Best Releases of 2016

[Blackiris]

2016 is coming to a close, and many soundtracks, arrangement albums and other stuff has been released again this year.

What are your personal favorites of 2016?

These are my favorites:
Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna by Tomoki Miyoshi
Beautiful piano melodies, mostly calm and melancholic. Although the entire soundtrack only uses one instrument (plus soft percussion in the battle themes), there is enough variety. Quality is very consistent, and there are many notable highlights.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius by Noriyasu Agematsu
Totally surprised how good this one is! I liked some of Agematsu's compositions before (e.g. for Wild ARMs 4), but this was my first soundtrack done exclusively by Agematsu. In addition to pretty good arrangements of Uematsu tracks, there is an amazing range of high quality tracks with memorable melodies and good production values.

Final Fantasy XV by Yoko Shimomura
No brainer. Not officially released yet, but from playing the game I know I'll love it. Memorable and epic battle themes of course, but I also like how Shimomura tried different styles from her usual compositions. This year's biggest highlight.

Adventures of Mana by Kenji Itou
Good arangements by Itou himself and great production value for a small-scale remake. Nothing new (except for the previously unused town theme), but still a great release because the original tracks are so amazing.

Ori and the Blind Forest Additional Soundtrack by Gareth Coker
Includes many unused tracks, or music from trailers, and other new compositions from the Definitive Edition.


Other games I played:
- Bravely Second's OST was much weaker than Revo's soundtrack for the first game. Not bad, but not remarkable.
- World of Final Fantasy's OST has some hit and some miss arrangements, but I'm not the biggest Hamauzu fan, so nothing from the original tracks stuck with me.
- Dragon Quest Builders contained good arrangements of classic Dragon Quest tracks, but nothing truly outstanding.
- Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir has some really good tracks, but the majority of the pieces are not very memorable.