Patient Gamers

Anything handled by Nobou Uematsu.

Bit dated, but at the time Descent II’s Redbook sountrack was pretty good for ‘96.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is my favorite OST by number of tracks that I love. It has several absolute banger tracks, like Morpheus3, Hyperblast-Redux, Convoy, Atlantis and Level11. I often keep a number of those tracks on my playlists.

Although I don't like the game itself much (I suck at it), Cloudbuilt also has some awesome tracks, my personal favorite is Aurora. The guitar chords at the apex is just heavenly.

Rebel Galaxy has some very nice stuff to feel like a 'merican space cowboy, it's mostly licensed music as far as i can tell.

Assault Android Cactus usually gets your blood pumping hard, which is great because the game is a pretty fun twin-stick arena. The tracks Assault and Licorice are just 👨‍🍳😙👌

... Come to think of it, looking at my list, I'm a real sucker for sci-fi OSTs, huh. I do want to make honorable mentions to Mass Effect (mostly 2), Skyrim and Smash Bros. Ultimate

• Shovel Knight
• Chrono Trigger
• Unreal Tournament 99
• Quake II

Hard pick because I listen to a game or series for a while, then another. Just today I went and listened to a lot of Sonic tracks, which I do once every few months. I guess Atlus games (SMT, Persona, EO), Metal Gear Rising, Ace Attorney, TWEWY are in the lead off the top of my head, but after a month I might give a different answer. My relaxing music playlist is mostly the official classical arrangements of Etrian Odyssey 1+2, so let's go with that.

• FTL Multiverse (Kix et. al.)
• Touhou
• Supergiant Games
• Blue Archive
• Minecraft

Minecraft

Nier Automata

Subnautica

Gravity rush is pretty damn good. Haven't played the second one yet

Aquaria: Original Soundtrack by Alec Holowka

Such an underrated game. RIP Alec.

Morrowind and project wingman are peak. FFXIV is fantastic with a persistent leitmotif across each entire expansion. The final endwalker boss basically wrapped up YEARS worth of story and that fight music was a medly featuring every expansion's leitmotif and holy shit I can't get over how incredible it was. Also the pandaemonium raid music. And Alexander. Seriously you can rabbit hole for HOURS on FFXIV music.

The Last of Us 1 & 2, all the Katamari games, Death Stranding

The Sims 2

Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

SimCity 4 ❤️

The Neverhood

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

Trepang2

mantis Lords from hollow knight

• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Prince of Persia 2008

right now i'll have to go with "The Neverhood Chronicles", it's stuck in my head since i started playing it again last week on a PS1 Emu.

I’ve started recognizing when a section of a game feels baller, but it’s 99% because of the soundtrack. They can have the most generic basis for an emotional scene, and then as long as the music nails the mood it could be just blocks on a screen.

Final Fantasy XIV has had awe-inspiring tracks for the finales of each expansion since Shadowbringers; pretty much starting at the final zone through the final dungeon and trial.

Ace Attorney always gets it with its confrontation tracks; it could just be two people arguing in a hallway and it turns the battle of words into the most epic thing.

I’ll also give a shout out to Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps. For both of those, it’s not just a few banger tracks for the exciting moments; even the downtime tracks are so memorable.

Pokemon USUM. If there was a looped version of the tracks, I‘d probably listen to it every day lol, it just boosts my mood. Sadly, the soundtrack (that I have) has them at 1-2 minutes.

Hyper Light Drifter and Return of the Obra Dinn for different reasons.

• Rome Total War
• Anno 1602
• Stronghold

I suspect I'm driven by nostalgia and by literally hundreds of hours of repeat exposure.