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Average, "B-Tier" games with disproportionately epic soundtracks.

Dr.Morris79

Member
Some may not consider it B-tier but let's be honest, it was utter dog turd to those that played Medal of honor on the PC. So yes, it was total B-tier through and through... and there was no way it deserved this utter masterpiece piece of music for the title screen. It's glorious

 

Vandole

Member
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Vlodril

Member
Masquerada Songs and Shadows. Fantastic ost. Also fantastic game but no one played it so i guess its b-tier.



Full ost on the composer's channel.

 
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Fbh

Member
Sonic 2006 has some tracks you could mistake for JRPG boss music:


And that game was like D tier.

Dark Void has some pretty good stufftoo:



Weird deep cut here but the sound track for Lair on PS3 is epic and way better than it has any right to be for a game that turned out to be a bit of a disaster (i still love you Lair)



First that came to mind.
It's not just surprisingly good, I think it's easily one of the best "epic" soundtracks in videogames.
If only the game hadn't sucked/failed and John Debney would have gotten some recognition for his amazing work on this we'd probably have more great game soundtracks from him.
 
Don't think I've ever played a game less deserving of its soundtrack than Dusk. Thankfully, this guy ended up landing a proper gig with Doom Eternal.



Honorable mentions:



 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Tim Follin stuff. I dunno if any game he composed for was considered good, and at least one is considered very, very bad. You can hear that prog-rock / hair metal vibe in a lot of his early works







He also did a lot of arrangements for existing games/soundtracks onto different systems, especiallly the Commodore 64
 

GHG

Gold Member
NieR Gestalt/Replicant



I refuse to consider Nier a B tier game, it's A* tier.

Considering the OP had clarified that B tier is more about the budget and marketing hype rather than the quality of the game I'll add these two to the mix:

Gris:




Furi:




Everyone please play these games, they are masterpieces.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
The original PS2 release of Persona 3 fits the bill.



Several other ATLUS games from that era might qualify too





In general ATLUS soundtracks punch waaaaaay above their weight. It's something I love about them as a company.
 

GamesAreFun

Banned
Final Fantasy XIII has already been posted, but I think the two sequels have even better soundtracks.




Another mention is Opoona for the Wii, a niche RPG which released on the same day as Super Mario Galaxy and was promptly forgotten. The entire soundtrack is great though.

 

John Day

Member
This game:

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Has a way too good soundtrack made for it.

This is the sequel to Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. The original was a pretty big game for the N64 and there was some marketing push for it. It also had a great soundtrack as well.

But the sequel was mostly a lower budget "2.5D" B-Tier platformer that wasn't as big of a release. It's an OK-ish game at best. But the soundtrack.... Its probably the biggest sized soundtrack for the N64 with tons of themes and variations (There is a playlist with 175 music themes on Youtube) and almost all stage themes are awesome.

I can't even post some of my favorites because that would be me posting 20-30 videos.

But here is the playlist for anyone interested exploring this rabbit hole (with a nice song to start):




Dunno, i always find it weird how much work mush have been put in this OST, for such a "meh" game.

Edit: When i say "B-tier" i mean lower budgeted games, with low ambition, low hype and small/none marketing push. Not necessarily mediocre games.

The first one’s “I am Impact” is still in my brain 🤣🤣🤣

 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I don't care how many people or magazines gave this game a 9 or 10/10. IMO it was a crap game. Looked bad, played bad, repetitive and the scratchiest voices ever.

But amazing music!

Streets_of_Rage_%28cover%29.jpg
 

FStubbs

Member
Dawn of Mana was absolutely awful, as its 57% on Metacritic can attest. However, the soundtrack was AMAZING. Just a few examples:











Tales of Legendia might be another good one to cite. Mediocre, but had a great soundtrack (especially since most Tales games have mediocre soundtracks)

 

intbal

Member
I waited and waited, hoping someone else would post in this thread. I hate posting at the bottom of a page, because someone/s will immediately follow it and push it over to the next page, resulting in a completely wasted post that will never be seen by anyone. But this thread is just going to be forgotten about otherwise. So here it is.

I'm not sure this particular game rises to the level of B-tier, but the score is something else.
Produced as the collaboration between two electronic artists, it features a wide range of styles, although mostly constrained by the e-music technology of the day. Still, they made something pretty unique. A few years ago, the entire soundtrack was released for free on the CBC's website (huh?). I can't find that page any more. I don't know if it's currently royalty free or not. I downloaded the whole thing. I still listen to a few of the tracks every now and then. Most of it doesn't fit with my particular musical tastes, but this track is amazing. Definitely my favorite game song of all time.





Also, you might find this track somewhat interesting. From the same game. Most batshit insane thing I've ever heard. Sounds like two sentient AIs fighting for dominance in cyberspace. Probably what Rampancy sounds like in Cortana's mind.

 
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Pejo

Member
I feel like the entire mobile game industry fits in this thread. So many good songs in gacha and mobile games. Hell, Destiny Child (a Korean gacha game, not the 90s R&B group) has ESTi (the Ragnarok Online dude) composing for it. There's an insane amount of great music in mobile right now which is hilarious because most people play with the sound off.



Some others:





 

Majmun

Member
Drakengard series
Nier ( Automata is not B-tier)
Shadow Hearts (the original)

All of these games have clunky gameplay and are not big budget. But their OST is magnificent.
 

Merkades

Member
Since Nier was taken (multiple times) I will go with literally any game from Gust, but specifically the Atelier series and more specifically, the end boss theme to Atelier Ayesha. It is surprising how many quality tracks they have.

 

martino

Member
Weird deep cut here but the sound track for Lair on PS3 is epic and way better than it has any right to be for a game that turned out to be a bit of a disaster (i still love you Lair)


i get Pouledouris vibes from this theme
 

bellome

Member
Some may not consider it B-tier but let's be honest, it was utter dog turd to those that played Medal of honor on the PC. So yes, it was total B-tier through and through... and there was no way it deserved this utter masterpiece piece of music for the title screen. It's glorious


Listening to this after all this time gave me flashbacks.

Thank you

:messenger_heart:
 

Loke

Member
Some may not consider it B-tier but let's be honest, it was utter dog turd to those that played Medal of honor on the PC. So yes, it was total B-tier through and through... and there was no way it deserved this utter masterpiece piece of music for the title screen. It's glorious


What a retarded post. B-tier game? Get the fuck outta here.
 
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