Patient Gamers

Undertale, Celeste, Katamari, Syonara Wild Hearts, Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid, Persona 4G, Persona 5R

Minecraft

Nier Automata

Subnautica

Bloodborne OST is the first that comes to mind for me.

• FTL Multiverse (Kix et. al.)
• Touhou
• Supergiant Games
• Blue Archive
• Minecraft

Hard pick because I listen to a game or series for a while, then another. Just today I went and listened to a lot of Sonic tracks, which I do once every few months. I guess Atlus games (SMT, Persona, EO), Metal Gear Rising, Ace Attorney, TWEWY are in the lead off the top of my head, but after a month I might give a different answer. My relaxing music playlist is mostly the official classical arrangements of Etrian Odyssey 1+2, so let's go with that.

Hollow Knight, though I don't really listen to it outside the game.
Cyberpunk has some great songs on the radio.

Anything handled by Nobou Uematsu.

All you young'uns and your fancy moderns music.

Nothing beats Gone Jackals songs in Full Throttle.

https://youtu.be/Dih7toPsows?si=wENFI_wtzVJstjHG&t=110

Unreal Tournament 2004 is my favorite OST by number of tracks that I love. It has several absolute banger tracks, like Morpheus3, Hyperblast-Redux, Convoy, Atlantis and Level11. I often keep a number of those tracks on my playlists.

Although I don't like the game itself much (I suck at it), Cloudbuilt also has some awesome tracks, my personal favorite is Aurora. The guitar chords at the apex is just heavenly.

Rebel Galaxy has some very nice stuff to feel like a 'merican space cowboy, it's mostly licensed music as far as i can tell.

Assault Android Cactus usually gets your blood pumping hard, which is great because the game is a pretty fun twin-stick arena. The tracks Assault and Licorice are just 👨‍🍳😙👌

... Come to think of it, looking at my list, I'm a real sucker for sci-fi OSTs, huh. I do want to make honorable mentions to Mass Effect (mostly 2), Skyrim and Smash Bros. Ultimate

The Last of Us 1 & 2, all the Katamari games, Death Stranding

mantis Lords from hollow knight

Trepang2

Gravity rush is pretty damn good. Haven't played the second one yet

Prince of Persia 2008

• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Aquaria: Original Soundtrack by Alec Holowka

Such an underrated game. RIP Alec.

Morrowind and project wingman are peak. FFXIV is fantastic with a persistent leitmotif across each entire expansion. The final endwalker boss basically wrapped up YEARS worth of story and that fight music was a medly featuring every expansion's leitmotif and holy shit I can't get over how incredible it was. Also the pandaemonium raid music. And Alexander. Seriously you can rabbit hole for HOURS on FFXIV music.

Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

SimCity 4 ❤️

The Neverhood

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

The Sims 2

Pokemon USUM. If there was a looped version of the tracks, I‘d probably listen to it every day lol, it just boosts my mood. Sadly, the soundtrack (that I have) has them at 1-2 minutes.

No game will ever have a better soundtrack than Halo 3

• Rome Total War
• Anno 1602
• Stronghold

I suspect I'm driven by nostalgia and by literally hundreds of hours of repeat exposure.

Civ 3 had some killer modern music.

I’ve started recognizing when a section of a game feels baller, but it’s 99% because of the soundtrack. They can have the most generic basis for an emotional scene, and then as long as the music nails the mood it could be just blocks on a screen.

Final Fantasy XIV has had awe-inspiring tracks for the finales of each expansion since Shadowbringers; pretty much starting at the final zone through the final dungeon and trial.

Ace Attorney always gets it with its confrontation tracks; it could just be two people arguing in a hallway and it turns the battle of words into the most epic thing.

I’ll also give a shout out to Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps. For both of those, it’s not just a few banger tracks for the exciting moments; even the downtime tracks are so memorable.