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NeoGAF's Revolutionary (Monthly?) Video Game Music Discussion Thread™

J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
Disclaimer: As you can probably observe, this is a work in progress. I will add fancy banners or other interesting info if more people can volunteer to help me out. Please PM me your suggestions/ideas.

music.jpg


Welcome to GAF's first video game music (VGM) discussion thread! Sometimes I feel that music in video games gets relegated to the sidelines and is not appreciated enough. Despite songs like the Super Mario Bros or the Pac Man theme being very ingrained in Pop Culture, VGM is still not considered "real music" by many. My goal with this thread is to gauge interest on having these kind of discussions on a monthly basis. Maybe featuring the work of a particular artist on a month, or having other gaffers share their experience composing music for games. Let's see how this goes

What is video game music?
Wikipedia said:
Video game music is the soundtrack or background music accompanying video games. Originally limited to simple melodies by early sound synthesizer technology, video game music has grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and movie soundtracks. While simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now can include full orchestral pieces and licensed popular music.

Why should I care?

Because despite the hardware limitations in the early days of video gaming, some compositions are so good that they have stood the test of time quite well. Also, good soundtracks can elevate mediocre games into enjoyable experiences or even drag down otherwise good games into the annoying territory. Long-standing video game series like Zelda, Castlevania, and Final Fantasy would probably not be as successful without their renowned OSTs.

Where can I listen to my favorite artists?

Wanna own the music?


  • Steam Music: Many games on Steam give you the option to buy soundtracks as DLC. Also, while it is still in its infancy, Steam is integrating a music player in its client.
  • Game Music Bundle: Similar to humble indie bundles but for indie game music.
  • Humble Indie Bundle: Sometimes, bundles come with the games' full soundtracks. On your account page switch to "audio", you might be surprised by the amount of OSTs you may already own, in .FLAC even!
  • CD Japan: A good place to import (mostly) Japanese OST releases
  • Play-Asia: Similar to CD Japan but I believe you can also buy codes for the JP iTunes and other online stores
  • CD Universe: Similar to the previous 2 websites listed above. However, it features more Western OSTs and MP3 downloads.
  • Overclocked Records: Publishing label for a bunch of indie soundtracks. OSTs for games like FEZ, Dust, and Bit Trip Runner 2 can be found here.
  • Sumthing: Site that sells a bunch of Capcom OSTs as well as works from other bigger Western IPs like Borderlands, or Darksiders.
  • iTunes: Probably the biggest hub of VGMs online. Sadly, since it is region-locked the selection available varies a lot from country to country. Publishers like Falcom and EA have most of their catalog in all territories but YMMV.
Publisher-specific:


  • Square Enix Music Store: Retail releases of a very small selection of Square Enix games. No, the Nier OST is not available here.
    It is available here.
  • Capcom Store: As of now, they only offer the OSTs for Mega Mans 1-10 and X-X4, not that I mind. Most of the other OSTs can be found on Sumthin.
  • Nintendo: For the time being, the only Nintendo soundtracks easily available are the ones from Pokemon games. And actually that's only because they were put there by Game Freak.
Publishers M.I.A.:


Of course this is not a comprehensive list. Many publishers (especially Western ones) do not retain the rights from music and are the property of the composer instead. Sometimes checking the artist's page on iTunes or Bandcamp can lead you to find a bunch of their previosuly OSTs for purchase.

Wanna see it live?
VGL_text.jpg

Video Games Live: A concert tour led by Tommy Tallarico that melds a symphonic orchestra with video game music. They perform covers from a vast array of games like Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Halo, and others.

fChE91P.png

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses: A concert series featuring the music from all games in The Legend of Zelda series. It debuted in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series. Unfortunately, as far as I know they have only performed in North America.

logo.jpg

Distant Worlds: A concert series featuring the music from the Final Fantasy series. Performing since 2007, they have performed in many venues around the world.

Documentaries


  • Diggin' in the carts: A documentary series about Japanese video game music. There are six episodes with interviews and sick remixes of classic tracks.
  • Beep: A recently-funded kickstarter that strives to be the most comprehensive VGM documentary yet. Keep your eyes open for this one.
Resources:


Noteworthy past threads:


  • [thread=884471]Diggin' in the carts "OT"[/thread]
  • [thread=447847]HG101's Top 1000 VGM Results[/thread]
  • [thread=783846]Terrible, awful video game music.[/thread]
  • [thread=531507]Time signatures in video game music[/thread]
  • [thread=785412]Best Boss Music[/thread]
  • [thread=795221]Castlevania Music Discussion[/thread]

To kickstart the discussion: maybe show off your collection? Post your favorite track? Critique the excessive use of bullet points in the OP? Anything goes, thanks for reading!
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
Nintendo: For the time being, the only Nintendo soundtracks easily available are the ones from Pokemon games. And actually that's only because they were put there by Game Freak.

The Wonderful 101 Soundtrack is on iTunes, I believe.
 
]Nintendo: For the time being, the only Nintendo soundtracks easily available are the ones from Pokemon games

Unless you are a member of club nintendo japan :/

As I play a game music has always been a huge factor for me and it can even improve a lackluster game for me (I become less quick to criticize if the music is excellent).

I'd show off what I have but all I do is look up full OST's on youtube and listen :(
 
This is a timely thread; I just finished Remember Me (great game) and I found its soundtrack to be phenomenal. It's an orchestrated...cyber...futuristic...classical...operatic.... something-or-other. Look - I'll be straight with you: I'm not very good at describing music, so I'll just say it's a very good video game soundtrack!
Have a listen to the OST and enjoy!

The OST was composed by a fellow named Olivier Deriviere, and Remember Me itself was developed by DONTNOD Entertainment (a French developer, I think) and published by Capcom. It's unfortunately not for sale on Steam, so you have to use iTunes or something.


One suggestion for the OP: maybe you could add a section outlining some of the websites or works created around VGM by fans? Like OCRemix, which is dedicated to free, fan-made reinterpretations of classic video game songs (or even entire soundtracks); or perhaps some of the more interesting indie reinterpretations of classic VGM, such as Smooth McGroove, the one-man Acapella band. (Seriously, check that out. It's mind-blowing.)


Great idea for a thread, Jotamide.
 
J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
One suggestion for the OP: maybe you could add a section outlining some of the websites or works created around VGM by fans? Like OCRemix, which is dedicated to free, fan-made reinterpretations of classic video game songs (or even entire soundtracks); or perhaps some of the more interesting indie reinterpretations of classic VGM, such as Smooth McGroove, the one-man Acapella band. (Seriously, check that out. It's mind-blowing.)


Great idea for a thread, Jotamide.

Noted!

Tons of video game music can be found on the Google Play Music store/app. Lots of it included if you have the access pass.

Sadly, Google Music is not very well cataloged. This is all I've managed to find in the store. Maybe it is because I'm in Canada?
 

whitehawk

Banned
This is a good thread, I'll be checking in here a lot.

Right now I'm listening to:

Kid Icarus Uprising (Haven't played the game, but man there is some GOOD music.)
Katamari Damacy (So many good classics)
Killer Instinct (The new soundtrack that just came out, so good).
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
My physical collection used to be pretty impressive with a ton of imported discs, but I slimmed down on it a ton for money/space concerns, so now its mostly digital.

One of my favorite tracks to listen to is the vocal version of "Battle for the Last", released with the soundtrack for Dodonpachi Resurrection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVcowY9Z98M
http://vgmdb.net/album/22310

Another song I enjoy a lot would be "The Paradise Line" from the Mother 1+2 soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QRs2y2EOSI
http://vgmdb.net/album/22310


Also, another really cool set of soundtracks were a series done by G.M.O. Records back in the 80s, that make some really nice songs incorporating a bunch of original in game sound effects. Bit hard to find on Youtube, but here is an upload of on of them, Konami GAME MUSIC VOL.1

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3496710/music/Konami Game Music Vol.1.zip
http://vgmdb.net/album/2574
 

Evilisk

Member
I didn't know I wanted a VGM thread until now. Subscribed. Also I definitely have to watch those documentaries at some point

To kickstart the discussion: maybe show off your collection? Post your favorite track? Critique the excessive use of bullet points in the OP? Anything goes, thanks for reading!

The only physical VGM related thing I have in physical condition would be a Disgaea 4 box that came with a soundtrack (which, besides not even having all of the tracks from the game, I also don't listen to a whole lot since I don't really like the OST).
 

Aerocrane

Member
Namco has many of their soundtracks available on iTunes under the name Namco Sounds. Unfortunately they seem to be available only in the USA.

My physical collection is mostly imported CDs.
Not pictured are Tales of Xillia 2 Music Selection and Ace Combat Infinity & Series Music Best.
I should track down copies of Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and Ridge Racer 7 soundtracks. Especially Ace Combat 4 because it has the best soundtrack of the series, and my favourite song from it is "Emancipation" featured in a mission of the same name.
 

openrob

Member
Can't invite people on to this thread and not have Shenmue in the first page :)

Shenmue Orchestra Version (Complete): http://youtu.be/bWm8Gml8w4w

I dare you to not love it after the first minute.


Actually started making my own VGM YouTube playlist, will link to it when it's more comprehensive
 

Zhao_Yun

Member
A thread to discuss video game music? Subbed! Great thread!

If I may suggest an addition to the OP, I'd add the website of "Spielemusikkonzerte" to the Live Section. It's the website for all concerts produced by Thomas Böcker like Symphonic Fantasies, Symphonic Legends, Symphonic Odysseys and Final Symphony, which I consider the best VGM concerts ever produced! They recently uploaded the performance of the Final Fantasy VI Symphonic Poem (Final Symphony) online which can be found here: http://rspoplay.com/#DcYk7tk9fdSiKvNw_aykcw
Website http://www.spielemusikkonzerte.de/en/welcome/

To kickstart the discussion: maybe show off your collection? Post your favorite track? Critique the excessive use of bullet points in the OP? Anything goes, thanks for reading!

Unfortunately, I have my collection at my parents house but I'll take a picture once I get back home next time!

Does SE sell the DQVIII OST? The one that uses actual instruments instead of the MIDI ones in the JPN release,

Yes, the tracks used on the Western release of DQVIII can be found on the Symphonic Suite Album: http://vgmdb.net/album/15803
CDJapan is still selling it: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KICC-6308
 

PigzFly

Member
Great idea. VGMdb will get a ton of use! Too many games have music that is easily overlooked.

Leaving games on in the background while doing other things usually means that their title screen tracks get stuck in my head which is true for Demon's Souls, Ni no Kuni, Destiny and multiple World of Warcraft login screens.

The only OST I have outside of a bunch of collector's edition stuff is Ni no Kuni:


One soundtrack that I always keep on my phone is Hotline Miami. It's filled with fantastic tracks but my favourites are Miami by Jasper Byrne and Paris by M.O.O.N

Final Fantasy X has some beautiful music. This track is soooo breathtaking
A Fleeting Dream

I'm going to have to be that guy and say the original soundtrack was so much better. To Zanarkand gives me chills, probably because I'm a sucker for piano pieces.

Looking forward to some more music recommendations.
 

flohen95

Member
I can't take a picture of my stuff right now and it's not that much anyway, but I'll just talk about what I have:

Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag Soundtrack:
Came included in the Skull Edition I bought for 25€. Not really my type of music, so I hardly ever listen to it.

Bravely Default Song Selection:
Included in the limited edition. Some nice songs on there, but I don't go back to it very often.

Dodonpachi Ressurection Arrange Album:
Again, comes with the special edition of the game (I don't think there's any other version, though). Same as the AC4 soundtrack.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Composer Selected Soundtrack:
Again included with the limited edition, and that's about all I can say about it.

Fire Emblem Awakening OST:
A friend of mine bought this for me while in Japan, and it's one of the few pieces of my FE collection thats not a game. Again, some nice tracks, but nothing that really stands out for me and I mostly own it for collection purposes. I do give the CDs a spin from time to time though. It's really nice to look at, too.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin Song Selection:
See Bravely Default.

Persona 4 Arena Original Arrange Soundtrack:
Oh yeah. This is the first soundtrack on this list that I regularly listen to. The first track is just perfect if you're going down the highway at 160+ kmh/100+ mph. Also really fun to play along to on either guitar or drums. Just fantastic.

Super Mario 3D World OST:
This was a Club Nintendo reward. I don't remember how many stars it cost, but it was relatively cheap for a 2 disc OST. Nice swing-y/jazz-y music, really love the credits theme here.

Super Mario Galaxy Platinum OST:
Again, Club Nintendo. 4800 Stars I believe. What can I say about the soundtrack? Let's just say that, even though I'm typically not the orchestral type, I think it's really, really good.

Tales of Xillia Song Selection:
Came with the Day 1 Edition of the game. I honestly can't remember if I've listened to it yet. Maybe I should do that.

The Legend Of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony:
I think this was included with every copy of Skyward Sword up until some point? Anyway, it's Zelda, it's an orchestra, it sounds so good. That's all I can say about it.

Under Defeat HD Deluxe Edition Soundtrack:
Included with every Under Defeat HD Deluxe Edition (duh), which, again, is the only edition that exsists in Europe as far as I'm aware. Can't say anything about it off the top of my head.

That's all of the stuff that I physically own that's labeled as a soundtrack. I have the Club Nintendo Kirby Triple Deluxe OST ordered, but it has yet to arrive. Next up is that stuff that I like to listen to but either don't own or own in a way that it's not labeled as a soundtrack CD.

Crush 40! Yeah, those guys that made songs for Sonic games, like Open Your Heart, Live & Learn, What I'm Made Of, Never Turn Back, Knight Of The Wind etc. etc. One of my favourite bands period, I own every album of them except the one under the Sons of Angels name. Before they did Sonic music, they made the music for a NASCAR Arcade game, all of which was included on "Thrill of the Feel" by Sons of Angels and later on, only the vocal tracks, on the selftitled Crush 40 CD, alongside Open Your Heart, Live & Learn and Escape From The City (which is sung by Tony Harnell and Ted Poley instead of Johnny Gioeli). I also own the Super Sonic Songs Best of, which includes most of their works for the Sonic series. In addition to that, I also own the live album and the Crush 40 and Rise Again EPs, but that's going a bit off topic since those don't have that much to do with video game music.

Then, next, is Jun Senoue's The Works, which features a selection of songs by Jun Senoue, who is a composer and guitar player for SEGA (he's Crush 40's guitarist). On that is Soul On Desert from Sega Rally 2, which is a fantastic instrumental rock track, as well as an arrangement of 2 themes from Sega Rally and the 2 vocal tracks of Daytona USA CE, Sons of Angels and The American Dream, featuring Eric Martin. Great stuff.

I also own the "soundtracks" for Sega Rally and Daytona USA CE, since you can access those by playing the game disc on a CD player. Lots of great stuff on there, too, especially for driving (duh). Give them a listen if you have the time.

And lastly, I want to draw attention towards the Sega Tunes line of music CDs (which I sadly don't own any of), specifically the Sonic, ToeJam & Earl and Comix Zone ones. Really like listening to those (although the Sonic Sega Tunes does have a few weird tracks on it).

Oh, and one more thing: T-Square. Now T-Square never really made video game music (aside from Knight's Song, which is an arrangement of Moon Over The Castle from Gran Turismo, written by Masahiro Andoh, their guitarist), but you can feel their style all over in (especially) '90s video games from Japan. Just listen to a few of their tracks and you'll understand.
 
Cool, I'll have to get some studying music off of this thread. In the meantime, here's my contribution:

Any Halo OST
Journey OST
Assassin's Creed II OST
Modern Warfare 2 OST (Because Hans Zimmer)
The Last of Us OST
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater OST
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes OST

I'll add more when I can think of more.
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Fire Emblem Awakening OST:
A friend of mine bought this for me while in Japan, and it's one of the few pieces of my FE collection thats not a game. Again, some nice tracks, but nothing that really stands out for me and I mostly own it for collection purposes. I do give the CDs a spin from time to time though. It's really nice to look at, too.

Overall the Fire Emblem Series is a bit weak in the music department. I also got a soundtrack to a game in the series a few years back, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, and it just is a bit underwhelming.
 

malcher

Member
There is a Polish radio (more specifically: a channel of big Polish radio group) that plays only game music. It works outside of Poland too:
RMF Game Music
The cool thing is that they show the title of the game the currently played track is from.
 

flohen95

Member
Overall the Fire Emblem Series is a bit weak in the music department. I also got a soundtrack to a game in the series a few years back, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, and it just is a bit underwhelming.

Yeah, I agree. FE is my favourite gaming series, but I can't remember all that many music tracks from the games. Funnily enough, there's one simple tune from Seisen no Keifu that's stuck in my head: The Verdane Army theme.
I find myself humming that from time to time.
 

Jims

Member
I'm a big VGM fan, so I've been casually collecting soundtrack CDs very for the last year or so. Haven't gone out of my way (except in one special instance) to seek stuff out, but whenever soundtracks show up at my local Half Price Books and other used shops, I usually pick them up.

Not a big collection by any means, but so far I have:

Super Mario Galaxy (silver edition, the full gold one is too expensive)
Paper Mario (N64, I think it was originally a Nintendo Power giveaway)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (this too, maybe, all the tracks on the back/booklet are in Japanese so it could be an import)
Legend of Mana ("music selection" edition, only 5 tracks)
Xenoblade Chronicles (full OST, imported)
Ducktales: Remasted (although only digitally via iTunes)

I saw that my local place has the Twilight Princess promotional soundtrack for $20, and they have the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack for $30, so thinking about picking them up. You can find FF7 on Amazon pretty easily, though. I notice that publishers have been putting a lot more of their stuff on iTunes (lots of great Sega stuff on there) so I might go that route if I'm looking for more stuff to listen to in my earbuds at work.

Been thinking about ordering the Chrono Chross soundtrack. Never played the game but the OST is amazing.
 

Nekofrog

Banned
For anyone interested in videogame remixes, I'm a remixer that has put out quite a few things (Megaman, Lufia, Final Fantasy, Doom, moar) on my youtube channel.

Currently working on a Final Fantasy remix album called Esper Storm with infrequent releases T_T


Here are the first two tracks I've released:

Final Fantasy Battle Medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_gVczgr16M&list=PLcXGiSupTOzaTpDSfmH97Oba3cXzh5-B8

Final Fantasy 7: You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmPpL7Tu0pE&list=PLcXGiSupTOzaTpDSfmH97Oba3cXzh5-B8

And here's a preview track with more songs than the two above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Prb2N-kAY&list=UUCx3q2EWdLat0MJTMvvpksA

thanks!
 

woopWOOP

Member
Love me some videogame music. Though I don't really go out of my way to buy physical copies, looking at my CD pile I seem to have gained a small collection of official releases over the years:
- Megaman 9
- Chiptuned Rockman
- Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Super Mario 3D World
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
- Contra 4 Rocked 'n Reloaded
- Famicom 20th Anniversary Gamemusic DVD
- Konami Super Famicom Medley

Also apparently I have this 90's MEGAMAN CD with a bunch of random artists on it and the official soundtrack to Street Fighter the motion picture. How the hell did I get that one?

You guys ever listen to a game song to go to sleep? I've recently found that the Star Fox 64 Menu music is super relaxing and perfect for falling asleep to.
I actually fell asleep more than once with this C&C tune on repeat, in the past. So relaxing (on low volume anyway).
 

Zhao_Yun

Member
Been thinking about ordering the Chrono Chross soundtrack. Never played the game but the OST is amazing.

Do it. I actually own two copies of that OST xD.

But since you mentioned it I'd like to ask the rest of you: Who else likes to listen to video game music even without having played the games they were made for? I tend to treat my favorite composers like my other favorite music artists as well nowadays. If they they release a new soundtrack I'll listen to it even if I have no interest in the actual game at all. After getting into the Ys series I started listening to the OSTs of ther Falcom games as well and fell in love with the Kiseki Soundtracks. Too bad the newest games probably won't see a localization anytime soon since the OSTs are amazing.
 

LGom09

Member
Do it. I actually own two copies of that OST xD.

But since you mentioned it I'd like to ask the rest of you: Who else likes to listen to video game music even without having played the games they were made for? I tend to treat my favorite composers like my other favorite music artists as well nowadays. If they they release a new soundtrack I'll listen to it even if I have no interest in the actual game at all. After getting into the Ys series I started listening to the OSTs of ther Falcom games as well and fell in love with the Kiseki Soundtracks. Too bad the newest games probably won't see a localization anytime soon since the OSTs are amazing.

Yep, I do this. Sometimes I'll play a game just because of the composer, in which case I won't listen to the music until I actually play the game. I consider listening to the music before playing the game to be a pretty big spoiler, especially it's the final boss theme or something. One game I played mostly because of the composer was Radiant Historia (Yoko Shimomura). Turned out to be an awesome game with an amazing soundtrack. Also played Soul Sacrifice for Mitsuda, but the game and soundtrack didn't do much for me.
 

Wynnebeck

Banned
VGM thread? Woohoo! Subscribed. Anyone know where I can find out how many albums altogether comprised the Nier soundtrack? I think it was 3?
 

Zhao_Yun

Member
Yep, I do this. Sometimes I'll play a game just because of the composer, in which case I won't listen to the music until I actually play the game. I consider listening to the music before playing the game to be a pretty big spoiler, especially it's the final boss theme or something. One game I played mostly because of the composer was Radiant Historia (Yoko Shimomura). Turned out to be an awesome game with an amazing soundtrack. Also played Soul Sacrifice for Mitsuda, but the game and soundtrack didn't do much for me.

Haha, I did the same with Radiant Historia actually but I don't consider listening to the music before playing a game a spoiler because otherwise I would have to restrict my consumption of VGM to games I've played and I can't play all games with interesting music. I try to not look at track names though just in case that I'll play the game in the future. Normally they try to avoid spoilers in track names though.
 

cabel

Member
(This is kind of gross and self-promotional, I hope that's ok.)

After years of doing music only for myself — with the exception of some NES-style music I wrote for an iOS game called The Incident — my first "real" video game soundtrack came out today!!!

It's on iTunes but I also put it on Bandcamp: Space Age (Original Game Soundtrack)

It's like… 50's sci-fi + modern film score + 70's synths + EPCOT center. I did unique tracks for every cutscene so it's a 65 track album!

(The game comes out this Thursday.)

This is the fulfillment of a life-long dream — I blogged about that here — and I hope one or two of you enjoy it! Thank you for listening!
 
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