2019 in Games: Music of the Year
While a video game doesn’t exactly need a soundtrack to be good or worth playing, it’s also never a bad thing to have just the right kind…
While a video game doesn’t exactly need a soundtrack to be good or worth playing, it’s also never a bad thing to have just the right kind of sound to go along with the experience. Music in games can take on various purposes — setting the stage for a showdown, giving a location character, or even being the basis of the actual gameplay. Now, I admit that my own musical knowledge isn’t very broad; starting with 90’s Alternative Radio, a stint through musical theatre, and way too long allowing a bunch of music with an Evangelical Christianity into my brain, so I won’t be dissecting full soundtracks. Instead, I picked ten selections from the soundtracks of games that I quite liked personally while I played them– and you can blame the Assemblies of God if it’s a bad list, I guess.
Normally, I’d provide an example of the tracks in question, but not all of these are readily available in something resembling legal means, and between not wanting this getting pulled or ruined by links getting ruined, I’m instead going to provide a playlist at the end for you if you need it, and don’t hate me if it loses entries as Content ID takes them down.
Incredibly Minor Spoilers for the following games: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Untitled Goose Game, Pokémon Sword and Shield, Devil May Cry V, and Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer featuring The Legend of Zelda
10. “Luxurious Overture” — Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
You must love Bloodstained if only for existing, since it exists entirely to spite a massive corporation; and that’s very good. If you really needed another reason though, all you need to do is walk into the massive castle that serves as Ritual of the Night’s main hub. The track sounds like a remastered take of something right out of the early 90’s era of games, and it matches Bloodstained’s “just a bit over the top” design combined with good old gothic horror aesthetic. I feel like we don’t appreciate good hub area music, because it really does have to do a lot of heavy lifting for a game. Bad hub music can point out to you exactly how much you’re going back over that hub and immediately make the experience draining. Good hub music like “Luxurious Overture?” Now that’s a track you can get excited to hear again and again.
9. “The Edge of Dawn” — Fire Emblem: Three Houses
The main track of Three Houses also serves as the backbone to a lot of the battle music of the game, so the major pieces of the song are burned into your brain even if you haven’t sat down and given the whole thing a listen. This continues a trend a lot of Switch games have been doing — making full main tracks that tie into the experiences the games they’re tied to promise (see “Jump Up, Super Star” or the lesser received “Dynamax”) but “The Edge of Dawn” goes a bit further and reflects the various themes of Three Houses, to the point where talking about them kind of ruins the experience. Suffice to say, it’s a pretty melody if a bit dramatic in an anime kind of way, until you’ve played through the game to put the anime as hell lyrics into context. We’ll be revisiting this one later, so proper spoilers later this week.
8. “Devil Trigger” — Devil May Cry V
Seriously, fuck last year’s Game Awards for insisting on being the place this song was performed, because it wasn’t a great venue for the experience and soured my first experience with the theme composed for Nero in DMCV. Even so, it turns out that “Devil Trigger” is an absolute banger, right out of mid-2005 era hard rock/metal marketed exclusively at junior high kids and perfectly appropriate for the style that makes up Devil May Cry as a series. Okay, it’s also perfectly appropriate to use for an AMV, but aren’t all good songs? No, it’s not exactly deep and probably a bit too long, but it’s also damn near impossible to not bob your head to when it comes on.
7. “Spiral Mountain” (New Arrangement) — Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
What a time to be alive. It would have been enough to see Banjo and Kazooie make it into Smash Bros. Ultimate, since that seemed to be impossible to yours truly until it happened. Yet, because the people behind Ultimate take that word real seriously, we also got to see legendary composer Grant Kirkhope return to one of his most (if not the most) iconic works and give us new arrangements and performances of it. “Spiral Mountain” isn’t the only track from the Banjo-Kazooie franchise that were added this year, but it is the track that best encapsulates what makes Kirkhope so good at making video game music. One part cartoon and one part fantasy adventure, “Spiral Mountain” sets the tone for Banjo-Kazooie perfectly, bouncy and fun while also being surprisingly complicated in its measures, the kind of song perfect for going on an adventure with a cartoon bear.
6. “Gerudo Valley” — Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer featuring The Legend of Zelda
I’ve made the bold claim on Twitter and elsewhere before that “Gerudo Valley” is the greatest Zelda song in its entire canon. Thanks to the new mixes provided by Cadence of Hyrule, I can continue this correct action. Cadence relies entirely on its music, meaning that not only does it have to present authentic but different takes on the vast Zelda soundtrack but also make it possible to play alongside. Thankfully, the team and composers were entirely up to the task — both combat and non-combat versions are joys to listen to and simple enough to move your characters on the correct beats. For its own merits, I’ve always enjoyed “Gerudo Valley” because it has always been a different type of track in the Zelda series. A powerful guitar lick drives the track with a backbone that feels less like the traditional fantasy adventure style that the games tend to lean on, which are often driven by a traditional woodwind orchestra. “Valley” feels a bit more distinct and separate, which tracks with how the Gerudo are often portrayed in Zelda (and hoo boy would that be a whole other write up.
5. “Gym Battle” — Pokémon Sword and Shield
Say whatever you want about Pokémon, but the series has never had a problem with its music. Every game has its own special flavor that comes through hard via the score, and Sword and Shield are no different in that regard. What does make it different though is it feels like the score got a big shot in the arm, and “Gym Battle” is a perfect example of that boost. Starting in a conversational state, the track quickly builds into a hype generating track perfectly fitting the large stadium and sporting vibe of Sword and Shield. What’s more, the track doesn’t exactly “loop” like most Pokémon battle tracks. Instead, each time the part of the song comes back around, it changes — drastically at one point — and adds more and more to the song, ultimately chants from the crowd. It is impossible to not get energized during each gym showdown, and it’s already spawned some great memes.
4. “Death Stranding” — Death Stranding
Look, as much as I enjoy proper video game soundtracks, I also kind of like this revival of “meant for radio” style songs being commissioned to advertise games that’s been happening, both with “Devil Trigger” and this song. I’ve not actually played Death Stranding (which means it’s not actually eligible for this), but I really couldn’t ignore how much I just enjoyed this as a song into itself. CHVRCHES managed to capture a certain anxiety that just feels universal, especially now. Hell, I’d go so far as to say that this song does a better job of communicating the themes and ideas of Death Stranding as a game than literally any trailer or bullshit spouted by Kojima himself did during its entire development time. Also, being totally honest, the title sounds way better as a song than a game title.
3. “Debussy’s Preludes,” adapted — Untitled Goose Game
I know I said that I wasn’t going to include entire scores but trying to select which piece of the various parts of Debussy’s “Preludes” that were adapted for Untitled Goose Game would defeat the entire point of including it on this list. Much like a live improv routine, the Goose Game variates the music as you control The Goose, speeding up and slowing down just as The Goose runs or pulls off one its various capers. This use of the music does make it hard to single out a single piece, because it all flows together so naturally and perfectly, you’d swear it’s the exact music you’d hear in the background of your own life. Being able to immerse yourself in such a basic and mundane set up is critical to making Untitled Goose Game work, and the music use is the greatest trick to make that happen — you’re not actually interacting with it, but it’s following your queue.
2. “A Place I Don’t Know” — Sayonara Wild Hearts
It’s a bit bizarre that the best and most important song in the rhythm game Sayonara Wild Hearts is the slowest and the one you barely play the game with. Yet, that’s exactly what “A Place I Don’t Know” is. Reflecting the protagonist’s sense of misdirection and listlessness that the game is ultimately about getting over, “A Place I Don’t Know” is a heartfelt ballad — one meant to choke you up and one to give you closure. That’s quite a task to put on a song even in a rhythm game, but it completely works. Much like “Death Stranding,” this song feels somewhat understandable if not universal, intending to get right into your heart and actually sympathize with the story you just experienced; and as it lands its final notes on the game’s ending — it does.
1. “Battle Tower” — Pokémon Sword and Shield
Good god, no one makes a song like Toby Fox do they? Fox’s unique pairing of upbeat and vast music with serious or difficult moments in games is something I shouldn’t really need to get into — there’s a reason “Megalovania” is a meme into its own. “Battle Tower” might not be as classic as that track, heck number five on this list is already more iconic. But even if it never hits memelord status, I can’t get “Battle Tower” out of my head. I’ve found myself multiple times since it was first teased humming it out in actual goddamn public like everyone knows what I’m on about. I’ve forced people sitting in my car to endure it on a loop. It’s possible I may finally replace my “Roundabout” ringtone with it. There’s a lot of things that video game music can do, but it honestly doesn’t get better than “absolute earworm.” Other songs on this list have big impacts or emotions or are critical to the experience, and “Battle Tower” is just a big dumb peppy RPG battle theme — and that’s my jam.
Oh, and if it is also that Homestuck shitpost song, all the better.
You can try to listen to the playlist now, but don’t blame me if the entries got taken down: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoqEDh40km3153c_sXxBRuhlO2lHayOur