“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.” Even More Favourite Gaming Soundtracks
It’s been about a year since I posted the last recommendation post for video game soundtracks and in this year a lot has happened, a lot of games have been played and some really great pieces of video game music have been discovered or even re-discovered by me throughout the months. So this is mainly why we are being here again and I am doing part 3 of this post now and invite you all, regardless of if you are ever going to play these games or not, to enjoy some quality music peaces. Again they are in no particular order or ranking.
Pillars of Eternity – Main Theme (and its variation in the follow up)
Pillars of Eternity has been one of my favourite RPGs in the past decade. Balancing issues in the first game aside it has combined all the elements that I loved about classic crpgs and put them into a fleshed out, really well written game with lots of possibilities and some really, really great music.
For the second part of the game the main theme got a slight makeover to fit in with the more pirate and sea focused tone of the second game. Both part 1 and part 2 have great tracks among them.
Guild Wars 2 – Heart of Thorns Soundtrack – “Rata Novus”
When I wrote the last blog post about video game music I had just gotten back into GW2 after a few years (since Living World Season 1 basically) away from it. And even though I cursed about some of the maps, while playing through the Heart of Thorns expansion the music gave ma pause several times. Written by several composers who compliment each others style perfectly the OST for the expansion managed to stand out repeatedly. Even in comparison with the already great soundtrack of the main game. Rata Novus being one of ma favourite tracks because it combines the elements of the rather dark fantasy setting with a hint of science fiction in it. Think Mass Effect 2 meeting a Tolkienesque World.
Another great theme is the Toymaker’s Theme during the Winter’s Day event. Reminiscent of some stylistic motives the Game of Thrones theme music uses – but in a way more upbeat fashion it was part of what made the event so fun to play for me.
The thing with Guild Wars 2 though is: I could easily make at least 3 separate posts only recommending pieces from it’s rather extensive OST. So if you like really good OSTs I’d just advise giving the playlist for the main game, the expansions HOT or POF and the Living world Stories a listen.
Torment: Tides of Numenera
This game is special. Seriously. I can’t even say too much about it without spoiling it or making it sound weird. It is by all means a classic old school rpg. And at the same time it is something completely unique. And it’s music reflects that easily. If you like things sounding slightly tense throughout while being very ominous practically all the time this is for you. The entire OST is for you in that case. And id you want a very, VERY unique RPG: Play this!
Divinity: Original Sin 2
If you follow me personally or the Gaming Nerd Girls account on twitter you might have seen me mentioning a gazillion times how this is my favourite RPG ever. That has not changed many months after it came out – only gotten more and more confirmed. This game has literally everything.
- A combat system that is actually tons of fun and rewards you for trying out stupid shit: check!
- A well written story: check!
- Well written companions with their own story: check!
- Romances that are for everyone and vary greatly: check!
- Real freedom in how you want to approach things: check!
- Actual consequences from your decisions: Check!
- Humour: Check!
- A story mode for people who don’t give a crap about D&D style combat: check!
- A worldclass soundtrack: CHECK!
Seriously, even if you never play this bc of some reason: The music is absolutely amazing all throughout the game. And it is even customizable. You choose an instrument (out of 4) in the CC to represent your character and the game reacts to it by playing certain themes with the instrument you chose for yourself when they come up. Go listen to the entire playlist if you have time.
Sorry for the non-soundtrack-related commentary, but: DOS2 has a story mode? I did not know that, thanks for the info.
Among the things that ususally prevent me from trying a game, are two specific gameplay modes: first person, and isometric (“ye olde style”) turn-based combat (been there, done that, that time has looong passed). But if a game has a story mode that lets me ignore most of the combat, it becomes interesting again.
So I might try DOS2 after all. 🙂
And I totally agree on the Guild Wars soundtrack bits. ArenaNet even has an official soundcloud for the soundtracks: https://soundcloud.com/arenanet
The story more will be part of the free upgrade that comes next month – so I can let you know how well that works.
As far as I know there is also a mod that is basically like DAO’s skip combat mod, but I am not sure about that one anymore.
Story mode in a free upgrade: that’s what they did for “Prey” as well. I like it!
And thanks!