There are three particular elements that go into creating a good video game: great graphics, a great plot-line, and wonderful music. All three usually create a best-selling game that tops the charts in the tens of millions of dollars. Missing a component can be the difference between success and failure for video game companies. But one thing is for certain: the better each component is, the better chance a game has to succeed.
This is why many video game companies have been employing actual orchestras to play their music. The contract out work to composers who compose the works, and then bring it to the conductors of the symphonies they want to play their music. If the orchestra can fit it in their concert schedule, then the negotiations for pay and royalties come in. The graphics can drop your jaw, the plot line can bring tears to your eyes, but the music is what makes your skin tingle. It’s what sets the mood. Take music out of a movie, and you have a less-interesting narrated book. Take music out of a video-game, and you have an ineffective plot line with really cool pictures.
These orchestral songs alone, made only for their specific video game, make purchasing the game worth it.
- This intrinsically-moving, ethereal song from Starbound could move even the hardest person to tears. The emotion it evokes and the warmth that it provides as the strings slowly crescendo into the tinkering of the piano is nothing short of breathtaking. And it’s only the menu theme.
2. From Ori And The Blind Forest, this light and airy piano duet with an oboe is exactly the type of purity you need in your life after a stressful day. It will whisk you away to child-like worlds where expectations are myths and being an adult is unnecessary.
3. From Ni No Kuni, this song begins with an epic horn section fit for any king before settling on a Celtic-esque tune that will put a skip in your step as you travel throughout the game map to this quested tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISbVq8Z9dQM&feature=youtu.be
4. The main theme for Final Fantasy XV uses a combination of light tones and eerie underscored music to bring about the light and dark that clash within the game. The dissonance it creates before jumping into the sweeping string section will whisk you off of your feet and your ears will beg you to play the game just so your palpitating heart can find resolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAH3HK_21s
5. Skyrim‘s theme song for Elder Scrolls utilizes both an orchestra and a hard-hitting co-ed choir to produce a chest-thumping, champion-esque song that will make you want to draw your sword and take off running into the forest. This proud song will bring out the fighter and confidence in anyone who listens to it, and will make someone feel as if someone is blaring their name into a bullhorn, beckoning for their strength and bravery.
There you have it. Five orchestral songs that will make you cry, beat your chest with honor, and make you feel childlike as you delve into their graphics and plots. Let yourself become swept away by these songs as you revel in how video games are effectively saving our orchestra halls and filling them to the brim. Support your local orchestra, and you can guarantee to keep getting quality music in all forms of entertainment…including your video games.
Featured image by Viktor Hanacek via PicJumbo
