The Gaming OST Tag

Annie over at the excellent Evening Tea Musings tagged me in two blogger tags recently, and they’re both really fun ones. So, this is the second of them: The Gaming OST tag.

Now, there were no specific rules attached, so I’m following the template here. That means picking four gaming OSTs that I love. Let’s get right into it!

Sonic 06 (PS3)

Okay, so first up, it would be very easy for me to make this list entirely Sonic the Hedgehog titles. I’m going out of my way to avoid that, though. Second, I know Sonic 06 has a bad reputation. If you read my review, you’d also know that I’m not as down on the game as many. One of the things I really enjoyed with it is the OST. I mean, listen to that instrumental version of the theme song. That is epic, and it makes you want the game to feel the same! From the character themes to the level music, Sonic 06 nailed it with the music. So, well done to Hideaki Koboyashi, Tomoya Ohtani, Mariko Nanba, Taihei Sato, Takahito Eguchi, and all the bands involved.

 

Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

This is perhaps more of an obvious choice, but Nobuo Uematsu’s work on FF7 is truly special. There are so many standout pieces, and they’ve all translated well to full-band, orchestra, and piano versions too. Honestly, in my eyes, it’s one of the best gaming OSTs out there when it comes to emotion. Excellent, excellent work

 

Streets Of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)

Nobody will ever convince me that the SEGA Mega Drive had inferior sound to the SNES. Both systems had some bad OSTs, but I’ve always found the best music of SEGA’s 16-bit system to be far more memorable than Nintendo’s offering. Primarily composed by Yuzo Koshiro (with a few pieces from Motohiro Kawashima), the electro-dance masterpiece was a perfect fit for the game, and proof that SEGA’s greatest console was capable of excellent music.

 

Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (Xbox One)

If I’m being honest, I thought LiS, LiS:BTS, and Tell Me Why all had killed soundtracks. It’s why I bought the limited edition releases of both the aforementioned LiS games and will do the same with Tell Me Why if it gets a physical release. The songs are really, really good, and always manage to fit perfectly with the scenes they’re used in. In that way, they enhanced the moments they pop up in, which adds to the story-driven gameplay for me.

 

And there you have it. Much like with the Me And Music Tag, I’m not picking anyone specifically to tag. Do feel free to join in though. The original post was actually about movies, so there’d be no harm in switching back to that.