General RPG Music Lists 3: Chime Really Feeling It!

We've covered battle themes and environmental songs thus far, which means our next step on this little journey through the best of RPG music will be emotion music.  This category is kind of an "all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares" sort of thing--or, to keep it RPG-related, an "all of Pete Hines's statements are lies, but not all lies are Pete Hines's statements" situation.  Because when you get down to it, all battle and environmental music is trying to create and tap into a certain emotional mindset--hell, that's basically ALL the music in RPGs, and just about every other genre and form of media in which music is used as background.  It's basically the fundamental reason to have songs in your work at all: to provoke an emotional response that assists in telling the story and keeping your audience in the right frame of mind.  Battle and environmental music just happen to be subsets with easily recognizable situational qualifiers.

Today's categorization covers the broad bases that battles and settings don't: sequences, scenarios, and situations.  Basically, this is the music that plays when a mood is called for in an RPG that has nothing (or at least very little) to do with the surrounding area, and is instead defined by what's going on, what's being discussed or remembered, what's being felt.  When a protagonist finds out that his long-lost brother is a villain out to destroy the world, you don't want the same calm, cool, tranquil music of the forest setting to play, even if that happens to be where this revelation takes place.  When a hero and his best friend have a sincere heart-to-heart that energizes each with determination thanks to the reassurance that he'll always have a buddy in his corner, you want the music for the scene to be determined by the content of their conversation, not the fact that they happen to be bandying feel-good sentiments in the midst of a bizarre alternate reality where the trees are purple pigs' feet and the water is lemon marmalade that flows up waterfalls instead of down.  The narrative demands special music for such occasions, to underscore the emotion of such scenes.

So anyway, here's all the mood music of RPGs that I love most!

Note: I do not in any way care about what the actual name of any of these tracks is. I organize the songs I listen to by their function, essentially what I'll remember them for. So if you really love the Fables of Zestfullycleansia song, "Genuflect Before God's Radiance (Meatball Sub with Buttercream Frosting Instrumental)", which played during scenes of awe and mysticism, then just assume that I call it Fables of Zestfullycleansia Mystic, as that's the game of origin and its actual function.

Also Note: As with last time, if a category doesn't have an A+ song within it, I'll just do a little opinion piece on my favorite of the ones it does have.



SPIRITUAL

Spiritual music covers moods of reverence and awe, of a religious or otherwise mythological nature.  Some magical plot girl communing with deities, a protagonist's totem spirit relaying advice and direction to him, the soul of a warrior being initiated into the afterlife, the heroes being told the legend of a holy maiden, these are the sorts of scenarios in which Spiritual music sets the mood.  Creating an atmosphere of wonder, which underscores the divine, the unknowable, and/or the realms and entities beyond mortal grasp is the name of the game for Spiritual songs, and they tend as a matter of course to be heavy, but in a peaceful and epic way.

It's kinda like if Place of Worship setting music wasn't so high off the fumes of its own divine farts.

B+
- Breath of Fire 2 Legend
- Fire Emblem 15 Mila

A-
- Disco Elysium The Phasmid
- Hololive CouncilRys RPG Mystic
- La Pucelle Tactics Maiden of Light
- Stella Glow Legend
- Suikoden 2 Legend
- Tales of Symphonia Martel
- Valkyrie Profile 1 Birth of Einherjar
- Whisper of a Rose Mystic

A
- Bahamut Lagoon Dragon Hymn
This is a great mix of humbling mysticism, the grandeur of dragons, and just that barest undertone of melancholy that seems inherent to all Yoyo says and does.  Really cool and beautiful piece!

- Shadowrun SNES Spirit
- Wild Arms 3 Legend

A+



HAPPY

This rant is easier than the previous ones, because most of the categories pretty much explain themselves.  Happy music, for example, is pretty much just that--it's the music that plays during scenarios that are generally positive, cheerful, and intent on putting you in a good mood.

...Which is actually kind of rare, weirdly.  I guess stories do thrive on conflict, but I still was kind of surprised, when I looked over my collection of RPG music, to realize just how much more attention is given in RPGs to music related to conflict and unhappiness than to songs indicative of a good time.  And the quality clearly skews to the former, too--you can see below that there's not much in the way of really great Happy music.  Plenty of good Happy music out there, I suppose, but nothing that earns a B+ or higher.  Maybe it's just hard for composers to figure out a way to give earnestly blithe tunes some compelling depth?  I dunno.  It is possible, though.

B+

A-

A

A+



LOVE

Love music is a subset of the Happy category, because, I mean, presumably love should be a fairly pleasant feeling, right?  Obviously it doesn't always work out that way in RPGs, but in theory it's 1 of the greatest emotions a person can feel.  Love themes tend to be slow, tender, and sometimes sweet, and piano tends to figure heavily into this song type.  Although the general feeling is (and should be) uplifting, there can be a lot of depth and variations to this kind of music, too, to imply the hardship that the love overcomes, the longing that comes with it, the overwhelming power of the emotion, etc.

B+
Final Fantasy 7 Gondola

A-
- Mass Effect 3 Love
I like the poignantly sweet but perhaps slightly desperate tone to this.  The song skillfully imparts the beauty and deep fulfillment that comes from loving and being loved, and does so with this kind of...I dunno, mortal tone?  Like it's aware of just how short-lived the love between Shepard and Tali (or Shepard and 1 of the other love interests if you're some kind of heathen) could be during a brutal war.  It's not just trying for the beauty of love, but for the beauty of what could be preciously finite, too.  And it really works well for a love story that's continued from previous installments (Tali), too, capturing a weight that coincides well with a romance that's had history, has seen and survived much already.  Very nice stuff.

A

A+



COMEDY

Comedy is the other sub-category for Happy music.  When wacky happenings and whimsical hi-jinks are the order of the moment, Comedy music is there to confirm that, yes, it is time for you to laugh.

Which is very convenient, because sometimes the audience could use some direction on this matter.  If it weren't for these songs hitting you over the head with a toy mallet and screaming "IT'S FUNNY STUPID, WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING" into your face, I daresay you sure as hell wouldn't even recognize the crass, out of character sexual harassment at the hot springs, or a female character do the unthinkable and not be absolutely perfect at cooking, as something meant to be jovial.  Comedy music has a hell of a tough job, because not only is a little song-and-dance routine theme not likely to be the kind of memorable and moving tune you want to listen to again, but it's saddled with the nearly impossible task, at least 30% of the time, of convincing you that decades-stale anime gags are still funny--or ever were to begin with.

B+

A-

A

A+



SAD

When protagonists are exiled from their village, when family and friends realize that they must take opposite sides in a conflict, when Magical Plot Girls are taken captive by villains and look to be beyond rescue...when everything's bad and hopeless, Sad music is there to sell you on the mood.  I daresay that of all the genre's mood music, Sad is probably the 1 found most universally.  Sooner or later some unpleasant shit is going to go down in a story, and while you can get away with just regular setting tunes for a lot of other story scenes, you really can't avoid underscoring a sad scenario with appropriate music.

It's also probably the most consistently high-quality form of emotional music, too.  Maybe composers try harder for these pieces because they're the lynch pins in most RPGs' plots, or maybe we just naturally have a greater compulsion to value and seek out dramatically weighty feelings over most other mental sensations, but 1 way or another, Sad music has a good, strong chance of being the standout hit of the soundtrack's Mood themes.

B+
- Arc the Lad 2 Sad
- Breath of Fire 2 Sad
- Crystareino Sad
- Glory of Heracles 5 Sad
- Phantom Brave Sad
- Suikoden 5 Sad

A-
- A Dragon's ReQuest Sad
- Ara Fell Sad
- Barkley, Shut Up and Jam Gaiden Sad
- Dark Cloud 1 Regret
- Final Fantasy Tactics Sad
- Live-A-Live Sad
- Neverwinter Nights 1 Wyvern Crown of Cormyr Sad
- Octopath Traveler 1 Discord
- Radiant Historia 1 Sad
- Trials of Mana Sad
- Tales of Phantasia Sad

A
- Disgaea 1 Sad
- I Am Setsuna Sad
- Pier Solar and the Great Architects Illness
- Rakuen Yami's Pain
- Suikoden 2 Sad
- Terranigma Sad
- Tales of Berseria Velvet's Anguish
- Tales of Zestiria Sad

A+
- Eternal Senia Finding Magaleta
I can't deny that some of this song's placement has to do with the overwhelming emotional power of the scene it plays over, rather than being strictly about its quality alone.  But A, an inescapable association with the game's greater scenes is an indication of success in a song, and B, it's still an undeniably heavy, heart-wrenching, and lovely tune, regardless.  Jeez, Eternal Senia is a hell of a sentimental punch to the gut, I tell you.



DEATH

While standard Sad music is often tasked with covering all unhappy events, many RPGs opt to have a separate mournful song in their arsenal to play when characters in their drama die (or, sometimes, when a specific character kicks the bucket).  Which seems fair to me; there's enough difference in emotional magnitude between a scene of some bounty hunters sadly admitting that their current job is beyond their capabilities and a scene where the protagonist's father figure dies after telling the hero that he's proud of him to warrant some musical distinction.  Additionally, though it doesn't happen often, a death scene doesn't always have to strictly be sad--sometimes death is a release, or a contented moving on once one's work is fully done, so it's good to give the act a category that allows for that variation more than just throwing it all under Sad would.  Sorrowful or otherwise, though, Death music is almost always designed to evoke a powerful emotional response, possibly the strongest of all these mood tunes, and composers tend to bring their A game to this category.

Oh, and by the way, since the titles of the songs give it away here, be aware that this category has Spoilers for:
Mass Effect 3
Rakuen
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
Xenosaga 3

B+
- Xenogears Death

A-
- Breath of Fire 2 Death
- Valkyria Chronicles 1 Death

A
- Chrono Trigger Sad
- Mass Effect 3 Anderson's Death
- Rakuen Fukushima 50
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Minato's Death
- Suikoden 1 Death
- Xenosaga 3 Pellegri's Death

A+
- Rakuen Leaving for Rakuen
Yeah so I still cry sometimes when I listen to this.



REFLECTION/REMEMBRANCE

Reflection/Remembrance music is kind of interesting.  It's any melody which is meant to accompany or create a sense of introspection, of mulling over things.  This tends to involve a review or a recollection of events which have happened before now, whether in-game or prior to the story's opening.  At the same time, though, music associated with memories, in RPGs at least, is very frequently painful and/or regretful, which means that this category has a lot of overlap with Sad music.  There's enough specifically memory-oriented music that it feels at times like it should be separated from introspective themes, and yet every time I try to do it, there's too much content that clearly is both a song of reflection and remembrance to really distinguish them.  So, messy though it may be, it remains a single category, which stretches over scenes of meditating over one's beliefs and next action, remembering the good old days of valor with comrades, recalling mournfully the days spent with one's best friend before an evil wizard took his life, and more.

B+

A-
- Final Fantasy 5 Memories
- Final Fantasy Tactics Ovelia's Worries
- Kingdom Hearts 2 Memories
- Sakura Wars 5 Reflection

A
- A Dragon's ReQuest Emotional Difficulty
- Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure Kururu's Memories
- Skies of Arcadia Reflection

A+
- Suikoden 2 Memories
Suikoden 2 was already clearly going to be a great game, from the get-go, but I think it was when I heard this song, and watched Riou and Nanami waiting at the gates of Muse with hope and dread in their hearts for Jowy to return to them, that I realized that this game was going to be the kind of masterpiece that would stay with me forever.  There's no scene that involves this theme which isn't excellent, and part of that is just due to the quality of the song itself.  You listen to this, and you yourself feel the morose yearning for the happy days of family and childhood, lost forever to war and destiny, that the game's characters experience.

- Xenosaga 1 Bitter Memories
This is 1 of those songs that just blows me away.  Those strings, that mournful, leaden lilt...if I ever hear a song better and more beautifully, hauntingly representing the concept of raw, painful recollections, I'll be pretty damn surprised.



FEAR

When your mad, jilted ex-girlfriend has you strapped down on a table and intends to take out her frustrations on you with a scalpel, Fear music is there to help the terror burrow all the deeper into your heart.*  When the overrated villain needs a pulse-stopping, chilling sound to make up for what he lacks in genuine screen presence, Fear music is there to pick up Sephiroth's slack.  When an equally annoying villain's terrorizing some poor kid by ripping his own head off and waxing moronic about sinful peaches and peachy sins, Fear music is there to make Albedo seem more spooky-creepy than call-Chris-Hanson-creepy.  This category of emotional music is there to immerse the audience in how unnerving and/or outright terrifying a situation is, less about actively destructive and dangerous events (that's the next category) than it is about the threat of such things.  This tune tends to be heavy, slow, and penetrating, reverberating within you but doing so at its own pace, which just increases its ability to create tension.

Unfortunately, while Fear music does often represent quite skillful enterprises by composers, it's kinda hard to make an effective Fear piece that's also something you would want to hear on your own time.  It's not usually especially catchy, nor does it inspire a sensation that most people want to experience casually.  In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that the better a frightening tension song is, the less likely it'll be something you'll like to listen to.  So, sadly, this category is currently empty for me, and is like as not to remain so.  Unlike most other empty groups in these rants, though, that's really through no failing of the composers; if anything, that could be a healthy sign for Fear music.

B+

A-

A

A+



EMERGENCY

Catastrophes, disasters, and so on, Emergency music covers situations of eventful, action-filled panic.  If regular Fear music describes a scenario of personal horror which you cannot overcome or escape, Emergency music is more along the lines of calamities that call for action (even if it's most typically escape), or at least, large enough cataclysms that everyone's in the same boat and it's less of an intensely fearful effect on you yourself.  This type of song tends to be fast, sometimes even frantic, and forceful, made as it is to accompany such things as races against a ticking clock, fires raging out of control, and, most often, villains wreaking havoc on structures and towns.  Interestingly, this is often fairly catchy, and/or gives the listener a pleasant shot of adrenal energy, so there's a lot more opportunities for ditties you'd actually want to listen to on your own time with this category than its Fear parent.

B+
- Breath of Fire 3 Weretiger
- Final Fantasy 9 Ambush Attack

A-
- Barkley, Shut Up and Jam Gaiden Emergency
- Chrono Cross Emergency
- Mother 3 Forest Fire
- Suikoden 5 Nether Gate Attack

A
- Wild Arms 3 Emergency
- Xenogears Emergency
The rushing intensity to this piece is great.  You can hear the frantic footfalls of heroes running for all they're worth, rubble and rocks falling all around, vehicles speeding out of control as their operators grasp desperately at the wheel, militants exchanging fire in a desperate battle of urban combat, and all manner of other adrenaline-soaked conflicts and disasters you can imagine; it all goes great with this tune.

A+



DETERMINATION

Encouragement, confidence, heroism with a can-do attitude, the Determination tune is basically the opponent of Emergency music.**  While there's once again an urgent sense of action and important events unfolding, this time they're in the favor of the forces of good.  Determination music is plans being set in motion, armies marching, and a mildly stupid teenager who has somehow found himself leading them both making speeches about the power of friendship.  This kind of song is pumped, boisterous, hopeful, and ready to take on the world with a confidence that comes from favorable fortunes--or the will to make one's own opportunities.  It can make for some pretty cool pieces that energize you and buoy your spirits...when it's not being a little too heavy-handed with the ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST TO DO YOUR BEST thing.

B+
- Final Fantasy 5 Warriors of Dawn
- Quantum Entanglement Determination (From what I can understand, this is an original composition made freely available to anyone who wants it, which was used by Quantum Entanglement, and possibly other games. Since QE is what I know it from, I just categorize it as such)
- Romancing Saga 3 Castle Assault
- Sailor Moon: Another Story Determination
- Terranigma Royd

A-
- Ara Fell Determination
- Arc the Lad 3 Alec
- Eternal Senia Determination
- Lufia 2 Last Chance
- Suikoden 1 Army
- Suikoden 5 Army
- Tales of Legendia Chasing Shirley

A
- Cosmic Star Heroine Secret Agent at Work
This is a really fun piece.  It captures a feeling of rushing activity, but also a heroic, action-y confidence.  Like, there's intrigue and danger, but also an assurance that the heroine's got this.  Very cool.

- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Determination

A+



FAREWELL

Everything in this world has a beginning, and a point at which it ends, even intangibles like human relationships.  While most partings between people in RPGs given any narrative significance tend to involve the death of 1 or both parties, sometimes characters will luck out and have an important, emotionally significant goodbye that doesn't involve anyone croaking.  Such moments may necessitate their own unique music to fully reach their potential for moving the player, and so Farewell music comes into play.

Farewell songs most often seem to follow the old saying that parting is sweet sorrow.  By and large they'll be sad, to some degree, but at the same time, there's usually an element of hope, happiness, satisfaction, or closure, as well.  You're generally meant to be sorry to see the character or community go, but it's not an outright, pure downer the way that its sister Death music usually is.

B+
- Darkblood Chronicles Saying Goodbye

A-
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Fi's Farewell
Okay, so maybe not too many of us were too terribly sad to no longer have to deal with Slow Text Robo-Navi, but it's still a really pretty, poignant song of adieu.

A

A+



NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Apparently Youtube is extremely unreliable.  If you notice that any of these links are dead, I'd be much obliged if you left a comment to let me know which one(s), and I'll address it as best I can.














* Used in the game Quantum Entanglement, since the page itself doesn't mention.

** Although they don't really HAVE to be separate entities; you can occasionally find a really awesome tune that's sort of both Emergency AND Determination.