Video Game Music

There are a lot of things that set games apart as being either subjectively or objectively better than one another, but I think an important and sometimes overlooked quality in video games is the music.

My latest post was about my favorite Final Fantasy game(s), and this got me thinking about one of the main reasons that I think FF6 is one of the greatest games of all time. The game isn’t even particularly well balanced, but I think the game is just, for its time and even well beyond, epic. While I think the large playable cast and brilliant main villain are huge factors, I think that the single biggest reason that the game feels so epic is the soundtrack. It’s no secret that Nobuo Uematsu, the primary (and usually sole) composer for the Final Fantasy series is a musical genius, but he really pulled out the stops here. Never have I heard so many MIDI sound pieces in one game that are so well put together. Something about the World Map theme (OST: Terra) is just mind numbing- it makes the 2D world feel absolutely massive and fantastic. I have no problem saying that Uematsu is the greatest Video Game composer alive, both in quantity and in quality of the songs created. In every Final Fantasy game that I’ve played (1-7, 9, 10), I have been in awe of how well written the music is. Several other games with great soundtracks, like Chrono Trigger, were at least partially composed by Uematsu. After gushing about how incredible this man is, and how he makes the games he composes for truly become masterpieces, I realized just how much that music means in a video game.

As far as my favorites go, FF6, 9, and Chrono Trigger, all composed by Uematsu are up there. Two additional games with incredible music are, in my opinion, Bravely Default (Sound Horizon-Revo), and Persona 4 (Shoji Meguro).

Comments about your favorites? I’d love to discuss anything about the games that I’ve listed, or about incredible video game music. (Or, off-topic, email me at nickwillis64@gmail.com to discuss anime or anime music!)

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14 Responses to Video Game Music

  1. Xianling Zhang says:

    For the triple A games, I think the music is very important for the background story. Like I remembered when I was playing The Last Of Us, there was a short film about the background settings at the beginning. Under that situation, the music did help a lot to get into the story.
    Apart from that, the music elements in game are more like the sound effect. If you get attacked by the Zombies, you will spit the blood out of your month, there must be the sound effect of spiting blood then. For this circumstance, the sound effect makes the game more real, and makes the player have the feeling of attacked by the enemies.

  2. Charles Joseph Huber says:

    I think music is vital to every game. It’s a tool the developers use to put gamers in the mood that they want them to be in. Music generates feeling. For example in the old Mario games, the music for any normal level was very relaxed. Then when you would face Bowser the music would pick up as to create some excitement within the player. I think the Elder Scrolls series has great music. It is made to match the land of Tamriel and it usually makes you feel like a hero right from the title screen.

  3. Nicholas Christian Willis says:

    @Payday comments: I haven’t played the game, but the way you both describe the music, it does sound like it just wonderfully accents the game, especially given the situation. I think that is an impressive feat, but it’s usually lost on me. Most of the time, I enjoy music in video games, and it definitely takes a genius to make ambient tracks match the theme of a given scenario, but unless I’m playing the game while analyzing the music, it just doesn’t stand out to me as much as some pieces that are mindblowing on their own. (Although, I admit that my view of this is extremely shallow, so kudos to you guys for sure).

    @Ocarina of Time: That’s an interesting point to bring up, actually- I honestly was of the opposite opinion. I thought that a few of the pieces in the game were well done (the title track, Final Dungeon, and GERUDO HYPE all come to mind), but I was actually pretty disappointed in the score as a whole for a game that, as you said, required you to pay attention to music sometimes. I actually thought the score of Windwaker was much better, but maybe I just haven’t played Ocarina recently enough!

    @Sean Lane: Definitely a point that I’m glad to hear and discuss! Out of curiosity, what kind of games have you been playing that make you feel this way? I find that most non-Mario Nintendo games have continued to have good original compositions (although some would argue that Nintendo is stuck in the past, which I don’t happen to agree with), such as Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Bravely Default! (SOUND HORIZON HYPE), Fire Emblem, etc. I do agree that too many newer games get overzealous with technology and musical quality seems to suffer for sound quantity. I actually really like that statement: thanks, and I’ll have to use it in the future, haha.

    @pzg5095: I completely agree about the point that a great game with bad music is better than a bad game with great music. I definitely wasn’t trying to go for that, and I’m completely with you on trying to learn tracks from some of my favorite games for Piano- since I have no actual Piano experience, those are really the only songs I can play!

  4. Jeffrey Lau says:

    As a big music person, I always pay close attention to music, and a game’s soundtrack can really turn a mediocre game into something beautiful. The clearest example I can think of is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Besides being one of the best games ever, this game has one of the most exceptional soundtracks. It helps that the game was centered around music (Link was playing an Ocarina afterall), but the music from that game will stick with me forever. Just hearing the title theme brings back overcoming waves of nostalgia. Other noteable examples include those that people have already listed here, like Bastion/Transistor. The soundtrack to Super Mario: Sunshine and Hotline: Miami are also some of my favorites. Music is one of those things that makes games such a unique piece of media.

  5. mdr5325 says:

    On the whole, I’m not a huge fan of video game music. Not that I don’t like it, I just don’t pay much attention to it, other than when I notice a sports game has a good soundtrack. Recently though I have been playing the new Rayman game (it’s free to play on the xbox one), and I thought that they did something very interesting with music. The last level of every world incorporates a song to go along with the movements of your character. I’m not going to be able to describe it very well, so here’s a link to one of the levels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tl2oQ57ggk. It isn’t original music, but they did put an interesting spin on some familiar songs.

  6. Sean Lane says:

    I completely agree that music is a vital part of any good video game, but I feel that it has become sadly diminished in modern gaming. As mentioned below, one of the few modern games that I can think of that actually put original compositions to good use is Payday 2. Most games now tend to skew towards sound effect design rather than music, but I think it is just a sign of the times.

    Flashback to the first 5 or so console generations, and we can all probably bring to mind famous compositions from the NES and onward. Back then, it wasn’t possible to do significant sound design beyond a handful of sound effects and a song at once. More care was put into the music for that reason; some of my favorite soundtracks are from that era, such as the entire Donkey Kong Country series.

    That is not to say that music isn’t used well today, but it tends to be a different variant; larger titles especially focus on sound design. These games have mood-suiting ambiance instead of songs, and 1000 different audio clips to pepper the speakers with to let you hear everything in the scene. When music is used, its tends to be some sort of overused trope, like an orchestral score.

    My question is this; do you think today’s massive technological advantage over the old consoles actually hinders music in games, or am I just remembering them with nostalgia bias? Maybe the limitations of yesteryear actually helped, and modern game composers are paralyzed with options?

  7. Andrew Ryan Knittle says:

    If done correctly, I think background music can add a great deal of immersion to a video game. Somewhat recently, Nintendo started using a live orchestra for recording the music for some of their games. http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/super_mario_galaxy/2/0 links to an article on Nintendo’s website that talks about why they wanted to use a live orchestra, the challenges that they faced with scheduling the recording dates, and other neat information relating to the music and sound effects in Super Mario Galaxy. What I found particularly interesting in this article is what they say about how they synchronized some of the sounds to blend seamlessly with the background music.

  8. Dylan Nguyen says:

    Music and audio in general is a huge part of games that is often overlooked. I haven’t even played some popular games like Bastion, Transistor, Xenoblade, and FEZ; but I still really enjoy listening to the soundtracks for all of those games. I think DICE did an amazing job with the sound effects for Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3/4. The audio for the guns, explosions, and bullets passing by all really added to the immersion of the game. BF3/4 would definitely not be as enjoyable if the sound effects were not as good.

  9. Sean L Tierney says:

    The best games I have played use music to compliment the game play. My favorite example of this is Payday 2. As the players start a bank heist, the game plays ambient music to fill the void. It lays just below the surface and punctuates the stress of the setup. As the players initiate the heist and alarms go off, the music reacts accordingly. Sound effects such as sirens mesh well with the rising tension before the cops try and take control of the bank. As your team frantically searches for assets across the map, the music continues to build. Finally, it culminates in a brief two seconds of complete silence and a giant techno music drop, cops drop through the ceiling and rush the doors, crash through windows. As the assault ends, the music grows distant. The music sets a tone as much as it helps contribute to the game play. The combination makes the player feel stress, tension, and then relief. Without the music, the game play may not of been enough to hold the experience together. The music is the piece which makes me feel like everything came synchronizes perfectly. When properly employed, music gives a game a unique identity. Most games are not 100% game play, there’s dialog, menus, cutscenes, and other components of the experience. Going back to my example, Payday chooses unique sets of music for each menu. It helps set the player in the experience. I am not always playing Payday 2, but when I have the game running, I am experiencing it through the music. This is a component most games miss. Those games that use it are exponentially better off for it.

  10. erb5257 says:

    I agree music adds a great aspect to a video game, unless it’s Call of Duty Search and Destroy. The intense music that is played during a stressful SnD is just terrible. I like to hear footsteps, and silencer shots. I have actually turned the music music all the way down in the settings. Music in a video game is just as important as it is in movies. I can’t imagine watching a horror movie without any creepy music or sfx. It’s just a necessity for a great video game.

  11. Chinmay Garg says:

    Music is a big part of how a person enjoys the game. Recently some of the iPhone/Android games have considered gaming music as a big part of the gaming experience and often ask you to wear headphones if possible to take full advantage of the experience. Some of the big time games have also gone to extents to create original music pieces and in-fact full sized soundtrack albums because every piece of that sound interprets the story of the game in a different way and makes the user experience and enjoy the game more than just playing the game without/or with generic music. I agree with ‘aws167’ about Watch Dogs. That game did have a boring sound track and did not go well with the gameplay to serve the game’s experience.

  12. pzg5095 says:

    While I absolutely love it when video games employ great music, I think great music alone isn’t enough to redeem a game that may be mechanically flawed. If I really dislike the soundtrack to a fun game, I usually just mute it and continue playing. However, If I enjoy the soundtrack to a game that plays terribly, I’ll just stop completely and listen to the music on Youtube or buy the OST.

    I do agree that an awesome soundtrack has the effect of turning simple, good games into memorable, great games. One of my favorite games that I really enjoyed the soundtrack to was Kingdom Hearts. I think the music really helped make the battles feel more intense and fast-paced. I thought the battles by themselves were already entertaining, but the music is what made them truly memorable, at least for me.

    In Kingdom Hearts, my favorite track is “Dearly Beloved”, and I even devoted some time in trying to learn how to play it on the piano. In terms of Final Fantasy, I really liked Uematsu’s “One-Winged Angel” in FFVII. Another great game with a pretty good soundtrack, in my opinion, is Valkyria Chronicles.

  13. Adam Gunther Stirzel says:

    In a slightly different tack, some of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time are the Sonic series soundtracks, particularly in the Tomoya Ohtani era (Unleashed/Colors/Generations). Each track perfectly evokes the setting of the level it takes place in, such as Tropical Resort from Sonic Colors, a surf-rock beach boys sound meshed with summer electronic beats, or Spagonia (Rooftop Run) from Sonic Unleashed, a flurry of violins and rock drums coming together in a celebratory frenzy to color the Mediterranean seaside city. The tracks are fun, energetic, and set the mood exquisitely for the gameplay.

  14. aws167 says:

    I agree that music is a sometimes overlooked aspect in video games that can make or break a game. Games such as Transistor and Bastion in particular, while being very good games in their own right, are taken to the next level because their sound tracks are so amazing.
    Likewise, games which choose to overlook sounds and music within the game can seem less fun because of the absence of good music and sound effects. A game that I can think of that had this problem was Watch Dogs. The soundtrack and sound effects were somewhat generic and did not serve to really improve the game experience.

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