OST Ratings

[Cmdr_King]

So, some crazy person reminded me of these.  Rather than kick up an old topic (much of which is in fact gone now from the pre-2008 board finally going down) or bothering meeple, we're just going to do a new one.

Besides, I wanted to simplify things.  I noticed a lot of "well I guess this song I already talked about" in multiple answers because there were lots of categories.  Wait, why am I talking about this.  TO THE MUSIC.

Our first victim will be Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy.  Lily may be unranked again, but we can still hype her game in other formats.  I'm not sure what sort of update schedule I'll run for this yet, if any.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy

Best Song Standalone:
Worst Song Standalone:

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game):
Worst Song In Context:

Overall Impression of OST:
Final Rating:

e: List of games covered (because I'm starting to forget)

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy
Final Fantasy VI
Radiant Historia
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Wild ARMs XF
Wild ARMs 3
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Xenogears
Valkyria Chronicles
Grandia II
Final Fantasy XIII
Valkyrie Profile
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Skies of Arcadia
Persona 4
Breath of Fire IV
NieR
Chrono Cross
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
Digital Devil Saga 2
Lost Odyssey
Final Fantasy VII
The World Ends with You
Suikoden III
Blue Dragon
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
*Final Fantasy X
*Bravely Default

[Meeplelard]

Damn you for stealing my format!

Jokes, props for bringing this back, and I'd totally participate if it weren't for the fact that I haven't played this game.

[SnowFire]

Best Song Standalone: Midsummer classroom.  This song is just plain infectious fun.  (Various remixes of the track are fine too, but this is the most iconic & best version.)
Worst Song Standalone: Nothing stood out as unusually bad.

I haven't played MK2, so no in-context rankings, it's just a video game music album to me (nerrrrrrd).

Overall Impression of OST: Solid, but a little too same-y.  Which is fine to a degree, it's setting a mood and keeping it, but a LITTLE more variety would have been appreciated.
Final Rating: 6/10.  One of Gust's weaker efforts, which is still pretty good; entirely listenable.  It's just that, pretty much all of MK1's battle themes are fantastic, and the only one in MK2 that seems to get close is Namensloes Licht.

[Dhyerwolf]

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy

Worst Song: The Intro

Skipping the other 3 parts because I don't remember.

Overall Impression of OST: MK 2's OST is funny because I loved the MK 1 OST so much. I have 14 songs from it on my computer, which I think may be the most I have from any game. So I was expecting a lot from MK 2's OST and unfortunately this was one place that I thought the game massively fumbled. While it wasn't actively bad, it was disappointingly uncatchy. Despite being the only I have bought that comes with the soundtrack...I don't have a single track on my computer. I knew it was going to bad when I heard the intro, which compared so badly to MK 1's

Final Rating: 2.5/10.

[Cmdr_King]

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy

Best Song Standalone:  Namenloses Licht.  It's just about the only song in the game worth remembering.
Worst Song Standalone: Nothing springs to mind.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game):  Tsunderella Honeymoon.  It so perfectly captures the idea of Raze's workshop being a house of madness.
Worst Song In Context: Victory jingle.  I dunno, had no weight to it.

Overall Impression of OST: Probably the weakest Gust OST I'm aware of.
Final Rating: 6/10.

[Dunefar]

Nice idea, CK. I hope to vote when you get to games I've played, keep it up.

[Sierra]

I'd contribute to this, but I have zero recollection of MK2's OST.

Gust OSTs generally break down accordingly: vocal tracks good, boss themes really good, everything else just lies there. But somehow all of MK2 is category C.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Glad to see this back, even if MK2 probably wasn't a very exciting or well-listened to soundtrack to begin things off with.

Best Song Standalone: One of the boss tracks, either Vanishing Mirage (Reicher / maybe others I didn't get that far) or Roar of Delirium (standard boss track)
Worst Song Standalone: dunno

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Probably the same as above, boss tracks tend to be good in context, but neither is exceptional.
Worst Song In Context: dunno

Overall Impression of OST: Very unmemorable. I'm not a huge Gust fan to start with from what I've heard of some of their stuff, just doesn't do much for me. They have some cool boss tracks here and there and this game is no different, but that's about it.
Final Rating: 4/10

[Cmdr_King]

Decision: Sunday updates, however, will give each OST two weeks to run before averaging score while putting up a new OST each week.  A staggered system.

So since some folks have expressed interest in something less new, let's try...

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone:
Worst Song Standalone:

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game):
Worst Song In Context:

Overall Impression of OST:
Final Rating:

[superaielman]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Dancing Madly or Terra. Both are great. I also dig the Tower of Fanatics, great mood piece.
Worst Song Standalone: Searching for Friends. *punt*

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Tower of Fanatics.  Dark World is quite bleak as well.
Worst Song In Context: Searching for Friends. God I hate that track.

Overall Impression of OST: Excellent. The music sets the mood, the themes are all generally very good and it uses the tracks well in game by not having the same few songs used over and over.
Final Rating: 9/10

[OblivionKnight]

Mana Khemia 2 is a blank, so...


Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Searching for Friends.  I disagree with Super a lot here - it's a good song that lives up to its name very well.  It emotes a feeling of longing and solitude, but also hope.  Works great in-game, and also out of game.
Worst Song Standalone: Metamorphosis.  Just...blah.  Alone it doesn't do anything.  Runner up is Omen, the intro song.  I just don't like the intro, and it doesn't really do anything, with or without the game context.  The part of this that plays at the start of Dancing Mad fits well...just the intro portion feels off.  Maybe this is partly association with the final battle theme, but...

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Daryl's Epitaph (plays for Daryl's tomb, when descending the stairs to the airship).  Always loved the mood this set.
Worst Song In Context: Battle.  I hate the battle theme to FF6.  It just gets on my nerves.  I would kill to replace it with almost anything else.  It never feels like it fits.  Definitely one of the games I enjoyed skipping battles just to avoid the damn theme.

Overall Impression of OST: This is an excellent OST.  It really hits all moods, all varieties. CHARACTER THEMES too, which need to come back in greater glory these days.
Final Rating: 10/10.  My criteria for this really is something that hits the right moods, that is fun to listen to, and brings back great memories, which is what music should do.  It has like 3 tracks that are weak, and they're still not bad.  Love the fact each character has a theme, and love the complete package of each song.

[SnowFire]

I should probably add that on a "scaled" scoring that aimed to have a bell curve of soundtracks by how much I like 'em topping out at 5.5 (which isn't how I think soundtracks are actually distributed), Mana Khemia 2 would probably be a 3 or 4.  However, I'm ranking 'em like games, so 6 it is; it's still eminently listenable and has its moments, even if it's lacking in "totally awesome vocal / boss tracks" that Gust sometimes nails.

--

Best Song Standalone: Terra (WoB Overworld).  Honorable mention: Dancing Mad.
Worst Song Standalone: Metamorphosis?  (The "escape" music.)

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Kefka's theme.  Really helps sell the character.  Honorable mentions: Under Martial Law, a song that does some very fine "occupied town" work, and the opening snow march music, nice & foreboding.
Worst Song In Context: Battle.  It's okay, but doesn't really hold up for the piece that gets played the most often.

Overall Impression of OST: Fantastic for the SNES...  except for the battle & boss battle themes, which is unfortunately a pretty significant hit.  I mean, they're fine, but they're among Uematsu's weakest, Dancing Mad excepted.  Atma Weapon battle is okay, at least.  Still, this is nitpicking, lots of utterly random pieces on the soundtrack could easily have been the best pieces in a weaker soundtrack (Kefka's Tower, Thamasa/Strago, even the Ragtime interlude music....  all solid and well-done and memorable, and they're "median" pieces.)

Final Rating: 9/10.

[NotMiki]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Terra's Theme.  Also like every song on the soundtrack.  I'm picking it because it's the one I liked best when I first played the game, but the Coin Song, Phantom Forest, Celes' Theme, Grand Finale?!...there's a lot to love.
Worst Song Standalone: Techno de Chocobo.  I hates it.  Those stupid siren things are like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Best Song In Context: Boy this is a toughie.  Celes' Theme.  Kefka's Theme and Gau's Theme get honorable mentions.  The soundtrack is overwhelmingly good in context.
Worst Song In Context: Metamorphosis.  Not dramatic in the way it needed to be.  The intro in particular just sounds kinda corny.

Overall Impression of OST: It is difficult to imagine a better soundtrack - or one better suited to its game.
Final Rating: 10/10.

[Meeplelard]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Hmm...going with Terra's theme today.  Hard to pick just one.
Worst Song Standalone: Dark World.  Even with context, the song just lacks anything.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Searching for Friends, specifically right when you get the Falcon.  Sets the mood perfectly of "renewed hope" and seems custom made for animation as well.
Worst Song In Context: I guess Johnny C Bad; doesn't really fit anytime its used, just kind of there...

Overall Impression of OST: It was hard to pick songs because so many good options, at least for the positive ones!
Final Rating: 9.5/10.  Can't say I'd give it a 10/10 because there are a few key stinkers (Dark World), so yeah.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Best Song Standalone: Terra (even if that is a terrible title for the track). See Meeple. Honourable mentions to the four battle themes (all great).
Worst Song Standalone: Dark World. It has some in-context use for setting a dark, forboding setting, but that is not enjoyable to listen to outside that.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Searching for Friends. Honourable mentions: Devil's Lab, Celes, Kefka, Forever Rachel, Under Martial Law, The Day After, Metamorphosis, etc.
Worst Song In Context: Johnny C Bad gets grating very fast. Techno de Chocobo probably also deserves note for being likely the worst chocobo theme in the series.

Overall Impression of OST: Yeah, it's been said, this is one of the greats. I really love how there are such strong character leitmotifs permeating the game. It also made the part of the ending theme that was a medly of all of them very powerful and effective. For several years that was actually my favourite video game song.

Random comments: I'm surprised at the hate for Metamorphosis; that's very possibly a top ten track in the game for me. Found the part where it plays during the FC escape pretty chilling in particular, and I really dig how it's a dark remix of Terra which sends off the World of Balance.

Final Rating: 9.5/10. Not quite perfect, SNES sound quality has its limitations, and there are a few tracks I actively don't like. But pretty damn close.

[jsh357]

Best Song Standalone: Ending Theme.  A lot of it's just the fact that something like this was composed for a game released in 1994, but even aside from that I find it incredibly emotional and don't dislike any section, from the leitmotif medley to the Setzer section to the Final Fantasy section.

Worst Song Standalone: Techno de Chocobo.  It was the first Chocobo theme I heard and I liked it then, but after hearing the others this one really starts to grate.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Almost all of them, but I'll go with the opera pieces as one thing.  It's a real standout moment in the game where the music gets highlighted (and definitely deserves to be).
Worst Song In Context: Johnny C Bad. 

Overall Impression of OST: For many years I thought of it as the best video game soundtrack, and it's still in the top 5 for me.  It was the first game I played that I fell in love with the music for and I still listen to it today.  Almost every track is memorable and makes great use of the SNES soundfont.

Final Rating: 10/10

[Cmdr_King]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone:  Terra.
Worst Song Standalone: After looking up Johnny C Bad because people kept talking about it... yeah.  Not terrible but quickly very grating.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): I'd love to say Maria and Draco, buuuut that's really all in arranges (check out Distant Worlds).  Celes' theme itself is used well though.
Worst Song In Context:  Decisive Battle.  It'd make a good hurry theme, but for the primary boss track?  Total letdown.

Overall Impression of OST:  Strong argument for Uematsu's best work.  I'd probably put FFVII above it, but yeah.
Final Rating: 8/10

[Dunefar]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Dancing Mad. Not much of FF6's OST stands out to me in retrospect. That one's easily the best standalone because of that.
Worst Song Standalone: Spinach Rag. This one annoys me like nothing else. Terrible song.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Dark World. I like Dark World on its own merits. When it fits in context? Wow. It sets the mood for the World of Ruin like nothing else.
Worst Song In Context: The Veldt. The drums don't do the whole wild world for me.

Overall Impression of OST: Good but not great? There's not much I dislike on the OST, yet I struggle to really like most of it. It's sort of a pleasant above-adequacy.
Final Rating: 6.5/10 (7/10 if you aren't doing partial ratings, CK.)

[Luther Lansfeld]

Best Song Standalone: Terra's Theme
Worst Song Standalone:

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Terra's Theme
Worst Song In Context:

Overall Impression of OST:
Final Rating: 9/10 fuck yeah

[Cmdr_King]

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy.  5 raters, 5.5 average score.

New OST!

Radiant Historia:

Best Song Standalone:
Worst Song Standalone:

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game):
Worst Song In Context:

Overall Impression of OST:
Final Rating:

[Dark Holy Elf]

Radiant Historia

Best Song Standalone: Mm... let's go with Edge of Green, today. The exciting boss fights in the game almost exclusively get the other boss track, The Red Locus, so part of me definitely has more affection for that... but despite that Edge of Green leads my play counts, so it must be doing something right. That said there's lots of good candidates for this one.
Worst Song Standalone: unsure

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Mechanical Kingdom (theme of Alistel). A beautiful piece which really brings the moody, mechanical town to life.
Worst Song In Context: unsure

Overall Impression of OST: Very good. There are strong shades of LoM in this soundtrack, and LoM's one of my favourites. Hard to really point at anything this OST does wrong, outside it being a bit repetitive, especially for cutscenes where it feels like there are only five or so different tracks.
Final Rating: 8.5/10.


I'm bad with "worst songs" unless I am incredibly familiar with the OST, I think.

[SnowFire]

Best Song Standalone: All 3 of the big battle themes are fantastic (if looping a wee bit too quickly).  I'll say Red Locus, but Edge of Green & An Earnest Desire of Grey are right there with it.
Worst Song Standalone: Unending Clear Blue Sky (=Aht's theme).  It's not awful but a little TOO generically perky, like eating musical sugar stix.  Honorable mention: A Dream Seen in the Sandstorm, aka Cygnus music.  It's yon generic desert town theme, whatever.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Sure, I'll go with Elf's nod of Mechanical Kingdom.  Where the Wind and Feathers Return gets special credit for "sad" music done very beautifully though, which is normally the kind of piece that is very hard to stand out with.  Boss battle themes are excellent as already noted of course.
Worst Song In Context: A few songs get overplayed, but not to the extent it seems fair to punish the song itself for (e.g. Beyond the Wilderness).  And the only two songs which I'm not a fan of noted above fit perfectly into their context, so no nomination here.

Overall Impression of OST: Fantastic.  Shimomura's still got it.  The only problem is I'm greedy and there's not enough of it, so some pieces get overplayed, and many of the songs feel like they loop a little earlier than they needed to.  Give me more!
Final Rating: 9/10. 

(Getting a 10/10 either would require a larger soundtrack - I'm impressed at the ability to maintain high quality over more tracks - or a few more totally awesome epic memorable pieces.  Since Legend of Mana was already ranked in the previous thread, yes, I'd give that one a 10/10.  Also, check out the Radiant Historia piano arranges if you ever want something calming in the background while working, they're also great.)

[Cmdr_King]

Radiant Historia:

Best Song Standalone: Red Locus.  Just good stuff.
Worst Song Standalone: Nothing I noticed.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game):  Where the Wind and Feathers Return.  RH is a game with a fairly thin PC cast, but something about this song really got me invested in silly things like Raynie's romance subplot and the like.
Worst Song In Context:  Dreams Showed by a Cloud of Dust.  The Cygnus theme.  Very generic.

Overall Impression of OST:  Not Shimomura's best work.  There's some quality tracks here, but not as many as the top tier albums.  The recycling issue is pretty glaring, OST is too small for the game.
Final Rating: 8/10.

[Grefter]

I am disappointed you didn't post your response immediately on RH given rampant fanboyism.

I am also disappointed we will never do Zombies because no one else listens to the soundtrack and I haven't even played the game.

[SnowFire]

Zombies OST: I tried to listen to it once because Grefter was hyping it.  Then I got bored and stopped.  1/10.

(There, done.)