Your favorite video game music that were so good you had to learn the melodies and phrases

General Music Discussion Songwriting
#1

Cracking the Code Forum Members Favorite Video Game Tracks

Ys III: Wanderers from Ys - The Boy Who Had Wings
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords - Kreia’s Darkside
Ys VIII -Lacrimosa of DANA - The Sibylline Road
Silent Hill 2 - Theme of Laura
Assassin’s Creed Origins Full Soundtrack
Final Fantasy - Prelude
Persona5 - Beneath the Mask
Dark Souls 2 - Majula
Demon’s Souls - Theme of Maiden Astraea
Assassin’s Creed Origins Full Soundtrack
Halo 2 - Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix
Classic Doom Full Soundtrack
Quake 2 - Quad Damage
Silent Hill 3 - Breeze in Monochrome Night
Mystic Defender - Intro Screen
Blasphemous - Ten Piedad
Doom Eternal Full Soundtrack
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Full Soundtrack
Super Mario Bros. 1,2 & 3 Full Soundtrack
The Legend of Zelda Full Soundtrack
Final Fantasy Full Soundtrack
Silent Hill 2 - Promise
Castlevania Rondo of Blood - Portrait of a Ghost Ship
Streets of Rage 2 - Never Return Alive
Adventure (Atari 2600) - Item Pickup Sound Effect

Soundslice Tablature

Ys III: Wanderers from Ys - The Boy Who Had Wings

I will start with one from Ys III.

Also I won’t give away too much so you can discover the gems for yourself, but the Turbografx-CD games are filled with some bangers!

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#2

Do all the songs I learned after hearing them in Guitar Hero count? :rofl:

It’s funny when me and my buddies in middle/high school were learning guitar right about when Guitar Hero was huge we always said “Cliffs of Dover” sounded like it could be a video game soundtrack song.

My games of choice have always been RPGs particularly of the Japanese variety and a lot of times the repetition of the music grates on me after a few hours so I turn it off and listen to my favorite albums while gaming instead so it takes a game with a particularly good soundtrack to keep my focus. So I’ll share some favorites

Star Wars KOTOR II is my favorite game of all time and this is up there with the Imperial March as far as Star Wars music goes for me.

Ys games have fantastic soundtracks. Falcom really gives it their all on those.
I really like this one from Ys VIII. The whole OST is brilliant but this one is a particular favorite.

Laura’s Theme from Silent Hill 2 is excellent. That OST might be my favorite in video game history due to the range from very organic sounding to harsh industrial menace.
Akira Yamaoka nailed the emotional range and atmosphere of the game with the score.

The theme from Silent Hill 1 is really fun to play on mandolin.

I learned the Final Fantasy prelude on piano a long time ago.
I wonder how many string guitar you would need to play this with sweeping?

The chill jazzy music in Persona 5 is a solid vibe.

The Majula theme from Dark Souls II perfectly scores the desolation of the game world.

Maiden Astraea’s theme from Demon’s Souls

Assassin’s Creed: Origins
I love middle eastern folk type music and those scales and tonalities so this whole OST is a massive keeper for me. If they ever do another game in Egypt can they get Karl Sanders from Nile to lace it with some of the stuff he does on the Saurian albums.

Bonus, do these even count?

Any time you get Steve Vai on a video game soundtrack is a win.

DOOM (1993) it’s basically midi plagiarism of the best riffs of late 80s early 90s metal.

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#3

i wish they had some kind of rpg that each class and depending on the talent sheet spec had a specific genre of edm attached to the spells and attack sounds, or something like that anyways.

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#4

The Quake II soundtrack by Sonic Mayem. Great stuff.

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#5

I am an absolute The Last Of Us fanboy, though it’s about 70% from the Factions multiplayer. Part 1 and 2 are in my top 5, but most of my friend circle is made up of people I met from the multiplayer.

I’d put the theme to TLoU on this list. The way it’s used in the first game, outside of the opening credits, is very open. You can play it at any speed and with all sorts of personal embellishments. Sets such a great mood.

A buddy of mine did some of the music for Devil May Cry 3, 4 and 5 and some of FFVII remake and FFXIII. Not my kind of games but those songs slap lol

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#6

I could be here all day, but I’ll just post a few from various eras…

I’m a HUGE fan of Silent Hill, especially 2 and 3… the piano here is very beautiful and simple (doesn’t kick in for a bit).

This short Genesis track stuck with me for so long I figured out a tapping arrangement for it, decades after first hearing it.

For recent-ish, this was great boss music accompaniment, from the stellar retro-style Blasphemous. Simple, but really got the job done.

And Doom Eternal’s entire OST is fantastic.

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#7

we used to enjoy chonking out the main “riff” from Morrowind with heavy distortion

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#8

Easy for me :slight_smile:

Mario, Zelda and Final Fantasy!

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#9
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#10

Anything more recently? You never learned Castlevania? :stuck_out_tongue:

I have to let one more Turbografx-CD banger out, but this is it you guys. I don’t want to let out all the hidden gems so you can discover them. This one I haven’t dissected though, but it definitely is worthy of copying some of its riffs.

I will also give out some other secret information there was this old school computer called the Sharp X68000 that had roland midi modules for sound output. This is also an area I would also say maybe you might explore as well.

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#11

Ok so there is no guitar, but this music was/is awesome! Those boss fights with that music was panic inducing

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#12

@Troy a fair amount of your wardrobe in the CtC vids is classic video game related, do you have any particular favorite themes?

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#13

Yes! This one is my favorite.

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#14

B E B B… basically an arpeggiated, inverted E power chord. METAL!!

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#15

You need something harder.

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#16

Ys = Db Ab Db Eb F Db F Ab C G F D E

Super Metroid = F Bb C D E C G C Bb A F G A

OG Metroid = F Bb C D E C G C F D Bb G A

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#17

I had that figured out, but I saw you typing so I just gave up lol

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#18

Ha, true. The reason that exists is because some of the Atari 2600 sound registers just produce those notes when you play them in a loop and add some arbitrary number to a sequence. It can’t really do all the chromatic notes, just a random selection of them, so lots of melodies simply can’t be played at all, or if they can, often sound out of tune. It was part of its charm.

In terms of an actual theme, this one came a little later but was really cool:

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#19

Indeed, the limitations actually helped it be what it was… I’ll have to read up more on it tonight. My first at home console experience was the ColecoVision, though my first true love was the Commodore 64. haha And I still think the SID sounds cool to this day.

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#20

These games are probably the best horror games I have ever played. Especially back then, playing in the dark, volume up loud. I’d love to experience that for the first time again!

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