Share your favorite 16-bit dungeon theme tracks!

[sandogma]

A lot of RPG's came out during the fourth generation of consoles. And with the transition from 8-bit to 16-bit, we got treated to some fantastic music for dungeons. There are some obvious choices that I'll let anyone who wants to share do so in this thread, but I'm also looking forward to hearing less commonly known tracks.

For example, I'll share three tracks that I feel are less known but really stood out for me. I'd love to hear your choices and please try to stick with 16-bit era music, as we can do seperate posts for the other console generations. There's plenty to choose from the 16-bit catalog already.

SNES - Star Ocean (1996) - Dim
Composed by Motoi Sakuraba, who later on composed music for the Dark Souls series, this track has a heavy weight of dispair to it but also has a cadence that gives you the feeling to persevere against the insurmountable odds that await you in the dungeon.

SNES - Last Bible 3 (1995) - Felest Tower
I have not yet played this game, but the soundtrack alone makes me want to one day. Composed by Hiroyuki Yanada, this track plays in a dungeon called Felest/Phelesteau and hot damn is it a banger. Whoever says the SNES can't do good synth sounds need to only take a listen to this track because its pulled off here in my opinion. And yes, I understand that its not a true "fm-synth" and only a sample thats being played, but its very effective!

Genesis/Mega Drive - Gauntlet 4 (1993) - Transparent Obstacle
Speaking of FM-Synth, I'm saving the best for last. While this choice might be stretching it a bit (would Gauntlet levels be considered dungeons?), I'm going to allow it because this track is just too spectacular to not share.
Composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, better known for his music in Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics, this track is 100% blood pumping, head bobbing CRUNCHY FM-Synth that the Yamaha YM2612 (Genesis sound chip) is infamous for. The track starts off with a very Halloween appropriate atmospheric opening, then the drum samples kick on, letting you know things are about to go down. I won't spoil the rest but it only gets better from there and is probably my favorite Genesis produced track of all time. Its THAT good!

 

[Strategist]

Motoi Sakuraba is the goat. He did his best work for the Valkyrie Profile series IMO. Here's one of my favorites. Moody and orchestral with a touch of heavy metal.

Ah yes, 16 bit era. My bad. Can't mention RPG dungeon tracks without mentioning the other GOAT - Nobuo Uematsu. My favorite dungeon track from the 16 bit era is FFIV's. Just something about this track hits the right notes for me.

I tend to like the tracks of Uematsu that have a bit of a ethereal, sad, mysterious element to them. Like the phantom forest

The first game I played where I was fully entranced by the music was Secret of Mana. I love the instrumentation and the flute. It was very soothing and yet energizing at the same time.

That was overworld music, this would be more like a dungeon theme:

 

[sandogma]

I did not know Motoi composed the music for the Valkyrie Profile series. I've been wanting to play those games but they're currently sitting in the "sooo many RPG's to play" list lol
No doubt about it, Nobuo Uematsu is the GOAT and the tracks you shared are some of my favorite dungeon tracks

Here's some more dungeon music, from another amazing composer, Yasunori Mitsuda.
SNES - Chrono Trigger (1995) - Secret of the Forest

SNES - Chrono Trigger (1995) - Underground Sewer

 

[Zemus]

Shinseiki Odysselya II's were a pleasant surprise for me. Ancient Roman's "cave" themes deserve a mention too for being so brilliantly over-the-top.

Also, very short dungeon, but "Kekkaiseki" from Dark Half. You'll thank me later.

I could rattle off a bunch more from the nether reaches of the SNES library if anyone's interested.

 

[Leon]

Since i posted singing mountain from chrono trigger in another thread i'll just mention it here.

Organic Beat, a track from phantasy star 4, you can feel the malice and evil in the track, really shows how good the genesis could sound if in the right hands,

The Final Decisive Battle, the first(in a flashback) and final dungeon theme from the game lufia and the fortress of doom, really get's that finality feel from me.

Holy King's Temple, a different type of track from the res, this is from a dungeon of trials.

Leave time for love from secret of mana would also go here but that game's already been mentioned, and while i do have games i have music for i can think of, most of them have superior renditions in newer remakes so i left those out.
This is just what's off the top of my head.

 

[Bonkers225]

 

[sandogma]

Since i posted singing mountain from chrono trigger in another thread i'll just mention it here.

Organic Beat, a track from phantasy star 4, you can feel the malice and evil in the track, really shows how good the genesis could sound if in the right hands,

The Final Decisive Battle, the first(in a flashback) and final dungeon theme from the game lufia and the fortress of doom, really get's that finality feel from me.

Holy King's Temple, a different type of track from the res, this is from a dungeon of trials.

Leave time for love from secret of mana would also go here but that game's already been mentioned, and while i do have games i have music for i can think of, most of them have superior renditions in newer remakes so i left those out.
This is just what's off the top of my head.

I really need to get around to playing the Phantasy Star games. I've heard this track before and it is indeed a great one. But I did not know it was used for a dungeon. Thank you for sharing!

I never played Lufia I, I went straight to Lufia 2 and recall this track is also used in the prequel. It really is a great track!

Holy King's Temple has a mysterious vibe to it, like you are somewhere sacred. Great choice!

 

[Leon]

I really need to get around to playing the Phantasy Star games. I've heard this track before and it is indeed a great one. But I did not know it was used for a dungeon. Thank you for sharing!

I never played Lufia I, I went straight to Lufia 2 and recall this track is also used in the prequel. It really is a great track!

Holy King's Temple has a mysterious vibe to it, like you are somewhere sacred. Great choice!

Phantasy star 4 is the one i'd suggest, if your going to play the other games, play 1 and 2's ps2 versions, not the master system/genesis versions, 1's just ok for the upgraded port but 2's is pretty major as it makes the game function far better and has better renditions of the same music, sadly we never got 3 and 4 remakes (3 is a black sheep, some love it other's hate it, 4 however is a utterly underrated game and really is one of the best rpg's of the era).

Lufia 1 is not really needed tbh, it's worth a playthrough once but i had to cheat to not just drop the game as it's so insanely archaic in comparison to 2, which is what the remake was based on.

I really hope romancing saga 3 get's a remake like 2 did, i consider it one of the best games on the snes, though good luck if you want to do all 8 stories (this is true for the other games in the saga series to be fair).

 

[Zemus]

Organic Beat is cool, but track 15 from Metalgun Slinger is even better. (same composer)