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NeoGAF's Official Game Soundtracks of the Year 2012 (Voting Ended)

S

ShinobiFist

Banned
Picking Hotline, is like picking Madden. There's no difference. If that was the case, the Oscars(using it as a example)would vote for comps as well.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
ShinobiFist said:
Picking Hotline, is like picking Madden. There's no difference. If that was the case, the Oscars(using it as a example)would vote for comps as well.
Click to expand...
The Academy Awards are for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. This is clearly "soundtrack" ;) Perhaps a more apt comparison would be to compare Hotline Miami as the gaming equivalent of movies with soundtracks like Good Morning Vietnam, Trainspotting or Forrest Gump. An excerpt from a random "greatest soundtracks" list, on Trainspotting:
Essential to the film's success was an audaciously scattershot jukebox soundtrack which perfectly embodied the film's anarchic charms. Listening to the CD is like watching the entire movie in your head, from Iggy Pop's frenetic 'Lust For Life' (the opening high-street chase sequence), through the ironic melancholy of Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' (Renton's heroin overdose), to the blood-pumping climax of Underworld's chanting heartbeat 'Born Slippy' (our anti-hero's gleeful escape).
Click to expand...

I would love to compare the difference between the thought and effort between selecting songs for a game like Madden and a game like Hotline Miami, but it sounds like you didn't actually appreciate Hotline Miami itself (if indeed you've played it at all). I think from an outsider's point of view (or from someone whom HM didn't really resonate) it's quite easy to see how it's just a bunch of songs. But if you've played it and are able to acknowledge how the music is used to draw the player in, how it affects the theme of the game and the emotion of it's audience... it couldn't possibly be discounted because it works that damn well.

By the looks of things, though, it's an outsider's view that you're taking... if the fact that you've not posted in the Hotline Miami |OT| at all is anything to go by. I'm not going to say that you should go and play the game because of how how highly I (and many others) think of it, but I am saying that if you haven't played it at all (just looked up it's music on YouTube or downloaded it) then you cannot really comment on it's validity in this thread. It'd be like saying the Rez soundtrack shouldn't be considered a "soundtrack" because it doesn't contain any specifically-composed songs. I'm sure there are far more people who have played that (than HM) who would share the same argument.
 
I

Instro

Member
I don't really have a vote here. Most of the games which appear to have top tier soundtracks (XIII-2, Crimson Shroud, Kid Icarus) I haven't played yet, and of the games I have played there's not much notable outside of Nintendoland and Guild Wars 2. The latter of which reuses a bunch of tracks from GW1. Xenoblade not being allowed doesn't really matter since I played that last year anyway

Best single track though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvOtkII-8gg

BABYBABYBABYBABY
 
N

Nert

Member
I'm going to take a break from updating the image compilation so I can get back to the archive. A surprising number of these games don't seem to have a proper soundtrack release, so I had to improvise a bit.

ibtfIRBwMD1Akg.jpg
iiR5s8pUX83h4.jpg
i2Wf8xjh7EdNw.jpg
isGhcpu43o5Fo.jpg
Click to expand...
 
T

Tigel

Member
1. Journey
2. Kid Icarus: Uprising
3. Guild Wars 2

Honorable mentions:
* World of Warcraft: Mist of Pandaria
* Final Fantasy XIII-2
* Max Payne 3
 
N

Necrovex

Member
This is really difficult, but I'll toss down my list anyway:

1) Katawa Shoujo

One of the best OST I have heard since I played Persona 4.

2) Virtue's Last Reward

Some of the pieces in that game simply left scars. And they were used at amazingly well.

3) Mass Effect 3

This game had a lot of problems, but the OST was not one of them.
 
T

Talaysen

Member
1. Atelier Meruru: Apprentice of Arland - I think it's worse than Atelier Totori's OST overall, but still great. Most of the boss themes are really good. Even some of the field themes are good, but that's more of an in-game thing. They don't work as well out of context.
2. Etrian Odyssey IV - I also think this one is worse than its predecessor, but I haven't played the game yet, so my opinion on that could change. Still good enough to be here.
3. Bravery Default: Flying Fairy - I don't really know anything about the game, but I like its music style.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Listening to all of the Hotline Miami music makes me want to get the game, actually... I don't know anything about it but it does sound really unique. Or maybe oldnique?

Would just like to throw my hat in for Journey.

I have to say Journey just for Apotheosis and I Was Born for This (love Lisbeth Scott), but the whole thing is really special. I'll link a new song in Threshold, which sort of encapsulates why I like the soundtrack overall. It's got a decidedly ethnic feel without being overly placable as Asian or Middle Eastern or European, it's big and swooning without being bombastic, and it has this sort of musical "tug" that makes you want to keep pushing forward in the game. I also really like the SNES remakes that fans have done for Wintory. The lyrics to IWBfT are like a beautiful miniature journey through classical literature, and it was fun to discover the references over time and study.

I did really like FFXIII-2 too.

Oh, and disappointment of the year is RE6. Utter trash nonmusic after the great and surprising RE5.
 
E

Earthpainting

Member
This is a pretty difficult year for me. I didn't play a whole lot of stuff with soundtracks I can remember, let along great ones. I've heard good things about Stickstar Saga's music and what little I've heard of it does sound right up my alley, but I can't give it a vote in good consciousness without experiencing it myself while playing.

Nintendo Land
The soundtrack mostly seems to be composed out of arrangements and remixes, but I don't think I've heard a single bad piece of music in it. It's one of those games where I'm a little bummed out that the sound effects obscure the music a little too much. A nice little touch is that the music in the plaza changes depending on the time of day. Not entirely sure why they did this, but it's appreciated.
8-bit Plaza | Battle Quest Lost Woods

Asura's Wrath
Not sure how well this will be represented in this thread, but I enjoyed this game's soundtrack. It did a good job at setting the tone and perfectly complemented the world and lore it putting forth.
In your belief | Wind fang

Kid Icarus: Uprising
Does a decent job at capturing the feeling of adventure. I was initially a little weirded out by the fidelity of the tracks. I was so used to synthesised music or low-quality recordings on my handhelds that the notion that it could be better surprised me.
Opening | Dog

Curious to see what other people will pick. Hope the thread will be enlightening.

*e*
I see I forgot all about Journey.
 
D

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Nert said:
If anybody wants to add some visual flair to their posts, I've started a compilation of soundtrack cover art on Minus. As with the archive, more will be added to this over time.
Click to expand...
Cool, thanks. I was thinking of doing the same thing I do with my GotY/voting posts and just making small banners, but at least this... uh, better disguises the walls of text I tend to write.

Shaneus said:
The Academy Awards are for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. This is clearly "soundtrack" ;) Perhaps a more apt comparison would be to compare Hotline Miami as the gaming equivalent of movies with soundtracks like Good Morning Vietnam, Trainspotting or Forrest Gump. An excerpt from a random "greatest soundtracks" list, on Trainspotting:

I would love to compare the difference between the thought and effort between selecting songs for a game like Madden and a game like Hotline Miami, but it sounds like you didn't actually appreciate Hotline Miami itself (if indeed you've played it at all). I think from an outsider's point of view (or from someone whom HM didn't really resonate) it's quite easy to see how it's just a bunch of songs. But if you've played it and are able to acknowledge how the music is used to draw the player in, how it affects the theme of the game and the emotion of it's audience... it couldn't possibly be discounted because it works that damn well.

By the looks of things, though, it's an outsider's view that you're taking... if the fact that you've not posted in the Hotline Miami |OT| at all is anything to go by. I'm not going to say that you should go and play the game because of how how highly I (and many others) think of it, but I am saying that if you haven't played it at all (just looked up it's music on YouTube or downloaded it) then you cannot really comment on it's validity in this thread. It'd be like saying the Rez soundtrack shouldn't be considered a "soundtrack" because it doesn't contain any specifically-composed songs. I'm sure there are far more people who have played that (than HM) who would share the same argument.
Click to expand...
Excellent post. I haven't played Hotline Miami myself yet because I've been crazy busy, but having listened to the soundtrack and having seen a bit of the game footage from Quick Looks / Let's Plays or walkthroughs, I can see why people are genuinely enamoured with it. It's similar to how some of the orchestrated works in some games don't seem like they would fit in a game, but when you actually go play the game, it works so well in context. It isn't like... I dunno... THPS or Crazy Taxi where the soundtracks are licensed and you just select a few tracks to board/drive around with. The music is properly used in context, and I think because of that, it can still be considered a contender for SotY. I don't see the problem with it.

I mean, depending on how things go, I might drop it out of my Top 3 and put it in the honourable mentions at least (I did the same thing with Sonic Generations last year because of the fact that that entire soundtrack consisted of remixes), but when I play the game during my vacation, I could very well become enamoured with the soundtrack and give it a top spot due to how it immerses the player in the game's environment. As long as the soundtrack embodies everything there is to the game, I don't see an issue here.

It's just like how some people could take issue with the likes of Sound Shapes or Lumines (or perhaps DJMAX Technika Tune--but that one's kind of toeing the line because of the stuff like KARA). Those soundtracks are the ones I'd truly feel kind of iffy about.

CecilRousso said:
1. Dustforce
Click to expand...
Yay!

Seriously, though... that's one of my Top 3 contenders. Gotta thank Nert for reminding me that it came out this year.
 
N

Nert

Member
RoninChaos said:
Mists of pandaria (first wow soundtrack that's good)
Click to expand...

I'm going to challenge you on this. Not everyone will agree with me, of course, but I think that Wrath of the Lich King has one of the most underrated (or at least overlooked) soundtracks of the generation.

Crystalsong: this is one of my favorite ambient pieces in a video game. Calming, ethereal and mysterious, this song provides a powerful sense of place. I love how it ends, too.

Dalarn: this song truly embodies "imposing and magical capital city." The woodwind work in the beginning is wonderful.

Totems of the Grizzlemaw: best use of a nychelharpa in a video game soundtrack? Probably.

God Hunters: dat percussion.

... but yeah, Mists of Pandaria has great music, too :p
 
J

Jintor

Member
Nert said:
I'm going to take a break from updating the image compilation so I can get back to the archive. A surprising number of these games don't seem to have a proper soundtrack release, so I had to improvise a bit.
Click to expand...

Urgh, I can't believe they didn't do custom art for Virtue's Last Reward's soundtrack...

Will something that's consistantly Honourbly Mentioned but never or rarely voted for get a write-up? :3
 
M

Moobabe

Member
Last year was an easy year for me because To The Moon and Bastion came out - but reading some of the reasoning behind people's voting this year I pondered what made a good soundtrack and settled on the following three - not because they have the best individual songs (which will get honourable mentions) but because of what they contributed to the game experience as a whole.

3. Dear Esther

1843321626-1.jpg


Bought, played and completed on Valentine's day in one sitting (it wasn't a hugely busy evening for me...) and it was only going back to the soundtrack later that I realised what an integral part of the atmosphere the music was. One moment haunting, the next intimidating - I have never felt so unwanted in a videogame space as I did during the hours I spent on that island and Jessica Curry's soundtrack is a huge reason for it.

Favourite track: Ascension

2. Hotline Miami

jMgSVhwwismC6.jpg


Every song on this album makes my heart rate increase, my eyes narrow and the palms of my hands get clammy. It's a testament to the quality of the soundtrack that the blinding rage that the game had me in during our time together never diminished the effect that the music had on me.

Favourite track: Miami Disco

1. Journey

jcpnLeSCbWIqt.jpg


When I really sat down to think about it there could be only one winner for me. Taken in isolation it contains my favourite videogame track of the year anyway, but the way in which the peaks and troughs of the game coincide so wonderfully with the music made the decision a no brainer.

Favourite track: Nascence

Honourable mentions:

Dustforce

j2zCKIraLA4q6.jpg


If not for giving me internet fame in Totalbiscuits "WTF" then because it gave us this track:
Cider time.


The Walking Dead

jiR5s8pUX83h4.jpg


Maybe I'm biased - but as soon as this piece kicked in I felt a lump at the back of my throat every single damned time. I've never cared about a videogame character (maybe not even a character in any fiction) as much I did for Clementine.

Alive Inside

Endless Space

2974676879-1.jpg


Second curveball of the post - but if you're making a game in space you'd do well to use this exact soundtrack for your game. Every. Single. Song.

The Endless

Sorry about the huge post! Hope you enjoyed some as much as I did!
 
R

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
1. Hotline Miami
2. Max Payne 3
3. Mass Effect 3 Hell Yeah!

EDIT: After some thinking, I'm changing my 3rd game. It's now Hell Yeah!
#1 and #2 stay as they were.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
1. Max Payne 3
2. Assassin's Creed 3

The only two that really stood out to me, as I haven't played a lot of the games that are receiving huge votes in this thread.
 
S

ShinobiFist

Banned
Well, I'll drop the discussion about the soundtrack, because its silly on my part. Is about best soundtrack, not original soundtrack. Anyway, here are my picks.

1. Hotline Miami

2. Dustforce

3. Max Payne 3

People should really give DustForce a listen and a try. Game is really fun. Hotline is my GOTY next to Mark Of The Ninja.
 
C

Codeblue

Member
1. The Last Story - Seriously some of Uematsu's best work. I haven't even played the game yet, but I've fallen in love with the soundtrack.

2. Kid Icarus: Uprising - Five top notch composers. Koshiro and Takada hit some incredibly high highs on this OST

3. Nintendoland - A great fusion between some simple catchy new music, and classics remixed to fit the theme, and they totally nailed all of it.

Honorable Mentions:

Rhythm Heaven Fever. It belongs up there somewhere but I can't bring myself to remove any of the above.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Y2Kev said:
Listening to all of the Hotline Miami music makes me want to get the game, actually... I don't know anything about it but it does sound really unique. Or maybe oldnique?
Click to expand...
Honestly, it may or may not be your thing. Part of the reason I love it is because I love that era of music, for both the music as it's own thing and as a part of a lot of movie soundtracks (see: pretty much everything John Carpenter did, along with Harold Faltermeyer and Giorgio Moroder). It's that, and the way it's able to evoke such a specific time, place, setting and emotive experience with a (relatively) simple control scheme and low-fidelity of output (both visually and sonically).

I really don't want to sound too hyperbolic because it might get your hopes up, but I think it's well worth the $10 or whatever full price it is to find out whether it's your thing or not.

You'll know whether it is or not when you finish a session and find you feel like you need a thirty-minute shower to get all that grime off ;)

Dark Schala said:
Excellent post. I haven't played Hotline Miami myself yet because I've been crazy busy, but having listened to the soundtrack and having seen a bit of the game footage from Quick Looks / Let's Plays or walkthroughs, I can see why people are genuinely enamoured with it. It's similar to how some of the orchestrated works in some games don't seem like they would fit in a game, but when you actually go play the game, it works so well in context. It isn't like... I dunno... THPS or Crazy Taxi where the soundtracks are licensed and you just select a few tracks to board/drive around with. The music is properly used in context, and I think because of that, it can still be considered a contender for SotY. I don't see the problem with it.

I mean, depending on how things go, I might drop it out of my Top 3 and put it in the honourable mentions at least (I did the same thing with Sonic Generations last year because of the fact that that entire soundtrack consisted of remixes), but when I play the game during my vacation, I could very well become enamoured with the soundtrack and give it a top spot due to how it immerses the player in the game's environment. As long as the soundtrack embodies everything there is to the game, I don't see an issue here.

It's just like how some people could take issue with the likes of Sound Shapes or Lumines (or perhaps DJMAX Technika Tune--but that one's kind of toeing the line because of the stuff like KARA). Those soundtracks are the ones I'd truly feel kind of iffy about.
Click to expand...
See, I still think Lumines should rate a mention as well, even though it's not as intrinsically tied to what's happening on the screen as Miami. Playing through all the levels in one session shows the intention of a "journey" the music is takes and the experience it's intended to impart, but it's clear that the game itself is more a vessel for the music and less something that ties in with it.

It's music still ties in really well and still has some emotional impact, but it's intent is more to convey something than to draw you in. A painting you look at, not an interactive art installation.

Edit: Just had a look at it's Wiki entry and Dustforce looks pretty rad. Think I'll grab that when I get home.
 
K

Kandinsky

Member
Wish I played more games this year, but from that little list nothing comes close to Kid Icarus, such a great OST, every piece of music fits in both composition and execution they just belong to that amazing/charming world.

1.-Kid Icarus: Uprising (oh look its Mitsuda)
2.-Phantasy Star Online 2
3.-Journey
 
GhaleonQ

GhaleonQ

Member
http://dokuro.gungho.jp/wallpaper_bgm

They aren't uploaded yet, but I thought people would be interested. Skull/Dokuro by Game Arts is 1 of my games of the year. The composer e-mailed me back saying that there wasn't a soundtrack release planned right now, and I haven't looked into Vita gamerips yet.

There are some releases up there. It's excellent.

Oh, and did I mention that he did (The Era Of The) Illusion Of Gaia by Quintet, and this is the 1st mainstream (in my opinion) soundtrack that he's done in awhile? You should listen.
 
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