Board 8 > Which Nobuo Uematsu Final Fantasy Soundtrack is Best?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What say ye, Board 8?
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VIII really does have a superior soundtrack.
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6 and 8

I'd pick 6 overall because the SNES sounds aged so much better than the PS1's. Hook it up to an HD soundbar or something and the FF6 soundtrack sounds amaaaazzing.

There's also more songs overall in 6 that are top tier. My opinion of course, but it comes out that way when I count them.
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My heart says 7 (obv) but really 8 was the best

8, no doubt. Force Your Way, Balamb Garden, The Extreme, The Man With The Machinegun...so many classics.
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you're doin' me proud B8
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8 or bust
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IX > VI > VII > VIII
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Despite it being my favorite game, I only recently came to the conclusion it had the best soundtrack after all.

Well, second to FFX, but that's cause I love Hamauzu too.
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VIII has the highest number of incredible songs, IX has a soundtrack that is constantly great. I gotta give it to 9 since that is a very rare phenomenon in a video game.
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It's always VI vs. VIII for me depending on my mood. In more of a VI mood today
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VIII is the worst game he worked on, but it's soundtrack is amazing. I mean I hate triple triad, but that song is just perfect for a card game!
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How do you hate Triple Triad?
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6

10 the best tho
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Only one of these has Shuffle or Boogie
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FFVIII wins easily as far as battle music, but it's not very good otherwise outside of Liberi Fatali, The Landing, Fisherman's Horizon, and a few others.

I gotta go with FFVII, where almost every track feels inspired to me, even the unpopular ones.
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Sorry losers, it's FFVII.

The primary job of a video game soundtrack is to create atmosphere, and his work on FFVII is unparalleled at doing just that.
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HarrietTubgirl posted...

The primary job of a video game soundtrack is to create atmosphere

If that were the case, we'd be lauding the music of games like Silent Hill.

Well, okay, @Snake5555555555 does that. But nobody else here really cares for those tracks.
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FFVII is one of the best OSTs in terms of the music matching the tone the game is going for.

VIII's is still better though.
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It is true that 8 does have more than a few lacklustre town/location tracks while 7's are all perfect (again, this could be my own bias but I don't think so)

Still think 8 is still stronger in total due to the more numerous standout tracks.

Wow 6 has really surged in the poll since last time I looked...

The airship theme in 8 is pretty rockin

I prefer 6's OST overall though
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Had to go with 7. Almost every track is great to some extent and almost none of them are forgettable.
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Naturally!

I agree that a VG soundtrack building atmosphere is very important even if those tracks aren't the ones that stand out to you the most necessarily. I'd take a million mood setters then a sweeping orchestral credits piece any day personally.
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9. But that may be the nostalgia talking.
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VII, easily.
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Way too many people here who like the opera and dancing mad, it seems.
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I tend to think it's FF9, even though I don't like FF9. Lots of inspired tracks.

FF6 is a good choice too though, and FF7 probably wins for best in-game use of the soundtrack, so depending on my mood I could vote for that.

FF8 has some real standouts but I always thought of it as the weak Uematsu soundtrack of the era anyway, there's a lot of mediocrity in there too.
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oh god, 6 and 8 are tied now?

This is madness.
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Okay, I'll concede this much. I rate a soundtrack on its top tier of songs, not going A-Z. There needs to be more than 1 or 2 good songs, but maybe I look at the top 5 or 6. FF8 has The Extreme, Man with the Machine Gun, Force Your Way, The Landing...might be weaker when talking about the non-battle tracks, but those aren't usually the ones that stand out to me in a FF game anyway.

The one game here I would have considered putting against 8 is 10. To Zanarkand alone is really tough competition. Throw in Seymour Battle and Silence Before the Storm, and I don't need a great deal else. 10 wasn't given as an option, though, despite all the tracks I named being composed by Nobuo.
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well if want to get really into it we'd have to do a tournament to decide which nobuo track is best.
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Hmm, a tournament to decide the best game soundtrack. I wonder if that's been done before...

Oh wait.
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azuarc posted...

The one game here I would have considered putting against 8 is 10. To Zanarkand alone is really tough competition. Throw in Seymour Battle and Silence Before the Storm, and I don't need a great deal else. 10 wasn't given as an option, though, despite all the tracks I named being composed by Nobuo.

CLANG
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azuarc posted...

Hmm, a tournament to decide the best game soundtrack. I wonder if that's been done before...

Oh wait.

Wrong. Not soundtrack. Just individual piece of music.
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Incidentally, I'd love to see Best OST run again. I don't know if I have the patience to do it again, now that I'm running VGMC. One tournament a year is enough for me. But if someone else was serious about hosting it, I'd be happy to consult.
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just look at the results of VGMC 1
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Obellisk posted...

Wrong. Not soundtrack. Just individual piece of music.

My mistake. I think someone did run a tournament like that once, but it was probably a while ago, and it was all FF.

I know Grapefruitking (RIP) did a few tournaments for single games, and one of those was FF7. Not sure he did any other FF games.
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NFUN posted...

just look at the results of VGMC 1

Meaning what? The best Nobuo Oematsu soundtrack is actually a Mitsuda soundtrack?
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azuarc posted...

Way too many people here who like the opera and dancing mad, it seems.

I mean FFVI is a great OST and I don't really care about those two songs so it's more than just that

best set of character themes in the series for one thing
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azuarc posted...

NFUN posted...

just look at the results of VGMC 1

Meaning what? The best Nobuo Oematsu soundtrack is actually a Mitsuda soundtrack?

I just remember there being like 20 FF songs
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I am happy to see my two favorites in the lead, but I still think 8 has a better overall body of work
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poll results are truly distressing. 8 only has a handful of good songs.

8 definitely has the most extremely good highs but as other people have said, I think others are more consistently good overall. I'd go with 9, then 6, then 7 (which might be a contender for best if the instrumentation wasn't so shitty).
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Opposite!

8 wins because it's the most consistent! 9 is the one with some standouts but some filler.
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colliding posted...

poll results are truly distressing. 8 only has a handful of good songs.

you must have really big hands
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while playing i think i enjoy listening to VII and IX the most, because they have both the two best battle themes AND the two best world map themes. while VI and VIII are more consistently great if i'm listening to the whole soundtrack not weighted towards certain songs. VIII is especially weird in that it has such a bad world map theme (only V's first one is worse) but probably my favorite soundtrack as a whole.

i'm curious what VII would sound like with the same sound quality that VIII and IX had. that's really the only thing holding it back.
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The one with man with a machine gun
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sounds like we need a major 6 vs. 8 tournament
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tazzyboyishere posted...

6

10 the best tho

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I'm happy that 6 is winning

We should do a 6 VS 8 contest where 50 (maybe just 40) songs are picked from each, and a song from each game is put up every day for 50 (40?) days. Both songs are rated out of 10, and a record is kept. Winner is the game with a better average rating
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a full rating of the entire soundtrack for both games. then the top 30 from each are entered into a 64 team tournament. 4 wild card spots.
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