So this is a topic that comes up once in a while between my RL friends and I.

Can bad music ruin and otherwise good game for you?

We seem to be torn on this. Me and one friend say absolutely, while the other two that no it can't.

I'm of the belief that just because a game can be good, god AWFUL music can make it unplayable. Ans yes, we do know that some games have a music volume slider while most don't.

So, can I get some other opinions on this?

3 years ago*

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Can bad music ruin a game for you?

View Results
Yes
No

Yes. Most blatant example that comes to mind is hacked/bootleg NES games that have had music changed in addition to sprites. Used to collect famiclones. The music in this Lunar Pool hack still haunts me.

3 years ago
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MAKE IT STOP! My ears... what have you unleshed onto this world?

3 years ago
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I had a few cases in my life when music was not exactly bad but was just boring after first few hours of the game so I had to mute the music in game and lunch a good music on youtube to be able to play longer.

3 years ago
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Yes it's rare but it happens, then if it's not possible to mute the music without muting the sound effects, i just mute all.

3 years ago
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Personally haven't had a game like that.. If as Zarddin says it gets boring (or is too loud) I just turn it off or lower the volume

3 years ago
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yes, good music and good games match together.

3 years ago
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Absolutely! Or even not bad music per se, but music that personally I hate (it's all about taste, of course). A good example is The Norwood Suite; it's a very curious surreal game, beautiful in its own unique way; but unfortunately for me, music is very important to the authors here, and it sounds like cacophony to me. I just couldn't play as a result. Another case of a game not really ruined, but fun considerably spoiled is Cyberpunk, there was only a handful of songs I didn't hate there. I must be getting old, I guess.

3 years ago
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3 years ago
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Couldn't think of any example. I don't count music genres btw

3 years ago
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3 years ago
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When i was playing 7 days to die, I was doing mining and building around base. Music in the game is atmospheric and different actions will have different themed music playing. The ingame music which was added in recent beta versions started to play this drumming music like i am in the infantry regiment. I find no total sense how that makes sense for the action i was doing. After awhile I just turn of the music when i am doing light duties. The music for when you are in combat tho is pretty on point. :D
Cheers~

3 years ago
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3 years ago
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I was asking the OP for examples... it only seems fair that their vague topic is backed up by examples of what they consider bad music.

Fair. :3
I dont play rhythm games at all. i can keep up with a beat/rhythm but I dont like to play such games on PC/Arcade. Like the Disco dancing game in Yakuza 0 i played recently. It gives me the feeling I am keeping up with what the computer wants me for the timing rather than the actual beat to the music. Tho it is rather fun to watch others play rhythm games :D
Cheerios~

3 years ago
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Nope.
To be honest, I rarely notice the music in videogames nowadays. Dunno if it's me getting old or the music getting completely unremarkable, or perhaps it's due to the fact that I usually play games when there's some background noise around (TV, family members chattering etc) but I don't think I've played a game in the last 10 years which music would instantly catch my attention like, say, the Easthaven theme did from the very beginning of Icewind Dale.

3 years ago
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I can always disable it if it's bad, So no.

But the opposite happens. Like Gothic III. The game itself terrible but i like it because of the incredible ost.

3 years ago*
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Ruin partially? Sure, a bad or terrible music is surely a letdown.
But if I can mute the music and listen to something else, it's salvageable. But I'd definitely mention in reviews that the music was bad, even in a positive review.

3 years ago
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Not really, if it's bad, I just turn it down.

3 years ago
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I'm afraid I will get some blacklists here but I have to be honest, I stopped playing Persona 3 on PSP because I hated the battle theme.
I also had to mute the music for Dragon Quest XI, it's not bad but it's too repetiive, always the same 3 songs.

3 years ago*
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You have bad taste, time for Mass Destruction, Wiping All Out!
Even though I love P3 and I've listened to Wiping All Out multiple times this week and to Mass Destruction many more times before that, I can see your point, they do get repetitive pretty fast and dungeons in P3 are repetitive to begin with.
If you ever pick it up again, I hope you enjoy it despite the repetitiveness.

3 years ago
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Omg, yes. I can't deliver an example, but when music and atmosphere don't work out? Just horrible! Or if it's just uzz uzz and woop woop but the game is not like that? Yeah, nope.
Luckily so far I only ever turned the music off, but never the game, bc it was that bad. But I know I had a few games with bad music. Oh, or as AcoWasTaken mentioned: Repetitive, that can be also veeeeery annoying D:

3 years ago
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If i can't mute it, YES

3 years ago
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Only if the music is integral to the gameplay, like with rhythm games. Otherwise I'll just mute it and play my own music.

3 years ago
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haha. this is gold

3 years ago
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Harmony of Dissonance. Bad, tinny soundtrack.

3 years ago
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Well, I WAS planning to show this topic to one of those friends of mine, but since he LOVES those games.........

3 years ago
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The other Castlevania games on the GBA have good soundtracks, but Konami got cheap with Harmony of Dissonance.

3 years ago
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I guess my answer to OP's question is no because I was able to beat that game just fine. A few of the tracks even grew on me, like Offence & Defense.

3 years ago
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I don't know about ruin, but looking back at my favorite games, its hard to find one that doesn't have at least one good music track or theme to it. I'd say bad music can lower a game's potential and make it less memorable too.

3 years ago
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As long as I can turn it down: no.

Good music can save a game or make it even better but I don't think that bad music can ruin a game completly.

3 years ago
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You can always turn it down with windows volume control, in 10 they removed the old but very handy volume control of windows 7, but with winaero tweakers you can get the old volume controle back.

3 years ago
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there is still the old audiomixer in windows 10. but then you still just can mute the whole game.

3 years ago
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Oh you want to keep other soundeffects.

Well i never seemed to have found the sliders with windows 10, could be me.

3 years ago
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right click on the speaker icon -> volume mixer

3 years ago
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I always turn it down, because i like to watch stuff while playing games, i do tend to listen to the first bits of music when i try a new game, but usually i am glad i turn it down.

3 years ago
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no, cause i always turn it off(one exception: CP2077-played with music on all the time)

I get more immerse to world without music

3 years ago
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Good music can definitely enhance a game.
But I can't think of counter-examples where a bad soundtrack actually ruined a game, since most games with bad soundtracks that I've played were also bad games in the first place.

So... maybe.

3 years ago
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I love listening to game music, so when a game has a terrible one, it's rather upsetting. I would have to turn it off and play something else in the background. The occasional times that it's made me turn off a game is when I cannot disable the music but still keep the sound effects, it's either silent or everything on with a toggle, I just couldn't deal with it.

3 years ago
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Can a bad singer ruin a good song?

3 years ago
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Yes.

3 years ago
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3 years ago
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LOL. My point exactly.

3 years ago
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A game is more than sound. A song by a wrong singer is only sound, you can't separate them.
You can just not go to listen to the singer, and read the lyrics. They can ruin the performance, but not the lyrics itself. It may still work as a poem, or something that lets you have a new viewpoint, or ideas.

3 years ago
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That's also true. But at times game developers have bad music and don't have in-game option to disable it.

For a game to work, everything needs to be at least okay-ish. Perfect example of this would be Whispered World. While, I liked everything about the game, the whiny voice acting of the lead actor was a great turn-off for me. The game had option to turn off the voice but even with audio turned off I was hearing the whiny voice acting in my head as I read the text. Result was that I stopped playing the game.

I don't know is it just me but I think once you hear something bad or annoying you simply cannot un-hear it. It does not matter that sound was turned off. The thing which matters is that how bad was the thing you've heard.

3 years ago*
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