Your favorite CRPG soundtracks

How did I miss this thread? I love music in games. My overall favorites were Divine Divinity, Gothic 2 and Might and Magic 6. For me its not the themes that make the game work but all the ambient in game music. Unlike a game which is one, usually a game has at least a dozen tunes playing within - so to narrow down a best of list would be impossible for me. However, here are a few of the tunes that have stuck with me over the years.

Might & Magic 6
If hell had a theme song, this would be it: Funky and Orchestral?????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ojVwLPyYiA

some more ambience from MM6 - a simple tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65h3rX6yERs&feature=related

Divine Divinity - Sighs of the Elves
the ending of this song is emotional for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5W8zLt6HpI

Fallout Vegas
this is part of the soundtrack but not orignal, Peggy Lee's "Why dont you do right"
it was a great tune that somehow fit in perfectly with the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_lnE_L_E8M

Return to Zork
forest melodies in games usually get to me - this tune stayed with me far after the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBxEfDpGug

And there is an Ultima 9 sound track that I have to dig up
it has a middle easthern flavor.
 
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Myrkrel said:
For me, Diablo 1's Tristram theme is the single-most haunting and memorable soundtrack tune of all time. It has stuck firmly in my mind all these years since 1996 when I first played the game, and I didn't even play the game for a long period. That song is simply a masterpiece of conjuring a foreboding atmosphere. The other pieces in D1 are great too, but Tristram really stands out. Matt Uelmen is a musical genius.
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Yes!!! Tristram theme was amazing. So moody and atmospheric, it just fit that place perfectly. Definitely the best piece of music in a game that I can recall. It just brings back a lot of memories of "Stay awhile, and listen!".

My all time favorite soundtrack is Chrono Trigger though. SNES synthesis at it's best. Every track on that soundtrack is great, with some downright amazing pieces, like Schala's theme, 600 AD theme, the main theme, and others. Nobuo Uematsu is also a musical genius.

Some more recent soundtracks I enjoyed would be Morrowind, Lost Odyssey (Uematsu), and Blue Dragon (Uematsu). Great stuff. I'm also enjoying Skyrim's music quite a bit. It's definitely on par with Morrowind for me.
 
Fluent said:
. . . My all time favorite soundtrack is Chrono Trigger though. SNES synthesis at it's best. Every track on that soundtrack is great, with some downright amazing pieces, like Schala's theme, 600 AD theme, the main theme, and others. Nobuo Uematsu is also a musical genius.

Some more recent soundtracks I enjoyed would be Morrowind, Lost Odyssey (Uematsu), and Blue Dragon (Uematsu). Great stuff. I'm also enjoying Skyrim's music quite a bit. It's definitely on par with Morrowind for me.
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Actually most of Chrono Trigger's sound track was by Yasunori Mitsuda. Uematsu was brought in late when Mitsuda came down with stomach Ulcers at the end of the project. From what I recall, Mitsuda was basically living in the studio for two years drawing upon a mental invetory of songs and ideas that had been running in his head. The Chrono Trigger folks didn't get a sound track from this guy, they got his magnum opus.

and for me Chrono Trigger- Secret of the Forest, is one of my favorite musical pieces on any platform.
 
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how could I miss this too

For me, music and ambient sound is very important for the total immersion.

I liked some of the tracks from ME
uncharted worlds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpu5cTk_qvI

Its everything good about scifi ;)

Deus Ex had fitting music, the score complimented the game very well.

the intro still takes me back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2h53Yg-AQo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBPK_oXeJgA&feature=related

and as other have mentioned, planescape had some really haunting tunes.

A real oldie for me is the music and theme from Fist II on C64.

C
 
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The Realms Of Arcania series. 'Nuff said.
Especially those guitar-heavy pieces.
 
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I recently started playing Demon's Souls on the PS3 and the opening song totally floored me:

Demon's Souls - "Demon's Souls"

Great buildup of tension and a dark mood fitting right in with the game. Also a refreshing departure from the common orchestral Hollywood style a lot of RPGs tend towards these days. I hear some elements of the stripped down chamber music style that Arcanum's great soundtrack used.

Still have not gotten far in the game but hoping the rest of the soundtrack is of a similar quality.
 
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Dajjer said:
Actually most of Chrono Trigger's sound track was by Yasunori Mitsuda. Uematsu was brought in late when Mitsuda came down with stomach Ulcers at the end of the project. From what I recall, Mitsuda was basically living in the studio for two years drawing upon a mental invetory of songs and ideas that had been running in his head. The Chrono Trigger folks didn't get a sound track from this guy, they got his magnum opus.

and for me Chrono Trigger- Secret of the Forest, is one of my favorite musical pieces on any platform.
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Interesting, I never knew Mitsuda made the soundtrack. Do we know specifically which tracks are Mitsuda and which tracks are Uematsu? That would make for some interesting compare and contrasting.

To this day I'm still in awe of that soundtrack, and I play it through every now and then. They just captured some incredible imagination with the music, it's pretty much unexplainable how good it is. It's more than just music, it's pure emotion, and child-like wonder, and imagination. Amazing stuff. I'll never forget it.
 
JDR13 said:
Chrono Trigger did have great music, and was a very good game overall.. one of the few jRPGs I really liked. It's a shame they never made a true sequel with the same style.

Secret of the Forest
Corridors of Time
Zeal Palace
Brink of Time
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ummm, thanks JD
when ever I listen to Secret of the Forest I end up spending about an hour listening and re listening to the thing. That is why I didn't post the link. Sheez man. So that was one hour you took away from my Skyrim playing time. Time I am never gonna get back. Time that has slipped away like the fading bass of an ending song . . .

;)
 
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Fluent said:
Interesting, I never knew Mitsuda made the soundtrack. Do we know specifically which tracks are Mitsuda and which tracks are Uematsu? That would make for some interesting compare and contrasting.

To this day I'm still in awe of that soundtrack, and I play it through every now and then. They just captured some incredible imagination with the music, it's pretty much unexplainable how good it is. It's more than just music, it's pure emotion, and child-like wonder, and imagination. Amazing stuff. I'll never forget it.
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this is the best I could do from this site(RPGFan)http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/ctosv/index.html

Although he was originally hired by Squaresoft as a game music composer, Yasunori Mitsuda spent the first few years working there as a sound engineer and other various small jobs. Eventually, he grew tired of not having a chance to actually compose music and brought his complaint to the bigwigs of Square, who agreed to let him compose the soundtrack for their next big project. The result is the Chrono Trigger OSV, with a little help from Nobou Uematsu (I personally found that Uematsu's eight contributions generally weren't the best compositions here, with the exception being 'Sealed Door', Belthasar's Theme.)
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Yes, I liked these songs very much, too.
 
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Not long after I posted this I got an email from gog.com telling me that the whole Age of Wonders series is on offer this weekend.

I already have them all on CD, but I suppose it would be practical to have them on gog too. Hmm..
 
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Thrasher said:
Are manuals included? I don't see how anyone could get anywhere near full enjoyment from these without their fantastic manuals.
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Oddly enough, the GOG versions don't seem to include the manuals. I just checked my install of AoW 1, and there was only a "quick start" PDF. I'm guessing they're easy enough to find on the web though.
 
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The AOW.Heavengames sites usually have the mnuals for download, if I remember correctly.

Direct link :

AOW1 : http://aow.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=811
AOW2 : http://aow2.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=1083

Also look here : http://aow.heavengames.com/links/aowresources.shtml

These downloads are semi-official.
At least I can say that the developers supported this site partly or at least knew about it, and were sometimes even active in the forums.

This page has 2 more music files : http://www.triumphstudios.com/ageofwonders2/files.html
 
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Lots of favorites songs being alreidy mentioned

Could spend so much time in taverns of Baldurs gate for this one
Great music also In the Drakensangs and DAO

Not really my type of game but I have to admit I had great deal of fun in multiplayer with a friend and this song is mesmerising in Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance
In the same gameplay was also Champions of Norrath and this one was my fav

Nostalgia:
DIzzy on amstrad cpc with very catchy music
And Cauldron 2 music on CPC made me thing of a grace jones song I will never be able to remember
And my all time favorite of my amstrad days was Robocop music theme

For me the most wonderfull Wonder Boy games and best soundtrack of em all was
Wonder Boy 3 Music (the one where you could transform into various shapes, like dragon,mouse etc)

And so many many more, but I would hate to make a too long post

On games to come:

Grimrock
 
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Speaking of CRPG soundtracks, I've been looking up Seelbach's work on Arcania (trying to look what to expect from Risen 2) and it is pretty good (example).

There is an obvious attempt to keep to the spirit of the series, though I cannot say how good it was in matching the atmosphere in the place (as it was in the Gothics), as I have only played the demo for Arcania (In fact in the Gothics/Risen music pretty much dictates each location's atmosphere). Anyway, they have a pretty competent guy on board for Risen 2 it seems. Lets see how it turns out…
 
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