RPG Soundtracks - The Music That Stirs the Gameplay!
One of the best parts of many RPG titles is their music selection. Let's be honest, next to the actual gameplay, it's almost essential to have a good musical score with it. This can be anywhere from the fast-paced music of arcade style, action-packed games to the slower and more emotionally involving orchestrated music of your typical RPG. A great game soundtrack can be worth listening to outside of the game! And for me, a great soundtrack can easily bring me back to past years of gaming.
This post will mostly be bringing to light some of my favored RPG soundtracks and how I love them so. Although I'll be mostly talking about RPG music, but I'll most definitely have honorable mentions of other games with catchy and memorable music. As far as the post is actually concerned...it's game music all the way! I will also be linking some video game music as recommendations! So, let's jump right in there!
The biggest thing a soundtrack in any game needs to be is enjoyable. If the music isn't enjoyable...the game is already going to go badly. The soundtrack is the music that is always and constantly playing in the back. If that sucks, then you get to listen to that suck for the rest of the game! Hell, if it was bad enough, I'd be willing to quit the game or at least turn down/mute the music. RPGs enhance this fact because 90% of the game is walking around an area trying to find the next area. I know lots of games are this exact formula, but they tend to have you spend very little time per area. An FPS will only have you in a location/level somewhere from 5 to 25 minutes. RPGs might have you crawl through a dungeon that is a 1 hour minimum. Basically, the RPG music has to be very much enjoyable over a long period.
As far as the soundtrack goes, RPGs tend to have the most variety. With an action game, you need fast-paced and explosive music. With a fighting game, you need more of a flowing and rock soundtrack. Hip hop and such aren't bad choices either. RPGs on the other hand...They're kind of open to whatever. They are basically required to have a...
- A catch yet fast-paced battle theme.
- The different and slightly epic-er boss theme.
- A happy and carefree tune for general walking about.
- The sad and/or dramatic song. Requires a piano.
- The EVIL song. The bad guy's theme.
- An opening theme and ending theme. Generally they are the same yet different.
- Finally...the different and epic yet powered final boss theme. Make it orchestra for extra points!
These are just the best examples of the songs an RPG will generally have. Most have a loooot more than that and generally each town/area/cave has its own theme song. It's a nice touch to give each place its own theme, but the problem that can arise is if one place has awesome music yet another one doesn't. Makes me feel like "I hate this town...I wanna go back to the cave!" Thankfully I don't run into that often, but I guess I felt like describing it anyways! My favorite songs in most RPGs is generally the battle themes. If I had to pick a favorite one, I'd probably jump on Final Fantasy 9's Battle Theme. I realize that all of them are really similar, but I've always preferred 9's.
For those who don't know, one of the biggest and most well-known composers for the Final Fantasy series is one Nobuo Uematsu. He's composed music for almost every single title in the series. He's also assisted other composers all over the game industry in titles like Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, and more! He was also part of the awesome Final Fantasy rock remix band known as The Black Mages (Check their last.fm link on the right side under links!). He's done quite a bit, and he's one of the more well known composers in video games today...at least for RPG fans it seems. You can read more about him at his wikipedia...like I did. Woo! Wikipedia!
Getting back to the subject... Anytime I hear a game's music, I generally get a blast of nostalgia. I start remembering my time in the game and how I loved *insert game name here*. I honestly do this with about any game I've played with generally memorable music. From Final Fantasy (of course) to Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, their music brings back great memories. I don't generally listen directly to any of their tracks though. I'm into the whole "Video Game Remix Music" thing. If you are interested and want to hear more, you should check out this place --> http://ocremix.org/. It's free remixed music of various video games from all across the past and present console generations. I would highly recommend it...if you like video game music. Might still be worth a looking into regardless!
As well as remixed video game music, I also enjoy the awesome and well-done various video game bands! I can name quite a few, but I'll stick with just a handful of the best ones.
Getting back to the subject... Anytime I hear a game's music, I generally get a blast of nostalgia. I start remembering my time in the game and how I loved *insert game name here*. I honestly do this with about any game I've played with generally memorable music. From Final Fantasy (of course) to Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, their music brings back great memories. I don't generally listen directly to any of their tracks though. I'm into the whole "Video Game Remix Music" thing. If you are interested and want to hear more, you should check out this place --> http://ocremix.org/. It's free remixed music of various video games from all across the past and present console generations. I would highly recommend it...if you like video game music. Might still be worth a looking into regardless!
As well as remixed video game music, I also enjoy the awesome and well-done various video game bands! I can name quite a few, but I'll stick with just a handful of the best ones.
- The Megas - Mega Man themed rock band. Song library is rock remixes of Mega Man songs.
- PROTOMEN - Another Mega Man themed band whose albums are rock operas of Mega Man stuffs. Hard to explain without going into detail. They've been around a long time and hella awesome.
- DJ CUTMAN - DJ music artist person who remixes various video game music and also makes chiptune music. Not going into detail, but he's got a wide variety, and it is a great listen.
- brentalfloss.com - Not a video game band persay, but he's done the fairly popular "What if video game songs had lyrics" videos. They're generally catchy and lots of fun.
- The Black Mages last.fm - Relinking this because...they're awesome! Final Fantasy rock remixes. Aaaaah yeaaah!
- Metroid Metal - Home of the Metroid Metal. A really awesome metal remix of Metroid songs.
I'll be honest...After trying to find a decent list of stuff, I found out that I don't really have a huge variety to choose from. Most of what I listen to is the ocremix official albums that are composed of a huge group of varying remix artists. I'd really suggest any of those I listed above...You probably noticed that 3 of those 6 are Mega Man themed. I really enjoy the Mega Man series. :O
I realize this hasn't been the most glorious post, but I do have one final item of interest I wanted to throw out before I wrapped this up. I was simply going to make my "honorable" mentions of video game music for non-RPG games.
First up in that list would probably be the Sonic the Hedgehog series on the whole. I realize that a good portion of the 3D Sonic titles aren't that great, but one of the biggest things that have always stuck for me (regardless of how good/bad the gameplay is) is the music in the game. Every single title has at least ONE really awesome song. I've heard that Team Sonic has a in-house band that does all their music. They've always done a really good job at the music. I'd highly suggest the older Sonic titles as well. The first three had some great catchy stage music.
Next up would be the Mario series of games. It all began with the first Super Mario Bros...and that first stage music. Everybody knows it! Even if they don't want to, they know it! Hearing the music makes me think of the games of old and going back to a simpler time. There are copious amounts of remixes and revisionings of the Mario songs. Many of which are focused on the older titles as opposed to newer ones. Hell, most of the newer ones use some sort of remixed version of the old songs for most of their stages. The underground music is basically everywhere always in Mario titles. Anyways...good stuff.
Next up would be the Mario series of games. It all began with the first Super Mario Bros...and that first stage music. Everybody knows it! Even if they don't want to, they know it! Hearing the music makes me think of the games of old and going back to a simpler time. There are copious amounts of remixes and revisionings of the Mario songs. Many of which are focused on the older titles as opposed to newer ones. Hell, most of the newer ones use some sort of remixed version of the old songs for most of their stages. The underground music is basically everywhere always in Mario titles. Anyways...good stuff.
Mega Man games in their entirety. Even without the remixes and video game bands of Mega Man, there are some really great Mega Man songs. Even the original NES series has some really awesome music! My favorite assortment is the Mega Man X series followed closely by Mega Man Legends. Legends doesn't really have any rocking tracks, but they do contain some fairly memorable songs for me. So...Mega Man is awesome!
I swear! I only have two more to mention and then I'm closing this! The next up on my list is the awesome Super Nintendo RPG known only as Earthbound. A great RPG with basically just complete win factor all around. Great game, great music, great story, great characters. There really wasn't any flaws with it, and on top of all that...it was REALLY different from anything else! The music is incredible and moving for the 16-bit era. Every town...every location...all of it had its own memorable track that you immediately knew where you were! Just good times all around. If you have never played the game, I would like to demand you go emulate the game RIGHT NOW! I won't give you any details of how to get it...just use Google damn it!
The last one I felt should be mentioned is a title that stands right next to Earthbound in not only the great category...but also in the SNES RPG category! Yeah, that console had a boatload of RPGs come along for it. However, if you were to ask many fans at that time, Chrono Trigger would probably be the #1 RPG for the SNES. I've never fully played it myself, but it definitely stood out. It was a great game with fun battles and a crazy story. The music really stood out for it as well. You went all across time experiencing different time periods with their own highly related music material. The apocalyptic future had a desolate and eerie soundtrack to fit the setting. I could go on and on, but let's just say...great game with great music. Check it out as well! I also demand you emulate it as well! Although I will warn you (for both this and the previous one) that playing them on an emulator is nothing compared to the real deal. Also Chrono Trigger is available on the PSN...Go get it!
All right! I've said my piece. Video game music may not be important to some people, but I've always really enjoyed it. I like it in the game. I like it outside of the game. It's great fun stuff, and there are literally hundreds of people remixing it and coming up with some cool sounds. I've bought many, many video game band albums, and I plan to buy more in the future! Anyways, RPG music will always have a special place in my ear...because it has always treated me right. It has taken me on the wings of fantasy and brought me through time. It's magical and heartwarming and awesome all at the same time. I'd like to thank all the video game composers out there for changing mah life! THANK YOU! And good night...
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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