Game music after dark

[Tweed]

I wanted to have a thread dedicated to games with nighttime themes, or otherwise when the hour gets late. So I did:



Game was a black sheep, but the soundtrack was excellent.



The guy who drew the cover for this game became a furry. I don't know when or why I learned that other than it was ages ago. I remember every piece of worthless bit of trivia I come across. The Genesis version of the soundtrack is nowhere near as soft on the ears.



I think Santa Monica gets a pass since the game is in perpetual night. Composed as only a recovering drug addict fresh out of jail could do.

horrible.jpg

[Vergil]

[Tadeusz]

[Oyster Sauce]

I like that OOT, a game that normally has extremely memorable music playing, drops it in favor of realistic ambiance at night

[Tweed]

HAK HAK DRAKKHEN! What a nice, peaceful theme. Too bad you'll probably be dead before you get to hear it all since the stars in the sky come to life and try and kill you. Of course, this is from the game where stubbing your toe on a rock will get you killed by a giant dog head.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The Night Goes on from Trails Through Daybreak 1. Has a melancholic vibe as Van wanders around the streets of the Republic's capital of Edith at night while alone at the beginning of the series.




From Trails of Cold Steel III, when Rean has withdrawn from the front lines and is now an instructor at an academy in a cozy suburban town, but he is alone and hasn't reunited with his friends and family yet.




Midnight Rendezvous from Final Fantasy VII Remake. Plays when Aerith sneaks out of her house to meet Cloud. 2000s visual novel dreamlike synth vibe. One of the very few new tracks original to Remake that stood out to me, probably because the rest of the track was samey orchestrations.




Sultana Dreaming from Final Fantasy XIV. A night theme for the royal kingdom of Ul'dah.




Where the Hearth Is from Final Fantasy XIV. Fun player housing district night theme.




Nobility Sleeps from FFXIV: Heavensward. I liked the instruments that come in after the initial melody, with the harpsichord and brass and bells.




Westward Tide from FFXIV: Stormblood. A Chopin-esque grand piano arrange for a beautiful chain of Pacific islands.




Sands of Blood from FFXIV: Shadowbringers. Sadly, most FF14's night themes are samey grand piano arranges, but this is one of the handful of memorable ones.




Skybound Emerald from FFXIV: Dawntrail, yet another grand piano night theme, but at least there is a high pitched tinkling/glass or spacey synth sound sprinkled in there.




Morrow's Magic from FFXIV: Dawntrail, the night theme of the new tropical resort capital city. I like the baseball organ sound at 1:14, and the 1950s brass sounds at 1:35. And the instrument at 2:05 that I forgot off the top of my head. I like the sound at 2:04 which sounds like you are in a bar.




Ceruleum Embers by Dusk from FFXIV: Dawntrail. Finally, an interesting night theme with the upright piano, the clacking sounds, the glass bell sound, and the guitar. Reminds me of those moody 1990s detective movies or shows. Too bad that the orchestrion roll for this song is currently unavailable ingame. I would like to hear it play in my house.




Starless Skyline from FFXIV: Dawntrail




Enchanting Bedtimes Stories from Genshin Impact (Sumeru expansion). I love the part at 0:38.




Brocade Dreams from Genshin Impact. I like the unusual blend of traditional Chinese music with synths.




The Edgelands from Granblue Fantasy. Gran's airship crashlands into a very low altitude floating island where time seems to be frozen in an eternal twilight and its inhabitants never grow old, and meets a girl who invites him to live with her there forever. Melancholic guitar + 2000s visual novel dreamlike synths.




Becomes very interesting at the 0:30 mark.




Dreamlike feel with the plucked instrument and the distant singing.




The first track from the MATERIALISE FULLMOON arrange album. Short but atmospheric.




Mice on Venus from Minecraft. I remember that I was on a multiplayer server and the ingame sun went down just as I was running into town, and saw lots of people jumping around as the second half of the song played @2:50




A great arrange of the Taisho-era Tokyo night theme, when you are up at night wandering around the base talking to the different characters and watching fun skits before going to bed.




From Utawarerumono. When the main character, Lord Hakuoro, gets up in the middle of the night to go have a romantic rendezvous with a neighboring empress in a meadow, stroking her hair on his lap while looking up at the moonlit night and the glowbugs. Both the original and the arrange versions are good.




Another late night Uta theme. The original version is a simple and effective piano theme, but I also like the arranged version from the remake that has that dreamlike fantasy feel with the chimes.




Ethereal Embers from World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. Interesting melancholic use of what I think is a saxophone along with a plucked harp. My favorite version is the one with the distortion reverb effect at 3:23.




The night theme for Satorl Marsh from Xenoblade Chronicles 1. Has that mystical moonlight vibe. I like both the original and the arranged version.






Forest of the Nopon (Night) from XBC1. Comfy. I like both but tend to lean towards the original. I like the part at 1:45.

[Finarfin]

Yes, all Xenoblade. Xenoblade 1 does not have a single bad track.

[Manny V]

kino falling asleep to this





lying in wait in the brushes with your crusader boyz, ready to spring an ambush on muslim heathens





and of course old mate WoW from Burning Crusade onwards has some nice night time variants of music:



(night-only part timestamped)


probably some other good ones but can't recall at the top of my head right now

[Tweed]

[Finarfin]

When I played Two Worlds, this track usually played at night so I'll treat it as a night theme.

[Tadeusz]

Found some interesting themes recently, I think they fit here. Some moody ambient tracks:

[Kalarion]

Alps only appear at night in Battle Brothers. Here's their track (shared with some other encounters):

[traxtan]

Kingdom come deliverance has one of the most memorable and immersive soundtracks in a video game I've ever seen.

Here's how the music works, it has an adaptive music engine which transitions smoothly from one track to the other without the player noticing any abrupt changes.

Edit: here's a better visual representation of it.

[rusty_shackleford]

Shadeweaver's Thicket is on the dark side of the moon.

[Shillitron]

[spookyheart]