I can't just let the rest of you steal the glory on mentioning these less known soundtracks, consider my hat thrown into this crazy game and i'll do so with...
Dust: An Elysian Tale
You know I don't think i've seen a mention so far in this thread for this games soundtrack at all, now while it's only in honourable mention territory for myself i'm thinking it's flown quite a bit under the radar.
Not helped by the fact I can't find any of the music on the old tube so i'm heading
straight to the source and so should you all otherwise you wont know what i'm babbling about.
I get the impression that this is a soundtrack that focuses far more on creating an atmosphere than instantly memorable melodies, sure there are the odd bits and pieces that can jump around your head but for the most part these themes seem to work best in tandem with the environment they represent, as such my personal favourite tracks usually came from the main field areas.
The first track that truly jumped out at me when I played the game and also my favourite of the lot is the theme for
Cirromon Caverns, a rather moody theme that switches between being rather minimalist and surprisingly bombastic, it's not often I enjoy cave environments in most games and aside from the fact that visually the area managed to be pretty colourful for an often drab location i'm sure the music played a big part in my enjoyment of the caverns.
The Glade takes a while to get going with a slow build up to begin with but well patience is a virtue I guess, one thing i've noticed with most tracks is that they're pretty long compared to most looping tracks, it helps alleviate any repetition when traversing the environments.
Two more area themes i'll mention,
The Sorrowing Meadows immediately stands out with an ominous organ kicking things off with haunting vocal effects, sorrowing is right, it's manages to stay within the realm of being a haunting theme instead of oppressive, that honour is saved for the following track No rest for the wicked, actually listen to this as well.
And lastly
The Blackmoor Mountains is one of those more bleaker takes on a snow theme whilst also having a sort of mystical vibe to it as well, possibly my second favourite track.
Upon hitting the world map you're greeted with
The Land of Remembrance which is one of those shorter pieces that may very well keep you from jumping straight to your next location as you mellow out to the music.
There's other tracks I could mention (Deities, The Cirelian Trials and Beneath Hollow Grounds spring to mind) but writing up thoughts on music is hard, well for me at least. Just give it a listen if you like atmospheric fantasy styled themes, while it did take a while to grow on me it would be a shame for this soundtrack to get lost in the shuffle, Dustforce isn't the only dusty thing that should be lining this threads metaphorical...shelves? YEAH.