More little known outside of East Asia would be Blade & Soul's soundtrack as well as Aion's, both of which have some really standout tracks within them. Have some samples:
Worth noting is that NCSoft does NOT skimp on the soundtrack whatsoever. Most tracks are recorded with a live orchestra, something that doesn't happen too often for video games - for example, most Jeremy Soule soundtracks still use synthesizer software, and even FFXIV's soundtrack is mostly the same way, though there are a handful of orchestrated tracks here and there. That combined with the East Asian flavor of heavy emphasis on melodical themes makes their soundtracks a standout to my ears, versus the ambient orchestrated tracks often heard from Western composers.
There's just loads and loads of good stuff in their soundtracks, I can't even begin to list them all here. Mayhaps this will serve to entice someone to look into their stuff.
Worth noting is that NCSoft does NOT skimp on the soundtrack whatsoever. Most tracks are recorded with a live orchestra, something that doesn't happen too often for video games - for example, most Jeremy Soule soundtracks still use synthesizer software, and even FFXIV's soundtrack is mostly the same way, though there are a handful of orchestrated tracks here and there. That combined with the East Asian flavor of heavy emphasis on melodical themes makes their soundtracks a standout to my ears, versus the ambient orchestrated tracks often heard from Western composers.
There's just loads and loads of good stuff in their soundtracks, I can't even begin to list them all here. Mayhaps this will serve to entice someone to look into their stuff.
