Written by The TAG Team
In the comments recently, we were admiring some outstanding music in a game. That made us wonder: what’s the best song or soundtrack in an adventure game?
There are some well-known songs, like the video above from Quest for Glory, and some overall good soundtracks. But what’s your favorite, from a game new or old? Any obscure tracks from a forgotten game?
Let’s keep it to original compositions. The soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City isn’t a contender in this discussion, no matter how awesome those 80s hits are.
>what’s the best song or soundtrack in an adventure game?
ReplyDeleteTime to shill YU-NO again, its OST I've ever heard in an adventure game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQg6t-FIRts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VzSEyDqK-E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViYHnn3V-_I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxNAlIxfkSQ
A bit more love for the PC-98 here - my recent favorites have been basically all PC-98 adv. game soundtracks by Isshiki Yui, main composer of the AIL company. Although she's not the most famous, her soundtracks are quite catchy, making her in my estimate on average among the best PC-98 composers of the era.
DeleteExample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBhnUqs5liA&t=895s
PC-88 / 98 series games generally put a lot of the Western canon to shame, but is slept on for various reasons.
DeleteI felt like things got better over here as the PC finally shook off its reputation as the worst system for audio/visuals and started attracting a better standard of artists (no disrespect to their forebears, but I feel like the EGA era gave the lie to the idea that creative constraints can always be transcended).
It's probably more the context than the song itself, but one that has stuck in my head is the one from Magnetic Scrolls's game Corruption (1998).
ReplyDeleteIncluded with the game was a cassette tape. On one side, there was a conversation between you and your boss, who is congratulating you on becoming a partner in the company. On the other side, the conversation had been edited down to make it sound like your boss caught you, and you're admitting to, doing insider trading. The rest of the other side was a song.
I thought it was pretty well done, and it was definitely one of the coolest feelies of any game I own. I no longer have a cassette player, but fortunately it's been archived. Here, among other places: https://archive.org/details/The_Magnetic_Scrolls_Collection_Virgin_AtariST_Cassette/
Apparently the Amiga version used a rendition of the song as title music on the loading screen. I didn't play it on an Amiga, though.
If I'm not restricted to adventure games, one perhaps obscure one that comes to mind is "Beyond the Cloudspine" from Myth II: Soulblighter. You can no doubt find the isolated music in higher quality, but it was the music together with the narration that I found so evocative. It's probably the first time the name "Soulblighter" gets mentioned in the game (well... apart from the title, and the main menu, and...) and I really like how that's the point where the main theme kicks in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AinhJyx1j9Q
I always loved the Space Quest theme, but I especially love the way they transition to a new one in Space Quest 3. So funky! (And nerdy musician moment - I had fun when I realised this was using the Lydian mode).
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/PNbXTKuObCQ?si=vrkLY955ySISK-4t
One tune which stood out to me last time I played Legend of Kyrandia was this one from the Timbermist Woods. The melody was getting stuck in my head for a long time after playing (maybe because at the start it sounds like it's going to go into the chorus from Come Back And Stay by Paul Young!)
https://youtu.be/G3lpFgSE6sU?si=KziwNvtVh2rYvqUg
The Dig also has some wonderfully atmospheric, lush music throughout.
If I'm allowed to venture beyond adventure games, then the original Command & Conquer still has one of the best game soundtracks I've ever heard. It's like 1990s Nine Inch Nails being asked to score a full game.
Frank Klepacki did the soundtracks for a bunch of games, including Legend of Kyrandia and Command & Conquer! they are both great and quite different. the C&C soundtrack is a real favourite.
DeleteYes, I've loved Klepacki ever since my boxed copy of C&C came with the soundtrack on CD!
Deletethe quest for glory 4: shadows of darkness soundtrack was one that I have always loved. So many of the Sierra games had great music, King's Quest 5 also stands out to me too.
ReplyDelete(I'd also suggest Ultima soundtracks, esp. U7, U7-2, UW1+2 & U8, but I assume we're sticking to adventure games here!)
I vouch for Money Island II's Woodtick theme, which changes slightly based on which part of the town are you visiting.
ReplyDelete(I wanted to say "Monkey Island", although "Money Island" also seems an interesting place to visit)
ReplyDeleteMoney Island must have been where Guybrush was just before the beginning of MI2.
DeleteSounds more like a reality TV show where Stan the salesman woos and dates five eligible bachelorettes...
DeleteAlso, the theme from "The Dig" introductory cutscene has an awesome sense of wonder.
ReplyDeleteBesides the iconic main theme, I like the Ghost Ship Shuffle from The Secret of Monkey Island a lot.
ReplyDeleteThere are many hit singles in the adventure game canon (surely "Girl In The Tower" deserves some sort of special mention for sure) but for complete adventure game soundtracks you will have a hard time coming up with a worthy competitor to Stephane Picq's "Spice Opera" For Exxos' 1992 Dune adaptation. He just issued a remaster this year!
ReplyDeleteLoom gets a special mention for integrating music into the actual gameplay, while it derives false glory from Tchaikovsky for its actual score, but my most profound musical experience playing an adventure game has been simply drifting from corner to corner of screens in the Curse of Monkey Island, ignoring all gameplay elements in the interest of curating my own "remix" of different synchronized versions of each room's theme, mixed on the fly by Lucasarts' incredible iMUSE system. The sheer quantity of music recorded for that game is astounding. Michael Land deserves a few other placements in the top 5 for his work in the previous two Monkey Islands also.
I hate to say it (because it's a boring answer) but Lucasarts probably has the edge over all the competition. Their weakest soundtracks are on par with the strongest soundtracks from other companies.
Yeah, "Girl in the Tower" deserves some kind of special mention, all right...
Delete(Sorry, that's just not something I'd include among the greats! 😂)
I would add the "Lost Eden" soundtrack as another Stephane Picq's great work. Also, I think that Exxos had already changed its name to Cryo Interactive, when they published the "Dune" adventure game.
DeleteI'd argue the LucasArts lead, a little. Sierra was a contender as well. Even the awful games got great music, like Codename:ICEMAN.
DeleteBut for LucasArts, the hauntingly beautiful music when you ride the crab raft is easily my favorite.
@arcanetrivia:
DeleteYeah, "Girl in the Tower" deserves some kind of special mention, all right...
Well, as best I can tell, it was the very best adventure game song created for a radio audience.
It was also the worst.
Both are special.
Exactly why Sierra thought that was a good idea is left as an exercise for the listener.
DeleteI was just joshing you all with Girl in the Tower. It is both special and exceptional in certain senses, but it isn't anything any reasonable person wants to ever hear again.
DeleteSorry about the Exxos confusion, but if you ever get a chance to look at the cover art of the original video game soundtrack album, you'll understand why it stuck in my mind.
Apart from "Grim Fandango", which has some fantastic jazzy tunes especially in the Rubacava section, I think that the winner for Best Songs, hands down, should be Sam & Max Save The World. The War Song and especially Just You And Me (And Ted E. Bear) have been stuck in my ears since I heard them and still haven't left.
ReplyDelete(arcanetrivia here) That Ted E. Bear song is great. I just about died laughing the first time I heard it.
DeleteNice, let me list all the ones I think are among the best in history of videogame music.
ReplyDeleteLava maze and Crete from Fate of Atlantis, most of the tracks are just amazing though, favorite game ever so may be biased, but lava maze is just the best one out.
MI2, Underground tunnels are very nostalgic, Phatt Island relaxing theme, Scabb Island with the tens of imuse transitions, and Phatt Island hut theme a jolly theme.
MI3, will mention the song when you are sinking in the quicksand, as well as the barbershop song with the imuse again.
Full Throttle intro song of course.
DOTT, love most of this OST, highlights include the present outdoors, past mansion, Red Edison song which takes bars from a Bach composition, ... really sound composition is superb in this game.
LSL3, the hotel song is so catchy. Same for LSL6
The Dig, has mostly cinematographic music, I like the Brink's dark theme, not sure if they even have a name.
let's go a little more exotic.
Veil of Darkness, has an incredible track with the main inn with the violin playing on top of the base song (until the violinist gets murdered), also the other village theme being so eerie. The gypsy camp also has a very distinctive song.
Goblins 3, not the floppy disk version, but the CD one has audio tracks that while not really random, they may not only play in one specific scene. Some are happy, some are sad. I love most of them.
Amazon Guardians of eden, favorite one is the lab music where you work and the house apartment you live in (with the 3 stooges tv on the background)
Kyrandia 1, already mentioned the Emerald cavern, but will also add the maze music which fits the environment perfectly, also the different forest themes (beginning area, Darms area, and Zanthia area) being so distinctive, and lastly the Dark Island main theme, outside of castle Kyrandia.
Kyrandia 2, song when you enter the big town after giving the sandwich to the guards, and also the final confrontation with the hand.
Kyrandia 3, the mazy forest song which is a remix of a song from Kyrandia 2, and the song that plays when you are in jail. Comedy classic.
Hook, may not be very popular, but the song that plays on the lost woods is so nostalgic.
Ceville, the main town song, but it has other interesting bits.
Let's go more obscure:
Out of Order, game has soul, best song is inside the elevator, closely followed by the main building song.
Escape from Delirium, the main map song is so weird, but will also mention a very obscure song that plays only in one specific room about 70% of the game, in which you get to a surreal screen with floating items I think. Hard to describe.
Pleurghburg: Dark Ages, that song that starts playing when you find a gruesome murder .. this game still gives me the creeps.
I can go on and on, adventure game music is one of my passions
oh no, I forgot a couple of very notable games,
DeleteSimon the sorcerer, forest theme period. Also the dwarf mines, and sordids castle.
Lost files of Sherlock Holmes 1, great tunes, most memorable are the Moorehead and Gardner office, the zoo, Sarah Carroway apartment, Lord Brumwell Manor, the main theme and its adaptations like outside Baker Street, Anna Carroway manor .. so many great songs.
Discworld, the broken drum bar song, the unseen university theme, probably a lot more, the game is huge.
Sam and Max, love the Conroy bumpus villain song (his theme, not the singed one), The minigolf song, the game is full of upbeat music.
Gabriel Knight 1, the library song, the Gedde main theme, and that rhythmic song that plays when you are in that tomb near the endgame.
Island of dr brain, the elevator song is top notch, others are excellent like the initial beach song and the jungle animals one.
Well, let's see if I remember more
One of the games I'm looking forward to this blog getting to, maybe, is 1998's Sanitarium. Some of the tracks are mind-hauntingly eerie and properly set the mood. For example, Ma href="https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/sanitarium-soundtrack">Track 4 on this page, "The Innocent Abandoned", is noteworthy.
ReplyDeleteThe first adventure game i've ever played was Maniac Mansion, so my favourite track ever is the intro theme of that game (the C64 version). Also, this metalhead is not ashamed of saying that the ending credits song of King's Quest 6 is pretty catchy (The Girl in the Tower or something like that)
ReplyDeleteMonkey Island was already mentioned, so I won't do so again :-P
ReplyDeleteThe Blackwell series also has very good music. In particular, Blackwell Unbound has a wonderful jazzy soundtrack.
IIRC, Gabriel Knight also had pretty good music, or at least the main theme.
I really enjoy the soundtrack to The Journeyman Project 3. Gage's Theme is a very genuine-feeling "Sci-Fi Epic Hero Theme".
ReplyDeleteOh and I'm kicking myself now for not remembering this last night. Shivers. The soundtrack to Shivers is awesome. The Planeterium theme is just amazing, and there's a bunch of other really good ambiance tracks there too.
DeleteShivers 2 has a whole rock band plot, and the resulting soundtrack is... Well, you know how it is when you need to make songs for a fictional band. I like the basic uncanniness of what's clearly some random non-name technically competent garage band pretending to be a commercially successful mainstream band. Not sure I'd call it "good" in the conventional sense, but it's the kind of thing that triggers my love of liminal spaces.
If we're being fairly strict about the genre, yeah, I'm with Vetinari: I don't think it ever got any better than Grim Fandango.
ReplyDeleteNow, if we opened it up to RPGs, I got some more things to say.
Surprised at how many are saying Sierra or Lucasarts games, since while they always had nice music, they never struck me as anything special. I basically just remember the main themes from them, which is kind of cheating. (But I must admit I don't remember GK's soundtrack)
ReplyDeleteThe best soundtracks:
Inca, who knew that MIDI South American music could sound so cool? Without that sea of flutes accompanying the game, this would just be a strange game with strange things going on in it. With the music, even when there was some bizarre guitar solo going on, the whole thing just screamed Inca at the top of its lungs and made it all worthwhile.
Elvira, both the DOS and Amiga soundtracks, which are different. Oddly enough, probably the first DOS game soundtrack to be both good and different than the Amiga one. Perfectly encapsulates the dread you feel trying to win the game. In particular the Garden track is enough to make you say nope and flee.
Myst and Riven, Myst slightly less so than Riven, owing to it reusing the two brothers' themes extensively. Miller really nailed music that makes you feel like you're in another world, even the lesser sections of the game have that atmosphere thanks to the music.
Ween, another game that cultivated such a mystical atmosphere. Even when I had only heard of it and first saw the demo, that soundtrack immediately sold me on the game. Even the annoying little goblins that follow you around have a nice theme.
Urotsukidouji, the best soundtrack on a game I've covered here. Yeah, I know I didn't give this a 10 out of 10, but it wasn't the best looker and they play two songs 90% of the time, which is a shame because it's a pretty nice and varied soundtrack. It does everything really well.
Outside of adventure games, there are a lot, so I'm just going to say Iron Seed, which is basically just the absolute peak of what video game music can be.
Inca is also really good, you're right. Sierra have some good individual pieces, but I don't find I want to sit down and listen to the whole soundtracks just for themselves. Inca might cross that line. Although tbf so do several of the Monkey Islands.
DeleteThe "LeShip Suite" in Return to Monkey Island is very good.
To go back to Sierra, though, the opening ballad from Robin Hood is also up there for me.
Surprised at how many are saying Sierra or Lucasarts games, since while they always had nice music, they never struck me as anything special
DeleteI'd say largely because they used professionals. Sierra's in-house Mark Siebert could go neck-to-neck with LucasArts' Michael Land.
Lucas brought in the metal band The Gone Jackals. Sierra brought in for single games Jan Hammer and Bob Siebenberg. And even in the early years, they had a real musician on that their staff. I know the readership is divided on the humor in an Al Lowe game, but he can play a mean jazz piece.
I'd generally agree. When I think of good music in adventure games, what comes to mind are the likes of Broken Sword, Toonstruck and Kyrandia, more than Sierra's (sometimes gloriously) cheesy ditties or LucasArt's more ambient fare.
DeleteThe entire Conquest of the Longbow soundtrack is fantastic. I find the willow grove and the gloomy fens monastery particularly memorable.
DeleteAnother good backstory opening ballad. (If rather different in content than the Freddy Pharkas one, lol)
DeleteI'm still rather partial to "Cellblock Love" from LSL6, but still...
DeleteI've never actually played a Police Quest game, so I only kinda understand what might be getting referred to, but considered just as a song, yeah, that's a good one too!
DeleteIt's basically the prelude to the main character and his love interest in PQ1, how they met.
DeleteOh, one more I've just remembered. The intro theme of Freddy Pharkas, in which the lyrics told the backstory of it main protagonist, is excellent, both music & lyrics
ReplyDeleteThe major themes from Monkey Island and Quest for Glory games were always great. Favorite soundtracks, though? Crusader: No Remorse/No Regret. Honorable mention to Star Control 2.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that SC2 has great music (even if it's hybrid thing and not exactly an adventure game).
DeleteThe SC2 soundtrack is an incredible feat of crowdsourcing, but I think that for our purposes we cannot categorize it as an adventure game.
Delete