The last few recommendations I got for OSTs ended up being pretty damn good. Can anyone else recommend anything else for me to look into?

You can see what I currently have here:

http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=23473

What I have on the way:
Final Fantasy 1 + 2 (Origins)
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light
Motoi Sakuraba: SO and VP Concert
Valkyrie Profile OST
Valkyrie Profile Arrange
Star Ocean 2 Arrange

*Obvious Selections I Plan On Picking Up:
SaGa Frontier 2
Chrono Cross
Chrono Trigger
Diablo II
Sonic 1&2
Einhander

*I had most of the above at one point but passed them on to fans of their respected franchises since they liked the music so much.

Well since you're on a Sakuraba kick lately, I definitely think you should pick up Force of Light the Shining Force III arrange album.  Also my favorite OST from 2015 just got released on cd recently, Undertale.  Also saw several copies of the kickstarter soundtrack of my favorite 2014 OST, Shovel Knight, up on ebay.  And since you're going back to Digicube Square, Soukaigi is criminally overlooked.

Baten Kaitos: Owaranai Tsubasa to Ushinawareta Umi Original Soundtrack. I'd highly recommend playing the game first though. A must-play jrpg.

Oh wow! I didn't know there was a physical copy now. I'll have to look into that.

I'm kind of glad these cropped up now instead of earlier. I was looking for a copy for my friend a while back but since that point I realized I've got to stop buying things for people like that.

Goddamn, I forgot about how great this OST is! Yum yum.

For this era of Sakuraba, Star Ocean Blue Sphere is a requirement. It's not too pricey either, after all these years. The two VP Covenant albums (original and arrange) are pretty decent as well. I would argue the OST features a number of "cleaned up" versions of original VP tracks, while the arrange mostly focuses on new tracks added to that score. I don't think it touches the original VP Arrange though, but it's a decent accompaniment.

The Rockman 10 Image Album is my favorite of the official Rockman arrange albums released over the past decade or so. It's spotty on a few themes, but gets good especially towards the end. I'm also surprised you don't have the Rockman ZX albums, they're more or less a continuation of the "Remastered Tracks". Truthfully, I think they are largely mediocre, but they have JUST enough stuff to keep me coming back to them. Street Fighter V's OST is not a bad pickup, it has an excellent set of character themes and it got a domestic release.

I definitely second Shovel Knight to scratch that old school VGM itch. It's one of those OST's that's "too easy" for me to like.

Unlimited SaGa fits in with your other pickups as well. It's a pretty lean, mean example of Hamauzu's music. I think it's his most accessible album overall, even taking the wackiness of Disc 2 into account (Space Time Travels is <3). I think SaGa Frontier 2 and Final Fantasy X are technically "better", but I enjoy this one more...It's one of those deals. Also, World of Final Fantasy if you're on either a Hamauzu kick or a Final Fantasy nostalgia kick. It scratches both of those itches, although the FF arrangements are hit or miss for the most part.

Mitsuda...Tsugungai, Soma Bringer and the newer Valkyria: Azure Revolution (this one is literally hot off the disc pressers!) are no-brainers from his post-Square releases. For Yoko Shimomura, I was surprised how much I liked Heroes of Mana and I heartily recommend at least sampling that one.

Lastly, Genso Suikoden (the very first one). It's one of the only VGM albums that can go toe to toe with FFVI for me (and in some cases, it outright wins). Unfortunately, I feel like its a bit of a one-hit wonder for the whole series (II is good, but suffers mightily from poor synth, III is awful, IV and V are bland with a couple highlights apiece).

My friends had the Baten Kaitos games when we were growing up, but I forgot about them until you mentioned this.

This is a Game Boy color game, correct? Good idea, I would like some more handheld music.

I was fooling around with the videos on Youtube for this one. I wasn't digging the synth honestly, but I'll have to look into more. The arrange may be a better choice though.

I do need to look into some of the more recent Rockman arranges; the last ones I looked into were the 20th Anniversary Rock and Techno which I was disappointed with back when they came out. Were the 25th Anniversary ones any better? Unfortunately, I'm not a very big fan of 10's soundtrack for some reason (loved 9's) but maybe the arrange album can change my mind.

You kind of read my mind with these ones. I checked both of them out a long time ago and yeah, I wasn't feeling it. I do like Ryo Kawakami's "Rockin' On," the boss theme for ZX, but I should probably give it another look to refresh my memory.

Probably a good idea since I like the Alphas.

I never dug what I heard of this one, but I never did give the whole thing a chance.

I think Zane gave me a dub of this a LONG time ago. I don't remember anything about it but I'll give it another look.

I have to admit that Hamauzu's a weird composer for me. I wouldn't dare imagine telling anyone that SFII wasn't great but I'm probably not invested in it as others are. That said, what about Sigma Harmonics?

I can't remember, we didn't get this game stateside, did we? Yeah, I've seen enough praise for Soma Bringer and I'm not familiar with anything post Square.

Another game my friend had growing up. I can remember a few pieces and it being sonically sound.

Okay, if I didn't know Sakuraba composed this before I started listening to it the battle theme would have been a dead giveaway : )

The two Baten Kaitos games are probably my two favorite Sakuraba OSTs, with the original game being one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time.  I also might throw in that you should sample some of the Infinite Undiscovery soundtrack and see if it agrees with you.  I think many people overlooked the soundtrack because the game was so poorly received (though personally I don't think it's really much better or worse than any other Tri-Ace game... I find them to be a pretty average developer whose more loved games I like less than most and whose more hated games I like more than most).

EDIT: Also just remembered Labyrinth no Kanata, the score he did for a 3DS game that never came out in English.  Actually sounds very different from his normal stuff, and I like it quite a lot.  http://vgmdb.net/album/28932

Musashiden 2, Sigma Harmonics, Legend of Legacy, and soon Alliance Alive, should be in your queue if you like Hamauzu. Musashiden 2 has the added bonus of Nakano.

I'll have to give this another listen - outside of the game - because the last time I purchased the game and played it I absolutely HATED it. I seriously don't know how I put up with it the first time I owned and completed it.

I know there's a lot to pick on SE for (and there bigger fish to fry) but Samurai Legend was a scathing blow to me because I'm a HUGE fan of the original game. Samurai Legend should be subtitled "fight with the camera" or "can these enemies re-spawn any faster?"

- What I've heard of the first Baten Kaitos this far it sounds very un-Sakuraba like to me - or rather very un-SO and VP to me. Of course, the battle themes are the exceptions, but I like that this sounds different than those other properties. I haven't really fallen in love with it but maybe I just haven't heard the right tracks yet.

- Yeah, I agree with checking out Infinite Undiscovery. I remember the game (and Last Reminent) getting shelled in reviews and people predicting doom and goom for SE. I'm not a huge SE guy but really, it's was going to take more than a few under-preforming games to cause their ruin.

- I agree Tri-Ace isn't all it's cracked up to be. The more I think about it I don't think SO2 or SO3 stack up to what I thought of them when I was younger. Additionally, their games tend to be horribly balanced. For example. there's usually some crazy, somewhat simple way to obtain a crazy amount of power in a small amount of time and make the rest of the game your bitch. Then there are other instances if you don't know about this or that and don't do it you'll hit a brick wall. Certain games are very unfriendly unless you just know of certain things.

Star Ocean Blue Sphere is essential. I remember when it was released that some forum members here complained about the low volume. Around the same time, Sakuraba stated in an interview that he purposely mastered the album at a low volume because he wanted people to turn it up.

Genso Suikoden is also essential. Strangely, it's still affordable despite not having been reprinted (that I'm aware of).

To me, there is a clear divide for Sakuraba's older, more melodic, more synthesized style (last heard in Star Ocean Blue Sphere, hence why I recommended it) and his newer style (which started with Star Ocean 3 and includes Baten Kaitos), which featured more live instruments and seemed to favor mood/textures over outright melodies. It's just something I've come to accept over the years and Blue Sphere is pretty much where I personally get off the Sakuraba train. I can't take away that Baten Kaitos has a BEAUTIFUL soundtrack, but it never came close to hooking me. That said, I consider it leagues better than VP2's soundtrack.

That said, the likes of Shining the Holy Ark and Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection are frequent and enjoyable listens. I just wish there was a full release of the ACTUAL Super Famicom Star Ocean soundtrack. If Sakuraba had stayed in Star Ocean 1/2 mode his career and maintained the same type of output, I have no doubt he would be my favorite VGM composer.

I remember coming out of Valkyrie Profile thinking I was a Tri-Ace fan for life and that pretty much turned out to be the last game they made that I cared about.

Edit:

http://vgmdb.net/album/57931

Well now...THIS looks interesting. The tracklist looks like it hits all the right marks.

Maybe he got complaints about the Valkyrie Profile soundtrack blowing out speakers, lol. I love that soundtrack to death, but man, do my ears pay a price for it...

I think this may be the case with me. I still haven't checked out the entire thing, but even if I don't enjoy it enough to buy the soundtrack it is a beautiful score.

I'm going back between this and Baten Kaitos at the moment. I'm liking what I've heard of Blue Sphere so far (really like "Hand to Hand"), and I like the way the OST is an OST and Arrange in one. From the asking prices I've seen (like GX said) it might be a purchase.

Also, this may be an odd question to ask at this juncture, but what about the Pokemon soundtracks? Are the albums with that music readily available, or is everything out of print and expensive? I ask because, you know, Nintendo.

I don't know. I probably give SO3 the benefit of the doubt because I played it when it came out, so I kind of lump it with the older stuff even though there is a divide there like you say. I need to give it more of a listen but I just couldn't get into SO4's music back when it came out - outside the battle theme which is far from surprising.

As far as I know, Pokemon soundtracks are widely available. Me personally (and this is far from a judgement of the series as a whole), the only soundtrack I have found to be worthwhile as a standalone is X&Y. The Black and White soundtracks, I lost interest in fast (Black2/White2 being particularly BAD) and I haven't gotten into the Sun/Moon stuff at all. I did enjoy the very first release too. If you're willing to pick through 4 discs worth of content for roughly 2 discs worth of solid old-school-ish material, X&Y is cautiously recommended.

I recently got into the Dewprism OST for the first time, and am really enjoying it. It just has that old school Square feel to it that reminds me of Nakano's lighter FFX pieces, and also hints at some other composers. (Can't think of the name of the track, but there's one that sounds just like Hamauzu.) Solid recommendation with the caveat that sometimes it gets a little long in the tooth if you listen through both discs in one sitting.

I didn't list it up above, but yeah, more than likely I'll pick up Dew Prism again. And yeah, I can see why you would say it reminds you of FFX. For example, on Dew Prism I enjoy "Escape!" which is built on the same blueprint as "Hurry!" (a somewhat maligned track) in X. I like quite a few tracks on DP like "Bonds with Claire," "Forest of Departure" and what was once titled "Radasan" (sp? looks like the translation changed; don't know what it's called now) but kind of like the SaGa Frontier II soundtrack I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with Nakano. The way Nakano builds intensity is quite different and many tracks don't have the defined hook you'd expect from most composers pieces. When it works it WORKS but when it doesn't it's just kind of there; far from horrible but lacking the edge to arouse my attention.

I guess this is as good a place as any for my traditional recommendation of the El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron soundtrack

Some gameplay videos of Chapter 2, Chapter 7, hell even someone just navigating the title screen options would give a taste of the lush sounds on offer here.

It be a while before I get through all the recommendations in this thread, but the Blue/Red - Red/Green music is the only PM music I'm familiar with since I only played Gen one. I know Gen one is rather broken game-wise, but I thought the Pokemon after the initial 151 were kind of lame so it's my go-to. I was more into the card game growing up, but looking back I kind of hate the card game because the randomness of it all - don't even get me started on all the coin flipping. When you have a Kanguskhan (sp?) do 0 out of 80 because you get four tails? Yeah, that's crap.

I'm digging deeper into this one; I kind of like the more progy stuff like "Soft Labyrinth" than the more traditional pieces like town themes.

Okay, I've kind done a one-eighty on Baten Kaitos on Blue Sphere.

In all honesty I really, really want to love Blue Sphere, but I don't know; beyond the coolness of 8-bit Sakuraba it just doesn't click with me. I think the battle theme "Hand to Hand" is great (and yes, I'm at least getting that on disc) but I'm just not sure on this one. I'll keep it on the back burner for now.

I'm leaning towards a purchase for Baten Kaitos now though. I think why this one took so long to sink in is I wanted individual tracks to pop out from the wood work (some do) but the more I thought about it (and the more I watched of the lets play) I realize it's the entire body of work here that's the draw. Also, I like how it's more traditional in almost Nobuo-ish kind of way - but at the same time I hate putting it that way (and using the word traditional) because it's not like Sakuraba overly non-traditional beyond battle themes. I guess what I'm trying to say is beyond a few tracks I wouldn't have pegged this soundtrack as a Sakuraba production and I like that quality of it.

Okay, I can't help but think Origins is just plain weird. Compared to the first game everything about this one comes off as odd.

I finished the let's play I was watching, and yeah, I have to agree with this. I think this is an underrated gem. Oh my God, that ending - what a tear jerker.

I doubt you're going to see this, and not that I doubt you, but I don't see an entry for this on VGMdb. Where can I buy this?

Just a few notes, from the past couple days...

-Went back and relistened to the Covenant of the Plume albums. I definitely prefer the remade tracks on this one. The songs have significantly more breathing room than the originals. Very noticeable in Hard Chain Reaction. Originals are hit or miss (mostly misses, I gutted a LOT of stuff out of this album), but the arrange album is actually REALLY solid from start to finish. Odd combination, since the arrange mostly focuses on newer tracks.

-The newer SO/VP band album is a cool idea, but WAY too much lead synth. It's out in front a lot and really hurts quite a few of the arrangements. This one ended up about 50/50 overall. I loved what he did with Dynamite...Totally different from the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6AcEdcltfI

I guess this one would be the lead single...It's exactly what I wanted from a "Stab the Sword of Justice" arrange. Way livelier than the SO2 Arrange Album version and it includes the whole song (it's a toss-up for me between the electric guitar synth of the SO2 arrange and the live guitar here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiH1LSBJYCs

And my favorite SO1 track makes an appearance. It's pretty good, but there's a few spots where that synth is just NASTY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv3QQGaTdfc

-DEFINITELY recommending Street Fighter V. I enjoyed the disc of stage themes nearly as much as the classic character themes. Each one, I expected kind of a shallow "regional" reference in the music, but there's a nice development into each theme that is just loaded with hooks. The New Zealand stage, Brazil stage and the India stage musics  are good examples. I'm having a lot of fun with this one (and I say this as someone that found Street Fighter IV's soundtrack obnoxious). My favorite fighting game soundtrack of this decade, by far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WLzCABrB9U

-Plants vs Zombies is a fantastic old-school soundtrack. A tad short, but very little goes to waste.

What got me to try this one?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N1_0SUGlDQ

-Soma Bringer IS great, but it's Mitsuda on autopilot for 3 CD's pretty much. without the insane sound quality of Chrono Cross. I realized I wasn't gutting anything from this soundtrack, but very little was sticking out at the same time. Definitely a safe pick.

I think this ended up being my favorite track from the set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa1k8DgAoEE

It's the new tracks I'll probably be more concerned with when I get around to this.

Agreed.

I can appreciate what he did with Dynamite (never expected it to be taken in that direction) but the virility of the original is really important to me for some reason. I like that they did "Tangency" though.

This is a rather sad admission, but I greatly enjoy the Stab the Sword of Justice remix on the arrange album for some reason. I like that it's a little slower and it was the key song in making me buy that album.

That was surprisingly awesome. Is the rest of the soundtrack like that or is that just an isolated piece?

From the song you linked to I don't think the sound quality is going to be a problem with this when I get around to listening to this one. Sounded great to me.

Maybe here? https://tobyfox.bandcamp.com/album/undertale-soundtrack

Fangamer is selling the physical Undertale soundtrack.

Thanks. I did a search and all the results that came up were for the download.

Zane, my first hunch was bandcamp as well. But hey, at least they're giving us physical Ninja Gaiden soundtracks! May can't come fast enough.

I looked into this one. I think it's pretty damn good. I wish there was a version on physical media but for a mere four dollars the DL is more than worth it.

A few things:

- I'm I the only one who loves "Another Medium" on the Undertale OST? I love that track...

- Is there anyone else that loves the soundtrack to Castlevania 64? I know it's not run-of-the-mill CV but I like that this one is different. The soundtrack does a whole bunch of things I usually dislike and makes me like it.

- Does anyone else kind of get the VP vibe from the Tales of Destiny OST? I don't mean in a compositional sense, but in that sense that the synth is somewhat bizarre.

Edit:

- Might get chastised for this one, but I got to say it. I didn't play many of the Contra games growing up, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised that I found the second Contra volume a little underwhelming. If I had a history with the games like I do Mega Man the opposite would probably hold true.