Well, IMHO Star Wars beats the crap out LotR movies, including The Two Towers, and so does Final Fantasy IX's music beat the crap out of Xenosaga OST.
I think Xenosaga soundtrack has one major problem. It's grand, yes, it uses orchestral music. But that's too bombastic for the game. It doesn't suit the game at all. That's why, most of the game has the music muted, because the music takes the player's attention too much away from the actual gameplay. It's like you once said, Silent Warrior, the music can either be blending or competitive; it can either work as a background music to improve ambience or it can try to "compete" with the game, making the player pay more attention into the music than into the game. Xenosaga's music sure is competitive. Here's some stuff that Xenosaga players have said about the game's music:
Contrary to normal RPG standards, a lot of locations in the game don't have BGM, or have a very understated background score. While this is in keeping with the atmosphere, sometimes it gets a little boring. The battle score is quite good, but there's only one score used throughout the entire game, for both peon and boss fights, and it gets tedious rather quickly.
The problem lies in many of the gameplay-oriented scenes. Many places such as ships and towns do not have background music. They only have sound effects. I did not find this to be too much of a problem, though it definitely held back the game from being more effective. Memorable pieces of music attached to locales can really enhance the game for the player.
There is also only one type of battle music throughout the entire game up until the final battle. This definitely was a problem. Some of the fights were of such epic scope they demanded different music. But when you heard the same music as encountering the peon masses of enemies, you lose something.
Music 4/10
I was expecting to heard celtic, choir pieces throughout the game like Xenogears. Instead there was nothing. Sometimes one of two seconds of the main theme ''kokoro'' flows thru, but most of the story unfolds like a TV show with very little BGM. Again, the designers probably made a conscious choice NOT to have BGM, but it is a bit of a let down with Mitsuda-san as the composer and no music to be heard.
The Bad
Of course, every game has its downside, and though the big ''flaws'' you've probably heard about already from other reviews are mostly untrue (in my opinion), a few other very minor gripes can certainly be made.
First of all, the game's soundtrack, while exceptionally good (perhaps one of the best soundtracks any game has ever known), isn't used as well as it could be. Many of the game's best themes are played only once, and others are repeated far too often. Regular and boss battles use the same battle theme (though it's an extremely good one that never gets old, thankfully), with the only change occurring during the game's final struggle. And many dungeons are completely musicless, relying solely on atmospheric sound effects -- definitely done on purpose, and certainly not terrible, but whether or not it successfully heightens the atmosphere or just misses an opportunity remains to be decided.
For other stuff, I don't think there's a Chrono Cross piano soundtrack. Radical Dreamers OST does exist, but I'm not sure if it's sold anywhere anymore.
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