In Game Music Showcase, I take a look at a few songs from a particular category, like battle themes or title screen songs. The songs are listed in no particular order, except for the last one which is my personal favorite of the bunch. I love video game music more than any other genre and with this feature, along with game music appreciation, I hope to help you understand why.
So why bother with having two music features? Game Music Appreciation is more in depth while Game Music Showcase is more of a microcosm of one category of video game songs.
For some reason, video game castles always seem to have really bitchin' background music. Ever since Super Mario Bros, it seems like composers have always tried to convey the hugeness, luxury, and, sometimes, creepiness of a palatial abode. I give you my favorite video game castle songs:
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Hyrule Castle
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, 1992
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is one of the earliest games I played as a child, and back then I was only 4 or so and couldn't read yet. As a result, I could only get so far through the game before it got too confusing and I would restart. The point is, I heard this song a lot since it's the music that plays in the game's opening dungeon.
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Dracula's Castle
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, 1997
I could put about 20 songs from the Castlevania series here but if I had to choose one great castle song, it would be this one, my second favorite song in the series after Divine Bloodlines, which I already featured before and doesn't play during a castle level anyway.
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Rescue the Feudal Lord!
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, 1998
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is a serious contender for my favorite Nintendo 64 game. It felt like a bit more linear version of Super Mario 64 but there's nothing wrong with linearity if your gameplay is absolutely stellar.
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Tyrano Lair
Chrono Trigger, 1995
Tyrano Lair was one of the few songs in Chrono Trigger that was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who took over for Yasunori Mitsuda after he became too ill to complete the soundtrack. This song reminds me a lot of Mr. Crowley, especially the intro, which is a good thing in my book 'cause Mr. Crowley is among my favorite non-video game songs ever.
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Karazhan
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, 2007
Before you listen to the full 9 minutes of that video, I'm only talking about the first 2 minutes of it. The first two minutes of the video is the song that plays when you first enter Karazhan, which is actually a huge tower, but it feels so much like a castle that I think it counts.
Karazhan was the first raid (dungeon that requires a group of at least 10 players) that I did in WoW and it was one of my favorites all through my time playing the game. Once it became obsolete after Wrath of the Lich King (the game's second expansion) came out out, I would try to do the dungeon by myself as a challenge but I was never able to beat a certain boss (opera boss for those familiar, unless it was Wizard of Oz, which it almost never was.)
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The Castle
Final Fantasy VIII, 1999
This song is the reason I did this feature. It's the song that plays during the last area of Final Fantasy VIII, Ultimecia's Castle. It also happens to be one of the longest dungeons in the game so thank God it has such an amazing background song. One thing that lengthened the dungeon was the fact that all of your abilities except for basic attacks were locked when you first enter and each boss you beat would allow you to unlock another ability. You couldn't even save until you unlocked it. Final Fantasy is weird.
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