There are plenty of top whatever lists on the net, but there are none on my site, and clearly that's what's been holding me back from hitting the bigtime. Definately not my irregular podcast schedule or my poor site design. Anyway, these aren't in any partictular order because I don't think one is definitively better than another, just depends on your musical tastes. I'll add as I see fit until I hit 10.
1. Silent Hill 2 (Akira Yamaoka, CD, Rock/Noise/Sad)
This soundtrack is the best of the Silent Hill series. Like all SH soundtracks
this soundtrack is an excellent combination of sad rock tunes, sad classical tunes,
and atonal monster tunes. Yes, you will have to get used to the flow of the CD,
and even when you do, listening to this CD can be a tough experience. Definately
worth the trouble.
2. Guilty Gear X: Heavy Rock Tracks (Daisuke Ishiwatari, CD, Rock/Metal)
This soundtrack is high energy start to finish. It can be a little gothy at times
with the organ running around, but it has some of the best guitar wailing in
video games. Any of the Guilty Gear soundtracks will have basically the same
set of songs, I think this one has the best samples, and thus rocks the most.
3. Chrono Cross OST (Yasunori Mitsuda, 3 CD Set, Ethnic/Classical)
While I like certain tracks on the Xeno-series soundtracks better, as a complete
soundtrack, Chrono Cross is Mitsuda's best. Mostly very calm and relaxing, the
soundtrack makes use of many different instruments to portray the Island world
of the game. It also has one of the best intro songs ever. The end of the second
CD is a little rough, but that is quickly forgotten in the face of the excelent
3rd cd.
4. Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon (Nobuo Uematsu, CD, Ethnic)
I'm going to make a statement that may upen me up to flaming, but here goes:
Final Fantasy IV was Uematsu's best soundtrack of the final fantasy series. If
the Super Nintendo could have used high quality samples, allowing easier comparison
to his later works, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind. Anyway, this is
an arranged album performed by an Irish musical group using traditional intruments.
Another calm soundtrack, the heavy use of string and wind instruments matches the
original material very well.
