Board 8 > What games have been helped/hurt a lot by their soundtrack?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm talking to a disproportionate degree. Obviously better music will improve almost any experience, but some games wouldn't feel remotely the same without the soundtrack they have. Nier is the first example that comes to mind for me.

As for a game where I felt the music hurt the experience...well, this topic was inspired by browsing the Xenoblade X OST.

Katamari Damacy.

I agree with Nier and Katamari, and offer up the Ace Attorney series and The World Ends With You.

https://youtu.be/mbW84pwFcgo

Shatter. It's just brick breaker, and yet.

As for hurt, Bomberman Generations back on Gamecube was painful to listen to.

LittleBigPlanet

Revengeance and DMC5 come to mind.

Umineko

Persona probably qualifies too

My mind went to Nier before entering the topic.

Helped: Silent Hill: Homecoming

Akira's soundtrack is easily the best part of this otherwise middling survival horror game, with some of my favorite songs in the series like Alex's Theme and One More Soul to the Call. There is no way this game is as memorable to me without it.

Hurt: Resident Evil 6

In a series full of memorable tunes, this one supremely lacks and feels generic. A lot of the action scenes or even some of the more horror-focused scenes could've been helped immensely with some actually exciting or atmospheric compositions.

Ace Attorney and Nier, which were already mentioend here, are the best examples imo
I would say the Gunvolt games too, the songs of Lumen/Lola really improves the experience when they kick in

Hurt...I would say Control. I always thought that the game was super boring and couldn't understand really why - until I got to the Ashtray Maze
Without spoiling, this is when a kickass music kicks in, and then suddenly the whole experience changes from boring to epic (of course you also get a power buff but I didn't find that the thing that made this part so good)
Had the music been so good in other parts of the game I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more :/

Every Trails game
Persona 4/5
Mystic Quest

XCXs ost is great though

World of Goo

The soundtrack is almost an entity itself and really helps the world come to life. Without it the game would seem like a straightforward puzzle game.

My favourite track
https://youtu.be/WLuob0wZw20

Pretty much every modern Sonic game has a couple of tracks that are sick and occasionally make you forget you're playing a modern Sonic game

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Another good one.

A few hours into Rogue Legacy I was super fed up with the opening area's annoying music.

Bartzyx posted...

A few hours into Rogue Legacy I was super fed up with the opening area's annoying music.

Do you mean the castle music or the area before you head into the castle? I thought Trilobyte (the castle theme) was one of the highlights of the game.

I've always said Secret of Mana is my favorite game and the soundtrack is probably the biggest reason why. Other than the boss track. Danger can suck my toe.

For a series that I don't think is helped by its soundtrack, I've got a hot take, and that is the music from Civilization other than the original game. It's inherent you'll be listening to the music in a 4X game for a really long time, yes, but every game has had music that has generally been completely forgettable. Decent enough on a first listen, I suppose, if a little too background-y for me, but I swear if I have to listen to Waltzing Matilda one more time just because Australia is somewhere in my game...

Yes Trilobyte. It was fine at first but quickly got repetitive.

azuarc posted...

Do you mean the castle music or the area before you head into the castle? I thought Trilobyte (the castle theme) was one of the highlights of the game.

I've always said Secret of Mana is my favorite game and the soundtrack is probably the biggest reason why. Other than the boss track. Danger can suck my toe.

For a series that I don't think is helped by its soundtrack, I've got a hot take, and that is the music from Civilization other than the original game. It's inherent you'll be listening to the music in a 4X game for a really long time, yes, but every game has had music that has generally been completely forgettable. Decent enough on a first listen, I suppose, if a little too background-y for me, but I swear if I have to listen to Waltzing Matilda one more time just because Australia is somewhere in my game...

Agree for V, hard disagree for 4.

Civ 4 had period appropriate music that really helped provide an underlying mood while you played. And the leader tunes were mostly really well done too. Only thing bad was the lack of world music. Really should have expanded a bit more on that instead of being so eurocentric.

Now, to answer the topic, a game where it helped... for me, Starcraft. I didn't play much of the game, but the music made me want to.

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Without this all time classic music, this game would suffer mightily for it's poor execution of MANY ideas that didn't work to fruition. The music carries you through, even if your brain keeps frying the more the plot dies in its own contrivances.

Every Donkey Kong Country game

The Metroid Prime trilogy

Those games are great either way, but the incredible atmosphere of all those titles wouldn't be possible without the soundtracks.

for me, sound and music is such an integral part of the experience that it's hard for me to answer

i guess there are some simplistic and brutal action games that just wouldn't be the same without the music, like furi or hotline miami

I can't help but find the overall Chrono Cross soundtrack lacking outside of its heavy hitters, though. Where are the good battle themes? This is the sequel to CT!
I heard at one point that someone realized wanting to play Bravely Default again was just wanting to hear the soundtrack. I can understand that as I've never finished a playthrough.

The amount of good atmospheric music in CC trumps the fact the battle theme...kinda sucks.

Scars Left By Time
Fort Dragonia
Viper Manor
Marbule (all verisons, but that freaking concert)
Chronomantique
Garden of the Gods
Radical Dreamers
Another World
Another Termina
Dragon Prayer
Dead Sea

I mean, I love me FF soundtracks, but CC is just absurdly rich in memorable themes. Even the less memorable stuff still makes for great music.

Civ 3 had good music but not enough of it

Hurt: Dragon Quest XI- it was enough to stop me from purchasing the game despite having a decent enough time with the rest of the demo experience.

Helped: Smash Bros Brawl- easily my least fav Smash gameplaywise but it has my fav OST in the series.

The simplest answer, because it was designed this way, is Tetris Effect.

Chrono Cross is a great example of a game where the soundtrack can't save it

Paper Mario Sticker Star is another example of a game where the soundtrack can't save it.

I have never played XC2 and have little desire to but the soundtrack is one of the best from any game. Celeste is a great game by itself, but without its soundtrack it's not close to as memorable - same with plenty of platformers, but in particular the Galaxy games and the DKC games (including the new ones). Oh, and Undertale.

I can't think of many games which were hurt by awful music tbh (and I disagree on the XCX take). The Bungie Halo games have amazing music, and the 343 ones have the most bland sci-fi music ever, with just about everything good stealing motifs from the Bungie game. Also, I've not played it for a while, but I distinctly remember Fallout NV having meh ambient music and about ten tracks total on the radio which made me turn it off in the end.

Pretty much everything from Falcom, as well as the Wild ARMs franchise. Good games in their own right, but elevated to something special by their spectacular soundtracks.

Sheep007 posted...

The Bungie Halo games have amazing music, and the 343 ones have the most bland sci-fi music ever

Oof, yeah. I remember playing Halo 4, and at one point thinking "This track is pretty cool"... before realising I was fighting the final boss and this was the first time I'd even noticed the BGM.

70% of trails

30% of trails

Most visual novels are vastly improved by an excellent soundtrack, because otherwise you're just reading - not much else to contribute to the experience. Umineko and House in Fata Morgana are what I'm thinking of.

Silent Hill 2 definitely elevated the material, which was good enough on its own.

Can't think of any where the music actively detracted. Games need music, though - the ones that only have sfx of beeps/boops [I'm looking at you, JezzBall] are kinda terrible.