Board 8 > FL81 ranks Video Game Music again (Rankings: Part 2)

(+) Yeah! (+)

#48 The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - Synchronicity #23
Rating: 7.5/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @pyresword (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHsx5nXE9M

Having played through a number of the Trails games, I've come to expect at least one ethereal space techno song in that one dungeon each game that calls for it. What I was not expecting was that surprise melodic trance. This one is a bit shorter than the others I was familiar with, but it's catchy so I wouldn't mind this one looping on and on. The piano is a nice touch.

#47 GuitarFreaks XG & DrumMania XG - KAISER PHOENIX
Rating: 7.5/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @loweffortmemes (4/5)
Link: https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/guitar-freaks-xg-drummania-xg-original-soundtrack-beginning-edition-2010 (more specific link is too long, but it's in there somewhere)

Oh hey another dead YouTube link. In my listening notes for this one, all I had written down was "Lords of Thunder", but luckily for me that was enough for me to confirm this was the right track!

(no but seriously, tell me that this isn't something taken straight from LoT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDla2ZS04gY specifically that riff 23 seconds into Kaiser Phoenix lol)

Ok yeah anyone who's been around and knows me knows that any shredding heavy/neoclassical/power metal is a pretty safe bet in terms of my tastes. Rhythm game music has such a diverse selection, like I'm expecting EDM usually then I get slapped with a facemelter, very cool!

vgmc soon bump

#46 Gensokyo Odyssey - Eternal Moon
Rating: 7.5/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @UF8 (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqW_H200VUY

(YouTube took down the original Topic upload for this song, so I found another Topic upload!)
Eternal Moon more like Eternal song (this nomination holds the distinction of being the longest song on the list!) I always love me an Imperishable Night arrangement, it's the first Touhou shmup game I've played, and I'd say also my favorite soundtrack of the lot. Touhou Jazz was the main thing I listened to uhhh 13-14 years ago (wow it's been that long huh). Definitely a gamble choosing something so long for a ranking, but I really like this, so it paid off. Kronington isn't an artist I knew about before UF8 introduced me to them, but their work, along with a lot of other western creators has reached like, a really good level these last few years; up there with all the high-effort doujin releases back during Touhou's golden age. Also I like how on this composer's website, they have a link to an IMDB page. That is new. Fun, old timey jazz, music that is great to listen to while composing long writeups for video game music (I'm relistening to it right now, and from the time I started writing this paragraph until now, the song is still going).

#45 Pokmon Scarlet & Violet - Battle! Zero Lab
Rating: 7.5/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @hombad46 (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTj1v1sAYXQ

I've never played S/V after being a bit disappointed by Sw/Sh (oh no MUSIC SPOILERS) but at least I can say the music is still as good as ever. Was this one one of the Toby Fox contributions? That little melody two minutes in sounds very much like his distinct signature style. Anyhow it both manages to stand out as a unique final boss theme, while at the same time sounding distinctly like "Pokmon Final Boss Music", of which there isn't a single bad one I can think of! Maybe I will play this game one day (or more likely just wait for the next gen on Switch 2 ).

#44 Old School RuneScape - The Route of All Evil
Rating: 7.6/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @handsomeboy2012 (2/3)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1jwJE8kZQ4

Every time I see handsomeboy2012 nominate music for a ranking topic, I always see RuneScape music! Which is pretty cool because it's the game I have the most hours in, and I've always appreciated its music. The Route of All Evil is a faster-paced, more energetic remix of Alternative Root (a song I helped push for VGMC!), and while I do actually prefer the original, this one brings new ideas to the table. I feel the best RuneScape music came from around the 2008 era where they were experimenting with their new MIDI instrumentation, and I maintain that Adam Bond is the best composer to have worked with Jagex's sound team. Also, I wanna take a moment to appreciate just how cool those synth pads in the outro sound.

Yeah I always have a hard time picking which RS track to nominate. Adam Bond's music still feels very cosistent with the even older ones but has his own style as well, sucks that he doesn't work there anymore

went to check which composer did the rs song i picked for the super c collabs now (it was michael manning so i guess not the same person, which really makes sense in retrospect considering i didn't pick an osrs song lol. seems nowadays he works at larian studios, and also makes his own indie games now https://mgfm.itch.io so that's cool)

#43 Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Intersection: Me vs. You
Rating: 7.6/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @cakophon (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq0AcgCtwoY

Ah, an old VGMC rock classic. And by "classic", I mean it was in exactly one year, but it left enough of a positive impression on me that I still remember it. The strings and flute on this one sound nice, but it's not what I would expect from something I assume has a steampunk aesthetic (from the image in the YouTube upload, as well as the game's title). I wouldn't mind seeing this one in VGMC again.

#42 Armored Trooper Votoms(PS2) - Battle 4
Rating: 7.6/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Tked (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfzgqzsHJog

Cool robot, cool robot music, this all reminds me of the Custom Robo (N64) OST a bit. I'm digging that guitar intro and that little bass part they play on the loop point. Groovy with an old school feel (interesting that this game came out towards the end of the PS2's life cycle rather than near the beginning as I'd expect).

#41 DemonsRoots - ENDLESS ENGRAVE
Rating: 7.6/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @banshiryuu (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbGlcvb6YOU

I do like how the nominator of this song was originally going with a different DemonsRoots song (Ground Dasher), until I mentioned I had already used that song in another B8 project! Admittedly, that one would've placed slightly higher in the ranking, but I am glad to hear a new discovery! I have this really bad habit of discovering new music I really like, then just fixating on those single songs instead of actually checking out other stuff from the same artist/album/soundtrack, and I am guilty of that here too. Granted, I'm already familiar with a lot of Shade's other stuff, and it rarely misses! Gotta love those (what looks like made in RPGMaker? Game apparently has good reviews?) RPG games with unexpectedly rocking soundtracks.

#40 Huntdown - The NO.1 Suspects
Rating: 7.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @tgs2 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljen02b0Z20

Whoa cool sound design. I love the sound of '80s synths, even though this video game came out in 2020. Also LOL I totally did not catch this on my first listen, but now it's all I can hear listening to this song!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/03c62c08.png
It's such an obvious pastiche in retrospect. Anyway yeah this is super cool, and if people haven't figured it out a big chunk of my musical taste is tied into the aesthetics of this time period.

#39 Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER - Kick Back!
Rating: 7.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @cakophon (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5f1ZKmcxkY

Two songs in a row where the retro sound design sounds like something much older, but I looked it up and this game only came out in 2024. This here is some really funky FM synth, reminiscient of Rivals of Aether, maybe even more so the spinoff game Lovers of Aether. It's a really specific type of funk that's seen a strong resurgence lately. Kick Back Indeed!

This was actually supposed to be rank #52, but I completely skipped over this, whoops! I feel this is a better placement anyway.

#38 Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - Ms. VICTORIA
Rating: 7.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @PIayer_0 (1/3)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov7kusjvfdI

WTF okay seriously why is this anime horsegirl music SO GOOD?! I've heard a few Uma Musume songs before, and they're all top tier quality like this. That weird "anime idol music meets heavy metal" style that this franchise (and a few others I've seen) is a surprising sweet spot for me that I wasn't expecting to like so much. Crazy energy in this, as much as I have mixed feelings on idol music, this one is just good.

#37 Arknights - Maou
Rating: 7.8/10
Have I heard this before?: Not before it was nominated here
Nominator: @dowolf (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuZgtxR7ddA

A.K.A. Lord of Fiends for you VGMC participants. I actually ended up voting against this in its first round in the contest, but that is of no fault of this song, I just liked its opponent that much more! Arknights is definitely in the upper echelon of gacha soundtracks (there was another song from this game that ended up as one of my favorite discoveries of the year, but it was panned by B8's VGM critics so no VGMC nomination for you!) Heavy, dark, cinematic: all words befitting the Lord of Fiends! This is just the kind of feel I'm always looking for in music.

Even within Uma Musume, Ms Victoria is a pretty unique song, ~200 BPM played double-time is almost 400 BPM just for the kick-snare pattern! Shota Horie composed it, he also did Cradle for The Caligula Effect.

holy shit

this Uma Musume song has the same BPM as Through the Fire and Flames

#36 Persona 5 Strikers - Counter Strike
Rating: 7.8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @hombad46 (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4saztGxyVI

I've been pretty vocal here about my disdain for Persona music, so you were taking a pretty big gamble choosing this for my ranking! But hot damn, what is this?? This is leagues above anything else I've heard from this series. I wish all Persona music sounded like this.. (I do feel P5 is better in general than the previous entries, but this is on another level.) Really fun, good discovery that I wouldn't have found on my own!

Glad you liked it!

#35 The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak - Resonance of Ray
Rating: 7.8/10
Have I heard this before?: Maybe? (it's in VGMC now)
Nominator: Hbthebattle (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAu-m5JAjvA

Return of the Falcom Final Dungeon music, except this one actually is Falcom Final Dungeon music! Seriously, these themes never miss. Hollow Light of the Sealed Land for VGMC when? Wow, actually listening to them back-to-back, they have the exact same vibe! This has a "haunting symphonic" sound, with a little bit of rock and electronic thrown in to make it sound epic. Really cool music, now please excuse me while I dodge all of the YouTube comments so I don't get spoiled on anything.

#34 Touhou Gensou Mahjong (2020) - Wish of Seven's Blazer
Rating: 7.9/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @UF8 (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd7t7UUAqo4

Here we have an arrangement of Alice Margatroid's theme The Grimoire of Alice from the hit video game Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square. (Which, I will say her PC-98 themes blow her Windows game themes out of the water!) For all the Touhou arrangements that incorporate all sorts of wacky, crazy new ideas, this one plays it pretty close to the original, but manages to keep it fresh and exciting with a bit of an EDM spin. Also I don't know what a Wish of Seven's Blazer is, but I half-expected this to play Wild ARMs 2 - Battle vs. Lord Blazer instead of what I got.

return of the inexplicably good mahjong music

FL81 posted...

return of the inexplicably good mahjong music

to be honest, despite having a fixation on this series' music, i hadn't even actually thought about this part playing a factor when i nommed it lol

i was just confident "gunvolt composer does pc98 touhou" was about the best way i could do a pc98 touhou arrangement nom that would still have a shot at doing better than pc98 touhou itself lol

#33 Xeno Crisis - Dunes (Area 3)
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @cakophon (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3N1rJIf8MU

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/abf4902f.png
Starting off the 8+ rankings strong here. I first discovered this game during my first ranking topic where it placed 6th! I've always found it truly fascinating just how many platforms this game has been released on. I feel like there's some sort of record set there. (nah who am I kidding, that has to be Doom)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/047a86b8.png
FM synth heavy metal is my favorite thing, that abrasive Sega Genesis soundchip is perfect for this heavy type of sound. I always love it when something like this shows up in VGM topics, especially my own!

safety bump

I think I have a few things left. Please refrain from pinging me when they drop. I want to be surprised

rwlh posted...

I think I have a few things left. Please refrain from pinging me when they drop. I want to be surprised

Noted.

#32 The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak - Tharbad Night
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Janus5k (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3ouMSoAJxc

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/95792ca4.png
Electro-swing, in my Falcom? This series has a bunch of amazing hard rock tracks, then when it ventures into something unique sounding, it also ends up turning out simply excellent. For such a short song, it sure is catchy and I could loop this jazzy beat on and on.

(years later I still don't get the Singa hate, this shit is fire)

#31 GG Aleste - Stage 01
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @tazzyboyishere (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVCJJt-tqEQ

Surprised at the one I do have remaining! Feel like it would've dropped already on many other user lists. - tazzyboyishere, 2025

lol

This should not come as a surprise! I've always loved these sort of manic bleeps-and-bloops chiptunes! (I just don't nominate them for VGMC because lol rip chiptunes ) Musha Aleste is one of my favorite Genesis soundtracks, but I haven't checked out GG Aleste for the Game Gear (or wasn't even really cognizant of its existence). Like MUSHA, it goes for a heavy metal sound, but in a distinctly 8-bit fashion. In this regard it kinda reminds me of the final boss theme from the Ys 1 Famicom port
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1wbiLmtE2E
but sadly heavy metal music on 8-bit consoles isn't nearly as well-explored a concept as its 16-bit cousins. Really fun tune here, gets me pumped!

that's a song we all agree is good. cf deep affection

#30 HoloCure - Halloween Castle: Myth (Stage 3: Hard)
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @handsomeboy2012 (1/3)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzl3JbUIFLY

Here we have the other HoloCure song nominated for my ranking, and this one goes even harder than the last! I feel bad about voting against this all the way back in BOST23, as you can see this was good enough to land in the top 30 of my ranking! Love that "spooky haunted castle" music and that drop at 1:55 is cool.

NFUN posted...

deep affection

like compositionally this isn't even bad, but jesus christ what is that mixing

giving me early '00s doujin production value vibes here (hey I'm big into that kind of stuff though)

and speaking of ungodly loud music

*headphone warning for #29*
#29 Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label - Presentiment
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @NFUN (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=269uvoQPV_o

Why is this specific YouTube video like 5x louder than anything else in the playlist? Anyway

This whole game's soundtrack is fucking nuts. I love that super hard techno that Cave uses for their games that is distinctively "Cave" (or more specifically Manabu Namiki and these Namiki-inspired Kudo tracks). I kinda wish other techno soundtracks went as hard as this (actually, there is one more song in this ranking that has yet to appear which I am 90% certain took Cave soundtracks as its primary inspiration). Go hard or go home, this game SLAMS your FACE into the WALL with its MUSIC.

#28 Crow Country - Staring Into the Flames (Epilogue)
Rating: 8.1/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Snake5555555555 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qLQfVHZhuM

Wow, what a tone this one has! This has the most interesting mix of being both somber and relaxing. I was trying to remember what specific song this heavily reminded me of (one of the comments pointed it out, it's Tristram). I need to stop using the word vibe so often in my write-ups, but this may be the vibiest song in the whole ranking. I just wish this were a bit longer!

Damn I didn't even realize I had a song left in this, glad you liked this one though!

#27 Youyou Kengeki Musou - Fairy Adventure
Rating: 8.1/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @UF8 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsvftYakq84

JONA nominated a different song from this game back during my first ranking, but I have to say I like this one a lot more! Interestingly, this is one of the very, very few Touhou melodies that I did not recognize, being a remix of a song from the Strange and Bright Nature Deity 3 album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0Qb5Oxhyg (Two Worlds from the same album is also a very underrated Touhou composition!)
Jun.A has a rockin' tune here, and was one of the big names (with sound sepher) in Touhou doujin music back in the day, nice seeing some appreciation for the classics here.

#26 Revolver360 - Shooting Star
Rating: 8.2/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Tked (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRn5dBE_woE

This is the kind of EPIC TRANCE you could only find from a Y2K futuristic-styled shmup game. Nothing too complex going on here, just pumped up rave music full of high-speed energy. (Looking it up, Revolver360 was, in fact, originally an Xbox 360 game)

#25 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake - Battle - Prince Mush -
Rating: 8.2/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @hombad46 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxWuAjyezJc

Why is there Ys music in a Paper Mario game? Why does Paper Mario music sound like this? Nothing at all about this screams Paper Mario, or even anything Mario-related for that matter. But whatever, this is really great! Being completely out-of-the-loop in terms of context, I'll say these recent Paper Mario soundtracks go hard. Hardcore JRPG boss themes are my jam.

#24 Battle Garegga - Subversive Awareness [STAGE5 CLOUD]
Rating: 8.2/10
Have I heard this before?: Maybe
Nominator: @cakophon (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJYEJN8w9c

This one is just a solid arcade shmup tune, classic Manabu Namiki goodness here. This is melodic but also super chill in a way that appeals to me in much the same way as Float in Flow did. The way it builds up and finally delivers that melody at 1:06 is just *chef's kiss*

Hell yeah Prince Mush

#23 Pikmin 4 - Final Boss
Rating: 8.3/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @TunnelScene (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wda0U-PSRl4

You could give me any arbitrarily large amount of time to guess what game this music is from, and in all actuality I would never guess this is Pikmin. This is my new winner for "least fitting YouTube thumbnail for the video game music represented" (yes I had a previous winner and it was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxKQW-Wd5Zk ). Even the the recently dropped Paper Mario track is less of a surprise than this (it's still technically a JRPG!), and like the only Pikmin music I had been previously acquainted with was whatever was in the Smash Bros. games but ok, I guess we're PROG METAL now. Actually, looking over the comments on this upload, there are quite the number commenters mentioning that this reminds them of Paper Mario music?!?! Will I have to start listening to Paper Mario and Pikmin now? Anyway this is super cool and even a bit reminiscient of some of the more "experimental" heavy metal I listened to many years back, really glad to discover this one!

The [not confirmed, but "definitely" if you study nintendo composers enough] composer of that track, Soshi Abe, is pretty clearly a huge prog metal guy. He's most definitely responsible for most-if-not-all of the boss theme half of Metroid Dread & probably did most/all of the boss/battle themes in Pikmin 4 by my evaluation. However the only other time he actualized his metal affinities i can really think of weren't really proggy (smash remixes)

but like almost every boss theme in dread is basically 'this type of prog, but not metal' so it's really nice to hear him uh, actually sound like Animals As Leaders type stuff. it's a goofy juxtaposition with the game for sure (the rest of the boss themes in pikmin 4 are more just like a more cartoony metroid dread or something), but i'm happy he got to do something like this for even just one song lmao. pikmin 4's an amazingly absurd ost regardless. glad you liked it!! I knew you would of course

#22 Dengeki Division - Forest
Rating: 8.4/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @DanKirby (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg81ukvacQc

Really what is it with PC-98 soundtracks and using that funky bass? (A real favorite of Masahiro Kajihara, but looking this game up, it seems to be composed by Ryu Umemoto. Neat!) Also interesting is that this game appears to be an SRPG, I can see this being a cool overworld/map theme. The soundchips used on the PC-98 (OPN for this nomination it seems) are my favorite out there, and mixed with the artstyle used on games from this time period just creates the coolest aesthetic in video games.

bump