Birthday thread: Soundtracks

[LochNessMobster]

Hawaii Part II

Ok so this one isn't as much a soundtrack as it is an obscure music album. I don't know whether or not it will be up your ally, since you said you don't like people singing, and this is not metal at all. That being said, the music itself is available as an instrumental and even some really nice sounding demos on a separate album called "Hawaii Part II Part II." The music itself is kinda all over the place, as the band who made it attempts to squeeze just about every genre they can into what they make. The band who made it is called "Tally Hall," but released it under a different band name called ミラクルミュージカル, or "Miracle Musical." Now, even though its clear that you lyrically prefer that of heavy metal, you strike me as someone who would make exceptions if they're deep or have alot of good emotion in them. Well let me tell you, this album is pretty deep lyrically, but so deep I still haven't gotten to the bottom of what it's all about. You can tell its a concept album about a love story, involving murder, time travel, hawaii, sirens, and 9/11, but piecing those together is tricky the more you listen to it, to the point of frustration. That's not a criticism though. Like an actual siren, it draws you in with beautiful melodies and thoughtful lyrics before eating you alive. Now, I mentioned its not actually a soundtrack. That wasn't true when it came out, but not long after, they made a really short Zelda-type game around it. One of the songs from the original album called "Labyrinth," had a music video accompanying it, and it was made to look like a gameboy zelda/mario/castlevania game, and so not long after that, they made an actual game out of that called "Hawaii Part II: The Game." From watching a let's play of it, it doesn't seem to be that engaging of a game, I don't know if it's really game dungeon material on it's own. It seems it was only released to people who had signed up to the band's mailing list in 2015, and a public link to it apparently is broken, so it may end up becoming one of those games that will be lost to time. But anyways, the songs from the album were remade in an 8 bit midi style for this game, and those were released separately on a third album called "hawaiipartii." Ok, this was a bit all over the place, this is kindof a rabbit hole of an album. It makes me want to start my own "game dungeon" style youtube series but on music. Not many have talked about this album, again, its really obscure. Attempting a listen WILL steal a part of your soul. I give this album the "does this kill people?" award.

[An_aspiring_mushroom]

ENDLESS SPACE 2
Great space music from a 4x game. 

The entire soundtrack is just pure gold imo (hence, someone probably already recommended it to you), but be warned - the last composition has words emitted through a human mouth. 

[Mugnum]

KILLING FLOOR 2 (additional tracks)

I know this OST has been mentioned a few times already, but the game keeps on getting updated with newer music added. Here's a playlist with tracks from seasonal events, most of which was composed for the game, as opposed to using existing licensed tracks in the past.

 

[bmarquismarkail]

Registered to scavenge some good tunes and add to the fray.
 

• 
  Secret of Evermore is Jeremy Soule (of Elder Scrolls Fame starting from Morrowind)'s first soundtrack. It's not as good as his Elder Scrolls or his other works (Icewind Dale, Dungeon Siege) due to the limitations of the SNES but it has some great gems, and he also released some arranged versions of the tracks
• Forsaken is an obscure 3D vehicular combat game developed by Probe Entertainment and Iguana Software (which was then bought out by the now defunct Acclaim). If you like Drum and Bass and Trance, this is your soundtrack. The game is kinda decent, too. It's a Descent-like. Think Twisted Metal meets Starfox. There's a remastered version for the PC, Linux, and XBone.

Edited November 27, 2020 by bmarquismarkail (see edit history)

[zlmxs]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEq6-k3AWAQ

From an old french cartoon that I couldn't find available anywhere anymore except from some really old TV recordings.

Les-Enigmes-de-Providence-Générique-Soundtrack-yEq6-k3AWAQ.mp3

Edited December 10, 2020 by zlmxs (see edit history)

[centersolace]

The game G-String has a great synthwavy/atmospheric/cyberpunk soundtrack. The composer (who also made the rest of the entire game by themselves) also mixed the entire thing with cutscenes, dialog, and sound effects into a 5+ hour concept album retelling of the game itself on spotify, and some tracts are available on youtube. 

 

 

Spoilers for the game if you listen to the spotify version obviously.

[Konstantin3001]

Well, happy new year. Mine contribution to this thread is the soundtrack for "Taz: Wanted".

A small game from 2002 that never did get much attention, but the music there is awesome! You might be interested in the "spin" versions.

The playlist is going to be below. Some samples first:

The playlist is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO4jlmGoc6uBGe69_-jGaOesia9IFhr45

Or here, for .flac quality: https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/taz-wanted-soundtrack

 

[zlmxs]

This game has some amazing techno music. Here's the playlist.

[Im_CIA]

I can't believe Ross's birthday was 5 years ago

[Mugnum]

Command & Conquer Remastered - Bonus tracks.

The album can be found as "Celebrating 25 Years of Command & Conquer" (see Spotify, YoutubeMusic). 

Even though these bonus tracks are labeled "Remastered", they aren't THE actual remasters -- more like fan-service covers, with more liberty to used instruments. The interesting part is, this album features a few reworked tracks from other C&C games as well. Here's a couple:

 

 

[Archdeco]

Grand Turismo 6, specifically the songs by Daiki Kasho. I'm unsure if Ross is into this sphere of car games but it's so outside of the sort of things I play that I was surprised to find out just how hard this music goes:

 

 

[Kensuke]

This granturismo track is good, no doubt, but I feel like I am not the person who would listen to such music. I am more of a chill person, all this loud and meaningful music is just not for me, I listen to music in order to relax, first of all. If you are looking for some good music that you will be able to listen and to think about something personal, the best thing I can recommend you is to go on royalty free sounds and search there for such music. You will definitely find a lot of good music there, at least because there are a hundred different genres and everything is the highest quality level possible!

Edited April 3, 2021 by Kensuke (see edit history)

[exer]

Bounce On: 

This is the soundtrack from an old iOS platformer that's no longer on the app store. It's surprisingly good. Each world had its own theme music and each piece is unique and compelling.

 

Enigmo 2:

Ambient orchestral goodness from a puzzle game for the PC & Mac that I loved when I was a kid. Can't find the game anywhere online, but thankfully the soundtrack was uploaded.

[DrCain]

One of the most underrated composers in the industry has to be Yuzo Koshiro. The main composer for an equally underrated series, Etrian Odyssey. People are often off put by its art style, as it betrays how intelligent the games really are.

He has also composed for many other games such as Streets of Rage, and Act Raiser. He composed some of the best "MIDI style" music in the industry, as well as remastered some of those same tracks in a proper arrangement.

He isn't pigeon holed into a single genre, he composes many different styles of music ranging from Jazz to classical, from electronic to rock/metal. He uses whatever genre he needs to really set the tone of a scene and to bring life to a game.

I'm going to submit his newer stuff that showcases his incredible range and talent as a composer.

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by DrCain (see edit history)

[Verticen]

Hey Ross and Forum. I've dove deep into tough as nails arcade shooters; the type of game Ross tends to avoid. I've 'suffered' for you and found some of the best music that hasn’t been mentioned here yet. Bad sound emulation has also plagued the arcade scene, so I’ve tried to Here's some hits for starters:

Soukyugurentai OST - Intense Cold Oil Field Base

Mushihimesama Futari OST - On the Verge of Madness

 

Battle Bakraid: Terrible Object
(Listen to KHI if possible, youtube uploads are trash quality)

 

So there's this guy named Manabu Namiki right - and he's the best video game music composer you've never heard of...

Battle Garegga - Subversive Awareness

Desert War - Mission 1

Spoiler

[!] Many online rips of Desert War arcade are poor quality and or missing sound channels due to incorrect sound emulation. This link seems to be more acurate to what the arcade PCB produces.

DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou - Mixed Mellody

 

And here are some more other random shooter jams that are obscure enough average people would probably never hear them.

 

In the Hunt: Sega Saturn ver. - Stage 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si944QJcWHg

 

Neko Navy OST (2017) - Signal Red
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovIrlc1nY00

Edited October 9, 2021 by Verticen
Fixing formatting and small spelling error (see edit history)

[Karterii]

The freeware game "Mobility" (at least I think it was freeware) had a very relaxing soundtrack, like many other city-building games do. The only YouTube video I can find is this gameplay video, but since the game has no other sounds beside the music going on, it'll work just fine. 

 

I encourage you to listen from 3:33 onwards since the first part of the first track has a bit of a shrill trumpet like noise going on. The rest is a much more relaxing downbeat track. Another track starts at around 5:00 which is nice too.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Karterii (see edit history)

[Karterii]

Another one here, from the game TOU which I was able to rediscover thanks to a user on here last week.
Absolutely incredible track in my opinion. The most badass part is at around 1:05 where it goes into a sick guitar solo. I don't know who this solo reminds me of... I want to say it has some Prince in it, but I might just be going nuts.

 

To avoid making another post before anyone else does, I am also playing through Darkside Detective currently and found two or three tracks that I thought are great. 

 

Here's a nice relaxing one

 

And here's one that's more "cool" 

And lastly, another "cool" one, though listening to them now I keep thinking  that it could have been even better, like this is close to something that I would consider unforgettable. As it is, these are just cool synthwave-y tracks.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Karterii (see edit history)

[BulletInspector]

One of my favorite game soundtracks that I feel like nobody else has heard is the OST to Creepy Castle. It's all chiptune, with a variety of themes, mostly fantasy stuff, but there's some sci-fi and other stuff as well. Probably my favorite songs in the soundtrack are A Wispy Breeze and Checkmate!

Full soundtrack is here:

https://dopterra.bandcamp.com/album/creepy-castle-official-soundtrack

[Mugnum]

Nuclear Throne (2015), by Jukio Kallio (Kozilek).

Bandcamp, YTmusic.

 

 

[rampantjesus]

Hey Ross.

 

I know a lot of these aren't exactly obscure games, but I really feel as though the soundtracks to these are sort of underappreciated.

I have a bias towards soundtracks that are symphonic/orchestral, so that's what all of these are. All of them are at least a couple of hours long, perfect for some background noise while studying or working on something at the computer. They all feel like they're trying to bring you to another world.

I'll post links for each game's "best" (my favorite, or the one I think captures the mood the best) track, and for the full OST. I will also try to describe the mood of each.

Hope you enjoy!

 

Battletech

One of my favorite Sci-Fi OST's. Lots of strings. It encapsulates the feeling of the game very well: a feudal humanity fighting over the remains of a dead empire using giant robots that have been passed down in their families for generations, and that we have lost the technology to produce. A weirdly specific mood to be sure, but trust me. Some good battle music in there too.

 

Battletech OST

 

 

Pillars of Eternity II

A very solid fantasy soundtrack. Inspiring and optimistic. I liked the first game's music, but this one just feels so much more inspired. Good variety of tracks, from combat to ambient. The plot is that you're chasing a physical manifestation of a rogue god across fantasy Indonesia during the fantasy Colonial Era. Pretty unique.

 

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire OST

 

Team Fortress 2

Man, oh man. If you haven't heard TF2's soundtrack, you're doing yourself a disservice.  I never sat down and listened to the entire thing until a couple of years ago. Again, a good variety of tracks, but all trying to hit a 60's kind of sound. Some orchestral, some jazz, some spooky tunes, but nothing feels out of place.

Team Fortress 2 OST

 

 

The Witcher 3

Yeah, the Witcher 3, one of the most popular games ever. I know. I normally wouldn't recommend something this well-known, but the soundtrack is so good I feel like it could be its own standalone thing and get by just fine on its own merit. Some of the best ambient symphonic music I've ever heard. It does such a good job of transporting you into that game world that I can't not rave about it. The expansion music holds up great too.

 

 

Witcher 3 OST

 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Not fantasy, just medieval! Considering the size of the studio, the game has no business having such a well-made sountrack. It almost has the pacing of a movie.

 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance OST

 

Halo 3: ODST

Another absolute banger by Marty O'Donnell. Dude composed the scores for the Halo trilogy, and this game. It's very sad and melancholy for Sci-Fi. The game follows the perspective of a Marine who, during an orbital drop into an ongoing battle, gets separated from the rest of his squad. He wakes up several hours later to find that his side lost, and that the rest of his squad is probably dead and the city's population has been eradicated. Pretty brutal and bleak, but damn is the music good.

 

Halo 3: ODST OST