patrikc: How important would you say music is in games? Do you think highly of a game with good music?
AB2012: Very. I'd go as far to say it's what makes half of The Elder Scrolls games (ie, wandering around in silence would get tedious as hell without the amazing Jeremy Soule soundtracks). The Bioshock's would also feel less "late 50's like" without matching soundtracks.
Arena and Daggerfall have great soundtracks, and Jeremy Soule was not involved in either game. (There's a lot of re-used music between them, and unfortunately, dungeons only have ambient sound. Also, Daggerfall does have a bug that can lead to a stuck note.)
dtgreene: Music that causes physical pain to the listener is bad music.
Swedrami: I never - and I mean never - had any music or sound in general affect me in such a way, so far.
I guess even a comparatively short phase of listening to nothing but Whitehouse, Einstürzende Neubauten or early Swans hardens one's ear drums against anything.
Electric guitar gives me headaches.
Also, what do you think of the Crazy Bus theme? (It's a bunch of random (as in, I believe it actually is generated by RNG) notes, and it sounds like garbage.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0cvwnG0Ik blueGretsch: My favourite is orchestral/symphonic/classical music, as well as acoustic music.
I like orchestral/symphonic music as well, including the soundtracks of such games as Hollow Knight and Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (remake) has a nice soundtrack as well, with an unusual combination of instruments.
As for classical, there's some nice baroque/classical style music in Bloodstained; Holy Wisdom is my favorite track from that game. It has a lot in common with a Bach fugue. (I suspect you were probably thinking romantic-era style music, but it's neat to hear baroque-era or classical-era style music in games, since that's less common.)
Renaissance-era style music can also work well.
I also like music based on folk music, especially klezmer/arabic style music. (Klezmer is rare in video games; I wish there were more of it. Arabic (or what I perceive as Arabic) is more common, particularly in desert levels.) Japanese folk music also works well.
The other type of music I like is chiptune music, particularly when it's trying to imitate those types of music.