Support NeoGAF

[TheAssist]

So I just played through Horizon Forbidden West (and I enjoyed it).
But during the (amazing) credits scene I realized how much I miss a good soundtrack during the open world exploration.

Most wester games and a lot of Japanese games these days just go for the "background noise" kinda ost most of the time. Games often have a cool main theme and maybe some good character themes but for the most part you wont find anything that captures your imagination. I mean I listened to the Horizon theme and I couldnt tell you where any of these songs play.

But that goes for so many games. I dont think that this is more immersive tbh. It just makes the world feel empty and void. There isnt enough ambient sound to make up for it.

I remember back in the NES/SNES/PS1 era of RPG games you had so many great OST's just during the normal overworld and dungeon exploration. But even in recent memories there were a few games that come to mind like NIER Replicant and FF7R, though both games are remakes of older games.
I guess the last great western RPG with amazing and upfront open world soundtrack was the Witcher 3. That wasnt just some somber melody in the background, it was very much in the foreground and if you listen to it today it immediately brings back so many good memories.

I dont know, what do you think? Do you think music should stand out during quite gameplay or should it be just background noise?

Here is just a few open world themes that I really like:

 

[Krappadizzle]

Play more games. There's tons of open world games with fantastic osts.

 

[Kuranghi]

I think Horizon 2 has some great and varied ambient music tbh. I'm really enjoying it, I loved the chorus song and walking around the fields lookin at the Land-gods although that is story based and not permanent afaik. Maybe it comes back later in the story.

 

[TheAssist]

Play more games. There's tons of open world games with fantastic osts.

Tell that to my life.

But could you post a few you like personally?

 

[SJRB]

Broken record at this point, but Elden Ring.

Beautiful OST, masterpiece for sure.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Tell that to my life.

But could you post a few you like personally?

Halo Infinite is the one that springs to my mind recently. Fantastic score.
Elden Ring is great as well, though, it does have more quiet moments too that you mention.

You nailed it though with Witcher 3. My absolute favorite OST for an open world game.

 

[JLB]

nah, theres plenty of great osts.
Halo Infinite and Hades are the first that come in my mind, but theres others.

 

[teezzy]

 

[Fbh]

I think both styles can work.
Some games could use more music, others can grow annoying if there isn't enough variety. I got really tired of the music in Dragon Quest XI like halfway through since you hear like the same 5 tracks on repeat for 60 hours.

The Witcher 3 is definitely fantastic in that regard. The music nicely sets the mood but never feels like it outstays its welcome.

For a more recent example (not quite open world though) I thought Death's Door from last year had fantastic music during exploration

 

[Isa]

I feel you, reminds me of how good the music was in Breath of the Wild, but there was just too little of it. I wanted a few themes for the various regions. Just now I was finding myself enjoying the music in the new Kirby game, it combined with the great art, interactivity and exploration makes for a very fun and pleasurable experience.

There are plenty of titles out there that have great OST's, among my favorite use of a soundtrack would be in Neir Autamata. Having various styles of songs made for great moments, I loved having soft pretty songs then later hearing them in more dramatic fashion. Very well done and I imagine a lot of work for both the composer and game designers implementing the soundtrack at impactful locations.

 

[remember_spinal]

I think Horizon 2 has some great and varied ambient music tbh. I'm really enjoying it, I loved the chorus song and walking around the fields lookin at the Land-gods although that is story based and not permanent afaik. Maybe it comes back later in the story.

Yeah the music in horizons open world is awesome

 

[Bragr]

Broken record at this point, but Elden Ring.

Beautiful OST, masterpiece for sure.

What? Elden Ring's soundtrack is great during boss fights, but the exploration music is a low hum they replay for hours and hours. It's exactly what the OP is talking about.

 

[Knightime_X]

I wish elden ring had more music.
I get ambience is a thing but over doing it ends up being more of a take away.

At least give an option for a more robust ost.

 

[OZ9000]

Broken record at this point, but Elden Ring.

Beautiful OST, masterpiece for sure.

From games barely have any music unless you fight bosses.

Most open world games have zero music when exploring and it's boring as fuck.

 

[rofif]

ff xv and 7 remake rule when it comes to that

 

[Krappadizzle]

AssCreed Origins and Unity had good soundtracks too if memory serves me right.

 

[BossLackey]

Just started playing Tunic, and it has a great OST that really enhances the exploration.

 

[Plantoid]

Skyrim has the best exploration music imo

 

[Dream-Knife]

You actually hint at a problem a friend and I have been talking about, namely the move to actual instrumentation has eliminated the memorable soundtracks.

When artists had to work within a storage and memory limitation they had to get creative with midi files. We don't have that anymore really now that the 3ds is dead.

 

[TGO]

Interesting, I actually thought HFW stood out.
I mean you have the main theme but there are some others that are great while exploring.
Don't know which track it is I'd have to look but one I liked had similar sequence to Mirrors Edge.
Sounds fantastic in surround.

 

[Closer]

Oh look, a Xenoblade thread.

 

[tygertrip]

You actually hint at a problem a friend and I have been talking about, namely the move to actual instrumentation has eliminated the memorable soundtracks.

When artists had to work within a storage and memory limitation they had to get creative with midi files. We don't have that anymore really now that the 3ds is dead.

I’ve been lamenting this for decades now.

 

[FloopCookiefix]

This is an interesting topic, and I do love me some video game music discussion.

There are still games that have absolutely spectacular exploration music, like FFVIIR (a.k.a. possibly my favorite game soundtrack of all time) and Xenoblade, both of which have already been mentioned in this thread, but I'm definitely less a fan of these games that go the more... minimal route with exploration music.

It's honestly one of the bigger complaints I have with Elden Ring- the music is so... *nothing.* This is going to be pretty blunt, but... I do not care if the droning, moody music "fits"- to me it's neither enjoyable nor memorable, despite something playing nearly all the time. That's a travesty, honestly.

I felt somewhat similarly about BotW's exploration music, but a key difference is that BotW had some absolutely stellar town and specific location themes to balance it out (and not to mention the battle themes). Plus, the brief environment piano bursts were still pleasant in their own right.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: For myself, a game's soundtrack is a imporant part of the enjoyment of a game, and if you're going to go this minimal direction, you also better for sure make it count when you DO have music. After 170 hours of Elden Ring... I've yet to hear a single track (environment or battle) that I would go out of my way to listen to.

In a way, this is really more of a composition issue I think...? But I think having overall music direction like this seems to lend itself to this problem.

(I will say... there actually has been one [1] moment in paricular where I paused and simply enjoyed the music: during the Frenzied Flame tomb descent, there's a singular non-violent enemy that plays a short but sweet violin medley on the way down, and I genuinely found it more memorable than anything else so far.)

 

[Ristifer]

Just started playing Tunic, and it has a great OST that really enhances the exploration.

Was just gonna say this. Tunic is exactly what you want to play if you want a match with great music and exploration.

 

[TheAssist]

Oh look, a Xenoblade thread.

Yeah thats the stuff. Never played any of them unfortunately. But just listening to the first few seconds and you instantly get a feeling for the world.

Maybe I will look into Tunic. Seems to get a lot of praise and apparently isnt to long of a game.

 

[ParaSeoul]

RDR 2 is the only one that tried to have more ambient minimal music and still have them be memorable. Also weird you included Replicant but not Automata,just as good when it comes to the music.

 

[ghairat]

YS 9 is open world (pretty much) and it has very memorable music. But I agree, breath of the wild, elden ring, horizon or other open world games lacks background music when exploring....

 

[22•22]

I'm don't mind personally.

 

[Patrick S.]

I really liked the music in Kingdom Come Deliverance. My favorite exploration music ever is the Mass Effect OST.

 

[Skitso]

 

[Nickolaidas]

What? Elden Ring's soundtrack is great during boss fights, but the exploration music is a low hum they replay for hours and hours. It's exactly what the OP is talking about.

As much as I love Elden Ring and all FROM Souls games ... this.

Still, better than dead silence except when fighting bosses, though.

 

[N4WW4FV2]

The OST in Death's Door was simply amazing during exploration.

 

[SteelCurtain 59]

Broken record at this point, but Elden Ring.

Beautiful OST, masterpiece for sure.

I honestly can't remember any of the music in that game it's so forgettable


Edit: Open world games nowadays have went the route of ambient noise, or "atmospheric" music, which is just code for "we were too lazy to make actual good music so we went with this". Video game music in general has really gone downhill the past decade+, there are obviously some gems like Undertale or Persona 5, but for the most part, developers don't seem to actually care about making even decent quality music in their games anymore

 

[SSfox]

Play Genshin Impact, it has one of the best exploration and combat OST ever made.

 

[KungFucius]

Broken record at this point, but Elden Ring.

Beautiful OST, masterpiece for sure.

Yeah it is a broken record when people claim that every aspect of that game is the greatest. The music when exploring is boring. I just sunk 100 hours into that game and can't even recall any aspect of it. But sure it is the greatest music ever because the game is the greatest thing ever and the only opinions that matter are ones that praise every detail of it like fanatics.

 

[Ulysses 31]

I miss memorable tunes in modern games too.

It's mostly ambient music that falls into forgettable background noise these days. Or they turn into this "epic" choir music. More fitting for movies than games IMO.

I'd be impressed if people can hum 5 tunes from a single modern "big" game these days.

 

[WitchHunter]

[c3]

 

[WitchHunter]

[c2]

 

[ZywyPL]

Fully agree, a good ambient music can make a whole lot of a difference instead of just... nothing, while being forced to travel all those miles of open worlds. My recent fav is The Ascent OST, with each district having its own unique background music, it just sets the mood so much: