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Times when a piece of music in a game stopped you dead in your tracks
- Thread starter ScOULaris
- Start date
The first time I actually remember it happening was in God of War 2. I lived in a house with 3 of my friends when that came out, and we all stood up and took notice when the part around 1 minute kicked in. Transistor knows this, he was one of them lol
I don't know that it was the first time but it's the only thing that springs to mind at the moment
Without a doubt, this piece gives me full body chills every single goddamn time.
The orchestration is so... perfect. It sounds exactly like how peering through the distant clouds of time into a golden, idealized past would.
You've got:
- orchestral piano / strings
- mixolydian mode
- tenor sax
- shuffly jazz drums
The mode gives a uniquely eerie edge to an otherwise gorgeous composition.
And don't get me fucking started on that tenor sax. Holy FUCK.
I have over 150 hours in Torna alone - as in, not including the base game - and this piece is partially to blame. It's such a wonderful game to pick up and 100% over the span of a week or so. I've done it several times.
The orchestration is so... perfect. It sounds exactly like how peering through the distant clouds of time into a golden, idealized past would.
You've got:
- orchestral piano / strings
- mixolydian mode
- tenor sax
- shuffly jazz drums
The mode gives a uniquely eerie edge to an otherwise gorgeous composition.
And don't get me fucking started on that tenor sax. Holy FUCK.
I have over 150 hours in Torna alone - as in, not including the base game - and this piece is partially to blame. It's such a wonderful game to pick up and 100% over the span of a week or so. I've done it several times.
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Man, I almost forgot how good GoW2's soundtrack was. Still my favorite game in the series, with GoW 2018 right behind it.
Was going to say this. I was completely dumbstruck by the moment. Even crazier is you hear the music as soon as you are in the teleportation room and you immediately think "WTF is going on?" Because the music is so unique to what you heard up to that point. Which is saying a lot because the CT soundtrack is god tier even without this song.
FFX has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, but for some reason this song stands out to me so much. Makes me feel all types of emotions every time I listen to it or when I reach the farplane in the game.
Hits especially hard when I recall Auron saying, 'I wanted to change the world, too. But I changed nothing, that is my story'.
OP
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Yep. The symbiosis between music and level design/theme was absolutely perfect with this one. Magical.
I was jamming out to this shit for like 15 minutes the first time I heard it
"The mad man... Toby Fox has done it again!" I remember saying.
Yeah this was the first song in FFXIV that really caught my attention. Even now that I'm caught up I still sit and listen to this theme sometimes.
You actually walk through a small forest in complete silence before the track kicks in, fantastic.
I picked up Xenoblade from GameStop when it released in NA and I'd had the game hyped up to impossible and unreachable levels, but had abstained from spoiling myself on music and characters and content, and when I load up the game and start digging through the options to make this experience the best it can be, this song is playing:
I thought this was the options screen music. My jaw dropped through the floor as the song just continued building and building. This is the only time I stopped for a song, to my knowledge.
I thought this was the options screen music. My jaw dropped through the floor as the song just continued building and building. This is the only time I stopped for a song, to my knowledge.
The whole soundtrack of LISA: The Painful did this for me. Just finished this game recently and it's already one of my favorite RPG's of all time.
Excellent pick. Should've thought of it since I did the same thing. It absolutely helped that the title screen shifts from day/night in a beautiful way.
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When that Amusement Park track started playing.
These two both had the reaction for me described in the OP. The Amusement Park theme, coupled with the unexpected scenary change, really caught me off guard. Tropical Freeze's Stickerbush Symphony hit my nostalgia pretty hard, and I always take time to listen to it before starting the rocket barrel segment.
I'll add my own Xenoblade 2 tracks, both Tantal at night, and Yggdrasil, the World Tree made me take my time and delay battles just to take in the music.
Honestly, the menu music for Final Fantasy XIII. First time I heard it as I was about to start the game I just sat there and let it play.
Celeste has beautiful music and the opening track at the beginning of the game was simply sublime.
This is a very good one. And it stopped me in my tracks twice more, both times the singer changed.
Even the music has great and logical progression with the game system/world!
Yea all the versions are great. The duet was a nice reward for finishing their story line.
Yeah, the first time I entered the area with her and just heard her singing I did just stop to hear the song
Another good one is when you exit Victory Road in D/P and finally reach the Pokemon League. It's this really somber, but hopeful piano piece that just takes you by surprise
Kind of cliche to post Nier music in a thread like this, but the opening phase of the final dungeon music really drives home the idea that there will be no happy ending here.
This, combined with the the ghostlike voices of the birds guarding the door, gives me chills.
Seeing Pyra/Mythra's addition to Smash Ultimate in the Direct the other day got me thinking about Xenoblade 2 and my partial playthrough of it years ago. While it never measured up to the original Xenoblade for me due to its goofy, fanservice-laden characters and plot, I did end up really enjoying it as a large-scale adventure with some truly memorable aesthetic moments. While the whole soundtrack is excellent (as good or maybe better than XB1), there's one track that I remember completely catching me by surprise.
When I stepped foot into the area for the first time and heard this track, I actually just put the controller down for a bit to listen to it:
Before XB2's release, its legendary composer Yasunori Mitsuda commented on Twitter that some particular track made him tear up as it was being recorded. We now know that it was likely this track (or its other variation) that elicited that emotional response from him. I just never expected to come across a swelling, Gregorian choral performance tinged with religiosity in a game like this, and even without the element of surprise the track is powerful enough to be arresting on its own.
The music adds an appopriate aura of calm reverence and grandiosity that befits the Indoline Praetorium area of the game.
There have been other times when a high-quality music track in a game had me in awe during gameplay, but this is the only one I can think of that made me just completely stop playing and listen for a while.
XC2 and Torna expansion have a whole set of "Right in the fucking feels" songs that just made me sit in awe when they started.
For XC2, this one sorta counts:
In the game when you first get it there's no vocal track, but it's a pretty impactful song. I think it comes up again somewhere else or two.
Torna has its own ending song that as the implications of the ending and XC2's back story begin to dawn on you builds until it hits like a sledgehammer:
For XCX, this song doesn't have the emotional impact, but I sure as hell paused and listened through it the first time I came across it (and am now listening to it again on loop). It's also a song that you'll hear going into the final zone, a zone that deserved much more story and worldbuilding to explain what you had come across:
XCX has an *amazing* soundtrack that's brought down by editing/mixing (vocalized tracks playing over voice conversations) and the weird song placement (eg the Squad Selection song you get 10 seconds of a 3 minute real song, the catchy flight song that starts over every time you take off and sorta doesn't fit, the New LA theme which kinda drives you insane you hear it so much)
I love getting Twinning on roulette. One of the few duties I turn off whatever I have going on outside the game just to hear the music.
Pretty much any Ashley Berret vocals in a Darren Korb song demands a pause.
While the game is over at that point, it's one of the rare songs I just listen to the credits on and then relisten:
In the context of the game, it's a pretty emotional song to hear at the point you do.
It is amazing.
The same composer also did Urban Strike (not as good but still cool):
The moment you trigger this song you are supposed to move fast...
... But you probably won't have enough time to do what you are supposed to do, so I just stood there listening to this waiting for the inevitable to happen. And it brought tears to my eyes.
One of the strongest emotional responses I've had in any medium.
... But you probably won't have enough time to do what you are supposed to do, so I just stood there listening to this waiting for the inevitable to happen. And it brought tears to my eyes.
One of the strongest emotional responses I've had in any medium.
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This too, but for me it would be the very first solo occurrence of Build that Wall. Back in 2011 this just wasn't a thing that happened. Massive emotional impact.
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Huh that game came out before Road Rash 3, and it sounds like he took that one riff at 21 secs and used it as inspiration for Road Rash. Composer just wanted to make some bangers haha
Song choice is great in RDR 2 as well but it just doesn't hit as hard as the first time.
Sheeeeeit, those were good times, man. Before adulthood and responsibilities and shit.
The music for Hydropolis (I think that's the name) in Ni No Kuni 2 was great, think I stopped first time to have it as background music
For me it's the autumn music from Rune Factory Frontier that makes me stop whatever I am doing and just listen. It is just so relaxing.
I gotta add another post for XC2 because, maybe it's just me, but I seldom see this track talked about. When Mor Ardain comes up, everyone is always ready to roam the wastes. Me? I'm joining the Empire!
Alba Cavanich
The morning sun rises and your ears hear a nice JRPG castle town track. Elegant, sort of regal. Then 0:42 happens and I was like, HOLD THE FUCK UP... something's up; something big is coming! Literally glued to the screen, what follows next I can only describe as sheer sensory overload, lol. Deep, heavy strings, drums, horns, electric guitar. Dear god, my life is yours Mor Ardainian Empire! I love this song so much.
Alba Cavanich
The morning sun rises and your ears hear a nice JRPG castle town track. Elegant, sort of regal. Then 0:42 happens and I was like, HOLD THE FUCK UP... something's up; something big is coming! Literally glued to the screen, what follows next I can only describe as sheer sensory overload, lol. Deep, heavy strings, drums, horns, electric guitar. Dear god, my life is yours Mor Ardainian Empire! I love this song so much.