BRB, gotta look at my phone’s MP3s and my phone’s chiptune archives…
My rubric is roughly aligned to “do I want to listen to this as an album” because that’s how I generally consume music. Please know that I greatly appreciate how music is integrated into the design of a game (what’s up Dig-Dug?) but that’s not really how I will listen to stuff.
In rough generational chronological order:
- Ecco the Dolphin 2: The Tides of Time
- Castlevania: Bloodlines
- Sonic 3 / & Knuckles
- Chrono Trigger: Brink of Time In the interest thread linked above, this album was specifically called out as a “?” and I’m specifically putting this on. I’m right. You’re wrong.
- Ape Escape
- Ridge Racer Type 4
- Einhänder
- Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is kind of a trick as it has nearly the complete soundtracks from both P3 and P4 music, but Ultimax the game in the series I play regularly. I’ve never played the P3/4 RPGs. P5 is quite good but doesn’t make this list. But this is a tip: if you can’t choose between P3 or P4 soundtracks, just list P4AU.
- NieR: Automata especially how the “Hacking Tracks” are blended into the sound design.
- Streets of Rage 4 (Fight me over this one - it’s superb.)
Games I dropped while making this list or I want to discuss also in rough chronological order:
- Any Streets of Rage 1-3 I like them all for the different things they each do.
- Mechwarrior 2 is probably better than the Ghost Bear’s Legacy expansion soundtrack, but there may be better individual tracks on Ghost Bear’s CD. Those discs are interesting mixes of melodic music and ambient music.
- Ecco the Dolphin There are a few superb tracks on this, but not enough of them and several of them are variations. The CD version of both Ecco games have even less diversity and more variations.
- Final Fantasy VII This one really hurt to drop considering I probably listened to it the most of anything I’ve mentioned. I think it’s been obviated by time because the samples don’t sound good even compared to its contemporaries. Final Fantasy Tactics sounded so much better and though it’s more ambient than The VII soundtrack, I would tell someone else to listen to Tactics first. Also, if it was covered in Remake I probably prefer the Remake version.
- Chrono Cross
- I learned how to play a few pieces from the Final Fantasy X soundtrack on piano.
- Videoball … it’s so good man.
- Etrian Odyssey V You can just pick your favorite Etrian Odyssey game and slot it in this position and also cover any PC88/98 soundtracks whether or not you like the FM or arranged versions.
Sorry Koji Kondo! There are no NES games on my list! This is interesting considering I’ve been writing music for that system lately and I adore the Mega Man 2-5 soundtracks. And even though I adore those, I don’t like the Wiley Wars versions much though I find them extremely interesting academically.
billy You and I are music buddies in more ways than one.
@Gaagaagiins I’m doing a bunch of high-quality data entry for you. I better get a like for this! (Thanks for the fun thread.)