With everyone focused on what the best game of the year is based on such silly concepts as fun or interesting mechanics or gameplay or emotional investment or lack of ludonarrative dissonance or whatever people judge games on I opted instead to judge the games I played in 2013 based on the only criteria that really mattered. Their music.
I don't pretend to be some kind of musical expert and my tastes in music are probably far too eclectic to make this an accurate list, but that's the joy of opinion, right? Let me preface this by saying that I am limiting my options to games I actually played, so even if something like, say, A Link Between Worlds has a great soundtrack, I can't put it on this list because I haven't played it. Sorry. Them's the breaks.
So join me on yet another topic about GOTY 2013. There will be music involved!
10. Anarchy Reigns
Yeah, starting things off with a technicality. This game was released outside of Japan in January this year so as far as I'm concerned it totally counts. If this was a list of games that made me sad, this'd be on there because I was so sad that I didn't like it more and that the small community kind of fizzled out. But one thing going for it was its music and the various character themes.
I could sit on the main menu screen for hours, though my record is thirty minutes. It's the perfect introduction to the style and overall mood of the game. Funky.
The character themes range from loud, blaring electro affairs to dumb rap beats that end up getting stuck in your head by accident. But damn if it doesn't make for appropriate fighting music. Even the annoying Bandy Leggz songs. Especially those.
9. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Dual Destinies
While my thoughts on the game itself wasn't as positive as others (I liked SOME of it) I can't tell you how thrilled I was to hear remixed versions of some of the old Ace Attorney tunes right alongside some new material. The Pursuit theme in particular is like the perfect punctuation in a trial, it's when you know that the shit has officially gotten real.
If only real world litigation was this exciting.
8. Guacamelee!
Guacamelee might be the most fun game involving wrestling I've played recently, but it might be my love of those 'Metroidvania' type of games that has me saying this. As someone with no real history with lucha libre, I still couldn't help but love the theme and setting of the game, and that extends to the music. Sometimes it sounded like the music I would hear at my local Mexican diner but I mean that in a good way. Either way, the various songs made elbow dropping skeletons a fucking blast.
7. Ni no Kuni
The best thing Ni no Kuni has going for it is its soundtrack. Then comes its visual style. And then the accents. That's all. There's a pattern brewing where games on this list are ones I didn't much like but still had great music. While it isn't my favorite overworld theme, the one in Ni no Kuni really nailed the whole adventure feel of just wandering around a world map and exploring the world. Few games do that for me, scratch that adventure itch. But man, Joe Hisaishi can do that like no other. I'm actually putting this game on the list just because I love the world map music that much.
6. Contrast
Here is a game where I was sold based purely on the aesthetics and boy did I pay the price. You give me an art deco noir aesthetic and I will give you fifteen American dollars to play it. Fortunately I had an alright time with Contrast and the music helped considerably with that; it sold the setting better than the visuals did. Seriously, once I hear swing jazzy instruments in a game I can't help but love it. And boy, did Contrast have that.
5. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
I just have to say Rules of Nature and people in the know already know, you know? MGR was insane and I think I liked it? I played that game way back when it came out and I'm still not sure what I thought about it, other than that I played it and that I loved it every single time I did damage to a boss and the music intensified. You know you're doing well when the vocalist comes in screaming about whatever the fuck they sing about in this game and every single time this happens it is incredible. This is dynamic music done right.
One word describes Gustavo Santoalla's work on The Last of Us and by extension Naughty Dog's use of his work: effective. The music in this game is both beautiful and disturbing and it is used perfectly, to punctuate scenes and to build anticipation for coming moments by knowing just when to stop. The relative slow pace of some of the songs really lets the score shine. Seriously, just sit on the main menu for a while and listen to the way the ambient noises mix with the soft score, it is unnerving listening to that guitar while also being somehow calming, as if setting the stage for the gut wrenching adventure that is to follow.
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Now I might be cheating but fuck it, it counts. The Wind Waker is the second best Zelda game (the best is clearly Majora's Mask and you're all wrong if you disagree!) but it has the best soundtrack and that holds up with the HD version. Much like with Ni no Kuni, Wind Waker's ocean theme hits that adventure vibe something fierce. It is, by far, my favorite Zelda overworld music and I was ten years younger when I heard it in the HD version for the first time. Giddy, wide eyed, and excited to just be out on the sea again, sailing and seeing what new islands had in store for me.
2. Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn
Say what you will about newer Final Fantasy games, the one thing they always have going for them is their music and FF14 is no exception. From the redone crystal theme in the main menus to the nautical sounds of Limsa Lominsa, to the boss fights, to my personal favorite Ul'Dah night theme, the music in FF14:ARR is absolutely phenomenal. Beautiful when it needs to be, intense at the right times, and chock full of backing tunes that you'll probably be humming as you wander around killing cactuars and shit. Seriously, though, I can idle in Ul'Dah for hours and just listen to the beautiful music that plays. It is that good.
1. Remember Me
I'm going to be totally honest with you, I only made this blog to inform people just how fucking great the music is in Remember Me, a game that got middle-of-the-road reviews but one I absolutely loved. I loved the setting, the visuals, the underused memory hacking mechanic, the combat, Nilin, but above all I loved the music. It kills me that this game's soundtrack didn't get more recognition, but I guess it's because no one remembered Remember Me. I did. I sure did. Olivier Deriviere did an amazing job making the soundtrack this blend of electronic and symphonic that is mixed in such a way as to give everything this glitchy/techno feel in keeping with the abilities of the protagonist and her techno-based memory remixing ability. It's a soundtrack that enhances the game and just feels like a natural fit. Seriously, even if you have no interest in playing the game, just listen to the soundtrack. It is fantastic. There isn't a bad song to be found.
And there you have it. The ten games that I felt had the best music in 2013. It is thus safe to conclude that 2013's overall game of the year is Remember Me. At least in my mind it is.
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