MarcoMeatball, an Opera singer-turned-Youtuber, joins us on Game8 Connect to talk about the best video game soundtracks out there. Read on to find out his favorite tracks, and why you should give them a listen.
Game8 Connect - MarcoMeatball
Welcome to Game8 Connect, where we dive into the world of your favorite gaming content creators and explore the person behind the screen! In this article, we caught up with MarcoMeatball, asking about his top five video game soundtracks and what makes them so good.
Who is MarcoMeatball?
MarcoMeatball is an Opera singer-turned-YouTuber who specializes in breaking down video game soundtracks, with a focus on what kind of emotions they elicit from the player. He has more than 224,000 subscribers and has been active on YouTube since 2021.
Marco told Game8 that his foray into the niche of breaking down video game OSTs was "accidental." For a decade he worked in the music industry, before eventually going into voice acting. Then, after the passing of his father, Marco realized in 2021 that he could build a community centered around discussing video game music.
"I filmed three videos," Marco says, describing the earlier days of building his channel. At first, he thought that none of those videos were gaining any traction. "And I (was) still getting these notifications, and I’m like, ‘I must’ve commented on some stupid meme video or something.’ Next thing I know, I realized that it was my channel.
"So I just doubled down. That was what I did - morning, noon, and night."
A year and a half later, Marco’s channel is populated with all kinds of content - from reactions to certain video game soundtracks to having people from the Opera industry give their thoughts on video game music, and even "musical Let’s Plays" where he plays games and highlights their tracks.
At the time of this writing, Marco’s most popular video is "Opera Singer's Mind Melts Listening to the Scaramouche Battle Theme for the first time..." with around 860,000 views. In it, he breaks down the battle theme for the character Scaramouche from Genshin Impact.
What Does MarcoMeatball Look For in Video Game Music?
Marco says that it’s hard to review video game music, pointing out that it is a subjective experience for everyone. So, instead, his approach is to let the music speak for itself, but he’ll give his interpretations of the language and emotions of a piece for his audience.
"For me, it’s really about feeling, so that’s really what I latch onto in reaction videos. How do I express myself so that others can also express it?" he says. "Because, sometimes, a lot of people have a hard time expressing their emotions through music. So if I can help them and be like a lighthouse for them, that’s the key thing I look for when I’m talking about music."
But if there is one thing that would make a piece of video game music stand out and become memorable, Marco says it’s a track’s melody; the sequence of single notes that makes the piece musically satisfying.
"Melody is the thing that allows music to sink its teeth into us," Marco says. "Battle themes are great, rhythm is great, bombastic themes are great. But what really gets to people… is a melody." He names Chrono Cross’ “Scars of Time” as an example of this.
"Yes, there’s rhythmic intensity in pieces, but melody is the thing that drives us forward. Melody tells a story, melody makes us feel emotion, melody is what guides it," he adds. "Like a singable line that is also expressive of XYZ emotion is always going to be the thing that sticks to people, and causes that earworm thing where you’re humming it before you go to bed, or you’re thinking about it."
Even though music that is not melodic still serves a purpose in video games, it is melody that allows people to enjoy those tracks even outside of the context of a game.
"My goal, ultimately, would be to say ‘Okay, let’s pull out these tracks, and let’s pair them next to Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelsohn, Handel, and let’s put them in the same concert," he says. This way, "these pieces stand on their own and don’t require the context in order to appreciate them as symphonic works."
With this standard in mind, we asked Marco to tell us his top five video game soundtracks.
MarcoMeatball’s Video Game OSTs
5. Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Though tactical turn-based strategy games are not quite his cup of tea, Marco says the soundtrack of Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus by Guillaume David was "staggering," with how it managed to be diverse, modern, yet inherently classical.
"Mechanicus for me is so explorative within the confines of what makes a piece melodic and total. Children of the Omnissiah is the piece that, of all the pieces, has impressed me the most," he says. "Children of the Omnissiah is just a slow organ plod, right? And it’s just fantastic how we’re utilizing the organ - a traditional church instrument - in a setting that is still religious but it’s malevolent."
Another track Marco likes from the game is Noosphere, which is, in his opinion, the most riveting piece of ambient and melodic music he has ever heard because of its use of battle sounds in creating its soundscape. He also praised Dance of the Cryptek, a mechanical danse macabre with chains, a malevolent organ, and digital chanting sounding off in the background.
4. The Ace Combat Series
When a Patreon supporter suggested that he listen to the Ace Combat Zero soundtrack, Marco first thought it was going to be too electronic for his taste. But after he listened to its soundtrack, and specifically to "Unsung War" from Ace Combat 5, his opinion changed very quickly.
"I was blown away," he says about Ace Combat Zero’s soundtrack. "It infuses this eighties, nineties rock aesthetic like Steely Dan, ZZ Top, Doobie Brothers with this Latin chorus and orchestration." Marco also describes AC5’s Unsung War, a choral piece backed by snare drums and brass trumpets, as a "religious experience."
Ace Combat 7 is another AC title with a stellar soundtrack, with Marco describing "Daredevil" as both heroic and empowering, along with Archange and the Alicorn Trio - three music pieces connected to one another (Awakening, Alicorn, and Hero of Comberth Harbor).
"Any of these things are basically modern-day oratorio pieces that you would sing, like Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, or Saint John Passion or Bach Magnificat in D Major… they’re written specifically for religious experiences," he says. "But to have Latin in a modern video game where the stakes are incredibly high and, musically, it’s being driven by the Latin, and a full chorus of Latin singing, it’s just… I can’t even describe to you how cool it is."
If there were tracks that anyone should listen to from the Ace Combat series, Marco says they would have to be Archange, Magic Spear, Daredevil, and the Alicorn Trio for AC7. As for AC5, he says people should hear Unsung War, Closure, and 15 Years Ago. All of these tracks are available to listen to on YouTube.
3. Final Fantasy 14
Marco says that there is a "fantastic diversity" of music in Final Fantasy 14’s soundtrack, ranging from classical, ambient, and lyrical with "In The Balance" from the Endwalker expansion being one of his best video game music tracks ever.
"There’s just so many fantastic battle themes that lean on melody," he says. "In a lot of ways (Masayoshi) Soken is the natural evolution or natural protege of (Nobuo) Uematsu, and that really comes through in Final Fantasy 14. It also pays homage to everything that has come before."
Among these standout tracks, Marco recommends listening to Flow, one of the main themes of FF14’s Endwalker expansion, "for just casual listening, if you’re in a somber mood." In the Balance is a track worth listening to when you’re in a happy mood, as well as A Long Fall from the Shadowbringers expansion. There’s also Finality, Torn from the Heavens, and The Maker’s Ruin.
2. NieR: Automata
Marco says he was impressed with how the songs in NieR: Automata made use of a "chaos language" based on multiple languages, especially in the track City Ruins.
"It’s so chill and it’s so wonderfully relaxing, yet has a really nice forward momentum in the rhythm when it kicks in. And I always used to sing along and try to understand what they were saying, because I didn’t realize that there was a chaos language - I thought I wasn’t just understanding it," he says. "Then when I realized that it wasn’t actually a real language, it (gave) a lot of room for us to interpret things based on how we feel about them, rather than being spoonfed an idea through lyrics."
To Marco, NieR:Automata was a special game because of how it could combine such musically violent and melodic tracks with situations that were interesting and high stakes.
"I was listening to ‘A Beautiful Song’, which ironically happens when you’re fighting a robotic Opera singer, " he quips. " And I was really kind of stunned by it… Anything can be like that, but for whatever reason, this particular moment in the game, I was just like ‘I think I’m playing something really unique here’ and I just locked in."
Other tracks Marco likes from NieR:Automata is Amusement Park, Possessed by Disease, and Bipolar Nightmare. When it comes to tracks in other games in the NieR franchise, Marco listed quite a few more. Among those, "one of the loveliest tracks [he] had ever listened to" is Kaine’s Salvation, a song originally from NieR: Replicant which is also found in NieR:Automata.
1. Genshin Impact
Finally, at number 1, of all the video game soundtracks that Marco had ever listened to, he says Genshin Impact’s soundtrack was the best. Despite the controversy surrounding its gacha transaction model and gacha games in general, for him the quality of the game’s music was a separate thing entirely.
"Composers are emotional people, they’re creative, so they’re not sitting there like, ‘how do I get them to… okay, my quota is I need to make a million dollars for the game, so I need to write music that will inevitably want them to pull…’ No, that’s not how it works," he explains. "Maybe in some deep dark basement somewhere probably, but not, I don’t think (that’s the case) with Genshin Impact."
Marco's involvement with Genshin Impact goes beyond just playing it. He once lent his voice to the character Dvořak, a musician from the newly released region of Fontaine. But interestingly, Marco says that he has a greater appreciation for the game's music rather than its story. He believes that the way the music is handled in Genshin Impact represents a perfect evolution of classical music as he knows it.
"It flips it on its head, it does fascinating things with folk instruments, it’s educational, it’s cultural, it doesn’t shy away… they are the first ever video game I ever heard to include Chinese Opera in it - the Divine Damsel of Devastation. No one’s doing that," he says. "There’s not a single piece of ambient music there where I’m like, ‘this is boring.’ Not a single piece."
One of the Genshin tracks Marco likes is Raiden Shogun’s battle theme, which he describes as a perfect workout theme. He also sums up Duel in the Mist as "ancient trap music," with how it uses traditional Japanese instruments.
Other gems include the theme for the region of Liyue, Swirls of Shamshir from the Sumeru region, both tracks for Port Ormos’ day and night cycle, Polumnia Omnia, and Die Mittsommernacht-Fantasie.
"It’s like Bach on steroids," Marco says of Die Mittsommernacht-Fantasie, which was only featured at a limited-time event. "It’s just so satisfying. The other reason that I’m behind Genshin is that I played (the soundtrack) for every single one of my classical music colleagues that have come on the channel, and every single one of them has liked it."
With even classically trained non-gamers liking Genshin Impact’s soundtrack, Marco says that it shows how well thought out the game’s soundtrack is, clearly with a focus on the experience and a lot of effort put into it.
If you haven’t listened to Genshin Impact’s soundtrack, you may be missing out on some of the best music video games have to offer.
More About MarcoMeatball
When asked about which game first impacted him with its soundtrack, Marco seemed to consider two games. He explains that in early childhood, while Super Mario World opened his eyes to gaming as a whole and bonding experience, the very first video game soundtrack that really made an impression on him was Final Fantasy 7.
"One Wing Angel really really blew my mind open. I remember that I was so nervous to fight Sephiroth," he recollects. "I remember my mom telling me to turn off the game because we had to go and do something, and I was like, ‘No, you don’t understand, this is a huge moment. This is the end of the game.’"
He’s also looking forward to trying out new games that have either already come out or are slated to come out this year, like Final Fantasy 16, Remnant 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Spider-Man 2.
When asked if he had any advice for music lovers, Marco says that they should keep listening to music and let it "wash over" them.
"Whether you know the context of a piece or not, challenge yourself to listen to something you’ve never heard before, challenge yourself to understand why you like or dislike a piece, so if you say ‘Oh, I like this because…’ or ‘I don’t like this because of this.’ That is perfect," he says. "That is the right way to have strong opinions."
Check out MarcoMeatball through the links below:
MarcoMeatball on YouTube
MarcoMeatball on Twitter
MarcoMeatball on Patreon
