• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Underrated game soundtracks

Arcana for the SNES has a pretty great soundtrack. I wouldn't call it underrated so much as unknown compared to other Nintendo games. Some highlights:

Second Armageddon
Decisive Battle
Draven's Valley Pass
Prologue to the Tale

I have an even better one from the overlooked category, though. Everybody knows Hitoshi Sakimoto and his homie Masaharu Iwata for their work with Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy, and others, but you'll rarely see people talk about Gauntlet 4 for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive. You won't find many games that sound like it. Here are some samples:

Sortie
Transparent Obstacle
Adventures of Iron

Check out Transparent Obstacles in particular. It's not my favorite track but it showcases what makes FM special--things that couldn't be done on a SNES.
 
Pray for Death

Atmospheric Italian fighting game with the best OST in the mid-90s.
Only fighting game where you can play as Cthulhu

Music: Paolo Bragaglia, Francesco Silvestri, Nicola Tomljanovich


Body Blows

another computer fighting game in the early 90s with amazing OST as well

~Body Blows Amiga Soundtrack~
Publisher: Team 17
Composer: Allister Brimble, Christopher Brimble, Daniel J. Burke, Gary Nicholas, Steven Nicholas
Release Date: 1993
 
latest


Oh look, another chance to talk about this beauty ^

The most beautiful soundtrack I've heard, and helped solidify my belief that Giacchino is the next Williams. I hear almost no one speak of it (or the other MoH soundtracks), and its sad - they definitely help make the games what they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DikOOKAsLEY
 
Codename: S.T.E.A.M.: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDiKVJkERi-CMdXnWA_2AZvoGIfDI2X6H

If you like the soundtrack for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, you will love this! There's actually a good amount of people on here who like this game, so I'm surprise to see that the soundtrack doesn't gain much conversation

Terminator Sega CD: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC8906C182DEBC2B2

Say what you will about Tommy Tallerico, but that man can throw down on a soundtrack! Everything about this soundtrack screams 80's, mixtapes and Shasta. I can feel my juicy curls growing in my scalp as I listen to it! Also, as a nice bonus, the game was actually pretty solid.

Radiant Historia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58349C680ADECBCC

Yoko Shimomura has made a ton of great soundtracks for many games. A lot of people note her for the songs she has made mostly for Kingdom Hearts, Mario and Luigi and even the first Xenoblade game. But to be honest as great as all those soundtracks are, I'll have to say that Radiant Historia is among my favorite of her work. Every song feels like they're more and just great, subtle and bombastic, but more so like the fit each situation in the game a bit tighter than the other games she has worked on. If you like her work, then this is a soundtrack you should be listening to.

SolatoRobo: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL653BEDD90194909B

Knock that "It's too furry for me! Ugh!" bullshit off, Internet. Honestly, for whatever reason you chose to miss out on this game, then you loss an amazing experience of a DS that felt more complete than most home console games of it's time. And one thing that really help was the amazing soundtrack that really captured the atmosphere of each of the locations that Red would visit. It's amazing what can be done with whistling tune and instruments that build on it.

Hotel Dusk: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-Vz7yPo2jBakuA_RhHvRmm10i_Q5qph

Subtlety as it's best. Hotel Dusk's soundtrack really does a great job in being very clam be still be striking at the same time. As Kyle goes deeper into the mystery of his missing partner, you'll yourself engaged in conflict, threaten or just finding clips to piano keys, chimes and light jazz and loving every bit of it. If you ever give this game a shot -- or have -- tell me that the final conflict didn't have you on engaged, as if everything came down to that moment. I dare you.

Trauma Team: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8B2A533D9EC9D761

You're a doctor! Your patient is dying! Get on that shit! That's the strength of Trauma Team's soundtrack. The Trauma Center games were always about split-second decisions and movements that would make your wrist feel like it's about to explode. But with Trauma Team came new gameplay elements that require you to take on more roles. And this game really did the best job of the bunch of not only making you feel the heat, but just being very memorable and catchy.
 
The game itself isn't in the underrated category, but I feel the OST from BioShock (not the LST) by Garry Schyman doesn't get nearly enough credit as being an incredible part of building Rapture into what it became. Some examples:

First Encounter - Wandering Around
Mr Bubbles - Little Sister
Doctor Steinman
Going Up Going Down mixed with Beyond the Sea
And of course Cohen's Masterpiece

BioShock 2's OST by Schyman is as impressive.

Another game I wanted to highlight is Transistor's OST. What I particularly like about Transistor's OST is it takes more traditional composition form and techniques and combines it (quite appropriately) with electronic sounds and electronic composition techniques. Some examples:

Old Friends
Coasting
The Spine
Apex Beat

Usually I'm not a fan of a lot of music with vocals in games, but with Red being a singer I felt all of the tracks with vocals were a perfect match for the rest of the game.
 
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance. Uses GBC sounds on a GBA game so the sound quality isn't amazing. But the compositions and atmosphere are great.
 
TriAceJP said:
I may be the only person who prefers the American Sonic CD soundtrack. It's devine. The Japanese one didn't do anything for me.


https://youtu.be/3HYc7KEa1wA

https://youtu.be/xtbNgfrtGrs

https://youtu.be/QQZiJMAAoWs

https://youtu.be/0_SooYyd5Z0

https://youtu.be/KVogmB2_Pws

https://youtu.be/h2SBwE0cX90

And of course, the nightmare fuel:

https://youtu.be/HcwyDL3-Qqo


The entire soundtrack is phenomenal.
Click to expand...

You forgot the best one

You're far from the only one, this is a debate which has been raging for years and years. The general consensus, which I agree with, is that the JP/EU soundtrack is better, but I also agree with you that the US one is a bit underrated.

Of the US tracks, I prefer the intro and ending music, Palmtree Panic (Good Future), Quartz Quadrant (good future) and a few of the jingles (mainly invincibility) to their Japanese counterparts. Stardust Speedway is arguably on a par.
 
Armored Core 4 / for Answer and even Verdict Day all have absolutely incredible sound tracks.

They're like a mix of post rock and alt techno compositions.
 
SomTervo said:
I've got a feeling i'm just not aware of it's general acclaim, but: Shadow of the Colossus

Truly staggering
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. I bought the OST thinking (correctly, as of now) that I would never get around to finishing the game. I love listening to it.
 
Uncharted 3. It feels like it's often forgotten and/or overlooked how vividly soaring, thematic, and downright tender the UC3 OST can sometimes be.

Also, been replaying this recently in preparation for UC4, so it was the first to come off the top of my head. :P
 
Disgraced said:
It's John Carpenter as fuck, if the song titles "Grounds for Assault" and "Mouth of Madness" didn't give that away already. I had this on during a comic-reading session the other day and man-oh-man did it sync.

Craig Conner - Manhunt
Craig Conner - Grounds for Assault
Craig Conner - Mouth of Madness
Craig Conner - Fuelled by Hate
Click to expand...

We have a winner! I think Manhunt is more John Carpenter than the soundtrack the actual John Carpenter did, for Sentinel Returns.

https://youtu.be/9I7p1ANu_j8
 
Contact DS, this song specifically gets me Everytime. It actually is very long, but progresses really slowly starting with melody, ambience, bass rhythm, and followed by percussion so tenderly!

Whole soundtrack is awesome, much like the under-rated game too.
 
My favorite videogame music of all time is the main theme from Max Payne 2, but I would never call any music from that game underrated. One game with great music that I never see anyone mention is Crysis 2.
 
Monarch Monarch is one of Falcom's most overlooked soundtracks, mainly because it's cuter and shorter than what you'd expect from Sound Team jdk. There's great use of Roland MIDI all-throughout for catchy melodies, sometimes feeling like long-lost Kirby music with longer development per track.

Datschge said:
Hiouden SFC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Tp5hvlOEs
The game was the direct precursor to the later Tales of series as well as the first game by the team that would later form tri-Ace. Released in February 1994, it set up the template for the music styles Motoi Sakuraba is primarily known for nowadays.
Click to expand...
So underrated you didn't even bring up the fact that Hioden was originally a PC-98 game, where you can hear Sakuraba's FM-synth sound in its average form. He largely molded the sound of late-era Telenet on Japanese PCs, all the way up through Tales of Phantasia.
 
Dragoon En Regalia said:
So underrated you didn't even bring up the fact that Hioden was originally a PC-98 game, where you can hear Sakuraba's FM-synth sound in its average form. He largely molded the sound of late-era Telenet on Japanese PCs, all the way up through Tales of Phantasia.
Click to expand...
The PC98 Hiouden games (there were 1, 2 and 2 dash) aside the general SRPG control and graphics template, were very different from the SFC version, by different teams, different and less music, different scenario and far less focus on story and puzzles. Sakuraba's FM style is very varied, but nowadays much of it only shines through in his niche works (Camelot' sports games, Labyrinth no Kanata etc.).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Your most underrated game?
Opinion  2 3
137
2K
violence replied
The Most Underrated Game of 2025
2 3
119
2K
adamsapple replied
Metro Exodus Is Severely Underrated
2
81
600
Gonzito replied
Do you collect video game soundtracks?
40
811
Rickeh replied
What’s Your Favorite Underrated SNES Game? (No “Big Classics” Please!)
2 3 4 5
234
3K
Skywarp replied
Top Bottom