RPGFan - 20 years of essential RPG soundtracks (USA, 2018)

[Pierre]

https://www.rpgfan.com/feature/20-years ... undtracks/

By RPG, the website refers specifically to video games RPG.

RPGFan is a veteran website covering, as you may have guessed, RPG video games and some tangential genres. The website was actually founded in late 1999 but they decided in 2018 to celebrate their 20th anniversary (the founders must have been a community in some form before the website was actually founded I guess). They are well-respected and still very active despite the website being pretty old by now.

They also on occasions review soundtracks, and those reviews are also well-regarded; the RYM of video game music, VGMdb, actually links the RPGFan reviews for the records which have been reviewed by the website. For their 20th anniversary feature in 2018, they decided to compile a list highlighting the "defining soundtracks" of each year from 1998-2017. For each year, there was one winner and a few runner-ups. Of course, due to the fact that RPG video games have been for a very long time a specialty of Japanese video game developers, and their respective soundtracks being lauded for their quality, the immense majority of the composers featured here are from the land of the rising sun.




1998
Yasunori Mitsuda [光田康典] | Xenogears Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Kōji Kondō [近藤浩治] | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Original Sound Track
Yōko Shimomura [下村陽子] | [parasite eve] Original Soundtrack


1999
Yasunori Mitsuda [光田康典] | Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Nobuo Uematsu [植松伸夫] | Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack
Toshiko Tasaki [田崎寿子], Kenichi Tsuchiya [土屋憲一] & Masaki Kurokawa [黒川真毅] | Persona 2 Tsumi Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Persona 2: Innocent Sins]
Masashi Hamauzu [浜渦正志] | SaGa FRONTIER II Original Soundtrack


2000
Yutaka Minobe [蓑部雄崇] & Tatsuyuki Maeda [前田龍之] | Eternal Arcadia Original Sound Track [soundtrack to Skies of Arcadia]

Runner-ups:
Nobuo Uematsu [植松伸夫] | Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack
Motoi Sakuraba [桜庭統] | Valkyrie Profile Original Sound Track
Kōichi Sugiyama [すぎやまこういち] | Kōkyō Kumikyoku Dragon Quest VII ~Eden no Senshitachi~ + Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past]
Kōji Kondō [近藤浩治] | Zelda no Densetsu: Mujura no Kamen Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]


2001
Nobuo Uematsu [植松伸夫], Junya Nakano [仲野順也] & Masashi Hamauzu [浜渦正志] | Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Yoshitaka Hirota [弘田佳孝] | Shadow Hearts Original Soundtracks plus1
Falcom Sound Team JDK | Ys & Ys II Eternal Original Sound Track


2002
Yōko Shimomura [下村陽子] | Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Yasunori Mitsuda [光田康典] | Xenosaga Original Soundtrack
Michiko Naruke [なるけみちこ] | Wild Arms Advanced 3rd Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Wild Arms 3]


2003
Masashi Hamauzu [浜渦正志] | UNLIMITED:SaGa Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Kenta Nagata [永田権太], Hajime Wakai [若井淑], Tōru Minegishi [峰岸透] & Kōji Kondō [近藤浩治] | The Legend of Zelda/Zelda no Densetsu ~Kaze no Takt~ Original Sound Tracks [soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker]
Shōji Meguro [目黒将司] | Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack


2004
Akira Tsuchiya [土屋暁], Ken Nakagawa [中河健] & Daisuke Achiwa [阿知波大輔] | Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Kōichi Sugiyama [すぎやまこういち] | Dragon Quest VIII Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King]
Yuki Kajiura [梶浦由記] | Xenosaga II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse - Movie Scene Soundtrack


2005
Falcom Sound Team jdk | Ys: The Oath in Felghana Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Shōji Meguro [目黒将司] | Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner 1 & 2 Original Sound Track: Integral [soundtracks to Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga and Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2]
Kenji Itō [伊藤賢治] | Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Original Soundtrack


2006
Shōji Meguro [目黒将司] | PERSONA3 Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Hitoshi Sakimoto [崎元仁] | Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack
Yōko Shimomura [下村陽子] | Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack


2007
Falcom Sound Team jdk | Ys Origin Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Takeharu Ishimoto [石元丈晴] | Subarashiki Kono Sekai Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to The World Ends with You]
Yūzō Koshiro [古代祐三] | Sekaiju no Meikyū Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Etrian Odyssey]


2008
Shōji Meguro [目黒将司] | Persona4 Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Hitoshi Sakimoto [崎元仁] | Senjō no Valkyria - Gallian Chronicles Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Valkyria Chronicles]
Nobuo Uematsu [植松伸夫] | Lost Odyssey Original Soundtrack


2009
Various Artists | Nintendo DS Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver Music Super Complete

Runner-ups:
Falcom Sound Team jdk | Ys Seven Original Sound Track
Riei Saito [齋藤理詠] | Fragile ~Sayonara Tsuki no Haikyo~ Original Soundtrack Plus [soundtrack to Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon]


2010
Yōko Shimomura [下村陽子], ACE+, Manami Kiyota [清田愛未] & Yasunori Mitsuda [光田康典] | Xenoblade Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Xenoblade Chronicles]

Runner-ups:
Keiichi Okabe [岡部啓一] | NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack
Masashi Hamauzu [浜渦正志] | Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack


2011
Masashi Hamauzu [浜渦正志], Naoshi Mizuta [水田直志] & Mitsuto Suzuki [鈴木光人] | Final Fantasy XIII-2 Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Joe Hisaishi [久石譲] | Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madōshi Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn; also re-released in an expanded version in 2013 as Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch]
Darren Korb | Bastion Original Soundtrack


2012
Revo | Bravely Default Flying Fairy Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Yūzō Koshiro [古代祐三] | Sekaiju no Meikyū IV *Denshō no Kyojin* Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan]
Masafumi Takada [高田雅史] | Super Danganronpa 2 Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair]


2013
Masashi Hamauzu [浜渦正志], Naoshi Mizuta [水田直志] & Mitsuto Suzuki [鈴木光人] | Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Falcom Sound Team jdk | The Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel]
Various Artists [mainly Nobuo Uematsu though] | Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Compilation Album [compilation]


2014
Masayoshi Soken [祖堅正慶] | Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Original Soundtrack

Runners-ups:
Ryota Kozuka [小塚良太] | Shin Megami Tensei IV Original Soundtrack
Darren Korb | Transistor Original Soundtrack


2015
Toby Fox | Undertale Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Hiroyuki Sawano [澤野弘之] | XenobladeX Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to Xenoblade Chronicles X]
Takeharu Ishimoto [石元丈晴] | Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Original Soundtrack


2016
Masayoshi Soken [祖堅正慶] | Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Yōko Shimomura [下村陽子] | Final Fantasy XV Original Soundtrack
Tōru Minegishi [峰岸透] & Asuka Ohta [太田あすか] | Zelda no Densetsu Twilight Princess HD Original Soundtrack [soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD]
Various Artists | Pokémon Sun & Moon Super Music Complete


2017
MONACA | NieR: Automata Original Soundtrack

Runner-ups:
Shōji Meguro [目黒将司] & Toshiki Konishi [小西利樹] | Persona5 Original Soundtrack
Hayato Asano [浅野隼人] | Blue Reflection Official Soundtrack