Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2017: Best Music

IF NIER LOSES WE RIOT

Nier deserves it more

I agree with the top 3, but I would personally order it differently. 1.Persona, 2.Nier, 3.Cuphead. Great year for music though!

I would also assume NieR here.

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Always good to remind everyone that a good soundtrack is about how well it plays inside the medium, not how well it plays outside of it.

Nier's soundtrack is the first one I ever purchased. Hope it takes that one!

hah Alex face when Abby started dissing Nier OST.

In the Cuphead song called "Floral Fury", the thing Dan described as two monkeys howling and Alex said it was someone hitting two keys in a Casio keyboard is actually a Brazilian instrument called a "Cuíca". That song is 100% samba-inspired, by the way.

I used to like Abby, but these Persona 5 and Nier disses...

Thank you for that bit of information! I had been wondering what it was.

I'd already bought the soundtracks to the three finalists so I have no complaint. NA, Persona 5 and Cuphead all have great music.

I'm sorry but that Cuphead Diceman song sounds like an awful Bing Crosby-like impersonator.

I'm with Brad that Nier's soundtrack is one of the all time best and the only category I cared about going into the GOTY Awards.

... My brother bought Nier at launch and beat it. I should probably play it, but I don't know. There's something that's just not grabbing me. I haven't played any of it and saw very little of it when he played it.

Made me appreciate her even more, if that's possible.

@doncabesa: Fuck Jesus.

Hollow Knight was robbed. Cuphead and Nier Automata has much better music though.

Ob-fucking-viously Nier. Penance for Drakengard 3 - if you want to see a game get risen above its station (bad game, incredible music), check that out. Same sound designer / yoko taro. Emi Evans and Keiichi Okabe are very talented.

I appreciate Abby, but I think she played about 4 games this year to completion, and it shows in certain situations. Dan has the self awareness to admit when he bounced off something and not dismiss it.

Cuphead is miming such a specific look, it's audio fills in the specific Benny Goodman sized hole the visuals drilled for it. I could tell you exactly what it would sound like before ever hearing a note. It's fine. #2? Uh.. ok. The achievement here is not the music.

I'm with Alex and Brad. Nier: Automata may have the best soundtrack of all time for me. That game is so good it even has secret music that you'll only hear if you complete a bunch of weird side quests for Emil that opens the elevator in the shopping mall.

Oh god these Transformers comparisons! Please stop!

Quit making me like NieR things.

- Dan Ryckert

I straight up don't get the arguments for so many of the cuts being "well it fits the game perfectly but I wouldn't listen to it in my car" when Cuphead was just on the list the entire time, and in heated competition for the top spot.

At least they picked the right soundtrack to win, in a shocking first for Giant Bomb's best music award :P

The lack of even a mention for RiME makes it clear that game will be totally ignored this year. The soundtrack is sumptuous, deeply moving even outside the context of the game, and well worth a listen.

I now know not to trust Abby when it comes to music. I cannot believe the words she spoke.

I agree with the list, aside from swapping Cuphead and Persona's spot. Possessed by a Disease is another song that, for me, gives the top spot to NieR in an absolute walk. What a unique track that showcases the percussive and coral nature of so much of that game. Still, such amazing music all around this year, though.

"It's good."

"It's very good."

And minor variations of them... for one and a half hour, over and over again.

Haha, Tekken "playing it safe" with their soundtrack. XD

I can see her argument about the music in Cuphead augmenting the gameplay vs. music in NieR feeling kinda disjointed from what you are doing in that world.

But NieR is a strange beast in that regard, since it works only once you actually have experienced the complete picture (have finished endings A to E) because everything, including the music, will make much more sense then. And AFAIK Abby didn't finish NieR, I don't even think she finished the first chapter (ending A).

Man, Persona 5 is so hype!

Anybody know if they posted the links they use in the video?

I totally disagree with NieR's music feeling disjointed from what you are doing in that world. And they are giving great examples of how the music change with the hacking, and also how some tracks changes based on progression, and is referencing the progression itself in the music in a very specific way.

cohesive

Abby, I'm sorry but I don't know how you can shrug at all those P5 tracks and then be all about Cuphead. I know it's personal preference and the Cuphead songs fit the game really well but that style of music is laaaaaaame.

Might I recommend that anyone who loves the NieR: Automata soundtrack should listen to the original NieR's soundtrack which is just as good or better than its successor.

I really liked Horizon's music.

@paulunga: damn the second song is awesome.

When they started playing the music from Rivals of Aether, I was like "Wait, isn't this the music from Tower of Heaven?" So I looked it up, and it turns out that it's the same composer; flashygoodness. Man, he's a really great composer.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 really has some of the greatest JRPG songs in it. It's a shame that the game wasn't released in the west when they recorded these videos.

This one was pretty chill. That Grandma Destruction joke got me real good...I've listened to that track and bunch of times and I never made that.. "connexion".

So Chaos A.D didn't win this, pretty disappointed.

Somebody had to say the truth. Nier is good for other reasons. OST is not one of them. I also find it pretty "generic" as far as JRPG goes.

Nier

It ain't the truth.

Okay, they spent a lot of time talking about Persona 5, and I thank them for that... buuuut. They still missed two of the best songs. Price and Layer Cake, just perfect dungeon and shop music, respectively.

xenoblade 2 does have a fantastic soundtrack, but figure it was released too late in the year and doubt it'd get any attention. Nier does deserve OST of the year though.

It's okay. We're all wrong sometimes.

In my mind I can't decide if Persona 5 or NieR: Automata has the best soundtrack, but they easily take the 1 and 2 spots this year. Nothing else comes close. I've been playing the Persona 5 soundtrack all year while at work and I've incorporated the NieR: Automata soundtrack since I started playing the game last month.

The amazing part of the music discussion is that some of the songs that the crew selected as their favorites aren't even my favorite songs for those games. Persona 5 has the obvious Life Will Change and Last Surprise, but Blooming Villain is also really good. My personal favorite for NieR is easily Bipolar Nighmare with Kainé Salvation probably being the only song I've ever described as "sad and beautiful" in my entire life.

The songs are below.

It's funny that Abby's description of the Cuphead soundtrack perfectly describes the NieR soundtrack. Perfectly enhances every moment in the game and nothing about it is generic. Honestly one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard and I've been listening to it for months after.

They didn't even pull two of my favorite tracks, Kainé Salvation and Song of the Ancients, the latter of which is a perfect example of making an outstanding moment in the game unforgettable.

Also fucking [E]nd of YoRHa.

Thoughts:

- I can't believe they didn't mention Hyrule Castle in the Breath of the Wild soundtrack. That music made the first visit to the castle so much more memorable; in fact, it's probably what helped make it one of the most memorable and exciting moments in gaming this year for me. I agree with Alex's argument against BotW, though I think what little music BotW does have is amazing.

- They didn't mention Pledge of Demon in Yakuza 0, which is probably the best track in the game

- Cuphead's soundtrack is good, but personally doesn't do it for me for regular listening

I spend a lot of time listening to video game music, so this section of the GOTY deliberations was something I was looking forward to. I knew however that music is extremely opinionated, so I was expecting to be disappointed with the results, but I'm okay with what they picked.

My personal top 5 soundtracks (and I still have a lot more soundtracks to listen to): Nier Automata, Persona 5, Xenoblade 2, Sonic Mania, Super Mario Odyssey