When discussion about best game soundtracks comes up, the "usual suspects" are usually from awhile ago. And yes, even I get tired of talking about how great oldschool Squaresoft/Falcom/Konami/etc is. Sometimes.

So just throwing this out there...What are the best soundtracks released since 2005?

Feel free to list as many as possible, but please also say why. Also, it does not need to be an actual release (so Smash Brothers Brawl would count, for example), feel free to mention boxsets/compilations and of course, arrange albums count as well.

Eh, most of the releases I've cared about after 2005 are basically just Capcom box sets for older games.

The only one I can think of post 2005 that really made an impression on me was the Wild Arms XF Original Soundtrack.

Great swan song for the series and a nice way to bounce back from the flaccid six disc monster that was Wild Arms 5.

I'd recommend the XF soundtrack to everybody; the only problem with that is the cost of the thing now.

My favorite releases of the past decade tend to be arrange albums. Among them...

Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA ~Deceitful Wings~
Chill SQ
drammatica / memoria -- the Shimomura albums
NieR -echo-
Prescription for Sleep Game Music Lullabies (vol. 1 & 2, so far)
Romancing SaGa / SaGa rebirth albums (all three of them, so far, are rockin' my face off)
Sekaiju no MeiQ Super Arrange -Piano & Strings-
SQ Chips (1 was probably better than 2... I'm not sure how I feel on that actually)

Actually *new* music from the past decade. Tons of indies, and some big-name franchises too. Let's see:

Aquaria
Atelier Ayesha
Banner Saga
DUST: An Elysian Tail
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
FEZ
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (of the XIIIs, I think I liked this soundtrack the most, mostly for Noel and Yeul's vocal themes)
NieR (... if I were to rank these releases, I'm pretty sure this gets #1 spot)
Offspring Fling!
Shadow of the Colossus
Shatter
Tower of Heaven
Ys Origin (lots of re-used themes, but there's lots of originals here too)

Neither list is exhaustive for me. Just things that floated to the surface today.

As for boxed set releases in the last decade? ALL OF THEM. Whether I own them or not. I probably want them. At present I do own:
Dragon Quest I~IX Scene-Selected Symphonic Suites
Final Fantasy XI Premium Box (the 7-disc thingy)
SaGa 20th anniv
Seiken Densetsu (Mana) 20th anniv
Ys: Music from Felghana (the 8-disc set of all prior Ys III music releases)

If I were a very rich man, I would have preordered that GUST box. Ah well...

If you take out box sets and new releases of older music and arrange albums, some highlights for me would be:

Ys Origin and Ys -The Oath in Felghana- kind of don't count but will list anyway
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2
Final Fantasy XII
Ibara
Granado Espada
Ragnarok Online II
Guilty Gear Overture (Vol. 2)
Senjo no Valkyria
No More Heroes 2
Do-don-pachi Dai-fukkatsu
Cave Story 3D
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Super Meat Boy
Bravely Default Flying Fairy
Shovel Knight
Transistor
The Last Door

I'm a bit behind myself, even on getting to listen to ones I have bought (like the aforementioned NieR).

Really hard for me to quantify what has and hasn't come out in the last 10 years compared to what I have that hasn't... but off the top of my head Ni no Kuni and Final Fantasy XIII are both way up there for me.

I know I said I didn't want to see lists without decriptions, but damn it...I need to go back and revisit some of these guys.

My "high quality problem" VGM albums from the last 10 years:

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 (with 3D World closely behind, it just loses some points for consistency)

Smash Brothers Wii U/3DS (excellent remixes from start to finish)

Sonic Lost World/Sonic Colors

Blazblue Phase III Chronophantasma (it makes up for the lackluster Xrd soundtrack earlier this year, kind of)

Rockman 10 Original Soundtrack (I didn't care too much for 9, but 10 slots right in among 1-6 for me. It has some of my favorite Dr. Wily themes of all time)

Chiptuned Rockman (some really creative mixes on here. Special shoutout to the Rockman 10 Image Album too)

Shovel Knight

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia (this one caught me totally by surprise and does justice to the classics)

Persona4/Persona Q (both huge winners. Glad I gave this series another chance, after Persona 3 didn't click with me at all)

Kid Icarus 3DS (a bit daunting to listen straight through, but the tracks I pulled off of it were exceptional. I loved Dark Pit's theme)

Anything Disgaea/Prinny-related (Tenpei Sato makes consistently great soundtracks that constantly remind me why I fell in love with Japanese VGM to begin with. These hit all the right chords with me, even though I have trouble telling them all apart)

Phantom Kingdom (eclectic collection of tunes from the Super Sweep crew)

Pokemon X and Y Music Collection (first Pokemon soundtrack I really enjoyed since the original Gameboy one)

The Sega 16 Collections (classic stuff, fantastic sampling of classic VGM)

Rockman Box Set Vol. 2 (too much great unreleased stuff for Rockman fans to pass up. This is an essential for me. My collection felt naked without the GB soundtracks)

Arc Rise Fantasia (kind of on the cusp, but ultimately the great tracks tipped this one to the good side)

Classic Dungeon ~Fuyoku no Masoujin~ (<3 from start to finish. Both the original and 8bit side)

Fantasy Life (holy shit, Uematsu's composing career has life in it! Totally and completely unexpected)

VVVVVV (short but sweet)

Mostly Cave stuff...

PinkSweets OST: my favorite album of the last ten years
Mushihimesama Bug Panic! OST: the theme song alone makes this one worthwhile
Akai Katana OST: a good dose of the hard stuff
Mushihimesama Double Arrange Album: so much to love from Mushihimesama
Xanadu Next OST: a worthy successor to the original Xanadu
Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki Alternative Saga: hard rock arrangements of Ys and LOH VI themes
beatmania IIDX 12 Happy Sky OST: one of my favorite Bemani albums

And a few soundtracks from older games released in the last ten years:
Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun Music Collection: Kunio Kun music bonanza
Rom Cassette Disc in SUNSOFT: BLASTER MASTER!!!!!!!!!!

I'm just going to look at my collection on vgmdb. There's a reason why I'm not going to mention Etrian Odyssey and that's because I don't have them as originals. Otherwise, they would be mentioned.

2005:

#1 Mushihimesama OST - All of the music is good. Unless you need the statue, this is cheap on YJA.

#2 The Yamane Trio - Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, OZ (The Sword of Etheria). Each of those has a lot of great music, but I find it challenging to listen to any one of them straight through.

2006:

#1 PinkSweets OST - It also comes with an arranged disc and because of it, this is #1. I first got the ape files from Nick G and listened to them over and over. I had no problem finding an original. The arrangements on this are intriguing and make me forget about reality. It's like reading an addictive book and forgetting, for the moment, that you exist.

#2 THE LEGEND OF HEROES "SORA NO KISEKI FC & SC" SUPER ARRANGE VERSION - I'm heavily invested in the FC, SC and 3rd LoH albums, since I own nearly all of them. There's a lot to buy, so that's quite a feat. Of course, there's a lot to love as well. This album is very generous.

2007:

#1 Ys Origin Super Arrange Version - I still can't get over how good "Silent Desert" is. It shocked me when I first heard it and the waves are still undulating.

#2 Hudson Premium Audio Collection - The sound quality is what gets me. It sounds old, but it isn't.

2008:

#1 Deathsmiles OST - There are a lot of perfect themes here. I remember this used to get listed at $150 on ebay and nowadays it's easy to pick up for around $30.

#2 Falcom jdk Band 2008 Spring - They sure do like to take long breaks between releases. By law, there should be a new jdk Band album every season.

2009:

#1 dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU [arrange album] - Way too easy. This is the easiest of all the years. I don't have a soul, but this is good for it.

#2 Mushihimesama Double Arrange Album - It just continues. Cave was at the top of the world in 2009.

I wanted to keep it at 2 per year, but I have to mention Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Brandish -The Dark Revenant-, 7th Dragon OST, Deathsmiles Premium Arrange and Chiptuned Rockman. More of that soul stuff.

2010:

#1 Guwange Arrange Album - When I first got this, it was unbelievable. I just couldn't comprehend how music could be so good. I played it at work and even my co-workers loved it.

#2 DO-DON-PACHI DAI-FUKKATSU ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK for iPhone / iPod touch - There are some messed up voters at vgmdb. This has a 3.33 and it deserves much higher. Probably people downloading and using inferior audio equipment...no idea, they have.

Like with 2010, there's so much more: Lord of Vermillion II, Falcom vs jdk Band Summer 2010, Dariusburst Remix Wonder World, Opoona, Ketsui ~Kizunajigokutachi~ EXTRA Limited Edition Bundled Bonus Special Soundtrack (another one I frequently played at work), Contra 4: Rocked 'n Loaded, and more, more, more....so much

2011-2015: will edit later,,,have to sleep

The only physical VGM album I have from the past decade is Twilight Symphony. I listen to it either shuffled up or all the way through at least twice a week. It's one of my favorites not just from the past decade, but in general.

Other than that, the albums that come to mind are all indie. FEZ OST and Ittle Dew, and Bean Dreams are three I've been digging on big time over the past few months. Oh, and Bastion! Transistor. VVVVVV. #sworcery.

2011:

#1 Muramasa: The Demon Blade Arrange version - One could mistake this for an SNK album, since it sounds like Samurai Spirits. I bought this during the height of the high yen in 2011, back when it took $100 to get 2 albums from CDJapan.

#2 Rom Cassette Disc In JALECO Remix - This is one of those sneaky albums. It slipped right past me and no one talked about it and I only found it because of the similar Sunsoft album.

2012:

#1 FALCOM BOSS ZANMAI - Due to the variety, this is like a Cave album. Falcom's arrange albums have always been pretty consistent, but this features a wide variety of styles. I looked up the meaning of "zanmai" and it fits this music.

#2 25th Anniversary Rockman Rock Arrange Ver. - Other than Sakimoto's incomprehensible arrangement of Metal Man, this is astonishing. One of my cousin's stated that track 2 is one of the best songs he's ever heard and he has no experience with Mega Man. I could easily handle a whole series of these, provided Sakimoto stays away.

2013:

#1 SORA NO KISEKI ZANMAI - This is truly luxurious music.

#2 7th Dragon 2020-II Original Soundtrack - I wanted to put another ZANMAI album here, but something else needs a chance. As with most of Koshiro's work, this is pretty easy to listen to straight through. I stayed away for a while, just because no one was talking about it and the fact that TOKI TO TOWA wasn't that impressive. But curiosity and Xlord007's statement finally convinced me.

2014:

#1 Re:Birth II -Sen- / "SaGa" BATTLE ARRANGE - For a long time, I thought that Dangerous Mezashi could not be bested, but they have. This is superior stuff.

#2 Street Fighter Compilation "RE:"MIX Chiptune - This was a high risk purchase, but I'm pleased with it.

2015:

Can't say nothing yet. It ain't halfway through 2016 yet.

Most amazing original soundtracks of older games released in 2005-2014:

#1 Sorcerian Mega Drive Version Original Sound Track - I got so damned lucky that Otaku still had one in stock. Otherwise, this requires about 10,000 yen on YJA. If you like Sorcerian, this is a requirement.

#2 Sorcerian Original Soundtrack Vol.1 + Vol.2 - The looping is generous, the sound quality is superb and the compositions are peerless. It's not possible for a finer release to have been released.

#3 Brandish Original Sound Track ~FM TOWNS & Renewal~ - The sound quality of the PC-98 and FM Towns is beautiful.

#4 Bare Knuckle Original Soundtrack - It's just unending happiness.

#5 Banjo-Kazooie: Everything and the Kitchen Sink! - I don't have this on my shelf and I couldn't possibly listen to it straight through, but it is fun to have all the music.

Curious here. Is this better than the 20th Anniversary discs? I thought those were kind of awful and out of all the albums I gotten rid of over the years I don't miss them at all.

Additionally, Wild Arms -rocking heart- was pretty good and I'm not usually a fan of arranged discs.

2005-2015? I'll be echoing some prior picks for sure!

-OSTs
1. NieR Gestlat & Replicant (2010)
Without doubt, the greatest soundtrack in the last ten years. Never have vocals been used as expertly, and consistently in a soundtrack as they are here. The spiritual successor to its music, Drakenguard 3, didn't have quite the consistency that this title does- but I've great anticipation to hear Emi Evans, Okabe, and the rest return for the newly announced NieR title in the distant future. 

2. Dragon Quest VIII Symphonic Suite (2009)
In terms of quality consistency, it's right up there with DQIV, however IV's highs are higher than VIIIs, I think. Nearly every track is both listenable and lush. It's unfortunate, but the recording quality leaves a bit to be desired.. (there were few in the hall to absorb the sound, which would have reduced the echo present here). Fortunately, the consistently excellent tune quality and variety keeps this really high for me.

3. Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
Grand, ambient, melodic, kinetic, lonely tunes. Some of the battle songs get a little old after repeating twice over, but I find the work holds up well despite. Otani is to return for Last Guardian, yeah? We may see his brilliance again next year .

4. Tales of Legendia (2005)
Boasts some of the greatest recording quality in all of modern VGM. Being that it is primarily orchestral, melodic, and and has a large variance in themes.. it's a winner. However, a few of the vocal themes and interludes were a bit of a letdown for me.

5. Ni no Kuni (2013)
Hisaishi's Dragon Quest-esque heartfelt two-disc album is a joy for me. The vocal leitmotif is a strong yes! It's fun to hear Hisaishi in a different form of media. Consistently entertaining, with a larger variety of themes than some of his movie scores tend too (I'm looking at you, Howl. I know, I know.. it's not your fault, you were not meant to be listened to as an album were you? Ha..)

6. Killer7 (2005)
2005 was a great year in VGM! Masafumi's Takada's greatest soundtrack IMO. He is he king of ambient, background jams, the staple of this work. Whenever I find myself thinking of a song, 'This isn't particularly complex.. why am I listening to..?' then comes a sweet hook or interesting beat to set the TONE for a few minutes. This is a colorful work.

7. Final Fantasy XII (2006)
I've need to go back and listen to this one in full (it's a juggernaut..). This is not my favorite Sakimoto OST, Vagrant Story is for sheer consistent brilliancy. But, where Vagrant Story is percussive, complex, and dark; XII is lighthearted, melodic, and grand. It is also, unfortunately, a bit too bombastic in some tracks which overstretch this work's welcome as I recall. But, I digress, I've need to revisit the work in full.

8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
Soule's ambient tone extravaganza. Stark, shimmering, thick. Unfortunately, as is common in these modern OSTs, the battle themes are a weak point. This is not to be listened to straight through, behemoth length that it occupies; much better too dip one's toes into it for a time and walk out, having been transported to a meditative place for a while.

Honorable Mentions:
The Last Ranker (2010) - anyone excited for Shimomura's composing a full Final Fantasy title? Yesssuh .
Opoona (2010) - Hisaishi's best work since XII, but it's a bit inconsistent.
Journey (2012) - the soundtrack that put Wintory on the map for many!

Just two soundtracks have I listened to from 2015: Witcher III & Ori and the Blind Forest. Ori was preferable, however I can't see myself revisiting either in future years.

Yes, it is better. I have no desire to acquire the 20th anniv. discs as originals. I think I have an ape rip of Rocking Heart; I'll have to check that out.

Arranged & Original Albums

1. Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo (2014)
The best thing to happen in VGM since the golden age in the 90s/early 00s. This album is still the benchmark of an excellent orchestral VGM arrangement album experience.

2. drammatica (2008)
The only Shimomura album anyone needs (in addition to SF: Tokyo for the KH representation). Memoria (2014)  is a nice companion piece, but due to the hodgepodge song selection it doesn't work quite as well as a cohesive album experience.

3. Final Symphony (2015)
2015's greatest VGM release thus far. It's only let down by some meandering bits in the FFVI and FFVII arrangements. I found the last movement of the FFX piano concerto to be especially moving.

4. The Black Mages III (2008)
Rockin' out with some mostly under-represented FF battle tunes? Count me in! Consistently puts a smile on my face.

5. Live Music by Piano and Strings: Sekaiju no MeiQ I & II Super Arrange (2008)
Hibino's laid back arrangements of what were initially solid Koshiro tunes, propels the pieces to new heights. This is an exceedingly relaxing experience!

6. Myth: The Xenogears Orchestral Album (2011)
The Mitsuda trilogy: Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Chrono Cross is unstoppable. I'd love to hear more orchestral arrangements like this! Not quite as classic as Creid, as these are pretty copy and paste arrangements by and large.. but.. c'mon! it's Xenogears (orchestrated!) It's a joy.

A shout out to these titles as well.
kirite (2005)
Symphonic Odysseys (2011) - [esp. Light of Silence from Chrono Trigger. Wow.]

Final Fantasy XIV's soundtrack is nothing short of amazing.  As is Bravely Default's.

Just some minor followup notes:

-Alphabet Planet is my second favorite Kikuta album, after Seiken 3. I don't even worry about rating the tracks on this one, I just pop it on and enjoy the Kikuta-ness. A very good high quality problem album. Similarly, I adore Lost Files (I got my copy signed by Kikuta when he was at Otakon one year).

- Mario Kart 8 is indeed a high quality problem. Almost too much good music to take in. No surprise there, since I was familiar with the game, but the DLC tracks on the OST were unexpected. F-Zero tracks with hard rock and horns? It works extremely well.

-Relistened to Chiptuned Rockman. It's not as amazing as originally thought (before the whole chiptune arrange thing became a thing). Is the problem with only listening to an album once.

-Relistened to Ys Origin and the arrange over the past week. Probably my favorite overall thing to come out of new-school Falcom, although the newer Legend of Heroes soundtracks are always good for a decent handful of tracks (Fate of the Fairies from 2 being a large example). To me, my dividing line between "oldschool Falcom" and "newschool Falcom" is when Zwei!! was released back in 2001.

-Rocking Heart and the 25th Rockman Rock album are very similar in ideas: multiple arrangers, doesn't really stick to one style of rock. Neither are favorites, but both have their share of good tracks as well as forgettable ones. I find inconsistency to be a common theme of modern arrange albums (although this is true of many of the ones I have come across) Would recommend a Youtube sampling of them, at the very least.

-Two flawed but fun arrange albums for me were both Black Mages II and the Famicom 20th Anniversary Arrange. There are a number of tracks that keep me coming back to both of these, but both benefited from some trimming and my favorites were not the ones I would have originally predicted.

-I probably need to listen to FFXIV, Nier, Shining Hearts, Street Fighter Chiptune (I didn't even know about this one until Jodo mentioned it above), drammatica and Ni no Kuni at some point.

-The Sekaijuu no Meikyuu soundtracks score some major points with me for their oldschool sensibilities, but fall short because the good stuff is very predictable and the majority of the Labyrinth themes are sleep inducing. Good stuff, but didn't perk my excitement up as much as I was hoping. I have yet to explore their arrange albums though.

Looking over other posts, I realized that I totally like ... I do this thing where I have boxed CAVE music off as something completely separate from the rest of VGM I listen to. Which is reeeeally weird.

If I were to edit my post to include CAVE, it would have ... a looot of CAVE in it, both OST and arrange. Deathsmiles, Ibara, DDP DF ("white label" OST and "black label" as well), Shin Akai Katana, maybe even their unusual visual novel Instant Brain. Oh, and all the Mushihimesamas. There is not a bad Mushi release from CAVE IMO.

I'm going to go out on the unpopular opinion limb and just state for the record that both Cave and Falcom have their good albums but to the exclusion of almost all other releases in the last 10 years is crazy. They are not that good, everything they do sounds the same.

I'll add skyrim to my list though, per a suggestion above.

  Can you provide evidence that shows they really do sound the same? If you're right, then I'm going to whittle my whole Cave/Falcom collection down to just one album, since they all sound the same! While I'm at it, I'll even cut off my left hand, since it looks just like my right hand!

It's all just generic rock vgm arrange stuff, it doesn't have very much depth nor has anything stood out to me in the last 10 years since Zwei!! (which I loved) or VM Japan (which I hate). It gets tiresome very quick.

Instead of blasting (inverse pun) what makes you tired, what music gives you energy?

Well, that's not really accurate. I'm not that interested in most Cave music because most of it is electronica and doesn't hold my interest very long. The tracks I do like tend to have a strong sense of melody. There's SOME good stuff in there (Pinksweets is pretty good, especially the arrange side, and I have a soft spot for the two ESPGaluda soundtracks), but nothing I feel the need to own as a physical copy.

Newer Falcom has just the opposite problem to me: It can't decide if it wants to be synth-orchestra, rock or techno and usually is an uncoordinated mish-mash of all three. I'm also not a big fan of Yukihiro Jindo at all. Again, each individual soundtrack I can pick some individual tracks, but Ys Origin is probably the one time it all came together for me. By contrast, I was huge on Oath of Felghana when it first came out, before I started to feel like the hodge-podge of styles just brought the whole thing down. Even the rock stuff, the guitar tone is just awful to me most of the time. Now if you want to say the majority of CLASSIC Falcom is generic 80's rock...I can't really argue with that. I wish more newer Falcom stuff sounded more like that.

Just noticed I completely forgot to add Echochrome.. big fan of the string quartet work in that soundtrack from 2008.

Completely agree about Sekaijuu no Meikyuu's tendency to mesh together in a predictable soup of sound after a time [at least in the soundtracks]. The live strings arranged album does a fine job of keeping intrigue and variety.

It sounds like I'll have to revisit Ys Origin.. For Oath in Felghana, I've always preferred the Redbook because it just holds the type of sound I want for that rock. AKA that campy, driving 90s synth. However, my favorite Ys experiences are.. the first fifteen tracks which make up the OST on Music from Ys. Favorite Falcom arrange? Ys IV Perfect Collection Vol.1 all the way! Yeah.. I prefer old school Falcom ha..

Alphabet Soup and Lost Files added to the queue. Kikuta's the man when he's on point! (SD2, Soukaigi)