While most media can stand well on its own with great camerawork and masterfully written narratives, sometimes all it takes is good music to make something last. For video games, memorable soundtracks and the moment-to-moment gameplay go hand-in-hand. Here are some examples of games that are elevated by their OSTs.
Final Fantasy Series
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy games are well known for having a lot of iconic tracks thanks to its in-house composer Nobuo Uematsu. Whether it’s the classic “Prelude” played at every title screen, “One-Winged Angel” from FFVII, “To Zanarkand” from FFX, and “Dancing Mad” in FFVI, each Final Fantasy game will always have at least a couple of great tracks.
FFXIV, in particular, is known for having the most diverse music genres in the Final Fantasy series, from the orchestral tracks of “A Realm Reborn” and “Heavensward,” to the hard rock of “Shadowbringers” and “Endwalker,” this MMO owes much of its own soundtrack to Masayoshi Soken, as he has even made remixes of Uematsu’s work for FFXIV.
Old School RuneScape
OSRS’s retro MMO vibe is paired with its equally retro soundtrack. In RuneScape, players are thrown into a world of exploration, with each region having different themes and aesthetics to make travel in the land of Gielinor more immersive.
Some notable player experiences include listening to “Sea Shanty 2” while taking a charter ship, hearing “The Trade Parade” on loop while earning OSRS gold, and walking into the city of Varrock with “Garden” playing for the first time. Every region in RuneScape has unique music catered to its vibe, giving each zone a special visual and audio identity.
Fortnite
Fortnite first started out as a wave survival mode, then branched out to include its iconic Battle Royale mode. Ever since then, the game became a cultural phenomenon that saw millions of Fortnite accounts made and crossovers with different IPs and celebrities. Fortnite has boomed in popularity so much that it saw live in-game concerts with artists like Marshmello. Eminem, Nikki Minaj and Billie Eilish.
Players who prefer the musical experience of Fortnite alone can play Fortnite Festival with many songs from other mainstream artists. Not only that, players can even select a song to play for their lobby and Victory Royale moment, which gives them a bit more room to style their game.
The Souls Games
FromSoftware’s iconic Soulsborne games are not only known for their difficulty, but also for their iconic boss tracks and locale themes. The series has many iconic tracks that makes it emblematic of the series, such as Dark Souls 1’s “Gwyn, Lord of Cinder;” Dark Souls 2’s “Majula;” Dark Souls 3’s “Soul of Cinder;” Bloodborne’s “Ludwig the Holy Blade;” and Elden Ring’s own title theme.
A tough boss fight paired with a catchy theme makes every fight a joy, even if you end up dying multiple times.
Legend of Zelda
Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise has so many entries, each with a song still being used to this day. Some of the best games such as Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and Breath of the Wild all have incredible soundtracks for exploring the entirety of Hyrule.
The game comes with multiple memorable tracks, such as “Saria’s Song,” “Zelda’s Lullaby,” “Ballad of the Goddess,” “Fairy Fountain,” “Song of Storms,” and others exclusively found in each game.
