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[Yuterald]

*This is a work

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X

"Hello?"
"What's with this sound mix?
"Why is the font-size so small?"
"Where my party members at?"
"I think I need new glasses."
"(I don't know what he's saying...)"
"Please tell me they're not serious."
"Not to sound so negative."
"But this game sucks!"

Xenoblade Chronicles X is the game I played the most in 2015. The soundtrack was more or less everything I expected and needed to hear. I'm not familiar with Hiroyuki Sawano outside of his work on this game, but I will argue that I enjoyed this game's OST, as a whole, more so than the original Xenoblade Chronicles. I have a huge soft spot (or maybe it's a guilty pleasure) for games that have soundtracks with a strong emphasis on lyrical content. I feel like this game covered everything I love about RPG soundtracks, too. There's so much variety and a lot of the good stuff seems to get lost within all of the racket/noise people make over how much they love/hate the NLA Theme, when there's shit like this or whatever this is called.

The main field themes all work so well thematically and I never grew tired of listening to them, too. Primordia, Oblivia and Noctilum, for example, all have that "moment" or "hook" that everyone who's played the game long enough looks forward to. I would hope these tracks were as good as they are as that's where most of the player's time is spent! Of all of the field themes,Sylvalum stood out to me the most, however. I didn't hit this region until I was fairly invested with the game. There's moments in games where the right kind of music can become amplified and made even greater. I was right at that sweet spot, some 50 hours-in, both physically and emotionally invested, when the nighttime variation of Sylvalum hit. This one track really put the game over and it also provided me one of my few "Idle Moments" of the year. Then there's tracks like Prone Base, for example, starting around 1:24, has what I'd like to think are subtle callbacks to the kind of music you'd hear Mitsuda compose, say for something like Chrono Cross. Don't worry is without a doubt my guilty pleasure song of the year, too. I could listen to this forever while flying around.

I grew up with sitcoms from the 90s and I still enjoy watching a lot of the these shows today. One thing a lot of these shows all had in common was how soapy and melodramatic they could be. X is mainly about the days in the life of a B.L.A.D.E. The affinity missions, in my opinion, are like tiny soap opera episodes. The scenarios are overly dramatic at times and when music like By my side and The way start playing at the conclusion of an "episode", I can't help but to think how much of a sitcom the game is. Sure, the sound mix is horrible, but a part of me loves how much of a disaster the production is. The voices are too low and not only is the music so high, there are so many tracks that are completely out of place given the context of the conversation or cinematic. I love it. It's like this unbridled passion that no one can do anything about. One must only accept Sawano's judgment.

Finally, there's Melancholia, which I thought I had to specifically make a note of. This song is the funniest track ever to me. It's like Sawano channeled those alternative, American rock bands that were "big" during the early-to-mid 2000s, bands like Evanescence and Linkin' Park, added a bit of his own style and this was his end result. What fucking year is it and what planet are we on? I know Planet Mira is a strange place, but of all things that have found their way to its shores, I never expected Amy Lee and that other guy know one remembers to wash up.

2. Dariusburst: Chronicles Saviours

"WARNING: A ridiculous soundtrack approaches.
So much passion.
So much love.
Words cannot describe.
Why this sends me to another world.
Or why this just sounds so fucking cool. WARNING..."

3. Yoshi's Woolly World

*This is a shoot

I had high expectations going into Woolly World. Good-Feel's/Tomoya Tomita's work on Kirby's Epic Yarn and Wario Land Shake It was so good. I love the soundtracks to those games and I still enjoy listening to them today. At the end of my time spent with Yoshi, I felt relatively underwhelmed. There's nothing inherently wrong/missing from the soundtrack, though. There's a lot of great, original stuff and there's good variety/instrumentation, too. It just didn't do it for me like the last two games did. Frozen Solid and Chilled was actually the first track that completely grabbed me, however. It was the first and only time where I found myself placing the controller down, waiting for the track to loop a few times. World 2 is probably my favorite world map theme in the game as well. That hard base/synth that comes in around the 8-second mark reminds me of Bomberman 64's soundtrack, specifically Green Garden. I'd like to think that it's the same synth/base that's being used here and it makes me feel good and nostalgic. Up Shuttlethread Pass is also an interesting track. The beginning of it reminds me of the opening to something you'd find on an older Smashing Pumpkins album. At the 1:37 mark, the track definitely hits its stride and the song ends with a nice piano outro that loops back into the beginning comfortably. The more I think about it though, this game probably wouldn't have made my top 3 if I was able to make time for two other games. At least it was better than Kirby this year...

Honorable Mention:

x. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

I had high expectations (but not as high as Woolly World) going into this game considering the fact that Kirby music is almost always good and I've yet to be disappointed by a soundtrack. I feel like I played this game so early in the year that there's almost nothing I can recall. Great Cave Escape really stood out to me and it really got me excited to hear what was in store for me as I played. That's one aspect of the soundtrack I specifically recall, actually. I feel like the music got less and less impressive as the game progressed. Some of the early tracks felt strong, but by the end of the game, I just wasn't feeling it. I guess I like Burning Secrets and Infiltrate the Junk Factory, but these better tracks felt like the exception. I don't know, this game as a whole just felt like a big miss in retrospect. I completed it 100%, so I guess it did enough to capture my attention though. Speaking of going for 100%, Time's Almost Up! drove me fucking insane. Why have an unlockable vault with all of these cool remixes of old Kirby songs when you can't even listen to them while doing the 40+ challenge missions!? Christ.

I didn't finish a whole lot of new games this year, so even though I soaked my feet with a few of them, I didn't play many of them long enough to find anything meaningful to say about them. Otherwise my honorable mentions list would have been larger.

What would have made my top 3 if I had spent more time with them...

Xenoblade Chronicles X, Yakuza 5 and The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC; Three games I was looking forward to playing for the longest time all dropped within a month or so of each other. There just wasn't enough time for me to properly invest the energy I needed to appreciate these three time-sinkers and Xenoblade took the ball and ran with it. Unfortunately, I've only put 10 hours into Yakuza 5 and I'm about 30-some hours into Trails in the Sky SC. I would have had a lot to say about these two games had I given them more attention, but maybe some other day I'll be able to revisit them...

Games I haven't spent enough time with yet, but I know have soundtracks I would have loved to discuss:
Legend of Legacy
Stella Glow
Monster Hunter IV Ultimate
Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash
Transformers: Devastation
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in Cold Steel
Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight
Etrian Mystery Dungeon
...any other exclusive Vita game I missed as I didn't turn on the system all year...

Soundtrack that did nothing for me:
Bloodborne

Game I've yet to play and a soundtrack I'm not sure I want to understand:
Undertale

 

[jakomocha]

1. Life is Strange
I already had high expectations for Life is Strange's soundtrack considering that Remember Me has one of my favorite soundtracks ever, yet Dontnod still managed to completely blow me away. It says a lot about how integral the soundtrack is to Life is Strange that the first moment I realized how special the game is is directly tied to the soundtrack. It is this scene, when Max puts on her headphones and To All of You by Syd Matters starts playing.

I've never had a game get me into entirely new genre(s) of music until Life is Strange. It introduced me to a ton of artists and tracks which I now love and wouldn't have found otherwise, such as Obstacles, Kids Will Be Skeletons (which perfectly sets the tone to one the greatest scenes in a game ever), Spanish Sahara , and even Got Well Soon (I find this track super catchy). I listen to the soundtrack on Spotify all the time, it's soo good and is implemented fantastically in the game. The original score by Jonathan Morali is also amazing and fits the game perfectly. I mean, it says something about how intertwined the game is with its soundtrack that listening to the end credits and menu theme makes me emotional.

2. Tales from the Borderlands
This game makes some of the best use of licensed music in a game ever in its musical intros. Not only were all 5 intros excellently choreographed and matched with the songs accompanying them, but the songs themselves were also all very good and catchy. Episode 4's intro (there are spoilers) is one of my favorite scenes in a video game ever, due in no small part to the song choice and how perfectly the scene is built around the song. I absolutely love the Episode 5 credits song (Silver Lining) as well. I really enjoyed the original soundtrack too, particularly The Galatarium, Not One of Those Stories, and especially the orchestral version of the main theme.

3. Splatoon
Splatoon's soundtrack is energetic, endearing, and unique in a way no other video game soundtrack is. There's not really much to say that hasn't already been said, but my favorite tracks are Final Boss (Phase 2) and the shopping music.

Honorable Mentions:
Her Story- The soundtrack to Her Story was as chilling as it was pleasant to listen to. It fit the game perfectly.
Super Mario Maker- The soundtrack is one of the mot creative ones in a video game.
Rocket League
Dying Light

 

[InvertedComposer]

I totally forgot to make a post :L, atleast I'll vote and hope its not too late. I am very biased toward orchestal music in general soooo, lets begin.

1. Tales of Zestiria

The quality of music put into Zestiria completely blew my mind especially the Trial Music for the 4 elements. The music just blends in with the sense of adventure and their respective elements. The battle music is absolutely beautiful/hype-inducing and immerses you into one of the best combat systems in RPGs adding more to an already in-depth system. Multiple times I have just stopped playing the game to listen to the music, with my jaws dropped in complete awe and my ears experiencing lovely vibes. I have not done so since Chrono Trigger, a well deserved OST of the year for me.
Melody of Water is the Guide in Spiritual Mist
Fight Between the Wind and the Blinking Sky
Competing with the Honor of the Land
Zavied the Exile
Rising Up
Overcome The Crisis

2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Most of what I could say has already been said in this thread. Most of its instrumentals are power ballads that add to the experience of being a solo operator who runs an private army. The vocal tracks are very special as well, the definite standout of the music from MGSV. I haven't appreciated vocals much in my games since NieR, it makes it's return for me with this game.
Peace Walker
Sins of The Father
V Has Come To

3. Bloodborne

Should be no surprise considering my preference for orchestral, the Souls series has always delivered on haunting, intimidating, and graceful music especially for their boss fights that pumps you with adrenaline and fear of failure to keep at it. Bloodborne has done a wonderful job in solidifying their combat experience with their music.
Gehrman, The First Hunter
Father Gascoigne, The Hunter
Cleric Beast

Honorable Mention:
Sadly I know Undertale is going to get first place. It's good, no doubt. But it's really hard to screw up 8/16-bit music unless you're Crazy Bus.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Persona 4 Dancing All Night
Stella Glow
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea, GUST is always on point.

 

[Lunar15]

This is always my favorite thread of the year. Mainly because soundtracks are super subjective and I just like listening to a lot of stuff. Don't really care who wins, I just like listening to cool new stuff.

 

[Rutger]

This is always my favorite thread of the year. Mainly because soundtracks are super subjective and I just like listening to a lot of stuff. Don't really care who wins, I just like listening to cool new stuff.

Yeah, that's exactly how I feel about these threads, I'm always looking forward to it.
It's fun to think about the soundtracks that stood out to me the most throughout the year and it's a good way for me to check out soundtracks I've missed, Transformers Devastation has probably been the biggest surprise for me so far.

 

[AniHawk]

1. metal gear solid v: the phantom pain ; hideo kojima actually wanted you to be storming/infiltrating bases to the sound of asia's 'only time will tell'. it's hilarious and amazing. i think the gameplay works best when you're pretending it's some overly macho 80s movie.
only time will tell
a phantom pain

2. undertale ; kind of a mix of life is strange and splatoon. it desperately wants to be something, but i think it succeeds largely because the music is so well done.
megalovania
temmie village

3. life is strange ; this game teeters on me hating the whole thing for essentially the entire playthrough, but i think it's made with honesty. the soundtrack certainly helps with that.
mountains
obstacles

4. yoshi's woolly world ; a really pleasant surprise. lots of different tunes for a platformer i wasn't expecting much from.
bounceabout woods

5. splatoon ; just loved how this brought the punk feeling of the game alive. what a weird and unique sound.
main theme

6. rodea the sky soldier ; not amazing, but it actually feels like this weird game from the 90s that was dusted off in 2015.
the end of this dream

7. xenoblade chronicles x ; i think the soundtrack works best when it's big and bombastic, like the menu music. unfortunately it's pretty hit and miss for me, and i don't think it fits the general tone of the game.
MONOX

 

[weemaster]

1- Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea
Alchemist on a Ship
Overworld Theme
Wandering Light
And Those Who Challenge To Twilight (why isnt this a battle theme?)
Miru iro no Hoshi
Red Light

2- Undertale
Megalovania
Hopes and Dreams

3- Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter
The Dream Continues

Honorable mentions : Splatoon, Tales of Zesteria, Xenoblade Chronicles X

 

[TheCarrotKiller]

Damn, wrong thread sorry! But let me cast my vote here as well, even though it isn't much.

1. Undertale ; Fantastic soundtrack combining swing, electronic and a bunch of other genres into a beautiful mix of joyous track for the ear. Titles like "Uwa!! So Temperate", "Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap" and my favourite "Can You Really Call This A Hotel, I Didn't Receive A Mint On My Pillow Or Anything" reflect in a good way the humour of the game. However my votes for best track would be:
Death By Glamour
It's Showtime!
Dummy!

 

[SxP]

1. Bloodborne - I thought the Souls soundtracks were good, having one or two standout tracks, but nothing all too extraordinary. Bloodborne is on a whole different level though. It’s standout tracks are truly spectacular (The First Hunter; Ludwig, The Holy Blade & The Accursed), and pretty much every single track is fantastic and memorable.
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Contains the best track of the year (The Fields of Ard Skellig), which is also one of the best ever. The rest of the soundtrack Is great as well, but not nearly of a consistently high level compared to the Bloodborne soundtrack.
3. Steins;Gate – Very different type of soundtrack compared to the above, but has very effective tracks for all the different moods throughout the game. Standout has to be the main theme.

Honorable Mentions:
Hotline Miami 2 – Not nearly as good as the first soundtrack, but there are still some genuinely awesome tracks (Divide, Sexualizer).
Tales from the Borderlands – The episode intro tracks were phenomenally chosen, with To The Top as standout track of those five.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'm pretty bad at placing instruments as well. I am so far behind on my musical knowledge and I'm futilely trying to learn more. These threads help a lot in getting me to verbalize my thoughts.

I think it's slowly working as well.

Yeah, he keeps focused way better than my spray and pray spewing (although I was kind enough to forewarn! lol)

Well if it helps you sound like you know what you're on about to my uninformed self.

A reminder, since CorvoSol forgot about it: voting ends tomorrow night, not tonight!

You have another weekend day to get that vote in! I'm on page 5 of my word document, so I'm afraid my vote will not be as long as previous years'.

This is officially some kind of running joke now I'm sure.

Because you fucking plebes didn't vote for her enough last year, I'm here to remind you of the OST you scum snubbed for fucking Now That's What I Call Smash 50.

Oh yeah I brought this for like 3 quid when I got my PS4, well maybe it can be my LttP candidate this year.

Finally, there's Melancholia, which I thought I had to specifically make a note of. This song is the funniest track ever to me. It's like Sawano channeled those alternative, American rock bands that were "big" during the early-to-mid 2000s, bands like Evanescence and Linkin' Park, added a bit of his own style and this was his end result. What fucking year is it and what planet are we on? I know Planet Mira is a strange place, but of all things that have found their way to its shores, I never expected Amy Lee and that other guy know one remembers to wash up.

It's funny because it's true.
I originally described the battle theme Black Tar to a friend as the result of Linkin Park being on board the White Whale that crashed on Mira as well.

*This is a shoot

Is he...is he shooting?!

While we're at it I'm gonna shoot as well, Rainbow Curse has the soundtrack Triple Deluxe wishes it could have brother.

 

[Dark Schala]

This is officially some kind of running joke now I'm sure.

It's not a joke this time because I'm only voting for two soundtracks I feel very strongly about this year! At the most, it'll only be two posts long if I decide to write more. :O

CorvoSol and Noi had to talk me out of getting stressed out about not living up to the 4-post votes I usually do because there are pretty much two soundtracks that I feel motivated to write about. And oddly enough, it's in a personal and emotional sense than technicalities. It makes me feel weird.

Oh, just as a heads-up, I'll probably ask someone else to close the vote thread if I'm not awake at 2 AM since I have to go into the lab at 7:30 AM. As such, the results thread probably won't be fully done until tomorrow evening. (I have a template and everything!!!)

 

[UrbanRats]

1. Witcher 3;
Sample 1, Sample 2.
2. Bloodborne;
Sample 1, Sample 2.
3. Just Cause 3;
Sample 1, Sample 2.

EDIT: I'm still in, am i?

 

[Eolz]

Just wanted to put a post (not voting, my list is done on the previous page) for Senran Kagura 2's OST.
Voted for it last year, since I played the import version at the time, but since it was released in the west in 2015...
Honestly better than most people would expect (like the rest of the game, let's be honest there), good mix of rock and some more classical tunes, with the composer giving a short description of each track ingame. Even simple/short tracks have a lot of character, and you can feel the composer caring for every character in this game.
Here's some tracks (playlist available by this user): Beyond Light and Darkness (game opening), Pride of a good Shinobi, What a sword and shield strive for, Sadistic Puppeteer, Like Hot Water Overflowing, To Awaken My Friend.

While I can't wait for Estival Versus' western release in the coming months, I feel its soundtrack is a bit weaker/less memorable.

 

[Dark Schala]

To be clear, voting doesn't end until 11:59 PM PST. You have plenty of time.

Additionally, because I'm using a spreadsheet to count, I reaaaaaally don't care about formatting. Format your post however you want, but just make your ranking clear. Despite laying rules out in the OP, I'm not a super-stickler.

 

[Yuterald]

Is he...is he shooting?!

While we're at it I'm gonna shoot as well, Rainbow Curse has the soundtrack Triple Deluxe wishes it could have brother.

No way, I don't believe this. This reeks of being a work.

 

[Nocturnowl]

It's not a joke this time because I'm only voting for two soundtracks I feel very strongly about this year! At the most, it'll only be two posts long if I decide to write more. :O

CorvoSol and Noi had to talk me out of getting stressed out about not living up to the 4-post votes I usually do because there are pretty much two soundtracks that I feel motivated to write about. And oddly enough, it's in a personal and emotional sense than technicalities. It makes me feel weird.

Oh what I'm saying is 4 plus pages of word is plenty, I don't think anyone considers you duty bound to reaching or surpassing your content of years past.

Ain't nothing wrong with doing less, even number-wise Axelstream put in great work as usual only using 2 soundtracks.

Looking forward to the weird at any rate.

No way, I don't believe this. This reeks of being a work.

Rainbow Curse can carry some of those Triple Deluxe tunes to a four star remix.
Though admittedly it left Fine Fields alone, even I wont mess with that goodness.

 

[Famassu]

Didn't want to post this before I had played through most of Trails of Cold Steel to get a better sense of its OST.

1. Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward

I haven't even gotten around to playing Heavensward's content in FFXIV yet (haven't had the time/money to buy the expansion & sub), but having listened to most of its OST I've got to say this is another supremely superb OST in a pretty much perfect line of Final Fantasy soundtracks. So much variety, so much greatness. Might I even say Top 3 FF OST material?

Some standout stuff:
This
This
This
This
and of course this (and pretty much the whole OST

2. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter

After having played Trails of Cold Steel, I've got to say I really liked Second Chapter's OST as a whole a lot more than the first Cold Steel's soundtrack. Cold Steel is decent overall, but doesn't have as strong, memorable melodies. The FUCK YEAH, SHIT IS GOING DOOOOOWN songs aren't as awesome as Second Chapter's, I don't find the exploration & city themes quite as hummable and overall I find Cold Steel a bit more generic. Second Chapter (& First Chapter) have very unique OSTs that don't remind me of any Falcom OSTs (I've heard) or any others I've listened to.

Though I'm also someone who really loved First Chapter's OST (I think I prefer that to Cold Steel as well...) even though a lot of people complain about it or say it's the worst of the bunch, so take my opinion as you will. Anyhow, Second Chapter is filled with nice exploration themes, battle themes that get one's blood pumping, Epic Shit when it needs to be EPIC and some nice simpler themes as well for when the music doesn't need to be in the forefront. Some great motifs used in a multitude of ways. All in all this is one of my favorite OSTs ever.

Some standout songs:

The Greatest Treasure Revealed
The Enforcers / Fateful Confrontation
Town Where the Lights Went Out
A Lurking Shadow in the Wilderness
Enormous Fight
The Truth Behind the Tragedy


3. Life is Strange

Probably the best licensed OST for a game I've heard since SSX3. Everything just ties so well into the mood of what is happening & the setting/aesthetics of the game. Some might dismiss it as your typical "indie OST that has some typical no name bands with the typical indie sound", but screw them. Masterful use of music. The original compositions are really good as well.

Some standout stuff:
Foals - Spanish Sahara
Breton - Got Well Soon
Syd Matters - Obstacles / To All of You





Honorable Mentions

x. Trails of Cold Steel
I was a little bit disappointed in this, to be honest. Maybe it'll grow on me on repeated visits, but as of now this is probably my least favorite Kiseki OST from the ones I've heard (which is everything but Sen no Kiseki II so far). Still, even with it being slightly disappointing, it doesn't mean it's bad. It just doesn't quite reach the standards of the previous work of Falcom's Soundteam JDK in Kiseki games, in my honest opinion.

x. Yoshi's Woolly World

 

[Axelstream]

Hey hey, great writeups are coming out of the woodwork now! The Trails of Cold Steel soundtrack is quite strong. I'm playing through the game now and the quality of the music has yet to dip. Last year's surprise soundtrack that I found out through this thread series was D4, and this year it looks like Code Name STEAM. I rarely hear anyone talk about that game, and I've never heard anyone talk about its soundtrack. I dig what I hear so far, and I'll be checking out more of it!

Before I forget and before I lose my chance, I wanted to give an honorable mention to a game (and soundtrack) that I've been following since its inception. It took a while to hit consoles, and only came abroad this year. That game is Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late. Yes, you read that name correctly.

It's a soundtrack similar in flavor to Under Night's fighting game predecessor, Melty Blood: Actress Again. Both soundtracks are driven by dance beats with shades of rock, jazz, hip hop, and more. I think Melty Blood makes for the better soundtrack given its sheer eclecticism, but Under Night is no slouch.

Gathers Under Night is definitely one of the better character select themes I've heard. It encapsulates the urban, uptempo, synth-driven style of the soundtrack, and that bass is pretty slick if I do say so myself. This urban feel bleeds into much of the menu and arcade backgrounds, in tracks like Access Connect and Agitation Signs (Beginning 1). Much of the rest of the soundtrack is made up of character themes, in traditional fighting game style. I like the sprinkle of piano arpeggios and the trailing-off synth melody in Night Walker. Unseen Entities fits its crazed, noodle-limbed fighter -- the beats and melodies sound like they're bouncing around in tubes, and the drum and bass crushes into chaotic dubstep sections. Moving Like a Blossoming Lily is a fun, bouncy theme with a traditional-Japanese feel that I can't quite put my finger on, especially since there's so much synth going on; somehow, the melody sounds like it should be played on a koto.

I feel that the newer themes, added in later releases, are stronger. Blood Drain -Again- reprises a theme from Melty Blood for a character cameo. It is incredibly catchy, and it's hard not to toe-tap to the careening synth beat. Beat Eat Nest is an aggressive rock/D&B hybrid that fits its malicious snare-and-devour character. Cross Thought, a special theme that plays when two of the characters fight (ala BlazBlue), is a straight-laced rocker, but one that I enjoy a lot; I wish the guy on piano in the background shredded a little more. And Mutual Situation, another special character VS theme, uses the themes of its two characters and pits them against each other in the form of two guitars. It's a bit hamfisted, but enjoyable nonetheless. And that's really Under Night's soundtrack on the whole; it may not be subtle, but it scratches my itch for a fast-paced, beat-laden slew of anthems.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

1. Splatoon

Everything in this soundtrack is so unique, so... Splatoon. And the best part is, it's all so grounded in this fresh world of squid kids and other anthropomorphic sea life. The grungy squidcore sound of Metalopod? That's the Squid Squad.

The strong beats of showdown with the final boss, or the hot summer night festivities of Splatfest's Ink Me Up? That's Callie and Marie.


It goes on and on, from the weirdness of the Octarian military band and their single player tracks like Tentacular Circus, or the chiptune meets pop of the Chirpy Chips and Split and Splat/Quick Start, or the piano swing rock of Hightide Era and Sucker Punch.

Also, there's a single like 5 second reggae loop called Ika Jamaica that plays during lobbies, and the Japanese version lists the artist as Cala Marley. So there's that.

Also also, the official soundtrack release is named Splatune. So. Yeah.


2. Undertale

I really can't say anything about this that hasn't been said already. Honestly, this should be my Number 1 in terms of heart, but Splatoon’s breadth outshoots Undertale’s depth.

That said I’ll be thinking of these for a long time:

Another Medium

Undertale

ASGORE

SAVE the World


Honorable Mentions

x. Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate
x. Xenoblade Chronicles X

 

[ohlawd]

Just wanted to put a post (not voting, my list is done on the previous page) for Senran Kagura 2's OST.
Voted for it last year, since I played the import version at the time, but since it was released in the west in 2015...
Honestly better than most people would expect (like the rest of the game, let's be honest there), good mix of rock and some more classical tunes, with the composer giving a short description of each track ingame. Even simple/short tracks have a lot of character, and you can feel the composer caring for every character in this game.
Here's some tracks (playlist available by this user): Beyond Light and Darkness (game opening), Pride of a good Shinobi, What a sword and shield strive for, Sadistic Puppeteer, Like Hot Water Overflowing, To Awaken My Friend.

While I can't wait for Estival Versus' western release in the coming months, I feel its soundtrack is a bit weaker/less memorable.

shit, I didn't really pay close attention to SK2's OST while playing but yeah, there's really a good action-theme in its sound. well yeah it's a freaking action game lol. since I don't really have any new games to get, I'm thinking of going back and finishing up SK2's extra content like the pit and go through the story again on a harder difficulty and listen up

 

[21x2]

1. Life is Strange

(YouTube links are spoilers!)
The most impressive feat of Life is Strange is, to me, how authentic they sell the setting and characters. The soundtrack is paramount to this; this is licensed music genuinely feels like what the characters would listen to, the original score is supremely atmospheric, and it's all chosen with incredible direction and timing.

2. Undertale

The Undertale soundtrack is more or less the typical catchy, chiptune indie soundtrack that turns up every other year, but much like the game itself there's an unexpected and impressive width in the tunes you'll hear, as often catchy as melancholical.

3. Splatoon

One of the hallmarks of a truly great soundtrack is when it translates the mood and style of a game into music so well, that it becomes an essential part of the entire character. Splatoon is one of those few games where everything - game mechanics, art direction, writing, and much more - comes together in such an incredibly harmonious way that taking any single aspect of it out would seem impossible. The music is, of course, of of those parts. Whether you're window shopping for gear, mining salt in Ranked Battles, or tearing up DJ Octavio, the music of Splatoon is, always, in perfect sync.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

Hope I'm not too late.



1. Crypt of the Necrodancer


2. Undertale


3. Ori and the Blind Forest


LTTP:

1. Transistor
2. Risk of Rain

 

[Hot Coldman]

1. Splatoon

Comparisons to the iconic Jet Set Radio and its razor-sharp aesthetic were rife from the first moments Miyamoto's understudies revealed the game in 2014, but Splatoon turned out to be distinct - not just in the way Nintendo is distinct from SEGA, or 2015 is distinct from 2000, but rather in the way Nintendo sought to build a fictional culture of inspired style rather than directly express and exaggerate real-life trends. No better part of Splatoon demonstrates this than the music - a diverse assortment of squidphonies from amphibious performers like Hightide Era, Chirpy Chirps, DJ Octavio and the now-legendary Squid Sisters, merging rock, J-pop, EDM, chiptune and more for maximum catchiness. It all comes together to create a looking glass into what pop music might look like in a world populated by squid kids, and it's not just the best soundtrack of 2015, it's something all developers could stand to learn from.

Highlights
Ink Me Up (Squid Sisters)
Split and Splat (Chirpy Chirps)
Seaskape (Squid Squad)
Tentacular Circus (OCTOCOOL)

2. Nuclear Throne

Nuclear Throne's brutal just-one-more-go gameplay loop is accentuated perfectly by not just sounding like any other video game, despite its ostensibly "retro" aesthetic - instead, Jukio Kallio's soundtrack evokes harsh Western frontiers and sandblasted hellscapes, with gnashing guitars, haunting synths and the oddblast of harmonica (!) to really get the blood rushing to your head and your fingers. Not many game soundtracks manage to instil full-blooded fear, tension and excitement in you at once, but Kozilek's soundtrack for Nuclear Throne does exactly that, every single time you restart.

Highlights
Legend of the Throne
Crystallized Fear
Venuz Mansion (feat. Doseone)

3. Undertale

For as much music as there is in Undertale, and for that it all comes from Toby Fox - the same guy who programmed, designed, wrote and did most of the art for this game - it's utterly remarkable in both how diverse and consistently pleasurable it is. Undertale's soundtrack complements the story it tells perfectly, with some of the best comedy themes I've ever heard in a game, some of the freshest musical parodies I've ever heard in a game, some of the most touching melodies I've heard since possibly MOTHER3, and of course, the best boss battle theme that we've all heard possibly since the turn of the century. Like everything in Undertale, Toby Fox's music surprises, delights and puts a grin - or a big fat smirk - on your face at almost every opportunity.

Highlights
Ghost Fight
Dogbass
Dating Start!
Megalovania

 

[Refyref]

Welp, yet another year and yet again I don't have any special write up due to being so lazy and doing it only on the last second. (Although in my defense, I'm really busy this year.) So here's a hastily written list.

1. Etrian Mystery Dungeon

Waterfall Woodlands
Hoist the Sword and Pride in the Heart

Yuzo Koshiro doing his magic yet again, nothing too surprising here. There's nothing like exploring the dungeons of the world of EO with his music, and have it ramp up to his unique high paced battle themes as soon as things get heated. (Which, in EO, is a lot.)

2. Crypt of the NecroDancer

Rhythmortis
Mausoleum Mash (Shopkeeper)

I only started Crypt of the NecroDancer late this year, but immediately loved the music. Danny Baranowsky's work is catchy as always, and as this is a rhythm game, it gets even more ingrained in your mind.

3. Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

Main Theme
Boss Battle: Children's Adventure!

PSMD's soundtrack follows the steps of the previous games in the series. Cheerful music for the hubs/character dialog sessions make the the game's world feel like a lived-in place, and it feels really fitting here, even moreso than it usually does in PMD. The higher-paced music is great as well, although doesn't manage to compete with Yuzo Koshiro's work on the other MD game this year.


Honorable Mentions:

x. Undertale

Ah, here it is, the game on everyone's list. I don't think I really need to expand on what's good about it. The only reason this isn't on one of my proper spots is that, as much as it ties into itself so much, mostly by leitmotifs, the overall cohesion of the soundtrack felt a bit off for me. I'm not really sure why, although AniHawk's description for it below might explain why I feel about it like this.

Maybe next year I'll finally manage to put aside the time to sit down and write a proper list with everything, but alas, it was not to be so this year.
Speaking of this year, I'm really sad I didn't have more time. There were so many games I wanted to get around to that I'm pretty sure would have showed some way or another on my list, like the Trails games and Legend of Legacy. Maybe next year I'll actually have the time to play all the games I'm interested in.

 

[StormBrute]

1. Splatoon
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X
3. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

I did not actually play too many games this year with soundtracks that stood out to me. From what I've listened to of Undertale, it would be on this list, but I feel like that wouldn't be a complete judgment, having not played it as of yet and experienced the music in the game.

For both Splatoon and XBX, the music loses a lot separated from the game. Splatoon's soundtrack perfectly matches the aesthetics and playstyle of the game, and the two really elevate one another. I'm sure I wouldn't like most of XBX's soundtrack if I just listened to it by itself, but in the game it creates a unique atmosphere that makes everything feel more cohesive than it really should.

 

[Dark Schala]

I don’t have much to say other than … I’m tired of 2015. Haha. It was a rough year so I didn’t get to listen to everything I’d wanted to! I did get to listen to the Yasunori Mitsuda remix album, and a bunch of albums that Solune and I talked about over the course of a few months. My shortlist was apparently longer than some expected, and I do think 2015 had a lot of great albums. Although the Canadian dollar sank like a tank (and this isn’t going to change heading into 2016), I did try to listen to as many soundtracks as I could. However, I will readily admit that I did not get a chance to listen to everything like I usually do in previous years. Personal life combined with work combined with the crappy dollar combined with falling in love (this is a good thing), kind of made it a little hard try to check out new stuff. I was fairly on top of everything for the first half of the year and then everything kind of fell apart towards the end.

The decision between my number one and number two soundtracks was fairly tough. I went through a lot of mental wrangling in terms of the question “do I vote with my heart, or do I vote with my head?” I don’t usually like going with my heart when I vote for game of the year or soundtrack of the year. It feels completely biased on my part, and I feel like I’m not evaluating something with clarity or based on its own merits. Then I sort of realized, “Well, isn’t that the point?” In my head, Undertale takes the win. In my heart, though, something else does, and it’s entirely based on context. So this year, I decided to go with my heart. Listening to my heart feels weird. I feel very strongly about two soundtracks this year, and therefore, I have decided to go with only two.

This is also the first time that I think I’ve written a list where I’ve played all the games. I could be wrong on that front, but this comes as a genuine surprise. I am disappointed with the lack of Falcom on my list, but I am not entirely comfortable throwing a vote Tokyo Xanadu’s way because I’m almost finished the game. While I do have a lot to say about Tokyo Xanadu’s soundtrack at the moment, I would much rather experience the music further in context before throwing a vote its way (but the soundtrack is really good, and the game itself is quite fun!).

Previous Posts:
2011 Soundtrack of the Year: 1, 2
2012 Soundtrack of the Year: 1, 2, LTTP Post
2013 Soundtrack of the Year: 1, 2, 3, 4
2014 Soundtrack of the Year: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Soundtrack of the 6th Generation: 1 / 2 / 3

I decided to forego the awards this year, particularly because I decided to forego my Worst Soundtrack of the Year award. My pick for that would be more than a bit controversial, and I think a few folks know what that one is so I’ll let it slide under the rug.

Honourable Mentions
x. Ori and the Blind Forest – I’d been waiting for this soundtrack for months before the game came out, and it did not disappoint. I was going to make it #3 on my soundtrack list, but halfway through my writeup for it, I felt as though I lost my motivation to write about it. Therefore, I am only including a top 2 this year. A lot of the tracks are incredibly emotional (Light of Nibel, and whenever there’s a rush to quickly platform (Restoring the Light, Facing the Dark), the pacing of the tracks do the level design justice.
x. Tokyo Xanadu – Mixing electronica and violins makes this soundtrack fairly classy, from the upbeat yet elegant Strayed into Passage to the characteristic Believe It!!. Falcom hasn’t lost it; the sound is just evolved to fit Tokyo Xanadu’s tone.
x. Nights of Azure – Holy shit, Nights of Azure is some hot shit, and I wish more people listened to this soundtrack cuz Solune and I love it so much. Moving from some hard rock (Malicious Roses and Edge of Apocalypse to the jazzy Hotel Ende. I wish I had way more time to spend with this soundtrack and imported the game because the soundtrack is definitely Top 5 material.
x. Splatoon – Shooters aren’t my thing. If everyone I tweet didn’t bring this soundtrack up when I was asking for help with the archive, then I probably wouldn’t have known about the soundtrack’s variations. Sucker Punch, Ink Me Up
x. Legend of Legacy – I like Legend of Legacy. Or, at least, when I played the Japanese version of it. It had stuff I liked to nitpick and the game is certainly not for everyone. The music itself feels like an extension of Hamauzu’s recent work. Ex: Twin Dimensional Battle, Initium (one of the better town themes he’s composed, imo)
x. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse – I didn’t finish this game. I, uh, didn’t feel like it jived well with me, and anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely adore Kirby. But this game has some fantastic tuneage, from Great Cave Escape to Dethskullk Jam to The Final Battle. A lot of the soundtrack drives back to previous Kirby games, which is to be expected. However, the tone of the music moving directly back to Kirby Super Star sounds felt right.
x. Transformers Devastation – I had to laugh when NTom64 brought this one up to me, just because I… wasn’t expecting it? I didn’t play the game, so I don’t know if any of the music fits the context at all (never mind that I saw the Transformers movie and I know The Touch fits super-well), but holy crap, the music is incredible and I think it deserves the Badassery Award. Sample: Face the Devastation

2. Undertale
Toby Fox

It’s not even a damn contest. I can reiterate what everyone has said in this thread up to this point about Undertale, but it’s undeniable that this is one of the best soundtracks of 2015. Heck, it might be the best soundtrack of 2015 if the whole “voting with your heart” thing didn’t get in the way for me.

Basically, it took a lot of convincing to get me through this game. For one, another GAF member (Shadow Hog) gifted me the game on Steam because I essentially refused to play it at the time. And I’m still thankful that he did. I played through the whole game with Noi doing his own playthrough and we pushed each other through the game. It took some prodding from EmCee to finish off the game and get the True Pacifist Ending to add more meaning to the soundtrack overall (and I took Noi with me in tow for that, too). Now that doesn’t mean I don’t like the game. I just got spoiled on the endings and a lot of things before playing the game because, well, a lot of people wouldn’t shush about it. When I played the game, I felt like it was about the journey not the end.

The game’s musical journey is fulfilling. Writing about Undertale’s soundtrack feels like a daunting task simply because there is just so much to say. From references to other games, to leitmotifs being used in single areas, to different types of instrumentation, to different soundfonts being used… there’s a lot of things to say about the soundtrack, and even just glancing through this entire thread, there are a lot of different things that people are saying about it. Undertale’s soundtrack is fairly difficult to review. There are a lot of tracks (well, actually, that part isn’t too difficult; I’ve reviewed 100+ track albums before), they all have extremely varying track lengths, and they all use different soundfonts that somehow create a cohesively-sounding album in the end. Overall, the album encourages the listener to be attentive: to soundfonts, to leitmotifs, to different references to other games, and more.

There are twenty-three leitmotifs in the entire soundtrack. Undertale&#8217;s soundtrack release also composes of music that hasn&#8217;t been used in the game. I think the best way for me to approach the soundtrack, and Noi and I were talking about this last night when he was trying to get me to stop panicking about writing this post in general, is through discussing the leitmotifs. It&#8217;s like he said to me, &#8220;When you listen to <track>, what do you think of?&#8221; Well, there are a lot of things to think of. Nearly every single theme in Undertale references something else internally and externally. There are so many albums and soundtracks that use underlying motifs for everything, but Undertale kind of goes for the nth degree with respect to subtext and motif usage.

The soundtrack opens up with Once Upon a Time, serving as the Undertale theme and the primary leitmotif in the game. The thing about the Undertale theme is that I guess it&#8217;s supposed to evoke a comparison between either Pollyanna or Eight Melodies. Going into the Start Menu continues a Mother comparison in terms of the Fun Naming themes without the &#8220;OK&#12377;&#12363;?&#8221; part. More of the Undertale motif picks up in the comforting midi string theme Home, and it&#8217;s here that you start piecing together that all of the thematic similarities between each theme and their usage essentially crafts a story. Or at least, it lets the player have expectations of characters or areas. I particularly like the B-portion, where it sounds like it&#8217;s channeling some of the acoustic-driven themes Chrono Cross. It is also here that the player recognizes that Undertale&#8217;s soundtrack isn&#8217;t just a mesh of soundwaves; it uses midi to its advantage and thus steps up soundfont usage even further. The Undertale motif doesn&#8217;t surface until much further into the album under the Hotel and Can You Really Call This a Hotel, I Didn&#8217;t Receive a Mint On My Pillow themes, which are more flamenco-based, upbeat and resort-like. I particularly like the latter theme simply because it merges the Undertale theme with the uptempo nature of another character&#8217;s leitmotif (rather, the leitmotif isn&#8217;t used, but the tempo is). The live acoustic with the final Undertale theme in the neutral ending is so, so good. It mixes another leitmotif from His Theme and the Undertale theme to create a piece that&#8217;s used in a particular area that weaves in and out of battle and serves as an excellent conclusion for the six-hour journey. The Undertale motif is used in further pieces on the soundtrack, but I will elaborate on those further down the line.

Your Best Friend is the next motif and it&#8217;s kind of one of my favourites simply because it comes from this stupid two-channel harmony but extends into something else entirely as the motif is used beyond this track. The next track is a major spoiler, but This theme is hilarious out of context because it&#8217;s just amazing how much mileage a 23-second loop got in six entire variations with different samples and soundfonts entirely. It makes complete sense in-game, but listening to it out of context like I initially did, I had to wonder why a 23-second initial loop got so much mileage and different soundfonts applied to it in one single theme. Finale has a ton of synth bass applied to it and I adore its pacing with a piano lead turning into a backing. Trying to apply the theme to a synth bass-orchestra is a nice touch too.

Ruins is one of the more curious tracks in the game because it&#8217;s referenced several times in places that I didn&#8217;t particularly expect. I love the B-portion after the introduction because the percussion is so good. It&#8217;s the first place where you start realizing that everything is all connected. Ruins is further referenced in Waterfall, for instance, and it&#8217;s an entirely different area altogether. In fact, the Ruins leitmotif fits into another character&#8217;s motif altogether and gets a bit combined. Undyne has her own leitmotif, which sounds rightfully knightly and gothic (yet the loop is incredibly short), but in battle themes and general themes concerning Undyne, a lot of the leitmotifs intervowen into these themes are that of Ruins. The few themes that are raw arrangements of Undyne&#8217;s own theme in another soundfont (and I may add that the sampling is fairly decent for some of these soundfonts) entirely is Dating Tense!, and Run! (which I feel is a better arrangement of the two). Undyne&#8217;s battle theme, Spear of Justice is a hot number, with several portions throughout the track dedicated to sampling other themes: from Undyne, to Ruins (specifically, the version of it in Waterfall), Don&#8217;t Give Up, to An Ending. The backing makes the theme for me, and the introduction hits the right notes, especially when they&#8217;re held. The C-portion with the different arrangements and instrumentations of Undyne&#8217;s theme before the loop is so melodic and catchy. Battle Against a True Hero also samples a bit of Ruins itself, bringing a little more percussion and synth strings into the fray. Additionally, the Waterfall/Ruins motif also lends itself to Another Medium and CORE (with those two themes adopting thematic elements based on the characters that integrate themselves into the plot of those areas).

Another Medium is probably the biggest theme that popped out at me. I played through Undertale together with Noi and we just sat there talking while this theme was playing in the background while just going &#8220;baby, this theme is so good, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221; to each other. Aeana brought it up with me, and I did indeed feel like it references X-Naut Fortress. And a lot of themes in Undertale, thematically-speaking, references a lot of other themes from other games, whether it&#8217;s in terms of a soundfont used, or just&#8230; being like Dating Fight! and Oh! One True Love.

Temmie Village is fucking stupid and it isn&#8217;t even cohesive, and I love it. I enjoy the stupid soundfonts used, and I enjoy that it&#8217;s supposed to refer to the music played whenever a character&#8217;s behaving like an idiot, due in part to the lack of percussion in the track overall.

Death by Glamour is one of the more fabulous tracks on the entire soundtrack. The piano harmonies aren&#8217;t as cohesive as possible, and the beat is kind of frenetic, but I think that&#8217;s what makes the piece its own. It&#8217;s an arrangement of CORE, Metal Crusher, and It&#8217;s Showtime! It&#8217;s a gigantic showcase of, well, being kind of like&#8230; um, Roundabout by Yes. The reference was so good that I had to laugh. Even the bass and percussion was replicated so well. A few folks who&#8217;ve played the game, and know where Roundabout is from may also get an additional reference, and then everything will make complete and utter sense. Definitely up there with some of my favourite tracks in the game.

From here on, I guess I should probably not discuss names of tracks. The penultimate boss&#8217;s theme is one of my favourites. For all of the emotions it evokes, and for the callback to this theme at the beginning of the game (which I truly enjoy has a few channels compared to the actual theme which uses more channels), I can&#8217;t help but to feel like it&#8217;s my favourite? It sounds like the most honest theme in the entire game. Even though it&#8217;s entirely honest, it&#8217;s an arrangement of this small theme from another of Fox&#8217;s works. It&#8217;s nice to see it expanded into something with greater detail. I love the C-portion of this track, due to the percussion and synth voice degenerating into synth piano and chiptune prior to a piano in a lower range taking over prior to the loop. It assists with making the pacing so smooth and frenetic, and emotional to boot. Even if I didn&#8217;t hear the theme in context, I&#8217;d still feel the same way.

Noi and I did another ending last night together. When we heard Here We Are, I mentioned to him that it sounded fairly&#8230; Meguro-like? Perhaps that was an error in terms of analysis on my part, because upon further consideration, it reminded me a lot of OFF and Yume Nikki. It also uses the soundfont for this, though it&#8217;s not readily apparent. One of the more interesting tracks, Amalgam is a strange sampling of Earthbound tracks integrated into one thing that&#8217;s kind of cohesive taken as one whole product.

Finally, what a lot of people feel the theme that caps the entire soundtrack off is the final True Pacifist boss theme. Or rather, both of its themes. Noi and I sang the whole things to each other while we were playing through the ending together. In fact, EmCee refused to let me vote for Undertale until I&#8217;d finished off the True Pacifist ending, and I could tell why. The first half of the track I linked is one separate theme for an entire phase, using three different motifs dedicated to stronger Undertale themes, opting for a synth violin opening, then transitioning forward into a synth guitar and chiptune. Undertale likes to lie about its upfront appearance. You suspect the entire soundtrack to drown in chiptune, but it doesn&#8217;t. The second theme, completely obliterates that notion, opting for a stronger sense of synth/electronica with a combination of guitar, drums, and a nice little xylophone. It&#8217;s a very pleasant and semi-rock-opera-esque way to cap off the soundtrack as a whole.

I suppose, that the strongest suit that this soundtrack has, is that it tells every character&#8217;s story. The synergy between every piece in an area dedicated to that particular character, and also callbacks to other area themes is so flawless that sometimes it&#8217;s not even noticeable until you start to think about it.

The soundtrack isn&#8217;t entirely flawless. A lot of the unused tracks simply sound like that: unused and unpolished. It&#8217;s nice to have them there, but they stick out in not the best way. I feel like tracks on the album should have additional loops. Speaking about the soundtrack in a game context, it&#8217;s difficult to narrow down a shortcoming because the way each theme is used is dedicated and carefully placed.

Undertale was a pleasure to experience, both the game, and its soundscape. It&#8217;s an inspired album, internally and externally. It&#8217;s probably a stupid and silly reason, but I can&#8217;t help but to compare the soundtrack to what Nier the game was: a collection of different references to everything else and nods to other games woven into one thing. Of course, the collection of different soundfonts and different samples in every theme and from theme to theme is really&#8230; strange, but I kind of dig it? It&#8217;s a testament to the fact to a lack of cohesion doesn&#8217;t necessarily break a product because I feel as though Fox got what he wanted out of the game and out of its soundtrack&#8217;s lack of cohesion. It&#8217;s all over the place, but it fits. It&#8217;s different, and out of context, it sounds like the strangest thing, and even in context it sounds like the strangest thing. But because it&#8217;s so strange, it sounds so natural and fitting. Undertale is a strange journey. Its soundtrack being strange, yet so cohesive is absolutely fitting, and it has earned its spot as one of the best and strongest soundtracks of 2015.

 

[Dark Schala]

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (patches 3.0 to 3.15)
Masayoshi Soken (some original tracks by Nobuo Uematsu)

This is where I decided to listen to my heart. I really wanted to give Undertale the first spot, because speaking as an evaluator, I felt that Undertale was the most consistent soundtrack of the year and the most impressive soundtrack from one single person. However, as I keep playing Heavensward and experiencing what I feel and what my friends feel, I can&#8217;t help but to think with my heart instead of my brain. I picked up Final Fantasy XIV after years of Noi asking me to play the game with him and I didn&#8217;t really want to start playing it because I wasn&#8217;t interested in any of the jobs until Ninja was implemented. Perhaps it might be slightly unprofessional on my part (lol &#8220;professionalism&#8221; when it comes to organizing a thread) to choose a soundtrack based on my personal biases and experiences that is game-specific as opposed to the musicality of a soundtrack. A lot of my decision-making with respect to this soundtrack has a lot to do with personal experiences, so please bear with me.

A lot of Final Fantasy XIV&#8217;s soundtrack, particularly pieces from A Realm Reborn and the 2.x patch content, can be a bit mixed. While some of it is amazing, like Thunder Rolls or Torn from the Heavens, some of it doesn&#8217;t feel entirely cohesive. This is due in part by some of the music being remnants from the game that Final Fantasy XIV was, and the game Final Fantasy XIV is today. It is also due in part to Masayoshi Soken having not come into his own entirely yet. Soken has composed for other games, such as Mario Hoops 3-on-3, but these games typically side-games or games that don&#8217;t have a lot of traction outside of niche circles. I believe, even since last year, I was waxing poetic about Soken&#8217;s work simply based on out of context experiences with his music. Now that I can say I&#8217;ve experienced his work in context, it&#8217;s even better, and I understand the following he has.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward is, for the most part, Soken&#8217;s time to shine in the sun. Although the main theme, Dragonsong, was composed by series&#8217; veteran Nobuo Uematsu, many of its leitmotifs are carried on throughout the entire soundtrack. I do feel as though Dragonsong is more cohesive than Answers; however, that is a personal bias considering I liked Final Fantasy XI&#8217;s theme, Distant Worlds, far more than Answers. Truth be told, I did not start warming up to Answers until my Free Company started raiding the Binding Coil of Bahamut more often. That being said, there&#8217;s a lot of what Dragonsong does, which works for me more than Answers did (and I&#8217;m typically not a huge fan of Uematsu&#8217;s vocal pieces at all). Susan Calloway&#8217;s diction is, as usual, incredibly excellent. Hearing her voice feels like a gift. As some may recall, I&#8217;ve studied vocal music, trained as a mezzo-soprano, so hearing another soprano with a lot of control feels amazing to me. Physically-speaking, it&#8217;s hard to control your voice when you get into a higher range and your voice is more of a power voice than a paper-thin voice. My vocal coach and I spent sessions together trying to get my voice under control for Phantom of the Opera pieces where I did both parts when I was younger, even. I&#8217;ve come to admire sopranos who can get it done flawlessly, and Calloway is one of them. It&#8217;d be an honour to hear this live one day. While the lyrics describe nothing but the legend of Saint Shiva, Hraesvelgr, and the history of Ishgard itself, the way the music is composed, with many of the note holds, some of the simplicity and elegance melodically-speaking, and the feeling and diction emanating from Calloway&#8217;s vocals makes the music more meaningful. I feel that way every time I let the game&#8217;s opening trailer roll.

Many of the game&#8217;s themes revolve around Dragonsong&#8217;s motifs. Well, &#8220;many&#8221; is probably falling short of how many truly use its motif. Despite this, as Thoraxes and I had discussed months ago, this soundtrack demonstrates a lot of Soken&#8217;s growth as a composer. Dragonsong appears numerous times in different motifs, from the slowest, most delicate pieces, so the more energizing pieces.

I enjoy the redone prelude, since much of the instrumentation used in terms of strings is more evocative of cold and loneliness, which enhances Heavensward&#8217;s thematic elements a little more. I&#8217;ll personally be sad to see the theme go when 4.0 rolls around, but I love leaving the game on the start screen just to listen to it even more.

The boss theme, Ominous Prognosticks, is more melodic than the A Realm Reborn boss theme, and it&#8217;s even better. It&#8217;s easy to hum, and I love the percussion and brass. The percussion drives the entire thing and the strings and brass carry it all the way through, especially frantic bit in the C-section. When the theme launches into the main melody in D, extending into the main Heavensward melody, with the chorus, it&#8217;s paced so well with the percussion hitting hard then extending into the main traditional Final Fantasy battle opener prior to the loop. It&#8217;s one of the better boss themes in the series, and it&#8217;s incredibly catchy.

The Primal themes in this game are different from those of 2.1-2.5. Ravana&#8217;s themes demonstrate that Soken&#8217;s not all about rock operas or metal. The first half is a hilarious waltz. The strings make this far more than the chorus. But then you&#8217;re blasted into the second half with some hot bass (throatsinging) vocals and setting itself far apart from the other upbeat primal themes. The instrumentation doesn&#8217;t run far from the vocals, and the brass doesn&#8217;t overtake any of the vocals, letting the lyrics play out gracefully. I can just sing &#8220;the war still wageth on&#8221; when it comes up because I know when it&#8217;s coming up in the movement. I like it. It&#8217;s one of the better Primal themes in the game because there&#8217;s a lot of depth to the instrumentation and care taken in lyrical writing.

For the second primal theme, Bismarck, Soken decides to go with more electronica as opposed to rock or what he did for Ravana. More drum and bass, and it sounds really good. It&#8217;s the first primal theme out of the two main ones that I gravitated towards because of the bass. The second phase adds some piano and slight vocals. The bass and percussion stand out more in front of the rest of the music and it&#8217;s something I always appreciate in any sort of music because bass anything is my sort of jam. The second portion of the track where the piano is added is nicely rhythmically-paced, integrating vocals. It&#8217;s hard to say out of the two primal themes which one I enjoy more, but it entirely depends on my mood.

Heroes is the final boss theme of Heavensward, and it integrates parts of Dragonsong into the theme. Even listening to it while writing this up, I find myself humming the harmony because it&#8217;s my favourite part as opposed to the lead melody or the vocal portions. The portions where the main melody of Dragonsong flows in, it&#8217;s difficult not to be enraptured by the string sweeps, the percussion, the orchestration, and the brass.

The Azys Lla theme is one of my absolute favourites. I don&#8217;t know what to gush about first. The introduction with electronica? The organ melodies (oh hell yeah, the organ melodies)? The theme is a deliberate nod to Final Fantasy VI&#8217;s New Continent, albeit with different instrumentation. I love the backing, too. It&#8217;s not something you typically hear unless you have a good audio system, but in some good headphones, during the downbeat/piano portion in D, there&#8217;s some really nice stuff being done with hi-hats and synth vocals. It&#8217;s fairly different from other area themes in the game overall, and it stands out by being a completely different genre from everything else.

I have a very deep affection for Coerthas Western Day, and Coerthas Western Night, simply because they were really the first two themes I went out to experience for myself when I got to the Heavensward patch. The instrumentation in both is so melancholy, hinging on strings and piano in a cold wilderness. At the same timeChurning Mists Day and Churning Mists Night don&#8217;t get a lot of love in-context because&#8230; well, not a lot of people like that place. It sucks. Musically speaking, both themes are really nice inverses of each other and easily told apart due to a complete difference in terms of instrumentation. One is a beautiful piano rendition, and the other is draped in strings and plucking. The introductions of each piece are fantastic and tender and slow.

Contention, linked previously, is one of my favourite themes in the entirety of Heavensward, and half of the reason is because it&#8217;s a very important theme for me. It is supposed to illustrate a deeper connection between two characters in the Heavensward narrative, and hence it&#8217;s a graver arrangement, led by a piano, of Dragonsong. However, in a personal sense, I generally associate the theme with Noi and me fighting then making up, or just being together listening to the theme and telling each other that we love each other very much. Thus, Conviction is very important to me, both as a game-player, and as an individual. Musically-speaking, it&#8217;s a wonderful grave piano arrangement of Dragonsong, and it doesn&#8217;t necessarily build or change outside of synth strings being added in a layer. Nothing necessarily overtakes the piano until a small grave climax in the theme. It&#8217;s very tender and I love it very dearly.

I kind of dislike the Idyllshire Day and Night themes, and I find the Hinterlands Day and Night themes fairly unremarkable. I feel like they don&#8217;t necessarily add anything musically or add anything with respect to musicality other than &#8220;here&#8217;s this town theme, it sure sounds like a town theme&#8221;. The Hinterlands themes simply use instrumentation that don&#8217;t necessarily tug on my ears. By contrast, the Ishgard themes (Pillars : Night / Day; Foundation Night / Day), are much better and more grounded in emotion along with motifs for Dragonsong better portrayed through instrumentation. The piano, the brass, and the organs play out the prestige of a town theme mixed with a main title theme, and it&#8217;s a pleasure to listen to every time.

However, the main dungeon theme for the dungeon in the Idyllshire area, Ink Long Dry, is one of my favourite themes in all of Heavensward. That jazz piano is some of the hottest stuff on this side of D4. The bass stands out, and while the time signature for this piece is weird, and everything about the piece is so weird, it&#8217;s the most relaxing piece in the entire game for me outside of another soon to be mentioned. Jazz fused with some weird instrumental hip hop in the main portion of the track, and it sounds so good.

Out of the two postgame dungeons in 3.0, I like The Fractal Continuum more (not just because my damage-per-second shoots through the roof based on my job, but it doesn&#8217;t hurt!). While Neverreap sounds like a standard arrangement of The Sea of Clouds, Fractal brings its own fun melody to the table with organs, synth, a nice backing guitar, fun backing percussion and hi-hats, a nice little piano. But man, listen to that percussion. It&#8217;s almost to die for and I&#8217;d love to drum that myself if I ever got better at playing the drums.

The Alexander themes are a true treasure. It&#8217;s something you kind of expect from the area, and from Soken himself due to his previous work and which genres he chooses to set his themes. The ambient theme doesn&#8217;t get a lot of play, and honestly due to the area, it doesn&#8217;t get a lot of love either. I kinda dig it because it reminds me of 90s rave music. The electric guitar melody is pretty hot, the organ is hard to hear but it adds a lot of melody, and the backing synth is jammin&#8217;. The one theme that everyone loves (well, not Jucksalbe :V :V) is the boss theme! This shit right here is super-hot. The lyrics are hot (dc, dying, dying, electricity!), the percussion is so fucking good in almost every section of the theme (particularly A-portion prior to a verse, with the electronica). The introduction is so good, and I&#8217;d love to hear an entire piano quartet rendition of the entire theme because of that. Sometimes I go in, hum one part of the melody and Noi hums the other for the harmony and it feels so good to know someone else gets it.

Metal is probably the one theme that some folks who don&#8217;t play the game might know? There was a live version done at a panel and some non-FF14 players thought it was hilarious on my timeline, anyway. The lyrics are lore-specific, with FF14&#8217;s Goblinspeak pervading throughout the entire theme. This is where &#8220;No Busydeals For the Wicked&#8221; comes from, and you can&#8217;t help but to sing along to it to have something to laugh at because folks aren&#8217;t doing their jobs in the raid and not picking adds up when they should also the tank isn&#8217;t stunning the legs &#8230; and&#8230; what? Metal is a theme that&#8217;s more or less a typical Soken theme. The lyrics don&#8217;t kick in until the battle actually starts and someone&#8217;s hitting something. The instrumentation is so caustic, particularly due to the reliance on hard percussion coming from all angles. The synth and the electric guitar pick up at a fantastic point during the theme&#8217;s chorus, and I especially love the bit during the second verse with some of the off-beat string points. It&#8217;s so frantic and sounds added in because they were late to the party, but it fits so well.

The 3.1 themes are a bit hit-and-miss. The Diadem and its battle theme sound great for the first few times, particularly because they invoke the traditional prelude, and it hinges on more of an orchestrated sound as opposed to the rock or gothic themes that we usually get for raids. The B-portion of the former theme is probably the best part of it as opposed to the introduction which includes the prelude, because it sounds more militaristic due to the percussion, and yet, it evokes a sense of wonder due to the brass and flute. That being said, like any MMO theme like this, it gets very repetitive very quickly, particularly before its loop. The battle version of the Diadem theme is really cool due to the pacing of the track, and because it integrates the classical Final Fantasy battle theme introduction. I like it far more than the exploratory theme, and I kind of wish it had a longer loop because I&#8217;d rather hear that for 90 minutes straight as opposed to the exploratory theme.

The two dungeon themes in 3.15 are really good, though one is old. Pharos Sirius only got a new (very excellent) piano introduction, and I wish the rest of the piece were more arranged to set it apart from its easy mode predecessor. Saint Mocianne&#8217;s Arboretum is gorgeous. I&#8217;ve used it as study music. The woodwind introduction, with the piano D-portion is my favourite. Never mind that the dungeon itself is gorgeous; the pacing of the track itself, particularly in its C-portion with its pacing piano prior to the loop and the B-portion relying more on strings and guitar, allow the player to perceive a sense of beauty and magnificence with respect to a slight reference to Final Fantasy IX. It&#8217;s a very nice arrangement of the Dravanian Hinterlands theme, and it makes the theme even more respectable.

The new Vanu themes are so well-done to me. They&#8217;re so evocative of some Genso Suikoden III pieces that tried to inspire the same tribal tone but those themes weren&#8217;t always so successful at it. I especially enjoy the piano in this theme, combined with the underlying backing and percussion. It sounds so frenetic and disjointed, but it works so well, and I&#8217;m glad that these themes were integrated into the patch. The Gundu theme may not start off as strong, but its final portion before the loop has an excellent orchestrated background with a flute lead. I couldn&#8217;t help but to think, upon hearing the themes in the patch for the first time, that Soken grew a little bit. He&#8217;s not confined to rock anthems or electronica anymore. He can still land into traditionalist territory and set himself apart.

I don&#8217;t have much experience with the Lords of Verminion theme because I don&#8217;t usually do the event. But man, it reminds me of Mortal Kombat. It&#8217;s so easy to dismiss it because of the electronica backing and the percussion, but the best part of it is the violin passage. Even then, it&#8217;s unfortunate that the loop is so short, when matches are apparently five to ten minutes long.

The Void Ark themes are probably the best new pieces of music in the 3.1 patch. While traditionally gothic, it&#8217;s not every day that we get organ and piano-filled themes like that in Final Fantasy XIV. Void Ark&#8217;s Calm Theme relies on its organ, its piano, plucking, and softer percussion. I feel like I know the melody in and out because I have someone humming it in my ear every time I run through the dungeon with him. There are times when I literally have to tell him to shush because I&#8217;m concentrating on healing or hitting a thing, but it honestly makes me love the melody more because it tells me that the melody is quite catchy. Even during the battle theme, I can&#8217;t help but to sing the main melody along with Noi because it keeps me at ease when I&#8217;m in a tough situation. I do enjoy that the brass became more prominent in this version as opposed to the organ and piano in the former. The Echidna boss theme is still a variation of the Void Ark theme, but it includes choral work, more brass, and more percussion. The bells return and there is a sweet interlude in the C-portion with the original organ and flute before picking up to the main instrumentation.

The final theme added in patch 3.15 is the (final boss spoiler) Primal Extreme boss. Some people kinda hate because it&#8217;s not enriching enough, but I love it. I love the B-portion, post percussion introduction, with the piano prelude joining an arrangement of the main final boss theme/Dragonsong arrangement. It&#8217;s a good arrangement in a completely different key. After the big bombastic portion finishes, a piano transition occurs which I absolutely adore. It&#8217;s backed by synth and very little percussion, and the portion slightly arranges the Azys Lla theme. It then transitions to a paced choral portion of Dragonsong with a final brass fanfare before looping. I haven&#8217;t done the fight yet because the running joke is that my FC is busy doing silly distracting things instead of new content (hey man, 3-4-manning content is plenty fun!), but man I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll love it in context when I do finally do it.

I had asked Noi to run the Aetherochemical Research Facility with me on Friday because I was still struggling to vote between my heart and my head. And after our run was over, I realized that I should go with my heart. Listening to Dragonsong arranged with more percussion and emotion (brass/piano) made me realize a lot of things. Heavensward as a whole brought me closer to CorvoSol and Solune, and a lot of other people whom I consider good friends of mine. It brought me much closer to Noi in ways I wouldn&#8217;t have dreamed of three years ago. Talking about our experiences with the soundtrack, a few of us singing the soundtrack to each other, going &#8220;whoa&#8221; at some new pieces of music, and gabbing a whole lot about different parts of it made me realized that maybe it&#8217;s not so bad to go with your heart once in a while.

From a technical perspective, Heavensward&#8217;s soundtrack is not perfect. It definitely has a few duds. Speaking from standpoint reflective of soundtrack cohesion, while Heavensward elects to use Dragonsong everywhere throughout its entire soundtrack, it isn&#8217;t successful in some areas, and it ends up being dragged down because of it (ex: Sohm Al &#8211; this is an arrangement for the sake of an arrangement to me). Heavensward&#8217;s highs more than make up for its inadequacies, however. This soundtrack, despite essentially being a motif arrangement soundtrack, demonstrates that Soken has grown very much as a composer since A Realm Reborn. And patch content demonstrates that he still is growing. I look forward to seeing what Soken does next, and I genuinely hope that he gets attached to a mainline single-player Final Fantasy game for everyone to experience his work.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

This wasn't really a hard year to decide since I didn't play any of the bigger name games that everyone else did. The Trails decision was going to go to SC but then I went through the soundtrack for CS again and couldn't find a single track I didn't like other than the ending theme, where as SC was full of tracks from FC which were used a bit too much in the end. Undertale also didn't have much that I disliked, I just wished that some of the tracks had a bit more to them. Overall a very good year and I expect good things from this one as well.

1. LoH: Trails of Cold Steel

The Decisive Collision
Pulsation to Tomorrow
Lonely Journey
Skies of a Strange Land
Into the Abyss

2. LoH: Trails in the Sky SC

I Swear
Silver Will, Golden Wings
Looking Up at the Sky
Whereabouts of Hope
Visions

3. Undertale

Bergentrückung + ASGORE
Hopes and Dreams
Undertale
Death by Glamour
Temmie Village

 

[Dunan]

Dark Schala, so this is where you've been hiding! ^_^;

I'd better get my vote in because if I listen to any more of the amazing pieces being linked in all these posts, time will expire!

As a major LTTP-type game player, the only 2015 release I've played is FFXIV: Heavensward, and it is a worthy receiver of my vote.

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

The music when you enter Ishgard in the daytime was perfect, and the quality never lessens: Ishgard has some nice night music too, and as you make your journey through the northlands, you are treated to the FFXII-ish Dravanian Hinterlands theme. Then at the very end, you get a dramatic remix of King Thordan's theme. I loved them all and have already pre-ordered the OST.

Can't wait to see what this game will have in store for us in 2016. It just keeps getting better and better.

Now for the LTTP vote. I played lots of non-2015 games last year -- Deus Ex: HR DC, Assassin's Creed: Rogue, Steins;Gate, Chaos;Head Noah, and many others -- but my LTTP vote goes to:

Child of Light

Is this a 2014 release? I discovered it on the last day of 2015 and had a great time with it. Beautiful game with a beautiful soundtrack, particularly the battles. That link takes you to the entire OST, so just set aside an hour or so and listen to the whole thing straight through.

 

[Exterminieren]

Well, that's the kind of analysis that'll just make a guy feel inadequate.

Superb work, DarkSchala.

 

[Eolz]

Great posts!
I always vote with my heart when it's about OSTs

 

[Dark Schala]

Fixed one thing in my vote that Jucksalbe pointed out. I'll probably see errors later but now I just wanna walk around, heh. Thanks, guys.

Dark Schala, so this is where you've been hiding! ^_^;

Oh my god, Dunan, I've missed you so much!! I haven't seen you in soooo loooong! I miss linguistic analysis with you. We need to talk FF14 languages sometime! :O

Child of Light is indeed a 2014 release, yes.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Great to see a better turn-out this year; so many excellent write-ups and returning faves.

Well if it helps you sound like you know what you're on about to my uninformed self.

Or do I? lol

I should have those links ready to go as listening to them while typing together the previously-typed observations just puts me under their spell again to the point of not being as cohesive as I should and it degenerates into lists and splooging out adjectives.

The worst part is there's alot to say about them and I wanna get it all out and extended like they need to (like Roer's theme really showing off the OSTs sophisitcated continental flair and the FF8 tone and tempo you hear time and again in this game).

 

[Shadow Hog]

I'd say that lengthy post was worth $10.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

Another Dark Schala text wall soundtrack post, I always look forward to reading these. That being said, I couldn't think of a 3rd soundtrack that really ingrained itself on me. So Undertale and Type-0 are my only two. It's a shame I never played Heavensward, the tracks I have listened to are pretty good. Also, Splatoon's soundtrack sounded like an unreleased Dreamcast game's OST, it's fantastic stuff that really captures the game's aesthetic.

Anyways. here is 10 whole hours of Tem Shop, the greatest track of 2015, enjoy.

 

[Dark Schala]

Don't forget that you have until 2:59 AM EST / 11:59 PM PST / 7:59 AM GMT to vote! I usually give an hour or so leeway cuz I know some folks are still typing stuff up.

I'd say that lengthy post was worth $10.

Thanks once again for the game. I truly appreciate it. It was a fun romp and I'm glad I didn't ignore it.

Anyways. here is 10 whole hours of Tem Shop, the greatest track of 2015, enjoy.

more like

tEM hOUrs~

(I... I'm sorry...)

 

[Andrew J.]

Awesome posts, Dark Schala! Always good to have some discussion from people who really know about music.

Focusing on the leitmotifs in the Undertale soundtrack is probably the best way to go about it, although it doesn't lend itself to natural discussion of "Megalovania", which was never really integrated the way other themes were, probably to preserve its unique status and impact as Toby Fox's signature. How do you think this version ranks?

 

[TheDancingWatermelon]

1. Undertale

Dummy!
Spear of Justice
Spider Dance
Death by Glamour
Undertale

The best soundtrack of the year hands down for me. Every track feels like it plays when it needs to, and has real heart to it. I honestly can't find a track that I don't find some level of enjoyment in, and my favorites will stay with me for what will no doubt be a very long time.

2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC

Fight with Assailant
Obstructive Existence
Visions
The Dream Continues
Hoshi no Arika (Instrumental Version)

I played both FC and SC back to back this year, and while I enjoyed the former's music, this felt like such a step up over its predecessor. Some truly memorable tracks that really shined in the moments they played in, and just a joy to listen to. It's been fun watching my fiancee play through this and listening to it all over again.

3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Fields of Ard Skellig
Ladies of the Woods
Silver for Monsters
Geralt of Rivia
You're Immortal

Here is one that never grew old despite my 150+ hours spent in its world. The ambient music especially felt leaps and bounds over most games of this genre in really setting the mood for exploration and admiring the scenery. All in all, it compliments the rest of the package so well that I can't help but remember it fondly.

Honorable Mentions:

X. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
This would probably make my top 3 if I was finished with my play through. From some of its charming field music(Land of Blue Skies, Castle of the Saint), to the many fantastic battle themes(Belief, Tie a Link of ARCUS!), Trails of Cold Steel has been just an outright pleasure in the audio department.

X. Bloodborne
I almost put this in my top 3 on the strength of a few tracks alone(The First Hunter or Ludwig, the Holy Blade are just incredible). I'm a sucker for orchestral performance, and its haunting melodies set the tone for what was a great experience.

X. Life is Strange
X. Tales from the Borderlands
Both games had fantastic uses of licensed music that really lifted the moments they played to greater heights.

 

[Yuterald]

I really don't want to have to maybe play Undertale.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

more like

tEM hOUrs~

(I... I'm sorry...)

hOI!!!!!!! you.......

I really don't want to have to maybe play Undertale.

If you don't want to play Undertale, you should just watch a playthrough of the game and the different endings. I found the gameplay kinda tedious. The music, story, writing, character, and environments, kept me interested. Also, the concept of talking to monsters in random battles never gelled with me. As a game, It's novel. The use of bullet hell elements in combat is unique, but its charm doesn't last in my opinion.

My love for Undertale is very aesthetic - I loved everything about it except playing it. Honestly, I could have just watched a playthrough and would have liked it just as much, if not more.

 

[Jintor]

There is a leitmotif hiding in Tem shop, but i can't for the life of me think what it is. I think it's the battle theme?

 

[Makoto Yuki]

There is a leitmotif hiding in Tem shop, but i can't for the life of me think what it is. I think it's the battle theme?

Yup.

 

[Dark Schala]

Almost two hours left, folks!

Focusing on the leitmotifs in the Undertale soundtrack is probably the best way to go about it, although it doesn't lend itself to natural discussion of "Megalovania", which was never really integrated the way other themes were, probably to preserve its unique status and impact as Toby Fox's signature. How do you think this version ranks?

Yes, it was kind of difficult to discuss that one with the way I tried to do the writeup. I might need to think about that one but I do like it. Give me a bit to think.

 

[demidar]

Such a sophisticated write-up on Heavensward makes me feel like playing it. But then I remembered I did and I absolutely detest 500ms of feedback latency. And I'd like to play with some Gaf peeps but since I live in Australia our schedules wouldn't match

 

[DNAbro]

Such a great write up. Even though I don't play FFXIV, I do love the music I've heard from it.

 

[Mossybrew]

X. Life is Strange

LTTP on this one but really digging the soundtrack.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Dark Schala again proving why she deserves that tag. Makes me want to go back and add more detail to my post.

 

[kuroneko0509]

Just in time to do this... now gotta go for exam lol

Top 3
1. Xenoblade Chronicles X

This probably one of the soundtrack where people can easily either like or hate. Track like Black Tar will make people go wtf when they first listen to it. But beyond that, there's a loads of good tracks, both non-vocal & vocals. For vocals,Wir fliegen andhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgudF-hVlDAare pretty good, especially Uncontrollable. Everytime that theme kicks in whenever battling a tyrant in the game never bores me. For non-vocal one, no1=CODENAMEZ, &#20129;KEI&#21364;KOKU&#24515; are some of my favourite. Another thing that makes this OST is kinda memorable is the weird track names. While on the first glance it looks rubbish, it does contain some meaning on it. For example z5m20i12r04a28 is basically a track no.5 which is for Mira theme that's recorded on the date mentioned by the other numbers in the trackname.

2. Monster Hunter X

Everytime a new monster hunter game is released, one of the thing that I'm waiting of is the soundtrack. And this time the team doesn't disappoint me as usual. At one side you have Raizex theme (&#38651;&#12398;&#21453;&#36870;&#32773; &#65374; &#12521;&#12452;&#12476;&#12463;&#12473;) which is full of electricity while on the other side you have Tamamitsune theme (&#22934;&#33398;&#12394;&#12427;&#33310; &#65374; &#12479;&#12510;&#12511;&#12484;&#12493;) that use primarily Japanese traditional instruments. Not to mention the arena theme (iinm), &#20955;&#28982;&#12394;&#12427;&#21191;&#23039; is one of the best arena theme in the series for me.

3. Splatoon

Can't think of anything to write for this OST, but I really like it haha. Some of the tracks that I really like are Splattack!, Seaskape and Metalopod

Honorable Mention
x. Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

I never understand why either Nintendo, The Pokemon Company or Spike Chunsoft never release OST for Pokemon sidegames. PMD series usually will have tons of good tracks and PSMD stays true to it. Notable tracks are but not limited to Main Theme, Second Dark Matter Battle

x. Bravely Second: End Layer

Can't say I'm not disappointed when they said Revo/Linked Horizon isn't coming back for the sequel. Instead, Ryo was chosen to do the music for this. And clearly the OST is a pretty step down compared to the 1st game. Nevertheless, there are few tracks that stand out for me, such as Battle of Oblivion (&#12496;&#12488;&#12523;&#12458;&#12502;&#12458;&#12502;&#12522;&#12499;&#12458;&#12531;), Battle of Ordeal (&#35430;&#32244;&#12398;&#25126;&#12356;) & Battle of Providence (&#12496;&#12488;&#12523;&#12458;&#12502;&#12503;&#12525;&#12499;&#12487;&#12531;&#12473

x. Tales of Zestiria

Go Shiina's involvement is this game makes me really like the OST. Not to mention my favourite Tales of series OST is Tales of Legendia, fully composed by him. Disc 3 of the OST is fully done by him so that's the part of which I really like lol. Some of the tracks from that disc are Aim for the Top of the Crucible (&#30446;&#25351;&#12377;&#12399;&#22377;&#22557;&#12398;&#38914;&#12365;), and The Melody of Water Will Lead the Way (&#27700;&#12398;&#35519;&#12409;&#12399;&#38666;&#38695;&#12398;&#23566;&#12365;)

 

[Crayolan]

1. Splatoon

I adore Splatoon's soundtrack. It may be a joke in the game but "fresh" is the pretty much the best possible word to describe it. Everything sounds a lot different from what you'd usually expect from game soundtracks, yet it works perfectly for Splatoon.

From the first moments of starting up the game you're treated with a quiet beat that slowly builds upon itself as you progress through the tutorial, only adding new instruments once you've successfully used each new mechanic the game tries to teach you. It's simple yet one of my favorite pieces in the game.

Then once you actually get into the multiplayer you get to hear the songs from the different in-universe bands each with their own style and weird squid lyrics. It's bizarre, to say the least, but I can't help but love how unique it is.

And then you go into the single player worlds and the music gets even weirder. At some points it sounds like they're just throwing out random noises and sounds, and there's one song which I've heard described as "burpstep" because of how much it sounds like autotuned burps. And yet I love it even more than the multiplayer stuff. I have no idea how they managed to make this stuff sound so good.

And last is the boss themes. The standard boss theme is a frantic techno beat which again builds on itself, increasing in intensity as you progress through each phase. Then you have the final boss who DJs his own music which, yet again, starts out simple but gets really intense by the end of the fight. And then there's my favorite song in the game, the Squid Sisters final boss theme, which plays in the final phase of the final boss, acting as a sort of "final push" theme and man does it work. It does a great job of hyping you up to finish off the boss, who you've already been fighting for quite a while now and has increased significantly in difficulty and complexity compared to the beginning. It's the perfect way to top off the game.

Squid Sisters are best Splatooniverse band

Splattack! (Jam Session)
Lobby
Metalopod
Hooked
Ink Me Up
Tentacular Circus
Cephaloparade
Great Octoweapons Phase 1 | 2 | 3
I am Octavio 1 | 3
Squid Sisters Final Boss Theme
Maritime Memory
_________________________________

This thread makes me pretty hyped to (eventually) play Undertale

Honorable Mention
x. Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

I never understand why either Nintendo, The Pokemon Company or Spike Chunsoft never release OST for Pokemon sidegames. PMD series usually will have tons of good tracks and PSMD stays true to it. Notable tracks are but not limited to Main Theme, Second Dark Matter Battle

Would you say the PSMD OST is on par with Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky? That game had one of my favorite soundtracks ever.

 

[Sneaky Gato]

Ah I almost missed it! For some reason I thought this ended on the 23rd.

1. Splatoon

I am a sucker for good world building. Many times people just let play in the background and let visuals take charge. Or just have them be a pretty composition on their own. Here the music plays an integral part in building up the identity of Splatoons world. The games premise and world would seem to be utterly ludicrous if you took a step back. Splatoons soundtrack goes beyond just existing in that world. It sells you on this world, that if this world of squid-kids really did exist this is what they would listen to. And in doing so forged an incredibely unique identity. Listen to Gusher Gauntlet there is no way that should work as well as it does yet it does while sounding like nothing else I have ever heard. This is what goes into making Splatoon not just a well visualized world but one that understands itself on an audiotory level which is an incredible accomplishment.

Squid Sisters Theme- Traditional
Maritime Roll
Lobby Theme
Booyah Base

2. Yoshi's Wooly World

The first Yoshi game was one of the first I ever played and up until now was the only in the series I liked. As such I had rather low expectations towards this title coming in. Unlike a lot of people whose problem with the game was how much it harkened back this was a big part of what made it for me. Listening to all those old tunes done up in such a wonderful style was just such an experience for me.
Frozen Solid and Chilled,
Knitty Knotty Windmill,
Shy but Deadly

3. Xenoblade Chronicles X

Big sweeping anime orchestral tracks are what first stood out to me about this soundtrack. But it is the variety that is what has made me put it up here on the list. The almost askew mirror that it seems to hold up to itself and says that it is going to what ever it wants. The variety and originality is what made it earn this spot.

Uncontrollable
Slyallum Night Theme
Noctillium Day Theme
Wir Flingan
CODENAMEZ
Honorable Mentions:

Undertale
Code Name S.T.E.A.M.: Deadly Dance This is what I like Advance Wards to sound like in the future! Those Violins! This mix of instrumentation just hits me the right way.
Grey Goo: Frank Klepacki is a god. That ability to mix all these different styles into a coherent mix is incredible. It gives each faction not just a visual but musical style making sure that you know what is happening and how that race will react. So good. The Goo,War is Evolving, Base Expansion
Transformers: Devestation: The mix of pure 80's with the rocking beats is what makes this for me. It knows what it is and embraces it fully. The boss themes are a big part of what makes this for me. SoundWave's Theme