My Favorite Video Game Music of 2024

I look forward to all the festivities celebrating our favorite video games every year, and one of my personal favorite such traditions is looking back on my favorite video game music from the year. We live in an era where video games by and large have wonderful soundtracks -- I'm blown away by their quality every year -- to the point where narrowing this list down to 10 is always a struggle. Yet that serves as an annual reminder of just how much I appreciate the music of this medium, and how much it enhances the games we play. I know I wouldn’t enjoy video games quite the same without the music that accompanies them, and this is my way of recognizing and honoring that. Thanks for reading and listening.

The usual disclaimers: I only considered soundtracks from games I’ve played, I picked a single representative song from each soundtrack to feature, and these games are ordered by their original US release date; not by preference. Finally, I apologize in advance for overlooking your favorite game soundtrack.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Composer(s): Mentrix and Gareth Coker

Featured Track: The Forest Queen

Like many things about Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, its soundtrack caught me by surprise. It mixes traditional Persian sounds with more modern rock sensibilities to astonishingly great effect, and makes transitions between instrumentation and sounds with uncanny ease. Some of the boss themes in particular really pop off, adding extra weight to these memorable encounters, yet this score doesn’t skip on the quieter themes either. There are somber moments of beauty as you explore the mysterious Mount Qaf, and this soundtrack has the range to meet every moment.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Composer(s): Primary: Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu. Additional contributions: Nobuo Uematsu, Shotaro Shima, Shoya Sunakawa, Junnosuke Usui, Reo Uratani, Ryo Furukawa, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Yoshinori Nakamura, Tadayoshi Makino, Nozomi Toki, Shingo Kataoka, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Keiki Kobayashi

Featured Track: On Our Way - Sense of Kalm

On one hand, including another Final Fantasy VII game on a list such as this feels a bit uninspired; its soundtrack is mostly rearrangements of decades old themes after all. Yet the way it deploys those classic themes continues to be on another level. Not only is the adaptive nature of this soundtrack still extremely effective, but just like the game itself, it plays with both nostalgia and expectations in important ways. A new orchestration of a classic theme will kick in at just the right moment to take my breath away, or subvert my expectations altogether. Rebirth’s music is in conversation with the player to a degree that most video game music either can’t or won’t, and how it continues to keep that conversation going through pivotal moments in this middle chapter is noteworthy. It’s also just extremely well-produced music, and hot damn the new battle version of Stamp’s song goes way harder than it has any right to.

Unicorn Overlord

Composer(s): Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Yoshimi Kudo, Rikako Watanabe, Richter, Toki Takeda, and Denys Fontanarosa

Featured Track: Farde Mal Diavolo

Unicorn Overlord’s soundtrack successfully hits all the notes you would expect a sprawling fantasy adventure to hit: peaceful town and overworld themes, blood-pumping battle themes, and a handful of epic choral tracks for the game’s highlight set piece moments. I also appreciate how the music adapts itself appropriately to each of the game’s varied geographical and cultural regions, and despite playing Unicorn Overlord for nearly 100 hours, I never got tired of listening to this score. It may be hitting familiar notes, but when it's executed this well, it’s hard to complain.

Hades II

Composer(s): Darren Korb and Austin Wintory

Featured Track: Coral Crown

Darren Korb don’t miss. Even in its current early access version, Hades II already showcases tons of new, excellent music. While I have yet to see everything there is to see in this game so far (I’ve beaten Chronos once, and haven’t played since), I’ve already been delightfully surprised by multiple standout musical moments. In addition to brand new themes, this soundtrack also cleverly remixes old themes in smart, fun ways that play into the narrative. This is clearly a composer and a team working together at the peak of their powers, and I can’t wait to play and hear more of Hades II over the next year.

World of Goo 2

Composer(s): Kyle Gabler and Jonny Trengrove

Featured Track: Sloppy Walker

The original World of Goo had one of the early standout indie game soundtracks, and if its sequel’s soundtrack isn’t the same revelation, it’s still nearly as good. It retains the same delicious mix of playful whimsy, glistening hope, and foreboding dread that gave the original such a distinct vibe, as it combines both remixes of old themes and brand new ones to great effect. If anything, it’s even more ambitious in branching in multiple directions at once, handling shifting tones with surprising ease, and delivers a few big musical moments that hit pretty hard. Put another way, World of Goo 2’s soundtrack is a real good time.

SteamWorld Heist II

Composer(s): Steam Powered Giraffe

Featured Track: A Life of Un-Delightment

I’m a sucker for diegetic music in games, and quite enjoy that SteamWorld Heist II’s soundtrack goes all-in on the concept. Each of the bars you regularly visit during your adventure houses a band who are in-game representations of the three members of the real-life band who did the soundtrack (Steam Powered Giraffe). It’s fun to see music handled that way, and the dozen or so songs themselves are fun and varied; I regularly paused just to listen. Instrumental versions permeate other areas of the game as well, making Steam Powered Giraffe a core part of the SteamWorld Heist II experience in a fully cohesive way.

Astro Bot

Composer(s): Kenneth C. M. Young

Featured Track: Tite Mites (Crystal Cave)

Astro Bot is primarily two things: an extremely well-made platformer for all ages, and a nostalgic ode to PlayStation history. Its soundtrack’s biggest success, then, is how well it supplements those two goals. It’s full of jaunty, playful, head-bobbing tunes that capture the upbeat vibe of Astro Bot, and it includes enough musical motifs from PlayStation classics – most obviously in the themed throwback levels – to further scratch the nostalgia itch. It’s a simple soundtrack in some ways, yet does exactly what it needs to do to enhance the overall game.

UFO 50

Composer(s): Eirik Suhrke

Featured Track: Mortal - Gameplay

UFO 50 is a fascinating project on many levels, and that includes its music. Most of the titular 50 games have fun and catchy tunes on their own – I had Mortol’s and House Party’s themes stuck in my head more than once – but the bigger picture is even more impressive. This soundtrack is simultaneously diverse enough to cover dozens of games across numerous genres, and also consistent enough to be believable as the work of a single (albeit fictional) gaming company from the 1980s. There’s a clear throughline in the types of sounds and melodies used across every single game, which makes it so easy to buy into UFO 50’s whole conceit. It’s quite the magic trick, and I can only guess at the artistic and technical knowhow needed to pull it off.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Composer(s): Hajime Wakai, Masato Ohashi, Manaka Kataoka,Chisaki Hosaka,Reika Nakai, Yuri Goto, Ryotaro Yagi, Azusa Kato

Featured Track: Hyrule Field Theme

While still sounding undeniably like a Zelda game (not a bad thing!), Echoes of Wisdom’s soundtrack makes some welcome, subtle tweaks to establish its own identity within the franchise. In particular, I appreciate its sparseness; most songs contain only a few clearly identifiable instruments, which creates intimacy. And building off that intimacy, the music has a toy-like quality to it, which I feel matches the toy-like quality of the visuals. It’s a more tactile soundtrack for a more tactile art style, and I got the lovely new overworld theme stuck in my head quite often.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Composer(s): Shoji Meguro

Featured Track: Warriors in Valor

It’s always nice to see an iconic composer take on a type of sound different from their norm, and Shoji Meguro doesn’t disappoint with this swerve into a fantasy setting. The distinct battle medley alone is worthy of nuanced dissection, with typical fantasy sounds combining with Meguro’s personal sensibilities, and a goddamn rapping monk thrown in for good measure. The rest of the soundtrack feels similarly unique within the fantasy realm, and beautifully punctuates every moment of this lengthy adventure. Metaphor: ReFantazio has teeth to it, in every part of its being, and those teeth wouldn’t be seen quite as sharply without this excellent score behind them. It’s a strong example of music’s power to enhance an already great game, and is so intrinsically tied to everything Metaphor is that I can’t imagine it sounding any other way.

Bonus: Octopath Traveler II

Composer(s): Yasunori Nishiki

Featured Track: Critical Clash II

I knew its music would be excellent, but I didn’t get around to playing Octopath Traveler II last year, hence not being able to include it on that list. I did play dozens of hours of it in 2024, however, and it indeed has incredible music. So much so that picking a featured song was a challenge, as there are so many highlights to choose from: a poignant main theme, soothing town themes, inspiring character themes, rippin’ battle themes, and hopeful set piece moments. I will never get tired of how the music swells at the end of each character chapter, leveraging their character theme to drive home their resolve in the face of their challenges; it may be cliche, but it’s powerful nonetheless. Octopath Traveler II simply has a great, well-composed song for every occasion, and it’s easily the video game music I listened to the most during the year. I’m sure I’ll keep listening to it in 2025 and beyond as well.