Over the last two weeks of December, we are announcing the winners of the Second Annual SwitchRPG Awards. We’ll be announcing new winners every weekday, leading up to a final announcement on January 1st for RPG of the Year!

Get your Youtube playlists loaded and your earbuds ready, because today we’re announcing our winner for Best Music. RPGs have a long history of featuring some of the best soundtracks in the medium. With their emphasis on quality storytelling, the best RPGs feature carefully crafted and curated musical scores, with tracks that can underline key emotional moments, create a feeling of ambiance and atmosphere, and get players pumped up and ready for battle. Whether they come from action, turn-based, or any other genre in between, our nominees for Best Music each provided songs that perfectly fit their adventure. Whether you are looking for some video game music to listen to as you work or you are looking to dive into the games themselves, each track you hear is sure to set just the appropriate mood, sad and somber, quiet and serene, or inspiring and uplifting – the choice is yours.

The Nominees

And the Winner Is…

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

You can’t really go wrong developing a game hand-in-hand with one of the most celebrated animation studios of all time. Ni No Kuni brings not only the visual stylings of Japan’s Studio Ghibli to its turned-based/action RPG hybrid, but also the musical talents of the studio’s own Joe Hisaishi. The score he provides delights, excites, and inspires – each track perfectly fitting its placement to the surrounding action. While other challengers in this category managed to nail their respective niche with tracks that perfectly align to the surrounding gameplay, Ni No Kuni’s music simply rose above the rest, creating an epic, grandiose feeling that stands as one of the best soundtracks of the last decade. Give it a listen if you haven’t – or just go get this powerhouse of a game for yourself!

Community Pick: Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age

Dragon Quest games continue to be a popular choice among the SwitchRPG fanbase. For Best Music, Dragon Quest XI took home a powerful majority of the votes, topping out just past 75 percent. Especially notable for this title iare the presence of both a fully orchestrated score, featuring both new and classic tracks from the Dragon Quest franchise, but also the more traditional, computer generated midi soundtrack. This feature walks hand-in-hand with Dragon Quest XI’s 2D / 3D gameplay options. As for the rest of the nominees, Ni No Kuni placed second with around 15 percent of the votes, with Bloodstained and Children of Morta trailing with around 7.7 and 1.2 percents, respectively.

Have you given these soundtracks a listen? You should! Then come back and let us know your thoughts on the best RPG scores of the year. And stay tuned tomorrow, when we look at the other side of the presentation coin and hand out our award for Best Visuals!