hi cohost! i played a lot of games in 2022 & i even made a list of my fave games over here on this post
game music, though. oh boy do i have some favorites. we've already gotten a lot of big yearly award shows putting out their nominations & i don't want to like, poo poo the big games getting recognition, but i'm also very sad that the yearly acclaim is limited only to the biggest most prestige games and their super filmic soundtracks.
so let's celebrate some weirdos!! my faves are full of electronica, metal, a dash of orchestra and chamber music, and lots of anime. let's dive in.
and before we get too far if you want to listen along, I've created a youtube playlist with everything i've mentioned here!!
get listening:
Pentiment by Alkemie Early Music Ensemble
๐ฟ Album on Steam
pentiment is a game with a very sparse soundtrack, choosing only to highlight certain moments. but when they do, alkemie's choice of period music & compositions in the style of accompanies the moments beautifully.
The Thread Puller
a standout track for me because it's one of the only times there's an actual looping bgm. big spoilers for the game, so don't look too far into it if you haven't played yet, but it's an outstanding moment that still gives me chills.
Ein Traum by Lingua Ignota
a jaw-droppingly gorgeous composition that completes the pentiment experience... i hesitate to have you listen to it now, but if it love it as much as i do, please play pentiment.
Signalis by Cicada Sirens & 1000 Eyes
๐ฟ Album on Bandcamp
it's really easy to hear the signalis soundtrack and go, ah, right, i also love silent hill. but what the composer duo do by pushing beyond the easy references is create an unsettling soundscape that feels specific to the space signalis inhabits. the little details that punctuate each space feel so tightly wound with the actual game.
Train Ride by 1000 Eyes
i really loved this quiet space amidst all the noise. the simple melody played out on a densely layered piano sound and subtle pads gives me so much emotional space.
Eulenlieder by 1000 Eyes
there's something about the wash of bitcrushed noise that fills me up with warmth. another calm moment amidst the big metallic chaos....which then suddenly opens up into an incredible moment in the 2nd half. it always takes me by surprise in such a beautiful way.
Cigarette Wife by Cicada Sirens
i LOVE the huffing beat box of this track and accompanying HUGE bassy synth. it just goes!!
Dream Diary by 1000 Eyes
the sporadic whines in the background of this track and almost insect-like cat-like purring give so much atmosphere to the piano and its longing progression
The Promise by 1000 Eyes
chopin's raindrop prelude is used perfectly in signalis, arranged here to perfectly slot into the tepid atmosphere at the end of the game. i really really love how classic works were integrated into the game itself, but here it transcends just reference and becomes part of the score as it's played in a mechanical, devastated way.
Tunic by Lifeformed & Janice Kwan
๐ฟ Album on Bandcamp
i had the pleasure of meeting lifeformed & janice at a live show in seattle once upon a time before covid, and seeing them play live really prepared me for how blown away i'd be by the tunic soundtrack. a complete wash of sound that is at peace with its calming aesthetic.
Memories of Memories
i could include any track from tunic, and it would feel like i'm not doing it justice without including everything. but this is the piece that frames everything. it all branches from here, creating a listening experience that needs to be experienced in full. i had a hard time listing more tracks because it all comes from here, so if you love this, listen to the whole thing & play tunic.
Citizen Sleeper by Amos Roddy
๐ฟ Album on Bandcamp
after listening through the entire soundtrack again, i think i concluded that this is my OST of the year. every track, so full and unique of its own character, triggers a hundred memories of my time in the game and its tragic characters. it's hard not to get emotional hearing everything, because it could have scored just looking at the space station & plotting my day....or dealing with an emotional moment. the album itself is a perfect accompaniment for the game, even if it rarely scores one moment in particular. it creates its moments through careful re-triggering of stems, allowing pieces to drift back into the rotation. it's like putting on the perfect album for a roleplay session or a good book. and yet each track will mean something else to everyone who heard it.
Density
from the opening's broken arpeggio, to its doubling coming into the foreground, to the piano motif in octaves, everything about this track sums up the emotional weight of citizen sleeper & your ties to this place.
Matsutake
the journey this track goes on brings me back scrolling through the giant wheel of the eye, and its suspended synth placed up out of reach all of those times when you just couldn't quite make the right check against where you'd hoped something would go.
Splatoon 3 by Toru Minegishi, Shiho Fujii, Ryo Nagamatsu, Toshiyuki Sudo, Yumi Takahashi and Sayako Doi
โ Album on CD once Nintendo releases it
it's time to take a BIG emotional leap into the land of inklings & octolings. splatoon 3's soundtrack feels a lot like a victory lap for the composers, really feeling comfortable in this new aesthetic they've carved out. surprisingly a lot of my faves came from the huge playlist of lobby tracks that, in game, are heard only over a PA, but isolated are huge stand-outs.
Lobby (Weekends)
somehow they made individual base tracks for the lobby for weekdays & weekends, and while they're both jams, i really love the funky synth brass going on this track.
Lobby (Sub 7)
look, this fucking goes alright? its chaotic sampling just gives me a huge grin & then the beeeefy synth solo comes in? and then a horribly dissonant guitar riff?? it's quirky as hell and i can't get enough of it.
Lobby (Sub 9)
meanwhile this lobby track out of completely nowhere just hits you with an ambient ballad leading to weirdo synth pop? they'll let these composers do anything! i love it.
Till Depth Do Us Part
absolutely my fave of the new trio's tracks, it goes so hard. the chorus especially is incredible, i love those harmonies. it's so fun!!
Clickbait
arguably the main theme of splatoon 3, its main riff is everywhere in the game. it's such a catchy theme, and sets a perfect base for the rest of the core soundtrack.
Hero Mode Alterna 1
hero mode is chock full of cool jams, but i had to at least include one because it's such its own completely different style. splatoon is a game of multitudes. i would include the salmon run nonsense too, but it kinda breaks up the flow of the playlist too much. check it out if you like counting & math.
Neon White by Machine Girl
๐ฟ Album (in 2 parts) on Bandcamp
i am so glad that drum n bass is back in games in a big way. machine girl's soundtrack for neon white is full of incredible grooves to speedrun to, it's such a smooth listen from front to back.
Glass Ocean
the most-heard track for me as i ran the initial set of levels over and over. i love all the synths, the little 'aim for the heavens!' sample, the square wave synth in the 2nd half. i could play the same level for hours to this. and i did.
Sin to Win!
i really love the complete vibe shift with this track, immediately feeling way more dangerous, but still extremely cool. around 1 minute in it goes into a breakdown section that goes so fuckin hard, what a cool progression throughout.
Norco by Gewgawly I & Thou
๐ฟ Album on Bandcamp
norco is an extremely weird (amazing) game with a very weird soundtrack. a lot of it works best within the context of the game and its abstract pixelated world, but there's several outstanding tracks that deserve shouting out.
Chex2Cash by Gewgawly I
it's really funny to me that the theme for such an ordinary place has one of the more dreamy out-there themes. the synth lead for this just goes and goes, what a cool atmosphere.
Behind the Fenceline by Gewgawly I
this was absolutely my standout bgm track from the game. i love the disjointed synth arpeggio & crunchy pizz samples. a small, diminutive trumpet. it really serves up the weird tragedy of this cyberfuture nowhere.
Refinery Eyes (Laura's Theme) by Gewgawly I
the story of laura in norco is perfectly summed up in this little theme, fuzzy synths and a gentle bass line. a tragedy in stasis.
Goo in a Burning City (fmGew Remix) by Thou
the end credits theme by thou just unloads all the pent-up emotions i felt throughout the course of norco's story. by the time the credits roll on whatever ending you manage to get, having these distant screams wash over you as the music goes is cathartic.
Metal: Hellsinger by Two Feathers & friends
โ Album releasing eventually?
i didn't play metal: hellsinger, but my wife did, so i heard a lot of really sick tunes coming from her office. but she did share the final boss track with me, which i have to include because it's just sick as hell & System of a Down's Serj Tankian is perfect for this epic showdown.
No Tomorrow feat. Serj Tankian
Elden Ring by Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa, Tai Tomisawa, Yuka Kitamura, and Yoshimi Kudo
๐ฟ Album on Various Streaming Sites
excuse my very brief exploration into huge orchestral & choral arrangements. elden ring is obviously a showstopper, and i wasn't a fan of ALL of its music (the open world bgm is pretty weak. some of the combat tracks have inconsistent quality). however, there were several huge showstoppers that really stand out!
Mohg, Lord of Blood by Shoi Miyazawa
mohg is a bastard, but his fight has some of the coolest music. some just gorgeous choral writing to start as it simmers, then explodes into its main statement of the theme with harpsichord just in the distance. when it enters the 2nd phase, it really pairs with the chaos of mohg chanting "NIHIL" and sprouting wings. what a cool fight.
Godskin Apostles by Tai Tomisawa
the apostles stands out to me because of how completely randomly i ran into my first one, and how badly i got destroyed paired with how taken back i was at how gorgeous the choral interlude around 1 minute in is, and then rising chords into its chaotic primary theme statement. all running at a jaunty 3/4 until phase 2 takes things into a more straight-ahead ominous feeling (yet retaining the 3/4 signature) and a bizarrely triumphant trumpet flourish at 3 mins in. it's all those little details that stand out from an otherwise carmina burana-like orchestral piece. i love when elements break out and you can hear the composer's signature come through.
Godrick the Grafted by Shoi Miyazawa
godrick is such a weird guy. my favorite thing about his boss theme is that the way it's composed perfectly mirrors his design. it's all these bizarre, punctuating phrases, literally grafted together in its form. here's some military might, here's a little violin line, here's some drunken choir in oscillating time signatures, here's a choral statement that feels like a fire breathing arm. it's the math rock of epic orchestral writing.
Warhammer 20,000: Darktide by Jesper Kyd
๐ฟ Album on Steam
another game i didn't actually play, but the composition work by jesper continues to astonish me so i had to seek out at least one example to give for how neat this game's aesthetic is.
Darktide Main Theme
electronic didgeridoo & throat singing, mad fiddling, church organ, weird dissonant chanting, HEAVY synths.... it all comes together in one of the coolest melanges only jesper kyd would come up with. i may never play the game, but its ost is cool as hell.
Soul Hackers 2 by MONACA
๐ฟ Album Available for Import
okay it's anime time. i didn't like ALL of soul hackers 2, but the music really stands out as a MONACA team effort that shows off more than just their NieR-adjacent chops.
Hopeless Call by Keiichi Okabe ft. NAHO
what an incredible opening theme. it's really good on its own, but then it goes to the chorus at 1:09 and i lost my goddamn mind. i can't help not sing along ๐ถ IIIIII BELIEVEEEE!!! ๐ถ fuck yes!!
Boss Battle by Keigo Hoashi
soul hackers 2's boss theme goes so hard, between the synth metal & signature MONACA vocals, and guitar solos....it's definitely my favorite piece of combat music in the game. the final boss battle really brings it back to Automata style composition, but this really takes the cake for what i consider a fusion of MONACA's & SMT's shared strengths.
To the Abyss by Kuniyuki Takahashi
this track really stuck with me ever since i first heard it in game. what a cool series of synths....i love everything about the mood it conjures up when diving into the stories of each hacked character's deaths. bonus points for some unexpected & gorgeous use of hand bells.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet by Junichi Masuda, Gล Ichinose, Minako Adachi, Toby Fox, and Hitomi Sato
๐ซ Nintendo / Pokemon Company will probably never officially release this
pokemon scarlet & violet was a bit of a weird one for me that had a lot of ups and downs, but i think everything really culminated for me in the final portion of the game where things take a sudden turn into extremely meaningful story moments and surprising turns in the music direction, which is where my two favorite tracks come into play.
Area Zero
while there's no specific composer/arrangement credits available anywhere, I really really love how Area Zero's theme takes a simple ostinato from toby's tera raid battle theme & creates an entire haunting vibe for its descent into the truth.
VS Sada & Turo
another incredible arrangement of some of toby's themes, area zero, and taking more than a few cues from some final fantasy end bosses. i was on the edge of my seat for the entire finale of the game, and this track just honestly elevated the entire experience so so much. when the guitar kicks in with the tera raid melody, it's like a huge confirmation like yes, toby did work on this game, it's really funny but also extremely cool.
VS Penny
i think it's just really funny that there's a pokemon character who looks like my wife, uses my favorite pokemon (eeveelutions), and has a j-core battle theme. it rules!!
Sonic Frontiers by Tomoya Ohtani, Kenichi Tokoi, Takahito Eguchi, Rintaro Soma, Kenji Mizuno, Kanon Oguni and Hiroshi Kawaguchi
๐ฟ Album Available for Import or Streaming
look, i love how cheesy and earnest everything about sonic is. frontiers' soundtrack Stillness & Motion is 6 CDs that could be honestly 3 completely different soundtracks (cyberspace, open world, boss battles) and yet it all comes together here into a huge feast of clashing musical styles that go perfectly together.
Cyber Space 1-2: Flowing by Tomoya Ohtani feat. YURI
flowing with time i'm flowing, flowing into the light. flowing with time i'm flowing, flowing into the light. flowing with time i'm flowing, flowing into the light. flowing with time i'm flowing, flowing into the light.
DISAPPEAR
DISAPPEARING
Ares Island: 6th Mvt. by Tomoya Ohtani
i earnestly love how MUCH music the open world in this game has. the first three islands all have multiple movement tracks that progress as you move the story forward, and it's a really amazing way of handling a looping open score, especially since every single movement is like 5-6 minutes long. while the first island is very gorgeous & haunting string quartet writing, ares island brings in darbuka, duduk, santoor, and more in a really gorgeous arrangement that feels far more than just the stereotype of playing eastern music with desert areas. it's earnest in a way that develops extremely well over the course of its movements. my favorite here is the 6th where it starts coming down in vibe, framed by some beautiful guitar playing by Koichiro Tashiro.
Ouranos Island by Tomoya Ohtani
while ouranos island feels like you're revisiting the first island aesthetically, i extremely love how the focus on Sage's character allows the quartet & piano to get even more synth-driven, fusing the cyberspace & open world aesthetics together in an extremely cool way.
Undefeatable by Tomoya Ohtani feat. Kellin Quinn
man. MAN. when i first went up against the first boss, this started playing, and i knew with all my heart that they knew exactly what they were doing. it's such a hilariously on the nose track, but it goes so hard & fits the fight & super sonic's aesthetic perfectly. he's goku!! he's gone SSJ!!! he's bursting through the boss in slow motion!!!!
I'm Here [Re-Edit] by Tomoya Ohtani feat. Merry Kirk-Holmes
the final boss theme it is the MOST ABSOLUTE ANIME THING (positive). the opening theme arranged in an incredible orchestral power metal version?? come on. COME ON! so good. every game that does this is an S-rank in my eyes.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 by Yasunori Mitsuda, ACE, Kenji Hiramatsu, Manami Kiyota, and Mariam Abounnasr
โ Album Releasing Eventually (please soon)
last but absolutely not least. did i say citizen sleeper was my soundtrack of the year? in a lot of ways it is, but xenoblade 3 is a special exception that will always take the top spot for me for the sheer breadth of music and its quality across the board. the team, led by mitsuda-san for the 2nd time in the trilogy, has created a breathtaking score that is equal parts more personal and mournful than its predecessors, but also more bombastic (if you can even believe that).
a slight disclaimer is that i'm only including music from early early game, because i am still working on finishing the game & want to avoid any and all chances for spoilers. but!! the early game is jam packed with some of my favorite compositions, so let's close out with 3 incredible tracks:
Yzana Plains (Day)
the thing that stood out so prominently to me upon finally starting the game is that the area bgm is not just there to vibe to. it is an emotionally packed score resonant with each area it's written for. the ticking of a clock and mournful choral voices begin the first area bgm, reflecting the dire nature of a world in perpetual stasis, existing only to fill their clocks and harvest the time of their supposed enemies. the synth phrase at 2:50 followed by a response from the choir.... everything in this composition cries out to reflect the world.
Alfeto Valley (Day)
the 2nd area of the game continues the feeling of reflecting the world, with another sad melody that feels like it's playing to the strengths of mitsuda's direction. the melodic work alone is incredible, but its arrangement takes it over the top and has little hints of the ruins that comprise its landscape.
A Formidable Enemy
every time i get into a battle with an elite enemy, i have to prepare myself for the absolute JAM that is this battle track. the piano rhythms, the slap bass going insane, the disco string runs, the cut-up editing to reinforce the drum fills?? it's so good!! ugh. ugh!!
i could talk about xenoblade's music all day, but i have to end this post eventually so...i will
music is great, everyone
