Most underrated soundtrack?

[Fynn]

So I know that 90% of the fandom has gone mad and thinks one of the worst soundtracks in the series is the best one (madmen!), but thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that one of my favorite soundtrack in the whole FF series gets very little attention?

So which FF soundtrack do you think doesn't get enough credit?

For me, it's FFV. Sure, everyone remembers Clash on the Big Bridge, but this soundtrack is not only filled with absolute gems, it's also one of the more consistent soundtracks with an atmosphere of light-hearted adventure, wonder, and heroism just constantly present.

I mean, the main theme - Agead on Our Way? So uplifting!



The boss theme is slow and incredibly intense - definitely stands out from most of the series!



The ever nostalgic Home Sweet Home



The very regal sounding Royal Palace



The hauntingly beautiful I Feel as You Feel



And one of my favorites, the Dawn Warriors!



And these are just a few examples. The entire soundtrack is gold and so often overlooked, and I have no idea why. Easily one of Uematsu's best work.

[Wolf Kanno]

Probably the first five entries. II and III especially have some great tracks that are overshadowed by later entries. Hell I feel IV and V suffer from having some tracks that are superb but are always in the shadow of more popular tracks from within their own game.

[Darth Ganon]

I don't see Final Fantasy XII get a lot of praise in this regard unless I'm looking in the wrong places. The OST was one of the saving graces for that game.

Since the thread opened up with FFV, I'll throw in one of my favorites:



Also, any excuse to post this one:



That conductor is just SO happy.

[Loony BoB]

FFXII without a doubt for me. FFVII and FFXII are my two favourite soundtracks. FFXII is absolutely underrated, the songs are just beautiful to listen to in and out of the game. I have a FFXII soundtrack playlist on my PC which I regularly use when doing all kinds of unrelated activities. It just has much more to it than a simple melody.

[Fynn]

Yup, FFXII is another amazing soundtrack that gets overlooked for insanely stupid reasons.

[Vyk]

I'd be tempted to agree, but I hear Final Fantasy XII music in so many places, it makes me think the one composer of the two doesn't have a lot of range. I recognize the same style in Valkyria Chronicles, Odin Sphere, Dragons Crown, Muramasa, Crystal Defenders, every Tactics game. Though the consistency is nice for same-world games like Valkyria, and the Ivalice games, it's weird to hear almost the same music in a lot of VanillaWare games as well. And every time, it catches me off guard as to where I heard this music before and have to look him up, and it instantly makes sense

I like the music, but I hear it so much and it's so similar, it's become something I'm never really interested in acquiring the soundtrack to because it feels like I could just get that music elsewhere

But on topic, as a game, it is definitely one of the more under-appreciated soundtracks in the fandom

[Fynn]

To be fair, it's not like Uematsu, Shimomura, Sugiyama or Hamauzu aren't just as samey. Shimomura probably has the most ranged, but she's classically trained so she knows what she's doing the best. While Sugiyama and Hamauzu are too, Sugiyama is just a super conservatist, while Hamauzu is too busy dreaming up impressionistic landscapes, so they don't care about having range XD

[Karifean]

I'll throw in a vote for FF IX. Such a good OST. But somehow not brought up a lot??

[Lyndis Highwind]

I agree with V! "Home Sweet Home" is one of my favorite FF tracks ever.

[Fynn]

I'll throw in a vote for FF IX. Such a good OST. But somehow not brought up a lot??

I actually always thought IX was rightfully appreciated as one of the best soundtracks in the series, actually. But maybe that's because we have a lot of IX fans here and they just gush about the soundtrack in between gushing about the game, so it just gets drowned out

[ham]

Sometimes it's hard for me to listen to music because at some point, all of the sounds just sound like static noise. I usually go by how the music is introduced in a scene and what emotions are running through me at the time. It doesn't happen often but what criteria, if any, do you guys choose when picking what you like?

To add to the discussion I like this track from FF2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onM81DpgSgs

I don't know how to emb the link

[Galuf]

Strange I always thought ffv was in the top 3 most popular osts of FF lol

Well yeah ffxii is extremely underrated. Definatly in my top 5 soundtracks of FF.
But ima choose FF2 much like the game itself no one remembers any song from this game. Save pandemonium but thats probably cos of FF9 maybe or Dissidias remix. Which is awesome btw. but yeah. I like FF2 music so meow

[Yubel-Lover]

Definitely FFXII. Things like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfzBkZ1YxXw

And this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ2rw-VDwfA

And this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpXe6VTjvnk

Are really well done and fit the atmosphere perfectly.

[Vyk]

Just a heads up guys, since someone taught me once, and it's not common knowledge, but the YouTube embedding has a youtube tag, much like you would use a spoiler tag. And I believe you just have to put the watch code in it. So with brackets instead of parentheses it would look like (youtube)xtpowu893(/youtube) I believe

[Darth Ganon]

A few more FFXII tracks to enjoy:

what criteria, if any, do you guys choose when picking what you like?

Mostly it just has to be catchy. Something that tickles my eardrums, but there are some instances where I'm drawn to something due to a moment.

A prime example being Aerith's Theme. It's nice, but I'm not a huge fan of it on its own (it's used earlier in the game and didn't spark anything in me). The moment where it's playing instead of J-E-N-O-V-A during the Jenova LIFE battle and the scenes before and after it is what won me over. That was some powerful stuff to me back in the day.