2016, absolutely devastating year, glad it's over in a few weeks. At least we got some great soundtracks so far.
Fire Emblem if ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
My soundtrack of the year, if only for the fact it took me completely by surprise.
Didn't like the earlier Fire Emblem soundtracks for GC and Wii, but this was consistently so good. Many different composers but at no times this soundtrack feels incoherent. I love how the main theme comes up every now and then.
At 8 discs, it's also the size of two epic RPG soundtracks.
GRAND KINGDOM Original Soundtrack
Another highly enjoyable RPG soundtrack, signature Basiscape sound on 3 discs.
Yoshimi Kudo and Azusa Chiba contribute some of the best tracks, so hopefully they get to work on a few more RPGs.
Traveling Stars Original Soundtrack
Actually the game was released last year in August but the soundtrack officially came out in January, so I'm counting this in. Aside from some OP/ED composition, Takao Matsuura returns for Hooksoft's 10th Anniversary project with a 2-disc BGM soundtrack and lots of memorable themes.
I was hoping for Sound Studio B to work on this, but with release of the first
BGM samples it was clear this would be great nonetheless. Now it's been in my playlist for 12 months already.
Honorable mentions:
ISLAND Original Soundtrack - I feel like this was overlooked, despite being a major Front Wing game. Finally a full game soundtrack by Hijiri Anze again, albeit only a digital release.
Sekaiju no MeiQ V: Nagaki Shinwa no Hate Original Soundtrack - 3 more discs of Yuzo Koshiro's music, awesome battle themes again.
Sorcery Jokers Special Compilation SoundTrack - 3 more discs of mamomo's music aren't bad either.
Still looking forward to:
Kirby: Planet Robobot Original Soundtrack
Kanojo＊Step Original Soundtrack
VenusBlood -RAGNAROK- Original Sound Track
And some disappointments:
Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - sorry :P
Sengoku † Koihime X Original Soundtrack
Atelier Firis Original Soundtrack
Where are the one disc soundtracks this year? I feel like every major game nowadays has to have at least 2 hours of music.