Video Game Music Spotlight #12: Best of the PlayStation 1 - Article

by Taneli Palola , posted on 15 December 2019 / 6,064 Views

Earlier this month the original PlayStation, and by extension the whole PlayStation brand, reached 25 years of age. With a quarter of a century and 450 million home consoles sold behind it, what better time than this to take a look at the console that started it all and some of the best music said console provided us with all those years ago. Here are at least some of the best pieces of video game music on the original PlayStation.

Naturally, I won't be able to include all of the great pieces of music from the console's library in this article, so leave an answer to the question of the month in the comments below and let others know what your favourite PS1 soundtrack and/or song is.

Xenogears

Awakening

(from Xenogears)

The PS1 was in many ways the console that popularized JRPGs in the west. Previous console generations had seen a decent number of them make their way here, but very few became truly successful. It was on the back of Final Fantasy VII that the genre's popularity in the west truly exploded, and among the numerous JRGPs that followed in its wake was Xenogears, the first in the loosely connected Xeno series of games that has since included the Xenosaga trilogy and the Xenoblade games.

The music in Xenogears was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. It was one of his earliest major projects following Chrono Trigger on the SNES, and he brought his very best to the game. To this day the score remains among his very best works, as well as being one of his surprisingly rare solo compositions. The track 'Awakening' is a wonderful example of Mitsuda's work on the soundtrack.

Hang Eight, Air Crush, Plant Food

(from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back)

The era of video game mascots was slowly beginning to fade as the original PlayStation entered the market, but that didn't mean that there weren't any attempts at creating one for the new console, and probably the one most commonly associated with it was Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot.

The music in the Naughty Dog-developed Crash Bandicoot games was composed by Josh Mancell, who would later go on to work on the same developer's Jak & Daxter trilogy as well. In the former the music is generally very upbeat and cheerful, fitting the somewhat anarchic tone of the series and its main character.

Moon Over the Castle

(from Gran Turismo 2)

Gran Turismo might not be the first thing that comes to most people's minds when they think about great video game soundtracks, but the music in the series has often been genuinely excellent and sadly overlooked by many people. Interestingly, the soundtracks in the games have often varied depending on the region, with the Japanese, PAL, and North American versions each featuring their own scores.

The song that is most often associated with the series is 'Moon Over the Castle', which has appeared in every single entry in the series so far, although sometimes only in the Japanese version. Composed and usually rearranged for each new entry by Masahiro Andoh, the track isn't the kind of song one would usually associate with racing games. In fact, if you'd said it was the music for the final boss battle in a JRPG, I would have believed you without question.

Trisection

(from Final Fantasy Tactics)

The quality of the music in the three mainline Final Fantasy games on the PS1 is generally well known and often brought up when speaking about the best music on the console, but Final Fantasy Tactics isn't talked about nearly as much in that regard. That is a shame, because Hitoshi Sakimoto's music for it is genuinely excellent, and should be remembered right alongside Nobuo Uematsu's work in the main games as some of the PS1's best music.

Personally, I've never actually had the chance to play Final Fantasy Tactics all that much, mostly because it was never officially released in Europe on the PS1. I've been thinking of tracking down the updated version on the PSP at some point, but honestly I'm just hoping for a re-release on either PC or a home console. Still, I can at least appreciate the excellent music even without playing the game.

Primal Eyes

(from Parasite Eve)

These days Yoko Shimomura is undoubtedly one of the most well-known video game composers in the world, having composed music for the Kingdom Hearts series, Final Fantasy XV, and a number of other major projects over the years. However, I think a lot of people tend to forget much of her earlier, equally excellent work. One such example was her score for Squaresoft's Parasite Eve, which I still consider among her very best works even after all these years.

This is another game that I've never had the chance to play, because as with many other Japanese games in the 90s it was never officially released in Europe, so I didn't even learn of its existence until years later. The music, on the other hand, I've become very familiar with over the years. The mix of opera, orchestral, and electronic music is perfect, and creates a unique sound for the title. Shimomura stated that she was trying to compose ”inorganic” music for the game, and I'd say she succeeded very well.

Lost Painting

(from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)

Castlevania as a series has been known for its great music, ever since the very first game was released in 1986. For many people the best soundtrack in the series can be found in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, composed by Michiru Yamane, who had previously crafted the soundtrack for Castlevania: Bloodlines. She went on to compose the scores for several later games in the series as well, until she left Konami in 2008 and became a freelancer.

The score in Symphony of the Night is a curious mix of genres, ranging from classical music to techno, jazz, metal, and even elements of new age music. Interestingly, the later Sega Saturn port included some additional tracks, most of which were arranged versions of older Castlevania tracks. Fortunately, even without those added tracks the score in SotN is truly exceptional.

Crystal Islands

(from Spyro: Year of the Dragon)

The music in the original Spyro trilogy was largely composed by Steward Copeland, who some of you might know better as the drummer for the British rock band The Police, giving these scores quite an unusual pedigree as far as video game music is concerned. In total, Copeland composed music for four Spyro games, with his only other video game related work being part of the soundtrack for Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare in 2001.

The Spyro games, made by Insomniac for the PS1, always had a very distinct sound, and much of that was thanks to Copeland. He created much of the music by playing through the game himself and specifically tailoring each theme to fit each individual level's look and mood. If you ask me, his best work in the series is found in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The music in that particular game perfectly complements the levels and situations, often adding to the overall atmosphere of the game in an excellent way.

Port Town Theme

(from Wild Arms)

Michiko Naruke is without question one of the most underrated video game composers of all time. Her work throughout her career, especially in the Wild Arms series, has been absolutely stellar on a consistent basis, and yet she is rarely talked about in similar vein as the likes of Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, or David Wise often. It's largely due to her work mostly appearing in less well-known releases that she isn't spoken of in same terms as those other composers. Yet, I would argue that she belongs there right alongside them.

Personally, my first experience of Naruke's work was the music in the original Wild Arms, and I was instantly hooked. Her music has been a perfect fit for the unusual Western-themed JRPG franchise ever since it began on the PS1. The theme above is a perfect example of her style of composition, making use of a number of different instruments and featuring both classical and popular music elements.

Encounter

(from Metal Gear Solid)

A common misconception about the music in Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 is that it was composed by Tappi Iwase (or TAPPY), even though he was actually responsible for just the game's main theme, while the rest was handled by a group of Konami's in-house musicians and composers, with the exception of the vocal theme 'The Best is Yet To Come', which was created by Rika Muranaka and sung by Aoife Ní Fearraigh.

Of course, that doesn't make the music in the game any less great, and many of the themes have since featured in some capacity in later entries as well. The score in Metal Gear Solid is a mix of quieter, atmospheric tracks and fast-paces themes that play during moments of action. In the latter case the composers often mixed in orchestral elements to give the music a more cinematic feel; the above theme is a very good example of that.

Metal Gear Solid

Question of the Month:

What is Your Favourite PS1 Soundtrack/Song?

For me personally, the best PS1 soundtrack belongs to Final Fantasy IX, and I still consider it the overall best score Nobuo Uematsu has ever composed. Other excellent scores, besides those created for the games already listed above, include the ones found in Final Fantasy VII and VIII, The Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Trigger, and Legend of Mana. As far as favourite single song/track is concerned, that's just too difficult for me to say!

5 Comments

imparanoic (on 16 December 2019)

awesome music, even better if ripped to flac and using nice equipment to listening to these classic tracks, currently listening flac files - Metal Black OST from Taito using Sony NW-ZX100 high res player and astell and kern michelle limited