OST Ratings

[Niu]

Valkyrie Profile

Best Song Standalone: Too many to list. To the Last Drop of my Blood is what came to mind first.
Worst Song Standalone: None. There are negligible tracks, but nothing that'll induce hate.

Best Song In Context: Behave Irrationally.
Worst Song In Context: None.

Overall Impression of OST: No bad synth? No bad brass? No done to death boring Sakuraba melody? Hell yes! 9/10

[Dhyerwolf]

One current ranking and one to drag down the average:

Valkyrie Profile:

10/10
Best Song: Sky Gate and To the Last Drop of my Blood are probably my favorite two. Half a dozen others are around here though.
Best Song in game: Sky Gate.

Love this. Not to say every piece is flawless, but it fit the game so well and there are so many songs on it I loved. Dungeon OSTs especially tended to be my favorite. And for people who say they don't really hate Sakaruba much, I think that's probably not playing too many Tales. If you listen to relatively little Sakaruba and this is one of the OSTs you have listened to, it comes off a lot better. Not that Tales OSTs are even bad, just usually cookie cutter.

FF13: 3. Well, I do like the main battle theme? The problem? I think the main theme was annoying to a slight degree and a lot of the other stuff was filler to me. I thought I liked this better until I listened to it again and then I realized that it was mostly a combo of ambient noise and vague annoyance.

[Cmdr_King]

Valkyrie Profile- 8 raters, 8.25 average score.

Skies of Arcadia

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:

[Talaysen]

Skies of Arcadia

Best Song Standalone: Last Battle (Opportunity)

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Last Battle (Opportunity).  The other battle themes worked really well too.

Final Rating: 8.5/10

[Cmdr_King]

Skies of Arcadia

Best Song Standalone: Main Theme.
Worst Song Standalone:  I could swear there's one of the town or dungeon themes I actively dislike but it's been so long I can't remember it.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Credits.  A young boy had a dream.  A young girl had passion.  A mysterious stranger had a mission.  And the world will forever know their story.  As long as there are dreamers who have the courage to pursue their dreams, the world will have heroes.  And as long as there is thirst to discover the unknown, there will be new stories to tell... and new adventures to be had.
Worst Song In Context: The main battle theme.  It's very stately and has a lot of windup and... yeaaah no the game has lots of random battles, not usually long ones.

Overall Impression of OST: SoA very much is its OST, and the game and music are hard to separate from each other.  At the same time, only a handful of major standouts and being a pretty big game, there's similarly a lot of songs that are there to play their roles and are pretty forgettable out of the moment.
Final Rating: 7/10.

[superaielman]

Skies of Arcadia

Best Song Standalone: Great Silver Temple's great, as is Main Theme.
Worst Song Standalone: n/a

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Rameriz's theme. Just always really dug this one, even if it's just meant to be a general forboding theme. Ice Dungeon's also up there, it's a pretty good mood piece.
Worst Song In Context: n/a

Overall Impression of OST: Cmdr's comments echo my own, though I find the game has more outstanding tracks. Ramriez's theme, the main theme, and great silver temple are all on my MP3 player.  The game's OST does a fantastic job of calling specific memories and fights, which is a sign it did it's job.
Final Rating: 9/10

[SnowFire]

Fire Emblem: Awakening

All of the battle themes I'm including both the standard & Ablaze versions.

Best Song Standalone: Conquest, Divine Decree, "Don't speak her name!", Chaos.
Worst Song Standalone: Training.  Eh, don't like the vs. random SpotPass teams battle.  The "serious" support conversation music is kinda boring as well (Even if fitting in context), but maybe that's just overexposure.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Id (Return) -> Id (Purpose), "Don't speak her name!", Id (Hope), "Agh!  Won goph in mah mouph! Blech!  Phoeey!" (aka comedic support conversation / Vaike / Lissa shenanigans music)
Worst Song In Context: Nothing really.  Training again?

Overall Impression of OST: Fantastic.  Great combat themes, I loved the regular version - which fits the strategic thought part of the game - into the Ablaze versions to get pumped up and make the fights more intense.  One of the best ideas I've seen in this kind of a strat-RPG, it's much better than the likes of FE9/FE10 which switched to a separate battle theme.  Most of the out-of-combat music is great too, which is amazing - good support themes, the Anna shop theme is funny, the overworld music is fine, etc.  And then for plot-wise, "Don't Speak Her Name" makes Emmeryn plot better, and the various "Id" themes makes Avatar plot better than it should be as well.  As far as slightly cheesy "believe in your friends" -> epic battle scenes goes, FEA has one of the best, largely thanks to the soundtrack.  The music is definitely one of the key reasons I found FEA far more replayable than other Fire Emblems, it's great.
Final Rating: 9/10

[Dark Holy Elf]

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Best Song Standalone: Don't you dare mock my sister's words
Worst Song Standalone: *shrug*

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Don't you dare mock my sister's words
Worst Song In Context: *shrug* Maybe one of the tracks for supports, I found those kinda weak on average.

Overall Impression of OST: It has a very clear star song in my mind, which lends an incredible emotional weight to that part of the game which I think might have been largely absent otherwise. Nothing else really compares. Having said that, this is no insult to the rest of the OST which is very good. I strongly second Snowfire's comments about the two variations on each battle theme and what a great effect it has. In particular, "Fate" (the standard battle theme against military opponents) and "Destiny" (the major battle theme) are very solid tracks which make excellent use of this effect. Tiki's theme is also solid. Boss battle themes are decent enough too.
Final Rating: 8.5/10. Very much the best FE soundtrack, yes.

[Cmdr_King]

Fire Emblem: Awakening- 3 raters, 7.83 average rating.

Persona 4

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]

Persona 4

Best Song Standalone: Heaven
Worst Song Standalone: Uh. Mmm. Velvet room theme? I didn't care for the remix of it in this game.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Reach out to the truth.
Worst Song In Context: n/a

Overall Impression of OST: Catchy, succeeds at doing vocals well enough.  Your affection/Heaven/Reach out to the truth are all favorites.
Final Rating: 8.5/10

[DjinnAndTonic]

Quick catch-up again:

Skies of Arcadia: 4.5 overall - good ambience, but nothing I would listen to outside of the game. And I often found myself turning off the sound while exploring, so that's not a good sign.

Fire Emblem Awakening: 7 - Some good tracks (Id, anything that plays during a Lucina scene) and a bunch of forgettable but serviceable tracks.

Persona 4: 9.5 - Actually has stuff I would listen to outside of the game. Can get repetitive in-game, but it's just so vastly -different- than most video game music that I really love it. Particular hype for "Heaven".

[Grefter]

Persona 4 - 7/10 its good in the way that most SMT stuff is.  Good when they do rock, bad when its being pop.

[Cmdr_King]

Persona 4

Best Song Standalone: I'll Face Myself -Battle-.  Rock out and such.
Worst Song Standalone: Who's there?  Generic MYSTARY track is generic.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Borderline of Madness.  There might be a few better tracks, but but this one nails the "building tension, unavoidable climax" note so damn well.  Although I should probably give a nod to Game as well.
Worst Song In Context: The Genesis.  The two part, SoA-style dynamic song is perfect for the final battle... but it's not used that way.  It plays the whole damn song once through then loops.  So dumb.

Overall Impression of OST: I'm having trouble rating this.  See, I want to say "well, there's a lot of great tracks and even the lesser tracks are kinda okay", but I think that's not really true so much as the poppy town music in this game is so much better than the equivelent Persona 3 tracks that I'm badly overrating them by comparison.  Like no, P3's OST is so bad guys.  YOu don't even know.  Still, there's definitely some great stuff here.
Final Rating: 7/10.

[NotMiki]

*cough*

Xenogears

Best Song Standalone: June Mermaid
Worst Song Standalone: Stage of Death - those intro chords just grate so much.

Best Song In Context: Light from the Netherworld - it's a pretty great intro.  Fuse is also used to great effect
Worst Song In Context: Stage of Death

Overall Impression of OST: A lot of good stuff, not a lot of great stuff.  Soundtrack works very, very well in-game.  The whole thing has such a sense of place.  Major demerits for literally the worst music in the game being the one that is played the most.

Final Rating: 7.5

Grandia II

Best Song Standalone: Granasaber - a proud encapsulation of the game.  I am also a big fan of Purification Of Darkness ~ Battle With The Parts

Worst Song Standalone: The Ones Hidden Within The Darkness.  Bad Synth is Bad!

Best Song In Context: Despair and Hope, hands down.  Plays during Millenia's speech following the fight with the Eye of Valmar.  A soupy melody in a minor key followed by the same melody repeated in a major key is the tackiest thing in the world UNLESS it accompanies a scene genuinely dramatic enough to justify it, at which point it is the best thing.  And the game nails it.

Worst Song In Context: the Moon of Valmar - always seemed not dramatic or serious or cool or something enough.

Overall Impression of OST: Nuance?  What's that?  Here in Grandia 2 land we are all about earnest, straightforward harmonies filled with joie de vivre!  It's a shame the valleys on this OST are as deep as the peaks are high.  There's just no forgiving some of that synth.

Final Rating: 7.5 because I'm always willing to reward the very good more than I am willing to penalize the very bad.

Final Fantasy XIII

Best Song Standalone: The Sunleth Waterscape.  Best version of the main theme, which is saying a *lot*.
Worst Song Standalone:[00:56] <+NotFreud> holy shit doesn't FFXIII have ANY bad music?

Best Song In Context: Prelude, maybe.  All of it?  Can I just say all of it?
Worst Song In Context:[01:07] <+NotFreud> Chocobos of Cocoon.  theeere we go.

Overall Impression of OST: A stunning accomplishment of consistent high quality.
Final Rating: 9.5/10.  I'm not sure I can justify not giving it a perfect score.  Objectively it's that good but somehow I just can't put it on the same level as FF6.


Valkyrie Profile

Best Song Standalone: Um.
Worst Song Standalone: Between the water, Wind, and Light.  Please, it is ok to be in tune.  Really.

Best Song In Context: Dream Scar.  Maybe.  The soundtrack is at its best every time a menacing boss shows up.
Worst Song In Context: I...really don't think there IS any music that is bad in context.  There are kinda bad contexts, tho.

Overall Impression of OST: I always found this OST to be needlessly dreary.  A less interesting, less upbeat SO2.  I can accept that the gloom, decay, ennui is called for by the oppressive atmosphere of the world.  I find I just don't enjoy a lot of it.  All the same, I recognize it is one of Sakuraba's best, a soundtrack blessed by oddball idiosyncrasies, where he really let his freak flag fly.  This and SO2 combined make Sakuraba's parade of relentlessly boring Tales soundtracks tough to swallow.
Final Rating: 6.5/10

Persona 4

Best Song Standalone: Pursuing My True Self barely edges Heaven here.  Mist?
Worst Song Standalone: Theme of Junes

Best Song In Context: Signs of Love/Heartbeat, Heartbreak
Worst Song In Context: Who's There?

Overall Impression of OST: Perhaps it is because I just listened to the VP soundtrack that I am mentioning this but I have always loved the P4 soundtrack's percussive precision. Signs of Love and Heaven really exemplify what I love about it - both are at a restrained tempo.  Self-assured.  They arrive when they mean to.  The only thing that really detracts on the soundtrack is some of the dungeon themes, Sauna and Theater in particular.  You a lot of time in those dungeons, and those short repeating tracks make it seem a lot longer.

Final Rating: 9/10

[Cmdr_King]

Skies of Arcadia: 4 raters, 7.25 average.

Breath of Fire IV

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:

[Cmdr_King]

Breath of Fire IV

Best Song Standalone: Endings and Beginnings.
Worst Song Standalone: Nonono.  Just an unpleasant little song.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Dragon's Blood.  Y'know, I forgot this song until I pulled up an OST for this post, but I kinda feel bad about that now because listening to it I know where it's played in game and it's pretty great for it.  Good show.
Worst Song In Context: First Emperor Fou-lu.  I get what they were going for but I don't think it was the mood they should have been using, if that makes sense.

Overall Impression of OST: Amazingly bland soundtrack.  I don't have much good to say about it.  But it's not actively terrible, just... ehh.
Final Rating: 4/10.

[SnowFire]

Skies of Arcadia
I don't actually have the whole soundtrack.  It's good in-game but I never particularly wanted to listen to much of it out of game - e.g. the air-to-air ship battle music is perfectly decent and stately for maintaining tension & excitement in a drawn-out tactical affair, but eh at out of context.  Also, I kinda disagree with Tal that the battle music was in general good, but I also disagree with CK that the regular battle theme was bad - although I suppose there's two, so maybe we're talking about different ones.  Theair regular battle theme was rather excellent, I always thought - it actually goes somewhere.  However, the town & dungeon music is all fitting but a tad bland.  So...

Rating: 6/10

--

Persona 4

Best Song Standalone: I'll Face Myself -Battle-. Honorable mention: Mist.  Honorable mention for the best J-Pop of the various J-pop tracks: Heartbeat, Heartbreak.
Worst Song Standalone: Zone Time.  Random electronica backbeat & nothing else, I half wonder if it was a mistake to include it in the soundtrack at all.  Who's there? the runner-up as far as "actual music that is meh."  Backside of the TV isn't great either and kind of random for the context it's used - odd dungeon prep music.

No particular difference for in-context, especially since in-context is second-hand for me as well.  Extra credit for the rarity of a lyrical regular battle theme that doesn't get old and is awesome in Reach Out to the Truth.

Overall Impression of OST: I'm not really a fan of a lot of other Meguro's stuff, but dang if he didn't nail it with this soundtrack.  P3's soundtrack so horrible, P4's so good, what the hell.  The dungeon music is pretty interesting & different, too, and all the event stuff is appropriately foreboding & creepy.  There's a few meh pieces which hold it back, and I'd question my Americanness if I gave the J-Pop TOO high a score, but it's dang good.
Rating: 8/10

[NotMiki]

Breath of Fire IV

Best Song Standalone: How Long Will the Rain Last.  I like to play this when it rains.  True story.
Worst Song Standalone: Pabu-pabu Puka-puka.  just. grates.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Truth and Dreams. (sorry ~ A Man ~.)  Lovely and wistful, a lovely version of the main theme used to great effect.  Just listening to it reminds me of how well the characters and their private struggles sustain a long and sometimes wandering game.
Worst Song In Context: Tototon Toton To (the fishing song.)

Overall Impression of OST: I like this OST a lot more than it maybe deserves, because although there's a lot that doesn't appeal to me, it fits the game like a glove.  The fight and dungeon music never really clicked with me, but pretty much all the town music is stellar - and how often can you say that about a game?  Also, every version of the main theme is lovely.   

Final Rating: 7.5

[Dark Holy Elf]

Breath of Fire IV

Best Song Standalone: Men of War, although the entire suite of western ("eastern" in our world, haha) battle themes (this, A Warring God, A Raging Emperor's Banquet) are stellar. I'll give the nod to Men of War though, since it's in the running for my favourite normal battle theme period.
Worst Song Standalone: I imagine that pabu-pabu puka-puka track would indeed qualify.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): And yet the Merchants will Go... (Synesta theme). What Jim said about this game's town music, really.
Worst Song In Context: *shrug*

Overall Impression of OST: It has some great town themes, and as mentioned I really love the western battle themes (by contrast, the more traditional eastern-continent battle themes largely fell flat for me). And of course "~ A Man ~" is great fun. Dungeons it's not generally at its best (although I like Brave Heart pretty well). Odd soundtrack, but it went for a certain style of sound and generally pulled it off.
Final Rating: 7.5/10. Not one of the greats, but still one I like, and certainly the best BoF for soundtrack.

[Grefter]

Breath of Fire IV

Best Song Standalone: Men of War, although the entire suite of western ("eastern" in our world, haha) battle themes (this, A Warring God, A Raging Emperor's Banquet) are stellar. I'll give the nod to Men of War though, since it's in the running for my favourite normal battle theme period.
Worst Song Standalone: I imagine that pabu-pabu puka-puka track would indeed qualify.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): And yet the Merchants will Go... (Synesta theme). What Jim said about this game's town music, really.
Worst Song In Context: *shrug*

Overall Impression of OST: It has some great town themes, and as mentioned I really love the western battle themes (by contrast, the more traditional eastern-continent battle themes largely fell flat for me). And of course "~ A Man ~" is great fun. Dungeons it's not generally at its best (although I like Brave Heart pretty well). Odd soundtrack, but it went for a certain style of sound and generally pulled it off.
Final Rating: 7.5/10. Not one of the greats, but still one I like, and certainly the best BoF for soundtrack.

Elf is correct again I second all these vote.

[Sierra]

I was thinking "I don't remember anything about SoA's music so the OST must not have been very good," then I remembered the sound wasn't working when I played it.

Persona 4

Best Song Standalone: I'll Face Myself - Battle. Jammin'.
Worst Song Standalone: Omen. Just a collection of random noises.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): I'll Face Myself - Battle. Really helped make boss fights a highlight.
Worst Song In Context: The Genesis. I actually really like the song, but there's no way the battle's going to hit the song's climax at just the right time like the composition clearly wants it to, so it just winds up feeling anticlimactic when played right after Mist. Inspiration and execution sadly not in accord.

Overall Impression of OST: I'm not a fan of the poppier sound it sometimes employs, but it fits the game and even outside of that genre there are a lot of rockin' standouts. Listening to the full OST this morning makes me realize that I remember individual tracks a lot more clearly than I do with most games I play.
Final Rating: 9/10.

[Cmdr_King]

Persona 4- 7 raters, 8.2 average rating.

NieR

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:

[jsh357]

NieR

Best Song Standalone: uh... most of it, but I guess I'll go with Emil/Karma
Worst Song Standalone: Cold Steel Coffin

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Song of the ancients.  I love all the different versions and the way the voices change at different distances from devola and popola.  It ended up being good boss music too.
Worst Song In Context: music playing at the lost shrine.  It loops too often and gets annoying.

Overall Impression of OST: my favorite game ost ever.  It is simply an absolute triumph in every way and elevated the game in general.
Final Rating: 10/10

[Talaysen]

Persona 4

Best Song Standalone: Reach Out to the Truth

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): I'll Face Myself -Battle-

Final Rating: 6/10


Breath of Fire IV

Best Song Standalone: Yet the Merchants Will Go

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Yet the Merchants Will Go

Final Rating: 6.5/10


NieR

Best Song Standalone: all of them (The Wretched Automotons)

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): all of them (Shadowlord)

Final Rating: 11/10

[DjinnAndTonic]

Breath of Fire IV

Best Song: A Warring God - I seriously agree that the eastern-sounding battle themes are a triumph. They remind me a lot of Shadow Hearts battle themes.

Overall: 8/10

NieR

Best Song Standalone: Song of the Ancients (Devola + Popola) - unabashedly my favorite video game song of all time. Other great standalones are Emil, Grandma, and Kaine.
Worst Song Standalone: Honestly, the Snow in Summer track that gets played all over the place is kinda lame compared to the rest of the OST, though still pretty creative. Blu-Bird is repetitive, but honestly I find myself listening to that one a lot as background noise to keep myself focused. The low chanting is meditative.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Song of the Ancients (Devola+Popola) again, because an amazing duet as a reward for a long-ass sidequest is one of the most ingenious sidequest rewards I've seen implemented in a game. Bonus points for being the best song on the OST with some really amazing interplay between to the two singers. For a more mood-setting track, Cold Steel Coffin plays during one of the most intense scenes in the game where the Aerie is under attack and the choral build up in this track is one of the most chilling adrenaline rushes I've ever had.
Worst Song In Context: The Prestigious Mask... just kinda boring. Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't add anything to any of the scenes its in.

Overall Impression of OST: Hi, you must be new. Djinn likes the NieR OST. The sky is blue. Water is wet.
Final Rating: Improbably Large Number / 10

Also: it doesn't play in-game, but you should listen to Shadowlord White (remix on the OST), it is jazzy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMV_U5HjCL4