Welcome to Soundtrack Sunday, where a member of the PC Gamer team takes a look at a soundtrack from one of their favourite games—or a broader look at videogame music as a whole—offering their thoughts or asking for yours!
If you couldn’t tell from all the things I’ve written about it, I love videogame music. Even before big-budget studios were employing whole-ass orchestras to perform grand symphonies, composers were making full use of synthesizers and sound chips to create pieces that would’ve had Beethoven telling all his pals “Have you heard that One Winged Angel? It’s pretty good.”
Videogame music is home to so many bangers that it would be a huge disservice if they were forever confined to the games they were created for, which is where the humble videogame concert comes in. It’s a chance to hear your favourite tracks brought to life by an in-person orchestra, often complemented by visuals from the game and maybe even a guest appearance from the composer themselves.
To my surprise, the first videogame concert happened far earlier than I ever anticipated—in August 1987 according to GameConcerts, where Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama presented the Family Classic Concert in Tokyo.
As someone who’s just booked tickets to the Persona Grooves concert, I say yes, they are worth it, but I think it’s about location and being particular with what you see. For UK folks, if you can afford to get there, the Game Music Festival in London puts on some absurdly cool concerts, like last year they did Baldur’s Gate 3, introduced by Amelia Tyler (the game’s narrator) with appearances from cast members and the composer. Global tours like The Witcher in Concert can be great, too. Seeing that gave me a newfound appreciation for its incredible soundtrack (especially the vocals), and they even performed DLC music. The only issue is that tickets can be quite expensive, though you can snag cheaper ones if you get in early.
In the nearly 40 years since then, there have been all manner of videogame music concerts: Final Fantasy’s Distant Worlds and Eorzean Symphony, The Witcher in Concert, Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons, the Skyrim 10th Anniversary Concert—hell, even Metal Gear was recently doing the recital rounds in the UK.
Despite that, I reckon videogame concerts are more than worth the money. I had the pleasure of attending a Distant Worlds earlier this year and seeing some of my favourite pieces performed live while cutscenes from the relevant game accompanying each song had me bawling like a baby. I’ll also forever cherish hearing One Winged Angel in all its glory, with the crowd being instructed to chant “Seph-i-roth!” in a delightful bit of interactive performance.
But what about you? Do you reckon videogame concerts are worth dishing out the money for, or would you rather just play the game and listen to the song where it was originally designed to be heard?
Be sure to let us know in the comments and tell us why. And if you have attended a videogame concert, share your favourite memory.
