Man, just fucking everything by Nobuo Uematsu. Such a GOAT
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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Video Game Art
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Video games are not mere time killers. They are albums of sound, aesthetics, animation and narrative.
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The one common thread should be an eye for the aesthetic. This is not a place to discuss mechanics or stats, but to show off simply the artistic, expressed through the video game medium.
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Many games feature amazing music, but certain games take it beyond even that.
Games like DOOM are known for the "procedural" composition they use to marry gameplay and sound, and not only that, the way the music is a perfect tonal match to what is happening.
What games have you played that feature music that doesn't just make you notice it, but also pulls you further in?
Both n64 TLoZ and Diablo II are great
The original Doom comes to mind for me.
Balatro, game has 1 song (with variations), and after 100+ hours I'm still not tired of it.
Tony Hawk Pro skater 2 (but probably many of Birds games)
I havent seen it mentioned yet, but ultrakill. Holy fuck this game's soundtrack is like cocaine, nothing beats the absolute rush that is every song in this track. From the guitar/percussion in prelude slamming away the drums like your bullets breaking the skulls of whats in your line of sight, to the absolute state of HOLY FUCK the tracks in the p- levels rip into your soul. Its fantastic
Literally any of the Ace Combat games! They have absolutely no business going as hard as they do in an arcade-y flight sim but good lord they are just incredible. I listen to the OSTs whilst I’m working all the time when I need pump up music - Zero is particularly good!
Breath of the Wild which also does dynamic music that shifts and changes as you play/encounter enemies
Most modern games do this. It's a little different depending on implementation, but usually there are short loops of music which can transition into one another, and the game attempts to detect what's going on and make smooth transition at the end of each loop into an appropriate new loop based on the situation, so that the music is seamless but still reactive to what's going on. When it's done well, it's basically invisible that anything special is even happening, which I'm sure is irritating if you're the one who had to do the ball-busting labor of getting it all to work.
Fun fact, LucasArts was already doing this all the way back in 1991, back when video game sound beyond the bleeps and boops stage was still bleeding edge technology. One of a few different ways in which they were ahead of the curve by about 20-30 years if not more.
Like good CGI. The best work is the one you don’t notice.
Wonder how they did that back then? Shifting the tones up and down?
The wiki article goes into it; the canonical example (if you know to pay attention to it) is walking around in Woodtick in Monkey Island 2, and you can hear how the melody that’s playing is continuous, but some of the backing instruments will insert or change depending on which buildings you go into. You can probably find Let’s Play of the game on YouTube or etc to hear it in action.
Thanks. Read it and yeah, that had to be hard with a limited set of sound channels.
The entire arrangement would have to be smaller chunks that are flowed one into another or swapped out when an event changed.
Considering the memory and code space limitations of the time that was no small feat.
Demon's Souls. Sparse and somber and sad and like with this vibe of overwhelming (but not overly melodramatic) loss - just like the game (though it's a tad less restrained with the melodrama) haha
Anima Flux has a sick soundtrack! Caught myself playing longer just because those tracks are straight fire
Wytchwood has a soundtrack that goes unnecessarily hard. Especially by the docks. Everything about that game is satisfying.
Honestly, The Last Of Us games. Gustavo Santaolalla is a ridiculously talented musician/producer. Apparently, the guy never learned to read music either!
First one that comes to mind is wing commander prophecy. Opened my ears to new styles of metal and industrial music I had never heard before then. If I'm limiting to video game composers streets of rage, I still listen to it sometimes.
Stellaris.
Superhexagon
Animal Crossing. Each hour of the day has a different track and it really makes it feel special to play at every different time of day. When your playing and the song switches or makes you want to play more.
WarCraft 2
Lately I’ve been playing Angel Pop! It’s a tough little bullet hell from playdate, I’m not very good but the soundtrack is great https://studionnnn.bandcamp.com/album/angel-pop-playdate-soundtrack
Battlefield: Vietnam
I feel like licensed music with historical context is cheating, but I'll get behind that
Boneworks
Can you tell me more about Katana Zero? I have one of this developers other games and looked at this the other day but opted out. I don't listen to audio when I look at trailers, so I didn't hear the music or anything.
Also, YIIK has a great soundtrack even though everyone bombed the hell out of that game. I still listen to tracks from it. Inscryption, The Path, 2064: Read Only Memories, The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa, Going Under, games developed by Blaze Epic, Dicey Dungeons, Party Hard, Stray Cat Crossing, New Ice York, Beyond Galaxyland, JARS, Ladykiller in a Bind, Oxenfree, Dust Force, & Plants vs. Zombies (Laura Shigihara still has me bopping). Not including classic video game bangers - this is just stuff I pulled from a quick Steam-y glance.
*Love has a banger of a soundtrack too. Kentucky Route Zero as well.
Askiisoft hasn't made any other widely known games. Of the three, only Katana Zero is on steam.
Are you referring to the publisher? They just front the funding for the development, and handle distribution. In this case that's Devolver, who deals with a ton of small studios, and hence there's a very wide range of games under them. But they're all made by different people. A lot of Devolver projects are one-offs where the game is the only thing the particular studio has made, and will make.
Katana ZERO marries gameplay, story, and sound, immaculately.
The player character has the ability to see the future. The act of playing through a level (dying and re-trying), in universe, is Zero looking into the future and seeing what will work and what won't.
This gets complicated once you run into opponents with the same ability, as they will actively use your previous attempts to beat them to predict what you'll try to do.
It's as mix of puzzle and action. I won't say too much about the story, but it is worth engaging with the dialogue system, taking in the world building, and doing some thinking about what is going on. If you do, the story, and particularly the ending, is a lot more meaningful.
Oh hey, I didn't realize. I like Olija, and thought that they were worked on by the same developer. They're lumped together with The Messenger in a bundle and just assumed it was the same dev working their way through whatever vibe they were feeling. I don't know too much about Devolver, but that's for the 411. I was interested in this game because I like One Slash and Samurai Jazz and figured it could potentially have a similar vibe to it. I'm going to grab it, and give it a go. Thank you!