Do you listen to soundtracks from games you've never played?

[RETROMAN]

Lately I've gone on quite a shopping spree, hunting down all kinds of video game soundtracks I might enjoy. I've never even laid eyes upon most of the games those soundtracks belong to, so my purchases are based on either the music being composed and/or arranged by musicians I like (anything by Yuzo Koshiro is an instant buy for me), tracks I've listened to on Youtube, or favorable reviews from sites like squareenixmusic.com and chudahs-corner.com.

I don't really mind not having played those games, though. At least my mind won't be clouded by nostalgia when I listen to those tunes and I can appreciate them for what they are.

Some examples of soundtracks I've bought without having played the games: Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2, Blazblue, Guilty Gear 2 Overture Vol.2, Söldner-X, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

What about you guys? Do you do the same thing or do you only buy/listen to soundtracks of games you've actually played?

[Esker]

I try to listen them at least once before the buy. And I used to hear soundtracks of games that I played more often than others.

[Section Nemesis]

I'm definitely guilty of that, I checked out the BlazBlue soundtrack before I bought it, but it's partially due to the fact I really like Daisuke's work overall. =]

But some games naturally have great soundtracks that I hear from friends so I check those out as well. Castlevania as you said is a very good example of that as well, really great music - sometimes (3D versions) even better than the games!

[Avatar of Justice]

Rarely. The first music I ever loved was the music in games I was playing, so I often have a hard time liking music (game or otherwise) without a "context" or story that evokes an emotion within me. This is why I often don't like songs that might have great music but lyrics that I can't relate to. The context sucks.

Sometimes, I'll listen to a games music before the game comes out. Like take BlazBlue or Guilty Gear Isuka. I had the soundtracks to those games months before the US release because I'm a fan of ArcSys games and Daisuke Ishiwatari's music in particular. I also typically listen to some of a Final Fantasy's music before it comes out just to get myself hyped up for the release date.

A funny situation I found myself in in 2007 was trying to decide whether to play The World Ends with You or Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. I decided to download both of their soundtracks and play the game with the more interesting soundtrack. TWEWY won by a long shot. So in that case, I used the music to like the game, not the game to like the music (nostalgia as you call it).

[Dissidia]

I prefer listening to songs that I have a "bond" with. It wouldn't be the same just buying the Blazblue OST and listening to it as opposed to having played through the game first. For me "To Zanarkand" is a good example of that.

[Sir_Snooze]

To my mind, nostalgia makes this type of music better. I can't listen to the EarthBound soundtrack without thinking of all the good times I've had with that game; SMRPG's Beware the Forest's Mushrooms instinctively reminds me of the time when my buddy came over, hit the Geno Whirl right and punched out the lightbulb in my basement. To my mind, it's only music - very good music, but still only music - unless I can tie it to awesome events/games in my past. The bonus that makes VGM my favourite style of music is the memory of greasy pizza and my best friends, playing along.

To my mind, nostalgia only adds to the greatness of the music, rather than detracting.

[A-RoN]

To my mind, nostalgia makes this type of music better. I can't listen to the EarthBound soundtrack without thinking of all the good times I've had with that game.

I don't know why, but I got into the sountrack before I played the game. Then once I played the game, I enjoyed the nostalgia of both game and OST.

[Kenogu Labz]

It really depends. Sometimes, hearing a soundtrack will finalize whether I think a game will be good or not. However, I usually find that I like the music better if I'm able to attach it emotionally to events or things in-game.

[Gollgagh]

I swear we had this thread before.

I listen to all sorts of soundtracks before I play given games.

[EC2151]

I listen to a whole lot of Touhou music, because it IS pretty catchy most of the time.

Among other games, I have listened to their soundtracks for the soundtrack's sake, though I usually stick to what I play.

[Schwaltzvald]

I listen to a whole lot of Touhou music, because it IS pretty catchy most of the time.

Among other games, I have listened to their soundtracks for the soundtrack's sake, though I usually stick to what I play.

This was already a given in my case though this was only slightly before I actually played the games.

The only

I can say that

the chance to play

"Chaos Legion".

I have the entire set on one of my special discs.

[Alexis]

All the time. I usually hear a remix or something on OCR first, then I'll go off and find the source tune. I was even on the FF4 project, which I've never actually played, but I have the whole soundtrack.

Also, I'm in a little band called the Xenotones, and we play Celtic arrangements of video game music. Named after Xenogears. Never played it, but it's got some damn good music.

[Gollgagh]

The only

I can say that

the chance to play

"Chaos Legion".

for me it's Granado Espada

[Schwaltzvald]

for me it's Granado Espada

Granado Espada? After hearing that it's an mmorpg I pretty much figured its ost would be rubbish; is it any good?

[Gollgagh]

the soundtrack is good

it's gigantic though (I think it's like 200 unique tracks or something)

in fact it's so consistently decent that some of the songs tend to slip through

here are a couple samples

Rosa Rosado:

Tocatta in D- (yes, D minus):

Witch on a Diet:

[SoloGamer]

I swear we had this thread before.

Yup.

I prefer listening to songs that I have a "bond" with. It wouldn't be the same just buying the Blazblue OST and listening to it as opposed to having played through the game first.

Same for me, though there are a few tracks I listened to before playing the game (Mother 1 and 2 are the only ones that come to mind at the moment).

[Meteo Xavier]

I try listening for OSTs to games I've never played so I can get an idea what game music sounds like without the game around it. For someone like me who has done tracks for games without seeing anything else around it, its a half-decent frame of reference to go for, at least in my experience.

[JH Sounds]

I watched someone else play Alone in the Dark [2008]. I ended up getting the soundtrack 'cuz the gameplay didn't seem so hot.

[EC2151]

Oh, and I just remembered, that Eternal Sonata is an OST that I simply adore, despite not having a 360, and wishing there'd be a Wii version coming out one of these days... : (

Who would've thought a game about Chopin would have good music?

[prophetik music]

i've never played radical dreamers (more than an hour or two total).

[XZero]

Easily one of my favorite soundtracks is Chrono Cross. I own the game, and played a few hours of it (never had the time to really devote to it). Well before owning it, I owned the soundtrack. I had downloaded some mp3s, and really liked what I heard, so I bought the 3-disc set. Best investment in a CD ever. When I did eventually play the game, the funny thing for me was that the game really didn't live up to the music. Yasunori Mitsuda is a musical god.

[Gollgagh]

I lied, there are 140 tracks on the Granado Espadan OST and a few are remixes of earlier tracks (trance remixes of the "classical" tracks, typically)

that's ten and a half hours of mostly trance stuff

[Jodo Kast]

I've listened to a few soundtracks from games I've never played. A few hundred, quite close to 1,000. That's typical, though, of people like myself; those that are a little bit not normal when it comes to game music. My latest discovery is the Touhou series and there have been a few albums made covering that music (more than 1,500). Crow's Claw (a Japanese doujin group) is the master of arranging Touhou music, by a long shot.

A few others that I've never played (but with great music):

Lord of Vermilion (Nobuo Uematsu), Etrian Odyssey (Yuzo Koshiro), Cyber Org (Yoshihiro Sato), Death Smiles (Manabu Namiki), DoDonPachi ~A Peaceful Death~ (Manabu Namiki), Romancing SaGa series (Kenji Ito), Wizardry series (mostly Kentaro Haneda), OZ (Michiru Yamane).

And Dracula X. It would be mightily expensive to play the original, as PC Engines are not cheap, nor is the game itself. I did play the SNES remake, but that doesn't count.

Oh, and every Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS (3 of them, I believe). All badass music.

[Gollgagh]

Crow's Claw

is all of their stuff like "Blacker than the Blackest Black" or do they have less... metal stuff?

cause that album was way too metal for me but I'm not above trying their other stuff

[Jodo Kast]

is all of their stuff like "Blacker than the Blackest Black" or do they have less... metal stuff?

cause that album was way too metal for me but I'm not above trying their other stuff

You're not kidding. It's solid metal, really dark. I've heard most of their albums and I'd recommend "17 Division" or "Broken Phantasm" if you want something a little lighter.

Here are a few of their albums (for sampling):

http://xximmortalgodxx.wordpress.com/crows-claw-collection/

The last one on the list is "17 Division". Crossfire Barrage and Frozen Frog both arrange music from Touhou, rather heavily. But no where near as heavy as "Brutal Games for Reminding of Death".