Honestly love the Doom soundtrack.
Rip and tear until it is DONE.
Mick Gordon is amazing! I tweeted to him one time and he hearted my tweet. My friends and I played this soundtrack a ridiculous amount. Great pick.
There are games with amazing music that sets the perfect atmosphere — Celeste, Hades, Zelda (especially BotW/TotK).
And then there are games soundtracks I would also happily just put on to listen to — FFXIV, Persona 5, one particular song from Hades (Eurydice).
And then just a lot of old, nostalgia for NES games (Duck Tales, River City Ransom, TMNT, etc) and SNES/PS1 RPGs (Lufia, Super Mario RPG, Suikoden, Thousand Arms, etc)
But that main just are the ones I either bought or downloaded because I loved the music so much.
The Chrono Trigger soundtrack is a goddamn masterpiece. I haven't played it for years and the songs still randomly pop into my head.
My favorites, in no particular order:
Fallout got me, a Metal Head, listening to 50s rock and lounge music.
Witcher 3 soundtrack. The exploration and combat wouldn't be the same without it.
Fez
Disasterpeace is amazing. Also did the soundtrack for It Follows.
Just like the other commenter, the Outer Wilds main motif (travelers) makes me emotional because of how good the game was. Disco Elysium also has had an amazing soundtrack, with the main BGM faintly using sounds from the final song, which made it really cathartic for me.
Ultrakill deserves a lot of praise, especially for the P-2 music (https://youtu.be/MG5L-1pI8bI). It works perfectly for how intense the level is, and it's absolutely nuts that the game still manages to up the ante after you've perfected every single other level. I've listened to this type of music quite often before, but I've never felt it in my blood and muscles before playing that level.
When judged on the music alone though, Hotline Miami (1) and Furi have to take the cake. Both soundtracks are just iconic, and easily stand out on their own.
Hollo knight. Especially the piano album
not to be a hater but GTAV Radio station songs are 'licensed music' not soundtracks, also you can just fire up spotify or youtube if you just wanna listen to them instead of running GTAV each time
The benefit to the radio stations in game is that you get the silly commercials and commentary too. I like the whole package together. Sometimes I’ll drive around while just listening too, which is fun.
I'm definitely going to have to say that Persona 5 Royal has one of the best Soundtracks of Gaming in general.
Nier Automata and Nier Replicant, also Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. Id mention more but my other picks are probably already mentioned here.
Risk of Rain 2 with Celeste being a close second!
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Deus Ex Hotline Miami Unreal Tournament Journey Cyberpunk 2077 The Witcher Jet Set Radio All the Silent Hill (even Downpour) Colony Wars
There is so many good ones....
Hollow Knight
Honestly I'm shocked and surprised the Risk of Rain soundtrack hasn't come up. Both 1 and 2 are bangers. Chris Christodoulou (the lead composer) has a yt breaking down the soundtrack.
Stellaris' ost is also up there for memorable leitmotifs and just plain understanding the assignment.
I also quite like redout 1 and 2's soundtrack.
Child of Light https://musique.coeurdepirate.com/album/child-of-light
Monkey Island 2 https://mdvhimself.bandcamp.com/album/monkey-island-2-lechuck-s-revenge
Colonization (reminded of this by the above page!) https://mdvhimself.bandcamp.com/album/colonization
Wing Commander https://thefatmanandteamfat.bandcamp.com/album/wing-commander-i-complete-original-soundtrack-mt-32-archival-edition
RimWorld has enough music to not feel repetitive over so many hours!
(and the youtube comments are full of stories about the colonies that people are reminded of by hearing the music again)
Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Cross are my absolute all time favorites. Ori and the Blind Forest is a more recent soundtrack that blew me away. The soundtrack for the Motorhead racing game is also a classic for me.
Myth II: Soulblighter had some beautiful mournful music (also one of the few games available for Mac OS 9)
Journey, and more recently Tunic, both had soundtracks that complemented their gameplay really well.
In no particular order: Final Fantasy XIV and XVI (Soken is a genius) Transistor Nier Automata Genshin Impact Destiny 2 The World Ends With You Persona 5 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1/2
Honestly though the FF series as a whole kinda deserves its own special mention. The games have always had stellar soundtracks.
Final Fantasy 7 has been the long-standing winner here, but Persona 5 has recently started to gain an edge.
I also recently started listening to some of the Trails soundtracks and they are all fire.
I'm very quickly about to stop having "a favorite" and start having a collection of faves. Which is a pretty great place to be.
Any FromSoftware game soundtrack. Personally like Orphan of Kos.
The Bloodborne soundtrack is phenomenal but my absolute favorite track is the Abyss Watchers theme. It just makes me feel some typpa way.
Monkey island and grim fandango
Quite a few folks have mentioned Outer Wilds, so I'll add the DLC soundtrack. The titular song (Echoes of the Eye) that plays at the end of the DLC makes me burst into tears every time I hear it. But in a good way, haha.
Hollow Knight and Spiritfarer.
The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour remain top-tier for me. The music was half the experience, turn it up and just enjoy that creepy vibe while solving puzzles. And they're all on The Fat Man's Bandcamp now!
Also, there's an industrial rock cover album on vinyl currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. I'm super excited!
My dad and I used to play 7th Guest together. What a classic! It’s been a long time since I played that one. Had it on CD-ROM. Now I need to go find the soundtrack.
Amon Tobins Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory soundtrack is a solid ambient/electronic album that I keep returning to.
Planet coaster. Released on streaming, it’s just so relaxing.
Silent Hill 1,2 & 3 (and not just the OST's, in-game background music as well);
Castlevania: Symphony of the night,
Alundra,
Faxanadu,
practically any Zelda,
Castlevania 1, 2 & 3
All the music from any Supergiant game is ridiculously good.
Anything from the first four Sega Sonic mainline games. Also, Bastion and Transistor.
Ace Combat, mainly Ace Combat 5 but all of them are well known for their soundtracks.
More recently WARNO has excellent music so far, even though most of it was licensed by Eugen from third parties so it doesn't really count as a soundtrack specific to the game.
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