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[Andrefpvs]

From what I played in 2014:

1. Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Rival's Theme (a.k.a. Battle! Wally)

^There's something I have to say about this theme, and why it pushed this game to number one.

Before I reached the battle where this song plays, this was just yet another Pokémon game for me. It was just a remake of a game I had already played.

But Pokémon games are at their best when your expectations are "betrayed" (in a good way). When you think you've got them figured out, but something unexpected happens. Allow me to explain:

There is a technique in JRPGs where, sometimes, the battle theme will start playing before the transition to the battle screen——the music comes on (usually during a cutscene), and then the battle starts with that same music already underway. This break of consistency is usually done in order to emphasize that battle's importance. It can be very powerful when done well.

This technique is something that Pokémon games hadn't quite explored before. In the original Ruby/Sapphire, this scene was supposed to be one of the high points of the game, but the way it was executed didn't set it apart from other set pieces in the game. Imagine my surprise when, in the remakes, this entirely new (amazing) battle theme was created specifically for this scene, using the technique I described.

Needless to say, I purposely let this battle play out for as long as I could.

To those interested, I leave below a comparison of this scene between the original games and the remakes. Hopefully you'll be able to see just how an ordinary scene in Ruby/Sapphire was elevated to something much more meaningful in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. They contain spoilers, obviously.

> Ruby/Sapphire
> Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
----

Battle! (Battle Chatelaine)

^My second favourite theme from the game, a track originally from Emerald that got new life in ORAS.

Route 104

^ This track is actually very similar to its (excellent) Ruby/Sapphire counterpart, but I wanted to mention that I really like what they did at 0:17.


2. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Break Out Of...

Battle Hymn of the Soul -Ultimax Ver.-

Why is Persona music always so good? Seriously?!


3. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Death Game

Almighty Bhunivelze


Honourable mention:
x. FINAL FANTASY X HD Remaster

Fight With Seymour

^Regardless of how you might feel about the remastered version of this track, the increase in "power" (over the original) at 1:12 was a brilliant touch. I felt like I had just been sucker punched when I first got to that part. But in a good way. If that makes any sense.

 

[Falk]

IT'S ALREADY A NEW PAGE

WHERE ARE YOUR POSTS

YOU PROMISED US POSTS

 

[GhaleonQ]

Armored Hunter Gunhound EX
This was my vote until I saw Guilty Gear getting only one vote, which seems more incorrect than this only getting one vote. Pretty sure most the music may be old since it was a PC/PSP game from ages ago that has only now been localized via a Steam release. Anyway, it just fucking rocks. Pretty much exactly the kind of soundtrack you'd hope for a traditional 2D game where mess shit up with a mech, like fighting off a giant robot while sliding down a mountain or charging straight into the enemy's base for some wrathful vengeance.

Riposte! Glad to see your taste still remains amazing (for the others, as well).

 

[Hyperactivity]

This has honestly been an amazing year for good OSTs

1. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

David Wise is goddamn amazing. I remember going from sort of excited to hyped when the music from this game started coming out. The music was one of the few things missing from DKCR, and I honestly think this is the best music in the franchise, and the best music this year.

Scorch N' Torch (Personal favorite):
I'll take the time to explain my personal favorites from the list. Scorch N' Torch became my favorite for a couple different reasons. The first thing is the way the music steadily grew more and more, constantly becoming tenser. I remember when this track first leaked, many people liked it not only for being amazing, but also being a track that reminded them of the original Donkey Kong Country's almost darker soundtrack. And I think that explains it well. It's neither one of those songs that is really catchy and you can hum, one of those songs that are completely ambient, or one of them that within 2 seconds you're hooked. It builds on you throughout the entire duration of it, and overall is simply amazing.

Seashore War

Homecoming Hijinx

Forest Folly

Staff Credits, especially the Stickerbush Symphony that starts at 3:30

Amiss Abyss/Funky Waters

Grassland Groove

2. Bravely Default

It was difficult choosing between this or Tropical Freeze, but Donkey Kong eventualy won. I was listening to music from Bravely Default far before I ever bought the game. BD's soundtrack is closer to that of an jrpg's, naturally, but Bravely Default has one of the best soundtracks of any rpg ever. The only thing I wish is that the character themes (You Are My Hope, Love's Vagrant, Wind's Direction, and Baby Bird), especially Tiz's(YAMH), were longer.

You Are My Hope/Tiz's Theme (Personal Favorite)
In contrast to Scorch N' Torch, You Are My Hope is a song that immediately has you hooked. The first 14 seconds, which repeat throughout the song, always manage to make me excited. Listening to an extended version for 30 minutes to an hour, you don't notice how repetitive it can get, as it goes in between repeating that part of the song, which is really loud and exciting, to going to calmer music, consistently going back and forth in a balance that never really got old, even if I had been listening to it for hours.

Wicked Flight

Baby Bird

Wind's Direction

Love's Vagrant

Land of Beginnings

That Person's Name Is

Serpent Eating the Ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySl2uu0yrw&index=43&list=PLJk2mw2kvnXXQyhaISM3QRlhq7xJqTEez]Wicked Battle

Ba'al's Theme

3. Shovel Knight

This games soundtrack is great. I can't find as much to say about it (giant post is tiring), but the chiptunes in this game are really great. I've always liked chiptunes done well, and Shovel Knight's soundtrack has a bunch of those

Fighting With All Of Our Might (Personal Favorite)
This one, like You Are My Hope, is a more in your face song, and like it, is amazing. This boss theme for guest characters in the game gives the idea that the fight is tense, but more of a competition than any ultra high stakes boss, while still pumping you up.

The Rival

In The Halls of the Usurper

High Above The Land

No Weapons Here

The Schemer

The Destroyer

La Danse Macabre

The Stalwart

Honorable Mention
Super Smash Bros For WiiU:
I honestly felt that choosing this is cheating. It's like if someone took all the songs I like, or at least a whole bunch of them, remixed a bunch, and put it in one list. The sheer number of songs alone makes this unfair, let alone the quality of most of them

LTTP
Xenoblade Chronicles:
:O. Like holy shit. I've listened to it before, but playing through this game, I can't find a single bad song. Might be my favorite soundtrack of all time. And it (through the 3ds port) will probably win next year, unless Xenoblade Chronicles X beats it or people realize how unfair it would be and just give a bunch of honorable mentions.

Pick any song, they're all amazing

 

[chancellor]

1. Transistor
In Circles
Old Friends
We All Become
Paper Boats

The standout soundtrack of the year for me, the 5-6 hours it takes to complete this game is enhanced due to the excellent soundtrack. The emotion's of Red's story is enhanced due to the soundtrack and Ashley Barrett's vocal's are excellent.

2. Child of Light
Woods Darker Than Night
Pilgrims on A Long Journey
Metal Gleamed in The Twilight

You do a lot of battle's in this game but the Battle Theme's are fantastic and overall the soundtrack makes the game a great experience

3. Velocity 2x
General Glaive
Main Theme
Rekenium

The soundtrack fits the futuristic setting brilliantly and gives great rhythm to the action

 

[Yuterald]

Cool picks, Riposte. I think Through the Wasteland is my favorite from Crimson Clover (or what's that 3rd, bug-ridden stage called? I can't find the music on YouTube or is it that wasteland track I just linked? lol). Dark Clouds is rad though. My Guilty Gear is still sitting sealed and I've barely given Gunhound EX a proper playthrough. =/

Also, this year I gotta make my first initiative into ios gaming. There's too many cool sounding RPGs on the mobile front these days and that Terra music sounds fucking awesome.

 

[Dark Schala]

I usually like starting out by writing a small preface, but I don’t have much to say this time. I realize that in the time that I haven’t posted much on GAF and now that I don’t know a lot of the newer faces (which comes as a slight shock to me since I used to know almost everyone by name and posting style before I got busier and couldn’t post as much). Um, to be honest, I didn’t feel like 2014’s repertoire of soundtracks was as outstanding as last year’s. There seems to be a general consensus as to what the best soundtrack is among many folks. But honestly, I had a lot of trouble this year in the months leading up to the vote coming up with what I wanted to add to my short list. In fact, I didn’t even decide on my top 3 until Friday morning. While there were a lot of soundtracks that stood head-and-shoulders above the rest, I suppose my ambivalence towards 2014’s game releases as a whole may have affected what I felt about the soundtracks released this year. Generally speaking, though, a lot of people I know who listen to VGM on a release calendar-basis felt similar to how I felt so I don’t think this is necessarily an anomaly. That being said, there are soundtracks that vote on, and unlike how I felt about GotY, I can actually name and rank a soundtrack of the year.

It’s nice to see a lot of new faces this year and getting to know a few of you through your write-ups and writing styles!

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

1. The Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki II Original Soundtrack

Composers: Falcom Sound Team jdk (Hayato Sonoda, Takahiro Unisuga) (pretty sure jdkluv can shed a lot more light on this than I ever could, though!)

I have to admit that when I had voted for Sen no Kiseki (1)’s soundtrack last year that the write-up was short since I was struggling to come with a lot of content on how to wax poetic about it. Long-story-short, I didn’t like Sen 1 that much. It wasn’t what I wanted out of a Kiseki game, and the soundtrack’s tone linked so much with that that it ended up not beating out the other two soundtracks that I had voted for last year. That was probably a surprise to a few people because typically Falcom soundtracks top my list or are at least are in the top 2.

Sen no Kiseki II, however, feels like a much better game than Sen I did. It has better pacing, better storytelling, slightly better balancing, and lots of cool stuff for the player to uncover (and more questions left than answers… again!). It also helps that Sen II feels like it has a better soundtrack than Sen I, even though Sen II does reuse a lot of Sen I’s soundtrack offerings (to no one’s surprise, really). The soundtrack itself is paced just as well as the game, with little filler tracks, and if there are filler or minigame tracks, they generally don’t overstay their welcome, or they have neat twists on the formula. There were a lot of times throughout Sen I’s soundtrack that some tracks were a waste of my time, but I didn’t feel that much about Sen II’s soundtrack at all.

The soundtrack opens with the OP theme Senkou no Yukue, which reminds me that I used to rag on the Sen I OP theme (Ashita e no Kodou) a lot. I think I had gotten so acclimated to the Sen 1 theme that I don’t care much for the Sen II OP theme at all in a rhythmic and vocal sense. I don’t particularly care for Kotera’s tone or colour here, and the pacing of the theme doesn’t feel as great as the first game’s theme at all. It’s particularly jarring when the first Sen game’s theme continues to have a recurring motif throughout the second game, too. In any case, it’s not the best opening to a soundtrack, but it’s completely best to think of the beginning of Sen II’s soundtrack as Sen no Kiseki Original Soundtrack, Part II.

I like the main battle theme Heated Mind a whole lot more than Sen I’s standard battle themes, but that’s moreso because my taste is slightly different than the direction that Sen I is going for. Sen II is less upbeat than Sen I thematically, so it makes sense that the Sen II battle theme starts fairly slowly and then generates an A-B-C structure much like a normal song would. I generally like the more downbeat portions with the piano and slight guitar because, as many of you know, Kiseki battle systems are generally more slower-paced and battles can take a while tactically-speaking if you aren’t spamming magic constantly. As expected, the battle theme has its own take on the main title theme Forward, with Determination, which is nice to hear. It’s a bit unfortunate that it’s basically the only standard battle theme in the entire game, but it doesn’t get tiring since the pacing is well-done. If you get into a critical state (where most of your party members have critical HP or they’re dead), Impatient begins to play. It isn’t a very substantive theme, and it’s pretty one-note, but in that sense, it’s comparable to Shadow Hearts’s intensity themes like that. The player moves from a semi-downbeat well-paced theme to a faster-paced intense theme with tons of synth, so in execution, it works. Perhaps listening stand-alone, it isn’t that great.

Kiseki title themes are usually something that I’ve started to look forward to, and “Forward, with Determination” didn’t disappoint. The Sen games do a neat thing where the second title screen changes (ie: when you press start) depending on where you’re at in the game. Granted, it doesn’t feel as special since it’s also used a scene theme (hence the name), but it works in both the context of a title screen and in the context of a scene. I enjoy the post-intro melody since the percussion and bass really make that section for me.

The town themes in Sen II are pretty decent. The first town you come across is Ymir, the hot springs town in a wintry landscape. We get to see Rean in his hometown and how he interacts with the people there. Coming off of the intensity of what happened in Sen I, it’s interesting to come back to something so slowly paced as Still Countryside. Thinking about it, and thinking of why I got into the series in the first place after Sora no Kiseki The 3rd, Still Countryside is very Genso Suikoden V-esque. Conversely, Relief Towards Tomorrow sounds very traditional in terms of RPG fare.

Courageous Launch! is the earlier airship theme for the Courageous. I think it’s okay. It sounds fairly traditional in terms of airship themes, and in this post-Bravely Default world, that probably doesn’t cut it. Awakening Will is what I’ll remember as the second airship theme and it’s a better one than the original theme. As with many other themes on the soundtrack, it gets better after the second half of the soundtrack. The percussion is the best thing about the track to me and stands out pretty well.

Throughout my playthrough Sen no Kiseki II, I had noticed that the game had no shortage of great field themes. Wintry Arrival is the first field theme you’ll hear in Sen II, and thematically, it’s meant to evoke a feeling of loneliness (hence the double-entendre in the name) due to what happened at the end of Sen I and the beginning of Sen II, and since you’re on a mountaintop anyway, certain instrumentation is used to fit with the scenery. As with other Falcom themes, I like when it goes into its bridge as opposed to hits intro/second movement since it tends to sound more humbling, which communicates what the theme is going for. Crossing Over the Horrors of War is also supposed to slightly do a similar thing tonally, too, but you generally hear it at first in a slightly more peaceful area. I appreciate the synth flute and bass in this track a lot, and the percussion is fairly reminiscent of Genso Suikoden II’s sort of percussion use.

On the other hand, Ymir Valley Road is mostly supposed to fit its environment of being an snowy trail instead of sending a double-message to the player. However, its dual element is to fit cutscenes at the beginning of the game as well with respect to what the player discovers or rediscovers in that area. Choral elements and piano/chimes tend to communicate both elements throughout the track.

Dungeon themes like Spirit Cavern have pretty awesome percussion and bass. The bass is so excellent on this soundtrack, and I really enjoy how nicely the soundtrack is mixed so I can pick it out incredibly easily. Phantasmal Blaze is the final dungeon theme, and as jdkluv and I had discussed, it has a slight nod back to Sora no Kiseki The 3rd. The player gets to hear this theme for a while, though, since as with most Kiseki final dungeons, the final dungeon is long and arduous. The percussion is the best thing about it until the second movement when a lot of the harder sound drops. The third movement is the best part because of that drum breakdown leading into more percussion. It’s an incredibly intense tune and it provides a great end to the main game.

The cutscene themes aren’t too bad this time around, either. Since Sen II lacks the more carefree mood that Sen I had, some themes had to sound more emotional or full of care like Reunion. Awakening is one of the hottest jams on this side of the Erebonian block. Sometimes I think it’s disappointing that Awakening is generally relegated to cutscene fodder instead of mainly being a battle theme (which it can be), but it enhances the cutscenes which it’s involved in a lot. The melody is catchy, the piano is fantastic, the third movement is a great build to something more, and the loop is done elegantly. It’s one of my favourite themes on the soundtrack and legitimately what I think of when I think of Sen II. The Witch of the Abyss has some great bass work; it’s my favourite part of that track as opposed to the main melody. I also think To The Irreplaceable People is a great friendship piece; the acoustic carries it incredibly well, and the main melody is incredibly hummable. I hate to bring up being “Genso Suikoden-esque” again, but it certainly feels like that towards the end of its loop. Remaining Glow is bittersweet and sounds absolutely beautiful. All of the instruments in that piece were carefully chosen and don’t overshadow each other.

Both Inner Twilight and Restored Memories are incredibly subdued and contrast the original light-hearted nature of the Sen games. So it’s a bit appreciative that some of the same instrumentation used for those light-hearted tracks are put to use here.

Remember how I talked about minigames? Hi, here’s the snowboarding minigame theme. It sounds pretty traditional at first for regular sports minigame compilations, but RPGs usually don’t have this level of minigame music. Typically, minigame music consists of an incredibly squandered piece and I don’t tend to pay much attention to them at all. While I didn’t play the snowboarding minigame a lot, the driving violins and persistent percussion was appreciated. There’s a second snowboard theme: Take the Windward!, and it serves as an event battle. I don’t particularly like the synth halfway through, but after that, the theme gets a whole lot better since the melody is incredibly catchy.

I am a gigantic fan of many of the boss themes in this game. Sure, the beginning of The Great Shadow Approaching is the most clichéd thing in the world, but I genuinely like the focus on brass and percussion even with the synth vocals. It fits an evenly-paced battle system. Even the synth interjection with arpeggios and building to the final ending point with synth strings sounds decent. The synth string bit before the loop is a surprise since it’s so short even though it’s the best part of the theme. You can same something similar for Heteromorphy: the beginning of it sounds like something you’ve heard before, but the theme fits the battle of attrition thematically. The best part of that theme, though, is halfway through when the organ comes in with faster percussion, then loses the percussion in favour of vocals carrying the entire piece all the way through to the loop.

Bring Up Trust! is an alternate battle theme which is only heard in certain instances. And it’s waaaay too good to be heard so sparingly. That classic Falcom violin and piano arrangement with guitar backing is fantastic to hear, and the piano’s little interlude is a nice break from the chaos. Severe Blow is a battle theme only heard when you fight certain people. It’s just classic Falcom for this one: you’ve got organs, blazing guitars, dueling guitars, classic drums, and a great rhythm all-around. Hostilities, I suppose, would also be demonstrative of Classic Falcom. I genuinely love the ending portion before the loop when I descends into a hummable melody.

There are a few themes that act as scenario battle themes where they play on the field and in-battle. Blitzkrieg is one of them. I think the theme gets a lot better halfway through, as I find the introduction and first movement fairly standard. When the theme gets into its main melody with its piano and previous movement instruments playing second-fiddle, it shines. The breakdown after that is very nice. Honestly, the track gets a lot better before it loops into the intro. To Gamble All or Nothing is the other theme, and I’ve casually talked about this theme. Its percussion is probably not the best thing out there, but I appreciate the background arpeggios and the synth brass carrying the melody. These dungeons are typically one-note and semi-repetitive (for example, you’re storming a tower), but the catchiness of the theme more than makes up for that.

Transcend Beat hits all the right spots for me. I love hearing this kind of stuff in a Kiseki game, and it helps that it fits every battle it’s featured in. These types of battles are slightly slower-paced than normal Kiseki battles for certain reasons, and I feel like the electronic beats fit it perfectly, even as Rean yells that he has a chance for an extra strike in the background. It also helps that I’m a pretty big fan of this genre of music, so it’s fairly obvious that I’ll love this sort of jam. Halfway through, the main melody kicks in, and it’s awesome when it starts playing when you have the enemy’s HP halfway down even if they’re taking stances multiple times and you need to block. It’s so cohesive that I love it.

Blue Destination plays in several boss battles, and predictably one towards the end of the game. It’s sombre on purpose, but it’s a bit amazing how the somberness fits in all of the different situations that it’s played. The 90s-esque backing synth sounds great, and the lead synth violin and piano carry the theme incredibly well in and out of context.

E.O.V. is the official name of the theme so I think that’s clever. I think going by the instrumentation, general flow, and choral use, you could probably guess what this theme is used for. It has a lot of well-paced movements, and it’s an excellent contender for being a closer for the Class VII games. Tenor Shun Kobayashi is excellent; I love his vocal flavour. Kiko (previously on Sen no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki), the soprano, provides excellent backup and lead whenever she can. The vocal flavour of both singers is pleasant to my ears and it assists in making the piece incredibly cohesive in addition to the brass, bells, and percussion.

However, it doesn’t stop there. To A Glimmering Tomorrow is the true good bye to Class VII. It’s honestly a bit of a surprise, but after everything is said and done, the theme being as upbeat as it is ends up not being as surprising. I will also admit that the theme does its intended job properly. Take that as you will. There is also a arranged version on the soundtrack to serve as the epilogue as well.

Finally, I’ll Remember You is the ending theme. I don’t think it’s the best ending theme in the series (Ao and Sora 3rd hold that prize), but it doesn’t necessarily feel like an ending theme for this subset of games in the Kiseki subseries.

On a personal front, since I’d finally caught up with all of the Kiseki games this year and was able to play Sen no Kiseki II when a few other people were playing it too, it was interesting to see how the music evolved as the subseries went on. From humble jazzy beginnings with the first two Sora games, to a change in Sora 3rd, to more advanced stuff in Zero/Ao, to modern Falcom sounds in the Sen games… it’s just interesting to see how it works out between the music direction and how advanced the areas you go to in the Kiseki games are.

I think Sen no Kiseki II ended very well. From a soundtrack and game I wasn’t sure about to a soundtrack and game that I am definitely sure about, I’m happy to have experienced both, and I’m very happy that Falcom bounced back from the #3 spot it had last year on my list.​

 

[Dark Schala]

2. Transistor

Composer: Darren Korb

Generally, Supergiantgames wanted players to play Transistor before listening to the music. I’m a bit apologetic in admitting that I listened to the music before playing the game because I did not have much time to play games at all in the past six months! I still don’t and have only played half of Transistor and listened to both the original soundtrack and extended soundtrack a lot while studying for my ten (10!) finals last month.

I didn’t listen to Bastion too much, so this is my first real exposure to Darren Korb’s music. I think Transistor is one of the best arguments for VGM enjoyment out of context because it debuted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Soundtracks Chart, the first video game soundtrack to hit that list in 2014. That’s crazy, especially for Korb considering that it’s the second soundtrack under his name on VGMdb.

I fell in love with Transistor’s soundtrack from the first note. It’s trip hop at some of its finest. I suppose that it makes me a bit happy that VGM is veering into a direction of music that I heavily listened to when I was a kid growing up in the 1990s. The backing from the drums drive almost every rhythm together, the guitar’s reverb supports it, and the haunting, jazzy vocals make it. There are times when there is dubstep (which I’ve recently taken a shine to), electronica, and inverted samples throughout the soundtrack. It may sound incoherent in words, but taking the time to listen to some tracks makes the entire makeup feel worthwhile. Old Friends is somewhat demonstrative of that, particularly when you get past the introductory guitar section and get into the section heavily backed by dance percussion. The ethereal nature is even more pronounced in the extended soundtrack’s hummed version.

Vanishing Point uses distortion, electronic drums and piano to its advantage to create that trip-hop vibe, using a bit of We All Become to tie the soundtrack together. Apex Beat uses the same motif but in a more rapid fashion. The wub-wub inserts itsel halfway through to carry the theme rather than its melody and it’s incredibly fun to listen to. Gold Leaf sounds very jazzy with a whining pitch building up throughout the track to create atmosphere for the player in-game. By contrast, the Hummed version of Gold Leaf sounds incredibly sultry, even blending in with the whining pitch in the background noise. It assists in building on one of the game’s themes of loneliness or longing and it’s a soundtrack that can stand on its own since the music communicates many of the game’s directional themes very well without even connecting it to the game at all.

Dormant is goddamn fantastic, one of my favourite themes on the soundtrack since many of its sounds are on the lower end of the scale. Electronic backing and lower strings combining with an accordion to create a stirring atmosphere sounds incredibly wonderful to my ears during a boss fight. A track like Impossible fits a boss fight well, but when you think about other bosses using vocal themes as background music, it’s a wonder why this didn’t get the vocal treatment. The hummed version works incredibly well with vocals, blending with the trip-hop beats, with its notes getting higher halfway through. It sounds even more sinister after that bit with the humming.

Gateless sounds like it invokes its inner Trent Reznor with its post-rock vibe, and the hummed version makes the entire piece sound haunting. Sandbox throws me for a loop because it sounds so different from the other pieces at first (though if you’re listening to the hummed version you might feel otherwise). The string plucking and gentle percussion makes it sound like it’s a theme suited for vacationing; however, halfway through, it sounds like a vacation gone wrong. Coasting delivers a fairly similar vibe earlier on in the album.

Water Wall is one of the hotter tracks on the soundtrack (well, to me, since I’m into this stuff). It blends synth, wub-wubs, an accordion, and a harp to create something that actually… somehow… sounds cohesive. The staccato from the accordion combined with the later piano melody sounds fantastic and catchy.

Darren Korb collaborated with vocalist Ashley Barrett again for the hummed extended album and the five vocal tracks: The Spine, In Circles, We All Become, Signals, and Paper Boats.

I genuinely enjoy The Spine, if only because it reminds me a lot of Silent Hill or something from a 007 movie. It’s a great thing to hear before a boss fight. A lot of people don’t think this is the best song on the soundtrack (even though CorvoSol told me it was his favourite on the album, heh), but I truly enjoy the lounge song feel of it. The instrumentation is fantastic, and the slow pace is incredibly relaxing. The best of the song is that it’s fairly representative of Barrett’s voice and vocal colour. It’s very warm and each note is sung with great diction befitting the mood and range of the song, and it seems fairly representative of her vocal range in general. It’s one of my favourite vocal songs on the soundtrack.

In Circles is used for the game’s first boss battle. I think a lot of folks get a lot out of the time signature for the piece and I have to admit that I agree. In-game, it’s a fantastic use of the piece considering the context of the boss fight. Its intent is to communicate bitterness and a slight grudge, and it succeeds with swinging melodies and the vocals ranging from low to high throughout the piece played in a minor key. The chorus takes the cake and climaxes with strength.

We All Become’s motif is heard throughout the soundtrack in other pieces, and it’s probably the catchiest theme on the soundtrack next to The Spine to me. It’s a quicker melody, and it showcases both Barrett’s chest voice and her head voice towards the end. It’s one of the reasons why I’d like to see her in other albums / future Korb albums. I really enjoy her vocals, and I love the mixing on this track. The quicker and vibrant harp used throughout the album brings energy to the piece, but like a true vocalist, Barrett’s alto vocals carry the piece and run away with it.

Paper Boats is the ending theme, and carries a bittersweet tone with it. Her warm vibrato vocals backed by the guitar, harp, and percussion with rising and lowering rhythms conclude the soundtrack fittingly, combining different parts of the soundtrack musically and sending a farewell off to the player. Signals is a bonus track on the soundtrack, and the Spanish guitar combining with Barrett’s sultry voice make it a wonderful addition to the purchased soundtrack.

Functionally-speaking, Transistor is an excellent piece of work that fits its game and many of the characteristics of the game that it’s used in fairly well. It’s one of those wonderful types of soundtracks evocative of dynamism (due to the use of humming in-context and I am fairly pleased that the extended soundtrack was released to supplement that). I can’t wait to get back to the game when all is said and done to experience the soundtrack in the context for which it’s used, but it’s very pleasing to hear Korb and Barrett’s work. I’m definitely looking forward to their next collaboration with ears open.​

3. D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die

Composer: MANYO, TECHNOuchi

Long story short, D4 makes me feel like a kid again. A few weeks ago, I was drinking and hanging out with people and watching Christmas movies, and when we got to talking about game soundtracks that we liked from 2014, I mentioned D4’s soundtrack. I played a bit of it for folks and one person said that it sounds like some hot 80s jams. I generally got that vibe from Deadly Premonition, too. I’ve listened to the soundtracks so many times that I feel like I can describe both of them pretty well.

I’ll agree with Yuterald’s post, I prefer the Little Peggy disc from a standpoint even though the David Young disc has a lot of standout themes. It’s a bit unsurprising to me that D4’s soundtrack is not getting the recognition it deserves in the press or elsewhere because… well, many of Access Games’s games follow the same pattern, even if SWERY is so beloved in many parts of the Internet. Maybe it’s a slight surprise partly because Dark Souls’s sound director worked on it, but overall, it’s not much of a surprise at all.

D4 follows a soundtrack like Deadly Premonition in terms of being cohesive, workable for its game, and it doesn’t take itself too darn seriously. It’s one of the looser soundtracks, even if it’s very carefully-crafted. Like Deadly Premonition, it uses a lot of jazz, rock, piano, and techno to achieve the soundtrack’s desired effect. I think it works out well after watching someone else go through parts of the game and it makes the cutscene direction very enjoyable.

It’s a bit funny and nice to see that both soundtracks seem to follow a similar sort of formula. The David Young disc opens with Salvation and the Little Peggy disc opens with Arousal. Salvation is a gentle piano piece with light vocals and synth strings, and by contrast, Arousal is slightly harsher with male vocals and more pronounced instrumentation. Both albums also finish off with some tracks performed by VGO (as Falk had mentioned earlier in this thread).

EVERYONE knows Theme of D4. Everyone. Like, if you haven’t heard it before, listen to it now. It sounds like a 1990s TV theme song and I adore it. ShockingAlberto even uses it as his ringtone and he seems like a reasonable guy! I love the piano interlude towards the end and the saxophone sounds super-hot. It’s catchy as hell and I could listen to it all day. By contrast on the Little Peggy Disc, Previously on D4 still sounds like it’s out of a TV show, but it doesn’t sound as elegant as the game’s theme. However, I think the intent is to get the player interested for the coming episode of the game with driving guitars and a perfect fade/end.

Detective of the Past uses a small segment of Theme of D4, but does its own thing. The flute and strings completely make the piece. It’s even better than a lot of the Detective-esque themes from a lot of other games that employ the same kind of pieces like Shadow Hearts 3 or Hotel Dusk/Last Window at times. It uses funk to its advantage and the bassline is excellent. Happy Go Lucky sort of does the same thing with an electric piano and a slower pace. It’s so easygoing and I want to have a drink and read a book while listening to it. Amanda Shop-Head Office sounds like an old RPG town theme of yore and I miss hearing this type of stuff lately! It’s a great comic relief theme and I genuinely enjoy the bit before the loop.

If I remember correctly, Urban Closet is used when you make your characters look like they have swag (you dress them up). I’m just a fan of how well this theme is looped. It doesn’t get tiring and I think it’s excellent that this theme exists for this sort of purpose in the first place! The electric piano and bass are so awesome of a blend for this theme. Lots of great basswork on this soundtrack as a whole. I love it.

Reasoning has a lot of serious synth and distortion which makes it an interesting listening piece, particularly when the piano joins in. Perverted Feeling, the track right after it, is a complete contrast to it. I’ve missed this sort of darker industrial tone in some of the games I’ve played (and I think Deadly Premonition was probably the last game that I played that had this sort of thing in it). The quick shift in tone is like mood whiplash. Prime Suspect also assists in creating a darker mood with layered synths and higher piano keys.

Start the Investigation sounds like it comes off a classical jazz album. I love the trumpet use here, but the beat is even more prominent and carries the theme very well.

Real Blood is one of the more exciting pieces on the soundtrack because of how experimental it is. The synth bass sounds absolutely excellent, and it sounds like something that Yoshitaka Hirota or Akira Yamaoka would work on. It’s a sound that I genuinely miss and I’m glad to see someone carrying the trend on in some way. From the Darkness also executes a similar sound and sounds even eerier with the vocals and the strings.

I don’t have much to add about Drank Dead DOM Die because everyone else has talked about it. Only thing I have to say is that I laughed when I heard it since it sounded like a Dropkick Murphys song and I felt like I was listening to my old Punk-O-Rama compilations all over again. It harkens back to American Idiot making a special cameo in Deadly Premonition and I kinda hope SWERY keeps doing this in his games because they genuinely make me smile.

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die has a fantastic soundtrack and grabbing the soundtrack makes me want to play the game myself one day instead of watching someone else go through it. The music seems to tell the game’s story very well and frames it in such a way that it feels like it’s a blast from the past. I don’t necessarily think the music is for everyone, but it hit the right notes for me. There’s a lot of authenticity in the composition and arrangement, and the VGO mixes on the soundtracks demonstrate that. I hope people give it a good listen. It’s some good stuff and one of the best soundtracks out of 2014.​

 

[Dark Schala]

Schala’s 2014 Soundtrack of the Year Special Awards

“Soundtrack I Wish I Could Have Voted For”: Tied! Kirby Triple Deluxe & Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Sorry. I didn’t want to do this either, but when I started thinking about it, I started feeling as though Kirby Triple Deluxe would be better-served as getting one of my special awards as opposed to getting into my Top 3. The reasoning behind this is because many of Kirby Triple Deluxe’s tracks are arrangements of previous games’ tracks. While this is a staple of Kirby soundtracks overall, I don’t think it would be fair to hand a point spot to it when there are other soundtracks with original content throughout the year to acknowledge. That being said, KTD is one of my favourite soundtracks of the year. I’ve written about it in the Kirby Music Appreciation Thread, so be sure to check that out.

As for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, I am moreso talking about the entire Soken catalogue as opposed to just the stuff posted throughout the patches issued in 2014 (therefore I can’t vote for it!). I… think the new FF14 music makes me laugh in a lot of spots and that’s kind of in a good way. I know there are a few folks who prefer the Uematsu tracks, but I’ll be honest; I think that soundtrack comes from a time when I felt as though Uematsu was not at his strongest (but Sakura Note was good!). There’s something special about listening to Good King Moggle Mog which rips off This is Halloween wholesale. I think the Clash on the Big Bridge arrangement is pretty decent and I like it slightly more than the Black Mages material. Ramuh’s theme is fantastic because I love the vocalist’s vocal colour. Garuda sounds like it has some hot Falcom jams. And all five Titan themes are to die for. The entirety of Syrcus Tower is fantastic, both the environmental theme and the battle theme. The entire soundtrack makes me want to try the game out even though I don’t have time for stuff like this at all these days.

Like Noi said, it’s difficult for a composer to come up with something so broad-ranging as an MMO, so to see so many different genres thrown into something as big as this is very interesting. Watching Soken talk about composing for FF14 during various Final Fantasy events throughout the year makes it seem like he has a ton of fun composing and playing Final Fantasy XIV music, and I’ve missed seeing that sort of passion for composition up-front. It’s why I like looking at fan game material; some composers have a ton of fun doing it, and I love sharing in that fun.

ALSO: Pa-paya. Paya pa-paya pa pa pa-paya.​

“Best Fan Arranged Album”: Mega Xross MiXX

Runners Up: Harmony of Heroes/Harmony of Heroes: Final Smash, Hyacintho Resilience, Touhou Violin Rock –AYAKASHI–

There were a lot of doujin albums released this year, and a lot of them were very enjoyable. It was difficult to nail something down this time around. So… I kinda want to consider all of these albums tied. The one I listened to the most was Mega Xross Mixx, though. There are a few tracks on the album that don’t usually get remixed (and you should probably check out Hyacintho Resilience for that sort of selection if you ever get around to it). It’s a pretty decent and solid album, but there are basically three places to get it and it’s not too easily accessible (but I think you can find some on eBay now). It’s a bit surprising to get an album that actually doesn’t remix Esperanto! Obviously the world’s ending. It’s also not on VGMdb for some reason and I know the album exists because I have it.

Months ago, Solune reminded me that this album came out, and ever since he dubbed this Shademan mix “Streets of Shade”, I’ve started fondly calling it that (I actually renamed the file too :V). It’s the best track on the album, no question, but … you all know that I love FM music and Yuzo Koshiro, so it isn’t really a surprise that I love this track at all.

A lot of the classical Mega Man games get some cool remixes. The Bright Man stage takes a completely different direction than what you’d expect; it’s samba for some reason! While the Rockman 4 Complete Works soundtrack slightly goes into this direction too, you get to hear an acoustic guitar become more apparent in this and the tempo is a little slower and more tempered.

I enjoy the Departure + Awakening Will remix quite a bit, even though it isn’t too much different from the original version. I think that slightly helps, particularly because the original version used the GBA’s soundtrack and it’s nice to hear a non-Mythos version of it. Burst Man is done with VRC6, but since there’s an FC version of Mega Man 7 out there, it’s not really that new to my ears. It’s a good mix, though.

I looooove the Frost Man Stage mix. Sure, I like parts of Mega Man 8’s original soundtrack and Frost Man is one of the themes I like, but I love the synth and percussion in this one. It also has less backing and it’s a bit differently-paced from the original. The lead melody sounds way more pronounced and it’s a pleasure to listen to (too bad it doesn’t have the bass from the original composition). The Cold Man Stage (Snowdrop Mix) is a pleasant thing to see since I don’t get to listen to a lot of Rockman & Forte tunes remixed! Similarly, Pirate Man Stage (Satella Remix) is a nice thing to see and it’s slightly slower-paced with some great backing as the theme progresses.

There are a few remixes of the Mega Man X boss themes in one track and it’s a bit refreshing to not hear guitars driving a Mega Man X remix for once. I could listen to electronically-paced Mega Man X tracks all day. It’s also slightly slower-paced than the original and I appreciate that too.

Many of the tracks come from later Mega Man X games, which comes as a slight surprise, and it’s a bit disappointing that there isn’t any from Mega Man X4! There is also a fresh assortment of themes from the Rockman EXE games but since I haven’t played many of those, I can’t really comment on them. If you’re really into Mega Man remix albums, this is one of the more solid ones out there, so don’t hesitate to take a look at it. It may not be last year’s Mega Rock Carnival, but it’s still great on its own.​

“Best Arranged Album” Award: From Astral to Umbral ~Final Fantasy XIV Band & Piano Arrangement Album~

Runners Up: Kiseki jdk Acoustics, Sen no Kiseki Super Arrange Version

As I had said previously, this was the year I was introduced to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s soundtrack and reminded of Lord Soken-sama. And with this video, I was basically convinced that this was going to be an interesting album. It is, partially because of how the album is packaged (as you can see in the video). Additionally, there are some extra tracks in mp3 format that are basically the original soundtrack versions of many of the themes.

Basically, From Astral to Umbral is two albums put together, both largely contrasting each other tonally. Thus from the get-go you can argue that the album itself is incredibly disjointed and not very cohesive but… in my assessment of FF14:ARR’s music, I think that’s par for the course. An MMO is so large and difficult to compose for that you have to compose a soundtrack for almost every mood and configuration that will meet a player’s expectation for whatever they are doing in-game.

The first six tracks of From Astral and Umbral are piano arrangements of FF14’s field and town themes played by pianist Keiko (credited on a few anime soundtracks prior to this). There are multiple tracks contained in each piano arrangement (ex: On Westerly Winds being composed of La Noscean themes. I suppose it’s a bit interesting hearing someone slightly new to my ears in terms of piano arrangements when I’m so used to the folks on the Piano Collections or the album that is mentioned later on in this post. Pianists generally bring their own feel for each composition to the table, and while the field and town themes are generally upbeat, some like the aforementioned track, have downbeat portions (particularly in the middle of the entire track), and it’s incredibly enjoyable to hear that take on the original composition. The piano themes are worth a listen. They’re very neatly arranged and the pacing throughout the tracks are worth listening to, particularly A New Hope and I Am The Sea.

The first time I paid attention to this album, though, was when Noi had me listen to some Primals stuff. This is the stuff on the album that is track 7 and beyond. Masayoshi Soken has his great band called The Primals, and they generally work on the Primals themes for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The in-game content is fantastic. I think the theme that a lot of people know is Under The Weight, which is the Titan theme. The original version of the theme was incredibly rock-heavy as I had posted above, but this version is pretty crazy! It’s interesting to hear it arranged because the lyrics are far more prominent, and you can probably gather – even if you haven’t played the game – that Titan’s a buttface. The theme overall is even heavier with more guitar and more percussion and it makes the theme more fun overall.

Through the Maelstrom is one of the newer Primal themes and wasn’t on the original FF14 soundtrack along with the Shiva and Ramuh themes. The arrangement isn’t that different from the original theme, but Soken prominently shouting “LEVIATHAN” with Fox (one of the game’s localizers, iirc; yeah, I know, wtf, right?) providing background vocals is just… amazing. The whole theme is incredibly fun, and even just watching Soken talk about stuff outside of the soundtrack makes his work on the arrangement tracks and the Primals sound incredibly fun.

I think it’s kind of a bummer that one of my fave tracks, Thunder Rolls, is incredibly difficult to find on YouTube or anywhere else because it’s so dramatically different from the original version. It doesn’t sound like it drowns in guitars or anything, but more prominence is placed on Akane Ikeya’s vocals which sound so pleasantly ethereal. Many of Soken’s vocal choices have excellent vocal colour and this isn’t any different.

From Astral to Umbral is basically a blu-ray disc packed with a multimedia experience for fans of Final Fantasy XIV or those who just want to listen to the music in-context. It’s one of the more interesting music packages I’ve come across and everything on the disc is in both Japanese and English. It also comes with a secret track that requires a password. It’s an enjoyable package all-around, and it’s one of the reasons why I’d like to see Soken score a mainline single-player Final Fantasy game.​

“We Made a Fangame!” Award: [No one! Please see write-up]

Runner up: Mega Man Legends 3: The Prologue! -2D Version-

What can I say about 2014 other than, well… gosh, I dunno. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had as much time to myself to seek fan games out (this is more than likely it), or I haven’t been linked to a lot of stuff I might like. But this year seemed like it had slim pickings. So the only fan games I ended up playing were Mega Man ones in a year where there actually was a SAGE! Oops.

Therefore, I do not feel like I am able to give an award for this category this year. It would be incredibly disingenuous of me if I did. For one, I do not have any means of linking anything from the Mega Man Legends 3: The Prologue! -2D Version- because I totally missed out on ordering one of the 100 copies of the CD, lol (and honestly, I wouldn’t feel right about picking that soundtrack because Makoto Tomozawa, the Mega Man Legends composer, worked on the soundtrack; the point was to highlight up-and-coming indie/doujin composers and say, “hey, these guys are pretty damn cool and the game they worked on is great, too!&#8221.

The thing about the fangame category is that a lot of the people who I used to follow in these circles have actually gotten work in the industry now and are working on professional products! That’s super-cool for them, and it’s great to see them doing in this line of work. It’s pretty neat to go through soundtrack notes or soundtrack credits and see familiar names in them. Hopefully in 2015, now that I have more time, I’ll look for new things to play because I genuinely love playing fangames and I love hearing fans’ take on music characteristic of the series for which a fangame is developed. Seeing new names and new faces and hoping that they somehow get work in game composition is part of how fun the fangame award is to write up, so here’s to 2015.

(Also please check out Mega Man: Revenge of the Fallen. That game is fantastic. Wasn’t too comfortable voting for that one, but it’s one of the best games I played in 2014. Some of the remixes are neat.)​

“This Should Be in a Game” Award: Masashi Hamauzu Opus 4 Piano and Chamber Music Works

The only thing I can provide is the official samples video. Sorry!

A month or two ago (I think?), Thoraxes had reminded me that this album was out. So if you’ve listened to stuff like Vielen Dank for Piano Works Delta, or, like, any Hamauzu album, period, you’ll know what you’re in for. The album is full of amazing performances from Benyamin Nuss, and wonderful colourful key-based compositions from Hamauzu. I personally love this album more than the Piano Delta Works album, and I’m more or less at a point where I feel like I prefer many of his out-of-game works than his in-game works since he doesn’t seem so confined to an atmosphere or what a game director is looking for in terms of game exploration. Hamauzu is generally free express himself in these very short piano pieces so much so that it’s a fantastic view into his tonality and his portfolio. There are a lot of “fun” pieces like the entirety of the Atmosphäre Op.1 pieces, the live Missgestalt piece, and the Giant piece, and it’s something I’ve genuinely missed hearing from Hamauzu since his Sigma Harmonics album.

I think that might be why I really enjoyed the Sony "α" CLOCK works. I can see everything that he might want to communicate in my head whenever I listen to those pieces. I am not a good piano player by any means (heck, I took up the guitar, bass and vocal music, so that should tell you a lot about how I just can’t play a piano other than hitting the right pitch with my voice), but every time I hear anything Hamauzu, it just makes me wish I’d taken up the piano. His music seems to have gotten even more virtuosic and I enjoy that. I’d love to hear more of his original piano albums in the future to see how his writing progresses from here.​

“Crazy Bus” Award of Being Garbage: Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Runner Up: Yoshi’s New Island

This was hard. This was exceptionally hard. Originally I was going to just give it to both of them because one was incredibly sleep-inducing when I played the game, and the other I didn’t even know was there when I played the game before dropping it.

The thing about Yoshi’s New Island is that while it has a completely horrible theme worthy of being associated with crimes against humanity (The Yoshi Clan), I can still remember a lot of the themes because they’re literally arrangements of one single melody in different genres/styles. And I find how the composers went about in this direction completely sleep-inducing. I am not entirely sure when or how the Yoshi subseries adopted this sort of sound (probably Yoshi’s Story), but it’s just not a type of sound that I love and I find it incredibly boring to listen to. Yoshi’s New Island’s soundtrack, much like the game, isn’t that terrible, but it’s just boring. There isn’t much to say about it, and if you did have something to say about, you’d probably say, “well, I think this reggae arrangement of the main melody is pretty neat, just like this arrangement of the main melody”. There are simply so many times that I can listen to the same melody arranged differently and not used in a substantial way (like, for example, a Masashi Hamauzu-directed soundtrack would go). Not only that, the pacing of the music doesn’t fit well with the quick/slow platforming elements of the game. It’s one of the weirdest platformer soundtracks I’ve heard in a while.

Yoshi’s New Island isn’t taking this award home because I can actually remember what the darn thing sounds like.

I cannot, for the life of me, recall anything about Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric’s soundtrack. Maybe it’s because Sonic and his buddies wouldn’t shut the hell up while I played the game, or maybe it’s because it’s been a month since I’ve played that game (not likely since I tend to remember almost every game’s soundtrack right after playing ‘em). But I cannot remember anything about it, and that is incredibly problematic. The only thing I really remember is the main theme, and it’s only because I played the game while drunk and left the game on the title screen for too long.

The thing about a Sonic game is that even if the game is bad, the music’s generally going to be good (did I sweep Sonic Chronicles under the rug? Good.). This doesn’t really match up with Boom Wii U. In fact, Boom Wii U is pretty boring-bad. It’s not even so-bad-it’s-hilarious like Sonic 06, and even that game had a decent soundtrack even if it ripped off from Star Wars and Mega Man in some spots. The same goes for its soundtrack. I feel like I’ve heard every single theme before at some point in different forms of media. Nothing stands out other than the main theme, and the melodies are so subdued and labourious that they don’t really seem to take on their own sense of identity at all. There is a substantial lack of diversity for this entire soundtrack and it’s incredibly disappointing; you wouldn’t know it’s from a Sonic game, either. If I listened to this right now without looking at the soundtrack title, I couldn’t tell you where it’s from and I’d sooner say that it’s from a movie or new cinematic game instead.

The compositions aren’t bad, but they’re so meandering that nothing clicks with me. And I think that’s a gigantic fault. None of the music fits with Sonic and friends constantly shouting BOOST PAD, the excuses for humour in the game, or even the animations, it’s just far too serious and far too cinematic for a game of this nature. It neither fits in well in-context or out-of-context, and therefore, the soundtrack seems like it’s out of place entirely.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric’s soundtrack is so dull and wanders around quite a bit, trying to find its own identity and place in the world that it seems that it’s going to be in an endless trek unless it changes its intended media format. However, you could be cheeky and argue that Boom: RoL’s soundtrack is right at home in Boom Wii U considering the lack of engagement that the game affords its potential victims potential players. It is perhaps the strangest soundtrack I’ve heard all year, and perhaps by extension and previous precedents, the most disappointing.​

LTTP Soundtrack: The Granstream Saga

Writeup will be done if requested, but I’m pretty sure that Aeana and I have raved about this track while I was playing it a few months ago. Honestly, when I was playing through the game, I was absolutely overjoyed to have stepped back in time to listen to sounds and samples that I've missed hearing for years. The Gude Airship theme has some fantastic percussion and some samples that I haven't heard in what feels like two decades. The Vangel Battleship theme sounds so sinister and I think the semi-organ samples help. Spirit Ruins sounds super-retro and I love that backing synth a ton. Conflict of Ideas basically does the same thing Spirit Ruins did with its backing synth too.

I've missed this type of sound for years so it was wonderful hearing it in a game that I'd missed playing after a few decades.​

 

[Dark Schala]

Honourable Mentions

I don’t think I’ll end up doing writeups for these since I have a ton of work put into this already, but if anyone wants me to elaborate on anything, let me know and I might throw a writeup out in this thread or the results thread.

80 Days: I only have a gameplay video, but it’s a massive disappointment that this soundtrack hasn’t been released at all on even Bandcamp.

Armoured Hunter Gunhound EX: Volcynika gifted this to me on Steam and although I’ve yet to play it (sorry sorry sorry I’ve been busy ;~, I think the soundtrack is amazing, and it’s legitimately why I put it on my Steam wishlist last year. Cool tracks: Howling of Metal Hound –Remain-, No Mercy!!.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag – Freedom Cry: I tweeted to Olivier Derivière about how his soundtrack for Freedom Cry is absolutely brilliant, and it’s true. It makes me want to buy the DLC and give AC4 another shot. Tracks like False Paradise and A Boat to Freedom are incredibly stylistic and portray much of Adewale’s plight. Attack at Sea and The Fight For All are genuinely my favourites on the soundtrack.

Ar nosurge: I have some unfortunate news, but Origa, one of the vocalists on Ar nosurge (and did some vocals on FF13-2) has passed away today at 44 years old. But Ar nosurge’s soundtrack is legitimately the thing that made me buy the game. I might just start playing it after I’m finished with Freedom Planet and FF7 FC. Cool tracks: em-pyei-n vari-fen jang;, Class::AR_NOSURGE#RE:Incarnation;

Azure Striker Gunvolt - I think most people know about the vocal tracks on the Azure Striker Gunvolt vocal CD, and a lot of them are pretty cool like Beyond the Blue and Reincarnation (in fact, those are the ones most people know since I've noticed that a lot of people didn't go back to time attack the stages with 1000 kudos to unlock stuff like Azure Door. The level themes on the original soundtrack proper like Opening Stage, Media Tower, Boss Battle, Sinner's Row, and Eridu are pretty neat, though not III's best.

Border Break Scramble - Was pretty sure I tweeted a bunch of tracks from this game during the summer. Synth use is excellent and a ton of the tracks are incredibly catchy. Cool tracks: Organs, Cong Concentrated / Deep Plexus , Overjoyed. Excellent soundtrack.

Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION - Shmup soundtracks are the best, just because they stick to a sound design and sound engine I like. Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION is no different. Cool tracks: Through The Wasteland, Dark Clouds, Tears of Wings

Divinity: Original Sin - I started Divinity: OS when I was super-sick on the Christmas Break and I was pretty surprised with how good the soundtrack turned out! Parts of it ended up being pretty catchy, too! Kirill Pokrovsky did an excellent job with this soundtrack. Cool stuff: Original Sin (fantastic strings in this, I love it), Mysterious Guest, Dance of Death

Guilty Gear Xrd - Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is one of the better MP games I've played last year (and by that I mean local MP) outside of the Jackbox Party Pack, and it's friggin' gorgeous. The Who Dares to Enter the Mayhem sounds incredibly boss. Big Blast Sonic is catchy as hell and the vocals are great. I was honestly expecting a little more votes to go towards it, but I guess it came out too late in the year. It's an excellent soundtrack and I'd encourage a lot of people to give the whole thing a chance. It's very fun... like Ride the Fire. What a damn awesome tune.

Kero Blaster - I wrote impressions for this game in the old NeoGAF User Reviews thread, and noted that the soundtrack that came with the game originally did not have a good bitrate. The samples used for each theme sounds great and the melodies are composed well-enough to linger in your memory, right down to the final boss theme. I'm very pleased with the Building, Stage 5, Stage 1, and Store themes, simply because while they're simple in terms of melody, the samples used are pretty clean and the bass/percussion stand out.

Hohokum - I bought this game. I haven't played it yet, but the soundtrack is super-hot. It's a relaxing aural experience to die for (Lamp Lighting), with some tracks fairly reminiscent of Dustforce like A Walk. At the same time, you've got tracks like Wedding Party that could fit right into any club you go to. Can't wait to see what the soundtrack's like in-game but man, it sounds awesome now.

Sweezy Gunner - I kinda feel like this one's going to be a matter of taste, but like I said, I started to enjoy wubwub lately. I really took a shine to Glowshroom Caverns, Twisted Tundra (what I think is the best of the lot), and Twilight Cove.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse - I'm genuinely surprised this soundtrack hasn't gotten a lot of votes! Then Coldman told me that it wasn't released in the EU yet, so that sorta explains a lot. I think this is the better Virt soundtrack of the year; it sounds far more cohesive, and it has more variance that I enjoy. It has one of the funkiest File Select themes of the year and it hits all the right spots for me. The Royal Library, Scorching Dunes, and The Nightmare Woods all differ from each other but bring a lot of different stuff to the table. Also, the Boss Theme kicks some major ass.

Tengami – Write-up here

Tomodachi Life – Semi-write-up here​

IT'S ALREADY A NEW PAGE

WHERE ARE YOUR POSTS

YOU PROMISED US POSTS

I'M GOING FOR A WALK. I'll finish Honourable Mentions comments later. (this was totally me doing a stealth extra post)

Here.

Also 50ppp is a crime against nature. Sounds like coldman has the right idea.

Thank you, by the way. I appreciate that.

 

[dancrane212]

1. Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Great arrangements of period appropriate pieces and fantastic original ones. The music did so much to make the ending have the effect it did on me.

2. Drakengard 3: The soundtrack does not have the same amount of standout tracks as NIER but the ones that do are fantastic.

3. Dragon Age: Inquisition: Best soundtrack the series has had so far. I let the title screen music play itself to completion when I first started the game, great way to kick it all off!

 

[Haunted]

After picking my favourites, I realised that all of them are extremely dynamic, changing on the fly and depending on circumstances in-game. So much so that their respective OSTs barely even contain any truly representative tracks as you would experience them in-game. While that makes it harder to show off their excellence with a simple YT video, it also makes it easier to encourage those interested to check these soundtracks in all their glory by actually playing the games.

Some of my favourite composers worked on these (Daedalus, Kozilek, DannyB, Austin Wintory) and they did not disappoint again. Every year's a good year for OSTs as long as these guys get contract work.


1. Niddhog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQHqgaupbJw
The best music track for the best stage. The OST version can't capture the intense heights this track can achieve during a back-and-forth match in-game.

2. Luftrausers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR1M7cs6INc
Probably the most varied and dynamic of the three OSTs, changing the various elements of the song according to the selected equipment. This is the "baseline" song using all the default equipment and gives a good sense of the general mood of the OST.

3. Crypt of the Necrodancer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk6cod9BJzw&list=PLhFC8pd7oZvxexNzqt8xtzItaTyMBqTCj&index=4
You immediately recognise DannyB's signature beats. After the crushing disappointment that he wouldn't be returning to do the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth soundtrack, my tears dried listening to the excellent OST he provided for Necrodancer. Bonus points for the always hilarious dynamic shopkeeper vocals!


And so it's not just all electronic, an honourable mention goes out to Austin Wintory's subtle and moody work on The Banner Saga.

 

[Riposte]

Thanks for the comments.

I still need to digest most of this thread, including Dark Schala's lengthy post.

While on the topic of game music, Bayonetta 2's cover of "Moon River" is my single favorite track of the entire year and the one that got the biggest reaction out of me while playing a game, as I described a little in my GOTY post (basically, pure bliss). To me it captures the (peculiar) spirit of the game in a way few songs do for other games. Such a shame it plays basically two or three times in the +10 hour game.

 

[Yuterald]

Loved the D4 write-up Schala! Did a better job at wording what's so great about the soundtrack than I did. Pretty cool that it had the same effect on you as it did for me. That game's music just reminded me about my childhood too for multiple, very layered/complicated reasons, ha!

 

[Mlatador]

# 1. # Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze!

There is such variety, deep romantic as well as subtle epicness present in those songs – it’s simply amazing!! Whether they let you dream of flying over the snowy alps with the cool and fresh air stroking your face… or letting you feel a sudden, exciting sensation in your stomach on a mild, dim & breezy caribbean summer evening somewhere on a mysterious island, while the shimmering lights of another island coming from across the sea fill your heart with childlike curiosity and wonder… or whether the hot and glowing ashes of a blazing savanna field ignite a deep and passionate lust for resistance in your heart – YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO FORGET THEM!

David Wise captures the soul of nature in such exciting ways and therefore complements the outstanding Gameplay, Leveldesign and Artstyle of DKC:TF unbelievably well – that’s why the Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Soundtrack is the Soundtrack of the Year 2014 (easily!).


Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Soundtrack - Wing Ding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEId-ERa0M0

Such freshness & variety!

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Soundtrack - Zip Line Shrine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOz4Up6Keb0

such romanticism & excitement!

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Soundtrack - Scorch 'N' Torch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFP4wn0dejc

such burning passion & epicness!


# 2. # Bayonetta 2

so lovely and stylish!

Bayonetta 2 - Battle OST 1 - Moon River (Climax Mix)

Bayonetta 2 - Battle OST 2 - Tomorrow Is Mine (Bayonetta 2 Theme)


# 3. # Mario Kart 8

so jazzy & nice

Mario Kart 8 Soundtrack - N64 Rainbow Road

Mario Kart 8 Soundtrack - Cloudtop Cruise

 

[Eolz]

Wow, awesome write-up Dark Schala!
I feel bad to not have written a lot more, but I'll be there next year without a doubt.
Nice to see that the thread got some more posts in the final line.

 

[Papercuts]

I completely burned myself out on my goty post so I'm about to whip up one lazy pile of shit.

1. Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze
Scorch N Torch, Seashore War, Funky Waters, ...everything.

It almost feels boring to pick this at this point, but David Wise really fired on all cylinders with this game. Matching the colorful and lively levels with music that expertly matches the tone, it's simply a joy to play through the game and have these songs accompanying you. I also sat and relistened to each song in its entirety as I went to grab examples, which speak for itself how even outside of the game they're just enjoyable to listen to.

2. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Urban Closet, Side Connection, Happy Go Lucky, Theme.

A great fit for the more traditional point and click style in an otherwise zany game, the soundtrack needs a solid hook to really get you into the scenes. Luckily, D4 has just that--what's here really helps elevate the mood in scenes, and in many cases can sound downright ethereal. As I alluded to in my goty post, the moment it broke out into a perfect TV style opening is the moment I knew I was in for a great ride.

3. Guilty Gear Xrd
Leo's Theme, Reunion, May's Theme, Bedman's Theme

One thing is very apparent just by looking at Guilty Gear. The character designs all ellict heavy metal inspired motifs, so naturally it has a soundtrack to match. It knows exactly what it wants to be and excels at just that with themes that match each character, great rival themes, and more. It was impossible to not smile when I first used Sol's Dragon Install and had the normal song completely replaced by Ride The Fire blasting out of the speakers for the rest of the round.

Great posts, everyone. pls forgive me.

 

[Dark Schala]

I still need to get to Bayonetta 2, too. I meant it when I said I didn't have a lot of time towards the end of the year. >.>

I hope it's good. I'll get on to playing Armoured Hunter Gunhound EX one day too, since the soundtrack is super-good.

Thanks for the comments so far, everyone.

Loved the D4 write-up Schala! Did a better job at wording what's so great about the soundtrack than I did. Pretty cool that it had the same effect on you as it did for me. That game's music just reminded me about my childhood too for multiple, very layered/complicated reasons, ha!

Right? I stayed up late listening to it with someone else, and we were talking about what shows it reminded us of, or what kind of music it reminded us of from our childhoods. I genuinely appreciate that soundtrack a lot.

EDIT: I feel like next year maybe we should start the soundtrack thread the week before GotY or end it the week after GotY so that people don't get burned out. That happened to me last year and I completely understand how people are feeling.

 

[NamikazeBurst]

I got a lot of games towards the end of the year that I haven't beat, so I am not going to comment on those (Bayonetta, Kirby, Captain Toad, Pokemon, etc.). But, it was an amazing year in terms of soundtracks.

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Pretty much the whole soundtrack is amazing, but the one song that comes to mind right away, even if it isn't the best, is this:

Windmill Hills

All the other tracks that the other posters have mentioned are excellent, too.

2. Mario Kart 8

Very likely the best soundtrack in a Mario Kart game, ever. The DLC was just a cherry-on-top with the new tracks it provided. Some of my favourites:

Sherbert Land

Excitebike Arena

3. Super Smash Bros.

I am unsure whether or not the two versions will be counted separately, but each version had some great tracks. My favourite, from the 3DS version, is a song that doesn't even get a stage!

The Mysterious Murasame Castle Medley

and the Wii U holds it own, with:

Nintendo Land Medley

It might not be found in the game yet, but it is still amazing

 

[MrBadger]

It's refreshing to see a more in-depth description on why New Island's soundtrack is poor rather than just Yoshi Clan shitposting, which I know I'm kind of guilty of too. I can tolerate a few arrangements of the main theme, but when every different stage has to incorporate it in, it gets really monotonous. I feel like Super Mario World had the same issue, but it had less music over all so it kind of gets away with it.

 

[The Xtortionist]

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Pretty much the whole soundtrack is amazing, but the one song that comes to mind right away, even if it isn't the best, is this:

Windmill Hills

It's a great track and definitely one of my favorites. Listening to it makes me want to rip my clothes off and frolic in a field of flowers. The harmonica conjures up certain pleasurable feelings I can't quite identify, so I'll have to get back to you on that.

 

[Nocturnowl]

The eternal dilemma with the mega Schala tome, trying to listen to the music in order to more effectively understand the text content yet there's so much to digest, you'll have to forgive me for jumping around tracks and revisiting the write ups at various points to not exhaust my ears all at once. On top of there's been a surge of more entries both before and after, yet somehow I end up listening to DKC's Mangrove Cove again (it's that dastardly Papercuts I tell ya, not content with just effectively faking me out with his Destiny write up in the GotY thread now he tries to trap me in a TF playlist!)
At least the decent amount of D4 posts so far had me remember the music without having played it (I wish I could!).

It's refreshing to see a more in-depth description on why New Island's soundtrack is poor rather than just Yoshi Clan shitposting, which I know I'm kind of guilty of too. I can tolerate a few arrangements of the main theme, but when every different stage has to incorporate it in, it gets really monotonous. I feel like Super Mario World had the same issue, but it had less music over all so it kind of gets away with it.

It's been something of a thing for Yoshi games since Story, thing is that at least with Story the variations on its main theme tended to be quite heavily varied as well as having a stronger and more versatile melody in general.
The main themes in New Island and DS try to do the same and flounder doing so, DS's main theme in particular should not have tried to adapt itself to a castle stage, even Story knew not to try that and whipped up Baby Bowser's Lullaby which is great.
Actually New Island might have at least fared just a bit better than that DS entry musically, well ignoring the yoshi farting kazoo moments such as the title screen and Yoshi clan tracks, gross.

I wonder if Sonic Boom's music is so bland that I'd actually rather listen to the horrible novelty of Sonic Chronicles.

 

[Dark Schala]

It's been something of a thing for Yoshi games since Story, thing is that at least with Story the variations on its main theme tended to be quite heavily varied as well as having a stronger and more versatile melody in general.
The main themes in New Island and DS try to do the same and flounder doing so, DS's main theme in particular should not have tried to adapt itself to a castle stage, even Story knew not to try that and whipped up Baby Bowser's Lullaby which is great.
Actually New Island might have at least fared just a bit better than that DS entry musically, well ignoring the yoshi farting kazoo moments such as the title screen and Yoshi clan tracks, gross.

I wonder if Sonic Boom's music is so bland that I'd actually rather listen to the horrible novelty of Sonic Chronicles.

Sonic Chronicles is at least something I can laugh at. And we can all take solace in the fact that Beef called Nocturne our theme song. Sonic Boom Wii U just has its intro theme and that's kinda it. I can't remember anything about it because none of the themes try to make a name for themselves. I can recall at least several themes from Assassin's Creed Unity's soundtrack even though I think Rogue and Freedom Cry are better compositions overall, but I can't recall anything from Sonic Boom: a soundtrack I'd expected to at least be a little more than memorable.

I went back to play Yoshi's Island DS after finishing off Yoshi's New Island last summer, actually. It's amazing how much of a mess DS's castle theme is compared to the New Island castle theme, but at the same time, I don't like either of them. The biggest problem with New Island's soundtrack is that its main melody gets pretty boring after several arrangements of it and the soundtrack as a whole is too slowly paced for a platformer. You can talk up Yoshi Clan all you want, but since that's a theme that's used like, once, it's not representative of the soundtrack as a whole (besides the other kazoo material which isn't very good either!). Like I said, it's one of the weirder platformer soundtracks of the year, simply because it doesn't mesh very well with its in-game content, nor does it stand very well on its own for fear of being repetitive.

(lol, I had to listen to 30 soundtracks that were on my shortlist straight between Wednesday and now so I'm tired too.)

 

[Mlatador]

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

so good. so many great selections from this soundtrack will likely be posted so here are two deep cuts you may not have heard.

Irate Eight (Land Theme) - this one probably gets glossed over because it only plays at the very beginning of the level before you jump into the water. if you go immediately to the right and jump in the water you'll only hear this one for about 10 seconds. such a shame. the bass tone is so warm and the accents are on point. also the horn that enters reminds me of Uninvisible-era Medeski, Martin, & Wood.

Jelly Jamboree - I rarely see this one mentioned but it is so good. that breakdown around 1m30s makes me put my stank face on. the bass tone on this one is also superb. seriously just let this one play out. it's that hypnotic head bob shit for sure.

Excellent picks! There is so much "treasure" in that Soundtrack... lovely!

 

[jblank83]

1. Smash U
2. Shovel Knight
3. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright

Honorable
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Mario Kart 8
Bravely Default

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I still need to get to Bayonetta 2, too. I meant it when I said I didn't have a lot of time towards the end of the year. >.>

I hope it's good. I'll get on to playing Armoured Hunter Gunhound EX one day too, since the soundtrack is super-good.

Thanks for the comments so far, everyone.


Right? I stayed up late listening to it with someone else, and we were talking about what shows it reminded us of, or what kind of music it reminded us of from our childhoods. I genuinely appreciate that soundtrack a lot.

EDIT: I feel like next year maybe we should start the soundtrack thread the week before GotY or end it the week after GotY so that people don't get burned out. That happened to me last year and I completely understand how people are feeling.

Oh that Sen II, some of the OSTs I never listen to, wanting to hear in situ and that wonderful write-up tempting me sooooooooooooo much.

D4 does sound like alot of the current veteran Japanese VGM composing crowd.

I don't know one way or the other about that, but I have noticed the number of votes increasing after the GOTY one ended (although this may be because of the title adding end time).

The eternal dilemma with the mega Schala tome, trying to listen to the music in order to more effectively understand the text content yet there's so much to digest, you'll have to forgive me for jumping around tracks and revisiting the write ups at various points to not exhaust my ears all at once. On top of there's been a surge of more entries both before and after, yet somehow I end up listening to DKC's Mangrove Cove again (it's that dastardly Papercuts I tell ya, not content with just effectively faking me out with his Destiny write up in the GotY thread now he tries to trap me in a TF playlist!)
At least the decent amount of D4 posts so far had me remember the music without having played it (I wish I could!).



It's been something of a thing for Yoshi games since Story, thing is that at least with Story the variations on its main theme tended to be quite heavily varied as well as having a stronger and more versatile melody in general.
The main themes in New Island and DS try to do the same and flounder doing so, DS's main theme in particular should not have tried to adapt itself to a castle stage, even Story knew not to try that and whipped up Baby Bowser's Lullaby which is great.
Actually New Island might have at least fared just a bit better than that DS entry musically, well ignoring the yoshi farting kazoo moments such as the title screen and Yoshi clan tracks, gross.

I wonder if Sonic Boom's music is so bland that I'd actually rather listen to the horrible novelty of Sonic Chronicles.

It's the same mistake the New Mario games do: take an already lame or divisive element, melody, or theme and remix the crap out of it for whatever dumb reason.

It's wierd, and I really wish they'd take a step back and rethink this.

 

[krossj]

“This Should Be in a Game” Award: Masashi Hamauzu Opus 4 Piano and Chamber Music Works

Wow, I didn't even know this sort of work of his was available. Only heard the Imeruat stuff he has done outside of FF. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[buddha0991]

Well, it was a hell of a year for game music guys, I think I narrowed it down well enough, but then I forgot both Danganronpa 1 and 2 were this year. Welp.

WELL LETS NOT BEAT AROUND THE BUSH, LETS DO THIS.

THE TOP 3


1. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

Anyone surprised? DAVID WISE YO. This soundtrack is just phenomenal with so much variety and emotion into it. It practically tells its own story. Listening to this OST almost feels like you are going on a journey. I am going to be a bit more simple on the descriptions of the songs on this game due to the game itself being a rather simple and fun platformer.

Grassland Groove

This song is just pure joy and whimsy. You can just picture running across an green grassland at top speed with the wind in your hair. Donkey Kong is known, however, for having songs of every type, happy and sad.

Scorch 'N' Torch

Case in point. Imagine that same grassland or savannah you ran through and loved, but burning and dying. That is exactly what this stage was and exactly what this intense and emotional song is conveying.

Big Top Bop

I never expected to find a song that basically sounds like it belongs in Devil May Cry here. The last game had mediocre boss themes. I was expecting a good one this time, but wow. WOW. The kicker is that this is ONLY the very first bosses theme. Very intense...but...

Bashmaster, The Unbreakable

...This song is on another level. This is the penultimate bosses theme, and man does it live up to that role. The name of the boss is Bashmaster, The Unbreakable and this song conveys that so well that I think its actually better than the actual final boss song, which is great too.

DK Island Swing

Of course this had to be here. DK Island Swing is THE classic Donkey Kong Country song. It may not be in every game (DKC3 pls) but this song IS Donkey Kong to me. The Returns versions were pretty good but this Tropical Freeze one captures the spirit so well without completely rehashing the original's feel. Well done Wise.

2. Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc

Danganronpa is a series I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did. The story, characters and atmosphere are so damn good. The music goes a LONG way towards the atmosphere. Now Danganronpa 2 technically has a better OST but a lot of the songs are just remixes of the first game and I gotta pick the original for being first and coming up with the general tone of the music of the series. The Danganronpa series has been expertly composed by veteran composer Masafumi Takada of killer7, God Hand, and No More Heroes fame.

DANGANRONPA

This is the intro theme. It perfectly captures what DR is gonna be, hip and catchy as hell, but sinister and creepy. Its a mishmash of electric, rock, piano, and an ominous lady singing. Its all over the place and crazy...just like Danganronpa.

Box 15

This song plays when a murder has occurred and you and the rest of the Hope's Peak students who have survived thus far must investigate and find the evidence needed to correctly work together and pin the murderer as the suspect...who is one of the students among them. It is sly and smooth with a sinister jazzy sound. Perfect for this kind of situation.

Mr. Monokuma's Lesson

The theme of Monokuma, the cute mascot antagonist. This song is goofy as hell and at first you just sort of laugh when it plays. Of course as the game goes on you come to fear and dread this song, because bad things usually happen when it does. Great use of making a song that carries a certain tone actually represent another, in this case, a goofy song invoking dread.

Class Trial Solar Edition

If you played the Phoenix Wright series, you could say that this is Danganronpa's objection theme. This usually plays when you contradict someones testimony or evidence and it just hypes you up for that. It's use in the game is actually rather simple but I love this song so much that its up here simply for that reason. So damn good.

New World Order

Whenever this song plays, you know a big reveal or twist has happened. It can be a good or bad one, but you just know that something huge is about to go down or has gone down when this starts playing. This song is iconic to the series and actually remains in DR2 unremixed. So many of the most memorable scenes of this series have happened when this song plays, that it is by far my favorite song in the series for the association with those scenes alone. The song itself conveys the theme of the series perfectly. HOPE vs DESPAIR. Which will win?

3. Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth

I knew this was gonna be a good game. It is a Persona game made by the Etrian Odyssey team, a wonderfully talented team that makes hardcore RPGs. I did not think however, that it would have the best soundtrack out of the entire Persona series. I shouldn't be surprised, because the people who composed, performed or guest starred on this OST is a who's who of the Megaten Sound Team (Atsushi Kitajoh, Toshiki Konishi, Shoji Meguro, Yuzo Koshiro, Yumi Kawamura, Shihoko Hirata, Lotus Juice, and many more) I hope Persona 5 takes this kind of style with it. Meguro hardly even worked on this OST either, quite a few people do not know that.

Maze of Life -Title Screen Ver.-

The title screen/main menu song. Persona always has a piano song playing on all of its main menu's, bar Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PSP Version) due to that game's central theme being "change your way." This one, like all the rest, is made to be memorable and invoke a certain emotion or feeling from the player. This theme in particular, invokes both the feelings of nostalgia and of closure. There are many reasons for both of those but the most obvious is that this may be the final time we have an RPG with either of these cast of characters that so many people have grown to love. (P4 Dancing doesn't count lol)

Laser Beam

Slick, dirty and smooth as all hell, this boss theme sure left an impression on me. I always wanted music like this for Persona, and I finally got it, in the game I expected to have rather cutesy music. It combines the absolute best of the Persona series battle music from its inception all the way to 4, with techno industrial vibes from 1 and 2, awesome guitars, Yumi Kawamura background singing, and Lotus Juice doing his thing. It helps, that the bosses in this game are actually a challenge compared to most Persona games. I really hope P5 has a musical style similar to this one.

F.O.E.

The legendary F.O.E.s of Etrian Odyssey are in this game too, so they naturally deserve a great theme. For their battle theme, instead of making anything Persona, they straight up gave them a thing that sounds like it belongs in the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games. Hard rock letting you know your ass is about to be kicked.

Memories of Time

Persona is known as a series that while it can be goofy and charming, it can also get very dark and sad quickly. I expected PQ to be mostly free of this, but it keeps this tradition up too. This song is just dripping with emptiness, loneliness and despair. I am glad to know that the sound team at Atlus can still make gut wrenchingly sad songs. It is a skill that has served them very well, as fans of the series and other Megaten series know all too well.

Footsteps of Time

I never thought Persona could have final dungeon music like this. Again, this is straight out of the SMT Mainline playbook., but I think this is actually better than most of those too. It is so emotional and climactic it just hypes me up hearing it. It perfectly represents the ultimate march of you and your friends towards the final confrontation at the end of the last maze. Imagine if any of the other Persona game's final dungeon song was like this. It would be the most climactic thing ever.


HONORABLE MENTIONS

These almost made the cut for a numbered position, it was very close. KI Season 2 actually was my 3rd for the longest time but then I remembered Danganronpa 1 and 2 also came out this year.


Killer Instinct Season 2

I am only putting 3 cuz there is only 4 new songs in Season 2 so far and the 4th (Riptor's Theme) is disappointing to me. Mick Gordon continues his work on the amazing Killer Instinct 2013 OST. That is really all there is to say about this one other than the fact that these themes are SO GOOD. Now these don't have OST releases and the KI songs are known for having many dynamic effects and changes so if there are bad edits or cuts in these links, understand that the Season 2 OST is not released yet, as Season 2 is not even finished yet.

Downtown Demolition

This theme. THIS THEME. THIS THEME GETS ME SO PUMPED EVERY TIME. This theme alone almost secured Killer Instinct Season 2 for 3rd place. I don't think there is much more to say about this. This song is just amazing. The perfect song to beat the crap out of the other fighters to. The best part is the super long build up for the song to break out into a remix of TJ Combo's Killer Instinct 2 theme at 3 minutes 47 seconds.

City of Dawn

Maya's theme in Killer Instinct Season 2 is unique among all the other themes. Most of the character themes have a throwback to their old Killer Instinct 1 or 2 themes in the middle of the song, but Maya's is straight up a remix of her Killer Instinct 2 theme all throughout. This song sounds very exotic and elegant. It gives you the image of a serene and peaceful lost ruin...so the song's intent was done perfectly here of course!

Forbidden Archive

Kan-Ra's theme sounds sinister and mysterious. That fits very well with his status as a new character and a villain. The song gives off a Babylonian feel mixed with an electric sound, as Mick Gordon loves to do, when he isn't shredding hard on a guitar or making amazing rap beats. The best part of this theme is the off key, sinister remix of the Killer Instinct theme at 3 minutes 8 seconds.


Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Technically, this soundtrack is even better than the first game's. I could not give this one top spot though, because many of this game's songs are remixes of the first game's songs. Still, this is Masafumi Takada at the top of his game with cerebral and catchy songs that invoke many different feelings at once.

DANGANRONPA [2nd GIG]

This is the same theme song as the first game, but turned up to 11. It is way more bombastic and the guitars make it even better than the original. It does fit as this game is more climactic than the first. The whole section that starts at 1 minute 16 seconds until the end of the song really makes this one better than the first, in which that section is weaker than the second one.

Beautiful Ruin

This song is so peaceful and serene, but with a hint of sinister undertones. There is a small remix of the first game's Beautiful Dead in there. (A theme I absolutely love but it wasn't the top 5 of DR1) This song, like Beautiful Dead, plays during the Daily Life sections, so it makes sense that the song is peaceful. The song, however, does a great job of also making that peace seem fragile, as it is in Danganronpa. You can always expect Daily Life to switch to Deadly Life any moment now...

Objection -CROSS SWORD-

This song plays during the Rebuttal Showdown sections of the Class Trials of DR2. Basically, it amounts to the main character, Hajime finding a weak point in a suspect's defense or argument/logic. After point that out, Hajime gets into a debate with the suspect with the suspect constantly spouting things at you and you have to find a weak point in all their yelling and arguing. This song totally feels like 2 people yelling at each other doesn't it? Chaotic and frantic, another song used perfectly.

Class Trial Odd Edition

This song replaces Class Trial Solar Edition from Part 1. This song certainly feels much more desperate and sad than Solar Edition, which makes sense due to them making the group way more intimate with each other and the cases more tragic. Where as the original felt it was making the situation more hyped up, this one is almost filling you with dread. Such a good song.

Ekoroshia

This song is simply Holy Crap, Shit Just Got Real But It Keeps Getting Even Crazier and Realer: The Song. I cant really go more into it without starting to get into spoilers. A truly climactic song once you know the context of it.


Halo 2 Anniversary

Halo is a series very near and dear to me. Halo 1 Anniversary's remixes were not that amazing but they knocked it out of the park here. Sure there is weak songs here and there but for the most part they honored Marty O'Donnell's work very well. This OST can't rank higher than honorable mention though due to those unfortunate remixes that weren't as good as the originals, but I still very much enjoy this OST. Halo 4 lacked the classic halo feel in its music(Feeling of holiness and awe inspiring mystery) so I hope Halo 5 goes back to this style.

Halo Theme Scorpion Mix

This brass heavy remix of the Halo theme is used in the mission "Metropolis." It starts playing when you cross the long bridge when riding a Scorpion Tank and you have to battle across the bridge. It starts out pretty normal but then when the brass really kicks in at 58 seconds it gets really powerful. Like the top comment on this video said, "When you drive the Scorpion, you're supposed to feel powerful, indestructible... unstoppable. This music makes you feel that way." A strong and powerful remix of a classic theme.

Impart

Impend on the original Halo 2 soundtrack was a strong theme, and Impart is a faithful remix that makes the song even more powerful. The first 30 seconds are beautiful and then it turns industrial. The majestic choir serves as a great counter balance to the heavy drums and industrial beat. It retains the originals mysterious and alien feeling.

Kilindini Harbour

Earth City was a fan favorite song of Halo2 and this remix is a good update, with a much heavier choir and like the Scorpion Mix, the brass adds a lot of weight compared to the original, a sound I very much enjoy. It plays during 2 sections of the game, both of them considered climaxes of the two levels they play in, so this song is memorable to fans of Halo 2 for that reason. It represents 2 different feelings in the 2 levels it plays in though. In Metropolis, it represents the invasion of earth and the hopelessness of that situation, where as in Great Journey, it represents the new Human/Elite Alliance. I always like when a song can be used unchanged and it gives off a completely different feeling than it used to.

This Glittering Band

Another fan favorite done well. This Glittering Band is a great remaster of a classic song, thats all I can say about this one really. They made the choir much stronger compared to the original and I feel its to this song's benefit.

Unforgotten Memories

Some would call this the second Halo theme. Unlike the actual Halo theme, this one even made it into Halo 4. (It's not in Halo 1 though, offsetting that) This song is basically a nostalgia trigger for me, and I will forever love it. This is a beautiful and well done remake of the original. Marty would be proud.

LTTP


Killer Instinct Season 1

Mick Gordon is excellent as always here. Season 2 is just as strong, but Season 1 remains king for being first. The songs here leaned toward heavy metal however. Season 2 seems to have greater variety. Regardless, I rate KI as a soundtrack in its entirety, not split up into 2 seasons, but I do this for this topic's rules.

The Instinct

I was never a big Killer Instinct guy, I hardly ever played it back in the day. But I, like many people, admired the theme song of the original. When I heard this new version, I cheered. It perfectly captures the new game's fast pace and heavy feel. I could gush about this theme all day but I'll just let the link do the talking. One point I will comment on is that this version has a new opening compared to the original classic Killer Instinct theme but fading in the original opening riffs 2 minutes 55 seconds is pure genius.

The Tiger Warrior

A main character's theme true and true. This song packs a very distinct eastern flair mixed with a heavy edge. It fits Jago's image as a peaceful monk, but also with no choice but to violence. A great theme to fight to and unique among the rest of the themes.

Touch Me and I'll Break Your Face

Orchid is the other main character of Killer Instinct, and her theme also portrays that. It is much more upbeat, electric and modern compared to the other songs that are typically more heavy. (in Season 1 anyways) Mixing classic bits of Orchid's previous themes in the song is once again, genius. (This version I posted actually lacks those somewhat) Such a slick and cool theme for a fighting game.

Warlord

Pure heavy metal. Spinal's theme deserves props for how it was made alone. I will copy and paste the facts. Spinal’s new theme was a global effort that combined the talents of twenty people across five countries over three months. The “Spinal Choir” consisted of thirteen men singing in Swedish in Gothenburg. The lyrics were written by Mick Gordon and Pontus Rufelt. The choir is pretending to be warriors who are attempting to summon Spinal to aid them in a foreboding battle. The brass for Spinal was recorded and arranged by Hugh Davies in Guildford, UK. The “horn” sound you hear over the ‘Ready’ text is the sound of a Tibetan Kangling, a human leg bone flute. Also they added Spinal's laugh itself and the sounds of bones as instruments into the song itself. Wow. The perfect theme for an undead skeletal warrior.

Type-03

Fulgore is my favorite Killer Instinct character. He is a classic and one of Killer Instinct's primary antagonists. He is a war machine made to kill, a Terminator basically. So it's theme needed to strike fear and anxiety into opponents. I feel like they accomplished that tenfold. The theme itself is fast paced and unrelenting, never giving you time to breath or think, its just beating the crap out of you just like Fulgore is. Neat stuff.

Shin Megami Tensei IV

The Megaten series is very near and dear to me. This was my game of the year in 2013, warts and all. Such an amazing game for a handheld, though part of me wishes it was a full blown console release. It's OST was no slouch, I wish I could post every song as they are almost all amazing. I have narrowed it down to 5 songs.

Main Theme

The title screen theme. Dark and hard edged, it lets you know right away what kind of universe SMTIV takes place in. People in the know about where SMTIV goes understand what the hard edged and industrial sound is supposed to represent, but people playing without knowledge might be confused as the first few hours of the game do not suit this theme. I'll just say it fits SMTIV to a T. Just as good as the SMT Nocturne theme.

Tokyo

The theme of the Tokyo over world. Such a great and mystifying theme. It is rather calming especially compared to the song I linked above it, but it has a slight industrial and late 80's early 90's tint to it, like much of the soundtrack.

Battle A2 - (Tokyo Battle)

The second normal battle theme in the game. The first is good too, but this one is classic Megaten. It sounds a lot like a tribute to the very first Shin Megami Tensei's battle theme, and that makes sense. The rest of the game is a huge tribute to all the other mainline games anyway. High energy and uplifting but dangerous, it sets the tone amazingly for battling among the post apocalyptic Tokyo's danger filled streets.

Battle B2 - (Boss Battle Theme)

The boss theme of the game. Oh man. This song is so menacing and overbearing, especially at some of the early bosses and a few in late game. This one is also classic Megaten and I wouldn't trade it for the world. When I first heard snippits of this in trailers I was ready for the full version. I wasn't.

End Credits

The staff roll in a game is the end of a journey. So it is fitting that the song that plays also feels like its the end of a journey. This one does a neat thing by adding in 2 songs to the mix that signified the beginning of your journey, but this time they do nothing but show that your adventure is indeed over. Depending on the choices you made, this could mean many things, but above all else...it is indeed all over...for now anyway.

PHEW. THATS IT. IM DONE. IM FREE! This was fun, I'll do it again next year. Till next time people!

 

[Reveirg]

Such a solid year for soundtracks. Tough to choose a top 3 but here I go:

1. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Easily takes my #1 spot. I find it amazing that the 3 composers involved have each produced so many amazing tracks. Hamauzu is easily my favourite composer in the industry, but Mizuta and Suzuki somehow found a way to rival his work on this (and XIII-2). The OST's production values are through the roof, a lot of really talented musicians are involved. The mix is solid. This is, IMO, up there in the best soundtracks Square-Enix has ever put out. Special mention to the many musical easter eggs hidden throughout the game... it was a nice touch.
Favourite tracks: Distant Light, The Ark, Luxerion, The Dead Dunes, Evening Return (those FFXI vibes!), The Savior, Yusnaan, Novus Partus, Angelic Tears, Lone Light, Her Story Begins when the Myth Ends, Ending Roll.
Yeah sorry, I just couldn't choose >_>

2. Drakengard 3
Keiichi Okabe's NIER soundtrack was acclaimed, with reason. Drakengard 3's isn't quite as good, but it's pretty close. There's something fascinating about having those dark, dissonant tracks coexist with melancholic, beautiful tracks featuring great vocalists (Emi Evans...).
This soundtrack definitely elevated the game to another level. I can't wait to hear whatever Okabe and his team comes up with next.
Favourite tracks: Fallen God, The Upcoming Battle, Empty Tone, Exhausted 3, Black Song, This SIlence is Mine

3. Bravely Default
There's something so familiar and nostalgic about this soundtrack. REVO perfectly captured the essence of old JRPGs while still giving that sound a fresh coat of paint. The catchy melodies, the sense of adventure, of awe, of sadness, everything falls right into place. Too bad he isn't coming back for Bravely Second =(.
Favourite tracks: Eternity's Moment, Land of Beginnings, Land of Light and Shadow, Silence of the Forest, Baby Bird (lol, I laughed every single time.)


Honourable mentions:
-Bayonetta 2: The pop battle themes are amazing. The Moon River remix is amazing. The epic orchestral songs are amazing. And it somehow all gels together. What a soundtrack.
-Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: This might just be my favourite soundtrack for a platformer, ever. This was my first DKC game and the first game composed by David Wise I've ever played. I'm still stunned by how great it was =O
-Transistor: Inspiring work from Darren Korb, even better than Bastion IMO. The interactive soundtrack was really well done in-game, too.
-Dark Souls 2: Not as good as the previous soundtracks I've listed IMO, but still, Sakuraba proved he's still in the game with his Dark Souls work. Now, if only he could channel a bit of that creativity into his Tales soundtracks...

EDIT: Ehh, how did I forget Persona Q? Dat battle theme.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Sonic Chronicles is at least something I can laugh at. And we can all take solace in the fact that Beef called Nocturne our theme song.

A Nocturne that Owl doesn't want to be a part of.

I went back to play Yoshi's Island DS after finishing off Yoshi's New Island last summer, actually. It's amazing how much of a mess DS's castle theme is compared to the New Island castle theme, but at the same time, I don't like either of them. The biggest problem with New Island's soundtrack is that its main melody gets pretty boring after several arrangements of it and the soundtrack as a whole is too slowly paced for a platformer. You can talk up Yoshi Clan all you want, but since that's a theme that's used like, once, it's not representative of the soundtrack as a whole (besides the other kazoo material which isn't very good either!). Like I said, it's one of the weirder platformer soundtracks of the year, simply because it doesn't mesh very well with its in-game content, nor does it stand very well on its own for fear of being repetitive.

(lol, I had to listen to 30 soundtracks that were on my shortlist straight between Wednesday and now so I'm tired too.)

Putting it like that this reminded me that the music for one of the final stages was this, weird is right, hardly a tense building to the finale theme nor one that pushes the player to get a move on as the stage gimmick provides. Makes me want to chill out more than anything else.

It's the same mistake the New Mario games do: take an already lame or divisive element, melody, or theme and remix the crap out of it for whatever dumb reason.

It's wierd, and I really wish they'd take a step back and rethink this.

NSMB2 was the pinnacle of this, reusing NSMB Wii music for one thing and then adding in BAH where there was no BAH before. Though I'd add that the 3D Mario entries do avoid this issue mostly.

Gonna have to get around to the rest of these entries tomorrow where I expect to be besieged by even more as the deadline approaches.

 

[Rutger]

Well, this will be my first chance to vote in this. 2014 was an great year for video game soundtracks, and there's still a ton of games I haven't played. It's tough to decide where to even start, but I think I know what I have to do.

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

I really liked Donkey Kong Country Returns, the gameplay was great and the music was nice. Retro Studios was already one of my favorite developers after the Metroid Prime Trillogy, so I was excited to see what they had planed for their second Donkey Kong game. The gameplay was still great, and improved in many ways, but it was the soundtrack that surprised me the most. David Wise has created a soundtrack that is perfect for this one game, which isn't to say the soundtrack isn't wonderful all on its own, but rather that the soundtrack became a major part of the game's identity, and that many of the stages just wouldn't be the same without this music. I remember telling a friend when I was about halfway through the game that DKC:TF would be one of my top two soundtracks I'd hear in 2014, and now that the year is over, I really can't think of a better soundtrack to put at the top.

Busted Bayou
Big Top Bop
Sawmill Thrill
Scorch 'N' Torch
Punch Bowl
Homecoming Hijinx

2. Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight was a big surprise for me. I bought it towards the end of 2014 knowing little more than everyone was saying it's good, and that it was inspired by the classic Mega Man games. I enjoyed every second of it, but the thing I loved the most was finding music sheets to give to the bard so I could listen to the music anytime I wanted. Not once did I enter that first village and leave without asking the bard to play a tune. I knew nothing of Jake Kaufman before playing Shovel Knight, but I'll be paying attention to anything else he works on now.

La Danse Macabre
Strike the Earth!
Of Devious Machinations
A Thousand Leagues Below
High Above the Land

3. Bravely Default
This is actually a game I have yet to finish, mainly because of some disappointing things I've heard about the second half, and just because I got distracted by other games. I'm sure I'll return to it though, I loved the gameplay and especially the music. Not much to say about this one, the upbeat battle themes are always fun to listen to, and the songs found throughout the world are nice too. It's what I want from a JRPG soundtrack.

Horizon of Light and Shadow
Silence of the Forest
Infiltrating Enemy Territory
Conflict's Chime
Fighting to the End
That Person's Name Is

Honorable Mention 1. Super Smash Bros for Wii U
With over 400 songs, I was very tempted to put this in my top three. However, many of those songs are not new to this game, and while many of the new remixes are great, I don't think those alone are better than what made it into the top three.
That said, the Route 10 (Black/White) remix had me second guessing myself on leaving Smash out of my top three until the very end.

Honorable Mention 2. Guilty Gear Xrd Sign
As far as I'm concerned, no fighting game has had a better soundtrack than the Guilty Gear series. I love the hard rock inspired soundtracks the series is known for, and Xrd is no different. I was close to putting this in my top three as well, but like with smash, I think those three are a little better overall.
I'm not going to post any samples, you can probably find the music on Youtube, but Arc System Works has been taking Xrd's music down whenever they can.

Honorable Mention 3. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (Import)
I'm half convinced the developers are messing with us with that title. Looking past the silly name, this was a really fun fighting game with a surprisingly catchy soundtrack. Given that this is currently an import only fighting game, I'm not surprised it went under the radar, and it likely will again when it's released outside of Japan later this year, but I'm really glad I decided to play it. This one didn't have a chance to make it into my top three, but I feel it's worth mentioning nonetheless.
Sky Scraper High
Rushing Heart
Beat Eat Nest

LTTP: Xenoblade Chronicles
I didn't follow the project rainfall games closely, so I missed out on Xenoblade Chronicles when it first came out. It took a while, but after hearing all the praise I made sure to track it down for a reasonable price. I had listened to the Gaur Plains theme before playing, so I already expected a good soundtrack going. What I got was far more than just good though. Like with Bravely Default, Xenoblade Chronicles' soundtrack is what I want from a JRPG, but it manages to pull it off even better. This is a soundtrack that matches the game's massive scope, each track fits in wonderfully with the location where it appears, made even better by the existence of a slightly different track for at night. Earlier I said that I knew DKC:TF would be one of my top two favorite soundtracks I'd hear in 2014, I was also playing through Xenoblade Chronicles when I said that. It would have been really tough for me to decide whether to put this or DKC:TF at the top of my list, so I guess I'm lucky that this can only be a LTTP pick. If I was forced to pick though, I think as of right now I'd give it to Xenoblade Chronicles.

Main Theme I doubt I'm the only one who had to listen to this once everytime I started the game. It never got old, no mater how many hours I had already played.

Colony 9 The peaceful theme for the home of our main character. When this started playing, I knew Gaur Plains wasn't going to be a one time thing as far as field music is concerned.

Satorl, the Shimmering Marsh / Night This goes back to that different music for at night thing I mentioned. When I first stepped into Satorl Marsh, it was during the day. The place was nice, but felt less interesting than what came before, until night that is. I was left speechless as the trees lit up, and my feelings of uncertainty turned into wonder.

Mechonis Field Well, story stuff happens. Anyways, we end up in the place where this plays for quite a while, and I loved every minute of it. I can't get enough of this song.

Engage the Enemy The track that plays whenever something important is happening. Not much to say, it does its job well, and I was always happy to hear it.

Time to Fight! / One Who Gets in Our Way / You Will Know Our Names / Mechanical Rhythm The battle themes! All are upbeat tracks that had me running into far more battles than I probably needed to. While I didn't list them, there are also a couple tense tracks that play when things are looking bad in a fight, which where a nice way to change things up and keep me on edge when I needed to be the most.


I'm not sure if adding descriptions for only Xenoblade's songs was a good idea, but I figured it'd be the best way to convince me not to post every song. I could go back and add something for every song, but I didn't notice this thread was up until yesterday, I think I'm done writing. Keeping things short is good too, I might end up repeating myself if I tried to say something for every song.

I'm looking forward to listening to soundtracks I missed out on with the help of this thread.
And here's hoping 2015 can bring some music as good as what I heard last year.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

1. Transistor

This was a hard choice for me, actually, but Transistor is probably the only soundtrack this year that I have listened to multiple times just to enjoy the music in it. I'm mostly a gameplay person first and Transistor manages to walk that line where the music both fits the game and is totally enjoyable outside of it, as well.

2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

I know, some people think it's boring or it doesn't fit or it's overrated. I mean, whatever, it's awesome and I fucking loved it. Maybe because it reminded me of the SNES DKC games without actually replicating what those games sounded like. It took my memories and patched the holes between them and reality.

3. Shovel Knight

Speaking of the gap between memories and reality, Shovel Knight is a one-two punch of nostalgia and fantastic composition. Every song fits its level, motivates you forward, and gets you excited just to be playing the game. It is a Capcom-like soundtrack that Capcom no longer makes.

Honorable Mentions:
Drakengard 3 - Soundtrack isn't as good as Nier, but it's still alright.
D4 - THE MAIN THEME IS SO GOOD
Bayonetta 2 - Moon River Climax is great. Greaaaat.

LTTP vote: Xenoblade - I played the game for the first time in 2014 and this song has been in my head since then.

 

[CorvoSol]

GAME 1: TRANSISTOR

Transistor was an amazing game I picked up by accident. No small part of that glory is owed to the game's outstanding sound track. Described to me by others as a sort of folk/electronic/rock mash up, the OST just really, really set the mood for the game.

The game's best track was The Spine of the World. The sequence named for this song is also the most memorable moment in the whole game for me. It's eerie, haunting, and when it reaches its climax it's just oh-so-good.

GAME 2: PERSONA Q

I've only had about a year in the Persona fandom, but I've enjoyed myself immensely. Ultimax and Q are sort of the cap on this amazing year of experiencing every other game in the series, and no song has been catchier between the two than Q's opening: Carousel of Life. It's a pretty good sample of how the music in most of the rest of the series is, too.

GAME 3: SHOVEL KNIGHT

Another absolutely stellar game I played this year, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my personal favorite track: Propeller Knight

So them's my votes.

 

[Jucksalbe]

(list)

Wait, why did you reserve that post on the first page again?

 

[Sciz]

Didn't play it until the PC port went on sale this year, but I have to at least give a LTTP shout out to last year's winner, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, on the strength of the vocal tracks alone. I picked through a few of them at the time and didn't really get the hype, and in retrospect that's because you haven't really heard this music until you've encountered it in-game to give it context

Spoiler

and because Rules of Nature is one of the weaker pieces

. The boss fights are what define the experience, and the music is what defines those boss fights. It's rare to hear so many memorable vocal themes in a game, rarer still for every last one of them to be a pitch-perfect match for the tempo and tone of their setting, and downright unheard of for the lyrics to also provide the bulk of the characterization that the script couldn't be bothered delivering. Bonus points for almost seamlessly skipping around in-game so the musical crescendos kick in right alongside shifts in the fight dynamics, and for pulling off this grade of quality under Rising's comically truncated development cycle.

It's going to be such an incredibly hard act to follow.

The Hot Wind Blowing
The Stains of Time
It Has to Be This Way

 

[Augemitbutter]

it's sad, but i haven't even started most potential soty games like drakengard, shovel, dk, ff lr, guilty gear etc.

these are good too:


1. Bayonetta 2
2. Mario Kart 8
3. Velocity 2X

i miss large jrpg soundtracks.

 

[The Scollard]

My picks for this year:

1. Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry

My god, Freedom Cry was great. The music set the tone of the DLC perfectly, and I love how differently it felt from Black Flag's soundtrack. The African-inspired hymns of Haiti bring a life to Port-au-Prince, and contrast with the pirate shanties from the main game in a good way, showing the difference between Adewale's goal to free the slaves, and Edward's goal to make money and be a pirate.

2. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

It's just a great soundtrack. I could go into what makes it great, but there's nothing I can say which hasn't already been said. It doesn't keep itself constrained to one genre, and has several different sources of inspiration... all of them great.

3. The Wolf Among Us

The moment I heard the opening credits theme, I knew this experience would be something special. I wasn't wrong, and the rest of the soundtrack's great too.

Honourable Mention: Dark Souls 2

I haven't played the game, but I am very familiar with the soundtrack, even if it spoiled the plot for me. The sounds of tracks like Nashandra, Sir Alonne, and The Burnt Ivory King give the title the same quality of music as it's prequel.

 

[BiggNife]

1: Guilty Gear Xrd

Samples: Stolz (Theme of Leo Whitefang), The Lily of Steel (Theme of Milia Rage), Diva of Despair (Theme of Ramlethal Valentine)

God, I love Guilty Gear soundtracks. Xrd's is just full of fantastic, high-energy guitar riffs that fit the tempo of the gameplay perfectly.

2: Shovel Knight

Samples: Strike The Earth! (Plains of Passage), An Underlying Problem (The Lost City), The Fateful Return (Tower Approach)

I've always been a HUGE fan of virt's stuff since I became familiar with him after Contra 4, and SK is another example of how great he is at making mind-blowing chiptunes.

3: Bayonetta 2

Samples: Tomorrow is Mine (Main Theme), Moon River (Climax Mix)

Super catchy! Tomorrow Is Mine is a fantastic battle theme, and I honestly think the Moon River remixes in this game are better than Fly Me To The Moon from Bayo 1.

 

[Thoraxes]

I had to shorten my other reviews, and i'll update this post with music links as I go, but I needed to get this posted so here we go.

1. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

This game has quite a lot of music in it, as well as some re-orchestrations of tracks from the respective franchises our characters come from. Reflected in the game, both Layton and Wright have music familiar to their series appear throughout each of the major portions of the game. Before they get sucked into the storybook, both of them have their respective sections completely apart from one another played out with new arrangements of known tunes in the style of this game. Truth be told, I was really put off by the arrangements at first, but they (along with the new stuff) really grew on me the more I played the game. When referring to the music in this game, even though most of the sounds are patch/electronic-based, i’m going to refer to the instrument sounds that they are using, but know that a majority of the time they are not live recorded instruments!

Starting with stuff like the title screen music, it just comes at you with this new style used in this game. A perfect melding of some of the main idiosyncrasies of the music from both games; syncopated ostinato from the Ace Attorney games, and lush, long-phrase melodies from the Layton games. Once in the main portion of the story, this continues, however the arrangements are done to fit in with the style of Labyrinthia. The quality of the arrangements are all really high quality and well done, with 26 in total by my counting. My favorite of the arrangements are mostly the Layton ones, but I think this is because I have a really strong affinity for Nishiura’s music, and the chosen orchestration style for this game fits the Layton series much better.

I went ahead and listened to the originals and ~VS Arrange versions of each of the Layton pieces, and in many of the cases the originals were significantly improved. The new instrumentation fits well, and in many cases minor alterations (usually rhythmic or instrumentation-related) to the originals greatly benefitted the original compositions, boosting them into a whole new level of awesome for me. They’re all very high-quality. The arrangement of the Puzzle #6 music from the Last Spectre is one of my favorites. I really liked the The Professor’s Deductions (original link here) as well because the different string samples used give the original piece some more umph that have just the right amount of reverb. The redone town theme from Layton 1 is also good.The really cool thing about the the new arrangements of the puzzle music from the previous Layton games is that they’re much more fleshed out here, and ascend past being just simply the puzzle-solving music. They’re interesting pieces of music that have a completely new context and are awesome to listen to now that they’ve been expanded upon and repurposed.

Most of the Ace Attorney arrangements are much more straightforward renditions of the originals, albeit now in an orchestral-style. All of the changes here are also really great though. It’s nice to hear the old tracks re-imagined in this new style, with instruments over the electronic sounds of the first game. The rock feel for the English Case music is really well done and stays true to the Ace Attorney sound. Kitagawa did an amazing job recreating Sugimori’s works in this game.

Getting into the new music that’s exclusive for this game, a good place to start is the town theme. I always feel like the town music is one of the iconic centerpieces of a good Layton game, and this one is no exception. I kid you not when I say that I pretty much would listen to the town music for this game while I was at work for hours and hours at a time, over a period of about 4 months. Something about it is just perfect. It portrays the world, characters, and sensibilities of the Labyrinthia so well, that I can’t imagine anything else coming close to it for this game. The phrase structure, the three distinct sections, melody, accompaniment, and countermelody all just blend together so good in here. It’s a perfect backdrop for establishing the mood of the world in the game. The melody in the A section is this really nice violin/bandoneon soli, The B section is a lush cello solo, and the C section is a violin/harpsichord soli more in the style of the A section which helps establish a more convincing and smoother connection for the end of the loop. It’s always a tune I found myself humming because of how expressive and memorable it is.

I only have positive feelings about all the other new pieces too. The puzzle music is great, the new environmental music is great, scenario/event music is great, and the ones for the ruins are great too. All of it is really well-done. Overall, all of the new music and arrangements by Nishiura for this game are just done really well.

On the Ace Attorney side all of the new compositions were handled by Yasumasa Kitagawa (who will also be the main composer of Dai Gyakuten Saiban iirc). What I really like about his style in this game is how well it meshes with Nishiura’s approach to Labyrinthia. It’s distinctly Ace Attorney, but with the instrumentation used, most of the pieces sound like they could come straight out of a Layton game. To speak about the most important Ace Attorney themes, they’re all quite well-represented here.

The court overture is quite well done. It has the nice prelude feeling that’s in all Ace Attorney games. It has a nice feeling of the beginning of a courtroom drama about to take place and I enjoy it. The trial music (where the charges are read and the case is introduced in court) is also well done here. The prosecutor’s theme here is definitely unique though with regards to Ace Attorney approaches. Since Barnham is distinctly Labyrinthian, it makes perfect sense that his music is completely in line with the the world and reflects his nature as an Inquisitor nicely. It’s very serious but has a hint of whimsy in it, which I quite like.

The mob cross examination music is something I would consider to be one of the iconic staples of Ace Attorney music, and in this game it’s done well. Rhythmically and melodically this tune fits right in with Ace Attorney 1, however it also has some minor hints of the style from Ace Attorney 4, particularly the bass line and the strong downbeats every measure while the Ace Attorney 1 sound is more from the cello accent-pattern syncopation and melody. There’s also a tonal coloristic tendency that I associate with Ace Attorney 4 present here, though i’m not sure how to put it into words other than they both seem orange.

The Allegro version is just plain outstanding though. I could always feel the excitement start to course throughout my body knowing that i’m about to crack the case wide open, and have someone on the ropes. The mid-low strings do this awesome ostinato with a really nice accent pattern. They also stay the same harmonically in the B and B’ sections while the rest of the material around it completely changes harmonies, completely repurposing the sound and value of the ostinato. It’s one of my favorite compositional techniques to listen to, and is something I like to put into my own compositions. The bass line has an awesome moving line that’s has really nice syncopation and movement. The bandoneon/glockenspiel melody in the A section is paced just right, and the bandoneon melody coupled with with glockenspiel response and trombone accompaniment at the ends of phrases in the B section just gets my emotions going. It’s got the perfect mix of searching for the truth against an arduous situation

The objection theme is great too, though it’s not entirely original. It’s based off the objection theme from Ace Attorney 1, but only the A section of that is repeated verbatim. The B, B’, B’’ are totally new though they take place on the Ace Attorney 1 ostinato. It’s a weird mix, but it works. The little fragment of melody from the AA4 objection theme in there is nice too. It’s also helpful that the new material is repeated longer than the old material, and ultimately I like it.

The new Tell the Truth is also very nice, and the inclusion of organ in this piece gives off a more serious tone and some gravity to the revelations about to be told to the court. I really love the way this piece is structured in an A-B-C-D format. Each section is coupled nicely with A setting up the piece, B including all different instruments but building on that intensity and is more revelatory, C bringing back more of the serious tone with the mixture of the organ and ensemble from B, and D a simple cooldown to loop back into A but maintains a nice sense of calm, as if musically the facts of the previous statements have been digested. The new Cornered theme is great too!

The completely new pieces that fit the scenario of this game are outstanding too. My personal favorites of the new tracks are:

• The Final Witness; the situation it’s used it fits perfectly.
• Omen ~Footfalls of Turnabout; the timing of the sforzando tremolos in the B section are AMAZING and the piece is just full of so much energy.
• The Great Witch’s Judgement - Trial; a really epic (and I don’t use the word epic lightly) piece to accompany the gravity of the situation and climax trial of the game perfectly. One of the most catchy pieces in the game and has a perfect flow. The nice section where the ostinato stops is simply outstanding. SO GOOD.
• The Courtroom’s Magician; a great piece that really brings out the the confrontations, turnabouts, upsets, and insanity that happens in the courtroom.
• The Stake’s Witnesses; Really well composed. The wind instruments with the cello solo, accompanied with the pizzicato strings works really nicely. The toy piano-like sound with the ostinato fits SO good in this track. The bandoneon is also used really well here too, and it ties everything together nicely.

There’s a lot more I want to say about this OST but i’m out of time, heh.

Overall Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright is my favorite game OST of the year. I always had to have headphones to play this game, otherwise I wouldn’t let myself play it because I believed it would compromise my experience. It’s a perfect melding of two different series that not only brings back outstanding tracks from both game’s lineages, but combines them perfectly in the medieval setting of Labyrinthia. Even though the composers for each series only worked on their respective games, the quality of the music doesn’t suffer. The soundtrack is cohesive and is never more of one game over the other. It’s really well done and a testament to the composers and arrangers that worked on this product that the music came out this nicely. It hits all the right nostalgic spots for fans of both series and manages to successfully create it’s own identity that is really unlike anything else. Go give it a listen.

2. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

This soundtrack is nuts. The premise of this game (and it’s predecessor) is nuts. The characters are nuts. Everything about this game is insane. Danganronpa 2 is just a great overall package.

The music in this game is unlike anything i’ve ever heard. An heavily electronics-dominated soundtrack, I was skeptical at first with regards to the quality. And then I kept playing the game over and over, till I could play no more. The one thing that stuck with me? The music.

Personally, I never knew Masafumi Takada by name until I played Danganronpa. I think it’s kind of funny considering how much I loved his other works (particularly No More Heroes 1+2 and Killer 7). My roommate once complained to me when I listened to the No More Heroes track N.M.H on loop for hours and hours, every day, for at least two months. I loved his style. The second I started up Danganronpa I immediately recognized the style of the composer. I could feel his essence completely dominate the music and I loved it. It was familiar and it felt so refreshing at the same time. I looked up the composer and my mind was blown.

To explain the music you have to explain the setting. A large group of schoolkids are sent to a deserted island to live out their youth on a school trip. Some things happen, someone gets murdered and their lives are turned upside-down. They have to search and scour the island for clues, and they have to face off with one another in a classroom/courtroom trial to pinpoint the murderer. If they fail to catch the real culprit everyone dies and the murderer is free.

You’re probably asking yourself why I need to even explain the game concept when this is a thread dedicated to soundtracks. The music in Danganronpa 2 is so integral to the game itself that to even understand the music you have to understand what’s going on. The music of this game fits every scenario that happens in it to a T. Old PS1-style game in there? Music reflects it. Someone gets murdered? Music reflects it. You lay out the entire murder mystery for a group? Music reflects it.

Because every single piece of music in this game is perfect for the context in which it appears I always needed to use my nicest pair of headphones when playing to get the maximum amount of enjoyment. It never failed to put me into the mood of the game’s utterly bizarre and eccentric premise. The music is a character in Danganronpa. It brings an eccentric flair to the whole game and ultimately colors the player’s entire view of the game. For me it totally changed how I felt in every situation. I felt the humor more, or the funny ways they tried to tie upbeat music to an execution of a person. It fully maximizes the amount of dementedness and dark humor the game goes for, and knocks it out of the park. I really loved the new arrangements of returning tunes in here too, as they were all well done.

From the gotcha moments to Monomi’s theme, from simple exploration/investigation to the final showdown, the music always felt like a massive injection of perfectly crafted atmosphere and a skillful representation of the humor, wit, and eccentricities the game contains. If anyone ever plays this game without sound, you’re doing yourself an injustice. It’s that good.

3. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

This is a very large and diverse soundtrack. Unlike with Final Fantasy XIII-2, each composer didn’t really have control over a single aspect this game. In XIII-2 Mizuta seemed to be in charge of music for the new characters, Suzuki in charge of most of the vocal tracks, and Hamauzu in charge of the music for returning characters and pivotal story moments. With this game it gets all shaken up, and the results are quite nice. I’m out of time here so I just want to say Hamauzu is a god. Mizuta and Suzuki did a really amazing job on this one. I love that Suzuki got to do more integral music this time around and his music has come a long from since XIII-2, so shoutouts to him and his improvements!

Stuff I also listened to on my shortlist:

• Danganronpa (see my Danganropa 2 review. I didn’t want to write the same review for both games and have them take up 2/3ds of my list, but I picked the one I liked the most out of both soundtracks.
• Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (Despite my hatred of the Persona trumpet patch, Kitajoh and Konishi (who both composed ~70% of the game’s OST) did an outstanding job emulating Meguro’s style in addition to working with him. They’ve both totally nailed the nuPersona style quite well. Hopefully they work plenty on Persona 5 because they’ve definitely proven themselves. This almost made the list.)
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (David Wise da gawd. The Stickerbrush Symphony sax solo in the credits fills me with all the nostalgic emotions you can think of. The man has not lost his touch.)
• Bravely Default (wanted to vote for it last year but didn’t get to. It’s still very awesome.)
• Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (More Layton goodness.)
• Shovel Knight (loved Virt’s stuff since the early early days of VGMix! I listened to the NSFs a ton while I was at work and they never got old. I loved just looping Strike the Earth for 6 hours via the NSF music player I have on my phone.)
• Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (What do you get when you take some of the best JRPG compositions and let the composers and arrangers get a second crack at improving their original works with new music tech? You get the remastered music in this, and it’s all really good.)
• Mario Kart 8 (Holy shit. Every song in this is so memorable and the composition is so clean and tight. The transition to live recordings has compromised nothing about the music at all. It’s been perfectly done.)
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS (Holy shit. I think that can explain it all really. Plus there’s two new Hamauzu tracks!)
• Bayonetta 2 (All of the music is great. Tomorrow is mine is godlike. So perfect and it’s a masterful mix of really thick composition coming out oh so clear.)
• World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor (A return to greatness for me. I really love all the WoW OSTs but this one really struck me as being above all the others. It’s the first time I’ve consistently left the in-game music on in WoW, and the atmosphere is second to none.)
• Etrian Odyssey II Untold: The Knight of Fafnir (More new arrangements from Koshiro of already outstanding music? Yes please)
• Final Fantasy XIV (New patch music has been incredible, and the stuff for the primals has been insane in every way that I can’t help but love the work put into them.)
• Tales of Xillia 2 (Definitely loved the jazzy style of Elympios in this game. It fit the game world so well and most of the new tunes were very catchy.)
• Monster Hunter 4 (More orchestral MH goodness, nothing gets my blood pumping quite like the music coupled with taking down the largest of monsters.)
• Freedom Wars (Also very good. A latecomer for me but I enjoyed it’s style.)

There’s a ton of stuff I didn’t get around to yet this past year either >.>

 

[Dark Schala]

Nice to see a lot of varied posts in here (and posts from people I've been poking a stick at for days to post in here ).

OMG THORAXES CAME THROUGH!! Yesssssssssssssss! I read half of the Layton/Wright portion while in post-preview but I need to post this before I lose it and GAF tells me that I need to refresh.

Oh that Sen II, some of the OSTs I never listen to, wanting to hear in situ and that wonderful write-up tempting me sooooooooooooo much.

D4 does sound like alot of the current veteran Japanese VGM composing crowd.

I don't know one way or the other about that, but I have noticed the number of votes increasing after the GOTY one ended (although this may be because of the title adding end time).

Awww, at least listen to one or two tracks. Sen II's soundtrack is super-cool and far more improved on Sen I's material on many ways.

I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I'll ask for feedback in the Results thread when I put it up on Tuesday evening (maybe; I have stuff to do at the lab for the next two days so we'll see).

Wow, I didn't even know this sort of work of his was available. Only heard the Imeruat stuff he has done outside of FF. Thanks for mentioning it.

No prob. Thoraxes seems to pay more attention to Hamauzu's work more often than I do these days, so he could give better insight than I could, but... if you haven't listened to his Sigma Harmonics OST, you should. It's one of my favourites of last generation.

Additionally last year, he released another piano album which is pretty decent.

Putting it like that this reminded me that the music for one of the final stages was this, weird is right, hardly a tense building to the finale theme nor one that pushes the player to get a move on as the stage gimmick provides. Makes me want to chill out more than anything else.

NSMB2 was the pinnacle of this, reusing NSMB Wii music for one thing and then adding in BAH where there was no BAH before. Though I'd add that the 3D Mario entries do avoid this issue mostly.

Gonna have to get around to the rest of these entries tomorrow where I expect to be besieged by even more as the deadline approaches.

remember when you guys used to besiege me with bah bah and i used to get annoyed/pissed off? ...oh man, I think that was the year I gave NSMB2 the worst soundtrack award, wasn't it? Ahaha.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. Hotfoot Hurdle makes no sense contextually, haha. The slide-whistle sample in this doesn't sound very good, and it gets in the way of what otherwise is a decently-composed original melody. But maaaaan, I got tired of the YNI motif after the fifth time listening. There isn't even a big break between the third listen and the fourth listen! A lot of bits about the soundtrack are so awkward and I'm not sure how anyone remotely thought this was a good idea. Kinda disappointing!

 

[Verger]

It's kind of depressing that this is the only place where Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze is going to get any accolades. Pretty shameful of the "games press" to have completely ignored it.

 

[Thoraxes]

Nice to see a lot of varied posts in here (and posts from people I've been poking a stick at for days to post in here ).

OMG THORAXES CAME THROUGH!! Yesssssssssssssss! I read half of the Layton/Wright portion while in post-preview but I need to post this before I lose it and GAF tells me that I need to refresh.

Haha, I didn't know what order to put stuff in so I figured I should just start writing and whichever I liked the most and wrote the most about I would just go with! I've been going at it for the past 4 hours trying to just get it all down!

Wow, I didn't even know this sort of work of his was available. Only heard the Imeruat stuff he has done outside of FF. Thanks for mentioning it.

If you ever need Hamauzu info or any of his other works just shoot me a message! I follow all of his works pretty intensively and really love his work outside of video games because he's a classically trained composer.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: It's David Wise returning to save video games, right? What more needs to be said? This is such a beautiful soundtrack. Picking songs is tough, but here are a couple of choices: Seashore War, Irate Eight (Tension) ` Lockjaw's Saga, Grassland Groove. It's just such a varied and incredible soundtrack overall. We're spoiled for choice. It's no surprise that this wound up being my favorite soundtrack of the year, but even still I think David Wise really outdid himself. While perhaps there's nothing on par with Stickerbush Symphony, it's an amazing soundtrack, and the sheer variety of it is pretty awe inspiring.
2. Bravely Default: Square can still do it. It's like Final Fantasy, but with its own style. So many great choices here, too. My favorite is definitely Wind's Course. I would use Agnes's special moves just to hear this playing. Also props to Infiltrating Enemy Territory and Baby Bird. This is one of the catchiest soundtracks in recent memory. There's a lot of music to hum along to here. I think this game hits a really perfect mix of catchy tunes and ambient themes.
3. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: They definitely nailed the feeling of the Persona 3 and 4 soundtracks. This music really gives me such a great feeling while I'm playing, and it does a great job of setting the tone. Light the Fire Up in the Night -Midnight Channel- was one of my favorite songs all year. You In Wonderland is also wonderfully atmospheric.

Honorable Mentions:
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: This falls a little short of my top 3, but the music was really great, and did a great job of creating the oppressive atmosphere of the game, as well as nailing the constant drama. Distrust and New World Order are definite stand outs. (Seriously, I now expect every dramatic moment in my life to have New World Order accompanying it).
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: On par with the first game, both with some reused tracks as well as some great new ones. Beautiful Ruin is one standout.

Really last minute here, so I apologize for my ballot being pretty crummy and thrown together. I'll try to do a better job next year.

 

[Dark Schala]

You all have a little more than three hours left to vote before voting closes.

Also glanced back and Papercuts shouldn't feel bad. I liked your list anyhow!

Haha, I didn't know what order to put stuff in so I figured I should just start writing and whichever I liked the most and wrote the most about I would just go with! I've been going at it for the past 4 hours trying to just get it all down!

No rush; you three hours left unless you need to get to bed.

 

[Sylverstone14]

Alright, here are my picks:

1.) Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
David Wise
Homecoming Hijinx
Scorch 'N' Torch
Aquatic Ambience

I was expecting a platformer that would have the gameplay that I would expect from a DKC title, but the music completely blew me away with how damn good it was. David Wise truly is a master of his craft. Nothing more I can really say than just wow.

2.) Bayonetta 2
Masami Ueda, Naofumi Harada, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Satoshi Igarashi, Hitomi Kurokawa, Takayasu Sodeoka, Rei Kondoh, Naoto Tanaka
Tomorrow is Mine
The Legend of Aesir
Noatun: The Church

2014 was my introduction to Bayonetta, and I didn't really consider the music that much, but after I played through the stories of both, I was surprised to find myself in the jukebox listening to these songs. Tomorrow is Mine is ridiculously catchy, and there were a lot of other awesome titles like Bayo2's rendition of Moon River.

3.) Hyrule Warriors
Masato Koike, Yuki Matsumura
Skyloft
Eclipse of the Sun
Twilight Field

I remember hearing the music for Hyrule Warriors first through GilvaSunner before I had a chance to play the game and... I didn't really find myself liking it as much. It really didn't feel like Zelda to me, despite the melodies... until I played the game. The music to me is rather context sensitive, as it marries the sounds of pulsating rock and metal-esque sounds to the world of Zelda, which was already being married to the over-the-top hack-and-slash gameplay of Dynasty Warriors. I felt that HW needed this Musou remix style in order to really satisfy me (the player) in the sense that am mowing down a bajillion baddies as Link, Impa, or whichever of the character cast, and that I feel like an absolute badass with backing tracks which exemplify just that.

___________________________

Also, thanks for the archiving OP. It may be a little lazy to just copy-paste, but somehow, you've managed to nail exactly what I needed to post.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
2. Mario Kart 8
3. Destiny

 

[Jintor]

Thanks for the comments.

I still need to digest most of this thread, including Dark Schala's lengthy post.

While on the topic of game music, Bayonetta 2's cover of "Moon River" is my single favorite track of the entire year and the one that got the biggest reaction out of me while playing a game, as I described a little in my GOTY post (basically, pure bliss). To me it captures the (peculiar) spirit of the game in a way few songs do for other games. Such a shame it plays basically two or three times in the +10 hour game.

The underuse of Moon River is criminal, especially compared to Bayo 1's use of Fly Me To The Moon which was practically synonmous with kicking the shit out of something in a gloriously joyful and skillful way

 

[doraemoe]

1. Child of Light
2. Shovel Knight
3. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
4. Super Smash Bros 4

 

[akachan ningen]

1. Persona Q
2. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
3. Race the Sun

I didn't play very many games this year...

 

[Cerberus]

1. Transistor
Old Friends
The Spine
Vanishing Point

2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Homecoming Hijinx
Scorch 'N' Torch
Seashore War

3. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Prime Suspect
Romance
Side Connection