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What is a video game soundtrack you feel is overrated

Phediuk

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,325
Explain why a highly-regarded video game soundtrack doesn't do it for you.

I don't like the Ducktales NES soundtrack tbqh. It's on every list of "legendary retro game soundtracks" and what have you, and I just find most of it shrill and grating. It doesn't use any interesting techniques with the hardware or anything; it's a really basic, high-pitched, beepy driver, especially on the game's centerpiece, the Moon theme, which I just find kinda irritating. And I find myself mashing through the stage select screen as fast as possible so I don't have to listen to the obnoxious 2-second loop there for long. I don't think it would even be in my top 100 NES soundtracks, and might still the miss the cut even if I limited the selection to NES games that came out before it.

You?
 
Another

Another

Banned
Oct 23, 2019
1,684
Portugal
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance by a huge margin.

Thing is, the soundtrack is absolutely perfect for the game since it's the epitome of the cheesy mock-coolness/campy edgelord attitude the game is going for and as such it fits in fantastically with the game itself.

People actually unironically sing it's praises, though. What the fuck is up with that? It's about as mediocre as metal can be.
 
WolfeTone

WolfeTone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
611
I was pretty disappointed in Nier Automata's soundtrack despite loving the music in the first game. NA had fine music just nowhere near the quality of the first for me.
 
Why would you do that?

Why would you do that?

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,795
New York City
The one pick that really sticks out to me can be seen as a hot take, so warning, and I'm sorry...

I was never a big fan of Nobuo Uematsu's music. I tried over and over to get into his music, because I really wanted to try and like his stuff as much as everyone else does, but honestly, pretty much none of his music does anything for me.

I do really love this from him, though


And parts of Dancing Mad are pretty cool, too.

Phediuk said:
I don't like the Ducktales NES soundtrack tbqh. It's on every list of "legendary retro game soundtracks" and what have you, and I just find most of it shrill and grating. It doesn't use any interesting techniques with the hardware or anything; it's a really basic, high-pitched, beepy driver, especially on the game's centerpiece, the Moon theme, which I just find kinda irritating. And I find myself mashing through the stage select screen as fast as possible so I don't have to listen to the obnoxious 2-second loop there for long. I don't think it would even be in my top 100 NES soundtracks, and might still the miss the cut even if I limited the selection to NES games that came out before it.
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You know, I can agree that it's overrated in a way, but I think it's still a great soundtrack. It definitely has some of those... I guess "early NES" vibes to the music that are kind of annoying. But I think the game has some great melodies and the soundtrack as a whole is a joy to listen to, but it's not in the "aaaaah best nes soundtrack ever!" territory at all to me.
 
Jane

Jane

Member
Oct 17, 2018
1,253
Mega Man 2. I mean, it has some good tracks. Wily 1 is great of course. Flash Man and Crash Man are pretty groovy. But, every Mega Man game has good music and I feel like people single out MM2 a bit too often when it doesn't stand out that much from the rest of the series.

EDIT: I have sort of similar feelings with people singling out Sonic Adventure 2 as having an amazing soundtrack when every Sonic game has great music. It just seems a bit influenced by nostalgia bias to me. But I have to admit, SA2 does have a great soundtrack.

Actually, one other example: Persona 4. Now, I love Persona 4. It's probably my favourite Persona game, and there are a lot of tracks I like. But overall I don't think the soundtrack is anything that special. I think Heartbeat, Heartbreak is really goofy. Maybe this is just my preference though, idk.
 
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Rosenkrantz

Rosenkrantz

Member
Jan 17, 2018
4,920
Automata. Pretty simplistic orchestration/arrangement and overreliance on vocal tracks. Didn't work for me before I played the game, doesn't work for me in context after I played the game.

The word overrated should be retired tho.
 
AIan

AIan

Member
Oct 20, 2019
4,845
Kingdom Hearts 3's soundtrack. A LOT of the OST wasn't composed by Yoko Shimomura that time around—who has a decent background in music—but rather by someone else. That particular person's pieces lacked a lot of punch, seemed to use fairly unoptimized MIDI instruments (the string sections were junk) among others. It was such a jarring contrast compared to the first two games.
 
Eros

Eros

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,658
FFX. My least favorite battle theme in the series. Those horns got old for me really quick. And my least favorite song in the series, period. Otherworld. I like rock/metal. I like harsh vocals. But that song is garbaggio. The rest of the OST is alright, but the only song that stuck with me is the piano in the intro. The rest of it was just there.
 
Luke88

Luke88

One Winged Slayer
Member
Dec 29, 2018
2,560
Italy
I wouldn't call it overrated especially because Music is something deeply subjective but as someone who found Hollow Knight a very emotional game because of things that were going down in my life in 2018 when I played it and placing it in my top 10 (maybe top 5) of the generation I didn't find the score to be as memorable as some make it to be, there are definitely a few memorable songs, like the Mantis Lords, but when talking the highs of Hollow Knight it takes me a very, very long time before I mention the score.

Now Silksong on the other hand so far has a flawless track record from the tracks they put out, that I could see being one of the highlights for the game.
 
DaciaJC

DaciaJC

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,685
Doom 2016.

BFG Division is fantastic, but the rest of the tracks I didn't find particularly memorable.
 
Polyh3dron

Polyh3dron

Prophet of Regret
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Oct 25, 2017
9,860
Rosenkrantz said:
Automata. Pretty simplistic orchestration/arrangement and overreliance on vocal tracks. Didn't work for me before I played the game, doesn't work for me in context after I played the game.

The word overrated should be retired tho.
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Simplistic orchestration and arrangement? I think your copy got swapped out with entirely different music than what everyone else experienced.
 
Rosenkrantz

Rosenkrantz

Member
Jan 17, 2018
4,920
trashbandit said:
This is a pretty strange knock against it. Vocal music isn't inferior or easier to produce than instrumental music, and as far as I can tell the previous Nier also went heavy of vocals.
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I didn't say it was easier to produce, I simply don't like Sawano-esque use of them. I also never said that I was a fan of the first games' OST either.
Polyh3dron said:
Simplistic orchestration and arrangement? I think your copy got swapped out with entirely different music than what everyone else experienced.
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Nah. It's not exactly John Williams at his best, come on. Doesn't mean it's bad.
 
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Polyh3dron

Polyh3dron

Prophet of Regret
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Oct 25, 2017
9,860
Rosenkrantz said:
I didn't say it was easier to produce, I simply don't like Sawano-esque use of them. I also never said that I was a fan of the first games' OST either.

Nah. It's not exactly John Williams at his best, come on. Doesn't mean it's bad.
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And John Williams isn't exactly Bernard Herrmann at his best, doesn't make John Williams bad.
 
eamono

eamono

Member
Nov 17, 2020
116
Fallout: New Vegas, it has big iron and a bunch of other random songs I do not remember
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,117
Even though it's great, probably Nier Automata. Just because the first game's OST is a lot better but most people only talk about the second.
 

Deleted member 51789

User requested account closure
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Jan 9, 2019
3,705
Some people love the Skyrim soundtrack and while there is something technically impressive about making it sound like some songs are being sung by a full chorus, I think the actual composition is quite dull and most of it ends up feeling more like a bunch of uninteresting variations on one decent theme.

And while it's not related to this soundtrack it's always worth mentioning that Jeremy Soule is also not a good person
 
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dancingphlower

dancingphlower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,055
Final Fantasy VII Remake's, to be honest. I have no nostalgia for the original so none of the new arrangements really did anything for me in terms of getting an emotional response. It's not bad or anything, just doesn't feel as incredible as people made it out to be.
 
Necromanti

Necromanti

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,546
I really don't like the Halo soundtrack. I just find it duIl, and I even find the main theme irritating.
 
Rehynn

Rehynn

Banned
Feb 14, 2018
737
I see a lot of praise for new Doom music, but compared to the bands it draws inspiration from it's a pretty generic chugfest.
 
Jonathan Lanza

Jonathan Lanza

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Feb 8, 2019
6,795
I am going to give you a very honest answer. However before I give this answer I'm going to preface this with some credentials so you know I'm both being honest and that I have good taste.

I have listened to over 2000 hours of the Jet Set Radio soundtrack
I can listen to the Sonic Rush soundtrack every day of the week
I am the only person in the world who regularly listens to the Dead Heat Riders soundtrack

I fucking love Hideki Naganuma's body of work.

So my answer is
Hideki Naganuma's body of work. It is funky upbeat dance music but a LOT of it is interchangeable and very similar sounding. I think Sonic Rush is him at his most creative as he's making songs to fit a variety of different situations instead of just dance music but I cannot deny that most of his tracks across all of his games sound really similar and you can just kinda swap em in and out a lot of the time

I still enjoy it though.
 
Fraxin

Fraxin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
864
I don't enjoy The Legend of Zelda soundtracks since Majora's mask.

I do like a couple of tracks from the games but I find most of the OST boring and forgettable.

Don't know if it has anything to do with Koji Kondo having limited input in the OST compared to before or my tastes in music changed.
 
Zweisy1

Zweisy1

Member
Oct 30, 2017
561
The original Final Fantasy VII. Some great stand out tracks with lots and lots of throwaway filler tracks with even some downright ugly sounding music. Massive step down from FFVI music to me..
 

Deleted member 51789

User requested account closure
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Zweisy1 said:
The original Final Fantasy VII. Some great stand out tracks with lots and lots of throwaway filler tracks with even some downright ugly sounding music. Massive step down from FFVI music to me..
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Definitely not helped by the implementation. Most of the compositions are sound, but they're really hurt by that early PS1 era midi
 

Deleted member 197

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,263
I feel like all of them, i feel like saying a videogame has a great OST is the most common praise they get to the point it doesn't really mean anything to me lol.
 
KillLaCam

KillLaCam

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Oct 25, 2017
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FF7 remakes maybe. I like them but I feel like they'd not be as cool without all the nostalgia
Kcannon said:
Anything that uses an epic orchestra in order to sound like a Hollywood film.
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What games would that even be? Im trying to think of some that try to sound like movies and also have highly praised soundtracks.
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,117
KillLaCam said:
FF7 remakes maybe. I like them but I feel like they'd not be as cool without all the nostalgia

What games would that even be? Im trying to think of some that try to sound like movies and also have highly praised soundtracks.
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Maybe something like Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Though that is far from generic orchestral music.
 

Deleted member 51789

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Seabag said:
I'm not really a fan of the Skyrim soundtrack and Jeremy Soule is definitely a dick for many reasons, but this is a very odd thing to say since it was recorded with a choir.
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Fair, I should clarify, the sound of a full choir is usually different enough than that of a number of voices recorded in smaller groups and composited to sound like it's 90 people
 
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Papertoonz

Papertoonz

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 26, 2017
3,256
most of OSTs that grant kirkhope has worked on, I don't like his style and the sound fonts he uses
 

giapel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,593
Astro's playroom. I was thinking that generally the music was annoying throughout so had a quick look to see what others think. To my surprise, it's almost universally praised.
 
NewErakid

NewErakid

Member
Jan 17, 2018
1,089
I remember people hyping up nier automata's soundtrack but it didnt stand out to me at all.

Now ill admit that I don't really know much about music so maybe it's impressive on a technical level I dont understand. I basically judge videogame soundtracks on how much I I remember the soundtrack afterwards and I barely remember anything from nier.
 
pleaseinsertdisctwo

pleaseinsertdisctwo

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Oct 31, 2017
14,991
Also from the tracks I've heard, FFXIV. There's many of them (like, what, 500?) but of the ones I've skimmed through or gave a listen, I liked TWO. There's a lot that are offensively bad to me, too. Like pretty much any boss battle theme with vocals.
 
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