Am I the only one who has heard a song or a soundtrack for a game, which caused you to look into getting the game itself?
This has happened to me on several occasions, but the first time it's happened was with Ys VIII lacramosa of Dana.
The first time I heard of Ihatovo Monogatari was through its inclusion on this VGM mix. Hearing it here prompted me to emulate it, and by the end of chapter 4 I was so thoroughly astonished that I needed to buy a physical copy. So I did! Now it‘s one of my absolute favorite games of all time. I’m sure there‘s some other games I also bought after hearing their music, but none of those have left such a profound impact. It’s fun to remember how something so influential to me began in such an unassuming way.
i wrote a long post but it was swallowed by me refreshing the tab by mistake, so i’ll just say ‘ufouria the saga!’ as a placeholder until i find the time to write a nicer post again
@NoJoTo oh noooooo I hate when that happens. It's gotten me a few times.
I'm a simple guy: I got into the Persona series because of the soundtracks. “An RPG battle can sound like THIS??” was my exact thought, I think.
https://youtu.be/dZBJwlI2tK4
https://youtu.be/SBPIUPJ3dKY
It might have been this specific track that sold me, actually! From the Intro Movie of Persona 3. This is a remix for the movie adaptation.
https://youtu.be/4pNDzL8w6XI
@aeroza I agree! I literally bought the Persona Dancing games because I wanted to listen to the songs or just want something persona flavored for quick session. I really like some of the remixes they added in too…
Short answer: Nier
Longer answer (embarrassing confession, do not read): I was 14 in 2010 and consequently suffered from Metacritic brain poison, so didn't think Nier was anything worth paying attention to. Later when I heard the music I decided I had to play it. Liking that game didn't shatter my whole worldview but it certainly helped lay the groundwork for my growing out of review score teenage boy weirdoism.
Not quite the same thing but I bought Xenoblade just because I heard Yasunori Mitsuda "did" the soundtrack.
Clover‘s shockwave/flash-laden website at the time for Okami looped the Kamiki Festival theme in the background while you browsed it. I thought it was lovely and had to play the game—that’s right, Ōkami (2006) was my first Clover game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PemdXckvHDs
I had just entered my second year of animation school and as such was required to attend the Ottawa International Animation Festival kicking off the day after Okami's release, so while I was downtown soaking up screenings I picked the game up.
**(2009)** brickout clone *Shatter* for PSN and Steam: someone on /v/ was streaming video game music one afternoon and [Krypton Garden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVCPTXKvR9c) came up and on the strength of that track alone I decided I had to check the game out. I don't think I heard the rest of the soundtrack until I'd finally played it.
I don't know when I became introduced to Gravity Rush's **(2012)** music, and it might not have been *the* reason I picked up the game (actually my brother gave me his copy), but it was a big part of why!
this happened for me with ufouria the saga (hebereke); i found the soundtrack on youtube and it just stuck in my head (specifically hebe's adventure)!
i eventually played it in an emulator, and was surprised by how well it fit into the metroidvania genre, before the vania of that genre had even gone that direction (sure, those ideas had existed before, but i don‘t really know of any other game that so cleanly fits into the genre as it is today (which i don’t have too much experience with, to be fair…)). i learned you could buy it via virtual console, felt a bit bad, and bought it after i finished the game. (i've never actually played through it on the virtual console release, which actually messes up the soundtrack due to playing the pal version at 60hz).
i‘ve had similar experiences with various other games, though, even if i didn’t buy them. something that initially drew me into vgm was supradarky‘s “best vgm” list on youtube. while browsing it, i came across move me, from ridge racer type 4, and loved it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKOqsxrrBc0
^(the original was removed when supradarky’s channel was taken down by copyright strikes, but they've since reuploaded everything)
i think getting into the soundtrack first shaped my view of the game a little. the music had already evoked a vibe in me, and in playing the game, that vibe both slotted in with the rest of the game and was shaped by it ever so slightly to create a phenomenal experience; the game is really cohesive, with the visual aesthetics, music, and gameplay working remarkably really well together, so to already have a lot of experience with one element informed me well of the others, even if only subconsciously.
another namco game, aqua rush, was introduced to me through one of dedeco‘s vgm mixes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBiJ7zkldCo
that soundtrack’s real good, and man, the game‘s great! the the falling (floating?) block gameplay is pretty good, but more importantly it’s short and easy. i'd probably buy it if it came to arcade archives.
even before i‘d found supradarky, i’d found no one can stop mr. domino.
https://youtu.be/xGJECkKj-bw
tripping in the park is the 8th song on my playlist that i‘ve been making for like, 4 (?) years! which isn’t too long ago, but also, i‘m young; 4 years ago was only little after i’d discovered music that wasn't the stuff i‘d heard ad nauseam on the one christian radio station our family listened to almost every time i was in the car. given that, it took me a relative while to get around to playing no one can stop mr. domino. by that time, i’d seen a few playthroughs of it and read some things in this forum about it; i wasn‘t going in blind. still, the game worked on me! it’s just so charming!
i‘ve been introduced to various other games through their soundtracks (wagyan paradise, devil dice, magical tetris challenge, like anything tim follin composed for, and maaaany others i haven’t gotten around to playing (and honestly probably never will)), as i probably spend more time listening to game music than i spend actually playing video games, but i suppose those are the most memorable/personally significant?
but yeah, this is a common way for me to find out about games.
Yeah, I was gonna say, if anyone hasn't played ridge racer 6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7DDeariETo