That music though!

It's been a few weeks since P5 has been released so let's get down to talking about one of the most important aspects of any Persona game: Shoji's contribution, those sick tunes!

As much discussion has been lent to the visual slickness of Persona 5, I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that the music is probably my favourite part of this game. I might even prefer it to the music from the previous two games. Maybe...

What're your favourite tunes from the game so far? If you wanna contextualise please make sure you spoiler-tag where appropriate because some of us have passed the 100 hour mark but still haven't finished the freaking game!

My choices are the Victory theme which I must have heard hundreds of times at this point but which never gets old:

But very recently I've made my way to a fairly late game dungeon and come across a track called Ark which might give Victory a real run for it's money:

My favorite is far and away the heist/palace boss/day after calling card theme

I've only done the first dungeon, so won't listen to anything I don't already know as I want to experience the songs fresh, but I still can't get enough of the battle music:

For most of the game the heist music was my favorite, but near the end this tune swooped in and stole my heart:

On it`s own it manages to double the awesomeness of some of those late game boss fights.

The evening music is also killer.

This is boss music for a palace close to the end of the game if you don't want to spoil yourself.

I really enjoyed this version of the song.

Then it turned into this and became my favorite of the entire soundtrack.

And of the course the heist music upgrading at the perfect time

Rivers in the Desert is definitely one of my favorites as well. My top is probably the vocal version of the song that plays as your walking to the bosses

But I also need to give a serious shout out to Regret, which not only perfectly encapsulates an emotion better than just about any other piece of music I've heard, but I love that the first time they chose to show it was with the first villains confession, making that scene even stronger.

Dramatically upgrading a familiar instrumental with a vocal version is a trick that is basically going to work for me 100% of the time.

Such an incredible soundtrack all around. Finally finished the game yesterday, and I've spent all day today listening to the OST and reading reviews and spoiler threads I'd previously avoided.

"Rivers in the Desert", "Life Will Change", and "The Whims of Fate" are some of my standouts as of right now. Lyn, the singer's voice is a perfect fit for the game. Meguro really knows how to pick 'em.

Anxiously awaiting the live performances! Here's The Whims of Fate, from one of the later dungeons.

Agreed!

Whims of Fate, Rivers in the Desert, and Price are some of my standout favorites. All of the battle themes are great and I'm sure they will be posted as well. The Days When My Mother Was There also stuck with me despite being the dungeon theme right after the best dungeon theme.

But I think my mention has to go to the unnecessarily great exam music.

Price was the first palace theme to really blow me away.

Also gonna mention the Mementos theme which I loved for how chill it is. Perfect song to play while cruising along with the whole crew in the catbus.

Most of my favorite songs have already been mentioned, but generally speaking something that I think really elevates the soundtrack in this game is that all the vocal tracks are full songs. In past games, all the songs with lyrics were basically just one verse and a chorus, with the song just looping after the chorus and going back to the same single verse.

In Persona 5, every song is a complete song with multiple verses, a bridge, etc. It especially makes the soundtrack great for listening independent of the game, but it makes their use in the game itself better as well.

"Ark" is such a good track. Those violins fit the elitist tone of the dungeon so well by evoking the music of the elitist as hell Sherlock.

And I assume the reason no one has mentioned "Beneath The Mask" is because it's a universal given that it's the best song.

The rest of you have posted a lot of what I was already going to put down, but the "Sunny Day" music is just so, so good.

My favorites are the heist music and boss music so far. All the music is great though. I would do unspeakable things for persona 5 dancing all night.

Edit: the music when someone gets their Persona is really awesome too. The scene when Queen gets hers was especially awesome.

I can't get enough of beneath the mask. There's a Wallpaper engine theme on steam that plays it on loop and it's the best. The first time the vocals kick in was amazing. Hand me a glass of fine whiskey with that music playing and I'm set. Was a little worried about the music coming from Persona 4 (which would be hard for anyone to match), but they've done a stellar job.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm4BjRYrsoo

The music is good, but I feel like if it would have went more hip hop than J-Pop, it would have been better.

No one's said these two?

A lot of the incidental day to day music is amazing too... Beneath the Mask for instance. I'm also real fond of this one.

Beneath the Mask with singing is still my favourite

While i really like almost all the soundtrack, the other one I enjoy the most is this one, especially when paired with a persona awakening

This one is a shorty but definitely my fav. I'm a big John 5 fan and it along with another track I forget the name of, give me huge J5 vibes.

All of the music in this game has been amazing and I could probably listen to this soundtrack for a long while but my absolute favorite is Life Will Change, not just because the song is amazing, but also changed the mood of the Palace you're in.

Beforehand, fighting any enemies in the dungeon switched music to battle music and back to palace music so it felt segmented and separate in a way that each fight was an experience through. The fights are tough and take a while as you're progressing through the Palace. Sometimes you'll come across an enemy who you have no info on with regards to weaknesses and you fumble your way through the Palace trying to solve weird room puzzles. At this point, you're drip fed bits of the Shadow and it makes me want to go send that calling card as soon as possible so I can take them down.

And then it happens, you send the calling card, you see the meter go to 99% and the tension rise but you know where you're going and what you're doing. You get in to the dungeon and Life Will Change starts blasting. You've got a plan, you've got a route, so you start making your way through. This time though, you're leveled. You've seen all the enemies. The music doesn't change back to battle music but remains the same and it hypes you up. These monsters don't deserve to be segmented anymore, you literally plow your way through, you make short work of them because you already know all the enemies and their weaknesses and you're here for one thing, to steal that treasure.

It was such a great way to feel like you've mastered the Palace and get you hyped up for the last encounter.

Don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but the official complete soundtrack is on iTunes with ONE HUNDRED AND TEN SONGS.

My favourites are definitely "Life Will Change", "Beneath The Mask" (Instrumental) and especially the Rainy Day version and also the track that plays on the first Palace Boss, "Blooming Villain" It starts off pretty tame for a good solid minute to build the tension and then HOLY SHIT it just explodes into FULL HYPE MODE.

Shoji Meguro is the absolute master of composing battle tunes that never get old. Last Surprise is awesome, and just like Reach Out to the Truth, I'll probably be able to listen to it over and over again for years to come and still never get tired of it.

When the game first came out in Japan, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold off on listening to the soundtrack for six whole months, so I dived right into it. I haven't actually reached the point in the game where it plays yet, but I think Rivers in the Desert is my favorite track in the game (and I don't even have the context for when it plays, which I imagine'll make it that much more rad)! And, of course, the instrumental version of Life Will Change is also fantastic; I get so incredibly pumped whenever the calling card is sent.

A lot of the more casual tracks that play during daily life segments are also great, but the game's soundtrack really shines when it comes to dungeon and battle themes.

@arbitrarywater: That's also the background music for the Persona 5 PlayStation theme. And it's free.

If you do not want to be spoiled, do not under any circumstances look at the comments for this (endgame / ending) track. In fact, maybe just do not listen to it full stop.

It is pretty straightforward, but in terms of memorable tracks to accentuate what amounts to the grand finale of one of the better games I ever played, I could not have been more pumped.

There is a really nice tempo shift around the 00:40 mark that is timed exceedingly well if you auto-advance the dialogue.

I also love, love, love Rivers in the Desert - much better than (endgame spoiler) the Yaldabaoth fight theme (which is fine, but fairly generic -but also has a cool shift around 00:50).

Blooming Villain or Rivers in the Desert. Those are both really good.

I wish you could set what battle theme you wanted, or at least have them operate on a rotation. I really dislike the normal battle theme. Doubly so due to the sheer volume of repetition. It's fine at first, but when that's all you hear in a dungeon for like 4 hours, it gets real old real fast.

@lawgamer: I really like the theme that plays during Mementos requests/sub-boss encounters "Keeper of Lust", it gives me some sweet SMT PS2 era vibes. I would have loved to be able to switch to it during normal battles every now and then. Too bad that if you wanna switch at all, you have to pony up for the DLC costumes which have battle themes from their respective games, which is not at all an ideal solution, I know. I think I remember that Persona 3 had a feature where you could ask Fuuka to change the Tartarus theme, it would have been nice to implement something similar here. Even just a handful of some classic Persona themes that they didn't have to make you pay for would have been fine.

If you haven't seen it yet iam8bit is bringing the soundtrack to vinyl! The 6xLP with all 110 tracks is sold out, but you can still get a 4xLP for $100

This song is so dope I actually stopped in the palace and just listened to it.

Ark, Life Will Change, and Rivers in the Desert are the standouts. Confession/Secret is also pretty good, as is the heartfelt music with the prominent organ (which I can't seem to find skimming youtube)

These two seem cruely underated

There are at least 5 fantastic all time classic dungeon themes in this game. It's kind of unbelievable.

This game might not be a serious contender for GotY on GB but if it gets snubbed for best music or best style or best moment I will burn this site to the ground.

Ark is great, but it really needs the speech track playing in the background. It just fits perfectly with the song and it's just not the same without it. I also prefer the alternate version of Price.

There are so many good ones and lots have been mentioned already. Freedom and Security, The Days When My Mother Was There, Rivers in the Desert...

But LAYER CAKE, man. Best song 100%

It's too difficult to choose a favorite. Just a fantastic soundtrack. Maybe Beneath the Mask. I always love the music in these past three games but the percussion stood out more to me in this one than in the previous two though to be fair it's been a while since I've heard those OSTs. Most of the drum and bass parts in tracks really get my neck moving involuntarily even 100+ hours later. It's wild just how much the vocals add to a given track. I love how her voice often comes into a song in an understated way then crescendos into high energy lyrics that you make you want to just stop, listen, and possibly gyrate.

I have a soft spot in my heart for My Homie which makes me want to shake my head at people in my life who are acting like idiots.

Will Power is my favorite. After that would be the Leblanc music... Beneath The Mask I think it's called. With or without lyrics they are both just great.

@pyrodactyl: To be fair, it will be going up against Nier: Automata, which has an equally amazing soundtrack. I love P5's soundtrack deeply, but if Nier won Best Music instead then I'd be okay with it. Now if neither win then they're all dead to me.

Anyway, P5 has all kinds of amazing tracks, but I will give a shoutout to the vocal version of Beneath the Mask that plays in the evening. Once the vocals kicked in on that track a few hours in the game got 100x better. I want it as my PS4 background theme so badly. Price is probably my favorite dungeon theme though.

@zeik: Ehhhhhhhh, Nier Automata's soundtrack is good, sure. It's just not as good as Persona 5's soundtrack or even as good as the soundtrack of Nier 1. It would make for a great runner up.

@zeik: I think P5 does a better job of pairing music to scene and that's the only way I could pick between the two.

On the other hand that Weight of the World medley... Hm..

@pyrodactyl: That's fair, I guess. All 3 are contenders for best soundtracks in any game ever. 1st or 3rd doesn't make much difference in my book.

Totally forgot this was going to arrive today. Sadly I'm in the middle of Prey otherwise i'd crank it in the house.

About 50 hours into the game, I started wearing headphones while playing because it's just so damn catchy. My vote's for Beneath The Mask. The slower pace of it is appreciated when post-palace or as the latest plot complication hits.

We've obviously got a ways to go until GOTY time, but to the Nier/Persona soundtrack argument here, I don't know that I have a clearcut favorite in mind right now. Both of them are so good for totally different reasons. I'm gonna be debating this one for the rest of the year, methinks.

@alex: Agreed. They are two very different soundtracks that accomplish very different things. Nier does some incredible things with dynamic music that very few games ever even try, and some of the tracks are absolutely gorgeous. I can't just say that it's better than Persona though cause Persona's soundtrack is just TOO GOOD overall. I have to say though, while I can't decide between the two, some of the tracks from Nier and what it does with music will easily elevate it to one of my top 3 games of the year.

Persona's music is just so good. So many striking tracks that are up there with the best of P3 and P4. I do agree about Nier though, it's good but I did like 1's OST better (though Automata is a much more solid game all around.)

@odinsmana: This is THE song of the year for me. If the crew don't finish the game by end of year I hope they at least give it a listen and it's discussed.

@alex: Let it never be said that you don't keep the best music discussion interesting every year. :)

I hope they put more money into the music budget or whatever for Persona 6. Meguro composing distinct tracks for each unique/major boss fight, for example, would be so dope.

@alex: Some of the best tracks are still further in the game. Everyone's favorite is a late game boss theme. All major dungeons from the point you're at on also have great tracks all for different reasons and in a variety of styles.

Just chiming in to second Rivers in the Desert as an awesome track, I've been listening to it a lot this week. Tokyo Daylight/Beneath the mask(the day and night city themes) are also cool. In-game, Life Will Change is one of the best ones too. It's amazing how hyped up that song makes me during the heists, and they use it to great effect during the very final dungeon too. It's like how Bayonetta will start out with dramatic, orchestral music for the boss fights, but as the fight turns in her favor during the last bit of the boss' health, the music just turns into a hype, Bayonetta-sounding jazzy theme.

I appreciate that even the lyrics video has alternate lyrics at some points because it's hard to interpret what she's saying.