Videogame songs that last way longer than the parts where they play?

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Fight is like 30 seconds long when putting little to no effort

you press the frog switch almost inmediately after entering the stage and the "hurry up" theme begins to play

It only plays in a very short hallway in the stage before beggining the boss fights

 

[MrBird]

The "Mission Start" jingle from Double Dragon on NES only lasts about 7 or so seconds, but the actual song goes on for a bit longer than that.

 

[JustLooking123]

In Valkyrie Profile - Covenant of the Plume (nds), battle themes are always longer than the battle scenes!

And those battle themes... they are among best and most creative ones that i ever heard!

 

[Raud]

The stairs theme Of Killer 7, You can pass that room in 7 seconds.

 

[Moth_Lobster]

This song plays for a few seconds during a cutscene but its a full 2:50 song

 

[jon2]

Basically every band song in Bumpy Trot/Steambot Chronicles:

Which is understandable and kinda beneficial as well; you don't want to play accordion with the band on a full-length song

 

[xuvetyn96]

The main overworld theme from the OG Dragon Quest (particularly the Super Famicom remake) is actually pretty good, but you only ever hear the first 30 seconds since it restarts after every random encounter, which, of course, occurs very frequently. As a result, it grows tiresome very quickly.

 

[partymembervii]

the vast majority of music that plays during combat animations in the former half of the fire emblem series, i feel like you never get to hear the full song during gameplay

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

A video on this exact topic was actually made 2 days ago
Video Game Music meant to END

Other than that:

Calm After the Storm (plays in a 20 second cutscene, lasts for over a minute)

Unfinished Business/Battle whatever (plays only in one cutscene where you’ll hear most of it but not all of it)

Hurry Up! (Completely unused but would’ve played for Eggman, a fight that lasts less than 10 seconds)

Death Egg Zone (only plays for 4 seconds unless you stay in place)

There’s also Death Egg from Sonic Battle which once again only plays for a cutscene

 

[wilddogsdivorce]

it's not impossible to spend the duration of this song in the zone that it plays, it starts over when you move between screens. and this is in a time management game, i can only wonder how few people have heard this all the way through in game.

 

[MasterEn]

it's possible that this is deliberate so that you go out and buy the soundtrack to listen to the music tracks in full on their own; which would be another way of getting more money out of people.

 

[Letule]

A few examples from the classic Mega Man games:

Wily Castle's map theme in MM3 is only heard for about 3 seconds in-game due to the quick map navigation, but the song is a bit longer than that.

Punk's theme in MMIII (GB) is only heard once in the game, and it's quickly cut short when Mega Man enters the boss room. It's quite odd that this song never plays in the boss battle against Punk; instead, the game uses the regular boss theme song.

The Game Over theme in Mega Man (Game Gear) is only heard for about 7 seconds in-game, but the full version is 1 minute long before looping.

Wily Capsule's theme in Mega Man: The Power Battle is only heard for 9 seconds in-game due to a time limit, but the full version is 40 seconds long before looping.

 

[Antilocal123]

Uhhhhhh idk

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Calm After the Storm (plays in a 20 second cutscene, lasts for over a minute)

I really wished they would play it by default on the Egg Carrier after it crashed.

I mean the original theme is iconic but only works when it was actually threatening.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I really wished they would play it by default on the Egg Carrier after it crashed.

I mean the original theme is iconic but only works when it was actually threatening.

True!

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

True!

I think some mods do that but I'm not sure.

Oh and some music loop as there are cue points.

You could hear the end only in the soundtrack version. I am thankful when they let one in-game.

 

[Fray Guillermo]

Most of the times you only get to hear the first 10 seconds, still it's only just two short loops

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Gaia Gate from Sonic Unleashed, it only plays the start part during a (rather short) cutscene on the Xbox and PS3:

But thankfully it's in full when you play the SD (Wii and PS2) version:

 

[Amakuchi]

Atlus really decided to stick this banger in an area that takes like 5 seconds to traverse.

 

[Your_Homie_Gale]

This song only plays in 1 area in SMT IV. That's it. Just 1 area. Crazy that the area in question is the first room you're in after stepping out from a portal you entered through. And the room in question isn't even that big. Most places that have music are much larger than this 1 area alone and it baffles me that such a banger is only in this place.

 

[gothic soda]

The song that plays in Granin's radio when we first meet him

only 1 minute of It is played

 

[Segadude113]

There's a boss theme in Sonic Adventure when Sonic fights Knuckles or vice versa that isn't fully appreciated because the fights are over in 3 hits. lol

 

[trickybus]

Damn, there's a lot of Sonic tracks here...let's add another one!

But seriously, I really like this track after the opening chime I've heard dozens of times. In-game, most of it is drowned out by Tikal's voice.

 

[Mago]

16 minutes for a stage that takes maybe 3 to 4 minutes to get through.

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

This incredible song plays once in the beginning of the game where you have to head to one area and it takes like 30 seconds to get over to that location.

Another fantastic song! This plays where you will get constant encounters, so unless you deliberately don't move you may only listen to maybe up to 2 minutes of this 8 minute track. It's soo good!

Both of these are my favorite songs from each of their games.