The entire Etrian Odessy series is great.
I'll gladly second this. I was all but bouncing off walls when I found EO5's OST, as the FEF chat room could probably attest given that I went a wee bit silly with the links. I think EO5's
Empty Ringing, The Earth Splits gives the
original Raging Waves a run for its money. Actually, I think that I really loved EO3 most of all (the last game that carried that old-school "FM-synth" feel), with material like
Hoist The Sword With Pride In The Heart or
Their Own Brand of Justice for heart-pumping battles (
ping for EMD's version),
The Vengeful God In The Dark Ocean Abyss for that sense of imminent danger, or
Chalky Woods and
Cold Justice for calm or poignant moments, or perhaps
Great Voyage for setting out on a new journey. EO3 really shone in the remixes, though that's not probably germane to the thread.
That's not to say I disliked earlier games, though. After all, the true moment I fell in love with (rather than simply deriving mild enjoyment from) the series' music was with the original
Cherry Blossom Bridge, and the remake
stayed true to that (
both of them, actually, though Mystery Dungeon added a strong traditional flavour). More generally, Untold 2's OST was really quite lovely and I believe quite lived up to the original, with things like
Heavens' Rock Seat (
original),
Cherry Trees and Wings,
Woodlands of Frozen Flowers (which is somehow even better than the original),
Guardians of the Sorrowful Ice, the final battle set to
Heaven's Governor,
At The End Of The Labyrinth...and I'd better stop before I just link the entire Untold 2 OST. After all, Untold 1 also gives us its treatment of
Towering Pair which carries all the threat of the
original (...or at least the PC-88 version of the original; the original three games all came with three CDs put through different synthesizers) as well as the completely-new and evocatively-albeit-unimaginatively-named
The End Of The World. The original first game also adds
the Third Stratum and the Fifth Stratum, which I won't link because *plot reasons*. The fourth game can stir in
The Red Stone Forest or the nostalgic (for game vets)
Cerulean Woodlands to taste, with a side of
The Land Beyond The Clouds, along with
The Legend's Successor as it gradually builds up before bursting in.
Suffice to say, if I ever did an LP instead of an AAR, it'd be an EO game just to slip links to the OST and remixed songs (foxfactory!) into the posts. And because we've never had an EO LP make it past the first couple floors before. ^_^ Besides, overloading with one game series leaves aside so many other loves. For instance...
Chrono Cross. This was one of the first game OSTs I ever had to have for myself. I fell in love from the very moment of the
original game opening, but the rest of the game didn't disappoint. How could it, when it included the quiet and somewhat melancholic
Reminiscence,
At The Shore Of Dreams, or the nostalgic (for players of Chrono Trigger)
Chronomantic, or the
Dragon God.
Life ~Distant Promise~ should round it off for anyone who received the true end (spoiler:
when you use the battle system to play the first notes of the song in the final battle).
FF10, just because of '1000 Words'.
While I don't dislike Koda Kumi (actually, her work singing Real Emotion and 1000 Words was how I learned of her), 1000 Words was FFX-2.
Apropos of my rapidly-inflating post, though, FFX did give us
Suteki da ne. Actually, I must admit a fondness for the lyrical songs from FF8-FFX: Liberi Fatali, Eyes On Me, Melodies of Life, and Suteki da ne, to name a few. Hmmm, and one more from the franchise, just on a lark:
"It's time we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men!"Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. While I could go on forever on the SMT franchise alone, I think the Digital Devil Saga's OST ranks quite high with something of the...ah, I want to say something of a "rock" sensibility that seemed to appear in the first game, with a bit more techno for the second (I'm not so good with musical genres). As is traditional, the final boss delivers with
Hari-Hara, but especially that song's
Second Movement. One can also pull out the quiet menace of the
Spider's String (Second Movement). From 2, I'm not sure I can add much, but I can add the melancholy of
Inherent Will.
Breath of Fire 5: Dragon Quarter. This was a hugely divisive game, especially given that it was a radical break with the series in what had fundamentally been so conservative a franchise that it had never even changed the names of the main male and female protagonists (Ryu and Nina) in any of the five games. What it also gave us, though, was songs like
Maddening Spirit,
Time of Reunion (can you tell I'm a huge sucker for this kind of song yet?), and
Industrial Sector.
One more for huge nostalgia: Final Fantasy Legend 2. I loved this one for what it could do with the old GameBoy's onboard sound, plus the fact that it had a soundtest feature that I could use to just listen to the songs.
The Tranquil Earth,
Theme Of A New God, the mix of triumph and desperation of
Struggle To The Death, and
Save The World. I'd also link the ending theme, but it looks like it was broken on YT.
I...I think that's quite enough from me for now. Good heavens... ^_^
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Topic: Your favorite game soundtracks (Read 5523 times)