Favourite VGM of 2012

GB's GotY coverage will be up soon but before then I wanted to know what video game music people enjoyed the most in 2012. It's been a terrific year for VGM, with both indie and AAA titles producing some amazing soundtracks. Here are my favourites:

Dustforce - Lifeformed

Journey - Austin Wintory

Fez - Disasterpeace

Max Payne 3 - HEALTH

Persona 4 Arena / Persona 4: Golden - Shoji Meguro & Atsushi Kitajoh

The Last Story - Nobuo Uematsu 

FTL: Faster Than Light - Ben Prunty

Hotline Miami - Various Artists

@mracoon said:

As with Meguro, anything by Nobuo Uematsu is always going to be good.

Except for...

Oh, and favorite VGM? I'd post something out of Katawa Shoujo if that wasn't depressing as fuck, so instead, have some Xenoblade:

You mean the hobo snoring in the back, or the one being mercilessly beaten in the front?

Fez and Journey were the standouts for me, such great music.

Yea, Dustforce had amazing music... i love that game but i really suck at it. I also really liked the music in Xcom EU.

As far as the bigger games go, I'd recommend checking out some music from Dragon's Dogma and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

I'll dedicate this post to a lesser-known game though, namely Malicious. I don't think I've seen much discussion about this game at all, but it's a lot of fun and the music is great, too.

I'd throw the Far Cry 3 OST into the "Best VGM of 2012" group. OP already put up Hotline Miami so there's that.

Doesn't really count, but I'd like to throw in the EPIC anniversary collection released this year: http://epicgames.com/community/epic-20th-anniversary-commemorative-soundtrack/

Nice to see Liformed up there, I've listened to that soundtrack more than I've played the actual game.

Mass Effect 3, for sure.

Tears by HEALTH from Max Payne 3 is so amazing.

As for full soundtracks, Journey's was beautiful and Hotline Miami's was bumpin'.

THIS  is the jam  
 
  

@Zuldim: Agreed.

He's no Shoji Meguro, but I did like the devil survivor 2 soundtrack:

(you already mentioned hotline miami, so natch)

@Zuldim: this one song bums me out every time i hear it. so good though!

Yay, Dustforce soundtrack.

All of the Miami Hotline soundtrack is insane!. One my favs of the year for sure!.

@mracoon said:

Good to see my choices backed by the GB crew.

@Zuldim: I thought the music was good while playing the game but it didn't stand out to me like ME1 and ME2. I haven't actually listened to the soundtrack on it's own, though.

There are definitely some tracks that are kind of, for lack of a better word, standard, and just kind of there, but tracks like "Leaving Earth," "An End, Once And For All," "Credits," or "I'm Proud Of You" really make the soundtrack for me.

Interestingly, while I really liked the soundtrack of 1 and 2 while playing, I never went back and listened to them on their own. Maybe that's why this one stood out to me so much.

Lots of nice choices there, but I am sad that the music from Thomas Was Alone continues to never be mentioned in these lists. I don't have a handy link to any, but it should be easy enough to find on YouTube... or just buy the game. It's $5 on Steam right now.

@mracoon: @Video_Game_King: Personally, I think of LTS's final boss music as highly reminiscent of Uematsu's Black Mages remix of the FF9 final boss music, which also begins with a several minute long hobo torture session (and man, does The Last Story go out of its way to evoke FF9 a lot. I guess that was Sakaguchi's prerogative more than anything.)

For the record, my favorite The Last Story track is this one:

Talking of awesome ex-Squaresoft composers, Sakimoto (yes, the FFT and Vagrant Story guy) scored the soundtrack to Crimson Shroud, the game that Yasumi Matsuno (yes, the FFT and Vagrant Story guy) made for Level-5. Here's the theme (and, again, somewhat reminiscent of his past work):

No amount of love is too much for the Xenoblade Chronicles soundtrack, but seen as that's already been brought up, as has The Last Story, I'll highlight something else. The Kid Icarus: Uprisng soundtrack has some amazing music from composers like Yuzo Koshiro (yep, Streets of Rage guy) and Motoi Sakuraba (the Valkyrie Profile guy), among others (Seriously, this game has like six composers).

And a track from a game with some surprisingly good music:

Tthat map theme is pretty damn great.

I wanted to scream when this game got the "it was two cool ringtones" stamp on the podcast. That is just insane!

This game has some of the finest arrangements of Nintendo music ever!

The Mass Effect 3 theme is easily the best music this year for me .

It has been said but anything from Fez, Hotline Miami and Journey. I also quite like the Katawa Shoujo soundtrack.

And this song

No Halo 4 or Mass Effect 3? This is a travesty sir! A travesty I say!

Bass line of the year.

That soundtrack is fun as hell !

SHIN MITSUO TENSEI:

I really like the soundtrack of Max Payne 3.

This because its REAL dumb in a REALLY good way. I always sat at the title screen before I started the game.

Tiny and Big has a pretty cool soundtrack as well.

Shame songs are hidden as collectibles is all....

We need more Rhythm Heaven Fever in this thread, flock step is the only one with music only:       

Folks this is what you make when you are on Hard Drugs. Also, if anyone doesn't reconise the song it was used in Hitman Absolution.

It's already been said, but Hotline Miami is easily my favorite soundtrack of the year. Sleeping Dogs has some good tunes too (if Hotline can get in with a majority of it being from outside sources, then I'll back up the licensed music in SD), especially on the hilariously awesome rap channel.

Crusader Kings II has a great soundtrack as well - those pieces are awesome and quite memorable. The Witcher 2 has all right ambience, but the dramatic pieces are really good too. Dark Souls came out on PC this year, and Bravely Default is out too, so Sakuraba gets double props for that. It's great to hear him not rehash the Star Ocean 2 soundtrack for the 30th time on those, though I doubt he composed more than a track or two on BD since Revo worked on it.

@Demoskinos said:

This because its REAL dumb in a REALLY good way. I always sat at the title screen before I started the game.

And this. I love B'z.

@mracoon: Fez Fez Fez Fez Fez. The music was superbly integrated with the gameplay and succeeded at setting the tone for various levels (such as the foreboding cemetery one). Love that music. Also, the songs sound a lot like Boards of Canada, which was a plus in my book.

I can't hype this song enough. It's just ridiculous, in the best way.

And this... I'm stunned that nobody's been talking about this song. I might actually like it more than the HEALTH track from Max Payne 3, and I fucking LOVE that song.

Oh man... listening to it again, that buildup at 2:55 still gives me chills.

@Gamer_152 said:

No Halo 4 or Mass Effect 3?

Of course they're not here. They sold a lot and have numbers on the end. THAT MEANS THEY'RE AWFUL!

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

It has been said but anything from Fez, Hotline Miami and Journey. I also quite like the Katawa Shoujo soundtrack.

And this song

I won't post it a second time, but I will quote it for emphasis. This song has some serious emotional association to it.

Hotline Miami easily, especially Hydrogen

I also feel like people forgot that Diablo 3 got a lot of things right, especially the music. Some of my favorites:

And I would be remiss if I didn't plug Guild Wars 2. Jeremy Soule always does such an amazing job. This one always gets me at about 1:55.

I love the epicness of the Journey soundtrack and the subtleness of the FTL soundtrack. The Hotline Miami soundtrack fits well with murdering dudes but outside of the game its not really what I'm looking for. Great year for game music.

The lack of Double Dragon Neon in this thread is appalling, what a snub.

That is the only good song from Max Payne 3.

Im surprised how much ME3 got snubbed this year in the music categories.

@Pie said:

Tiny and Big has a pretty cool soundtrack as well.

Shame songs are hidden as collectibles is all....

Oh yeah there were some good songs, I had this one on repeat for a large part of the game.