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Recommended Video Game Soundtracks

Blues1990

Member
As the title says above, I'm in the mood to listen to some new video game-related music, and I'm wondering if you guys could recommend me some albums that I should pick up? Unfortunately, given that I live in Canada, my options are sort of limited (meaning anything that is based in the U.S., such as Spotify, is out of the question).

Here are the albums that I currently own (either as CD's, Vinyl Records, etc):

-Chrono Trigger: Original Soundtrack
-Earthworm Jim Anthology
-Mega Man 9 Arranged Album
-SMASHING.... LIVE!
-Journey: Original Soundtrack
-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask Official Soundtrack
-Red Dead Redemption: Official Soundtrack
-Final Fantasy Tactics: Original Soundtrack
-Jade Empire: Original Soundtrack
-We are Rock-Men! Vol.1 & Vol.2
-Orchestral Game Concert, Vol. 1-5
-Dracula Battle: Perfect Selection Vol. 1 & Vol.2
-A Nights Remix - Another Dreams
-Rockman - Arranged Version Vol.1 & Vol.2
-Retro City Rampage: Original Soundtrack

I'm eyeing on the Banjo-Kazzoie Symphony & Kanto Symphony, and I have picked up the various albums that OC Remix have released over the years (I'm loving the new TMNT: Turtles in Time Tribute Album), so my ears are opened to anything!

EDIT: I've forgot to ask if your recommendations are available my reasonable means. Say, if the Chrono Cross OST is out of print, can I purchase it by digital means?
 
Chrono Cross OST is amazing as people have already said.

Silent Hill games in general have brilliant OST's as Akira Yamaoka is a musical god amongst men.

Final Fantasy is infamous for good OST's as well.
 
No idea if any/all of these are avail in Canada but
-TWEWY's Soundtracks. ALL OF THEM
-Blazblue OSTs (if you played em?)
-Persona 3/4
-Anything by Falcom. Legend of Heroes OSTs and Ys soundtracks. I love lots of Zero no Kiseki's super arrange
-SotC
-Wind Waker
 
Might as well get the obvious one out of the way: Nier. Absolutely beautiful soundtrack. I'd also recommend the Dark Void soundtrack. Bear McCreary can do no wrong.

Edit: Nier OST is on iTunes. Dark Void is available from Amazon.ca, though I'm sure there's a digital version out there if you can't find a physical copy.
 
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Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale
 
Xenoblade Chronicles has an amazing soundtrack that's pretty much all available on youtube. Althoughj if you're only looking for official versions than disregard this
 
Wild Arms 1 & 2, FFXIV, Ragnarok Online, Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 & 2, Yakuza 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Xenoblade and Earthbound.
 
As for your question OP, I believe Play-Asia ships to Canada. Though a CD can be bought at amazon, I do not thing a digital copy of Chrono Trigger exists sadly.
 
The World Ends With You. Its basically a CD you would buy at a store.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance. I don't really care about metal gear at all, but it has a rocking OST

Gravity Rush had a jazzy OST. really good if you are in a good mood

Deus Ex: HR has a great OST if you need to focus on something.
 
You can't go wrong with the OST of Deus Ex:HR especially the main theme Icarus.

You also have Assassin's Creed 2, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, TLoU, BS:I, RDR, and Mass Effect 1 & 2.
 
If you're open to Japanese imports, I'd highly recommend the soundtracks for both No More Heroes and Earthbound (available in a Mother + Mother 2 CD set). You can listen to them in their entirety here and here to see if you like them.

From my quick searches, the NMH soundtrack is pretty pricey, but it seems you can come across the Mother set for a reasonable price.
 
No idea if any/all of these are avail in Canada but
-TWEWY's Soundtracks. ALL OF THEM
-Blazblue OSTs (if you played em?)
-Persona 3/4
-Anything by Falcom. Legend of Heroes OSTs and Ys soundtracks. I love lots of Zero no Kiseki's super arrange

Yeah, even Falcom's best OSTs by themselves make up a huge list.

That's-

Ys I & II Chronicles
Ys: Oath in Felghana, and the PC-88 version of Ys III: Wanderers of Ys
Ys: Origin
Ys V ORCHESTRA VERSION
Ys Seven
Ys Celceta
Legend of Heroes: Dragon Slayer PERFECT COLLECTION
Falcom Special Box '89, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95, 2004
All of the Perfect Collections of Ys, especially Ys IV Dawn of Ys' 3-volume Perfect Collection OST
Sora no Kiseki aka Trails in the Sky FC, SC, 3rd OSTs
Zero no Kiseki and the Evolution version's OSTs
Ao no Kiseki and the Evolution version
Sen no Kiseki and the Super Arrange
'ALL OVER XANADU', which was made before the sound team was even formed and lists Yuzo Koshiro as a standalone artist
The Legend of Xanadu JDK Special, and the Xanadu Next OST
The three Perfect Collection Sorcerian CDs
The two Sorcerian Forever OSTs
Brandish: The Dark Revenant
Zwei!! and Zwei 2
Gurumin
The Vantage Master Portable and VM JAPAN osts
Popful Mail Sound Box '94
All of the various Falcom-made Zanmai CDs, such as Falcom Field Zanmai and Ys Zanmai

Pretty sure that covers most of the really, really good ones.
 
As for your question OP, I believe Play-Asia ships to Canada. Though a CD can be bought at amazon, I do not thing a digital copy of Chrono Trigger exists sadly.

Along with CDJapan, I'll definitely look at my options. As weird as this may sound, I just prefer supporting the company's that take the effort and release these soundtracks. Heck, I'm happy that Nintendo has been releasing the OST's for the Pokemon games on iTunes, and you really get your bang for your buck with those!

By the way, please keep up with the suggestions, folks. :)
 
My top recommendation would be Nier. I believe that's available on iTunes if you don't mind digital.

There are many sites like Play-Asia that ship to Canada if you want physical versions.
 
Dramatica and the distant worlds stuff are both obvious musts. Hard to go wrong with the Super Mario Galaxy stuff either. And for something less "safe" the Monster Hunter big band arrange album is great and of course jazz filled.
 
If you can grab a copy of Fire Emblem Awakening OST then do so. It's up there in terms of quality. As a matter of fact, a lot of Nintendo's recent releases have great soundtracks. DKCTF is great, but I don't believe there's an official OST yet.

Fire Emblem Awakening OST: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TSCM-8

Yeah, it's been a tussle to get a copy of that OST, even when it was available. I love the series, and I was lucky enough to get a copy of the Arranged Album for Genealogy of the Holy War.
 
The two that come to my mind immediately are Majora's Mask and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I love Anamanaguchi.

The worst part about OST's are they're hard to get in FLAC. Majora's Mask is $35 on Amazon right now unfortunately.
 
There's two really big collaborations that are relatively recent:

Final Fantasy VI Balance and Ruin
Harmony of a Hunter

The former is a ton of FFVI remixes, and the latter is all Metroid remixes (I'll vouch for this one, can't really say too much about FFVI).

As far as OST's, I see you have Dracula but no Symphony of the Night - you should get that.
Also, check out Nier, which will inevitable be repeated throughout this thread, and with good reason.

I think the Phoenix Wright music is fantastic, and there's some different mixes available since you have more instrumental stuff in your collection.

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus will round out my recommendations for the time being.
 
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IV
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Chrono Trigger
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Street Fighter EX 3
Super Street Fighter IV
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Kirby Superstar
 
Give this another shot?

So, some I have, enjoy and that haven't been mentioned yet (actually many have been already):

Aeternum (Jesse Bishop)
Canabalt (Danny Baranowsky)
Deadlight (David Garcia Diaz)
Dust: An Elysian Tail (HyperDuck SoundWorks)
Faster Than Light (Ben Prunty)
FEZ (Disasterpeace)
Ridiculous Fishing (Eirik Suhrke)
Sound Shapes (I could only find the ones by Jim Guthrie, titled Corporeal)
Starbound (Curtis Schweitzer)
The Yawhg (Dualryan)

For some of those albums I've to add that I'm only listening to a couple of songs of them though.
Most of them are available on Bandcamp, which besides Humble and Steam have mainly been my source for PC (indie) game soundtracks at least. In fact if make it some Bandcamp sites you might as well check out more of their works.
 
No one reccomends Scott Pilgrim vs the World...? Pick that up. Such awesome music
 
Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire. Rockstar always seems to hit the mark on the soundtrack

Also The Last of Us and Hotline Miami
 
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