Best Original Music Score of 2022 - Article
by Taneli Palola , posted on 21 January 2023 / 3,624 Views
The best original video game music scores of 2022 have given us some wonderfully varied styles of music to listen to while we play, to an almost eccentric degree at times. Whether it was the unexpected heavy metal hit Metal: Hellsinger, the beautifully melodic excellence of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the surprising variety of Sonic Frontiers' lengthy soundtrack, God of War Ragnarök's epic film-like score, or Elden Ring's dark, sorrowful tracks, this year was full of exceptional video game music. The quality was so high that many games I thought would unquestionably be among the shortlisted titles come game of the year season failed to make it into the final five.
The Shortlist:
God of War Ragnarök
(Composer: Bear McCreary)
Metal: Hellsinger
(Composer: Two Feathers)
Elden Ring
(Composers: Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazama, Tai Tomisawa, Yuka Kitamura & Yoshimi Kudo)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
(Composers: Yasunori Mitsuda, ACE, Kenji Hiramatsu, Manami Kiyota & Mariam Abounnasr)
Sonic Frontiers
(Composers: Tomoya Ohtani, Kenichi Tokoi, Takahito Eguchi, Rintaro Soma, Kenji Mizuno, Kanon Oguni & Hiroshi Kawaguchi)
The Runner-Up:
God of War Ragnarök
Composed by the returning Bear McCreary, the original score for God of War Ragnarök was perhaps the most thematically fitting of the whole year. The game's vision of Norse mythology comes alive beautifully through its music, carrying on the feeling and atmosphere of the previous game, while also adding new layers to it as the story progresses. It's a brilliantly crafted score, but it has to settle for second place this year, as there was another game that resonated with people even more strongly.
The Winner:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Ever since the release of the first game over a decade ago now, Xenoblade Chronicles has consistently featured some of the best pieces of video game music in modern video game history, and the third game in the main series is no exception to this. In fact, the score for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 might just be the best in the entire series, and that's saying a lot considering the quality of the music in previous entries.
Led by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda, the team of composers created an extensive soundtrack featuring a wide variety of musical styles, from epic orchestral themes and heavy rock tracks, to calmer piano-driven pieces. Each composer gets to show their skills and styles, much to the soundtrack's benefit. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the winner of our award for Best Original Music Score of 2022, and a deserving one at that.
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One more for the road!
Listening to all of these before voting, to my surprise I ended up liking Sonic Frontiers the most. It's a very long, eclectic soundtrack that mixes in all sorts of genres, so it has quite a few dud tracks, but the better individual tracks are just superb.
Correct
