Lately I've been on a Chrono Cross kick. I'll just throw the whole album on shuffle starting from 'Arni village' and just let it play itself out.
I'm looking for some other game albums where I can do the same thing. Preferably albums that don't just have one or two good songs. I'd rather have a consistently 'really good' soundtrack than a "meh" soundtrack with 3 GREAT songs.
Seconding Nier. The game's got like 3 OST's for a reason.
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes. Every single major character theme is amazing and really exemplifies the corresponding character perfectly. The new game, Utage, might also have some good music, but I haven't paid attention to it yet >_>
Golden Sun has some pretty good music all around; I'm a fan of the battle themes, but all of the music in general is really great for a GBA game and is some of Sakuraba's best works imho.
Gundam Musou 3 has instrumental versions of Gundam OP's and BGM that removes the Japanese voices and replaces it with guitar or something. A good example of the difference is comparing 00 Gundam's S2 theme and GM3 cover; if you like the newer version more, there's a good chance you'll like almost all the music from it. Most of it sounds pretty hot-blooded and there's not much mellow music, though, so it depends on what you want.
Street Fighter 4 (and obv SSF4 and AE) have some great character themes too. Every character has a different feel to their song, but the entire soundtrack in general is solid. Plus there's INDESTRUCTABLE in all its cheesy glory.
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"Duel audio? You mean like rap battles?" - termina_rzident KrahenProphet and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.
Ys 7 is the best this gen, so that. Legend of mana pretty much defines what you asked for there, as does symphony of the night. Gust games vary a bit, but mana kherlia and atelier Iris 3 are solid. Ditto for the ar tonelico games. Might also want to give xenosaga a chance to see how mitsuda evolved from chrono cross.
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Addendum: And I say this as a huge huge huge fan of CC. This is easily Yasunori Mitsuda's greatest work, taking an OST that was already good to an entirely different level. It defines beautiful in a way few things do.
Here are some samples: Blue Radiance - The Edge of Green - The Red Locus - Shadows Dance in the Darkness - Where the Wind and Feathers Return - An Earnest Desire of Grey -
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From: Princess Anri | #002 Aww yeah, I was born and raised in Arni village.
Yesss. There is no better starting point.
And I wish I could have it end on the same song each time too because then I'd take my favorite, People Imprisoned By Fate (also called 'Prisoners of Fate') for the ending song every time. But AFAIK there is no such thing as a "start on Song A, end on song B and randomize the rest of the songs in between" mode.
And thanks everyone for the suggestions!
I will probably learn towards picking up soundtracks to games I've played before, but some games are getting multiple noms and so I'll definitely bump those up on my list. And feel free to keep more suggestions coming.
From: agesboy | #005 Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes. Every single major character theme is amazing and really exemplifies the corresponding character perfectly.
Will the fact that I lack knowledge of these characters affect my enjoyment?
By the way, all the Nier soundtracks are available on iTunes if you're going that route. Get the original first. Or just use youtube like everyone else here probably is.
Half my music is from games, but I'm not as diverse about it as a lot of folks here so I dunno how much help I'll be.
Most Final Fantasy, Zelda and Mario titles all have rockin' tunes. Yeah, I know, stereotypical choices. But still.
Mitsuda continues to shine in Chrono Trigger and Xenogears, although I guess technically I should say he shone ever-onward into Chrono Cross. And Xenosaga's OSTs, the first of which was Mitsuda's doing, are quite good. Say what you will of the games themselves of course.
Xenoblade is a terrific recent OST from what I've heard. Nier too for that matter. And Harry Gregson-Williams added a lot of triumph to MGS2-4's OSTs, which isn't to say MGS1's was a slouch by any means either.
Tales of Legendia has great tunes. Same for Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Terranigma... lots of JRPGs just bust it out like nothin' else. Especially the older ones. Not feelin' it so much with some recent stuff, but yeah.
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"Something seems to be troubling Carth..." ~SCP~ http://img.imgcake.com/Jeffzeropngus.png
Basically what everyone else has said. I felt Skyward Sword had a really good soundtrack, even relative to other games in the series, and I don't think anyone has mentioned the Persona soundtracks either. (and presumably other SMT games the only one I have played is Nocturne though, which was a good soundtrack, but nothing incredible)
Will the fact that I lack knowledge of these characters affect my enjoyment?
Not really. I meant more that each character's theme is unique enough that you can get a feel for the characters' personality just by listening to their theme. I dunno, I like music that can cause free association like that the most.
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"Duel audio? You mean like rap battles?" - termina_rzident KrahenProphet and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.