OST Ratings

[Dark Holy Elf]

Bravely Default

Best Song Standalone: Hmm. Still a bit early to say, but checking my playlist the Wicked Fight/Wicked Flight duo leads the way. I really like those two and the two main boss tracks (asterisk bearers and regular bosses). Funnily enough early in the game I was a bigger fan of That Person's Name but as I heard them repeatedly I came to be more of a fan of At the Battle's End. Still they're all great. The other two boss themes (penultimate form 1 and final) are solid as well, and most of the major town themes are very nice. Eisenberg's a good choice and hell it's undoubtedly my least favourite of the four, with Land of Radiant Flowers fighting it out with Land of Eternity for the lead there.
Worst Song Standalone: shrug

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Everything from the previous list, throw in the airship theme as well. Also the theme of the Council of Six. It's not a great track because it takes a while to get going, but this works really well for cutscenes in-game when the awesome part -does- kick in.
Worst Song In Context: Yeah the game really overuses its dungeon themes; those work. Did -any- dungeon even have unique music? Not even the final did IIRC... definitely made dungeons feel very repetitive past a certain point (BD repetition joke goes here).

Overall Impression of OST: 'sgood. Definitely has a unique feel to it; I was certain almost immediately it was by a composer I hadn't heard before.
Final Rating: 8/10

[DjinnAndTonic]

Out of curiosity, where do most of you guys listen to your ost? You all seem so wel versed in the titles of nearly every track and I'm not always sure which songs you're talking about. Do you buy the ost on iTunes? Download em?

Whenever I really like a game soundtrack I usually just end up cherry picking the tracks that stood out and just find a few on YouTube. When I played fewer games, it was easy to just learn the track names of the ones I liked and I just mixed them in with all my other music. Now the only time I listen to a full ost is if nearly every track is amazing and I outright buy the whole thing so I rarely know the tracknames. Like NieR or Soul Nomad. Older games like Chrono Cross and FF7 only get remembered for being some of the first games with ost I noticed.

I suppose I could just start buying all music on iTunes but I'm still turned off by the idea that I might lose access to all my music should I ever change phone carriers.

[Cmdr_King]

Outside of Final Fantasy, very few game OSTs, at least for RPGs, are available on iTunes.  And yes I looked.  There are some rather stellar arrangement albums though.

I was actually in the habit of hitting up youtube on school days and listening to the entire OST for most games before posting about them, which is why it typically took me a week to do so.  Beyond that, for older games I have a decent pile of game songs I've built up over the years, so for stuff I really like I just know the name of it by default.

[DjinnAndTonic]

One thing I should prolly mention while I'm on the subject. Lately, the only games whose soundtracks I bother with are the ones that I play alongside reading an LP. Usually the LPers add lots of links to in-game music and sometimes that's even downloadable, so it's a convenient time to just pick up the good tracks. This is how I ended up with nearly the entire Radiant Historia OST on my computer....

Just another of the great benefits of playing JRPGs w/ a proper LP at your side.

[SnowFire]

Some of us are old-fashioned to 2005-era tactics of downloading Bittorrents of game music - "game mp3s" if you will. 

Of course, you should only do this if you own the soundtrack legitimately and merely are too lazy to rip it. 
Or at least own the game itself.   
Or can't purchase the CD legitimately without import - which doesn't apply to you, you're in Japan!  Go buy some!  ...although I was just looking myself and yeesh, some soundtracks really do have it out for your wallet, especially the ones that come on multiple CDs.  Ar nosurge follows the tradition of the other Ar tonelico games of having the soundtrack & vocal CDs separate so you can pay twice or thrice, I see.  I did pick up ~100 USD worth of random music legally though, so hey, doing my part.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Ah ah! I see what you did there.

Also... it's not that I wouldn't mind owning some game OSTs (I do own quite a number of them, particularly N1 and Suikoden ones, with an assortment of others)....

But well... how do I say this? I don't really have a CD player. I used to have one in my car that occasionally got some use when I had a long commute, but game OSTs tend to be multidisc affairs and I rarely want to listen to all 120 tracks or whatever from a single game at once....

[SnowFire]

Yeah well the original purpose of iTunes was a giant library to rip all CDs to disc, and Windows Media Player / lots of other software will do it, too.  Then you stick it in your iPod or portable music library of choice and you're good to go.  Most modern cars have USB ports and other easy ways to plug in whatever music you want too.  (not that I use this myself of course, not driving, but I have friends who do...)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Personally I just download tracks I like after some YouTube previewing (or sometimes entire soundtracks depending on my mood) and stick 'em on my computer + MP3 player.

[Cmdr_King]

Bravely Default

Best Song Standalone: That Person's Name Is.
Worst Song Standalone: A Crystals Sparkle.  Such a pile of blah.  It's okay for the 15 seconds you hear it in-game after each crystal but... yeah.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): That Person's Name Is.  Yeah, can't knock it.
Worst Song In Context: Infiltrating Hostile Territory.  Of the overused dungeon themes, it's the one that grates most over time.

Overall Impression of OST: A lot of the intro and ending stuff arranges the battle themes, and all that stuff's just great.  But when it comes time for all the other pesky tracks an RPG needs it's just... there. 
Final Rating: 8/10.

[jsh357]

I use shady means.  Honestly, if they aren't going to make the soundtracks easily available I see no reason to support them.  I have bought several game OSTs in the past, though (CC, Nier, Earthbound).  Playasia has some good prices from time to time.  One day I hope to find the Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites at a non-ridiculous price.