Patient Gamers

A lot of great ones have already been mentioned: (Old School) Runescape, Bastion, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Braid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Celeste, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex (2000), Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, Doom 2016, Earthbound, F-Zero GX, FTL, Hades, Halo, Hi Fi Rush, Hotline Miami, Jet Set Radio and JSR Future, Kirby (any of them), Legend of Mana, Mother 3, Neotokyo, Nier: Automata, Pizza Tower, Quake, Ratchet & Clank (any of them), Risk of Rain 1 and 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Shantae (any of them), Shatter, Shovel Knight, SimCity 3000, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic CD (Japan), Sonic Mania, Sonic Rush, Stardew Valley, Tower of Heaven, Transistor, Trine, and VVVVVV

Here's some that haven't been mentioned yet:

Ape Escape

• PS1 game, soundtrack by icon of the 90s era Japanese House music scene, Soichi Terada. All of his tracks are bangers. I've seen the soundtrack described as House, Jungle, and DnB. Probably my favorite game soundtrack ever, but that's probably nostalgia talking.
• Soundtrack: Game Rip, Fan Remastered or Originape Soundtrack/Official Soundtrack CD (Note: Terada has released his own remastered tracks in the 2020s since the Originape CD, but they are split over multiple albums and I'm too lazy to track them down at the moment)
• Standout tracks: Peak Point Matrix/Galaxy Monkey, Primordial Ooze, Thick Jungle- Woods, Dark Ruins, Crumbling Castle, Specter's Factory- Outside, Time Station

Final Fantasy Legends III / SaGa 3 Jikū no Hasha: Shadow or Light

• Originally on Gameboy, Japan only remake on DS (fan translation patch exists). This is really a game in the SaGa series, but was released under the Final Fantasy name internationally for marketing purposes. Characters don't have levels, their stats change based on what they do. Enemies also drop meat and parts that you can apply to a character to change their class, with some unique mechanics for different types. Features a time traveling stealth bomber, THE TALON, that may possibly be the only airship in gaming with a working toilet. DS Remake is generally better, but it kills overworld exploration by turning it into "select an adjacent POI" instead of free roam.
• Soundtrack: Gameboy, unfortunately I can't find this version with track names. DS Remake
• Standout Tracks: Setting off into the future, Holy Ruins (a criminally underused track in game), Oasis (has some odd animal sfx added in the middle in this remake version), Stronghold (imo, one of the best dungeon themes in gaming), THE MOTHERFUCKING TALON THEME (this is the GB version, as the DS remake loses the countermelody which imo weakens the track)

Ghost Trick

• Originally for DS, has been remade for just about everything now. It's effectively a VN with fancy gameplay segments, and the music really helps carry the whole thing. Beautifully done sprite animation too.
• Soundtrack: DS, 2023 Remaster
• Standouts: Ghost Trick, Lynne- Red-Headed Target, Awakening, The Mystery Surges Ahead, Cabanela - Lanky and Loose Lawman, Jowd- Fated Jailbird

Gunpoint

• Old indie sidescrolling noir stealth game. The main gameplay revolves around puzzle solving by hacking buildings' electrical systems. Hook that lightswitch up to the secure door lock. Rig that motion sensor up to short out a power plug and take out a guard instead of it just turning on the lights. Delightful jazz soundtrack.
• Soundtrack
• Standouts: Security, Circuitry and You, Subterfuge Shuffle, Cold Halls and Footfalls, The Five-Floor Goodbye

Megaman ZX

• DS sequel to the Megaman Zero series for GBA, but now with a Metroidvania twist.
• Soundtrack: ZX Tunes- Official remix/rearrange soundtrack
• Standouts: Innocence- 90s style anime opening, Green Grass Gradation, Rockin' On, Brilliant Show Window, Cinq Ville - C`est Notre Espoir, Gauntlet

And I've spent way too much time on this comment. Here's more not mentioned so far that I don't have time to do a writeup for: Skies of Arcadia, Super Meat Boy, Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Returns, Uplink, XCOM (Original), XCOM (Reboot), XCOM 2 (Reboot)

Icewind Dale

The Outer Worlds

Deus Ex

For entire OSTs: any of the FromSoft soulslikes, Lies of P, Diablo 2 + Lord of Destruction, any Monster Hunter game really (especially the ones in Pokke village, so Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite/Portable 2nd G), Hollow Knight, currently enjoying Ridge Racer's (PSP) soundtrack for working out, Deltarune and Undertale, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and Bboy the Game for some perfect-vibe licensed music...

Disco Elysium's is my current favourite OST, but the game itself might also just be current favourite game.

As for individual tracks, I like the Spanish guitar portion of "The Drive/First Contact" off the RE4 soundtrack. Back when I started out with breaking ("breakdance"), think 2008/9ish, we had a remix of that specific part of the song that would play often - I've got very fond memories of that. The song itself, its remixes and the remake versions actually are some of my favourite running music for the gym.

Here's the remix in question if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/SMWV-3pbcLE

As for one favourite individual song from each of the aforementioned OSTs:

• Hunter's Dream (Bloodborne)
• Shadow Flower (Lies of P)
• Rogue (Diablo 2) + Lord of Destruction intro
• Pokke Village theme (MH Freedom 2/Unite/Generations (Ultimate)) and Mizutsune theme (first fought in Generations)
• Mantis Lords (Hollow Knight)
• Rotterdam Nation - Remix (Ridge Racer)
• Ruins (Undertale) and My Castle Town (Deltarune)
• I'm a Swing It by House of Pain or Ace of Spades by Motörhead (THPS3)
• Don't Sweat the Technique by Rakim or Apache by Incredible Bongo Band (Bboy the Game)

This was lots of fun to think about. I hope anyone reading can find something of value here. :)

Unreal

Going through the lists everyone has posted I realized I’m surprised I haven’t seen anything from the Medal of Honor franchise posted. I only ever played Medal of Honor: Frontline because a roommate had it, but it was scored by Michael Giacchino, who also composed the scores for the original Medal of Honor, Medal of Honor: Underground, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Medal of Honor: Airborne. Giacchino won awards for the first four soundtracks in the series and it was his video game work that caught J. J. Abrams’s attention and led to him scoring Alias and Lost, starting his TV and movie career.

Also, if you enjoy soundtracks, you might like StreamingSoundtracks.com. It’s been around since 2001 and features soundtracks from movies, tv shows, and video games. It’s a free streaming radio service with the playlist queued by listeners along with limits on how frequently any track can be played, so you won’t hear repeats very often. A manager at a past job played it most days. One year someone took advantage of the “No repeats” rules and played all the horror tracks throughout October so that on Halloween there were basically no horror tracks available, angering many when they realized what had happened. I found it one of the more impressively planned and executed pranks I’ve personally witnessed.

Katamari Damacy.

Na na, na na na na na, na na, na na na na na na...

The factorio space age dlc. Particularly track 06 from Fulgora.

Batman the Videogame on the NES, FFVII, the entire WipEout series, original soundtrack for Crazy Taxi, Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Sonic & Knuckles, X-Men on the Sega Genesis, WET, Omega Boost, Zone of the Enders, BurnOut 3: Takedown, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Lost War Chronicles, Roommania #203, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Mega Man 2 & 3, Doom, SSX Tricky, Xenogears.

Jetset radio

Dustforce

Scott Pilgrim vs the Wolrd the Game

River City Girls 1 and 2

Okami

Faster Than Light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFkGjEut9U4

I’ve seen a lot of good mentions here already but haven’t seen Nier: Automata yet. I thought the game was overrated, but there are a lot of great audio tracks

Subnautica. Love the atmosphere that the music conveys.

Journey

The game is a piece of art and the soundtrack plays a big part of it.

Outer Wilds - The way this game uses music and ambient sound to foster a sense of wonder, dread, excitement, sorrow, and much more is nothing short of incredible. Probably the best game I have ever played.

Subnautica - Equally impressive use of music as Outer Wilds, many of the same feelings, but a much much different vibe and genre.

Return of the Obra Dinn - A grim game where the soundtrack with church bells and heavy string instruments really underscore the mood.

axiom verge 1 and 2 - good in different ways. i liked to put first on for long coding sessions, and the second expanded in interesting directions
transistor & pyre & hades - all scored by Darren Korb, but different genres. from first moment, transistor has such vibe in big part thanks to it's soundtrack, and is among my all time top games
Nier automata - won awards for it's soundtrack, clear to hear why
crypt of the necrodancer - rhythm game should have a good soundtrack, and it does
witcher 3 - the battle themes - like "silver for monsters" are unique style of action-y folk, very rare to find anything else that scratches that itch.
dusk - awesome and dynamic metal
risk of rain 1&2 - first game itself didn't click with me, but, oh man, that solo in "Monsoon" get me every time, and "Coalescence" is poignantly melancholic in a similar way to "song of the ancients" from nier - which is (a very high praise and) much more expected from nier's type of game than a "risk of rain"'s. "face of the deep" from ror2 from second is head-spinning in a good way
no man's sky - it introduced me to 65dos, for which i'm very grateful. that soundtrack is still probably my favourite album of theirs noita - low-key psychedelic, very vibes
unreal tournament 99 - and i think it's not just nostalgia, because one of my favourites - "mechanism 8" - is from the map i almost never played
"Ultrakill" - good soundtrack, and yet cyber grind tracks from guest composers are still my favourites. "The cyber grind" in particular is just exhilarating

individual tracks i overheard from games i haven't played:

old "touhou project" games - their soundtrack is full of gems, even if it's not my genre of game
system shock 2's "Med Sci 1" and "Engineering" - very nice, i want more of that and can't find
"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33"'s "Lumière" - made me wishlist the game just for having it
"Final Fantasy IX"'s "You're not alone" - very nice melody i like to whistle sometimes. considering playing it just for having it
original "Castlevania"'s "Vampire killer" rocks

Celeste.

The synergy between the soundtrack, the gameplay and the mechanics is just unparalleled.

Bastion. It's Bastion. Holy shit the answer to this question is Bastion.

I'm assuming you know that Hades' soundtrack is fucking amazing, but before that came Bastion (from the same developer), and it has possibly the most powerful soundtrack I've ever experienced. The way it's integrated into the story genuinely blows my mind. Every track is a banger, but then you'll start to get used to it, and then you'll hear a song that's so different, and it's because something unexpected and beautiful is about to happen.

Then you'll get to the end and you'll have a choice to make. Except it won't feel like a choice, because you'll feel compelled to do exactly what the game wants you to do, and then you're rewarded with one of the most beautiful sequences I've ever seen in a game, accompanied by a haunting song that I still sing fourteen years later.

I can't stress this enough: if you want a game where the music is an essential part of the experience and is just so fucking amazing on its own that you'll want to play it on repeat, the answer is Bastion.

I also really loved the soundtrack to Baldur's Gate 3.

Pillars of eternity 1 and 2, octopath traveler, Chrono trigger, streets of rage, sonic 1-3, and doom eternal were all pretty amazing

Quake, by Nine Inch Nails https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1SsBMsauvE Industrial / Ambient

Nier Automata

Edit: it was mentioned already but I'm keeping it

Shovel Knight.

Outstanding compositions and Famitracker work by Virt.

Almost 200 comments and not one single mention of Disco Elysium? What are we doing here guys? It's one of the most fitting , most perfect and beautiful soundtracks I've heard. Captures the vibe so perfectly Robert Kurvitz personally convinced Sea Power to get on board, including - allegedly - by being the man inside the bear costume at one of their gigs.

Have listen: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n9enLNuLjWTn67qj2aXP6FuJbX239vQdI

I liker Cyberpunk 2077's soundtrack so much I incorporated that specific style of music in my general listening habits because of it.