I'm not really the right person to be starting this topic because my knowledge of older NAMCO music isn't as strong as it should be, but I have noticed a big difference in composers and styles starting around the Tekken 3-ish era. Listening to themes from the Tekken 3 soundtrack and then hearing the Tekken Tag Direct Audio is, like... wow. To me, the quality and inventiveness was stepped up several notches, and it hasn't gone back down since.

Now, I know Hosoe and Saso did some stuff for NAMCO a while ago (still remixing things on Ridge Racers 2, it seems), and I do enjoy that stuff, but it can't compare to the awesomeness of the NAMCO team right now. I haven't ventured into the Ace Combat stuff too much, and I'm not a fan of Soul Calibur's music, but I am really into the following NAMCO franchises: Tekken, Katamari Damashii, Ridge Racer.

Starting with Ridge Racer V and onward (Official Bootleg included), it seems like that series has taken a more inconsistently consistent electronic style to their tunes that are focused more on unique flash and steady composition than anything else. They're not hyper-melodic three minute looping tunes anymore, but are these awesome beasts of techno bliss. Compare the original "Ridge Racer" tune (Hosoe) with something like "Paris" (Sano) and you can see where I'm going with this. If you want to get REALLY out there, throw "Pulse Phaze" into the mix (Miyake).

Tekkens 1-3 have average soundtracks; nothing sticks out for me. Starting with Tekken Tag, the newer members of the team (Miyake, Tohyama, etc) infused a new life into the series' soundtracks. Compare the "King" theme from T3 with the "King" tune from Tag to see what I mean. With Tekken 4 things got really wacky while still holding some solid compositions from the team - to me, this soundtrack is the series' pinnacle. 5 and Dark Resurrection were great, but not as awesome as T4. But still, the more unique and modern "NAMCO" sound was prevalent compared to how things were.

And now, Katamari. I'm not kidding when I say that this soundtrack changed my life and skewed my musical preferences off of the board. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first picked this up - I never really strayed from your typical lot of VGM styles and composers until I got Katamari's OST. This CD fucked me up good. I was officially introduced to Miyake on this album, and I haven't looked back yet. Granted, Minna Daisuke KD wasn't so hot, but the original and the PSP CD are both amazing, inventive, timeless pieces of video game music. This is a wicked strong example of how far NAMCO's team has come from the old days of hyper melodic synth stuff to the inventive and often mind-blowing compositions and amazing inventiveness of what they have now.

Maybe I'm just spouting drivel and proclaiming my love to Miyake and crew, but that's that. If NAMCO sound team were a cup of instant noodles, I would pour hot water over them with love, watch them soften, add the flavor packet and enjoy every little sip and slurp until the cup was empty. Mmmm.

Side note: did anyone else wet their pants when they heard "Katamari on the Funk" and realized that it was some crazy-ass gospel remix of "Pulse Phaze"? I did. Still wet.

if any kid shows up at my door this halloween dressed as the prince or king of the cosmos,, im giving them the whole bowl of candy...

Bumping an old dead thread with the intent to pimp Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War OST. This album is fantastic, and has a lot more progression and variety than the other AC soundtracks. Great stuff!!

In-deed.

I think Namco needs to explore more jazz leanings in its music compositions... I think they have a history of being lost in too much electronica and sampling.

I prefer this to every AC OST (5 excluded) and all Namco soundtracks I have, but I found this ost to be worse than AC5 in a way. I'd rather blame it for the game, but it totally lacks something emotive that AC5 had. For that matter, percussive-centered tracks were quite uninspiring.

I definitely won't argue with the rock pieces on Belkan War (Mayhem) or the tracks that use the spanish guitar (Zero), but I can't say if I like it more than AC5. 5 is just...massive and it's hard to get a full read on it even over time. Belkan (like 4) is much more compact and focused, which I like, but 5 probably still trudges out more favorites over its' 4 discs than either 4 (which has nostalgia on its' side) or Belkan. Although to be fair, 5's disc 4 was totally underwhelming and mostly made up of extremely generic rock.

AC love comes and goes...I really haven't touched it in the last couple months, save for a couple 5-star tracks that show up on iPod random. I probably can't name more than 10 tracks from the series off the top of my head right now...It probably is some of the most effective in-context stuff around.