7 Best Pieces Of Video Game Music
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As video games move into the mainstream, more people are open about enjoying every part of them from the innovative gameplay to the creative musical scores. Professional orchestras have jumped on the trend to host events where they play scores from popular video games. This year, the GRAMMY awards even added a new category for Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games/Interactive Media. Here is our own list of winners.
7. “Dearly Beloved”- Kingdom Hearts
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The first entry on the list is Kingdom Hearts’ “Dearly Beloved.” This theme is a staple of every Kingdom Hearts game. The calming music evokes an ethereal feeling, fitting for a game focused on the power of friendship. “Dearly Beloved” prepares gamers for a heart-warming and oddly philosophical journey through classic and modern Disney worlds.
Composer Yoko Shimomura cited the ocean imagery of the game’s first level Destiny Islands as his inspiration.
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6. “Hyrule Field Main Theme”- The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
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For many gamers, Ocarina of Time was their first 3D adventure. This song highlighted the scope of the game. Hyrule Field felt like a huge map when the game was first released, and the day/night cycle made the area feel vast. This song conjures images of Link riding Epona to all four corners of Hyrule.
To celebrate Link’s first adventure music director Koji Kondo took elements from all the previous Zelda games to create this memorable theme.
5. “Title Theme”- The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker
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In a strange mix of calm and excitement, this track prepares gamers for a new adventure through Hyrule, or rather, above it, as Link traverses the Great Sea. The Irish influences in this song add to the island theme. The upbeat flute brings a sense of joy to the light-hearted gameplay, although the cartoonish art of the game hides a mature storyline about leaving the past behind to find a new future.
4. “Victory Fanfare”- Final Fantasy VII
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In Final Fantasy VII, players guide Cloud Strife on an epic adventure through Midgar, facing countless battles along the way. After each triumph in battle, a snippet of the Victory Fanfare track would play to give gamers a sense of victory and hope as they navigate a dark world. The music has become so popular that Barrett would occasionally sing the theme after battles in the game’s remake.
3. “Nate’s Theme”- Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
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This theme belongs right up there with Indiana Jones and Star Wars as it prepares gamers for a globetrotting adventure. Its cinematic feel fits the game’s heavy focus on story and setpieces. Uncharted plays like an interactive movie as players lead Nathan Drake through climbing and shooting levels from cutscene to cutscene. The theme is so popular that it returns in Uncharted 2, 3, and 4, with some slight alterations.
2. “Nadir”- Journey
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In Journey, players guide a robed figure through a desert. Other players may briefly enter the game along the way by chance rather than by choice. When two players are present in the same way, they communicate a jump or a musical note. Although the entire game’s soundtrack is a fitting addition to this list, the song “Nadir” is a culmination of the adventure. Most of the game takes place in the desert, but this track plays as the player braves a snowy mountain in the endgame.
The soundtrack also made history for being the first video game music to be nominated for a GRAMMY.
1. “Ezio’s Family- Ascending To Valhalla”- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
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This song breaks barriers as the first video game soundtrack to win a GRAMMY. Featuring a mix of vocals, horns, and violin, the song starts out as a remix of “Ezio’s Family,” the Assassin’s Creed main theme, but with added elements to give it a Viking feel. Thoughts of Valhalla evoked by the song raise the soundtrack to award-winning levels.
In the early days of gaming, composers were severely limited in what they could include. As technology marches on, composers will find new ways to share their creativity with the gaming world and, hopefully, claim more GRAMMY Awards.
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