This turned out to be a rather messy post. Sorry that I technically didn't write anything proper about the games, but at least the formatting should be up to standards.
Also, I'm glad to see turnout seems to be better this time. Keep the votes coming!
1.
Atelier Sophie
Composed by Kazuki Yanagawa, Daisuke Achiwa, Tatsuya Yano, Hayato Asano, Ryudai Abe, Yu Shimoda, Miyoko Kobayashi, RURUTIA
I always love the Atelier games' mix of upbeat and kinda melancholic music with its folk influences. And I hardly ever get to mention them, because I'm usually way behind on the series and didn't yet play the most recent game. Not this year!
Campanella of Sun Through Trees #
Scenery of the Town ~Morning~ #
It's Oskar
An Odd Couple #
Cliffhanger #
La Coccinelle
Low Blow Battle #
Pure Wind #
Whispers of Trees ~Night~
Juno #
Sorrow
2.
Gotta Protectors
Composed by Yuzo Koshiro, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Shinji Hosoe, OguraHisayoshiOngaSeisakushow, Motoaki Furukawa
Yeah, this is gonna be a bit different. I could only find the two tracks listed below on YouTube, it seems nobody bothered to upload much of this. NicoNico is a nightmare to find anything on if you don't speak Japanese (if they even allow game music on there, I don't know). It's a real shame. This is a game that really focussed on its music as one of its major selling points. It even has additional (paid) DLC with FM sound versions of all the soundtrack, something they later did again with Etrian Odyssey V. Which is nice, it feels like game music is treated with the respect it deserves. Each song even gets its own fake "CD cover" in-game (see above). Anyway, the music is great, the game's great. Give it a chance. And to that one person who knows how to do it: please upload the soundtrack to YouTube! The only downside tp this OST is that there aren't all that many tracks in the game. But then again, it's just a small eShop game.
Endless Squall
Theme Song
(also check out "Retro Nitro Girl" and "8-bit Memories")
3.
Nights of Azure
Composed by Hayato Asano, Kazuki Yanagawa, Daisuke Achiwa, Toshiharu Yamanishi
Could have sworn I've read almost all of those names in this post before. Ah well, this is a rather different beast in style from the Atelier series. It varies from softer pieces (often using a piano) for the emotional scenes to rock (or metal) tracks for the fighting areas and boss fights and jazzy music for everything around your hub. Most of it is pretty awesome, but everything that has this "bar music" jazz style always reminds me of Tales of Xillia 2 and that's not a good thing.
Eve on Piano #
Lady Crimson #
Malicious Roses
Goliath Z #
The Night, Servans and I #
Rusty Trail
Waltzing Gallop #
Vivace #
Sad Vampire (Ver. MMXV) (though, apparently this is originally from Atelier Elie)
Slumber #
desire #
Edge of Apocalypse
Bloody Blue
x.
World of Final Fantasy
Composed by Masashi Hamauzu, Shingo Kataoka, Hayata Takeda, Nobuo Uematsu, Kumi Tanioka, Ryo Yamazaki, Ryo Shirasawa, Ryusuke Fujioka
Plenty of arrangements of classic Final Fantasy (and some other games') tracks coupled with some new ones. At least I think there's a good chunk of new ones, could be I just missed the reference in many of them. Decided to "only" give this an honorable mention since it relies so much on old tracks, but it's definitely worth checking out. I hear there was another Final Fantasy game this year, but I might not be able to properly give that one a try before the deadline. I can still edit this post if for some reason this ends up being relevant for this vote.
Boss Battle Theme #
Battle Theme #1
Warrior of Light Summon #
Cloud Summon #
Yuna Summon
The Girl's Tearoom #
Saronia Docks #
Sunken Temple
LTTP.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence
Composed by Masako Otsuka
This surprised me, it was the first game I played in this series apart from a short try of the SNES game, so I didn't expect much in terms of game music. Strategy games, in my experience, very often have only servicable music that you'd probably mute after a short while. To be honest, I still haven't played much of the game, it's rather hard to get into, but that doesn't mean I can't still appreciate its music.
Wing of Hope #
Crimson Obsession #
Rising Pulse
Unseen Shadow #
Bided Time #
Follow the Light
Faint Light #
Floating Petals
There's a few games I didn't get to play yet that I expect to have a great OST, especially the new SMT game. But isn't it always like this? Next year's LTTP spot needs some candidates, too.
