Favorite video game music

[Barracuda]

Thought I would start a thread for people to post their favorite video game songs. Here is the original Tales of Phantasia Fighting the Spirit plus an awesome remix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsMZX...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Xj90Vcq2Kic

[Spork4pedro]

Final Fantasy X Chocobo Theme. Hands down. It just makes me smile every time.

A close second is the Mario Underground Theme. Mostly just because of the joke that goes with it.

What does Mario like to wear? Denim Denim Denim...

[draggar]

Despite it being 8bit NES games had some of the best music.

Rygar
Megaman II (well, many members of this franchise)

... just to name a few

[Dilorenzo]

Almost everything by Akira Yamaoka is a must listen to for me. Fell in love with his stuff in Silent Hill, and now it's in regular rotation on my iTunes.

The music from Persona 3 & 4 (mostly composed by Shōji Meguro) is another high point, and also resides in my playlist constantly.

That's pretty much it for me - probably because those are some of the games in which I was the most emotionally invested, the music made the biggest impact on me. I was delighted when I started watching the Persona 4 anime that they'd retained some of the music, as well as having Meguro come back to write more original tracks.

[Antisocial_Worker]

I have several youtube playlists that are pretty much nothing but video game music.

[MaggieTheCat]

The entire soundtrack of Nier has got to be amongst the most amazing music I've ever heard, video game or not. The lyricist made up all the lyrics herself, using components from various modern and ancient languages. Seriously, if you've never heard any of it, you have to listen to at least a couple of the tracks. Among my favorites are Emil's theme (Karma and Sacrifice), Kaine's theme (Escape and Salvation), Snow in Summer, and Hills of Radiant Winds.

I also greatly enjoy the soundtracks from Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Cave Story, and Persona 4.

[fireheart]

A few of my own:

You Were There from Ico

Eternity (Memory of Lightwaves) from Final Fantasy X-2

For some reason this song is associated with Final Fantasy X, but is not actually part of the soundtrack. Because of its association, I'm including it here: Tidus and Yuna Sky Theme

Vamo Alla Flamenco from FFIX

Gilgamesh from FFV

And of course.....Elder Scrolls Medley



And for anyone who enjoys the Final Fantasy Series, Nobuo Uematsu (the guy who wrote most of the music) teamed up with two other guys who worked on the music and made metal-ish arrangements of their songs. Here's a few:

Vamo Alla Flamenco

Clash On The Big Bridge aka Gilgamesh

One Winged Angel a la Black Mages feat. Philharmonic Orchestra

And something else I found:

One Winged Angel a capella

Super Mario Bros A Capella

[Jay 2K Winger]

I've always been partial to Those Who Fight Further (the link is the Black Mages' version) and Terra's Theme.

Lately, I've been listening to a band I discovered at MAGFest this year, Random Encounter, who perform video game music and music inspired by video games, and have an accordion. They have two albums, each with its own variation on Terra's Theme and Those Who Fight Further (on "Unavenged," the latter is called "Still More Fighting"). They even have the Millennial Faire theme from Chrono Trigger!

[Geek King]

I suppose saying Rock Band or Brütal Legend would be cheating

Final Fantasy III/VI was probably the first game I noticed the score. But my favorite total game music experience was Wipeout XL. Every track fit the game perfectly, and they released the soundtrack for the game.

I'll also put up Symphony of the Night for good mood music.

[MaggieTheCat]

The Black Mages, just for reference, aren't just Uematsu and a couple of guys -- it's his personal band. Or, at least, it was until they had to change their name for legal reasons. Uematsu used to be an employee of Square-Enix and so was allowed to use the copyrighted name "Black Mages" for personal use, but in recent years, he has become an independent contractor and no longer works for SE (he still does contract work for them, he's just not on their fulltime staff) so SE told him he couldn't use "Black Mages" as his band name anymore.

The band still exists. They're called the Earthbound Papas now. You can buy their albums (both the Black Mages', and the Earthbound Papas') from iTunes, and probably can find physical copies if you look around the internet.

As a side note, if you like Uematsu's music and ever have a chance to see him in person, DO IT. He is AMAZING. He is super personable and charismatic on the stage and just a blast to watch, nevermind with his amazing music blaring all around you.

[MaggieTheCat]

Because I clearly haven't spammed this thread with enough links yet, here's one more.

For those of you who would enjoy seeing video game music performed live by an orchestra, check out Video Games Live. They typically have a pretty extensive tour, both around the U.S. and internationally, although in the last couple of years they've done less performances than in the past...but still quite a few. They are definitely worth a trip to see. The arrangements they perform are usually very good and the orchestras (sometimes accompanied by choirs) are amazing. They do a different show every time they perform (since they have, I dunno, like 50+ arrangements from various different games and can't perform all of them in one night) so it's sort of hit or miss as to whether you'll get to hear your favorite game's/series' music, but even the stuff you may not be familiar with is enjoyable. When we went, they had huge projectors or screens of some kind right above the orchestra showing scenes from the games they're playing music to so it's a concert and a theater experience all in one!

[Jay 2K Winger]

The band still exists. They're called the Earthbound Papas now. You can buy their albums (both the Black Mages', and the Earthbound Papas') from iTunes, and probably can find physical copies if you look around the internet.

As a side note, if you like Uematsu's music and ever have a chance to see him in person, DO IT. He is AMAZING. He is super personable and charismatic on the stage and just a blast to watch, nevermind with his amazing music blaring all around you.

I was not aware of the reasons for the name-change. Thanks for that, Maggie!

And I'll echo the need to see Uematsu live. I saw EBP at MAGFest this year, and damn if it wasn't AWESOME.

[Crossbow]

I've always been partial to Those Who Fight Further (the link is the Black Mages' version) and Terra's Theme.

I love Terra's Theme, especially Justin Durban's version of it, En Terra. It's absolutely hauntingly beautiful. He also does some pretty sweet version of the Halo soundtrack.

Lately, I've been listening to a band I discovered at MAGFest this year...

Cool. I might actually manage to get to MAGFest next year, but I'll most likely be working, if I do. My wife and I are good friends with the Dorsai Irregulars so we might start working some contracts with them.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

Final Fantasy VIII has my absolute favorite soundtrack. A few examples:

Liberi Fatali-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f_VBd_17M
Mods de Chocobo-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xErfUvB7NI
Maybe I'm a Lion-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYDT_Y6Jj5c
The Extreme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVkcmx2l3WA

Songs from other games:

One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII)-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wJ8pE2qKU
Still Alive (Portal)-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

I also like songs from Mario, The Legend of Zelda theme, etc.

[Salted Grump]

From Nier's OST. And yes, I own both the game with 'Papa Nier' and the full 2-disc OST.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX1QdJ0_cK8 <- The Wretched Automatons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJKuyDs2pAE <- The Dark Colossus Destroys All

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAESEI7PRys <- Cold Steel Coffin (Aerie Theme)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtl2GcrjffE <- Snow in Summer.

From the Demon's Souls OST. Again, I own the game, and the OST, though, sadly, some songs are misordered in the OST.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iUHlaMnev8 <- Armour Spider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQVbD3n1-fg <- Flamelurker (fighting this guy is an excercise in patience and frustration; Even when you know what to do, he can still wreck your shit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRMs5AQ4Gms <- Dragon God

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqCM86oxmtc <- Fool's Idol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91dKH-7QkFs <- Maiden Astraea

There's several more I like, but that's a good sampler.