I recently started playing GTAV again and sometimes I’ll get in my car and let the radio stations play while I do house stuff. Favorite stations are the 80s one with Kenny Loggins, and West Coast Classics and Rock Radio.
Outer Wilds
I’ve been listening to the FTL soundtrack since high school!
Into the Breach’s soundtrack is also outstanding, by the same composer for the same developer.
I’m honestly a bigger fan of the classic DOOM I/II (199X) soundtracks. Despite being obvious parodies of existing rock/metal songs, they had a certain appeal. Especially when someone makes a very good cover.
I get why people like 2016’s DOOM’s more “metal” approach, but for me nothing beats an adrenaline-rush song when ripping and tearing those damned demons.
- Bastion
- Castlevania (series, special mention for Symphony of the Night)
- Chrono Trigger/Cross
- Dead Cells
- Destiny 1/2
- Dragon’s Dogma (mainly Into Free, but still…)
- Final Fantasy (series, but special mention for XI and XIV)
- Persona 4/5
- Portal 1/2
- River City Girls (probably 2 as well, but still waiting on my LRG copy)
- Scott Pilgrim vs the World (the game (the soundtrack))
- Tony Hawk (series); a bit of a cop out, as they’re all licensed songs
- Zelda (series, special mention for the Cadence of Hyrule soundtrack)
And then just a lot of old nostalgia for NES games (Duck Tales, River City Ransom, TMNT, etc) and SNES/PS1 RPGs (Lufia, Super Mario RPG, Suikoden, Thousand Arms, etc)
But that main list contains the ones I either bought or downloaded because I loved the music so much.
The Chrono Trigger soundtrack is a goddamn masterpiece. I haven’t played it for years and the songs still randomly pop into my head.
Agreed. I never even really played that game. I was a Genesis man back in the 16 bit days, and I’ve found I can’t really play those old JRPGs without the nostalgia factor (and even that’s lost its luster). But even with me not having played it, Chrono Trigger still has one of the best soundtracks ever.
Maaannn, the Tony Hawk games introduced me to so(!) many(!) great songs, bands, and genres of music! I’m so damn thankful for those games and their soundtracks. They definitely had a hand in shaping who I am today.
You can usually find playlists people have put together of the soundtracks for each game (at least the songs that are available on the platform) on YouTube and Spotify. I still listen to them! Naturally, they hold up really well.
Spotting Super Mario RPG in there, you might appreciate knowing some people actually recreated some songs with the original synths used by Yoko Shimomura herself.
There are games with amazing music that sets the perfect atmosphere — Celeste, Hades, Zelda (especially BotW/TotK).
And then there are games soundtracks I would also happily just put on to listen to — FFXIV, Persona 5, one particular song from Hades (Eurydice).
