Oh :3 We can post links this time? I promise I'll only post good ones.
Well, of course, I have an incredibly strong bias to the music from the Xenogears/Saga games, them being my favorite series.
Starting with Xenogears-- I really liked the soundtrack to this game, though I think it's harder to pull the individual tracks from the OST and say "this is a great song!" They're great songs mostly because of the
nostalgic feelings they invoke from anyone that's played the game. You strongly associate the music with different scenes from the game, and
it all comes back to you. That's probably Xenogears' strong point; not so much the melodies themselves. The Xenogears soundtrack is probably the transitional OST between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, for Mitsuda. It was when he first started heavily incorporating Celtic sound into his music.
Moving onto the Xenosaga episodes... this series really had some amazing tracks. A lot of the time I just open up media player and listen to Xenosaga OSTs all day long.
Starting with Episode I. Yasunori Mitsuda returns to compose the soundtrack for this game, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Metro Voices. And what wouldn't be better to accompany a space opera than
epic orchestral pieces? The influence from classic opera is
pretty blatantly obvious in this game, but that's what makes it all the better to listen to. Overall the soundtrack, though pretty minimalist in its own right, did a pretty good job building up the suspense, making you feel like it's the beginning of something
really big.
Episode II brought in another composer, Yuki Kajiura. While I didn't really like the map music (which was done by another composer, don't remember who), and I think this was the weakest soundtrack overall, Kajiura did a nice job with the cutscene music. The soundtrack had a more experimental kind of sound to it, mixing electronic beats with bagpipes, violins, and vocals. There were great action songs, like
futuristic samurai battles,
crazy car chases, and then there's the
theme for my favorite video game character ever (there were 4 different arrangements, actually ;D)
...
Episode III...... Episode III was probably my
overall favorite soundtrack (click that link, it's byootiful). So I might have more links in this part. This time all of the music, including map music, was composed by Kajiura, and it almost sounds like a
throwback to Xenogears, listening to certain tracks. The game's OST has an overall
melancholy,
bittersweet tone to it, as
all good things come to an end and I think the feeling of the music reflects that. And
some of the tracks really do make me
want to cry when I listen to them. :/ On another note, Episode III features some of the
most epic battle music everrrr...
Aside from those games, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Final Fantasy IX.
