I feel like the Silksong OST was way more appealing than E33's OST and that Christopher Larkin did a phenomenal job in Silksong.
Does anyone else feel this way?
This made the most sense to me. Expedition 33 deserved GOTY for sure and many other awards. But specifically for playing a role in a video game, I don't think there's anything better than KCD 2.
E33 getting gory was valid, but best indie shoulda been skong (debatable tho) and rpg would have been kcd2. Art direction, e33 was valid but I think skong or hades 2 deserved it more
Edit: E33 getting GOTY, GOTY was valid. My ass cannot type
This. Choosing E33 over KCD2 as the best rpg of 2025 surprised me. E33 is clearly the favorite child of the jurys. Happy that it won so many awards but the two awards it didn't deserve to win are Best rpg and best indie game (debateable). And Tom (Henry) deserved a nomination in the best performer at The Game Awards in place of Erika Ishii imo.
No, to be honest I feel like the music in some areas is top notch, but it is not regular, and to me hollowknight did a better job on music, which was consistently excellent
I think this depends on how you evaluate OSTs. Hollow Knight had more individual stand-out melodic tracks, but I think the thematic cohesion of Silksong's music makes for a better overall soundtrack.
Yeah, I think I just much prefer strong melodic tracks. So many of the atmospheric tracks just blend together as ambient noise (I just listened to The Marrows and I already feel like I forgot it). I don’t think it’s any surprise why Cogwork Core and Bilewater get constantly thrown around as the best in the game. They have really strong melodic ideas.
Also, does it miff anyone that the 3-fold melody doesn’t get incorporated into any actual songs? I feel like it should’ve been used as part of the cradle theme or something.
That’s the kind of idea you need an actual large team of people working on a game to come up with. No matter how good TC and Larkin are, they’re limited by the number of heads on the job. That’s how it takes six years to make a game where you still end up asking this kind of question. Don’t get me wrong, great game, but not perfect.
It seems like this soundtrack was just a case of ‘it’s silk this time so it has to be strings’. But it has more standouts than those two. Listen to Bone Bottom outside of the game for example - just play it straight through.
There’s a YouTuber I’ve watched a few videos of break down what’s going on in many of the favourite tracks - it gave me a respect and appreciation that I didn’t have before when I was just missing the Hollow Knight piano.
What “kind of idea” are you talking about? Reusing musical ideas in more than one place? Lots of game OSTs, even for big AAA studios, are not made by large teams. Most Final Fantasy games have a single composer.
I’m saying a lot of game development is ‘hey we should -‘ and you can see that that is how TC makes its games. If it’s just a few people and they tell one guy make us a score for this game, that’s not enough creative jazz to surface the idea of weaving something like the threefold melody into the game’s music.
Even if they did think of it and decide against it, I’m making a broader point that Silksong is such a full game that what it lacks, after six years of development, shows the limitations of the current team. A game this good, that took six years to make, that IS full of these ‘nice touches’ (like Red Maiden being a variation of Hornet from HK) should have all of them - that’s my point. At a certain point you need more people so they can have flashes of brilliance that elevate and elevate and elevate the product. TC getting medieval over a game - we have seen the most that can achieve.
So yes - to your broader point too - the missed opportunities do bug me as well.
I dont know anything about E33 so I cant say if it deserved the win but I think a lot of people here a judging silksongs music based on how "catchy" it is.Hollow Knights soundtrack is a lot more "melodic" compared to silksong's, as in they are easier to humm and remember.
That being said,what I personally love about silksong's music is just how well it transmits the emotion of where the player should be at that part of the story and how well the whole soundtrack fits together and with the context.
I still remember how immersive it felt fighting widow and hearing her frenetic theme, win, geting back to bellhart, and listen to its theme for the first time as it comes back to life, getting a rest after just climbing half the kingdom.
Then for example, the mist, how you slowy travel whats basically a maze surrounded by drakes while listening to this misterious organ, then finding this huge structure as the music get louder and louder just to enter and find the one playing the organ.Only for the phantom to slam the organ as that music that we've been hearing for a while to turn into a more violent and imposing version of itself as you draw your needle to fight.
And there are tons of examples where the musci elevates the context that much:Blasted Steps, Citadel, GMS, cogwork dancers, latter clover dancers, last dive and lost lace's theme and the buildup to it.
In my humble opinion silksong does an amazing job at making the soundtrack significant to the theme and context of where the player is and what have they done before.If you ask me even better than how hollow knight did it.
I disagree, and think, outside of bosses, the musics that you hear the most are the themes of the biomes. And in those I think the Citadel is on par with Hollow Knight, and Greymoor, Far Fields, The Marrow, are at the lowest of the low. And in between are a great number of tracks, that make do, that are okay, not going to listen to them individually, are fine. And many do not feel distinctive and could be replaced by one another.
That is my opinion, I gave it earlier and I am quite surprised to see that I am not the only one thinking that, seeing all the upvotes
I do have to agree that the biome soundtracks aren't nearly as memorable as hollow knights, tho, unpopular opinion, I would say the best of silksong is still better than the best ones from hollow knight even if they are less frequent.I still can't think of songs better than lace or last dive except for maybe Sealed Vessel and Daughter of Hallownest.
Also just something I noticed, for some reason, the default volume settings of silksong leaves many situations and bosses where you simply can't hear the music over all the things happening.I outright missed the second half of lost lace's theme because of all the things going on and had to hear the soundtrack later.
I mean half the soundtrack is Dies Irae motifs. Hollow Knight was genius but Silksong wasn't quite at that level.
No disrespect intended the music is still great but there is Danny Elfman in Nightmare and Danny Elfman in Charlie and the Chocolate factory and both are better than I could dream of composing but I wouldn't listen to Charlie on my own time.
I’m surprised to see so many people in agreement. I thought that Bellhart, Bilewater, Last Dive, and Lost Lace (just to name a few) were better than any song off the HK soundtrack
Really? The second half is so sweeping and epic with that hint of tragedy. I remember literally turning the volume way up during that fight and that immersion made it one of the most intense moments I’ve ever experienced in a video game.
I think so too. Even the pacing, the combat and the exploration balance, the slow ascend of hardship, overall hollow knight holds it up compared to silksong
I will say that we have had the Hollow Knight soundtrack for years to grow attached to and learn, idk if that affects the view of Silksongs new and unfamiliar OST as much as I think or not
If all songs were up to the level of the Citadel, I would listen to all of them. Right now I just want to listen to a few, and have almost all of Hollow Knight to listen to
I agree, the music and sound design was a big step back from HK. The only areas that stood out to me were in the citadel, and even those were hit or miss.
Shellwood and bilgewater are amazing though? Hit or miss doesn't really make sense either because not every area theme in hollow knight is a banger either.
I disagree about Bilewater, but Shellwood was good. I thought city of tears was about on par for some of the citadel sections, but for other areas places like Dirtmouth, Greenpath, Fungal Wastes all stand out way more than area themes in Silksong. I just didn’t get the same impact with Silksong. More of my view is that the boss fights were not great. I can’t really name a memorable boss theme until cogwork dancers and GMS.
Hornet, Mantis Lords, Dung Defender, Soul Master, NKG off the top of my head were more impactful and enjoyable to me.
Fungal wastes is very bland compared to blaster steps for example. Also how is strive, widow, lace, fourth chorus and phantom not memorable? Hollow Knight's score is remembered as being nothing but bangers because the tracks that aren't as good as the rest just aren't remembered.
If somebody had a gun to my head and said hum along to any of those I’m toast. Different strokes for different folks. I thought Silksong was a step back musically and didn’t enjoy it as much as HK on that regard. Glad you found it memorable though.
Could we please ban these circlejerk karma farming posts already?
I swear it's been just an unending stream of complaining and complaining about complaining and now I'm complaining about both!
Oh yeah?!? Well I’m TIRED of the complainers complaining about the complaining complainers of complacent complaining of the complainers about the complainers complaining about complainers!!!! So take that!!
Not really. Silksong's music was great, but it was also just, more hollow knight. Personally I didn't feel like the music in Silksong hit as hard as when I first played Hollow Knight.
But the music, the genres, the wildness that was Clair Obscur's soundtrack blew me away. Unlike anything I've heard before, where's with Silksong, I felt I had heard it before.
I'm gonna be frank, this is E33 showing off the bottom of the barrel for their OST.
The game has a few merchants dotted around the game, and you can choose to do a goofy little fight with them to unlock a few extra items in their stock.
This is what the music is for. To fight the goofy merchants who look like paint brushes.
One of E33s splash page song "Expedition 33 - Lumiere" is really good, and I advise listening to that one if you want to get a taste of the music before playing. Again, it's the song that plays when you launch the game so it won't spoil you on the seriously epic boss battle themes, one of which is easily the best music I've heard in a video game.
From a compositional standpoint, I'm not actually terribly impressed, sorry. The production is good, but it's a very typical "loop" song with tracks just being layered up as it goes, over a very common four-chord progression. There isn't a very high amount of creativity in it.
It's probably one of the worst tracks in the game though, and like... not to be funny but how much of the Silksong soundtrack fits that description just as much?
If your complaint is that a battle theme sounds like a loop, it is absolutely designed to be used as a loop. Don't know what to tell you.
If you want to be impressed, go listen to "For Those Who Come After", "Paintress", "La vie une t'aimer", "Monoco", and I really could go on listing them because it's a LOT of the soundtrack.
Yeah, not ragging on the rest of the soundtrack, to be clear, I just wasn't exactly impressed by that track, and it certainly doesn't displace Karmelita's theme and some of the classical writing used in it. The drum track really hurt my estimation of it too, because I've always found the "orchestra over a fast rock beat" thing is tragically overdone, especially in the JRPG genre.
That's better, for sure, and definitely would've been a better example for mucus-fettuccini (ew lol) up there to have used in comparison to Skarrsinger Karmelita. There's still something about some of the notation that's throwing me though: little interactions between the melody and the rest that sound good in isolation - i.e. the musical phrases themselves would be fine when played alone - but aren't pairing well and cause dissonance on certain "intersections". Might just also be my tinny phone speaker muddying things up though, so I won't cast aspersions without a listen on a proper audio setup.
Thems be the fight loops. When you're playing in game, those sections aren't stacked back to back in the same way and instead you'll repeat part of it for longer (also true for Hollow Knight). I think the soundtrack was put together pretty slapdash compared to in game to be honest.
So I actually made a point to choose a track that isn't one of the big hitters in the game. I chose it for two reasons:
To show that a throwaway track in the game (used when fighting merchants, which is optional and quickly over) somehow goes this hard, which speaks to the incredibly high average quality of the OST.
It would actually work in the Karmelita fight as a replacement theme, because it has the operatic vocalization for the diegetic effect of fighting the singer, and it feels like a theme for a fast paced dance, which I think works.
The theme you're talking about now, Rain From Below, is freaking awesome, but wouldn't match the Karmelita fight well, so my claim that it could've been the theme for that fight and Silksong fans would then rave about it, wouldn't hold well.
If you want to see what the truly, truly great battle themes in E33 sound like, definitely check out The Paintress and Une Vie A T'aimer.
What's insane is that you think the two tracks are comparable at all. This track is nowhere near as intense as Skarrsinger Karmelita and does not fit thematically with the rest of the soundtrack. While this is not a big hitter it still stands out above the average piece in the soundtrack, while silksongs is great all around.
At the end of the day musical taste is subjective, but what you said feels kinda gross.
To me the biggest issue with silksong soundtrack is that it doesn't stand "great all around". It sits in the background most of the time, and while it has a few memorable themes - like choral chambers, cogwork core and aforementioned Karmelita, the most don't stand out.
Like I can't tell you what the theme for Deep Docks or Far Fields even sounds like and I've been in those areas like 2 hours ago. That wasn't true for the original game. I haven't played it in years, and yet I still remember themes for Dirtmouth, Crossroads, Fungal Wastes, Greenpath, Queen's Gardens, City of Tears, Soul Sanctum, White Palace. Pretty much every area theme was so memorable.
Hell, this is Hornet game, and we didn't even get Hornet theme aside from small callback to it in Red Maiden - a theme which isn't even used all that much.
And it's not like OST is bad or anything. Listening to these tracks separately is actually rather pleasant experience overall, but they just don't have as much presence and impact on me like the OST of the first game.
Imo, Karmelita relies on the strength of its context in order to be so memorable. The fight itself is epic in terms of visual design, mechanics, buildup, and writing, and the soundtrack is elevated by association. I digested the whole Silksong soundtrack between beating Act 2 and unlocking Act 3, and found Karmelita pretty forgettable up until doing the actual fight. And afterwards, most of the piece's appeal comes from reminding me of that fight, not being great of its own accord.
There really isn't much more to it than a melody over a standard violin ostinato following a standard chord progression. The only remarkable element is the fact that the melody is carried by a lone vocalist, which sets it apart thematically from the rest of the soundtrack (in a good and narratively fitting way). If anything, I find the piece is fairly disappointing because its harmony seems to promise motion only to take you back to the tonic; the only development comes from a minor switchup in the ostinato, which actually made me roll my eyes when I first heard it because of how much of an underdelivery it is. This might be an intentional design choice: the piece is meant to capture an old moment of glory, frozen in a dying memory. But there are ways to convey this without weakening the actual writing.
I have a similar complaint about the Gestral Merchant Theme. The action of that piece comes from an emergent submelody in the accompaniment that struggles with the main melody for dominance. This struggle is facilitated through a conscious weakening of some musical elements - the main melody is meandering, tropey, and over-reliant on register shifts to generate tension, while the harmony is static, presumably as a concession to make the piece's polyphony easier to handle.
I do think that this approach speaks to some deficiencies of the composer in polyphonic writing, but those deficiencies are very relative, and the piece otherwise shows off some spectacular technical strengths. The elements that are chosen to realize the core struggle - namely orchestration, phrasing, and texture - are deployed with effortless fluency, and in my opinion are far more technically impressive than anything Karmelita attempts.
Ultimately, I don't think either ought to be held up as standout examples of their soundtracks. Gestral Merchant is more technically impressive, but Karmelita is more enjoyable due to its association with a narrative masterstroke, which helps to paper over its weaknesses.
Clair Obscur is an incredible game in all aspects, the first bit is some of my favorite gaming moments ever. The rest of the game is good, but it has one of the best opening moments in gaming history.
Classic case of Silksong came out in a very competitive year for gaming, and therefore ended up being second best.
They are in a unique situation. They have this massively successful thing on their hands that is basically totally independent from the industry. They don't need promotion, they don't need to cross pollinate programmers, developers, designers, anything. They don't need to participate in the culture, whatsoever.
To me, if they don't want to be included, that's fine for TC, but it puts the game awards in a tough spot. Why should they be handing out awards to people who can't be fucked to even show up? ...but snubbing them completely will piss off the fans, because their game is so good it deserves the credit.
I dunno. I frankly don't love it that TC skipped it. But in their shoes I get it.
Yeah, I definitely get you where you’re coming from with that it is odd that they just didn’t really care to show up though it could be them being modest like “hey our game is nothing special” or it’s just they don’t have time I mean they have talked about Silksong DLC if I remember correctly and I’m sure they wanna get that done.
From the interviews I've read about them, they are just a couple really private guys that want to do their own thing, and a schmoozy awards ceremony is probably not their cup of tea.
They literally just chilled for years on end vibing in a sensory deprivation chamber developing a game while we all lost our collective mind (as did everyone tangentially related), they are the most not caring people who ever didn't care (not really even in a bad way, tbh - they are just doing their thing, very "Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing."-energy)
E33 absolutely deserved the soundtrack win, and I say that having played both games. Silksong is still my favorite game, but E33 is the winner in this category. I love Larkin's work though, no shade at all towards him or my favorite game.
E33 deserves the OST win and it isnt even close. No video game I have ever played has integrated an OST so well into a story before. There are moments where the music feels like an actual character of the story.
I like Silksong's soundtrack, but it's not some crazy standout exceptional piece of art. Silksong is my favorite game flatout but the fact is that it did not lose in a single category that it should have won except for Player's Choice, which is the fakest of fake competitions anyway.
We've opened both (SK & E33) full sountracks on YouTube and tried playing at random moments.
SK music had overall greater number of cool soundtracks that actually felt like music, while most of the E33 had like a plain piano/violine in the background.
Imo E33 won because it had higher peaks without considering the whole sountrack.
I'm more annoyed that Silksong didn't win Best Indie.
expedition had an estimated 5-10 million dollars budget and a publisher (Kepler Interactive), so it's by no means an Indie Game.
I personally found Silksongs ost a little lacking, only one or two tracks really got through to me, though the quality was still solid. E33 was very unique, I consistently stopped to soak it all in.
Silksong should have won GOTY tbh.
Probably too difficult a game for the judges. I love Jeff Gerstmann but he’s a judge and didn’t seem to even like the game, just a grumpy old gamer, so if others are like him…
Oh well, doesn’t matter, the creators are millionaires they don’t need awards.
I loved Silksong, and I will say straight up, E33 had infinitely better music. Silksong was a lot more atmospheric which is what it needed, but, that doesn't win awards.
I think e33 has a better sound track overall with more variety. The top songs of silk song were comparable though.
E33 had like 2 amazing themes(Alicia and the take down the paintress theme) and one really fun and charming one(mime) before you actually do anything. Then it kept going and going with multiple different high level themes with a lot of variety.
I really liked a few of silksongs themes like the clockwork area, lace and skarrsinger but I think it was still quite a bit weaker in terms of overall music compared to e33 or the original HK
Hollow Knight's music was better — it had more character and was more memorable.
While Silksong has multiple fantastic tracks, the entirety of its soundtrack disappointed me greatly, because I expected it to improve relative to its prequel.
Agreed. Hollow Knight’s was very obviously synthetic (not inherently a negative though). I much prefer the composition and real quality that Silksongs OST has.
I think most people are just saying that Silksong’s soundtrack is less memorable because TC purposefully put the OST audio lower in this game and also narrowed the EQ to create a muffled sound so it sounds like the music was further back.
Listen to a song like Choral Chambers, Bellhart, or Bilewater in the OST compared to the area and you will quickly hear the difference.
No. E33’s soundtrack is THAT good I would’ve been shocked if it did not win. This and GOTY were the only ones I was 1000% sure were locked in for E33. My only annoyance (and it is a big one), is that they won best indie.
Silksong was good. E33 is one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard.
People are entitled to their opinions. If you loved Silksong's soundtrack better, that's fine. But can everyone stop being so butthurt that the majority of voters didn't agree with you?
I originally felt there were a few "muzzak" themes in Silksong. If you ask me to remember Deep Docks, gun to my head, I would probably fumble. Whereas things like Greenpath stick in your head like glue.
But it is also true that the areas often were going for a more ambient-style music so they are not as catchy. On the other hand, I can be listening to boss OSTs on loop without ever getting tired. It is also a more ambitious and obviously more instrument rich soundtrack, with a lot more of money thrown into it. The scope and execution of some pieces is ridiculously bigger than anything the original HK had to show, which doesn't necessarily make the worse pieces. But as much as I liked HK OST , the highs from Skong more than make up for the lows. And I approached the Skong soundtrack as a non-believer.
I cannot comment on how Skong OST stands against E33, but it damn deserves any award by my metric. Some of the music can bring tears to my eyes, which hardly evee happens with other games.
Debatable. To u and me? Yeah. But to a lot of people E33’s soundtrack is better.
Just bc another game won an award doesn’t mean every other game has a inferior soundtrack, it just so happens that more people like it or it was chosen
If there is any single award that E33 absolutely deserved it's the soundtrack. Silksong soundtrack was great don't get me wrong, but E33 is my new favorite OST.
E33 should not have won the art direction, best rpg and indie game awards. It’s already won enough, and it’s not even an indie game when you compare it to the others in the category.
Also why did bf6 win the best sound design? It's just like every other fps with bullets and bombs going off every now and then with some buildings falling.
Sound design of E33 was epic and I was purely hitting dodges based on the sound rather than visual queues.
Also OSTs were very fitting with appropriate timing.
Guess they just wanted to please EA or didn't want E33 to go home with 10 awards.
Even without e33 i feel like hades 2 had a much stronger music than silksong, personally for me hades 2 was the best, e33 was 2nd and silksong 3rd(if even that, to be honest i didnt really love the music here and i feel like if i had played other games in the category i might prefer them over silksong too)
Yes. No, Expedition 33's soundtrack wasn't "just that good". Can we please stop disrespecting the other nominees by acting like this game is the second coming of Christ when it's not? Several amazing games, and in this context, amazing soundtracks, came out this year, and while you may THINK that you're acknowledging them, you're actually not
Silksong is my pick for best OST, because I liked the way that it makes use of ambience and how well the game manages to relate its music to what happens onscreen, and I love the musical storytelling going from Last Dive to Sister of the Void/Silksong
How is people saying that they think E33’s win was deserved because they found it was the best "disrespectful" but you saying that it wasn’t that good and that Silksong’s was better isn’t?
Christopher Larkin made a absolutely beautiful work in Silksong (Choral Chambers almost made me cry) but bro... E33 has a breathtaking ost, so epic and emocional, the voices, the lyrics, the arrangement, everything awesome, they deserved the best soundtrack
Honestly no. Hollow Knight had exclusively memorable bangers, yet I can only remember a few Silksong musics. Meanwhile I know E33's OST by heart after only playing it once
I don’t mean any hate to you or others at all
But E33 OST is too damn good man , I’ve played both games multiple times ( I’m insane )
And listened to both OSTs in my spare time …E33 hits different and hits hard .
THEY even had a whole opera dedicated to e33 music ,back in September .
Legitimately if anyone beat them out, i would’ve wanted to go and listen to that OST, because to me e33 was that peak.
Skong is lovely to listen to and look at but honestly I feel Hades II would’ve been a valid shout for both those categories too. Supergiant never miss on aesthetics.
Bro I read this at first as best game award and was going to go on a rant as to why silksong shouldn’t necessarily have gotten best game lmao. yeah bro of course I’m mad that silksong didn’t get best music every single song on the soundtrack was an absolute fuggin bop
Silksong shoulda won most awards butttttt not music. Hollowknight had amazing music that silksong just didn't hold a candle to, even the songs 3 you learn to play are legitimately bad
Silksongs soundtrack was honestly the most disappointing part of the game for me. Every single track in Hollow Knight was so incredible and mood setting I even listened to the soundtrack when I wasn't playing the game.
Silksongs just didn't hit the mark at all, there were a few exceptions being places like Choral Chambers & Bile water that were great but everything else was just....meh
Nope. Hollow Knight had more memorable soundtracks. Overall SS was a great contender but I dont feel It was the prime candidate for that award this year
As someone who loves both silksong and e33, I’m not. Silksong has a beautiful soundtrack, but it did not stick with me all the time like the original Hollow Knight soundtrack or like e33 did. E33 blew me away with how it contained so many variances in style and sound across the soundtrack and none of it ever felt strange or out of place. Silksong’s tracks are consistently beautiful and well crafted but not as memorable, for me.
Every nominee this year basically deserved the awards. If Silksong won, we'd say the same thing about E33, KCD2, Hades 2, and so on. What a damn fine year for players.
I understand the argument over best indie award and I love silksongs most. Choral chambers is a banger, but to say silksong should have beaten e33 best music is wild
I said it in another thread, but no. To me Silksong's OST as a whole was nothing special. It had some standout, fantastic tracks for sure, but otherwise the OST was very ambient. That fits what they were going for, and is inoffensive, but that does not put it in the running for best soundtrack I've heard this year.
E33's soundtrack has loads of tracks I'll happily listen to outside the game for years to come. Silksong has a handful at most I'd consider at that level.
Ultimately it's all subjective, but to me, best music is "Which game had the most bangers", and in that regard it's not even a contest.
It didn't shock me at all, E33 has been 'the thing' for awhile. It's just an award at the end of the day, doesn't mean much. Silksong is still incredible and deserves all the praise it's gotten :)
Both are realllllllllyyyyyyy good, I mean depends if you like instrumental music or french music after all, I get why e33 won everything tho, great game, I'm not the kind of person to insult other things just for personal likes
I actually never was struck by the music in SS, but it hit me multiple times during HK. I wonder if the music defaulted too low, and it never occurred to me to crank it up. I can instantly summon the bomp bomp bomp bomp of fungal wastes to mind, or the tense stringiness of deepnest. I don't remember any SS music.
I'm not judging, but can someone explain the uproar over Silksong not winning many/any awards? I've seen plenty of redditors discussing why other games should have won in years past, but it was just a discussion. This sub seems to be extremely upset Silksong didn't win, to a point where it's much more than any other game sub I've been a part of. As someone that couldn't care less about the awards my favorite games receive, I'm curious to know why some of you care so much. Again...not judging or anything like that, it's just not something I thought was that big of a deal and just trying to understand.
It's a shame, but we shouldn't take away from the other developers' achievements. It lived up to expectations, and that's what's so great about it. For us, it's a winner.
Don’t get me wrong I get why people give these awards so much attention but the reality is it’s a marketing show with awards to tie people over between ads. You should be more interested in the other game award shows which actually has its judges play all the games and several voting sequences
I feel like Silksong should have won more awards, but the music in E33 is just on another level.
When you get stunned into silence and hear the passion in the music, that’s something else. Not saying Silksong doesn’t wow me, but the OST award is justified.
Christopher Larkin did do a phenomenal job with Silksong’s soundtrack. But that’s about the only part of the post I agree with. I know, it’s subjective, but you have to recognize Lorien Testard’s accomplishment with Clair Obscur was herculean. And while I did think some of the categories where E33 ended up winning could have gone to Silksong, including GOTY, to be honest, i didn’t think the soundtrack category was much of a contest.
I don't think the creators made this with the intention of a bunch of fans pitchforking a game award. It's such a peaceful work of art, who asked for this
Music is incredibly subjective so its pretty hard to quantify it into an award and either game could've won. Personally as someone who 100%'d both games E33's music was way better to me personally. I also think that E33 has music that can be listened to without playing the game and understand the general vibe and emotions of the individual scene. I dont think I could say the same for Silksongs.
Yes.
I mean, I also thought the music and sound design in E33 was excellent, and totally understand why it would be an award winner.
Subjectively; I'm less of an active fan of heavy vocalization in my soundtracks overall, but that's just a personal taste thing, not a knock against E33's soundtrack.
But if it were me picking: Silksong would have taken it full-stop. The sound design and music was beautiful, and really, really somber.
I'm also biased a bit based on some personal IRL shit that was/is going on in my life, of which in an abstract way Silksong played an enormous role as a coping mechanism, but you can track those posts down if you want the lore.
End of the day: I loved this soundtrack. Probably can't really actively listen to it for a long while, but its stellar work.
not rly i was a good deal disappointed with the ost honestly. a few standouts but as a whole WAYYYYYY less identity than hollow knight and i feel like a lot of the more mid tracks over relied on HK motifs as well
Not in the slightest, great soundtrack but it was no Expedition 33. That soundtrack is a masterpiece, I have never heard anything like it. Nothing comes close.
Expedition 33's OST had vastly more variety and sung lyrics (aside from just opera singers) that injected more life and passion into its OST. Silksong's OST was fine, arguably even exceptional, for its scope as an OST for a 2D soulslike metroidvania platformer, but if forced to make an apples to apples comparison between OSTs while completely ignoring their context, Expedition 33's OST is just superior.
From what I've seen clair obscur soundtrack is universally praised, which is really confusing to me, because I like only a few tracks there. But with silksong's OST there isn't a single track I didn't like.
My Gf started listening to Clair obscure's sound track on her own from hearing me play the game and she's not a gamer. That made me think right away that they would take best music
I mean, it's jusr an award. I still prefer Sillsong ost overall.
It’s almost like the rules are made up, and the points don’t matter.
Now it’s time for Scenes From a Hat
the goty awards shouldn’t exist
I'm more annoyed that KCD2 didn't win one damn award
should've won the best rpg
This made the most sense to me. Expedition 33 deserved GOTY for sure and many other awards. But specifically for playing a role in a video game, I don't think there's anything better than KCD 2.
Didn’t even play KCD2 and I believe this. The concept is the most RPG embodied game I’ve ever heard.
E33 getting gory was valid, but best indie shoulda been skong (debatable tho) and rpg would have been kcd2. Art direction, e33 was valid but I think skong or hades 2 deserved it more
Edit: E33 getting GOTY, GOTY was valid. My ass cannot type
This. Choosing E33 over KCD2 as the best rpg of 2025 surprised me. E33 is clearly the favorite child of the jurys. Happy that it won so many awards but the two awards it didn't deserve to win are Best rpg and best indie game (debateable). And Tom (Henry) deserved a nomination in the best performer at The Game Awards in place of Erika Ishii imo.
No, to be honest I feel like the music in some areas is top notch, but it is not regular, and to me hollowknight did a better job on music, which was consistently excellent
I think this depends on how you evaluate OSTs. Hollow Knight had more individual stand-out melodic tracks, but I think the thematic cohesion of Silksong's music makes for a better overall soundtrack.
Yeah, I think I just much prefer strong melodic tracks. So many of the atmospheric tracks just blend together as ambient noise (I just listened to The Marrows and I already feel like I forgot it). I don’t think it’s any surprise why Cogwork Core and Bilewater get constantly thrown around as the best in the game. They have really strong melodic ideas.
Also, does it miff anyone that the 3-fold melody doesn’t get incorporated into any actual songs? I feel like it should’ve been used as part of the cradle theme or something.
That’s the kind of idea you need an actual large team of people working on a game to come up with. No matter how good TC and Larkin are, they’re limited by the number of heads on the job. That’s how it takes six years to make a game where you still end up asking this kind of question. Don’t get me wrong, great game, but not perfect.
It seems like this soundtrack was just a case of ‘it’s silk this time so it has to be strings’. But it has more standouts than those two. Listen to Bone Bottom outside of the game for example - just play it straight through.
There’s a YouTuber I’ve watched a few videos of break down what’s going on in many of the favourite tracks - it gave me a respect and appreciation that I didn’t have before when I was just missing the Hollow Knight piano.
What “kind of idea” are you talking about? Reusing musical ideas in more than one place? Lots of game OSTs, even for big AAA studios, are not made by large teams. Most Final Fantasy games have a single composer.
I’m saying a lot of game development is ‘hey we should -‘ and you can see that that is how TC makes its games. If it’s just a few people and they tell one guy make us a score for this game, that’s not enough creative jazz to surface the idea of weaving something like the threefold melody into the game’s music.
Even if they did think of it and decide against it, I’m making a broader point that Silksong is such a full game that what it lacks, after six years of development, shows the limitations of the current team. A game this good, that took six years to make, that IS full of these ‘nice touches’ (like Red Maiden being a variation of Hornet from HK) should have all of them - that’s my point. At a certain point you need more people so they can have flashes of brilliance that elevate and elevate and elevate the product. TC getting medieval over a game - we have seen the most that can achieve.
So yes - to your broader point too - the missed opportunities do bug me as well.
I dont know anything about E33 so I cant say if it deserved the win but I think a lot of people here a judging silksongs music based on how "catchy" it is.Hollow Knights soundtrack is a lot more "melodic" compared to silksong's, as in they are easier to humm and remember.
That being said,what I personally love about silksong's music is just how well it transmits the emotion of where the player should be at that part of the story and how well the whole soundtrack fits together and with the context.
I still remember how immersive it felt fighting widow and hearing her frenetic theme, win, geting back to bellhart, and listen to its theme for the first time as it comes back to life, getting a rest after just climbing half the kingdom.
Then for example, the mist, how you slowy travel whats basically a maze surrounded by drakes while listening to this misterious organ, then finding this huge structure as the music get louder and louder just to enter and find the one playing the organ.Only for the phantom to slam the organ as that music that we've been hearing for a while to turn into a more violent and imposing version of itself as you draw your needle to fight.
And there are tons of examples where the musci elevates the context that much:Blasted Steps, Citadel, GMS, cogwork dancers, latter clover dancers, last dive and lost lace's theme and the buildup to it.
In my humble opinion silksong does an amazing job at making the soundtrack significant to the theme and context of where the player is and what have they done before.If you ask me even better than how hollow knight did it.
I disagree, and think, outside of bosses, the musics that you hear the most are the themes of the biomes. And in those I think the Citadel is on par with Hollow Knight, and Greymoor, Far Fields, The Marrow, are at the lowest of the low. And in between are a great number of tracks, that make do, that are okay, not going to listen to them individually, are fine. And many do not feel distinctive and could be replaced by one another.
That is my opinion, I gave it earlier and I am quite surprised to see that I am not the only one thinking that, seeing all the upvotes
I do have to agree that the biome soundtracks aren't nearly as memorable as hollow knights, tho, unpopular opinion, I would say the best of silksong is still better than the best ones from hollow knight even if they are less frequent.I still can't think of songs better than lace or last dive except for maybe Sealed Vessel and Daughter of Hallownest. Also just something I noticed, for some reason, the default volume settings of silksong leaves many situations and bosses where you simply can't hear the music over all the things happening.I outright missed the second half of lost lace's theme because of all the things going on and had to hear the soundtrack later.
I mean half the soundtrack is Dies Irae motifs. Hollow Knight was genius but Silksong wasn't quite at that level.
No disrespect intended the music is still great but there is Danny Elfman in Nightmare and Danny Elfman in Charlie and the Chocolate factory and both are better than I could dream of composing but I wouldn't listen to Charlie on my own time.
I’m surprised to see so many people in agreement. I thought that Bellhart, Bilewater, Last Dive, and Lost Lace (just to name a few) were better than any song off the HK soundtrack
What did you like about lost lace? I thought it was the worst ost its so unfitting for the final final boss
Really? The second half is so sweeping and epic with that hint of tragedy. I remember literally turning the volume way up during that fight and that immersion made it one of the most intense moments I’ve ever experienced in a video game.
Did we listen to the same OST???
exactly, i think overall, hollow knight had more consistent bangers.
I like silksong more than hollow knight, but hollow knight has better music
I think so too. Even the pacing, the combat and the exploration balance, the slow ascend of hardship, overall hollow knight holds it up compared to silksong
I disagree on the combat, didn't think about the rest. To me Silksong is just an improved hollow knight, except on a few things like the music
I will say that we have had the Hollow Knight soundtrack for years to grow attached to and learn, idk if that affects the view of Silksongs new and unfamiliar OST as much as I think or not
If all songs were up to the level of the Citadel, I would listen to all of them. Right now I just want to listen to a few, and have almost all of Hollow Knight to listen to
I agree, the music and sound design was a big step back from HK. The only areas that stood out to me were in the citadel, and even those were hit or miss.
Shellwood and bilgewater are amazing though? Hit or miss doesn't really make sense either because not every area theme in hollow knight is a banger either.
I disagree about Bilewater, but Shellwood was good. I thought city of tears was about on par for some of the citadel sections, but for other areas places like Dirtmouth, Greenpath, Fungal Wastes all stand out way more than area themes in Silksong. I just didn’t get the same impact with Silksong. More of my view is that the boss fights were not great. I can’t really name a memorable boss theme until cogwork dancers and GMS.
Hornet, Mantis Lords, Dung Defender, Soul Master, NKG off the top of my head were more impactful and enjoyable to me.
Broken Vessel.
Fungal wastes is very bland compared to blaster steps for example. Also how is strive, widow, lace, fourth chorus and phantom not memorable? Hollow Knight's score is remembered as being nothing but bangers because the tracks that aren't as good as the rest just aren't remembered.
If somebody had a gun to my head and said hum along to any of those I’m toast. Different strokes for different folks. I thought Silksong was a step back musically and didn’t enjoy it as much as HK on that regard. Glad you found it memorable though.
Could we please ban these circlejerk karma farming posts already? I swear it's been just an unending stream of complaining and complaining about complaining and now I'm complaining about both!
Oh yeah?!? Well I’m TIRED of the complainers complaining about the complaining complainers of complacent complaining of the complainers about the complainers complaining about complainers!!!! So take that!!
Happy cake day at least!
Seriously. I’m on the verge of leaving this subreddit because it’s been nonstop the last few days and today especially
Not really. Silksong's music was great, but it was also just, more hollow knight. Personally I didn't feel like the music in Silksong hit as hard as when I first played Hollow Knight. But the music, the genres, the wildness that was Clair Obscur's soundtrack blew me away. Unlike anything I've heard before, where's with Silksong, I felt I had heard it before.
When I heard the skarrsinger Karmelita theme I ascended
The Gestral Merchant Battle Theme could've been the Karmelita theme, and Silksong players would be calling it the best track in the game.
In E33, it's just a throwaway track, largely inconsequential, and not one of the big hitters at all. Insane.
This is the only E33 song I've ever heard, but if this is the average quality, then I gotta give E33 the nod here. Damn that's good.
I'm gonna be frank, this is E33 showing off the bottom of the barrel for their OST.
The game has a few merchants dotted around the game, and you can choose to do a goofy little fight with them to unlock a few extra items in their stock. This is what the music is for. To fight the goofy merchants who look like paint brushes.
One of E33s splash page song "Expedition 33 - Lumiere" is really good, and I advise listening to that one if you want to get a taste of the music before playing. Again, it's the song that plays when you launch the game so it won't spoil you on the seriously epic boss battle themes, one of which is easily the best music I've heard in a video game.
Karmelita theme clears and its not even the best song in the game. E33 has better songs too
From a compositional standpoint, I'm not actually terribly impressed, sorry. The production is good, but it's a very typical "loop" song with tracks just being layered up as it goes, over a very common four-chord progression. There isn't a very high amount of creativity in it.
It's probably one of the worst tracks in the game though, and like... not to be funny but how much of the Silksong soundtrack fits that description just as much?
If your complaint is that a battle theme sounds like a loop, it is absolutely designed to be used as a loop. Don't know what to tell you.
If you want to be impressed, go listen to "For Those Who Come After", "Paintress", "La vie une t'aimer", "Monoco", and I really could go on listing them because it's a LOT of the soundtrack.
Yeah, not ragging on the rest of the soundtrack, to be clear, I just wasn't exactly impressed by that track, and it certainly doesn't displace Karmelita's theme and some of the classical writing used in it. The drum track really hurt my estimation of it too, because I've always found the "orchestra over a fast rock beat" thing is tragically overdone, especially in the JRPG genre.
That makes sense. You should definitely listen to Rain From Below if you want an E33 song that feels really original for a fight theme.
That's better, for sure, and definitely would've been a better example for mucus-fettuccini (ew lol) up there to have used in comparison to Skarrsinger Karmelita. There's still something about some of the notation that's throwing me though: little interactions between the melody and the rest that sound good in isolation - i.e. the musical phrases themselves would be fine when played alone - but aren't pairing well and cause dissonance on certain "intersections". Might just also be my tinny phone speaker muddying things up though, so I won't cast aspersions without a listen on a proper audio setup.
Thems be the fight loops. When you're playing in game, those sections aren't stacked back to back in the same way and instead you'll repeat part of it for longer (also true for Hollow Knight). I think the soundtrack was put together pretty slapdash compared to in game to be honest.
Haha glad you like my username
So I actually made a point to choose a track that isn't one of the big hitters in the game. I chose it for two reasons:
To show that a throwaway track in the game (used when fighting merchants, which is optional and quickly over) somehow goes this hard, which speaks to the incredibly high average quality of the OST.
It would actually work in the Karmelita fight as a replacement theme, because it has the operatic vocalization for the diegetic effect of fighting the singer, and it feels like a theme for a fast paced dance, which I think works.
The theme you're talking about now, Rain From Below, is freaking awesome, but wouldn't match the Karmelita fight well, so my claim that it could've been the theme for that fight and Silksong fans would then rave about it, wouldn't hold well.
If you want to see what the truly, truly great battle themes in E33 sound like, definitely check out The Paintress and Une Vie A T'aimer.
It's "une vie a t'aimer" which translate to "a life loving you"
That's the one
Out of all the osts you listed, Monoco and the Paintress sounded the best.
Was more impressed than I thought I'd be. I have no doubt e33 has an amazing soundtrack, I just 100% prefer hollow knight and always will.
What's insane is that you think the two tracks are comparable at all. This track is nowhere near as intense as Skarrsinger Karmelita and does not fit thematically with the rest of the soundtrack. While this is not a big hitter it still stands out above the average piece in the soundtrack, while silksongs is great all around. At the end of the day musical taste is subjective, but what you said feels kinda gross.
To me the biggest issue with silksong soundtrack is that it doesn't stand "great all around". It sits in the background most of the time, and while it has a few memorable themes - like choral chambers, cogwork core and aforementioned Karmelita, the most don't stand out.
Like I can't tell you what the theme for Deep Docks or Far Fields even sounds like and I've been in those areas like 2 hours ago. That wasn't true for the original game. I haven't played it in years, and yet I still remember themes for Dirtmouth, Crossroads, Fungal Wastes, Greenpath, Queen's Gardens, City of Tears, Soul Sanctum, White Palace. Pretty much every area theme was so memorable.
Hell, this is Hornet game, and we didn't even get Hornet theme aside from small callback to it in Red Maiden - a theme which isn't even used all that much.
And it's not like OST is bad or anything. Listening to these tracks separately is actually rather pleasant experience overall, but they just don't have as much presence and impact on me like the OST of the first game.
Imo, Karmelita relies on the strength of its context in order to be so memorable. The fight itself is epic in terms of visual design, mechanics, buildup, and writing, and the soundtrack is elevated by association. I digested the whole Silksong soundtrack between beating Act 2 and unlocking Act 3, and found Karmelita pretty forgettable up until doing the actual fight. And afterwards, most of the piece's appeal comes from reminding me of that fight, not being great of its own accord.
There really isn't much more to it than a melody over a standard violin ostinato following a standard chord progression. The only remarkable element is the fact that the melody is carried by a lone vocalist, which sets it apart thematically from the rest of the soundtrack (in a good and narratively fitting way). If anything, I find the piece is fairly disappointing because its harmony seems to promise motion only to take you back to the tonic; the only development comes from a minor switchup in the ostinato, which actually made me roll my eyes when I first heard it because of how much of an underdelivery it is. This might be an intentional design choice: the piece is meant to capture an old moment of glory, frozen in a dying memory. But there are ways to convey this without weakening the actual writing.
I have a similar complaint about the Gestral Merchant Theme. The action of that piece comes from an emergent submelody in the accompaniment that struggles with the main melody for dominance. This struggle is facilitated through a conscious weakening of some musical elements - the main melody is meandering, tropey, and over-reliant on register shifts to generate tension, while the harmony is static, presumably as a concession to make the piece's polyphony easier to handle.
I do think that this approach speaks to some deficiencies of the composer in polyphonic writing, but those deficiencies are very relative, and the piece otherwise shows off some spectacular technical strengths. The elements that are chosen to realize the core struggle - namely orchestration, phrasing, and texture - are deployed with effortless fluency, and in my opinion are far more technically impressive than anything Karmelita attempts.
Ultimately, I don't think either ought to be held up as standout examples of their soundtracks. Gestral Merchant is more technically impressive, but Karmelita is more enjoyable due to its association with a narrative masterstroke, which helps to paper over its weaknesses.
Are these Silksong players in the room with us right now?
Clair Obscur is an incredible game in all aspects, the first bit is some of my favorite gaming moments ever. The rest of the game is good, but it has one of the best opening moments in gaming history.
Classic case of Silksong came out in a very competitive year for gaming, and therefore ended up being second best.
The ost was great, I love it.
But it's not the same level as e33, come on.
TC also didn't even bother going to the awards either, so I honestly don't think they care.
They really dont as far as I can tell… they prolly think its not that important
They are in a unique situation. They have this massively successful thing on their hands that is basically totally independent from the industry. They don't need promotion, they don't need to cross pollinate programmers, developers, designers, anything. They don't need to participate in the culture, whatsoever.
To me, if they don't want to be included, that's fine for TC, but it puts the game awards in a tough spot. Why should they be handing out awards to people who can't be fucked to even show up? ...but snubbing them completely will piss off the fans, because their game is so good it deserves the credit.
I dunno. I frankly don't love it that TC skipped it. But in their shoes I get it.
Yeah, I definitely get you where you’re coming from with that it is odd that they just didn’t really care to show up though it could be them being modest like “hey our game is nothing special” or it’s just they don’t have time I mean they have talked about Silksong DLC if I remember correctly and I’m sure they wanna get that done.
From the interviews I've read about them, they are just a couple really private guys that want to do their own thing, and a schmoozy awards ceremony is probably not their cup of tea.
They literally just chilled for years on end vibing in a sensory deprivation chamber developing a game while we all lost our collective mind (as did everyone tangentially related), they are the most not caring people who ever didn't care (not really even in a bad way, tbh - they are just doing their thing, very "Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing."-energy)
E33 absolutely deserved the soundtrack win, and I say that having played both games. Silksong is still my favorite game, but E33 is the winner in this category. I love Larkin's work though, no shade at all towards him or my favorite game.
E33 deserves the OST win and it isnt even close. No video game I have ever played has integrated an OST so well into a story before. There are moments where the music feels like an actual character of the story.
I like Silksong's soundtrack, but it's not some crazy standout exceptional piece of art. Silksong is my favorite game flatout but the fact is that it did not lose in a single category that it should have won except for Player's Choice, which is the fakest of fake competitions anyway.
No.
Skong's music is fantastic, but E33's ost is one of the greatest soundtracks I've ever listened to.
Nope
I think team cherry should have won studio of the year.
E33 might be good, but atp, it's just overgalzed
while I fully support most E33 wins, not giving the game with cogwork core best music ever is a crime.
absolutely agree, chris made a phenomenal ost and deserves his flowers
I've done an experiment together with my friend:
We've opened both (SK & E33) full sountracks on YouTube and tried playing at random moments. SK music had overall greater number of cool soundtracks that actually felt like music, while most of the E33 had like a plain piano/violine in the background.
Imo E33 won because it had higher peaks without considering the whole sountrack.
Yeah, it’s an award snub. As expected from the AAA industry, they’re still afraid because an indie made them look bad.
I'm more annoyed that Silksong didn't win Best Indie. expedition had an estimated 5-10 million dollars budget and a publisher (Kepler Interactive), so it's by no means an Indie Game.
I personally found Silksongs ost a little lacking, only one or two tracks really got through to me, though the quality was still solid. E33 was very unique, I consistently stopped to soak it all in.
Silksong should have won GOTY tbh. Probably too difficult a game for the judges. I love Jeff Gerstmann but he’s a judge and didn’t seem to even like the game, just a grumpy old gamer, so if others are like him…
Oh well, doesn’t matter, the creators are millionaires they don’t need awards.
I loved Silksong, and I will say straight up, E33 had infinitely better music. Silksong was a lot more atmospheric which is what it needed, but, that doesn't win awards.
No
I think e33 has a better sound track overall with more variety. The top songs of silk song were comparable though.
E33 had like 2 amazing themes(Alicia and the take down the paintress theme) and one really fun and charming one(mime) before you actually do anything. Then it kept going and going with multiple different high level themes with a lot of variety.
I really liked a few of silksongs themes like the clockwork area, lace and skarrsinger but I think it was still quite a bit weaker in terms of overall music compared to e33 or the original HK
First time i entered Sirene's island i just stood there for an hour admiring the vibe.
Honestly speaking - half of E33 OSTs are straight up playlist-worthy.
Silksong music absolutely blown my mind, even it doesn’t win it stay in my car playlist, the Citadel tones are perfect.
Hollow Knight's music was better — it had more character and was more memorable.
While Silksong has multiple fantastic tracks, the entirety of its soundtrack disappointed me greatly, because I expected it to improve relative to its prequel.
Agree to disagree, in my opinion Silksong’s soundtrack is an improvement on HK
Agreed. Hollow Knight’s was very obviously synthetic (not inherently a negative though). I much prefer the composition and real quality that Silksongs OST has.
I think most people are just saying that Silksong’s soundtrack is less memorable because TC purposefully put the OST audio lower in this game and also narrowed the EQ to create a muffled sound so it sounds like the music was further back.
Listen to a song like Choral Chambers, Bellhart, or Bilewater in the OST compared to the area and you will quickly hear the difference.
Tbh I almost always bumb the soundtrack up compared to the rest of the sound in video games, I feel like it’s often too quiet for my liking
No. E33’s soundtrack is THAT good I would’ve been shocked if it did not win. This and GOTY were the only ones I was 1000% sure were locked in for E33. My only annoyance (and it is a big one), is that they won best indie.
Atomic bomb vs hydrogen bomb, both are great but its e33 you cant fight that
Silksong was good. E33 is one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard.
People are entitled to their opinions. If you loved Silksong's soundtrack better, that's fine. But can everyone stop being so butthurt that the majority of voters didn't agree with you?
no, but I would have given it to death stranding 2 personally
I originally felt there were a few "muzzak" themes in Silksong. If you ask me to remember Deep Docks, gun to my head, I would probably fumble. Whereas things like Greenpath stick in your head like glue.
But it is also true that the areas often were going for a more ambient-style music so they are not as catchy. On the other hand, I can be listening to boss OSTs on loop without ever getting tired. It is also a more ambitious and obviously more instrument rich soundtrack, with a lot more of money thrown into it. The scope and execution of some pieces is ridiculously bigger than anything the original HK had to show, which doesn't necessarily make the worse pieces. But as much as I liked HK OST , the highs from Skong more than make up for the lows. And I approached the Skong soundtrack as a non-believer.
I cannot comment on how Skong OST stands against E33, but it damn deserves any award by my metric. Some of the music can bring tears to my eyes, which hardly evee happens with other games.
Debatable. To u and me? Yeah. But to a lot of people E33’s soundtrack is better.
Just bc another game won an award doesn’t mean every other game has a inferior soundtrack, it just so happens that more people like it or it was chosen
Or ART?? like how
Look i liked e33 soundtrack. But it doesn't even come close to how good silksongs is imo. Absolute masterpiece
Did Silksong win anything?
Best action adventure
Nice!
Not at all. E33 def had a better soundtrack. Aside from Choral Chambers, Lost Lace and Karmelita, soundtrack was underwhelming compared to HK
Karmelita is peak
If there is any single award that E33 absolutely deserved it's the soundtrack. Silksong soundtrack was great don't get me wrong, but E33 is my new favorite OST.
E33 should not have won the art direction, best rpg and indie game awards. It’s already won enough, and it’s not even an indie game when you compare it to the others in the category.
Silksong should have won about half of what Crap Obsur Excretion 33 won
I expected it to win only two things, best actor and best soundtrack, neither of them.
Maybe even the art award, since the whole of Silksong was hand-drawn by a single Ari Gibson, and not to mention, looks beautiful!
For that too
Also why did bf6 win the best sound design? It's just like every other fps with bullets and bombs going off every now and then with some buildings falling.
Sound design of E33 was epic and I was purely hitting dodges based on the sound rather than visual queues.
Also OSTs were very fitting with appropriate timing.
Guess they just wanted to please EA or didn't want E33 to go home with 10 awards.
Oh is that how you’re meant to dodge? I just started today and I was trying to judge the attack animation to parry.
The animation is the most important, but the sound will often be the better cue. Just feel it out for each attack.
Biggest advice: Keep music volume high as it's the best musical experience.
Idk if that's the intended way but something I figured out and preferred more than the visual queue.
Sound cues will always be quicker to react to. It’s why a lot of fighting game players will have headphones straight to game to pick up on those cues.
Arc Raiders definitely deserved the sound design award, shame they disn't get nominated.
As much as I respect E33 for what it is, it winning best art direction AND music was genuinely insane
Silksong should've EASILY won best art direction and music, and if it didn't win best art, Hades 2 should've won it
Art direction i completely agree with you, but for music I completely understand why it went to E33.
absolutely, e33's music wasn't very special to me at all
No, because the VGAs are a meaningless award show and always have been.
No. I gave up on every award stuff long ago. It's never good in any industry.
Silksong didnt win WHAT?!?! Silksong has the best damn soundtrack in AGES
Even without e33 i feel like hades 2 had a much stronger music than silksong, personally for me hades 2 was the best, e33 was 2nd and silksong 3rd(if even that, to be honest i didnt really love the music here and i feel like if i had played other games in the category i might prefer them over silksong too)
Yes. No, Expedition 33's soundtrack wasn't "just that good". Can we please stop disrespecting the other nominees by acting like this game is the second coming of Christ when it's not? Several amazing games, and in this context, amazing soundtracks, came out this year, and while you may THINK that you're acknowledging them, you're actually not
Silksong is my pick for best OST, because I liked the way that it makes use of ambience and how well the game manages to relate its music to what happens onscreen, and I love the musical storytelling going from Last Dive to Sister of the Void/Silksong
How is people saying that they think E33’s win was deserved because they found it was the best "disrespectful" but you saying that it wasn’t that good and that Silksong’s was better isn’t?
Christopher Larkin made a absolutely beautiful work in Silksong (Choral Chambers almost made me cry) but bro... E33 has a breathtaking ost, so epic and emocional, the voices, the lyrics, the arrangement, everything awesome, they deserved the best soundtrack
E33 had the most beautiful OST i've ever heard, tbh
Honestly no. Hollow Knight had exclusively memorable bangers, yet I can only remember a few Silksong musics. Meanwhile I know E33's OST by heart after only playing it once
Wait really ;-; I thought it was a silk post.
I don’t mean any hate to you or others at all But E33 OST is too damn good man , I’ve played both games multiple times ( I’m insane ) And listened to both OSTs in my spare time …E33 hits different and hits hard .
THEY even had a whole opera dedicated to e33 music ,back in September . Legitimately if anyone beat them out, i would’ve wanted to go and listen to that OST, because to me e33 was that peak.
Skong is lovely to listen to and look at but honestly I feel Hades II would’ve been a valid shout for both those categories too. Supergiant never miss on aesthetics.
Silksong should have competed against Hades II for best indie, not fucking E33 which was obviously going to sweep GOTY and soundtrack
Bro I read this at first as best game award and was going to go on a rant as to why silksong shouldn’t necessarily have gotten best game lmao. yeah bro of course I’m mad that silksong didn’t get best music every single song on the soundtrack was an absolute fuggin bop
Silksong shoulda won most awards butttttt not music. Hollowknight had amazing music that silksong just didn't hold a candle to, even the songs 3 you learn to play are legitimately bad
Not really. They're both amazing soundtracks
This was the one I was really hoping for. But at the same time, it's also the most subjective. So I can't really get that upset it didn't happen
No because that would be really weird thing to be annoyed about
Silksongs soundtrack was honestly the most disappointing part of the game for me. Every single track in Hollow Knight was so incredible and mood setting I even listened to the soundtrack when I wasn't playing the game.
Silksongs just didn't hit the mark at all, there were a few exceptions being places like Choral Chambers & Bile water that were great but everything else was just....meh
Awards ?? .. who cares ..
I mean I still listen to hollow knight tracks... I don't recall looking for silk song tracks...
Yep.... :(
A little bit, but I’ve stopped caring by this point
I was sad we didn't get to hear bilewater at the awards...
I'm not annoyed at all. It's an award show not a sports team
nope (as in, it doesn't bother me in the slightest)
Nope. Hollow Knight had more memorable soundtracks. Overall SS was a great contender but I dont feel It was the prime candidate for that award this year
HKS has solid music, but I'm not playing it in my car on the way to work or anything.
no
As someone who loves both silksong and e33, I’m not. Silksong has a beautiful soundtrack, but it did not stick with me all the time like the original Hollow Knight soundtrack or like e33 did. E33 blew me away with how it contained so many variances in style and sound across the soundtrack and none of it ever felt strange or out of place. Silksong’s tracks are consistently beautiful and well crafted but not as memorable, for me.
Every nominee this year basically deserved the awards. If Silksong won, we'd say the same thing about E33, KCD2, Hades 2, and so on. What a damn fine year for players.
e33 has really good music but i wouldnt listen to it outside silksong had better music
Nah man, if there's one award E33 deserved, it's OST
Genuinely made me bust
E33 is way better and love both HK games.
No, because Expedition 33 had the best sound track I've ever heard
I think HK had better music but Silksong still good
I think way too many people give a shit about the game awards
I understand the argument over best indie award and I love silksongs most. Choral chambers is a banger, but to say silksong should have beaten e33 best music is wild
I said it in another thread, but no. To me Silksong's OST as a whole was nothing special. It had some standout, fantastic tracks for sure, but otherwise the OST was very ambient. That fits what they were going for, and is inoffensive, but that does not put it in the running for best soundtrack I've heard this year.
E33's soundtrack has loads of tracks I'll happily listen to outside the game for years to come. Silksong has a handful at most I'd consider at that level.
Ultimately it's all subjective, but to me, best music is "Which game had the most bangers", and in that regard it's not even a contest.
It didn't shock me at all, E33 has been 'the thing' for awhile. It's just an award at the end of the day, doesn't mean much. Silksong is still incredible and deserves all the praise it's gotten :)
Both are realllllllllyyyyyyy good, I mean depends if you like instrumental music or french music after all, I get why e33 won everything tho, great game, I'm not the kind of person to insult other things just for personal likes
I actually never was struck by the music in SS, but it hit me multiple times during HK. I wonder if the music defaulted too low, and it never occurred to me to crank it up. I can instantly summon the bomp bomp bomp bomp of fungal wastes to mind, or the tense stringiness of deepnest. I don't remember any SS music.
not really, the music wasn't anything too special, hollow knight's music was way better and it came out years ago
Honestly I'd say e33 and silksong sings are on average pretty equal, but no song in silksong beats une vie a tamier or pendre
e33 really had better music overall
It’s not even close e33 has the best music ever
lol no. Expedition 33 music elevated the game to new heights
I'm not judging, but can someone explain the uproar over Silksong not winning many/any awards? I've seen plenty of redditors discussing why other games should have won in years past, but it was just a discussion. This sub seems to be extremely upset Silksong didn't win, to a point where it's much more than any other game sub I've been a part of. As someone that couldn't care less about the awards my favorite games receive, I'm curious to know why some of you care so much. Again...not judging or anything like that, it's just not something I thought was that big of a deal and just trying to understand.
Not at all, E33 is in a higher league comparing to silksong in term of musics.
I’m sorry but absolutely not. E33 OST will be remembered as one of the greatest ever. Up there with the absolute goats.
It or hades 2 shouldve. E33 ost is really good but gets boring because its too similar
Hell no. Music was nice in some areas but not CLOSE to being the noticeably banging or heart wrenching as it was in the first game.
And all the music in Hollow knight are still in my head but from silksong the only song i remember is that stupid funk from Cogwork Core.
It was kinda obvious, but I can't deny hoping for other results
The game awards are pointless nonsense that hold zero actual value.
it's just a Fancy House Decor, What Matters is Living Breathing Lovers of Bro's Music.
It's a shame, but we shouldn't take away from the other developers' achievements. It lived up to expectations, and that's what's so great about it. For us, it's a winner.
Anyone else annoyed that fucking DOOM didn't win the best music award?
Don’t get me wrong I get why people give these awards so much attention but the reality is it’s a marketing show with awards to tie people over between ads. You should be more interested in the other game award shows which actually has its judges play all the games and several voting sequences
Dude, Games award are stupid. That is
I mean sure the Silksong OST is great!!
But, uh, sorry did you listen to the Expedition 33 OST?? This kind of OST is RARE. Absolutely insane.
As bellway/bench room bgm plays in my head Yes.
Ex33 only had like 2 good songs while every Silksong OST so divine
No.
I feel like Silksong should have won more awards, but the music in E33 is just on another level.
When you get stunned into silence and hear the passion in the music, that’s something else. Not saying Silksong doesn’t wow me, but the OST award is justified.
Not really, no. E33 is only the second game to make it unto my playlist after Mass Effect 1.
Christopher Larkin did do a phenomenal job with Silksong’s soundtrack. But that’s about the only part of the post I agree with. I know, it’s subjective, but you have to recognize Lorien Testard’s accomplishment with Clair Obscur was herculean. And while I did think some of the categories where E33 ended up winning could have gone to Silksong, including GOTY, to be honest, i didn’t think the soundtrack category was much of a contest.
I don't think the creators made this with the intention of a bunch of fans pitchforking a game award. It's such a peaceful work of art, who asked for this
Nahh. Silksongs OST was really great, but nowhere near as memorable as E33. It's not even as memorable to me as the first HK.
no because I haven't played any of the other games yet so I dont know how good their music is. Still was routing for him tho
Music is incredibly subjective so its pretty hard to quantify it into an award and either game could've won. Personally as someone who 100%'d both games E33's music was way better to me personally. I also think that E33 has music that can be listened to without playing the game and understand the general vibe and emotions of the individual scene. I dont think I could say the same for Silksongs.
bro how tf you think anyone would win against this
Poor trobio
Yes. I mean, I also thought the music and sound design in E33 was excellent, and totally understand why it would be an award winner. Subjectively; I'm less of an active fan of heavy vocalization in my soundtracks overall, but that's just a personal taste thing, not a knock against E33's soundtrack.
But if it were me picking: Silksong would have taken it full-stop. The sound design and music was beautiful, and really, really somber. I'm also biased a bit based on some personal IRL shit that was/is going on in my life, of which in an abstract way Silksong played an enormous role as a coping mechanism, but you can track those posts down if you want the lore. End of the day: I loved this soundtrack. Probably can't really actively listen to it for a long while, but its stellar work.
E33, SIlksong and Hades II were all valid winners in that category.
not rly i was a good deal disappointed with the ost honestly. a few standouts but as a whole WAYYYYYY less identity than hollow knight and i feel like a lot of the more mid tracks over relied on HK motifs as well
Not in the slightest, great soundtrack but it was no Expedition 33. That soundtrack is a masterpiece, I have never heard anything like it. Nothing comes close.
Expedition 33's OST had vastly more variety and sung lyrics (aside from just opera singers) that injected more life and passion into its OST. Silksong's OST was fine, arguably even exceptional, for its scope as an OST for a 2D soulslike metroidvania platformer, but if forced to make an apples to apples comparison between OSTs while completely ignoring their context, Expedition 33's OST is just superior.
To me very much
From what I've seen clair obscur soundtrack is universally praised, which is really confusing to me, because I like only a few tracks there. But with silksong's OST there isn't a single track I didn't like.
Any other year, absolutely.
But fucking hell the E33 soundtrack is ASTOUNDING
My Gf started listening to Clair obscure's sound track on her own from hearing me play the game and she's not a gamer. That made me think right away that they would take best music
I am, but I haven't played E33. I don't think I'll like the soundtrack more though.
Music is good, but the best one out there? hell no.