It's that time of year again. The time when people put together lists of games they liked and also of movies and music they liked because it's the end of the year and that means we have to recognize what things we liked were the best at being part of the field we liked. While the best album of the year is clearly obvious (It's 'Life As A Dog') and the best movie is not going to be decided until like March for some reason, with games it's way more cutthroat and dangerous. It's like beefing over turf. One side you got the people saying how this game is better than the game the people down at the Circle K rep and how there's gonna be straight brawls breaking out over superiority.

Well I say enough with that. You see, any one who holds a controller or taps on the keyboard a bunch can get together a list of five or ten games they enjoyed the most based on how much enjoyment they had based on a criteria of things they enjoy about games and genres and shit. That's easy mode. Everyone is out there doing it or has done it already. So instead I'm going to make a list of the ten best games released in 2014 based on something that isn't 'Yeah, I had the most fun playing this game this year' or 'yeah this game's systems and mechanics did a lot for the stagnant genre'. Instead I'm going to rank the ten best games of the year based on game soundtrack.

Yeah, that's right. In the wave of reviewers talking about pointless crap like 'framerate' and 'graphics' and 'gameplay' or whatever, very few seem to mention the music in a game unless it's impressive enough to mention or a part of the game. No, please don't give me evidence to the contrary, that defeats the point. Look, I like music and though my knowledge of music extends to 'In grade school I was in the band, I played saxophone' and 'in high school I won a guitar at Gameworks because I spent all my card points on the Deal or No Deal game and won like 10,000 tickets because I just picked the same case every time and eventually it all worked out', I like to consider myself an expert on the subject.

I did this same type of list last year and it was kind of an excuse so I could give GOTY to Remember Me. You might think I'm doing this type of list again for similar reasons. You're right. I am. And if you can guess what my number one game is WITHOUT scrolling down and cheating, I'll give you a high five. It REALLY shouldn't be hard to guess, if anyone out there has a good memory and/or connects the dots between another blog of mine.

But I'm also doing it to highlight some rad video game music from 2014.

Keep in mind that just because a game is on this list doesn't mean I've played it. I need not play a game to think it has good ass music. Also, a game like Super Smash Brothers for WiiU/3DS doesn't count because it's like a mixtape of music and that's not fair.

So let's get this list started.

10. Bravely Default

Let me start off by saying that I do not like this game at all. I love JRPGs. Some would say I love them too much, but whatever. JRPGs were my SHIT growing up. Like, some of the first games I got way into were JRPGs. Bravely Default thought it could be all "Hey, it's like a classic JRPG, you love the job system and shit about crystals like you was playing FF3 or 5 or some shit, right?" And I'm all "Yeah, Bravely Default, I do fuckin love me some FF5 I will totally play you." And then I play you and while I like that you have the whole encounter slider and your battle speed up button, what I don't like is LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE. Your characters I found bad (People that found 'Mrgrgr' endearing are ASSHOLES!) and I didn't give one shit about your plot and when you were like "Now do all this shit over and over again" it wasn't fun and I hated it and soured me on a game I wasn't all big on in the first place.

HOWEVER

One thing I cannot DE-FAULT (See what I did there? BOOM!) the game on is its soundtrack. It's got that vibe from a classic JRPG, with its sweeping melodies and easily hummable tunes. The sad songs have that slow paced emotional vibe, the world map song has that 'This is an ADVENTURE!' feel to it, which I like in my map songs, and the battle theme could literally be in a Final Fantasy game and not sound out of place. Which is probably by design. Bravely Default, I like your music a whole bunch. Shame about everything else. We'll always have Baby Bird and it's saxy flair.

9. Dragon Age Inquisition

I really like Dragon Age Inquisition. I like it so much that after finishing it (clocking in at just shy of 90 hours...I spent a LOT of time picking plants and shit) I set it aside for another time. I don't want to play through it again so soon, even though I did enjoy my time with it, narrative gripes and all. I killed every goddamn dragon in the world. I upgraded my Skyhold. I found every single shard in the game. I did so much stuff that I really don't want to do it again until, like, the gaming release drought in 2015's summer or whatever. That said, while the music in Inquisition is appropriately 'fantasy blockbuster fanfare' that uses a leitmotif (Seriously, listen to a background song or a dragon fight song and see how many times it uses the 'Dawn Will Come' melody) I do not mean those songs.

I specifically mean the bard songs. Not the Blind Guardian song. The songs the lady in the taverns sings. For my money, the tavern songs in Dragon Age are 2014's sea shanties. I made it a point to always stop by the tavern after a return trip to base just to listen to a song or two. My Inquisitor may have started off really not liking humans or their religious fervor, but fuck if she didn't like the way they sang a song with a lute. Also one of the tavern songs was a throwback to Origins, and that made me smile even if the song was a dirge.

8. Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix

I mean, sure, Kingdom Hearts 2 is from 2006 and Birth By Sleep is from 2010 BUT this is the first time the final mix versions of those is available in North America and technically this came out this year. And, well, the music has been remastered so it's like all new songs. In some cases, the songs are even better and not crap (He's A Pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean world now sounds like it's from the movie it came from, which rules) so I mean...it counts. It totally counts. I have an odd relationship with the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I think Kingdom Hearts 1 was pretty fantastic. I think Chain of Memories was an interesting...thing, and I think Kingdom Hearts 2 shit the bed and every single release since then has been more shit added to the bed to the point where Kingdom Hearts is a franchise covered in shit. Having gone through KH 2 Final Mix on the new critical difficulty, I now have a better appreciation for the game's combat, which I wrote off as "Button mashy" since that was what it was. I still think the plot is dumb and needlessly convoluted, but I don't hate it as much as I did, especially since the final mix games have more narrative cohesion with newly added scenes and whatnot.

All that said, one part of Kingdom Hearts that has always been enjoyable has been the music, and that hasn't changed in these re-releases. I have to give it up to Birth By Sleep for having probably my favorite boss theme in the series. It's Kingdom Hearts, and whatever you think of the franchise, it still continues to have solid music.

7. Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Man, this game. This game got me good. While I thought some of the puzzles were kind of silly and pointless, I found the narrative just engaging enough to push through every puzzle and to get over the inclusion of a mustache twirling villain that didn't need to be there. That it could effectively mix more lighthearted things (like the car missions) with the overall depressing and terrible setting of World War 1 is kind of remarkable. The music, when it isn't remixing classical songs, is effective at creating this depressing tone. The menu music alone puts you in the proper mood even despite its somewhat playful art style. A lot of the music is based on simple piano melodies, but I love a good piano track, and when it is this effective I don't mind.

6. Destiny

I think I'm like a lot of the people out there in feeling that Destiny was an overall disappointing game. I really wish I liked this game, but there just wasn't enough to the core experience for me. The shooting was solid and there was some really nice looking areas, it's just...I dunno, I guess I wanted something different out of it. Like a compelling reason to go to these areas, or even A reason at all. I would have taken some characters even, is that asking too much? I didn't have the time to invest in grinding out to post-twenty levels nor did I think it was worth doing in the first place. But hey, look on the bright side, Destiny, you've still got some fantastic music. Is it really any surprise that a Bungie game has good music? I mean, ya'll played Halo, right? Ya'll just need to hear those chants and you're back to a wonderful place where everything was right with the world.

You're still not a game I like, Destiny, but hey, you've got fans and that's totally cool.

5. Velocity 2X

What a surprise this game was. I knew nothing about this game, I just saw that it was free for Plus members and so I bought it sight unseen because if it is free I get it. I mean, why not? It don't cost nothing. Man, this game is all kinds of fun and I really dug the whole vibe and setting and overall feel of the game. Zipping around in the ship and on foot was never a hassle, it all flowed really well together. I don't know about you guys, but I like my space shooty games to sound, well, spacey shooty and not just 'Hey we like Daft Punk' electro-house shit. Give me songs that sound like they come from a 1980s look at what the future would be like. Like, synths and shit. Synths are the sound of the future.

Velocity 2X does not skimp on the synth. It rules.

4. Transistor

One day I'll play this game. I wasn't a fan of Bastion which probably explains why I haven't played this one yet. Some of you might think it's kind of bullshit to put a game I haven't played so high on this list. Well whatever, I listened to the soundtrack and it gave me this super trip-electronic-post-rocky vibe that I absolutely dig. So if the game is as good as the soundtrack maybe I should play it sooner rather than later. Good music is good music, regardless if I've played it or not.

Seriously, I can't be the only one to get a Portishead vibe from The Spine, right?

3. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13

I feel like with the Lightning Saga's final entry, Square got to be super experimental not only with how Lightning Returns plays in terms of battles and gaining stats, but also in terms of music. Final Fantasy 13-2 got super experimental with its music, incorporating a wider variety of styles that ultimately worked out in its favor, and Lightning Returns is the natural continuation of that. It also is the natural conclusion of the Lightning Saga's love of stringed instruments. I am a defender of Final Fantasy 13 but one field I feel it never needed defending in was its music. 13-3 continues that trend. People may not like the game (I mean at this point, the internet has already put FF 13 to rest) but me? I dug it. I thought that the story was really bad (coming from a guy who LIKED 13's narrative up to chapter 10-end) but shit, the game was just fun. I haven't had this much fun dressing up a character since Resonance of Fate. Crimson Blitz is a fucking awesome battle song that just makes an already fantastic battle song (Blinded By Light) way better by just cranking up the intensity while still retaining the part that makes it memorable (those fucking strings!). This game would be high up on my regular ass list as well, I enjoyed it that much. Say what you will about this trilogy, but never let me catch you saying it has bad music because then we're throwing down behind the Wal Mart. Next to the dumpsters.

2. Child of Light

Ubisoft took a lot of shit the last month or so, but as far as I'm concerned between Valiant Hearts and Child of Light, Ubisoft is okay in my book. So what happens when you take a Canadian singer and have them do a video game soundtrack? Magic. Magic happens. In a word, this soundtrack is beautiful. There's not a bad song on the thing, and most of it is super relaxing to listen to, but not like those sounds of nature albums they still sell. Like, actually relaxing, songs you can kick back, pop open a book, and just get lost in a swell of sounds and emotions. Even the battle theme is sort of just...calming. It's a bit more intense than some of the tracks, but it's still easy going while still adding the excitement a battle theme should have. I was going to do this paragraph in a poem but I'm not that clever.

So just enjoy your Child of Light music because it is good. It is very good.

1. Drakengard 3

Here it is, the Game of the Year. Here's a game that I will probably never see on any GOTY list unless it is for "Worst Game" or something because let' face it, this game does not really do anything to win over the hearts of anyone. It looks rough, it plays rougher, and its characters can be downright off-putting to most. But you know what? That's EXACTLY what Drakengard should be. The problem with this game is that people were possibly expecting another Nier. Nier was a game that looked rough and played...competently, but it was a brilliant game with a strong narrative, characters, and was smartly deconstructing video games as you played. Drakengard, despite coming from the same twisted mind of Yoko Taro, was never Nier. Honestly, fault can be given to the devs for saying that Drakengard 3 references Nier or whatever, it colored expectations and I can see where some were disappointed.

I was not one of them.

I love this game. I love it even though it does everything wrong. The levels are terrible, the framerate chugs whenever like four things are on the screen at once, the story takes way too long to get remotely interesting and most of the game consists of you going through the same areas only with a different day/night setting toggled. But god damn if it wasn't a game I fell in love with. It is, to date, the only game I deliberately got a platinum trophy in. A full 100%. Which means I spent literal HOURS upon HOURS of doing nothing but grinding the same two missions to get enough money to buy and upgrade each and every single weapon, do each and every combat arena, get every single item in every single level, all of it. I did it all.

It's not as fantastic as Neir nor is it as absolutely depraved as Drakengard 1. But it does its own thing while still adhering to what makes a Drakengard game a Drakengard game. And above all else, it boasts a fantastic soundtrack. Which is to be expected from the same dude what did Nier's music, and Nier's music was fantastic as well. The emotional songs are perfectly beautiful and, well, emotional, the boss themes are wonderfully intense and have character befitting the bosses in question, and even the trailer/theme song is one of those weird songs with vocals like it was an anime or a Tales of game. I mean, for fuck's sake one of the bosses starts with a dubstep drop and then becomes a kind of dubstep song. It's fucking amazing. The music is not afraid to just go for it, and since music is kind of a theme in the game it actually makes sense. That each boss theme uses a different style is both thematically appropriate for the game and effective at creating unique, memorable themes that all lead up to a fantastic climactic song that reincorporates elements from the vocal tracks before it.

Music is a theme in this game, and it really, really comes across.

Drakengard 3 will never win any awards for quality, and that's fine with me. In my eyes, there were plenty of games that played and looked better, but there was no game that sounded better nor any game that I had a more enjoyable time with.

Seriously, there's a dubstep crab boss in this game. HOW IS THAT NOT THE BEST THING.

So there it is, my list. If I missed a game that you feel had a better soundtrack, welp, oh well. Okay, see you guys in 2015 or something.