Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Japan's Top 700 Video Game Music of All Time



Fairly recently, various sources (2ch and Nico Nico Douga, I presume) polled gamers on the All Time Best Video Game Music - 700 songs in total! - and put the results up for everyone to hear. Intrepid Youtube user Gestriden has ripped them all and uploaded them into one big Youtube Playlist

I've no idea what the full list is, since they bunched together all of the songs except for the Top 50. It's an eclectic list, to be certain, I've broken out the top 50 per below, although I'm not entirely clear on all of the games or track names.

50 - Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver
49 - Cleopatra Fortune - Shinin Queen
48 - Ys 7 - Vacanat Interference
47 - Romancing SaGa 3 - Four Demons Noble Battle
46 - Mamatoto - Running to the Straight
45 - Sora no Kiseki - Light Feud
44 - Xenoblade - Gaul
43 - Wild Arms - To the End Of Wilderness
42 - Hello Goodbye - Shousha
41 - Nier - Song of Ancients
40 - Trauma Team - Bloody Rose
39 - Ys vs Sora no Kiseki - Get Over the Barrier - Roaring Version
38 - Battle Theme Part I - Last Armageddon
37 - Romancing Saga - Final Decisive Battle
36 - Ys Oath in Felghana - Valestein Castle
35 - Wild Arms (??) Blazer Battle
34 - Lost Odyssey - Departed Souls
33 - Ys VI - Mighty Obstacle
32 - Xenosaga - Final Battle
31 - Hello Goodbye - Encounter
30 - Tales of Legendia - Chasing Shirley
29 - Monster Hunter Tri - Bonus Song
28 - Ys Origin: Tension
27 - Tales of Vesperia - Cutting off the Amibition
26 - Shadow Hearts Covenant
25 - Dragon Slayer - Stopper
24 - Legend of Heroes - Silver Will
23 - Mana Khemia
22 - Baten Kaitos Origins - The Valedictory Elegy
21 - God Eater - Merciless Lord
20 - Tekken 6
19 - Darius Burst - The World of Spirit
18 - Ace Combat X2 - Fire Youngman
17 - Donkey Kong Country 2 - Stickerbrush Symphony
16 - Mamoru-kun wa Norowarate Shimatta! - Yokai Disco
15 - Ys Origin (Super Arrange??)
14 - Persona 3 - Battle for All People's Souls
13 - Space Invaders Extreme 2
12 - Sengoku Rance - Battle on Edge
11 - Ys II Chronicles - To Make an End to Battle
10 - Venus and Braves - Waltz for Aria
9 - Legend of Heroes - JDK Band album (??)
8 - Xenoblade - Mechanical Rhythm
7 - Ninja Warriors - Daddy Mulk (Mega CD)
6 - Halo 3 - Finish the Fight
5 - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon
4 - Ace Combat Zero
3 - Ys Seven - Legend of Dragons
2 - Ys Seven - Final Boss
1 - Okami

As with any list polled from a wider variety of sources, this is sort of questionable. I mean, there's some good stuff on there - great stuff, even - but I'm at a loss to explain Japan's love affair with the semi-obnoxious theme song from Ninja Warriors. I do approce of the many Ys songs, at least. There's a good chunk that I'm either not familiar with (God Eater) or have simply never heard of (Hello, Goodbye?) The only ones I'd stick on my list is the Ys II Chronicles To Make An End to Battle, Persona 3 - Battle for All People's Souls, Ys VI - Mighty Obstacle, Ys 7 - Vacanat Interference, and maybe Wild Arms - To the End Of Wilderness.

It does almost make me want to run a similar poll for non-Japanese gamers, if I could figure out a way to manage such a gigantic project. I might not really hear ear-to-ear on the final results, but it's cool to see what the fan culture as a whole has to say. What say you all - would such a task be worth undertaking?


28 comments:

  1. Yikes. It certainly argues for a more comprehensive and formal nomination and voting process.

    Most people don't listen to game music outside of the games they choose to play, so any populist poll would have to be really judicious.

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  2. Highly agree with Nier in the top 25. I'm reading through the playlist lists right now, and some of these are... interesting.


    There's a Gurumin song called 'To Make The End of Digging'? Awesome.

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  3. I've listened through part 7 so far. I'm amazed that anyone actually filled out a survey with 700+ options. Anyways, the music is great and I've been introduced to quite a few games I never knew existed.

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  4. Falcom fans are hyper-organized and will always super-inflate Falcom's standing on any top anything.

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  5. Ys 7's soundtrack is pretty great though!

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  6. You've got Clepatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN the wrong way round btw.
    I'm not sure how it got that high on the list but it's good to see it in there.

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  7. The Ninja Warriors theme "semi-obnoxious????
    Douche!!!!

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  8. Lots of good stuff there but where's Castlevania??. And I would put Valestein castle in the top 10...

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  9. A bit too modern for my game music tastes, but I'd still put Daddy Mulk in the top ten ;)

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  10. your missing number 17 which happens to be DKC 2 Stickerbrush symphony
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ldTFiy1L80

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  11. The Pokemon music is actually the music for battling Ho-Oh, and it's from Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver.

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  12. Hey dudes there is like 650 other songs on this list! I'm surprised how often a game I have NEVER heard of comes up.

    Gaiapolis by Konami for Arcades?
    Oni IV for Gameboy? I've never heard of Oni one through three even!

    Also this was the first time I'd hear Megami Tensei II's soundtrack ('s arranged) and holy crap.

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  13. 12 is actually "Rebirth the Edge" from Sengoku Rance.

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  14. Quite frankly, I LOVE Daddy Mulk, and despite the comments on HG101's reviews of Darius and The Ninja Warriors, I believe Zuntata's music in general is pretty good. I think it is a matter of tastes.

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  15. "Japan's Top 700 Video Game Music of All Time" would be a misleading title, because the actual title would roughly be "2ch's 4th Everyone's Choice Best Video Game Music". I think it's a yearly event.

    This is just me nitpicking, but it's definitely not 'All Time'.

    That said, I really liked some of the choices, especially for some obscure Japan-only titles with excellent musics I wouldn't know otherwise.

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  16. best song ever is dr. robotnik's mean bean machine 2 player vs

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  17. Fixed up a few of the song titles, thanks guys.

    The "OF ALL TIME" came from the playlist...I think it was more meant to imply that the selections came from all eras of games, even though it seems to be more dominated by modern ones.

    And Zuntata is definitely an acquired taste - outside of a handful of Darius songs (and not the one listed on this top 50 from Darius Burst, that's for sure), I'm really not a fan.

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  18. 35 would be Wild Arms 2nd Ignition - Battle VS Lord Blazer

    I think 15 is To Make The End Of Battle from YS Origins, at least that's what googling around gets me, but I might be wrong on this.

    9 is Legend of Heroes Sora no Kiseki 3rd - Overdosing Heavenly Bliss

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  19. I think you've actually just acquired a distaste for Zuntata. I find it hard to believe anyone could naturally dislike the music.

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  20. I've been enjoying this list... Lots of PC titles, even non falcom ones... Which is impressive.

    Would love to see how you'd manage this kind of project though... Top 50 yes, but top 700?

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  21. #15... Sounds like Overdrive?

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  22. Yep, it is Overdrive from Ys Origin Super Arrange Version.

    #9 is Overdosing Heavenly Bliss from Falcom JDK Band 2008 Spring.

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  23. Track 44 is indeed awesome

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  24. glad to see songs from western games to even make the list. Hell March and Baba Yetu!

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  25. That's strange. I Googled the Japanese name for this list (as seen in the first 20 or so videos) and found this list, which suggests a slightly different Top 50:
    http://www21.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/907.html

    Translation via Google:
    http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww21.atwiki.jp%2Fgamemusicbest100%2Fpages%2F907.html&act=url

    Am I looking at the wrong list...?

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  26. So Gestriden's account seems to have gotten terminated. Anyone know where the original list was? I figure it'd probably be on Niconico, but I wouldn't know what to search for.

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  27. I have to say the list ps1e found makes a lot more sense to me than the list in the blog post, personally.

    Pokemon is popular, though. I guess.

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  28. as long as "into the wilderness" is there, I am a satisfied man... oh wait, there's also "Ace Combat Zero", Mission Zero I assume? Good job!

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