Favorite video game soundtracks

[Ventus]

Hands down, Dark Cloud 2
Dark Cloud 2 Music(OST): ~Time is Changing~ - YouTube

Final Fantasy 8 gets a tip of the hat

Final Fantasy VIII - Fisherman's Horizon [HQ] - YouTube

[Owen]

I've always loved the setlist of Rock Band (I think it had the best setlist out of any game from that genre), but if we're talking proper soundtracks with music that was made for the game itself, definitely Sonic Adventures: Battle. The music just gets me so pumped! And it had so much variety and so much passion put into it.
Sonic Adventure 2 Music- City Escape - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 "Live and Learn" Music Request - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 "White Jungle" Music Request - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 "Sonic vs. Shadow" Music Request - YouTube

[Romi]

Final Fantasy, any Final Fantasy soundtrack, is just super pwn. And if the composer is the famed Uematsu Nobuo...watch out. Shit will get real. That man is a musical mastermind for the FF OSTs.

Also...the Silent Hill games had lovely tracks as well.

And while it's a PC game...I remember enjoying some of the tracks from Diablo as a child, though I've yet to get back into that, so I can't say for sure what it's like now.

[Tetraquark]

Much of the Okami soundtrack is absolutely beautiful. Some of my favorites:

Ryoshima Coast - YouTube
Okami Shiranui - YouTube

The original Kingdom Hearts also has several excellent tracks.

Hollow Bastion - YouTube
Scherzo di Notte (Hollow Bastion Combat) - YouTube
A Walk in Andante - YouTube

Also, Analogue: A Hate Story.

Hyun-Ae (Innocence) - YouTube
Prologue - YouTube

Then there's also Meaning of Birth from Tales of the Abyss (YouTube), and even Sorrowful Angel from the otherwise demented Disgaea soundtrack (YouTube, again) is actually pretty good (the in-game rendition is a bit better; the best parts are at about 1:30 and 2:30).

I should stop there. Needless to say, I like video game soundtrack.

[Ethan]

While I adore the Final Fantasy and Crono series' soundtracks to a great extent, my true love lies with the absolutely infallible Ni no Kuni OST.
Joe Hisaishi, who has done the soundtrack for almost every Studio Ghibli film, is at his best here. I can put it on and it's new and wonderful every time.
I fell in love with it when playing the imported DS game, and if I had a PS3 for the official localization I would fall in love all over again. (That would make me fall in love with it, what, like 4 times? :P)

[Cascade]

Ooooooh, Dark Cloud (2). Good choice! Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross also have great tracks.

I actually like the songs from the Phoenix Wright series. Maybe not as standalone, but in the middle of the game they are perfect. The same song ramps up the tempo as you close in on the truth and are about to nail the bad guy for committing murder. Goosebumps.

But the orchestral versions of the songs that some japanese orchestras played are fantastic.

[CTJ]

The first soundtrack to a game that i actually noticed and appreciated was for Final Fantasy 9 (my first and favourite FF game), its just a beautiful sound track.

I think the Mass Effect soundtrack needs a mention, all three games manage to capture the emotions of the moment with the music. Especially in the third game, i thought it was amazing.

Also, gotta love classic pokemon on the gameboy, brings back so many memories

[BornAnew]

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy

Each game in the series has an amazing soundtrack!

Fav FF tracks:

FFI (Main theme)
FFII (Main Theme)
FFIII (Eternal Wind)
FFIV (Airship Theme, Love Theme, World Map Theme)
FFV (Haven't played :-o )
FFVI (EVERYTHING...especially Celes' & Terra's themes)
FFVII (Cid's Theme, Aeriths Theme, Opening, World Map Theme, Ahead On Our Way)
FFVIII (Love Grows, Fisherman's horizon, Eyes On Me, Battle Themes especially man with the machine gun)
FFIX (Crossing those hills..world map theme, Vamo alla flamingo something, you are not alone)
FFX (EVERYTHING...Someday the dream will end, Tidus' Theme, Battle theme, Ending theme especially)
FFXII (Urmmm...hmmmm...Esper Theme was good)
FFXIII (Battle Theme, Saber's Edge, Archylte Steppe, Dust To Dust, Memories Of Happier Days, Sunleth Waterscape, Gapra Whitewood, Atonement, Born Anew, Separate Paths, Determination...such variety...this was a masterpiece soundtrack despite no Nobuo)
FFXIII-2 (Serahs Memory Theme, Noel's Theme, Starting Over, Future, Caius' Theme)

Apart from FF, Metal Gear Solid is really great.

Ohh & I agree with Cascade...Phoenix Wright has amazing soundtracks.

Edit: wow I went overboard with the list lol

[Level75]

Originally Posted by Owen

I've always loved the setlist of Rock Band (I think it had the best setlist out of any game from that genre), but if we're talking proper soundtracks with music that was made for the game itself, definitely Sonic Adventures: Battle. The music just gets me so pumped! And it had so much variety and so much passion put into it.
Sonic Adventure 2 Music- City Escape - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 "Live and Learn" Music Request - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 "White Jungle" Music Request - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 "Sonic vs. Shadow" Music Request - YouTube

( b'-')b

Some of my favorite tracks for the series.

Blue Azure World / Emerald Coast: Act 1 (Classic) (Sonic Adventure) (from Sonic Generations) - YouTube
Sonic Adventure 2 Music - Vengeance is Mine (Radical Highway) - YouTube
Run Through the Speed Highway ...for Speed Highway - YouTube
Keys The Ruin ...for Pyramid Cave - YouTube

Other soundtracks I like:
Chrono Cross
Dragon Quest VIII
Dragon Quest IX
Final Fantasy XI
Kingdom Hearts (the first one, not the second one. The second one sounds like nails and chalkboard)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Kid Icarus: Uprising
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The World Ends with You
Xenogears

[J Snow]

Oh so many good options. Mega Man, Zelda, Mario, but I must say, one of my favorites has to be braid.

+ YouTube Video

[LSunday]

Myst III and IV.

Myst IV: Revelation Main Theme
Myst IV: Revelation The Predator
Myst IV: Revelation Leaving Spire
Myst IV: Revelation Welcome
Myst IV: Revelation Yeesha's Joyride
Myst IV: Revelation Enter Serenia
Myst III: Exile Main Theme
Myst III: Exile All is Well, My Friend

[flyinhernikes]

jazz jackrabbit!!!

[Vanille]

I guess I'm going to be with a lot of others here. I LOVE Final Fantasy soundtracks. FFX and FFXIII are my favorites though. Kingdom Hearts soundtracks are great too. I also like a lot of the songs in Persona 3.

[malachite]

Alan Wake

War is such a great song!!!!!

[Romi]

Originally Posted by CTJ

The first soundtrack to a game that i actually noticed and appreciated was for Final Fantasy 9 (my first and favourite FF game), its just a beautiful sound track.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. YES.
My first and favorite FF game. And the OST didn't hurt at all. Beautiful music. Beautiful.

Originally Posted by CTJ

Also, gotta love classic pokemon on the gameboy, brings back so many memories

This just makes me think of classic Zelda on the Nintendo. Gotta love that theme song.

[Night Rain]

The whole FFIX OST. It's awesome!
Some other songs from other FFs too. Chrono Trigger/Cross...

[mike6557]

Originally Posted by Tetraquark

Much of the Okami soundtrack is absolutely beautiful. Some of my favorites:

Ryoshima Coast - YouTube
Okami Shiranui - YouTube

We should be friends! :P

I absolutely LOVE the okami soundtrack; I painstakingly downloaded all ~200 tracks individually because that was the only way I found them. My favourite videogame soundtrack ever.

Top contenders are all zelda games, the tles series (notably symphonia) and xenoblade chronicles.

[Vesper]

Final Fantasy 6 (Final Fantasy III in the US) has one of the best game soundtracks I have heard. The entire game is like an opera, and it has its own opera scene just for good measure. I'd highly recommend this game, and it's not just for the music. There are almost too many to list, but my absolute favorite is Terra's Theme.

The soundtrack of Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy II in the US) is really growing on me. I think it will become a favorite. My favorites are the "Theme of Love", the main theme, both the regular and the boss battle themes, and "Troian Beauty".

FFVII's soundtrack is pretty good, but it's not my favorite. Fewer tracks from its soundtrack stand out to me compared to the number for FFVI. The airship theme ("The Highwind Takes to the Skies"), Cid's Theme, Aerith's Theme, and J-E-N-O-V-A's theme are my favorites.

I love the soundtrack to the original F-Zero for the SNES. The themes to Mute City, Port Town, and White Land I are my favorites.

I'm also really fond of the soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The theme to Kakariko Village and the Dark World are my favorites.

ETA: I forgot to mention that the Donkey Kong Country soundtracks are also pretty good, especially that of DKC2.

[Andane]

Oh man, as a pretty frequent gamer, there are a few I really like.

The Silent Hill series definitely has a great soundtrack. Akira Yamaoka is an awesome composer!
Silent Hill: Origins - O.R.T. - YouTube
Silent Hill 2 OST - Theme Of Laura - YouTube
And of course the actual scary ones like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories [Music] - Devil's Laughter - YouTube

Also love the soundtrack to Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts 3D OST - Majestic Wings - YouTube <--Freakin' awesome boss fight theme
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days: Xion's Theme - YouTube

And of course Final Fantasy, though I'm sure it's famous enough I don't have to list examples.

And some people say video game music isn't real music. Pfft.

[Hiems]

I like fighting games, so it's natural for me to obsess over character select soundtracks. Specifically I like the ones for:
- Soul Calibur I and II
- Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
- Final Fantasy Dissidia
- Persona 4 Arena

Apart from these, I like the soundtrack for Persona 4, Dead or Alive 2, and Kingdom Hearts.