Bastion. It’s Bastion. Holy shit the answer to this question is Bastion.

I’m assuming you know that Hades’ soundtrack is fucking amazing, but before that came Bastion (from the same developer), and it has possibly the most powerful soundtrack I’ve ever experienced. The way it’s integrated into the story genuinely blows my mind. Every track is a banger, but then you’ll start to get used to it, and then you’ll hear a song that’s so different, and it’s because something unexpected and beautiful is about to happen.

Then you’ll get to the end and you’ll have a choice to make. Except it won’t feel like a choice, because you’ll feel compelled to do exactly what the game wants you to do, and then you’re rewarded with one of the most beautiful sequences I’ve ever seen in a game, accompanied by a haunting song that I still sing fourteen years later.

I can’t stress this enough: if you want a game where the music is an essential part of the experience and is just so fucking amazing on its own that you’ll want to play it on repeat, the answer is Bastion.

I also really loved the soundtrack to Baldur’s Gate 3.