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NeoGAF's Official Game Soundtracks of the Year 2016: Voting Ends January 15th

R

Rutger

Banned
Dark Schala said:
Thoraxes was just telling me yesterday that he might put P5 as a contender for next year, and I totally understand people holding off until next year when it gets localized.

I didn't do much (any) importing this year so I'm actually in the same boat as some of you for once unless I import Scarlet Grace. It's nice because I get less confused about what got localized and what didn't. Like Cold Steel 2: I played it in 2014 and I had to think twice before I jotted it down in my spreadsheet since it got localized this year.
Click to expand...

If I had played through more of P5 this year, I'd probably vote for it. I feel P5 will be strongly represented in next years vote, but I'd rather wait until I've heard everything in game so I can give a thorough post on it. I feel pretty confident in saying that P5 will likely take first place from me next year though, something will have to come out that really wows me to change that.

That makes this year a little harder though, because I haven't played several games that could easily make my list. I really like to hear the soundtracks in game first, but I may have to make some exceptions.
 
S

suzu

Member
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Another great OST year, and some serious deja vu from mine. How odd, right?

VWeBbia.jpg
Click to expand...
1. Trails of Cold Steel 2 ~ Falcom soundteam_JDK (Hayato Sonoda, Takahiro Unisuga)

CS2 has this wonderful anxietic mournfulness to alot it, mirroring the turmoil of the game. It's largely brought about by this cautious sporadic piano work, which is in tracks from genres all over; it's really a neat execution that ties the soundtrack together.

This is really strong in the field themes, with Wintry Arrival, Ymir Valley Road, and Trudge Along benefitting from it a ton. The mysteriousness of the dungeons is surprisingly lively in such tracks like Spirit Cavern and Reverie Corridor having this swelling, almost joyousness to them which is neat, and Awakening Will is one of the better airship themes I've heard in a long time (I like how the bassy synth sounds like chopper blades going "wummwummwummwumm" in it!)

Battle themes? The JDK special? GLORIOUS. Heated Mind is energetic to the point of frenzy, (and would be better opening track for the game), Awakening has this IMMENSE production bring a resounding CRASH right off the bat before going into a delicately-melodied Eurobeat wonder, Transcend Beat is an exciting delight that cannot disappoint, and the crown jewel of the OST and the best battle theme in 6 years: Bring up MOTHERF***ING Trust! You got your metal, but they replaced the dual electric guitar with dual electric violins so you get face-crushing awesome with heart-rending beauty. How? Just...how?

There's even a TRUE leitmotif in this (not a battle theme or a euphamism but in name)...but it's for Altina. I wonder why. Seriously. Oh well, it's really good.

ozRf1DR.jpg
Click to expand...
2. Xanadu Next ~ Falcom soundteam_JDK (Hayato Sonoda, Wataru Ishibashi, Takahide Murayama, and Takahiro Unisuga

XN starts off mostly with a laid-back, practically zen soundtrack. Such slow, careful building melodies over which is usually frantic ARPG gameplay and it works. Oh, later on it's a prog attack with La Valse Pour Xanadu ~ Xanadu Next Intermission, The One, and Time Crevice pounding out harsh time signatures to keep you hopping, but early on it's the minimalist Two Love, the exceedingly Vagrant Story-esque The Eternal Labyrinth, the build to the soaring sitar of Clover Ruins, and the hauntingly epic Trechier Woods proving you can go slow in the fast lane.

It's also a soundtrack of 3/4. Lots of 3/4. The slightly disquieting "La Valse Pour Xanadu" from the original Xanadu is remixed and themed all over, and even when it isn't that time signature continues to hold sway. It's a great linchpin to the game, providing a firm foundation for its dreamlike and cerebral ARPG. So good.

9Sjxr9F.jpg

3. Street Fighter V ~ Masahiro Aoki, Hideyuki Fukusawa, Keiki Kobayashi, Takatsugu Wakabayashi, Zac Zinger, Capcom Sound Team

With a few exceptions with some shrill off-key synth (BISON!!!), this soundtrack really sets a great series of tones in a ton of genres. Apprentice Alley, Character Select (Another Version), and City in Chaos bringing slow, hard, and sitary rock to the table. Hillside Plaza (Round 2) is smoooooooth, Forgotten Waterfall (Stage 2) is even smoooooother.

They got some of the remixed themes so right in this with Karin's Theme and Zangief's Theme being particularly good (note Gief's theme went outside the box for this one FINALLY doing the FM OG justice).

Laura's Theme is amazingly apt, and OF COURSE I ain't forgetting Rashidooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

HMs:

X. Ray Gigant (Jimbo Naoaki)

Yoko Kanno, Persona 3 & 4, and a bit of...enka?

Lost City Tokyo

Absolute Zero

Crazy Violent Impulse

Funky Killing Feels

Castle of Spite

Intermission

X. Clockwork Empires (Matt Steele)

This is the best way to hear the album as it is right now since it ain't hit Bandcamp or YouTube yet sadly.

Note the Dangerous Jazz, the most dangerous of all jazz.

X. Stranger of Sword City (Jimbo Naoaki)

Note the actually-well-used arias in this. Epic ain't a designation given out free. The whole soundtrack helps give this game the honestly-earned reverent beauty that it has.

Battle Formation

Theme of Stranger of Sword City

Warsong of the Labyrinth

Warsong of the Strangers

Warsong of the Soldiers

Fate of the Sword


X. Gotta Protectors (Yuzo Koshiro and friends)

Chiptunes? Koshiro? No explanation needed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CjdwwMOJj0

X. Fire Emblem Fates (Hiroki Morishita)

This soundtrack does better than Awakening by avoiding the temptation of settling into a Romance/Military rut and is much stronger for it.

Pleasure Capital

Alight (Storm)

Rest and Indulgence

Road Taken

X. Final Fantasy XV (Yoko Shimomura)

The Numbered Final Fantasy Soundtrack Curse Of Watery, Predictable Compositions did not spare our friend here, but like with XII and XIII, it didn't completely exise exciting, invigorating music.

Apocalypsis Noctis

Wanderlust

Sunset Waltz

X. Pokemon Sun & Moon (Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose)

The second best mainline Pokemusic next to Black and White. Daring and incredibly fun (Synthwave Hakas? Sure!), and like B&W avoids the series trap of speeding up a boring battle composition to hide said boringness.

Guardian Deity Battle

Vs Red/Blue

Ten Carat Hill
 
Z

Zaventem

Member
1. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
Unreal Rhythm
Confront the Enemy
Farewell

2. The Last Guardian
Victorious
Finale I Apex
Finale II Escape


3. Dark Souls 3
Dancer of the Boreal Valley
Lorian, Elder Prince & Lothric, Younger Prince
Soul of Cinder
 
E

Eirwat

Neo Member
1. Fire Emblem Fates
Great entry with av diverse selection of tracks. Great vocal tracks as Well.

2. Final Fantasy XV
Sublime music from shimomura. Knocked it out of the park.

3. Doom
Awesome return to form. Mick Gordon really nailed the crunchiness of the combat.
 
M

Mr. Pointy

Member
1. Fire Emblem Fates
Hiroki Morishita, Rei Kondoh, Takeru Kanazaki, Yasuhisa Baba, Masato Kouda, supervised by Yuka Tsujiyoko
Hanging Balance
Quiet Burn (Roar)
Pale Star
A Brother's Vow
Pleasure Capital
ENISHI ~For Sakura and Elise~

2. Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5DX+
Yuzo Koshiro
Entry (Maxi 5DX+)
Drive Me Crazy
Still Alive
I Will Follow You
High-speed Monster

3. Dark Souls 3
Yuka Kitamura, Motoi Sakuraba
Main Theme
Vordt Of The Boreal Valley
Oceiros, The Consumed King
Soul Of Cinder

Honorable Mentions:
Doom
Monster Hunter Generations
Civilization VI
Final Fantasy XV
 
KyanMehwulfe

KyanMehwulfe

Member
1. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

A bit underappreciated during the game itself but now couples months on listening to just the score (and now the official soundtrack) it's won me over really strongly. Darker and more ominous than DXHR, it's a pretty awesome ambient score, one of the best menu musics this side of Mass effect, and the TF29 theme was a pretty great surprise gem.

2. Doom

Ended up giving it second because I like the diversity of DX MD more, but in terms of nailing a single theme or just raw 'gameplay' improving (opposed to mood setting) music, this is hard to beat. Game is worth playing for the music (and how the music improves the action) alone.
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
1. Pokémon Sun and Moon- Sure, it's another Pokémon soundtrack. But oh, what a Pokémon soundtrack it is. Series highlights abound in most categories, with the game boasting the best Legendary battle theme, some of the best town music in the series, and, in the form of Team Skull's various themes, the finest, funniest tracks to be found in any game this year. Pokémon as a series has some of the best soundtracks in gaming, and I feel it's only right to reward the best in the series with the highest marks here.

2. Thumper- If Thumper's soundtrack isn't as good as it is, the game utterly fails. The soundtrack is the core piece of the thumping nightmare that is that game; it's hard to think of many soundtracks so completely successful at doing what they intend. Not, perhaps, one to listen to for some relaxation, but astoundingly effective nevertheless.

3. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End- Sends the series off on precisely the sort of swashbuckling, high-adventure note it needed. The Uncharted series has a proud history of fine scores to match its derring-do, and Uncharted 4 boasts probably the best of the bunch.

I love a lot of what I've heard from Furi and The Last Guardian, but as I haven't played either game I can't reasonably include them.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
1. The Silver Case (Masafumi Takada)
Main Theme
Investigation

Kill The Past (End Credits)

I'm not sure if this was his first OST ever or not, but it's definitely his most distinct. The OST runs the gamut from catchy(Investigation) to haunting(His Room) to relaxing (Jack Hammer). It's the foundation on which everything he's done since was built.

2. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (Ryota Kozuka)
Kinshicho Underground District
Polytheistic Alliance (Battle)
Palace of the Four Heavenly Kings (2016 Remix)

Apocalypse's OST isn't as massive as IV, or as fleshed out(since it uses a lot of tracks from IV proper), but the new tracks Kozuka brought to the table are stellar. Polytheistic Alliance in particular sounds like you're really taking the war to the gods themselves. Because you are.

3. VA-11 Hall-A (Michael Kelly)
Out of Orbit
Metropolis
Neo Avatar

I've known Garoad for a long time. He's a huge SMT fan, and it shows. Neo Avatar could have easily been a track from SMT Imagine. He loves his melodic,eerie synths, and I love his work for it. He deserves all the success he can get.

Honorable Mentions: Final Fantasy XV, Project X Zone 2(I can't not love a game that mixes tracks from Yakuza, Namco X Capcom, and Phoenix Wright.)
 
N

Nocturnowl

Member
SatelliteOfLove said:
Awakening Will is one of the better airship themes I've heard in a long time (I like how the bassy synth sounds like chopper blades going "wummwummwummwumm" in it!)
Click to expand...

Ah, the other annual tradition of SotY threads, Falcom titles.
And that's an odd yet fitting observation there, quite a different tone for an airship theme as well, going by my less JRPG versed knowledge at least.

Oh hey, someone else likes Laura's theme in SFV, I'm not alone!
 
T

Thoraxes

Member
Nocturnowl said:
Ah, the other annual tradition of SotY threads, Falcom titles.
And that's an odd yet fitting observation there, quite a different tone for an airship theme as well, going by my less JRPG versed knowledge at least.

Oh hey, someone else likes Laura's theme in SFV, I'm not alone!
Click to expand...

It's also a really good arrangement of the Heimdallr music from CS1.
 
H

Hot Coldman

Banned
1. DOOM

The revelation of Mick Gordon's original direction from Bethesda being "no fucking metal!" was baffling at first, but consider what it did to the finished product. The ridiculously brutal mix of EDM and metal ends up being both immediately more memorable than the 90s thrash metal throwback we all expected, and far more in line with DOOM's more starkly cynical, more sci-fi, more comedicly black Martian hell-enclaves. I'm putting this at number one for the latter reasons, but mostly for how this thing just pumps adrenaline directly into your thumbs, driving you through the swarm of bullets and demons and to the next Glory Kill. This fucking rocks.

Best track: BFG Division, of course.

2. Pokémon Sun Version & Pokémon Moon Version

Whilst not the best Pokemon soundtrack of them all (that'd be Pokemon Crystal's, personally), Sun & Moon trades so heavily and cleverly in developing its setting with its music that it's hard not to applaud it. All of SuMo's best tracks dig into a Hawaiian flavour that's both unique to games at large and is impossible not to love - great examples being the stirring theme of Alola that plays in the introductory scene with Professor Kukui, the idyllic sun-splashed Hau'oli City music, and the incredible Kahuna battle theme.

SuMo is furthered elevated by further experimentation elsewhere - the hip-hop theme for the Team Skull fights makes them possibly the first remotely memorable villain music in the series, and battles with the likes of Gladion, the Sun/Moon/Stars legendaries and Hau are more diverse with instrumentation and tempo than the series has dared to be in years. Much like the games itself, it's often an astonishing, invigorating break from tradition for Pokemon soundtracks, and it's all the better for it.

Best track: Battle! (Island Kahuna)

3. Street Fighter V

Such a massive improvement over Street Fighter IV's ugly-as-sin soundtrack. The classic themes have never sounded better and the new music is a perfect addition to the legendary SF musical canon. Say what you want about the rest of the game, but Capcom went all out with the music. My favourite track, the majestic Karin's theme, could be dropped into CvS2 or Third Strike and feel perfectly at home - that's how well this entry stacks up to the rest.

Best track: Karin's Theme
 
I

Idle Storm

Member
1. DOOM (this is the obvious winner here. Man, what powerful use of sound and music in this game. Freaking fantastic. BFG Division is mind numbing)
2. Battlefield 1 (it sticks in my head)
3. Dishonored 2
 
J

Jawbreaker

Member
thelastguardian-vinyluwykr.png


1. The Last Guardian
[X] [X] [X]

Takeshi Furukawa delivered a tempered soundtrack that's woven into the very fabric of the game, never feeling out of place and often enhancing the moment. You're never overwhelmed by a bombastic orchestra, as it gives way to the game's atmosphere, but it kicks in at all the right moments, and you can easily pick up on emotional cues which help dictate the situation you find yourself in. Absolutely masterful.

0007508948_10fsl1t.jpg


2. Furi

let_it_die_feature-1024x413.jpg


3. Let It Die


Honorable mentions include the following:

  • Dark Souls III
  • Virginia
  • Hyper Light Drifter
  • Owlboy

[Will add more later]
 
NeoRaider

NeoRaider

Member
1. Furi ; "Danger", "Unraveled", "Make this Right"...

2. Severed ; "Home", "The Wilds", "Crow Golem"...

2. Virginia ; "Main Titles", "Taxi Ride", "Sojourner's Truth"...
 
S

sanstesy

Member
1. Paper Mario: Color Splash
2. Pokemon Sun & Moon

The only other game I've played with a notable soundtrack is DOOM and I didn't like it to the point where I can't really rank it without feeling guilty.
 
N

NSESN

Member
1. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice: I love Ace Attorney music as much as I love Ace Attorney
2. Pokemon Sun and Moon: Guzma theme is one my favourite video game songs ever
3. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse: Great tracks overall

Honorable Mentions:
Monster Hunter Genarations
Fire Emblem Fates
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
I wish I played Last Guardian, don't feel good voting without it, since I loved Ico's and sotc's soundtracks so much, and I KNOW it would be on top of near it.
 
M

MineralCraver420

Banned
1. Final Fantasy XV. Easily Yoko Shimomura's best work, and that's saying something.

2. The Last Guardian. Emotional, yet not manipulative. Beautiful, yet not indulgent. A balanced, nuanced work.

3. Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero. Most underrated soundtrack of the year. Very stylish.

Honorable mentions (unordered)

x. Owlboy

x. Furi

x. Hyper Light Drifter

x. Dark Souls 3

x. Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

x. Street Fighter V

x. Pokemon Sun and Moon


LTTP: Nier. This may be the best soundtrack ever composed for anything, let alone games.
 
Robot Pants

Robot Pants

Member
mdK2VJt.jpg

1. Dark Souls 3 - Yuka Kitamura absolutely KILLED it on this soundtrack. She needs to replace Sakuraba from here on out.
Favorite Tracks:
- Oceiros, The Consumed King
- Main Menu
- Yhorm the Giant
- Abyss Watchers


sFDNZ7Z.jpg

2. DOOM - Gets you pumped every time it kicks in
Favorite Tracks:
- Rip and Tear


kHBXrWz.jpg

3. Mother Russia Bleeds - The soundtrack everyone forgot about. Similar to Hotline Miami, some of these tracks go really hard.
Favorite Tracks:
- Black Racers
- Mother Russia Bleeds
- Putrid Waves
- Maniac
- Killing Pool


Honorable Mentions
The Last Guardian
 
D

DNAbro

Member
1. Fire Emblem Fates
End of All
Road Taken(Roar) / Road Taken
I have to mention that Road Taken is such a perfect fight song because of how it weaves in and out of when attacking someone and commanding units. The calmer version moving into the Roar version sounds amazing and was something I constantly loved.

2. Pokemon Sun/Moon
Vast Poni Canyon
Rival Gladion's Theme
Battle
Aether President Lusamine

3. Final Fantasy XV
Wanderlust
Sunset Waltz
Somnus
Apocalypsis Noctis

There were some good ones, this year. I would throw a vote for Persona 5 but that is coming here next year so I'll wait.

Shout out to Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse as well.
 
V

V3rt1go

Member
1 - Final Fantasy XV (Stand Your Ground, Wanderlust, Noctis)

2 - Persona 5 (Wake up, Get up, Get out there)

3 - World of Final Fantasy (Nine Worlds, Renn Melody, Grimoire)
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
1. Final Fantasy XV
2. I am Setsuna
3. World of Final Fantasy
 
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