The
Ace Combat series is popular, but its music is rarely talked about.
Ace Combat 1/Air Combat has a fun heavy rock soundtrack. Redbook audio too.
AC2 is more of the same, but not redbook. Shame.
AC3 has some interesting techno beats.
AC5 has one of the best orchestral soundtracks I've heard, game or movie. It feels like a complete work by itself, with very thoughtful composition, lots of variety, and lots of movement, even in the slow songs. Top tier performance from the orchestra and vocalists.
And I haven't even heard it outside of the game, except to get you this link. If you own a surround sound system, you should probably play AC5 someday.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings' music is not what you'd expect from a medieval-themed RTS. All of it is built on a slow, deliberate bass guitar. Another popular game with a soundtrack I never hear anyone mention.
Full soundtrack here, only 30 minutes
Thought I'd plug the
Sting games again. Shigeki Hayashi exemplifies that grandiose-yet-technical fantasy sound which appears only in Japanese videogames.
Knights in the Nightmare's music is so good, it made me enjoy the (actually necessary) one hour tutorial.
Yggdra Union was originally a cart-based game. The PSP remix is excellent synth rock which somehow sounds energetic and elegant at the same time. In battle, the tempo speeds up the more aggressively you attack!!!
The 3rd Birthday - A horror-themed shooter with the heroine of Parasite Eve. It's cool, and the music is by Yoko Shimomura, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Mitsuto Suzuki. A mix of synths and real istruments, but always
feels a little off, which is the mood Parasite Eve has always been about. There are a lot of Christmas song remixes too.
CLANNAD - yes, a dating sim. The
soundtrack makes or breaks these games. 2 hours of hopelessly sentimental music, most of it relaxing. The rest is J-pop. It's pretty helpful when I really need to get to sleep.
"Town, flow of time, people" is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard. It has been tattooed on my brain.
Tsukihime - Some VN about vampires. Only 10 songs, but they never get old. They all sound like they were recorded in a basement with real instruments by real people, not "fixed" with a computer and certainly not generated by one. Pretty rare for game music.
Track 5 is my favorite.
Hydorah - freeware space shooter with
free OST and arrange album.It's all good, and the arrange album was on my best albums of...whatever year thread. Try Path of Scylla feat. Asaka Tomoko.
Final Fantasy Adventure -
Beautiful melodies on Game Boy. Also some generic/annoying battle music.
ALL OVER: Melty Blood: Actress Again OST Doujin fighting game is
surprisingly jazzy.I know these are more widely-known games than what pierrot posted, but their soundtracks don't get too much recognition. I don't have many truly obscure games to search through, but if I find one I'll be sure to post it.
That's all for now. I might think of more later.
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