Editorial: Top Three Favorite Game Soundtracks

Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale Cover

Hello Lusireaders! Music is an everyday part of our lives, we hear it at the doctors office, in elevators, and even in our video games. Yes, I know, this may be a surprise to some gamers but those tunes you hear in the background of your games, if it be original or licensed, is music. Shocker! As with everything in the world, there is good and bad video game music. This week, I am focusing on the good because you know, here at Lusipurr.com we like to focus on the good things in life rather than the bad, right? So, I will start this top three list off with a game that is fairly recent.

Gravity Rush

WOW. From a portable game on the Vita this game has probably the best professionally orchestrated OST for a portable game. The music, much like the game, sweeps you off your feet and will immediately put you right into the world of Gravity Rush. The music sounds grand, feels grand, and is grand. The composer of this great soundtrack is credited to Kohei Tanaka, who is also responsible for the music in Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love and Resonance of Fate. Having only played one of the games he has composed for I am very interested to check out the previously mentioned games from a musical stand point. His music can and does stand up with the likes of the classic Final Fantasys, speaking of Final Fantasy…

Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale

What a beautiful orchestral arrangement of an amazing OST. With the recent news of the Overclocked Remix of Final Fantasy VI I started to look into other Final Fantasy VI OST “remixes”. I stumbled across the Grand Finale arrangement, heard some samples of the tracks, and instantly downloaded it. The memorable chip tunes of FFVI turned into full on orchestral pieces translates excellently and I look forward to listening to a few of them as I play through Final Fantasy VI for the autumn playthrough. If this soundtrack is not already part of your library of music, then there is something wrong with you. With the original music composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by Shiro Sagisu and Tsuneyoshi Saito, you should already know that this is going to be good. The performances on the album are by the Milan Symphony Orchestra, with vocal performances by Svetla Krasteva. Just go listen to it.

Finally..

Sword and Sworcery

Out of the three on this list this one is probably the most different and interesting of them all. If you have not played Sword and Sworcery it can be best described as an indie action game with story elements that put a focus on music and sounds but, it is really the soundtrack that stands out with this game. It is a mixture of chip tunes and full on orchestral, with an indie rock spin put onto it. This odd juxtaposition is brought to you by a man named Jim Guthrie. Guthrie is a Canadian experimental musician who is also best known for his composition of “Indie Game: The Movie”. In the western world of gaming we really do not have our own great video game music composer like Japan does. I believe that Jim Guthrie has the talent to possibly be that composer.

So, readers, what are your favorite video game soundtracks to listen to? Do you have some obscure soundtrack that no one has heard of or do you take a liking to the “mainstream” music? Let me know in the comments below.

5 Comments

Lusipurr
Posted 2012.08.02 at 17:14 | Permalink

Choosing favourite soundtracks is a bit like trying to choose your favourite children.

I’d say Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy XI, and Final Fantasy VII.

I think VI, IX, and Tactics are absolutely excellent as well. In addition, just about *any* Castlevania game, and most Mega Man games are worth listening to. Other series (Chrono, Disgaea, Suikoden, Wild Arms) are also consistently awesome. Mistwalker games, too, are brilliant, musically. So are the SaGa games, even if the games themselves are not.

For indie titles, I was blown away by Braid. To this date, it is still my favourite soundtrack from a small dev.

For PC Games, all the Blizzard properties have excellent music: World of Warcraft gets better with every expansion, for example. Portal/Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 are both legendarily supported, even if their soundtracks are comparitively small.

The wonderful thing about VGMusic is that, even if a lot of it is crap, there’s an awful lot of truly amazing stuff as well.
7thCircle
Posted 2012.08.02 at 17:33 | Permalink

Ethan already reviewed this.

http://ffsymphony.kamellia.net/staff_reviews.php?soundtrack_id=36
Mel
Posted 2012.08.02 at 18:45 | Permalink

I can’t speak objectively about the soundtracks I’ve listened to in any capacity because each soundtrack means something different to me, usually based upon what was going on when I first heard it.

For instance: Ocarina of Time. Most of this game’s OST sends childhood feelings of Christmas flooding my way because I first heard the opening tracks on Christmas day of that game’s release year. It doesn’t mean those tracks are particularly good, but they mean so much to me.

And there are many other tracks that take on emotional weight for various reasons, however I’ll pick two very specific ones. The opening to OoT (again), this track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fj-MF5RQjg

Just the VERY opening gets me every time. Finally, the opening from FF7 (though I never really played much of this game):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_oS8zsO2nU

That’s an interesting orchestrated version.

I have to agree with Lusi, it’s like picking a favorite child, it would tear me apart to even try.
Deimosion
Posted 2012.08.02 at 19:36 | Permalink

The Bastion soundtrack is phenomenal.
Imitanis
Posted 2012.08.03 at 11:28 | Permalink

I have bought a few Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts songs I enjoy from iTunes and listen to them while I work in the mornings. I get a few weird looks when I’m listening to anything in Japanese, especially if I’m attempting to sing the English lyrics along to them.

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