As usual, my post about the videogame music of the previous year is late due to me wanting to play some leftovers from 2018. Though, turned out, they didn’t make the list anyway. 2018 turned out to be quite surprising for the videogame music as quite a lot of the things that I want to list is here on a technicality. Though, not like we didn’t have some amazing tunes from last year. Let’s dive in.
This time around, due to the technicalities, I want to divide the list into sections. I also want to emphasize, that I only include soundtracks that I’ve heard and liked myself and ones that I feel work really well outside the game as well. As such, something like the well fitting music of Return of the Obra Dinn isn’t something that will be on the list, but I do want to mention it anyway. Another game to mention is CHUCHEL since the soundtrack in it is memorable but pretty… bizarre. The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories has some nice songs, as usual for Swery, but not that much memorable music otherwise. Also, DELTARUNE Chapter 1 was last year, but I found the music to be a bit too much like Undertale rehash.
Few soundtracks from 2018 that might also be interesting, but I haven’t explored them enough yet are: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 by Jesper Kyd, Vampyr by Olivier Deriviere and Celeste by Lena Raine.
New games released in 2018:
Donut County by Daniel Koestner: https://store.steampowered.com/app/931370/Donut_County__Soundtrack/
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvf2CFYYcjI
La-Mulana 2 by NIGORO: https://store.steampowered.com/app/916280/LAMULANA_2_Original_Sound_Track/
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rQzblDSc-Y
Treasure Adventure World by Robert Ellis: https://robitgames.bandcamp.com/album/treasure-adventure-world-ost
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire by Justin Bell: https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_ii_deadfire_soundtrack
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q06vN1A2bPs
Unavowed by Thomas Regin: https://store.steampowered.com/app/915870/Unavowed__Official_Soundtrack/
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC5xQRMY1AE
Re-releases/complete version releases of 2018:
Yakuza 0 by Hidenori Shoji, ZENTA, Kensuke Inage, Yoshiji Kobayashi, Karasuya-sabou, Saori Yoshida, POPHOLIC, Hyd Lunch (Yasuyuki Matsuzaki, Hiroaki Watanabe), Sachio Ogawa
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6z18b99NGA
Devil May Cry HD Collection by Masami Ueda, Masato Kouda, Satoshi Ise, Kento Hasegawa, Tetsuya Shibata, Misao Sennbonngi
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-67KdOeLWg
killer7 by Masafumi Takada: https://store.steampowered.com/app/909851/killer7_2018_Remastered_Original_Soundtrack/
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDIXs4KOl_4
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA by Falcom Sound Team jdk: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ys-viii-lacrimosa-of-dana-original-soundtrack-complete/1262211951
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV_XWMjlQkA
(Ys: Memories of Celceta also has some stellar music in it)
Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition by Borislav Slavov: Included with certain editions of the game.
Assassin’s Creed Origins (Gold Edition) by Sarah Schachner: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/assassins-creed-origins-original-game-soundtrack/1298694737
Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cFtBM7ZGws
And a very special mention:
Sadly, I only played this game last year, so it didn’t go in my previous annual game music compilation. But this soundtrack to a rather forgettable game quickly became one of my absolute favorite soundtracks of all time. I present to you:
The Mummy Demastered by monomer: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-mummy-demastered-original-video-game-soundtrack/1300275955
You can check it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF12Kxu6VHs
Please, check out these soundtracks even if you haven’t checked the games as they’re most definitely worth it. :)