How important is a game's soundtrack to the overall experience to you?

[Wolf Kanno]

We often talk about favorite gaming soundtracks but I don't think anyone's ever just talked about it's role in the gaming experience overall. Is it important and if so why? If not then why not? If it depends, then give me some examples please.

[Ayen]

Soundtrack is usually the last thing I think about while playing the game in all honesty. I'm too busy focused on everything else in the game to pay that much attention to it, unless it's something that sticks out. Metal Gear Solid did this with a lot of tracks that add to certain parts of the game. Same with Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, and several Final Fantasy entries. Oh, and Evil Zone's soundtrack is a beast.

[Fynn]

It's actually a very big element, I think. Child of Light, for example, would be pretty forgettable if the soundtrack did not reinforce its atmosphere. Then there's games like The World Ends With You and the (new) Persona series, where the music is a huge part of their respective games' world-building. IMO, it really influences how you perceive a game even if you don't pay attention to it - it's just there, in the background, working on your brain as you're focusing on something else. Which is why a great soundtrack is incredibly important.

[Laddy]

It depends on the genre. All games benefit from a good soundtrack. For rhythm games it's literally the main focus of the game so it better be very good and not merely decent (Rock Band 4 is an example of how a merely above-average soundtrack hurt it).

Games that rely on atmosphere like platformers, adventure, or horror needs an atmospheric soundtrack to at least keep the mood. It doesn't have to spectacular but it at least needs to function lest the mood and ambience is destroyed and the game fails.

Role-playing games with a focus on narrative absolutely need a fitting and emotional resonant soundtrack to suit the drama unfolding in the plot. That's partly why games like Persona, Mass Effect, and Final Fantasy are able to hot home do well.

I suppose Action, Fighting, Shooters, and Strategy games benefit the least from solid sound direction and composition since the genres are the most purely mechanic-driven but even then a soundtrack can enhance an experience or potentially kill it before it has a chance to make an impact. So yes, soundtrack matters.

[FFNut]

It depends on the game, some you can play on mute while others like Tony Hawk's pro skater comes to mind we used to crank it.

[Karifean]

Difficult to say. While playing or reading a good soundtrack surely helps the immersion, and it helps make memorable scenes even more memorable. But that's the thing, it mostly just enhances what the game is already doing through its story/characters/setting. If those fail a good soundtrack wouldn't be capable of salvaging it.

But what a soundtrack does do is heavily influence a game's lasting impact for me. I tend to take a good long look at the soundtrack of anything I just finished and then start listening to a select few tracks on a regular basis. The better the soundtrack, the more I immerse myself right back in it, the more of a lasting impact the whole thing leaves. Even now I still listen to the Umineko soundtrack on an almost daily basis, and that's surely a factor in how I came to love it as much as I do.

So I guess I could say, a soundtrack can't make a game good, but it can make it great.

[krissy]

sometimes i play exclusively for the soundtrack i.e. one day i will buy LAIR but im sure it's terrible

[Laddy]

Lair seems to be the typical "Impressively mediocre" launch title that every system has. It's not bad but nothing special but I played it six or so years ago.

[Wolf Kanno]

sometimes i play exclusively for the soundtrack i.e. one day i will buy LAIR but im sure it's terrible

That's what kept me going through El Shaddai. It's a mediocre action game but my god the soundtrack and trippy visuals kept you coming back.

[Pumpkin]

It can certainly add to and heighten the experience, but I don't care too much. I can still like a game with a bad soundtrack, and I'm usually more focused on story/characters

[Rocket Edge]

A good RPG can be made great by a more than decent soundtrack. The excellent soundtracks make great games classics and filled with memorable moments and nostalgia. When I hear a theme from a classic Final Fantasy I think of the enjoyment I had during that scene and what went with it.

[Freya]

They are very important to me. They add a whole new level to a game. Same thing for movies.

Okay, I just love soundtracks.

[crashNUMBERS]

It's like a movie. the music is supposed to be there to support the air that the whole experience builds. It's for emotional context

[Formalhaut]

It's actually a very big element, I think. Child of Light, for example, would be pretty forgettable if the soundtrack did not reinforce its atmosphere. Then there's games like The World Ends With You and the (new) Persona series, where the music is a huge part of their respective games' world-building. IMO, it really influences how you perceive a game even if you don't pay attention to it - it's just there, in the background, working on your brain as you're focusing on something else. Which is why a great soundtrack is incredibly important.

They are very important to me. They add a whole new level to a game. Same thing for movies.

Okay, I just love soundtracks.

There is a reason why about half of my iTunes is filled up with video game OSTs from games like Final Fantasy, Persona and the like. I agree it wouldn't be a game-breaker if a game had a mediocre or even a poor soundtrack, but all good games should have a good soundtrack, no matter the game. Even action and action RPG games like Mass Effect benefit from a strong soundtrack. Music like Overlord still ranks up there with my favorite battle themes.

[Vermachtnis]

Yes! One of the first things I usually talk about with my favorite games is how much I loved the soundtrack. Chrono Trigger has one of my favorite soundtracks, everytime Frog's Theme plays you know he's about to do something awesome. When Marle's theme plays it's going to get all warm and fuzzy. And then there's Crono's theme and every time it plays the entire cast gets one.