Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven - Classical scores in games

Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven

by curst 05/13/2005, 10:48am PDT

I won't guarantee that these are 100% synthensizer-free, just really good and primarily classical-themed:

I like TA's score and all, but I think Jeremy Soule's best work is still Icewind Dale 1. I remember being underwhelmed by ID2.

No idea about TA:Kingdoms since neither I nor anyone I know dared to check it out after all the poor reviews. I'm sure if you can find the game in stores that it'll cost you about $.99.

I don't like all the songs in HOMM2, but for the most part it's top-notch stuff, including some opera (?!). HOMM3's only has one or two songs that I remember adoring, so meh. HOMM4 is a pretty poor game before the patch (I keep meaning to give that patch a try since it turned around the opinions of some other detractors) but I remember really liking the music - there's much more Celtic-flavored guitar work in it though, not sure if that'll appeal to you or not.

I can't access it right now and I really hope it isn't down, but should it come back up, hit up www.kongming.net, a site dedicated to Koei's games. They had an incredible selection of music for download. In particular, grab the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms 7-9 soundtracks in their entirety immediately. They're almost 100% fantastic, even if each song is very short (I believe shorter than anything in TA). Kessen 3 has a few great moments as well, so maybe check that series out. Even Dynasty Warriors 5 abandons its usual buttrock-techno hybrid stuff for one song, and it's nice Oriental-themed classical stuff. I can't remember if the Dynasty Tactics songs were great or just 'typical' classical stuff.

As loathe as I am to recommend you ever so much as looking at the jewel cases for these again, Might & Magic 6-8 have pretty damn good scores. 8 gets a little too new-agey-techno at times, like Dead Can Dance's early stuff without the fantastic female singer, but 6 and 7 are mostly great. I never had the heart to buy M&M 9 so who knows there.

I remember Sacrifice's being really strong.

I remember Giants' being not quite so strong and definitely not quite so purely-classical in nature, but it had a few great parts. I remember just staring at that main menu for minutes when I first played it, and the music was part of the reason why.