5. Shadow of the Erdtree
FromSoftware games always feature incredible, powerful, and dramatic music. Shoi Miyazawa’s score for Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is no exception. Like the game itself, the music is simply thrilling, with moments of grandeur and others of reflection, sometimes in a single cue.
4. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
One of the things that makes this soundtrack amazing is variety. You want metal? Hip hop? EDM? Jazz? Orchestral action cues that sound like they were ripped from a 1980s action flick? It’s all there. Entertaining and worth outside listening.
3. Astro Bot
The soundtrack for Astro Bot is this year’s most tuneful, happy music ever. Listen to it outside the game. You just know something fun is happening. Sometimes a mostly electronic score can sound cold or lacking in emotion. Not this one!
2. Metaphor: ReFantazio
Being a cousin to the Persona franchise, you’d expect the soundtrack for Metaphor: ReFantazio to have a similar quality. Not to mention, composer Shoji Meguro wrote the music for all the Persona games. Thanks to its setting and story the score for Metaphor has a bit more classic fantasy color in its use of orchestra and voices.
1. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
Our Best Music of the Year award goes to Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and the incredible score by Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamuzu. This is an almost entirely symphonic score, the kind of music that orchestras can — and do — play in concerts. If anyone doubts the quality of game music, have them listen to this spectacular collection of cues.