This game best functions as a music video and I"m a lot more favorable of it and it's rockstarisms with that in mind. It feels like Health tried to channel Michael Mann movies, especially Manhunter and Heat, when composing the soundtrack and I think it's quite successful as a pastiche. Has that gritty but slightly sentimental synth sound everyone loves. TEARS is obviously the centerpiece here, but PAINKILLER, THE GIRL, and SHELLS show the atmospheric potential of this potential style and it's kind of a shame not a lot of games outside maybe Hotline Miami go for this sound.

My favorite Nintendo soundtrack maybe? Besides just sounding excellent, my favorite thing about how sound works in Pikmin is how dynamic it is, how every sound - from the hup hup work humming of the Pikmin to the environmental noises - meld with the music to create a real sense of place and atmosphere. The ingenuity behind the way certain instruments switch in and out situationally is really genius and works as auditory storytelling.

But I also just love the way everything sounds. It's alien, quirky, and kind in many ways - the Main Menu music comes to mind as this kind of otherworldly, goopy sounding space theme that beckons and invites despite its oddities. It also can be quite beautiful or frightening as well, using things like music boxes and toy pianos to imbue this sense of intense discovery and despoiled innocence. It's really great and well-considered.

who fucking let this happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o47N-aYd08&t=12s

cute and consistent - i love how simple and decisive this soundtrack is. it plays with coffeeshop, bossa nova, and easy listening melodies really well, and centers the piano better than almost any other soundtrack i can think of. also love the way the guitar sounds on tracks like apt. 102. epic yarn is an easy, chill game and this soundtrack really fits that - it feels bespoke and tailormade for this game in a way a typical kirby soundtrack simply wouldn't have worked. plush and soft all around. flower fields, butter building, and snow land always stuck out to me here.

pasting from my final fantasy ost ranking:

Is this Yoko Shimomura's worst work? Maybe. Sounds completely misdirected. Sure it's not her fault. It's just beyond background music. No twinkle. No joy. I do like horrors of the night tho.

i'm fairly neutral on sakuraba as a composer - there's some stuff of his i love, especially some of his mario sports soundtracks (toadstool tour fucks) and resonance of fate, but his style, particularly for tales of, seems rather mercenary to me and kind of just suits whatever is needed for the project he's working on. i'm definitely more fond of tales of the abyss's soundtrack because of my own nostalgia for it, but i do genuinely think there's something a little more inspired here than some of the generic default fantasy tunes he cranks out for the series. abyss is such a mystic game and i think some of what is here fits that, even if there's a lot of throwaway stuff too. i'm very fond of the overworld theme for this game, it feels boisterous and kind of retro even for the time but also quite lush and informs the kind of rolling hills vibe of the countrysides of auldrant. there's also some fun corny metal stuff here that i love, embrace the cheese.

it must be said that Karma is an absolute fucking banger, one of the best rpg openings of all time. immaculate guitar, more of this plz

the soundtrack for lunatea's veil could outclass nearly any rpg out there. there's such a curious, thoughtful sound here, a storybook fairytaleness that permeates the whole body of work but also morphs into the playful or the dangerous as necessary. listening to it isolated from the game, it gestures towards a full, cohesive story. i think the lore of klonoa is quite inscrutable, there's some stuff that simply does not make sense or goes unexplained, and the way this game sounds really makes that worthwhile - it's mysterious and withholding in the best way. path of the goddess claire is so wistful for such an early game level, and all the carnival-y tracks for joilant somehow don't sound out of place but rather quite essential and sumptuous. love the steamy, industrial crunch of all the volk themes too. stepping wind is such a fucking awesome character theme and it's just complete nonsense. love it. goated ost for sure

while i think paper mario has the more iconic songs overall - toad town and star summit come to mind - the thousand year door does a lot to carve out its own sound distinct from the mother series and i think makes it the more standout work overall. what really sticks out to me is how crisp everything sounds here, almost like you're hearing it live, which fits the theatrical theme i love so much about this game. the tracks also have so many movements; rogueport comes to mind, which begins with this big, adventuresome moment as if stepping off a ship in a new, explorable world only to undulate into town's seedy underbelly before returning to the street with the looming threat of shysters still lingering nearby. these songs sound absolutely massive but still so so fun.

i've only played ikaruga, like, one time, but i did really enjoy how militaristic the soundtrack sounds. it really charges you with a certain confidence i think required to tackle a shmup - honestly if a shmup doesn't sound good what are we even doing here?? the rhythmic nature of the game is where all the fun's at!

pasting from my final fantasy ost ranking:

Has some of, if not the, most iconic themes in the game, with some truly canonical sounds and motifs. The soundtrack is largely quite good, but there's definitely a lot of throwaways here, partially because of how early in the PS2's life cycle this game came. Some of the sound quality suffers because of that. If we were going on the best tracks alone, it would easily top the list. The traditional Japanese folk influence, pared down acoustic guitar numbers, J-Pop and rock moments, and ethereal electronic piano give the game an eclectic sound, but it really works for the world of Spira and comes across as expressive. This game was composed by Uematsu, Hamauzu, and Nakano, which is part of why it comes across so eclectic. At its best it expresses a domesticity and world-weariness that is unparalleled, and has some ultimate level chill-out tracks as well as some of the most immediately heart-tugging. All of the diegetic music is also so awesomely displayed here. Spira feels like a musical world, perhaps only also represented in FF9 and a little of 8. It's more ethnographic of the people it represents than any other game here. I love all the retro organ-y numbers here, they really evoke the classic feeling of the franchise.

absolutely love that the composers for the yakuza series also did this. it has everything about sega soundtracks that i love, it's bombastic and youthful but also cool and jaunty. i think it lends itself to some of the isanity omnipresent in this game quite well. fucking love the ambient techno sound of under the ocean, i think that's overall my favorite track. clock tower's chilled out d&b also super sharp. overall just a collection of bangers.

i think, coupled with vlr, this may be my second most listened to game soundtrack after silent hill 3. like silent hill 3 i used 999's soundtrack for studying and driving long drives in college, it's interesting and dynamic but also chill enough to allow you to focus on another task while it's playing. shinji hosoe is a preeminent electronic producer for games, i absolutely love his work for custom robo, tekken, and xenosaga too - he takes clubby sounds to a deconstructive zone and really rails against how far he can stretch heightened emotions in his soundscapes.

obviously 999 an vlr's soundtracks have a lot of similarities but where vlr relies more on breakbeats and techno sounds, 999 is a lot closer to dark ambient and industrial pop. i only just slightly prefer vlr's if only because it's a little more energetic but 999's soundtrack is equally a masterwork. my favorite track is actually octal game (which plays in the library) despite it being a bit of the odd man out on the soundtrack - it really reminds me of mid-career autechre, has a real IDM-y sound to it. chill and rigor is obviously a standout here too, absolutely dread inducing every time it plays in the game

all i ever want to hear. the sound inside my head. extremely playful but also quite sophisticated and restrained in other ways. the church bells and harp on "fragmented dreams" say it all. i think "suburban museum" stands as maybe the best track here though, such a pied piper mood, really feels like you're following a jolly musician through a magical journey. great great great stuff

yutaka minobe is one of the most overlooked game composer greats. everything here is, as you might expect, quite epic and swashbuckling, but also tinged with an airiness and mechnical sound that makes it sound a bit desolate and scary too. this game has the distinction of having one of my absolute favorite battle themes, like, what a fucking banger the "Battle 1" is. the crescendos those strings eventually reach are so pulse-pounding. if I could compare this ost to anything it'd probably be koji kondo's work on ocarina of time and majora's mask, which is similarly sprightly and agile but hides a layer of darkness behind otherwise anthemic music.

yutaka minobe's other masterwork!!!

despite how few tracks there are in rule of rose, it's a strong contender for my favorite soundtrack of all time. it's so cohesive and tight and used with such a psychological hand - it can be distant and uncaring or deeply cruel and tragic. "Love Suicide" is achingly beautiful, Kaori Kondo's husky, almost paternal voice is haunting and the lyrics are shockingly stark about the game and its themes. The motif present in "Love Suicide" as well as "Bullying", "Cello Etude", and "Piano Etude I"/"Piano Etude II" is such an effective refrain, a constant reminder of the power of memory in the face of repression. really incredible stuff.

not part of the ost, but brenda lee's version of "Fly Me to the Moon" is irrefutably the best and i'm so glad they used it as the ending theme

I do think this ost very clearly had a ton of people working on it, but it manages to be pretty united in thought nevertheless. the super piano-y tracks like "Riders of the Light" are the best here, it occasionally almost dips into a Steely Dan-esque yacht rock place? the combo of jazz fusion, slut pop, and occasional choir or orchestral numbers really gives this game the vibe it has. divine and profane!

"Yoshi's Happy Song" is about as good as it gets. truly. the main theme, too! the way the yoshi choir is so out of sync and just off-key, it sounds so joyful and genuinely feels like a reverie.

this soundtrack is really, truly ingrained in the far reaches of my subconscious, every track is so hummable yet so sparsely composed. the gentle, flitting guitar on "The Riddle," the twinkling xylophone on "Mermaid's Tears"... what a weird, off-putting little soundtrack seemingly composed by little children left alone at a nursery. it's so great

did not know david wise did this soundtrack but it makes a ton of sense. i don't have a ton to say about this, i haven't played this game personally, but the tracks are really really chill which imo only benefits a fairly frustrating puzzle game. bol-dor's realm is a bop. he didn't have to go that hard

what can i say about this that hasn't already been said tbh.. like you know, i know, we all know. i will say besides the obvious favorites (que sera sera & lonely rolling star), i really enjoy gin & tonic & red red roses and katamaritaino. the former is such a fun little swing track and the latter only further shows this game's deep fascination with caribbean and bossa nova music. super chill and lovely.