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  #1  
Old Feb 5, 2018, 02:40 PM
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eduhunter eduhunter is offline
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Default Best releases of 2017

Following the Blackiris Best Releases of 2016 thread, since nobody created a new one for 2017, i decided to creat one dedicated for 2017 releases. You guys can post the order you like it or just comment your experiences. For me 2017 din't bring some nice surprises like 2016 did, but overall was another good year for VGM releases.

Here's my choices per order of release (using VGMdb calendar was pretty useful) of what i listened to, i'm bad at explaining too much details, so, here we are:

The Best

SOUNDSHOCK 3: FM FUNK NIRVANA!!
I loved the other two albums, and this one demonstrate how good FM Sounds can be if used right. It is more funky 'hardcore' though.

PERSONA5 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
I really don't like Persona 4 music (unpopular opinion), but Shoji Meguro did a great work on Persona 5 though. One of the best game soundtracks in 2017 too.

VALKYRIA : Azure Revolution Original Soundtrack

Although some recent Mitsuda releases was 'mehh', this one have a really good production. My only sidenote is that the orchestration is a bit too much for my taste.

Gravity Rush 2 Original Soundtrack
Phenomenal. Much better than first one.

Hollow Knight Original Soundtrack
A good surprise. The music is even better when you play the game.

DARIUS 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
A really nice collection and i love Darius strange music. I always wanted a thing called tuna sashimi.

NEW DANGANRONPA V3 O.S.T. BLACK
The music is good. But it has an worse side, because of too many remixes of the same music.

NieR:Automata Original Soundtrack
OUTSTADING.

8BIT MUSIC POWER FINAL

Really nice chiptunes here.

Ninja Gaiden The Definitive Soundtrack Vol. 1 + 2
Sound quality really good!! Love to hear Ninja Gaiden 1 ost in all its glory.

Far Saa Far / IMERUAT
Best IMERUAT work for now.

Rakuen Official Soundtrack
Yes!! It finnaly released!! After so many date changes, since 2013, Laura Shigihara released a really inspirational work, with many variety on the music and nice vocal tracks too.

Soldam: Kaika Sengen Original Soundtrack
Another nice surprise. Really good catchy tunes.

MOBIUS FINAL FANTASY Original Soundtrack 2
Mitsuto Suzuki really get it this time. But it can be strange if compared to original MOBIUS ost.

Ys VIII -Lacrimosa of DANA- Original Soundtrack -Complete-

One of the Best Ys soundtracks. Love Falcom Sound Team jdk works.

THE ALLIANCE ALIVE Original Soundtrack -Buryoku Choutei-
A nice new release from Masashi Hamauzu. One of the tracks from his older daughter, Ayane Hamauzu, The Noble and the Butler is quite nice too.

GRANBLUE FANTASY ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS Fate
This one have more vocal tracks but production wise, is a lot better than original Granblue ost.

Sekaiju to Fushigi no Dungeon 2 Original Soundtrack

One of the best Yuzo Koshiro arrangments from Sekaiju series so far. Really really good. And the new music are really good as well.

Another Eden Original Soundtrack
For me this is the BEST release of 2017. I take a trip back in the PS1 days with a lot of good RPGs at the time. Mistuda, Tsuchiya and Abounnasr get it the right feel from the old days sametime the music feel really fresh and nice.

After Death Original Soundtrack
You guys should know some Francisco Cerda works. It is really good.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou Original Soundtrack
Another fantastic Fire Emblem release.

Mother 4 Soundtraaaack!!
The fangame is not yet released, but the soundtrack is out and it feels like a real Mother game. Nooot so much like Mother 2/3, but they tried and it is cool.


SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY SOUND SELECTION

A really nice and fresh Mario soundtrack. I really need the complete soundtrack ASAP.




-------------------------------------------------

The Worse

PUZZLE & DRAGONS X ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
I did have some expectations for this one, since it have some well known composers like Kenji Ito, Akira Yamaoka and Yuzo Koshiro, but the music feels uninspired.

PERIOD ZERO ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Meeeehh. Too generic.

PSYVARIAR REASSEMBLE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Another high expectation gone =/

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap - Original Soundtrack
I loved Wonder Boy back then, but the remake is good but the music don't feel right somehow.

Cuphead Original Soundtrack
As fantastic and original Cuphead is, the music is really annoying after some time.

SPIRIT
Lullaby versions of some vgm tracks? I don't think this is a good idea.

Splatoon 2 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK -Splatune2-

No. Just no. Too much vocaloid here.

Sonic Forces Original Soundtrack - A Hero Will Rise
Too much heavy electronic, and orchestra out of place, they tried to impress really hard and failed really hard.
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Last edited by eduhunter; Feb 5, 2018 at 02:52 PM.
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  #2  
Old Feb 5, 2018, 03:26 PM
ᄐv๑–X² ᄐv๑–X² is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eduhunter View Post
Cuphead Original Soundtrack
As fantastic and original Cuphead is, the music is really annoying after some time.
This was my biggest problem with the game, I can give them credit for attempting to create a big band soundtrack but it's just sooooo.... mediocre, uninspiring and completely forgettable. It was clearly missing 'something' in the score, they probably got carried away focusing on game design and art.


If I think of Cuphead I'm thinking of time well spent art design and characters, not shoddy gameplay or ubiquitous music.
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Old Feb 10, 2018, 08:16 AM
Jodo Kast Jodo Kast is offline
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I've listened to very little of the 2017 releases, but the top album for me was Gamadelic ~Re:Birth~. Square Enix Jazz was also impressive.

I still haven't properly gone through 2015 or 2016 yet, and my backlog will only get worse as the years go by and the Switch keeps getting more fun.
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Old Mar 12, 2018, 02:05 PM
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The Cuphead soundtrack one of the worst of 2017? You've got to be kidding me. It is fantastic.

Thanks for the listing though, gonna have a listen to Another Eden OST
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Old Mar 17, 2018, 11:19 AM
LiquidAcid LiquidAcid is offline
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I'm going to structure my list a bit different compared to last year.

Top 3:

N/A | Cosmic Star Heroine
Until CSH came around I didn't find Hyperduck SoundWorks that interesting. Sure, there were some good (isolated) tracks on Dust or Penny Arcade, but nothing of consistent quality.
This is different for this album which I fully enjoy from start to finish. It really captures the retro soundscape of the classic era and incorporates a lot of the 80s synthy sound. Also this seems to be now the longest soundtrack that Hyperduck has produced so far.
Last but not least it has an amazing theme for the main heroine and a rocking standard battle theme, which frequently triggered me to prolonge battles while playing the game. Oh yes, the game itself is great as well!

KTGS-40378CD | Blue Reflection Official Soundtrack
The last work by Hayato Asano before departing from Gust Sound Team. A beautiful blend of piano and electronic music. A shame that this one didn't receive a standalone release.

SBPS-0022~3 | Another Eden Original Soundtrack
The debut of Mariam Abounnasr as composer. She sure knows how to emulate the composition style of her boss (listen in particular to Baruoki). If there should ever be a new title in the Chrono universe, than this is how it should sound.
I should also mention that Tsuchiya does a wonderful job on those battle tracks.


The Good: (in no particular order)

GUN-0062 | Flowers Original Soundtrack -Hiver-
The fourth and last volume of the soundtrack to Flowers by Innocent Grey. Beautiful and relaxing album, which draws a lot from the live performance of its tracks.

INCD-002 | Unchained. Noriyuki Iwadare's works library Vol. 01
Some tracks could come straight from the Grandia universe. Curious what could be next in the series.

KDSD-01000~1 | Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology Original Soundtrack
Well, this is not exactly new, except for the new tracks of the remake. But just Breeze Over the Ocean warrants a mention here.

SQEX-10629~30 | Lost Sphear Original Soundtrack
Not as strong as Setsuna from last year, but still highly enjoyable. Still driven mostly by piano, it now also makes heavy use of violin and choir (The end of myth, which I guess is the final battle track) elements. Looking forward to see how Miyoshi's style is going to evolve from here on.

SBPS-0020~1 | Valkyria: Azure Revolution Original Soundtrack
The comeback album by Mitsuda after nearly five years. Also it's the first time for his new arranger/orchestrator Mariam Abounnasr, who I already mentioned above. What can I say? She's good!
But it's also the non-orchestral and quiet tracks where the album shines. A favorite track of mine is Romance of Two, which is just piano.

N/A | Link-a-Nation Original Soundtrack
First videogame soundtrack by (should I say newcomer?) composer MICHIRU. Very different from her work for Izetta, but a very fun album to listen to. Not sure what game this is -- looks like some mobile otome/VN title from the cover artwork.

MNMK-011 | The Alliance Alive Original Soundtrack -Buryoku Choutei-
It's the trademark piano/violin sound of Hamauzu, sometimes with less, sometimes with more electronic influence. I also want to point out the contribution by his daughter, which sound _very_ promising.

REC-541 | Black Wolves Saga "Anesthesia"
A very short (18 minutes if we don't factor in the vocal disc) soundtrack by the (now freelance) Natsumi Kameoka for the BWS Vita port.


The OK:


TRCD-10361 | Reco Love Original Soundtrack
I guess this here is quantity over quality. Also I get the impression that I've heard most tracks already somewhere else (Photokano, kimikiss, etc.)

CDST-10050 | Magicians Dead NEXT Blazing Original Soundtrack
I have mixed feelings here. The main problem I see is that Kouda's tracks don't really work in conjunction with Shimomura's music. Might've been a better idea to not put multiple composers on this project.


The Bad:

LNCM-1175~7 | Persona5 Original Soundtrack
I'm really picky when it comes to Persona music. I can't really do much with the first two games. The third installment gets better, but is still just okayish. It's P4 where it really begins to shine, and I mean both the main game and the spin-offs (listen e.g. to Like a Dragon from The Ultimate in Mayonaka) as well.
With this development in mind I had high hopes for P5, especially after the critics for the game were all very positive. Sadly the music reverts back to P1/P2 levels. No personality of the BGM, and even the few vocal tracks fall flat. The worst thing is that Atlus used Kitajoh mainly for these jingle-type tracks, which are usually 30 seconds or so. Lots of wasted potential here.

SQEX-10589~91 | NieR:Automata Original Soundtrack
Rating of the soundtrack here at VGMdb are highly biased by the game itself, which I guess is probably a masterpiece. But the soundtrack itself is definitely on the weak side. Too much trying to recreate what we already heard in the original NieR, without adding anything new to the mix. Adding to vocals to every track doesn't make the music automatacally (*hrhr*) better.


Still need to listen to these:

KICA-2524~5 | Touken Ranbu -Online- Kinji Music Collection Vol. 1
Not entirely sure what to expect here, since the combination (Shikata + Elements Garden) is a first.

HIMJ-0014 | Egglia Original Soundtrack
I look forward to hear something reminiscent of LoM.

KECH-8059~62 | Atelier Lydie & Suelle Original Soundtrack
Would've loved to see Asano on this one. What frightens me a bit is the growth of soundtrack length for the Atelier games. Now we're at fours discs already.

And probably a lot more albums.
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  #6  
Old Dec 24, 2018, 11:23 AM
LiquidAcid LiquidAcid is offline
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I went ahead and created the 2018 version of this thread.
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 12:49 PM
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from memory, I'd say ID-0 ost as best 2017 ost, the rest has no interest
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Old Dec 24, 2018, 04:46 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by undertow View Post
The Cuphead soundtrack one of the worst of 2017? You've got to be kidding me. It is fantastic.

Thanks for the listing though, gonna have a listen to Another Eden OST
I listened this ost for many times and still din't get used to it. Guess my taste really din't fit in this style haha
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