Steam has quietly change into the very best place to purchase videogame soundtracks—even for video games that had been by no means launched on PC
Soundtrack Sunday
Welcome to Soundtrack Sunday, the place a member of the PC Gamer workforce takes a have a look at a soundtrack from one in all their favorite video games—or a broader have a look at videogame music as a complete—providing their ideas or asking for yours!
I really like recreation music. At all times have. However it hasn’t all the time liked me again. Within the previous days I had no selection however to resort to amateurishly recording sound exams onto tape so I may carry some candy chiptune bangers with me always. In more moderen years I’ve gone spelunking in locations like iTunes, however inconsistent regional availability, seemingly random tags that omit or misspell an artist’s identify or record soundtracks below a generic writer label could make recreation music frustratingly laborious to seek out.
Heck, some like Breath of Hearth: Dragon Quarter had been by no means even launched on PC. Sq. Enix has greater than a dozen Nier albums, together with varied particular organized alternatives, to deal with my ears to.
The wonderful thing about the soundtrack class on Steam is that it is greater than only a dumping floor for terabytes of preexisting audio. It is a fertile and incessantly up to date panorama stuffed with beneficiant freebies, phenomenal collections that conventional bodily media would wrestle to carry, and albums so obscure that even on this welcoming on-line area it is a minor miracle they exist in any respect. Listed here are a few of my favorite surprises from this 12 months.
Soundtrack perk: Free growth
The unique Lies of P soundtrack was already a complete 70 tracks lengthy, with top quality FLAC recordsdata bundled alongside extra typical mp3 duplicates for an important worth. I fortunately purchased it the moment I heard the quiet tune that performs inside Resort Krat, all mushy choirs and tastefully restrained melancholy.
With Overture carrying on in an analogous tone, I used to be absolutely ready to do the identical factor once more as quickly because the accompanying album appeared on Steam. Extra music that makes it sound like I am preventing the gods themselves one minute because of their epic strings and angelic vocals, transitioning into delicate music over piano melodies seemingly designed to emanate from a chic brass gramophone the following? My pockets belonged to Neowiz—so I used to be smiling all day once I noticed Overture’s 51 tracks added to the present soundtrack as a very free replace. Mine, similar to that? Actually? I felt spoiled.
💽 Favorite monitor: By Any Means
Soundtrack perk: A long time of songs
The one factor higher than lastly getting a correct standalone model of Virtua Fighter 5 on PC this 12 months was seeing it launched alongside a soundtrack that takes a “kitchen sink” method to the collection’ music. Even priced at £30—undoubtedly on the upper finish of Steam’s choice—it is nice worth, boasting an unbelievable 531 tracks totalling nearly 18 hours of scrumptious arcade beats, the uncooked amount of music inside (and the file dimension that entails) making it nearly unworkable on another storefront, not to mention conventional bodily media.
Much less a bundle of tunes and extra an aural historical past of tech-pushing, genre-defining, standard-setting 3D preventing video games, this can be a definitive library so full the one method to outdo it could contain kidnapping composers and raids of Sega’s archives. There are Saturn variants of arcade songs, the convenience of flipping between the 2 highlighting the recent takes these later remixes introduced. I can hearken to a wide range of Virtua Fighter 3 tracks that had been both final heard at a decades-old Japanese commerce present, and tunes from one particular model of Virtua Fighter 4 that by no means made it into the sport.
It is greater than every thing I ever wished—it permits me to fall in love with new takes on previous favourites and listen to nice tunes I might have in any other case by no means even recognized I used to be lacking.
💽 Favorite monitor: Sarah (Virtua Fighter 2)
Soundtrack perk: Solely accessible on Steam
Yukiharu Urita is probably not a well-known composer in English-speaking circles, however there is not any doubt this former Zuntata composer’s work was the right match for M2’s 2025-fresh revival of Taito’s excessive velocity arcade motion recreation, Evening Striker. Surprisingly the music eschews the predictable fast-paced electronica sci-fi taking pictures tunes often sleepwalk themselves into and goes for one thing extra cinematic as a substitute, rousing drumbeats punctuating orchestral swells and choral chants.
Extra stunning is the truth that on the time of writing, the soundtrack web page on Steam is the one place I can purchase the music—it must be a criminal offense this glorious work’s no more broadly accessible. Then once more, it appears secure to imagine that if it wasn’t on Steam then it would not be anyplace in any respect, and that will be a lot worse.
💽 Favorite monitor: When the White Eagle Descends
Soundtrack perk: Beforehand unattainable to seek out
You’ve got in all probability not heard of this one, seeing as this untranslated recreation’s a extra fashionable (and legally distinct) reimagining of traditional Chinese language language RPG You Cheng Huan Jian Lu. However that is additionally the great thing about the discharge; a couple of years in the past I would not have even bothered searching for the soundtrack—it could have been so out of attain I’ll as properly have gone Googling for a tin of stripy paint. Now? I casually picked it up on a whim for an nearly offensively low worth whereas I used to be busy having fun with the sport’s mild melodies full of hovering flutes and plucked strings, and had the tracks transferred to my telephone minutes later. From time to time I examine the recordsdata, simply to verify I did not dream the entire thing.
Sadly this one’s so area of interest I could not discover a previewable model of the soundtrack anyplace. Fortunately, a basic pattern of the sport’s lovely music could be heard within the official trailer.
💽 Favorite monitor: Sword’s Cry
Soundtrack perk: Free replace with remixes and new tracks
In fact Clair Obscur’s award-winning wonders are on this record—I’ve bought ears. This eight-hour marvel hasheart-wrenching songs, tinkling music field melodies, energetic battle themes that may solely be described as, uh, French. And the extra I performed the sport (because of some accessibility tweaks), the extra I fell in love with the music, till I reached a degree the place I knew I needed to have these delights in my ears on a regular basis.
On CD—due February subsequent 12 months—the whole soundtrack’s a gorgeous however considerably unwieldy eight disc monster. On Steam it is roughly half the worth, DRM-free, simply suits on SD playing cards so small I may swallow them, and has been making my kitchen cleansing really feel like an epic boss battle for months.
And now they’ve added much more on prime too—totally free. The individually accessible Nos Vies En Lumière and Verso’s drafts broaden on this already lush choice with new remixes, unused tracks, and recent tunes. Merci beaucoup, Sandfall.
💽 Favorite monitor: Dualliste