fantasy VII Remake songs, especially the boss music tracks.

@Mystique @Mr-Fuggles777 I wouldn't say Celeste has the absolute greatest soundtrack of all time but mark my words it's very damn good. Wonder why you didn't listen to it with sound... give it a go!

Nier has some pretty great songs.

Just look at my Top 7 KONAMI Rhythm games.
1. Dance Dance Revolution
2. Para Para Paradise
3. DrumMania
4. Beatmania IIDX
5. Pop'n Music
6. KeyboardMania
7. Martial Beat

@TheJGG I always have the switch on mute as I'm usually watching TV or a movie at the same time.
I only listened to the Ori soundtrack as I played it on Xbox, and never heard HollowKnight's until it was given away on PS+ and I played it on the TV.

I mean...when you've got composers like Austin Wintory getting Grammy nominations for his work on Journey, it's nice to see those people get recognition outside of the video game industry. Personally, I prefer the works of Hitoshi Sakimoto, Daisuke Ishiwatari, and Yuzo Koshiro.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Tactician
Guilty Gear X - Holy Orders
Street of Rage 2 - Go Straight

Both Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 have a really nice soundtrack. Monolith games in general seem to have nice soundtracks, I remember the Baten Kaitos games having really nice music as well. The original Bravely Default game and Persona series also have amazing soundtracks.

I agree Celeste has a great soundtrack, but for indie games I'd probably say Undertale has my favourite.

It could be recency bias, but I've been playing Genshin Impact lately and it surprisingly has a great soundtrack as well, if you're a fan of more orchestrated soundtracks.

The soundtrack from Ys VIII is super good, I like almost every single song on it lol. Astral Chain has a really good one as well!

Best tracks:

The Tragic Prince - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Battle B2 - Shin Megami Tensei IV
Theme of Solid Snake - Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
The Best is Yet to Come - Metal Gear Solid
Memories of the City - Persona 3
Amusement Park - NiER: Automata
City of Hope - Marvel's Spider-Man
You Will Know Our Names - Xenoblade Chronicles

@Mystique Have you ever noticed that some tunes sound better while you're playing, and others when you're listening in some other context? Tropical Freeze, for example, sounds quite different when I'm simply reading or hopping about. Nier: Automata sounds better when you're not playing, though it works quite well at the controller.

Then there are games whose soundtracks seem to sound good anywhere (Axiom Verge, Thunder Force IV)...

Off the top of my head:

• Persona series, especially 5
• Final Fantasy series, especially VII (Remake) and VIII
• Pokemon series, especially Red/Blue and Gold/Silver for how much they achieved with so little (but I also really like Gen 3 and 4 soundtracks)
• Sonic series, especially 3&K and Generations
• Mario series, especially Super Mario World and Galaxy
• Yoshi's Island (SNES)
• Octopath Traveler
• Donkey Kong Country
• Fire Emblem Three Houses
• Zelda series, especially Wind Waker

...so many x_x

Damn @timleon I forgot all about Octopath Traveler and Fire Emblem: Three Houses! I actually wrote something on that a while back so here it is;

The premise of Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a vastly intriguing one. The game was marketed as a medieval-fantasy role-playing game, and, having believed that, I started my first battle, accompanied by the track, Fódlan Winds. By the time I finished the prologue mission, I had heard the beat drop three times. The composer, Takeru Kanazaki (along with Hiroki Morishita and Rei Kondoh), had decided to add dubstep and hip-hop percussion into this otherwise fully orchestrated song. Epic string sections and woodwinds blend, accompanied by scant hi-hats, and this isn't even breaking the surface of how diverse this soundtrack can get. Today I am going to explain why this decision succeeded in attempting to add novelty to the soundtrack, and where it stands out the most.

The way the techno aspects of Fire Emblem: Three Houses appear, are introduced in such a way that they remind me of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Because of this, I can draw many parallels between these two games. Both games' storylines have underlying medieval tones; Breath of the Wild's world is recovering from a calamity, and Three Houses' world is heading towards one. Both worlds regressed over time, rather than advanced, and both worlds used to foster advanced civilisations with boundless technology that matched that of the goddess, which both disappeared, literally, underground. Both games have music, that is predominantly live and recorded, but have dubstep and hip-hop elements. Both games use their series main theme minimally and focus on original pieces and motifs. And both have dynamic battle themes.

Battle themes in Three Houses are split into two tracks, Rain and Thunder. Rain tracks focus on melody and atmosphere and play when you are moving your units across the battlefield. But when you engage in combat with another unit, the Rain track seamlessly transitions to its Thunder variation, which drowns out the melody and light percussion with massive war drums. Melodies that once dominated the song can only be heard in inklings scattered through the song. I think this concept is a very good idea, because of the overwhelming noise around you during a thunderstorm, and on the battlefield, though this game isn't the first to introduce us to this concept of duality in battle music. There are fifteen battle themes in the base game. After beating the game three times and listening to every single theme with the right context, I can safely say that not only are these songs headbangers but they deliver all the right messages that they sought to deliver.

Over the first in-game year, the tone shifts dramatically, and battle themes reflect this. Fódlan Winds is the quintessential theme for lighthearted, low stakes battles, and reflects your students' eagerness to kill. During the game's only mock battle, students are fired up, prepared to win at any cost, as shown by Blue Skies and a Battle. When students begin taking missions with higher stakes, like dealing with agents of the ancient civilisation (Those Who Slither in the Dark), Tearing Through Heaven plays, a myriad of fast-paced strings, triumphant horns and woodwinds, and epic percussion. This song is one of my favourites, though once the infamous five-year time skip happens, all previous songs are blown out of the water!

When the main character (Byleth) wakes up after falling into a ravine, he/she would have a chance encounter with their former house leader, who, now in their early twenties, have assumed leadership of one-third of the game's world. They then set off on their quest to win the war that has been pervading Fódlan for five years. In the first few missions, a harrowing, melancholic theme, Chasing Daybreak, sets the mood. But at this point, the composers upped their game significantly. Remember that mock battle I mentioned? Another battle at the same place happens, between the same three sides. Between Heaven and Earth is almost the same as Blue Skies and a Battle, but small details emphasise that this is no mock battle. Epic choral chants, more energised playing, you name it.

After that comes an atmospheric masterpiece. Depending on which route you choose you could hear this song over anywhere between one to three battles. This song, The Long Road, personifies your students' desperation to end the war. On the maps that play this song, many of your former students guard crucial points, and when you inevitably engage them in combat you'll hear 'Paths That Will Never Cross', which makes murdering your former students, friends and colleagues just a little less painful. But, of course, the composers have saved the three best themes for last, and I am going to cap off this blog post by ranking them.

If you've played the game this goes out to you @Mystique!

I also enjoy Octopath and Bravely Default's music. Bravely Default II has barely any memorable songs, but they're still pretty good. To me, Bravely Default II probably does it's final boss song better than the original.

Breath of the Wild also has a great score, though I wouldn't really listen to all the tracks outside of the game, mainly due to the fact that they're all broken up in bits and pieces, or there just isn't any music outside of the towns themselves.

I’m gonna pile in on the Octopath and FE3H osts. Bought both recently and they are worth every penny.

@TheJGG There's actually one song in Three Houses that caught me by surprise since it was entirely dubstep, and didn't really feel like it belonged in the type of game that it was. It's insane.

Everything street fighter 2 and golden axe.
And outrun mega drive.

@VoidofLight I loved it. Knew exactly which one you meant and it shreds so... so much.

To be honest I generally listen to podcasts or listen to my own playlist as I play games. However Atlus does a great job with their soundtracks, Catherine in particular comes to my mind with the cool jazz in the bar or how frantic the classical music is during the nightmares.

If you look at the themes of Zelda, Mario and Fire Emblen during the nes days those were damn good songs with how they have lasted, those have become really iconic especially with the bigger budgets to show it off.

Also I love this ridiclous Cadence of Hyrule metal remix!