Find out what video games had some of the best soundtracks over the years and who composed the music for each.

There is a lot that goes into making a great video game. Graphics, story-line, gameplay and many other things contribute to a game. However, even some of the best games wouldn’t be the same without the music that goes along with them. It isn’t something you consciously think about when playing, but the video game soundtrack certainly lends to the overall experience. You might need a LoL placement boost to get ranked in League of Legends but still feel pumped and ready to play when you hear the soundtrack. Most of us couldn’t name the title of the songs or their composer from our favorite game when we hear it without resorting to using Shazam, but we could certainly name the game.

Choosing the best video game soundtrack is subjective. Different people have different tastes and how much we enjoyed a particular game will likely influence our choice. With that being said here are (in some people’s opinion) some of the best video game soundtracks of all time:

• Journey (2012): It took composer Austin Wintory three years to create Journey’s soundtrack which responds to the action and inputs of the player by changing tone and intensity of the music. The cello was used as the primary instrument, with others chiming in as you progress through the game and meet other players. Journey was the first video game ever to have its soundtrack nominated for a Grammy. Austin Wintory has also contributed to other video game soundtracks including Assassin’s Creed
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (2015): The village of Shropshire is filled with a beautiful golden light but all the people have disappeared. So begins Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and the soundtrack written by Jessica Curry contributes a great deal to the eerie und settling feel of the game. In 2015 Jessica Curry won the 12th British Academy Games Awards for Music and in 2016 won the Game Audio Network Guild Awards for Best Original Song: Choral and Best Original Song: Pop
• Final Fantasy: The Final Fantasy Series has given us loads of great soundtracks and everybody has their own favorite. Nobuo Uematsu was the primary composer up until 2004. Other main composers following Uematsu include Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano. The Final Fantasy series was available on a wide variety of platforms including NES, Game Boy Advance Handheld, PlayStation, and many others. At the 2020 “The Game Awards”, the soundtrack of Final Fantasy VII Remake was named the Best Score and Music. It was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu.
• God of War (2018): God of War is the eighth installment of the God of War series. The soundtrack composed by Bear McCreary took the drums, brass and deep choirs of previous installments and gave them a Norse twist. An Icelandic choir and Nordic instruments such as the hurdy gurdy and nyckelharpa are incorporated into the soundtrack. McCreary is also known for his work on The Walking Dead and Battlestar Galactica television series.
• Streets of Rage 2 (1992): The soundtrack of Streets of Rage 2 was composed by Yuzo Koshiro who actually created his own audio programming language for the game. It was influenced by electronic dance music like techno and in this respect was ahead of its time. Overall a great soundtrack for beating up bad guys and the tunes stick in your head.
• Bastion (2011): Bastion is an action role-playing game with a soundtrack produced and composed by Darren Korb, a childhood friend of Amir Rao who designed the game. Korb describes the game’s music as “acoustic frontier trip hop” and brings to mind the American frontier as well as a fantasy world. Bastion was Korb’s first time to work on a video game. A soundtrack album was released in August of 2011 and sold around 30,000 copies over the next 3 months.
• Chrono Trigger (1995): Chrono Trigger is a role-playing video game with a soundtrack scored for the most part by Yasunori Mitsuda. There are 60 tracks on the game of about two minutes each which was huge for the time. The Chrono Trigger soundtrack has been re-released a number of times and tracks from the game have been performed live by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011): There are several games in the Elder Scrolls series with great soundtracks. The music for Skyrim was composed by Jeremy Soule who also worked on Morrowind and Oblivion, the previous two Elder Scrolls games. The main theme song of Skyrim, “Dragonborn” was recorded with a choir of 30 people. Three separate recordings of the choir were layered so that it would sound like 90 voices. Dragonborn was sung in a fictional dragon language created just for the game. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a great game made even better by a fantastic soundtrack.
• Shadow of the Colossus (2005): Shadow of the Colossus is an action-adventure game directed by Fumito Ueda. Unlike many games in the genre there are no characters to interact with and no towns or other areas to explore. The story focuses on Wander, a young man who must defeat 16 colossi, giant beings who must be destroyed to save a girl, Mono. The soundtrack for Shadow of the Colossus was composed by Kow Otani. Although quite extensive, music only plays during cutscenes and whenever the colossi are encountered. During the rest of the game only the sounds made by Wander, his horse and surroundings can be heard. A soundtrack album was released; Wander and the Colossus Original Soundtrack: Roar of the Earth which won the award for “Soundtrack of the Year” from the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly.

These are just a few of the many great soundtracks from video games. There are far too many to list here and again, taste in music and games vary between individuals. However all the games included here were made better because of their soundtracks.