OST Ratings

[Random Consonant]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Terra, I guess?
Worst Song Standalone: Dark World.  It has context going for it ingame but out of it it's nothing I'd want to listen to

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): pass on both of these
Worst Song In Context:

Overall Impression of OST: quality stuff though not winning top-tier awards
Final Rating: 8/10


Radiant Historia:

Best Song Standalone: I do love me some Edge of Green, so sure, let's go with that
Worst Song Standalone: Probably Beyond the Wilderness, though this may be colored due to overexposure. 

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): pass on both of these
Worst Song In Context:

Overall Impression of OST: great stuff but kind of stretches itself a bit thin, I totally agree with Snowfire here
Final Rating: 9/10

[Niu]

Radiant Historia:

Best Song Standalone: Mechanical Kingdom. You know what a good tracks does? It deliver its context even when listened as a stand alone.
Worst Song Standalone: None

Best Song In Context: Mechanical Kingdom. Flawlessly coherent with an ice cold, steel build country.
Worst Song In Context: None

Overall Impression of OST: The tack list needs to be bigger. There is not enough tracks to cover the game. Otherwise it is flawless.
Final Rating: 8.5/10


FF6:

Best Song Standalone: See OK
Worst Song Standalone: Metamorphosis

Best Song In Context:
Under Marshal Law- That repressed mood, the weariness, it really makes me feel uneasy in a good way.
The Magic House- The track is truly horrifying. I have that feel of watching a horror movie as I traveled down the gallery. A truly unique approach, making the listener feel some evil spirit might be behind you without any use of any ghastliness.
Worst Song In Context: None

Overall Impression of OST: I'll argue this as Uematsu's best work, both in and out of the game. This is also the OST that motivated to actually purchase game OSTs.
Final Rating: 10/10

[Grefter]

Zombies OST: I tried to listen to it once because Grefter was hyping it.  Then I got bored and stopped.  1/10.

(There, done.)

Well that one cut to the bone.

(Also not trolling, my memory for where particular tracks are used is tragically minimal, so even games so far that I like the OST for I can't really vote on the more interesting components.  I also legitimately did expect CK to throw RH vote out there instantly)

[Sierra]

FF6

Best Song Standalone: Terra.
Worst Song Standalone: Johnny C. Bad. Just not remotely my style.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): End credits. Character themes, altogether now! Honorable mention to Searching for Friends (haters gonna hate), which feels exactly as poignant as its title suggests when it first plays.
Worst Song In Context: Battle theme. It's just kinda there.

Overall Impression of OST: Antiquity of sound quality and the common battle themes being duds are strikes against it, but this is mostly stellar work which really highlights the dramatic mileage a production can get out of memorable character themes. This is the kind of example videogame composers should take lessons from.
Final Rating: 9/10.

*Looks up Metamorphosis to see what all the hatin's about* Yeah, still not seeing it. It's effective for the moment of tension with which I associate it (fall of Floating Continent). Inversion of central character theme alone gets it a good mark.

[VySaika]

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Terra. Boring answer is boring. It's just a great song.
Worst Song Standalone: Chocobo song. Those sirens grated hard.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Veldt theme. I liked it quite a bit, and really like how it carried over into battles on the veldt, making them feel a bit different.
Worst Song In Context: I tend to just not remember things I don't like.

Overall Impression of OST:
Final Rating: 7/10, probably? I don't remember anything I really disliked other then chocobo music. But not one I can just listen to on it's own for awhile.

Also, for anyone interested in getting people to listen to stuff, try tossing in links to the songs you put for best/worst? Would really help those of us who don't remember song names(or never learned them due to the games usually not telling you what songs are named in game) and such. ...or that could just be me, I dunno. Still, if people link things I will listen to them~

[Talaysen]

Screw you I'm voting on this anyway.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy

Best Song Standalone: Midsummer Classroom

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Namenloses Licht

Final Rating: 9/10

Final Fantasy VI

Best Song Standalone: Terra

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Dancing Mad

Final Rating: 7/10

Radiant Historia:

Best Song Standalone: An Earnest Desire of Grey

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): An Earnest Desire of Grey

Overall Impression of OST: 8/10

[NotMiki]

I'm not surprised FF6 is scoring so highly, but I'm astounded there is such a strong consensus that Terra is the best overall song in FF6.

[Cmdr_King]

Final Fantasy VI: 15 raters, 8.8 average score.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

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:

[Dark Holy Elf]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Battle with the Fallen Angel. Astaroth went to the Seymour school of feeding us a joke of a fight but setting it to an excellent piece of music.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Grey Memories ~ Map of Japan. Simultaneously somber and dramatic, and yes, distinctly Japanese, it sets the mood perfectly for an excellent portion of the game.

Overall Impression of OST: Shadow Hearts soundtracks don't do much for me, outside a few good battle themes (I think you'd need to try pretty hard to screw up all your battle themes as an RPG, but hey, DQ shows it can be done) and a few other tracks which evoke their locales well.
Final Rating: 5/10.

[Talaysen]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: GETSURENKA

Final Rating: 6/10

[Dunefar]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Getsurenka. It's an amazing track, it really is. My respect for this OST has risen over the years and this song in particular.
Worst Song Standalone: Can't think of one I dislike right now.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Cluster Amaryllis. It's timed perfectly to the scene it's in and helps make it one of the most powerful in the game.
Worst Song In Context: Can't think of one offhand. I'm sure I'm self-selecting here but forgetting bad songs.

Overall Impression of OST: A strong OST with several memorable pieces. The good pieces are of exceptional quality and catapult the OST's rating up.
Final Rating: A deeply flawed game but an awesome OST. 8/10.

[Cmdr_King]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Old Smudged Map.  Odd pick I know, but it's just a neat piece.
Worst Song Standalone: Ladder to Heaven.  Amon's battle theme.  Like a lot of SH music, the industrial bent is fine for an RPG battle theme but not my cup of tea for regular listening.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): The Fate ~Cluster Amaryllis.
Worst Song In Context: There's a lot of forgettable but nothing I can pinpoint in a quick sweep of the OST.  Insert a lot of town themes here I think.

Overall Impression of OST:  More than most OSTs, a lot of my favorite songs stand out because of how well they're synched to their associated scenes.  I had trouble choosing a best overall song because by and large I was just thinking of how awesome those parts of the game were (Alice, Transience ~ The Miracle).
Final Rating: 7/10.

[Niu]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Deep in Coma. The context of this track really felt different when listen to it alone, and much better than it does in game.

Best Song In Context: The Fate ~Cluster Amaryllis. The explanation really isn't necessary.
Worst Song In Context: Deep in Coma. As a battle theme, it really felt hollow and tasteless.

Final Rating: 7/10.

[SnowFire]

Best Song Standalone: GETSURENKA, the herd is correct as usual. 
Worst Song Standalone: Crack your body.  A little TOO dissonant.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): The Fate, sure.  ALICE (piano) was very poignant as well.  I thought Vicious 1915 (regular battle theme) held up rather admirably, too.  And Rasputin fit the character pretty well.
Worst Song In Context: Nothing stands out.  Glint of Light, perhaps?

Overall Impression of OST: Magnificent.  As CK noted, this is a soundtrack that really, really fits the game - you want crazy demon horrors with some snarkiness, you get the right soundtrack for it, and yet it's still quite capable of being seriously dramatic and haunting when it wants too.  The median song on the soundtrack is still quite good - something like Veronica Vera or The Past still tells a solid story and is quite compelling to me.  And then SH2 tosses in some totally great themes on top, as well.  It's an interesting contrast to Shadow Hearts 1 - I know I'm unusual among this crowd, but I think SH1's soundtrack was fantastic too, but where SH1 was great was in its craziest experimental pieces, counterbalanced with a little bit of blandness.  SH2 is kind of the dark mirror - its dissonant pieces are worse than SH1's and it's craziest pieces not crazy enough, but Hirota nailed the more "conventional" and sweeter pieces this time.  (Hence people hyping stuff like the world map, event music, the ending song, etc.)

Final Rating: 8/10.

[NotMiki]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Twilit Street - European Town
Worst Song Standalone: /shrug

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Astaroth - Battle with Fallen Angel
Worst Song In Context: Anastasia ~ Going Her Way

Overall Impression of OST: Masterfully subdued, dramatic and lyrical.  A soundtrack that enhances the game to a great degree, even if it is largely lacking in the kind of melodic punch that makes it fun to listen to alone.
Final Rating: 8/10

[Cmdr_King]

Radiant Historia- 6 raters, 8.5 average rating.

Wild ARMs XF

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:

[DjinnAndTonic]

Shadow Hearts Covenant

Best Song standalone: Battle in Europe, I just like the vocal stuff in this one a lot. Gives me BoF4 vibes, too. Getsurenka also good, but this feels more uniquely "Shadow Hearts" to me.
Worst: Most any of the boss themes?

Best song context: ALICE. I just really like how its used. Honorable mention to Lucia's dancing theme for being actual in-game music that I rather liked!
Worst: I dunno? Maybe the 'funny' music for Joachim and Ana stuff? I dunno what it's called.

Overall: I love the sad themes and the normal battle themes. Pretty much everything else is just kinda there.
Final Rating: 7.5/10, more of an OST with a few good tracks I'd pick out to listen to than a full playlist of good background music...

Radiant Historia
Best: Red Locus
Worst: the first map theme

Best in context: Earnest Desire of Grey
Worst: uh...

Overall Impression: An entire OST of awesome, but just not that many songs...
Final Rating: 9/10 (I have even the worst song on my playlist, so that should count for something)

FF6
Best: Terra. Tons of other amazing songs, but damn if this one isn't among my top 3 of all time VG songs.
Worst: Techno de Chocobo

Best in context: Coin song works.
Worst: Collosseum maybe?

Overall Impression: I'm biased.
Final Rating: 10/10

[Dark Holy Elf]

Best Song Standalone: Intrude Upon Happiness, Plunder the Future. I loves me some Wild Arms battle tracks, think this is my favourite.
Worst Song Standalone: In the Soup. Tries to convey goofy scenes but is just... too goofy. Scenes also tend to suffer as a result.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Twilight of the Anti-Hero. Sure, another battle track.
Worst Song In Context: *shrug* Probably something. Maybe see above?

For more good, shout-outs to damn near every other battle track, The Beauty of the Spreading Terror (Katrina's theme), most of the town music but especially Ascension to the Kingdom Capital (obvious which town this is I hope), the world map theme, the title theme (great remix of the classic Wilderness theme).

Overall Impression of OST: I really love modern Wild Arms OSTs. They probably make up 4 of my top 10 for the genre. I'm not sure what it is even, they just found some composers who can really, really nail the right mood and energy level for the games. Something about their soundtracks just gets me into the games.
Final Rating: 10/10. Was going back and forth between this and a 9.5 but then realised that uh if I don't give this game a 10 I'm pretty much just giving a 10 to LoM and WA3.

[Sierra]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Y'know, Astaroth battle is the kneejerk option, but I'm going to throw a nod to something unmentioned yet: Hardcore to the Brain ~ Mid-Boss in Japan. Because sometimes you just want DRUMS DRUMS DRUMS and when that is the time, Hirota is your man.
Worst Song Standalone: Can't think of anything that particularly bugged me in SH2's score. Maybe there was some cutscene "Look look something silly is happening here you guys" music somewhere, that stuff always gets to me, but I don't specifically recall any.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): The Fate ~ Cluster Amaryllis. Easily the most dramatically effective synchronization of music & and visuals I've seen in a videogame (and Fountain of Saint Evel tries very hard to be runner-up).
Worst Song In Context: N/A again.

Overall Impression of OST: There's relatively few songs I'll listen to outside of the game, but SH2's soundtrack is superb for setting the scene in-game. The composers all have remarkably different styles but they complement each other well (though I find their final battle collaboration somewhat of a mess, even as I like the disparate parts of it).
Final Rating: 8/10

[SnowFire]

Best Song Standalone: Twilight of the Anti-Hero, sure. ("Crossfire" = opening is p. good too if short.)
Worst Song Standalone: Slap the Cheek in a Mood to Kill?  Feels very repetitive.  Stagnation Brings Impurity To [The Truth / Lies] brings nothing either.  A Quick Night in Elecius...  yeesh, I'm 17 tracks in to an 89 track soundtrack and found 3 already.  Suffice to say there is a lot of blah even if nothing particularly horrible.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): More Twilight of the Anti-Hero?  I have a soft spot for The Painted Future Set Upon an Easel, Blank Easel, Beauty & The Shining Sword, and Mechanical Dancing Fight, too.
Worst Song In Context: Nothing stands out as particularly inappropriate.  Boring at worst, but fitting & not getting in the way when bland.

Overall Impression of OST: One of the bigger splits between stand-alone & in-context for me.  The soundtrack works darn well in-game... but very few of the tracks I'm interested in listening to outside of it.  Many of the songs loop a tad too soon, or just repeat themselves a bit even if not technically looping; the vanilla XF track gets me itchy on the "next track" trigger because it feels like it's looping more than it is.  Additionally, there's a decent amount of blah on the soundtrack.  The event music doesn't do much for me as a rule, though there a few gems, sure.  Luckily, if you must pick one track "type" to do right in a strategy RPG, it's the battle music, and XF delivers here, with both variety & strength.
Final Rating: 7/10.  (Which is 9/10 for the battle themes & openings, and 5/10 for everything else.  I should make an abridged playlist that I'd listen to more often.)

[Tide]

Late to the party but...

Final Fantasy VI
Best Song Standalone: Terra's pretty good although there's quite a few good tracks so picking an overall one isn't easy.
Worst Song Standalone: Techno de Chocobo,  I guess. The fact that I don't really remember it (and it is a Chocobo theme) probably says something

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Forever Rachel. Heartbreaking.
Worst Song In Context: OK is once again the man and conveys my thoughts exactly. Next person who hacks FF6 and kills its random battle theme and replaces it with just the music for the current map (ala Super Laggy RPG) wins a cookie.

Overall Impression of OST: Pretty damn good. There is some forgettable stuff in there, but for the most part, conveys the mood and fits the game to a tee.
Final Rating: 9/10


Wild ARMS XF
Best Song Standalone: Wild ARMS games typically have killer battle themes. Non-surprisingly, this applies to XF as well. Tough choice between Blank Easel or Intrude Upon Happiness, but I'll second the elf today.
Worst Song Standalone: On the other hand, WA games tend to do silly themes less well. Into the Soup gets my vote as well.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Mechanical Dancing Fight. Asgard SMASH.
Worst Song In Context: Nothing is particularly bad, so I'll second Into the Soup again since it's the worst track there.

Overall Impression of OST: To quote Snowfire -

Luckily, if you must pick one track "type" to do right in a strategy RPG, it's the battle music, and XF delivers here, with both variety & strength

. And this tends to matter more to me anyway than other music types, so extra bonus points.

Final Rating: 8/10.  A little weaker around tracks that aren't battles, but it's good where it's supposed to be.

[Cmdr_King]

Wild ARMs XF

Best Song Standalone:  Blank Easel.  First song I was exposed to (hi tonfa), one that's stuck with me the best.
Worst Song Standalone: Red of the Panic Domain.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game):  Final disaster (2).
Worst Song In Context: The meandering goofy town song whose name escapes me.

Overall Impression of OST:  I'm really partial to the vocals, but they're kinda samey.  It's very Wild ARMs in a way 5 wasn't a lot of the time, weird as that sounds.
Final Rating: 7/10

[Meeplelard]

Wild ARMs XF

Best Song Standalone: Beauty and the Shining Sword
Worst Song Standalone: I don't remember the unmemorable/bad songs, so N/A here.  Not saying there aren't necessarily bad ones, I just don't remember them!  I guess that song that plays for the Tribe fights or whatever a lot; I remember finding that meh.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Intrude Upon Happiness.  JUst to have something different from above!
Worst Song In Context: ...see above?

Overall Impression of OST: The good is really good, but there's a lot I remember finding shrug worthy at the same time.
Final Rating: 7.5/10.

[Grefter]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Best Song Standalone: Getsurenka with a notable second place to Come On ~ The Decisive Battle Runs Wild.  If Getsurenka wasn't here it would be champ head and shoulders above everything else.
Worst Song Standalone: Field of God-Dog ~ Village of The Dog God.  It is long and fucking booooooooooooooooooring.

Best Song In Context (ie, song used the best in-game): Alice.
Worst Song In Context: Pulsation Fortress ~ Pulsating Stronghold.  I repeat from my long breakdown. lol

Overall Impression of OST:  Fucking fantastic and well worth doing an indepth revisit.  It is 2 discs and has a lot of great stuff in there.  Some chaffe, but not even 3 people write 2 and a half hours of great music in one place.
Final Rating: 9/10 As an OST it is fucking astounding.  The only things better than this really have Yoko Kanno involved in them.

[Cmdr_King]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant- 10 raters, 7.4 average.


Wild ARMs 3

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: