Video game music has really come far in the last few decades. Nowadays, full blown orchestras are dedicated to providing the most memorable and atmospheric tunes that help make many games as immersive and memorable as any movie or show. From the nostalgic jingles of 8-bit titles, the more cinematic tunes of the 90s, to today’s arguably even more cinematic tracks and full-blown songs covering all sorts of genres, there are plenty of pieces of video game music to choose from when picking our top favorites. Join us in “Gaming Respawn’s Favorite Video Game Music Tracks” where we choose our personal favorite tunes in the gaming scene. Kicking us off is the one who came up with this particular topic, Tasha.
Tasha Quinn
Every great video game needs a quality soundtrack to back it up, and there are so many that stand out to me that I found it hard to choose just a few. So, I’ll start with a couple of honourable mentions: the Halo and Skyrim theme songs. Both are excellent pieces of music that really set the tone for their respective games. They’re iconic – the kind of tracks most gamers would recognise even if they weren’t especially invested in the games, and that’s an impressive feat. My personal favourites, however, are as follows:
“One-Winged Angel” – Final Fantasy VII
As far as boss battle music goes, this has to be one of the most iconic tracks ever, thanks to its striking chords and Latin chorus. Whether you’re playing the original, one of the remakes, or Kingdom Hearts, when this banger comes on, you know something major is about to go down. Sephiroth is, after all, one of the most badass bosses in all of video game history.
“Leaving Earth” – Mass Effect 3
Another iconic track that does a fantastic job of setting the tone for the game. It manages to convey the idea that there’s still hope, even when the odds are stacked against you. The opening scene of Mass Effect 3, with the Reapers descending on Earth, was genuinely chilling, and this track is a huge part of what made it so effective.
“Stand by Me” – Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV gets a lot of hate, but it holds a special place in my heart. Having a smaller, consistent party made me grow truly attached to Noctis and his friends. The “Stand by Me” cover by Florence and the Machine is a particularly beautiful rendition, and the lyrics perfectly fit the bond between the main characters. It was a great opening track, but when it played during the end credits alongside all the photos Prompto took throughout their journey, I’ll admit I teared up.
“I Believe” – Persona 5 Royal
I don’t think there’s a single bad song in Persona 5. Lyn Inaizumi, the main vocalist for the games, has a phenomenal voice and makes every song memorable. My personal favourite is “I Believe”, which plays during the final boss fight of Royal. I love it because it encapsulates everything the Phantom Thieves stand for. It’s damn catchy too.
“Simple and Clean” – Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts is my favourite game series of all time, so it’s no surprise this one tops my list. The series features some brilliant opening songs, all performed by the talented Hikaru Utada, but the most iconic – and my personal favourite – has to be “Simple and Clean”. Featured in the first game and several spin-offs, it’s the track that brings a wave of nostalgia every time I hear it.
Daniel Garcia-Montes
I can recall a number of interesting music tracks in all kinds of games I’ve played in many different genres over the years. Games from series like Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry, God of War, Prince of Persia, Infamous, Doom, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the like have some excellent tracks that cover all types of music genres. More niche titles like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and largely unknown and admittedly random PS1 titles like Beast Wars: Transformers and Spider: The Video Game also had some kickass tunes that I still remember to this day. But which ones are my favorites?
My first selections must go to a couple of tracks from the Metal Gear Solid series. I actually have the soundtracks for MGS 1 through MGS4, and most of those tracks are just great, whether they’re more atmospheric background themes or battle themes. My top two favorites that always jump to my mind first are the “Duel” theme from MGS 1 and “Father and Son” from MGS 2 because they are simply epic. “Duel” is the theme that plays when Solid Snake takes on all the different bosses in MGS1, and “Father and Son” is what plays in MGS 2 when Raiden battles all those Metal Gear RAY units towards the end of the game, followed by his final swordfight with Solidus Snake. A couple other favorite tracks of mine come from the Devil May Cry games. The first one is “Suffer”, which is one track that includes lyrics and plays in two different versions for the Cerberus and Beowulf boss battles in DMC 3. The other track is also from DMC 3, “Arkham Battle Theme 2”, which is a remix of the first two battle themes for Vergil and plays in the second half of the boss battle against Arkham when Dante and Vergil team up to kick his JELL-O-like ass.
A couple other favorites of mine come from the God of War games. While I’m not normally one for orchestra-type music, I have to admit that the themes that play in the old school PS2 and PS3 God of War games are just epic. The “Colossus of Rhodes” track that plays in the opening of GoW 2 during Kratos’s encounter with the titular Colossus (as well as his encounter with Clotho near the end of the game) really sets the scene for that whole set-piece. Also from GoW 2 is “The Isle of Creation”, an incredible theme whose different portions play in different parts of the game, like when Kratos first approaches the Isle of Creation while riding on Pegasus, as well as during the boss battles against Perseus and Zeus.
I can name so many other themes from so many other games that just blow me away. But if I have to choose my top favorite, the one that I never get tired of listening to no matter how many times I hear it, I would have to go with “The Only Thing They Fear Is You” from Doom Eternal. This track is the definition of badass. I’ve listened to it on loop for a good hour during long car rides, and I still occasionally play it when driving back home from work when I’m feeling in a particularly good mood after quitting time. This track pumps me up like nothing else and makes me want to pop any of the Doom games into my PS5 and just start killing shit. Composer Mick Gordon outdid himself with this one.
Peter Keen
I actually have a YouTube playlist on my channel for this very subject. I really appreciate a good set of tunes/music to play along with a game I’m really enjoying. Music is one of those things people really don’t think much of in a game until there is none. When it’s missing or bad, suddenly you realize you needed it.
There are many soundtracks I could have chosen for my favourite. The Persona series has always had some epic bangers, and I’m sure one of my colleagues here at Gaming Respawn is going to choose Persona 5 Royal. I could have chosen the 2018 God of War OST as that really gets me in the mood for my favourite game and franchise of all time. I very nearly put the Ghost of Tsushima OST here too, or the Battlefield main theme, but I’m actually going to go with a particular game, its soundtrack, and ALL the tunes within the game (around 77).
This game was the first one to make me actually sit up and take notice of how much the overall experience of a game could be elevated with good music. It was the game that made me create a YouTube playlist of gaming soundtracks in the first place.
The game in question is Driver: San Francisco!
The main theme of the game, I read, was inspired by 1970s TV cop shows, and you can totally feel it in the vibe. I love it. Then, in the actual open-world game, the in-car radio has a brilliant eclectic mix of songs that literally just made cruising around the digital streets of San Francisco a joy.
They then used another favourite track of mine for some of the trailers of the time, which was The Heavy with “How You Like Me Now?”. The game just oozes cool, and this track fit so well with the game too.
Kyle Moffat
Initially, I struggled to narrow down exactly what my favourite video game soundtrack is. Several Pokemon games were certainly in the running, as were titles like Red Dead Redemption II, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Minecraft and Crash Twinsanity (which was entirely comprised by acapella band Spiralmouth). Ultimately, I have honed directly into nostalgia and have chosen Tekken 5, which I can guarantee you will never hear again on a “best video game soundtrack” list, and I’m not sure why. Tekken as a franchise has been consistent with soundtracks over the years, with several other strong candidates that pull me into each stage. Tekken 5, however, genuinely has so many fantastic tracks that fit the aesthetics of their respective stages.
So, let’s go through a few examples. Tekken 5 has, in my opinion, the best intro cinematic in the franchise. Part of that is due to the excellence of “Sparking” accompanying the action and character introductions unfolding before avid gamers. Prior to that section of the introduction, the music that plays as Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima battle waves of JACKs also ups the intensity and creates a lot of excitement every time I see it. Going into the stages themselves, there are even more solid tracks to showcase. “Formless Like Water”, “Unforgiven”, “Massive Stunner” and “Antares” are all brilliant examples, but there is one that stands above them all.
Tekken fans will know by now exactly which track I am on about. “Moonlit Wilderness” sets the bar incredibly high and is the very best Tekken 5 has to offer. Even the character select screen has an epic track that I love hearing every single time I go back to Tekken 8. Fortunately for me, Bandai Namco has ensured the Tekken 5 soundtrack reappears in newer instalments. As such, you’ll find me listening to this soundtrack repeatedly while playing Tekken 8.
Will Worrall
5. “Eye of the Storm” – Guild Wars – Jeremy Soule
My first choice is “Eye of the Storm” from the original Guild Wars. This was my first proper MMO experience, mostly because I was too cheap to pay for a subscription-based MMO, and ever since I bought the edition of GW that came with a soundtrack, I’ve loved “Eye of the Storm”.
It’s a classic, calming track that really fits the title it was given. It feels very much like you’re standing in a simple moment of calm during a swirling storm, and to this day, I often boot if up if I’m trying to get a calm moment when I’m stressed out.
4. “One-Winged Angel” – Final Fantasy VII – Nobuo Uematsu
While VII isn’t one of my favourite Final Fantasy games (hell, it’s probably not in the top 5), I still love this track. I had to choose between this and a track from my actual favourite FF game, but in the end, “One-Winged Angel” won out.
This is Sephiroth’s signature track, or at least that’s how I think of it. It really embodies the energy and tone of the game’s main villain, being dark, driving, but full of a sort of frenetic madness that shows the mental state of the subject and his delusions of grandeur.
Plus, it’s got Gregorian chanting. Who doesn’t love Gregorian chanting?
3. “Clotho” – Columns – Tokuhiko Uwabo
No, I am not at all stuck in the past, why are you asking? “Clotho” is a track I have spent hundreds of hours listening to, mostly because that’s how long I’ve played Columns for (yet I still barely remember how to spell it).
Either way, you guys on the Nintendo side of things had the Tetris theme, and I had Clotho. This Grecian-inspired track really fit the vibes that the original Columns was going for, and I still think it’s worth listening to today. Now, if someone could just figure out a way to do a DnB remix of this thing.
2. “Mystic Cave Zone (1-Player) ” – Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Masato Nakamura
Anyone who is at least a little bit familiar with me could probably have told you that this was going to be somewhere on the list, though they might have struggled to decide which track from the game I would choose.
Throughout my life, my favourite Sonic 2 song has changed from Chemical Plant Zone (the furthest I got in the game as a little kid) to Oil Ocean Zone and beyond, but the two different versions of Mystic Cave Zone have been a long favourite of mine.
For years, this was my ringtone, to the point that I sometimes still check my phone when I’m playing the game. It’s funky, it’s fun, and it really fits the vibe of the level it was made for.
Honourable Mention – “Otherworld” – Final Fantasy X – Nobuo Uematsu
I don’t want this composer to get too big of a head just because he has two entries on the list, but this is the song that lost out to “One-Winged Angel”. It’s the intro track from Final Fantasy X, my favourite game in the series, and it has a huge metal edge to it that really makes it stand out amongst most of the rest of the OST.
It was sung by the frontman of hardcore vegan punk band Xtillidiex, and you can really tell that they brought in an English-speaker for the vocals. Honestly, this song wouldn’t sound out of place on some of my teenaged music playlists, even if it hadn’t been from one of my top games of all time.
1. “The Pantheon” – Bastion – Darren Korb
As much as I wanted to put Sonic 2 in the number 1 slot (and trust me, I did), this song and the entire soundtrack it comes from was the first video game music that I listened to, on-repeat, away from the game itself. Sure, I might have booted “Clotho” or “Mystic Cave Zone” on a whim on YouTube, but the album that features “The Pantheon” was literally on my main music player throughout university.
Something about the way Darren Korb does music is just fantastic, and it has kept most of his work in my head ever since. In particular, while the level themes are great, there are four key songs here that feature lyrics and that form the central point for the entire album. I chose “The Pantheon” because it feels just a little different from the other tracks on the album and really matches the overall tone of the game rather than specific characters from it.
