The videogame music thread

[matten zwei]

One of my favourite tunes of all of time is the "Onett"-theme from Earthbound. For everyone who hasn't played this game, it's definitely worth a look. It's a mature, somehow naive, awkward and exciting japanese RPG from the SNES-era. The soundtrack supports the game's weirdness extremely well and manages so reflect the game's balance between mature themes and naive metaphors. When I played the game and heard the "onett"-theme for the first time, i immediately knew, that this game was special and very different from other games. Maybe you guys could cane and rinse it in the future.

[Brigand]

I joined the forum to add this exact track - glad to see someone else enjoyed it, too

[macstat]

Lately i've been playing some Stardew Valley and music in it is very very catchy. From cheerful sounds of colorful spring to sleepy tunes of cold winter. Here's a little sample

[MauricioMM]

Hello to everyone at Cane and Rinse. I’d like to suggest four songs for Sound of Play:

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“King and Country” by Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)

By far my favorite music ever done for a videogame is the work created by Jeremy Soule for The Elder Scrolls saga. If I had to pick one of his albums, I’d go with the sublime Skyrim soundtrack, but I’d like to make a very well deserved mention to the beautiful compositions found in the Oblivion soundtrack. When I listen to songs like “King and Country” I can feel the love to beauty and to life that Mr. Soule transmitted in his work, especially when you get to know the almost tragic but eventually happy story behind the inspiration for this soundtrack (long story short, a near-death experience of his).





“Pegasus ~ Saint’s Wreath” by Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie)

The compositions done by Sugiyama-san for the Dragon Quest franchise is, along with the work of artists such as Nobuo Uematsu and Yasonuri Mitsuda, a remarkable proof of the talent behind the japanese videogame music industry. I’ve been a fan of this videogame series since I was a child and one of the reasons for my appreciation of the franchise has always been its music, even when technical limitations in earlier games didn’t allow for the implementation of a orchestral sound. But, of course, what I’ll show you here is the orchestral version of the song “Pegasus ~ Saint’s Wreath”, a song that plays when (you guessed it) one rides the pegasus in the game, and one that I could acoustically appreciate even more when I finally got to play the DS version of Dragon Quest VI.





“Whispers of Oxenfurt” by Mikołaj Stroiński (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)

Even though I haven’t fully played The Witcher 3 yet, I’ve “spoiled” myself with parts of the soundtrack but I have no regrets about it. One of the songs that stood out for me was this one, a lovely and melancholic cover of the northumbrian folk song “Bonny at Morn” that serves as a great ambient music that manages to express the life and beauty of the in-game city of Oxenfurt. This soundtrack is, among many things, a marvelous tribute to european folk music, specially that from slavic, irish and british cultures.





“The Golden Armada”, by Jason Hayes & Mike Patti (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

What can I say? I really like the protoss and everything related to them, including the amazing music composed in both StarCraft I and II for this race. And even so I was happily surprised by the marvelous work done this time for the Legacy of the Void soundtrack, they really captured the struggles and the victories of this proud extraterrestial race and it makes the story feel even more epic (overused word, I know, but I think it fits in this case). A good example of this is the glorious war anthem called “The Golden Armada”.

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Keep up the great work with the podcasts, I’m looking forward to listen to the (now weekly) doses of Sound of Play, and congratulations for the Hugo Awards nomination!

[Good Shot Janson]

I've always been a fan of long odds in videogames. Sure its one thing to be the "plucky underdog," but I'm talking about more serious business. I'm talking about life or death situations where the clock is running out, and you, my friend, are on the back side of the curve. MGS1 was a game that perfectly captured this feeling, and was definitely the first game that gave me the realization that there may be something more to videogames than just "video games." But I'm not here to talk about MGS1. I'm here to speak about the first game that put the apprehension OF CERTAIN FAILURE IN MY GUT; the feeling of dread that just maybe I was up against something way out of my league here. I'm not talking about me as a gamer, I mean my character in this game. Your enemy was a criminal organization dabbling in paranormal research and robotics, and possessed a bioweapons division that made Umbrella look like a cheap startup. As a seven year old, this game disturbed me. It gave me nightmares, and for that I loved it. I spent hours drawing the hero, enemies, and scenarios presented in both the game and my imagination. The love I have for this title is due in no small part to its masterfully composed score. Some tracks are, albeit, bit out of place. Most fit right where they should. The piece I've chosen showcases the emotional discord I felt playing this game: The quiet determination as I , Joe Masashi, set out to fight my final battle. This game gave me the same feeling I had watching Spike Spiegel's last stand in Cowboy Bebop. Chances were, I wasn't going to see the sun rise on another day... but that didn't matter. Surfing through the canals of a post industrial wastelamd on a hoverboard at 200mph...speeding toward my demise never felt so right. It was... a VIRTUOUS MISSION. This is Whirlwind from Shinobe III by Morihiko Akiyama, Hirofumi Murakami, and (or) Masayuki Nagao.





P.S. this soundtrack was given an amazing vinyl release by Data Discs last year. I highly recommend obtaining a copy. Thank you Cane and Rinse. You make the layovers and long days waiting for flights home much more bearable. Please keep doing what youre doing. LLAP.

[Scrustle]

I'd like to suggest Stasis Awakening by Disasterpeace from the game Hyper Light Drifter.

Hyper Light Drifter is a game dripping in atmosphere, thanks in large part to the work Disasterpeace. Much like with his work on Fez, his music fills the game with an eerie and wistful tone, but this time around in a way that is immensely imposing and foreboding. Stasis Awakening in particular is one of the best songs on the soundtrack to exemplify this, with it's booming resonance and deep, droning synthesisers.

[bolche]

Hi, I'd like to request a song from the original Digimon World (PSX). The game has a lot of ambient sounds and fx rather than actual songs, but the few ones that appear are great and anyone who has played this wonderful game will remember them.
My favorite song is File City (Night), a relaxing piece that plays at night in the main city of the game, where youre (almost) always safe. It takes me back to those times playing with the psx in a small CRT, lights off, worrying about nothing.
Besides the music the game is great, and for me this is the way all pokemon/digimon games should be: real time battles, feeding your monster, taking him/her to the bathroom, suffering when it reached certain age and you knew death was close, different evolutions depending on how you train your monster... Great stuff. After this game the Digimon franchise went the Pokemon way, with turn-based battles and all that, but luckily they returned to this kind of game in the PSP game Digimon Re:digitize.
Maybe you could cover the original Digimon Wold in the main podcast, I would certainly like that.

[Brigand]

Years ago I got a demo disc on CD with the purchase of a PC gaming magazine (now sadly defunct). On this disc was a demo for Emperor of the Fading Suns, a game that even in demo form was way over my head... but what I remember most about it was that it had a great soundtrack. The intro track in particular really stuck out, and luckily the track would play in a regular CD player, allowing me to copy it off and convert to mp3. I've never found out conclusively who wrote the track, but http://www.mirsoft.info/gmb/music_info. ... e=NjA4NQ== lists the following composers for the whole game: Tim Carroll, Ernie Ernest, Scott Moskos, Colin Rea, Barry Suttle. The whole album is really great, but the synth notes of the intro really set the mood, reminding me especially of Dune.

[Addman]

Wow, thanks Leon for including my choice in the most recent Sound of Play. Makes me feel famous

Striking while the iron is hot, I'll suggest something else. A rudimentary search suggests that you haven't featured this track on Sound Of Play yet, but apologies if you already have:



Silent Hill 2 - Theme Of Laura

Composer: Akira Yamaoka

When I remember the music from the Silent Hill games, I usually recall the otherworldly ambiance or the screeching banjos from the first game. However, Theme Of Laura from Silent Hill 2 is rather different. Although it has a twinge of the original game about it, it is a more straight-laced track that is still moody, but there's a glimmer of hope in there. Perhaps that is an intentional reference to James' story, but either way, it's still a great track. Enjoy!

[InsrtCoins]

Hello to everyone at Cane and Rinse. I’d like to suggest four songs for Sound of Play:

Welcome to the forum, Mauricio! Great selections there. I love your avatar picture. Where did that picture come from?

[JaySevenZero]

Hello to everyone at Cane and Rinse. I’d like to suggest four songs for Sound of Play:

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“Whispers of Oxenfurt” by Mikołaj Stroiński (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)

Even though I haven’t fully played The Witcher 3 yet, I’ve “spoiled” myself with parts of the soundtrack but I have no regrets about it. One of the songs that stood out for me was this one, a lovely and melancholic cover of the northumbrian folk song “Bonny at Morn” that serves as a great ambient music that manages to express the life and beauty of the in-game city of Oxenfurt. This soundtrack is, among many things, a marvelous tribute to european folk music, specially that from slavic, irish and british cultures.

Welcome MauricioMM! Gotta say that along with being one of my favourite games to date, the soundtrack to The Witcher III is one that I often find myself listening to also!

[FollowMyRuin]

2 submissions which I love to hate.


Ireland from Broken Sword, a song which seems to have been burned into my skull through through overexposure. I'm fairly certain that I'm one of many people who can't put a number on how many rotations of this particular tune they've heard all courtesy of that dammed "goat puzzle". I've opted to go for the director's cut version in all of its uncompressed glory.

 

Similarly here's 25 seconds of audio which has a Pavlovian response to me thatmakes me immediately recoil.



Like most people who owned a Master System II this abomination was built in. It will remain in my memory one of the least pleasant and most difficult experiences. 25 or so years later, I have yet to complete this.

[mikeleddy83]

Stood at the bus stop this morning listening to the Starcraft 2 soundtrack I got a western vibe in my head and thought up a few tracks:







As much as I loved wild arms I just couldn't find anything that stuck from back then

[MauricioMM]

Welcome to the forum, Mauricio! Great selections there. I love your avatar picture. Where did that picture come from?

Thank you very much. The avatar that I’m curretly using is of an illustration of the Skull Kid from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (my favorite Zelda villain and my favorite Zelda game so far) made by an artist on DeviantArt called Naomi Savoie (nicknamed Golden-Whale). Here's the link to the full artwork:

http://golden-whale.deviantart.com/art/ ... -344003874

Looking forward to the Majora’s Mask issue, I’d love to hear everyone’s experiences with it and thoughts about it.

Welcome MauricioMM! Gotta say that along with being one of my favourite games to date, the soundtrack to The Witcher III is one that I often find myself listening to also!

Thank you for welcoming me. Even though I’m yet to start the game properly (because I’m currently waiting for both the last expansion and a new graphic card), I feel that it could easily become my favorite videogame in a long time and its soundtrack is partly influential for that. Every soul that worked on this game really deserve the praise and awards.

[MartinUglow]

Hey, thanks for adding me to the community!

I have been listening to the sound of play for a while now, either walking the dog or driving to work. It is a great way to listen to old classics and new, to me, unheard music alike.

Not only do I enjoy the music, but also the preamble that goes between each track. Hearing other gamer opinions on a track makes me listen more deeply to the music than if it were just a playlist of gaming tunes.

After listening to the most recent podcast, it got me searching my gaming music archive of my brain. There are tracks that I may not have heard for 10-15 years but once heard, they are instantly familiar.

I would love to hear some music from the C64 era. I was too young to own a C64 myself, but my brother had one. His room was in the basement and we also had a few book shelves down there. If I was caught watching the game, I'd pretend I was "in the library"...
"Nice try" 5 year old me!

There were a few game soundtracks that stick in my memory but none more so than the reimagining of ghouls n ghost OST by Tim Follin.

Ghouls n Ghosts The Crystal Forest - C64 version by Tim Follin


This track has so much depth considering it was on the sid chip and I think it is the best version of "The Crystal Forest". The bass sweep shortly after the start is a great contrast to the icy melody. At the mid point of the track, the tune darkens, becomes more sinister and develops the layers even further. Even listening now, it gives me goosebumps

The atmosphere of the game was captured well in the whole game soundtrack. I'd be quite happy for any of the tracks from the game to be played

[ratsoalbion]

Fabulous selection!

Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the forum.

[MHninjabear]

I have been listening to Cane and Rinse since its founding and have greatly enjoyed sound of play. The podcast have always been very entertaining and informative. I figured I might try submitting one of my many favorite pieces from the God Eater Burst soundtrack. The song is "Adult Time -Romance Mix-. I can not recall when it plays in the game since I have listened to the soundtrack far more than I have played the game, but this song, as well as the others, sets a very unique tone that helps carry an interesting story in a game that many would compare to monster hunter. It is always nice to hear a bit of jazz and swing mixed into the video game medium. I hope you enjoy this tune as much as I have.

[gallo_pinto]

I just finished playing Kirby’s Dream Land on the original Gameboy and I was surprised by how awesome the soundtrack was. I thought just about all of the music was good, but the song that plays when you take on King Dedede on the final level is fantastic. It's the perfect, chippy, climactic song.

[JaySevenZero]

I have been listening to Cane and Rinse since its founding and have greatly enjoyed sound of play.

Thanks! It's nice to know that what we do is appreciated!

[Dingle Dongle]

It's very hard to pick your favourite songs so I've just placed a couple that have been on my mind recently.

Tower of Heaven - Indignant Divinity, by Flashygoodness

My first is a song which I wouldn't be surprised if no one else on the forum had played, because it is a short flash game that came out in 2010 named Tower of Heaven, composed by flashygoodness. The game is roughly 15 minutes and I recommend checking it out.
It's is hard to pick a song, as they all follow the same tune, but I decided on this as it is the tune that has stuck out over the years in my head.




NieR - Song of the Ancients (Devola Version) by Keiichi Okabe

Nier is a strange one, the game has a good following, and I am one of them. Although I found the game's gameplay a bit lacking, I found the story and music to more than make up for it, and it may be one of the first games where this had happened to me. Games had transcended from being a single sense experience, and although I did enjoy good story and music, nothing truly showed me until I played this. Last year, NieR had a sequel announced known as NieR: Automata, which is being developed by Platinum games, so you can probably tell that this could be a unmissable experience for me. This piece is a variation on the main theme, which just happened to be my favourite version.




Speed Freaks - Track 4 - Island by Martin Schioler

Look I don't really have a great reason to add this to my list, except that I've recently heard about this music and chucked it on my phone to listen to while working, and last week my coworker tapped on my shoulder to ask why I was vigorously bobbing at my desk. I've since had to remove it to stop that from happening.




Mini-Game - Kirby's Dream Land 3 by Jun Ishikawa

Kirby has always been an example of music I mention when discussing how to represent atmosphere in a game, and I feel like Kirby's Dream Land 3 is one of the best soundtracks in the franchise, and just to really push that, this is just the mini game theme, something I'm sure will be in people's heads for days to come.