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Mediocre/unpopular/obscure games with great soundtracks

nkarafo said:
So, this thread is only about games that not many people played, games that are not as popular as your usual Zeldas, Marios, Metal Gears and Final Fantasies, games that are either not very good or just obscure but have soundtracks so good that can be compared with the best and most popular OSTs.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) is my pick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXn3xssdng&list=PL0D877BD1284957FB

This is just one of my favorite songs in this OST but please, give a listen to the rest of it. Make sure you have some free time though because this OST is HUGE, yet i don't remember many bad songs in it. The game itself is just a "decent" 2D-ish platformer. Not the best, not the worst. It exists. Definitely not the most popular N64 game, even among N64 fans, especially considering that the first Goemon was a better game.

But this OST is definitely one of the better i came across during that generation. Which is a shame really because due to the low popularity of the game, not many people listened to it.
Click to expand...

As far as I remember many tracks are remixes/rearrangements of the first N64 Goemon game but I haven't listened to it as much, to be honest, so I might be wrong.
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon's OST on the other hand is one of my all-time faves (the game itself, too). Just listened to it the other day :D So many great, catchy, upbeat, moody and nice tracks!
---


256px-Enemy_Zero_cover.jpg

Now onto my first pick: the "Enemy Zero" soundtrack, composed by Michael Nyman. Obscure Sega Saturn game by the late genius Kenji Eno ("D", "D2" and other very leftfield, creative games). Read this interesting piece from 1UP on his work!
Michael Nyman is a well-known, british movie composer of mostly minimalist music.
Check out these tracks and the others in the playlist:
Enemy Zero OST - Confusion
Enemy Zero OST - Aspects of Love
Enemy Zero OST - Laura's Dream


Opoona.jpg

Second pick would be "Opoona" for the Wii. Very quirky, unique JRPG with a really good soundtrack from Hitoshi Sakimoto's music company Basiscape. On this specific soundtrack the composers were Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata, Manabu Namiki, Noriyuki Kamikura, Kimihiro Abe and Mitsuhiro Kaneda.
Found the game for 5€ or something like that in a Gamestop in Berlin and was totally surprised by the music, though I only played a few hours. Immediately got the OST.
It has a lot of wonderful synth-heavy tracks with very playful arrangements and nice melodies.
Opoona OST - Space Ship (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Opoona OST - At Tokione (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Opoona OST - Matia Mine (Masaharu Iwata)
Opoona OST - Blue Desert Hotel (Masaharu Iwata)
Opoona OST - At Lifeborn (Manabu Namiki)
Opoona OST - Garden Of Arts (Manabu Namiki)
Opoona OST - Concert Hall (Noriyuki Kamikura)
Opoona OST - The Village Without Memories (Noriyuki Kamikura)
Opoona OST - Great Dunes (Kimihiro Abe)
Opoona OST - East Sea (Kimihiro Abe)
Opoona OST - Holy Island (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)
Opoona OST - A Walk In The Sea (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)


Threads_of_Fate_Coverart.png

With my last pick I'm not sure if it counts as "obscure" but nevertheless: "Threads of Fate".
Only played it for a few hours but LOVED the soundtrack. I'm a big fan of Junya Nakano (th one on the left, next to Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu) who worked on FFX (examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), FFXIII, Tobal No. 1, Musashi: Samurai Legend, etc. He's a master of ambient and percussion-heavy tunes. The Threads of Fate OST might be his most melodic work.

Threads of Fate OST - Theme of Dew Prism
Threads of Fate OST - Passing Through the Forest (Man, I love this one so much!)
Threads of Fate OST - Rasdan
Threads of Fate OST - A Chance Meeting
Threads of Fate OST - Church
Threads of Fate OST - Village


Well, so far so good. I might post some other ones later :P

EDIT:
SolsticeZero said:
Tsugunai Atonement on the PS2 had some pretty bitchin music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVZ0M41le4I
Click to expand...

PS2-Tsugunai-Atonement.jpg

Aaah, thanks, I knew I forgot one! Love this soundtrack, too! A lot of Chrono Cross-like tunes. I'm a huge fan of Yasunori Mitsuda.
Tsugunai: Atonement OST - Early Afternoon In The Village
Tsugunai: Atonement OST - Nabi Fairy
Tsugunai: Atonement OST - Fisela's Theme
Tsugunai: Atonement OST - The Devil Lol, just noticed it sounds a bit like Nier.



PA.24041.001.jpg

Napple Tale Vol. 1/2. Obscure Action-RPG on the Dreamcast with music composed by the absolutly amazing Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop soundtrack!!!). This woman is unbelievable. I don't know any composer with such a quantity/quality ratio. I have 1517 songs from her on my hard drive and I only skip 2% of it (and only because I don't like songs with Japanese singers with too squeaky voices anymore). Even her "worst" tracks are still great.

Napple Tale Vol. 1 - Chocolate Forest
Napple Tale Vol. 1 - Snow Princess
Napple Tale Vol. 1 - Rain Waltz
Napple Tale Vol. 2 - Ball Jar
Napple Tale Vol. 2 - Rabbit Bed
Napple Tale Vol. 2 - Wild Wind
 
Koozek said:
PA.24041.001.jpg

Napple Tale Vol. 1/2. Obscure Action-RPG on the Dreamcast with music composed by the absolutly amazing Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop soundtrack!!!). This woman is unbelievable. I don't know any composer with such a quantity/quality ratio. I have 1517 songs from her on my hard drive and I only skip 2% of it (and only because I don't like songs with Japanese singers with too squeaky voices anymore). Even her "worst" tracks are still great.

Napple Tale Vol. 1 - Chocolate Forest
Napple Tale Vol. 1 - Snow Princess
Napple Tale Vol. 1 - Rain Waltz
Napple Tale Vol. 2 - Ball Jar
Napple Tale Vol. 2 - Rabbit Bed
Napple Tale Vol. 2 - Wild Wind
Click to expand...

Duuuude how come I never heard of this game Yoko Kanno is the best I love her so much. <3
What about the game? Is it any good?

On topic I guess you can't find many games more obscure than Hellsinker (though its inclusion in the latest Groupees doujin bundle made it a little more well known I guess) but the OST is absolutely stellar!

Menu Track 1
Segment 1 Behind
Segment 5 LUNA Boss
Segment 6 Boss
Shrine of Farewell (best boss rush EVER, I dare you to find a better one)
 
Napple Tale is an interesting 2.5D platformer.
It requires a bit of JP knowledge to get around some parts of it though(there are some adventure/puzzle elements).
Lovely soundtrack.

My obscure pick:
Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds (XBLA/PS Vita beatemup) - Great 8bit tunes

Remember Me has already been mentioned a few times. It's also worth mentioning that during fights the music is dynamic, it changes to fit what's happening on screen. Very cool stuff.
 
Nier's kind of the quintessential example here. I love the game for its music, characters, and story, but I don't know anyone who would deny the gameplay is exceedingly mediocre.
 
Awesome. Looks like I can lift my entire post from the 'chillest track ever' thread and repost it here because it certainly applies.

Glover and Beetle Adventure Racing, son. Bringing the funk in droves

243035_Beetle-Adventure-Racing__00.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEwY-VOEpMs (Sunset Sands) this will get stuck in your head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLlDU8VoQ9k (Mount Mayhem) and this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKfFtVLUs5w (Coventry Cove) and definitely this

Beetle Adventure Racing, maaan, fifteen years and I still can't get these themes out of my head

Here's a shitty game with amazing and often quite chill music

Glover_BA.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiJi8e_Rqqg (Atlantis 2) If nothing else, click this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-WIhkDEdRc (Atlantis 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSuJH5if0KI (Prehistoric 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch_X4noRHoE (Prehistoric 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niuwi77VKyA (Moon 1, one of my favorite themes from any N64 game) Also click this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijVo0Fu-EkU (Moon 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ym1ST8FVls (Final boss theme. Not the 'chillest' song but I always get a kick out of recalling that such a good boss tune is the backdrop to a mech battle where two sentient gloves are shooting balls at one another)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhPk_vtme8 (Bonus level music. So much fucking rage to be had to this song)

I mean god damn, the N64 was surely home to the funkiest gaming tunes of all time, no doubt (Miracle Matter from Kirby 64... totally not obscure but fuck if I won't post it anywhere I can, because find me a better boss theme on a Nintendo console, oh wait, you can't do it. Culex doesn't count)
 
It was my understanding that Darksiders II was pretty unpopular (meaning apparently not a lot of people played), but sweet Lord that OST is ridiculously good! I really think Jesper Kyd outdid himself there, OST felt really natural and genuine in the game.
 
Noray said:
No one's said Nier yet? wtf gaf
Click to expand...

Well, Nier is omnipresent in any game music thread (and deservedly so!), so I didn't think it would be neccessary to mention it here^^ It's not really obscure on GAF, though you might could say it's mediocre gameplay-wise (the atmosphere is amazing, though).
 
Phocks said:
The game the west never got from the GB Zelda's team had a cool theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5lL9_jGX78
Click to expand...

Oh, niiice! Obviously similiar to the Link's Awakening music, which I love from the bottom of my heart.
Btw, that's a misinformation that floats around the internet^^ The game's made by R&D1 and Link's Awakening by R&D4 (now EAD). They used the same engine (EDIT: I'm not sure, of course, but it wouldn't be surprising seeing the similarities) and had one composer (Kazumi Totaka) in common, however.
 
Koozek said:
Opoona.jpg

Second pick would be "Opoona" for the Wii. Very quirky, unique JRPG with a really good soundtrack from Hitoshi Sakimoto's music company Basiscape. On this specific soundtrack the composers were Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata, Manabu Namiki, Noriyuki Kamikura, Kimihiro Abe and Mitsuhiro Kaneda.
Found the game for 5€ or something like that in a Gamestop in Berlin and was totally surprised by the music, though I only played a few hours. Immediately got the OST.
It has a lot of wonderful synth-heavy tracks with very playful arrangements and nice melodies.
Opoona OST - Space Ship (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Opoona OST - At Tokione (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Opoona OST - Matia Mine (Masaharu Iwata)
Opoona OST - Blue Desert Hotel (Masaharu Iwata)
Opoona OST - At Lifeborn (Manabu Namiki)
Opoona OST - Garden Of Arts (Manabu Namiki)
Opoona OST - Concert Hall (Noriyuki Kamikura)
Opoona OST - The Village Without Memories (Noriyuki Kamikura)
Opoona OST - Great Dunes (Kimihiro Abe)
Opoona OST - East Sea (Kimihiro Abe)
Opoona OST - Holy Island (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)
Opoona OST - A Walk In The Sea (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)
Click to expand...

Dagnabbit, I wanted to make a post about Opoona music. You did a much better job than I could have though. The OST really was great , especially since I only bought Opoona because of how memetic it is in Japan and I had zero expectations for the music. Definitely one of the bigger surprises I've had.
 
Sorairo said:
Buck Bumble
Click to expand...

lol I admittedly spent way too much time keeping this game on the title screen.

Godofnerdiness said:
Offspring Fling. Alec Holowka, the composer, did an absolutely incredible job. Amazing game, too. I'd say it's fairly obscure.

Mellow Magnificent
Mother's Day

Hard to find more tracks on YouTube, but you can purchase/stream the soundtrack on Bandcamp http://infiniteammo.bandcamp.com/album/offspring-fling
Click to expand...

Great choice, love this game. My favorites are Mellow Magnificent, Snow Problem, and This is the Day.

snow in jamaica said:
contact - cookland
Click to expand...

Contact had some great music. Really loved the music during the ending credits (spoilers).

Koozek said:
Second pick would be "Opoona" for the Wii. Very quirky, unique JRPG with a really good soundtrack from Hitoshi Sakimoto's music company Basiscape. On this specific soundtrack the composers were Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata, Manabu Namiki, Noriyuki Kamikura, Kimihiro Abe and Mitsuhiro Kaneda.
Found the game for 5&#8364; or something like that in a Gamestop in Berlin and was totally surprised by the music, though I only played a few hours. Immediately got the OST.
It has a lot of wonderful synth-heavy tracks with very playful arrangements and nice melodies.
Click to expand...

Really great choice.
 
snow in jamaica said:
how popular is sigma harmonics?
Click to expand...

Ohhh, sheeesh, totally forgot one of Hamauzu's best works! You can also clearly hear Mitsuto Suzuki's influence and synth-work - kudos to him, too!
Amazing little soundtrack. I think this made me a Hamauzu stan while I was hyping myself up in the months before the FFXIII release looking up who the composer was. Then I discovered the Unlimited Saga OST, then SaGa Frontier II and after that I never ever missed out on anything Hamauzu's done :)
Funnily you can hear a lot of similiar synths and textures to FFXIII which both Hamauzu and Suzuki worked on around the same time.
Pure gold!

Sigma Harmonics - Rippling Dream
Sigma Harmonics - The Remains of Time
Sigma Harmonics - Flowing Time
Sigma Harmonics - Gentle Timbre
Sigma Harmonics - Hope Given "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Sigma Harmonics - Bright Invitation "Dance of the Iron Ox"
Sigma Harmonics - Possession
Sigma Harmonics - Heartening "Dance of the Cornered Rat"
Sigma Harmonics - That Play "Demon Sonata"
Sigma Harmonics - The Screams of Time Rotating
Sigma Harmonics - Who is He Anyway
 
Not sure this counts (is it bad enough? I didn't think so; is it obscure enough? forgotten, sure, but not exactly obscure), especially as the soundtrack is so short, but the Syndicate reboot had at least one track that worked really well in the context of the game. One of the best fights of the game. And the Skrillex rehash of the original Syndicate theme? I have to admit that I really like it, even though I dislike dubstep normally. The other Syndicate theme remakes are surprisingly good too.

This one falls under the obscure category, not necessarily the bad one: Neotokyo. So good, I put it on my phone along with all my other "real" non-OST music. A shame they apparently didn't use much of the music in the actual Neotokyo mod.
 
I'd say Tearaway is under-appreciated enough to be considered unpopular, and it has a great soundtrack. It's strange though, I don't particular like the style of the songs or some of the instruments used (I'm generally into upbeat themes) but I think they're very well put together and I appreciate them enough to enjoy the soundtrack.

Some of my favorites were:

Tearaway OST - Pilgrimage

Tearaway OST - Between the Pages ~ Page One

Tearaway OST - Between the Pages ~ Page Two

Tearaway OST - The Traveller

There might be better representative themes from the game, I just have a weird taste. And yeah, they're not my typical sort of preferred themes, I just think they're well put together.
 
GrumpyAlien said:
I think 7th Saga has my favorite field/world map music I have heard in a jrpg. It's so haunting. Especially the fourth one.

Overworld 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dcjalWKL8

Overworld 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRNYy8tooj0

Overworld 3-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba7ZUQuHV-8

Overworld 4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Bh9gowDVw
Click to expand...
Excellent choice, I remember playing it mostly for that world theme. The way I remember it, it was hard as nails (haven't played it in 20 years).

In the same vein, I'd say Lennus/Paladin's Quest has an amazing main theme.

And EVO is kickass because Sugiyama.

There, 3 Enix games.
 
justjustin said:
First thing that comes to mind is Bomberman Hero. It was a pretty big disappointment after Bomberman 64, but it has an outstanding drum and bass soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGhOWQ8trbo&list=PL1736E1BA9608A365
Click to expand...

Haha, this is great. I once used Blitzlunar's ripped Bomberman 64 soundfont (basically the original synth/samples as a plug-in you can use in any sequencer/DAW) to make a few videogame-y songs^^
---

jade-cocoon.jpg

Another pick of mine: "Jade Cocoon".
Character art made by one of Ghibli's key artists, Katsuya Kond&#333;. The composer's (Kimitaka Matsumae) wife (Manami Matsumae, also composer) works on Mighty No. 9, right now. The game has Pokemon-like mechanics - catch, train and breed monsters.
Rather unpopular (?), but it was a big hit in my clique back when we were kids because one of our homie's brothers often played it. We all love this game, hehe.

Jade Cocoon OST - Syrus Village
 
Dog Problems said:
The Sea Will Claim Everything has a really nice and peaceful soundtrack by Chris Christodoulou, who also did the soundtrack for Risk of Rain.

The Sea Will Claim Everything, part I
Im Räuberwald
Habanera of the Sun
The Sea Will Claim Everything, part II
Click to expand...

Haha, funny coincidence! I saw the The Sea Will Claim Everything's developer and his wife, who does the art for his games, a while ago on German TV in a weekly show about games called Reload. That episode was about Indie devs making games about heavy and personal topics/themes like illnesses/depression, etc. Check it out if you understand German: http://youtu.be/vvYXHT8UBes?t=23m50s.
 
Palette Swap said:
Excellent choice, I remember playing it mostly for that world theme. The way I remember it, it was hard as nails (haven't played it in 20 years).

In the same vein, I'd say Lennus/Paladin's Quest has an amazing main theme.

And EVO is kickass because Sugiyama.

There, 3 Enix games.
Click to expand...

I really dug Paladin's Quest's music. Most notably for me was the penultimate boss theme which surprised the hell out of me when I heard it. So intense! The way it reworks the main villains theme was pretty badass.

Final Battle 1-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC8AXYRzLlI&index=22&list=PLPaUk2YYhPLX9pXHH7fsDgDMypFI6TtJD

Believe it or not there was an obscure remixed CD put out in Japan for Lennus which sounds amazing. Here's the final boss theme medley track if you ever wanted to hear Lennus' music with nicer instuments...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOn_UDMSESU&index=6&list=PL50697E8FA9088CCE
 
Koozek said:
Haha, funny coincidence! I saw the The Sea Will Claim Everything's developer and his wife, who does the art for his games, a while ago on German TV in a weekly show about games called Reload. That episode was about Indie devs making games about heavy and personal topics/themes like illnesses/depression, etc. Check it out if you understand German: http://youtu.be/vvYXHT8UBes?t=23m50s.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I don't understand German but I'm happy they are getting some exposure. I keep up with what they're doing through their websites and Twitter.
 
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