What are your top ten favorite gaming soundtracks ever?

Music can single handedly make or break a game. I have played through many a shitty game simply because I absolutely adored the soundtrack, and I have had to stop playing many great games because the music just wasn't doing it for me. Music can single handedly contribute so much to atmosphere, it's insane. The medium may be called video games, but great soundtracks prove that the audio element is just as important.

All that said, what are ten of your favorite video game soundtracks? Here are mine, not necessarily presented in any order:

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER (by NINTENDO for GCN)

PERSONA 4 GOLDEN (by ATLUS for PSV)

METROID PRIME (by NINTENDO for GCN)

GOD OF WAR III (by SONY SANTA MONICA for PS3

SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL (by SORA for WII)

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM (by BETHESDA for X360/PS3/PC)

HALO 3 (by BUNGIE for X360)

FINAL FANTASY IV (by SQUARESOFT for NDS)

KID ICARUS UPRISING (by SORA for 3DS)

POKEMON RUBY/SAPPHIRE (by GAME FREAK for GBA)

Keep in mind these are in no way the only video game soundtracks that I appreciate (nor are they my favorites all the time- with a thing as intangible as music, my favorites change almost daily. These just happen to be my favorites right now). Plus, there are so many other games I wanted to include that I could not- God of War II, Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed III, Persona 3, Age of Mythology, Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Halo Reach, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, and so on. There's a lot of great videogame music out there, and I appreciate all of it. These just came to mind right now.

How about you all?

Collective Consciousness>>

Just what I'm listening to right now.

This thread is a fucking lag fest and my internet is 56 mbps. Wtf are you thinking @charizard1605. You're a friggin Mod.

Anyway my top soundtracks are

Pokemon Emerald and Superbrothers Sword and Sorcery.

Ain't bothering with links. Yall need to make your youtube windows smaller.

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
2. Fire Emblem Awakening
3. WoW: WotLK
4. The Witcher 2
5. Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
6. Nier
7. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
8. Serious Sam 3: BFE
9. LoZ: Majora's Mask
10. The Last Story

Journey

Halo 4

Kingdom Hearts 2

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Xenoblade

Final Fantasy VI

Batman: Arkham City

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

NieR

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

And one of my favorite pieces ever for a game I have yet to play, this arrangement by Theophany is one of the best I've heard:

Castlevania:SOTN, Super Castlevania 4. Secret of Mana(Snes I think). Mass Effect (mostly part 1 ost, but 2 &3 also great).

There is a lot more I would need to think about it more ......I recently finished Child of Light and I felt the OST was great there too. Far Cry Blood dragon is amazing too, especially the title theme.

Metroid. All of them.

I always play games with the music turned off, it's way better this way, so I can't really say which game has the best musical score/ambient music. But I'll add that the radio stations in the GTA games have absolutely fantastic songs. I won't list the songs but I'll list the radio stations:

GTA III:

• Flashback FM

GTA VC:

• Flash FM
• Wave 103

GTA SA:

• K-DST
• Radio Los Santos
• Playback FM
• KJAH West

GTA IV:

• Vibe 98.8
• Vice City FM

• Bayonetta
• Hotline Miami
• Super Mario Galaxy 1/2
• Final Fantasy IX
• Homeworld

Can't think of others.

Halo 3

DMC 4

Uncharted 2 and 3

ME 2

GTA SA

All music from;

• Castlevania Symphony of the night
• All Turrican games

Chrono Trigger

Super Castlevania IV

Final Fantasy III

A Link to the Past

Secret of Mana

GTA: Vice City

Suikoden

Suikoden II

Morrowind

Star Fox (SNES)

Chrono Cross literally has the best soundtrack I have ever heard in a video game. And to be honest, I have only played this game twice and never beat it because it was so good I just wanted to still have an excuse to play the game someday again.

I wish JRPG's of this quality were still a thing, I really do... ;(

This theme makes every single boss fight feel like the most epic fight of the game, animations and stuff went really well with it:

There can be only one.

Epic soundtrack.

• Persona 4
• Kingdom Hearts
• Final Fantasy X
• Journey
• Final Fantasy IX
• Persona 3
• Metal Gear Solid 2
• Sonic 1
• Lion King

I know what I'll be listening to this week. Time to start looking up these soundtracks on Spotify!

Already posted in a favorite soundtrack thread last week.

One of the absolute greatest ever that's so overlooked is Gravity Rush's. Fantastic music.

Anyways, some favorites

Gravity Rush

Hotline Miami

Shadow of the Colossus

999 (THE HORROR)

Uncharted Drake's Fortune

Halo 3

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow

Final Fantasy X

All but two of the above are some of my favorite games of all time.

It's a fucking outrage.

Also World Of Warcraft, all of it.

Shenmue soundtrack was great. I love the music in that game.

Ar tonelico universe

Had whole fully functional languages invented just for the series, has a number or albums worth of songs written many telling stories and mythology about the games universe. never heard anything like it in other games.

Idk if it's been mentioned, but the music in TLOU is great. That's one soundtrack I actually own. The composer actually plays guitar in the score

I think this is the part from the Giraffe scene (or one of its variations)

And then the main theme

@Zassimick: Thanks for sharing that awesome Xenoblade song. I've never heard it before, and it's just beautiful. I partly agree with most people's lists... especially the OP's, Zassimick's and@Zelda187. But it's just too dificult to choose between amazing OSTs, also because what I find best changes a bit with time.

Great OSTs though, have great composers behind them, and you'll see that other games they work on also have some gems. So, I'll avoid naming 10 best OSTs, and just pay tribute to some composers.

Yasunori Mitsuda: Chronno Trigger, Front Mission: Gun Hazar, Xenogears, to name a few. Xenogears being my preferred one, closely followed by Chronno Trigger. First video is a The OneUps cover of Chronno Trigger's Schala (you have to hear this sax solo), second is a Xenogears theme:

If you've got the time, check for Xenogears' Faraway Promise theme as well.

Nobuo Uematsu: most Final Fantasies (and part of Chronno Trigger). Preferred ones being Final Fantasy VII and X, with a very close win to VII.

What about John Baker with ToeJam & Earl's OST? Another cover by The OneUps:

Jerry Martin: Sim City 3000 & Sim City 4. Some The Sims 1&2 songs are also good, but Sim City 3000 is his best work for me.

Yoko Shimomura: Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts I & II (gotta mention here the contribution of Utada Hikaru, though not as an OST composer).

David R. Watson, and his catchy themes for the Ultima series.

Michiru Yamane: Castlevania SOTN, Suikoden. Castlevania SOTN being the best of course. The second song I linked is the one you listen in the main menu. Because of that song, as a kid, I remember being a bit afraid I was dealing with something I shouldn't when starting this game.

David Wise: Donkey Kong Country from 1 to Tropical Freeze. One more The OneUps cover (from DKC 1):

And yeah, Clint Mansell, Sam Hulick, Jack Wall, The Faunts (great work on the Mass Effect series, though The Faunts weren't really composers for those games), Jeremy Soule (Elder Scrolls series - especially Skyrim, Icewind Dale, Secret of Evermore), but these guys are already receiving the deserved attention over here it seems. There are various Nintendo ones as well... mostly Koji Kondo's works (Zelda a Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time for example).

This game's OST kept me playing it longer than I think I would otherwise: The Binding of Isaac (composer is Danny Baranowsky).

But maybe, the game that's got an OST that really brings it's identity is Katamary Damacy. It's weird, innocent and happy just like the game is. And that's most interesting, since there were no rules or instructions laid upon it's many different composers, they were just told to make songs that they thought would bring a warming feeling of joy to listeners. And surprisingly, those varying styles convey into one identity. Examples:

Matt Uelmen for his work on Blizzard and Runic Games. Well, I guess everyone knows this song, but I'll link it anyway:

I remember playing and replaying the first Diablo, always wishing it was a longer game. And the music contributed a lot to the yearning for more.

@lostrib: interesting. You can get that Gustavo Santaolalla's impression on TLOU main theme, something a bit akin to Endless Flight. That guy's an awesome composer.

I'm just going to list one that I consider amazing.

I'd say mine are (not in order btw), Chrono Cross Time's Scar is actually probably my all time number 1 soundtrack

I can appreciate everyone posting the links to their soundtracks, but this page took forever to load, lol.

1. Legend of Zelda OoT (N64)

2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis)

3. Megaman 2 (NES)

4. Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 (Wii)

5. Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

The last 5 is whatever.

Red Dead Redemption. I don't think this game would have the same impact without it's incredible soundtrack.

And of course Shadow Of The Colossus

Wont do a list but some off the top of my head All of nier and Drakengard 3.FF7 battle theme.Shadow hearts 2 end theme(play both games people!)

And of course this

1. Final Fantasy X

2. Chrono Cross

3. Suikoden

4. Suikoden 2

5. Xenogears

6. Xenoblade Chronicles

7. Chrono Trigger

8. Final Fantasy VIII

9. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

10. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

@gameofthering: Man, that song is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

If we're talking Persona 3, then this is probably the best track in the entire game:

Thanks. Nice to see somebody have the same thoughts as myself.

• Metroid Prime
• SSBB
• Brutal Legend
• Zelda WW
• SMG
• MGS3
• Paper Mario: Sticker Star
• Civilization 4
• SMB3
• Banjo-Kazooie

After hearing most of those, I'd turn them off in the game even more so.

There's only one tune I've ever kept on in a game. I haven't done it since:

Also like to add (there's a few more like some boss battle themes which are fraking amazing)

1. Final Fantasy IX
2. Xenoblade Chronicles
3. Chrono Cross
4. Sonic 3 and Knuckles
5. Metroid Prime
6. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
8. Super Mario RPG
9. Donkey Kong Country
10. Super Mario Galaxy

CBF to list 10 but off the top of the head MGS, FF8 and Demon's Souls are godlike. Also I highly doubt anyone is even reading through the responses lol

Say what you want about FF8 but it had an amazing sound track.

In no particular order

Silent Hill 3
Frozen Synapse
House of the Dead: Overkill
Neotokyo
Machinarium
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Shatter
Transistor
Jet Set Radio Future
Halo: ODST

MOST OF YOU ARE ORCHESTRAL NUTHUGGING NERDS!