Ranking RPG Franchises By Their Musical Scores

In a genre where great music is often the industry standard, picking the standout titles is no small task. Take a look below at five of the best RPG scores to ever grace the gaming world.

[Godmars290]

Articles like this make me think that story means nothing to the modern RPG audience.

[Pintheshadows]

I don't think that is true. I just think it is just a different way to rate RPG's. The story is always the most important factor as otherwise you can't become immersed and that is a fatal flaw for an RPG to have. Unless of course it is a lootdriven game.

[Donnieboi]

On topic:

The dot.Hack series had some insanely good music

[tacotruck]

Out of curiosity, how so?

[Godmars290]

The only "good" example I have in Mass Effect, where good character presentation got confused with good story. Bioshock Infinite is another. They're games which have flawed fundamentals in their narration, but are largely forgiven because of delivery.

[3-4-5]

No, but Music plays a more important factor that most people think, when it comes to how games make you feel and how much you enjoy them.

Go play your favorite game to "other" music or no music.

Go play a game with great/classic music, and now play it while listening to crappy music.

It makes a huge difference and certain games I'll keep playing just a few more tries or one more turn, or another hours, just because I'm enjoying the music and everything else.

I should also add that if your going to make a list like this, it need to be at least top 20 RPG franchises.

[xXxSeTTriPxXx]

Any one track in nier would kill this entire list.guest its a popularity of rpg music list.

[tacotruck]

To be completely honest, I would have loved to include Nier. However, I was making an attempt to look franchises as a whole. While Dark Souls and EarthBound are referred to individually, both Demon's Souls and the rest of the Mother series have great music that could have been mentioned.

Nier's music is amazing, however it just doesn't fit the list.

Now if there was a list of the best music in general....

[Sephiroushin]

OMG so I guess this person do not know about Nier ...

[tacotruck]

Hey,

See above comment for the scoop on the lack of Nier's inclusion.

I'm glad to see such a vocal Nier fanbase at least.

[AsimLeonheart]

The list is missing Chrono Cross and Xenogears!

[Neckbear]

An article about RPG music that doesn't include Ar tonelico? Blasphemy!

[Inception]

Yup, no Ar Tonelico? no Xenogears? what the hell. Replace Earthbound or Dark Souls with them than we're talking :)

[TheGreenMan]

I'm glad to see the inclusion of Mitsuda music on this list. Personally, I think that Xenogears' music is neck-and-neck with the score he wrote for Chrono Trigger. I was bummed that Xeno didn't make the cut, but this was a good list nonetheless.

[Chaos_Raiden]

Great list. My own personal list:

1) Final Fantasy series
2) Wild Arms series
3) Tales series
4) Shin Megami Tensei series
5) Ys series

[Chaos_Raiden]

EDIT: Double post, sorry.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

I wouldve put Kingdom Hearts on the list, but I've also never played earthbound or Wild Arms.

[ThanatosDMC]

Soul Sacrifice music. Damn good. Cant really hear it properly on the Vita speakers but with good headset on the PC, the OST is damn good.

[AceBlazer13]

Kingdom Hearts?

[MiasmaDodo]

does Zelda count?

because Zelda songs are phenomenal

[Inception]

My top 5:

1) Ar Tonelico 1-3
2) Xenogears
3) Nier
4) Vagrant Story
5) Persona 3 / 4