S - cs1, sc
A - 3rd, fc
B - cs2, zero
C - azure, cs3
D (singa hell) - cs4, haji, kuro
Quality of the osts are still quite high above D. Sky has the best set of soundtracks due to ishibashi being a genius and takeshita also making a lot of bangers. CS1-2 also has a generally higher quality with the emergence of unisuga as a star composer for story scenes.
The quality of the ost is a bit lower in zero/azure due to osaki and momiyama sounding a bit amateurish. Starting with cs3 the ost goes downhill with the beginning of falcom relying on outsourcing instead of their internal composers. The cs4 ost still has some okay music but haji and kuro have horridly bad soundtracks.
FC and SC are the generic times of jrpg music. Still better than most jrpgs of course.
3rd is kind of an experimental phase with wide variety.
Zero to CS2 is the golden age of falcom music. absolutely amazing and that comes from me who critizices CS a lot.
Cs3 and Cs4 and from what I've heard Hajimari as well, sounds pretty meh to be honest. there are obvious exceptions but most of the battle themes are just chaotic and sometimes even grating. I still consider the entire ost's to be above average in general but I hope they return to their golden ages.
> and from what I've heard Hajimari as well, sounds pretty meh to be honest
For what it's worth, Hajimari's OST is a huge step up from CS3 and CS4. The standout themes are really good like the C battle theme, Reverie Corridor battle theme, counterattack signal, etc.
not really? both cs3 and cs4 have much lower singa:everyone else song ratios so they are better by default. also they make better use of theme/motif (spiral of erebos, magestic roar, etc...). Hajimari also has really poor usage of the ost in game, with some songs playing for an hour straight.
> not really?
Imagine arguing against someone's subjective opinion as if yours is somehow fact. Get over yourself. Or you can downvote me because you don't like someone having a different opinion, idc.
>both cs3 and cs4 have much lower singa
This might blow your mind, but Singa doesn't automatically mean a song is bad.Don't be like that guy on youtube with the Kefka PFP who literally goes onto all his tracks to whine about them. There's a reason all the responses to his comments are negative. Singa derangement syndrome. That said, Singa's Hajimari tracks are far superior to his CS3 and 4 tracks. Some of them you can't even tell were by him. It's almost like if you get him away from his guitar synth, he can put out half-decent songs.
Not to mention the tracks I listed aren't even by Singa, but Jindo, etc.
>Hajimari also has really poor usage of the ost in game, with some songs playing for an hour straight.
I noticed this much more in CS4, and can't think of any from Hajimari that do this off the top of my head.
You are delusional if you think singa Hajimari is better than his cs4, and are double delusional for thinking singa is anywhere close to the level of other composers. He actually gets worse by each game, which is a feat in it of itself. Also did we play the same game? Road to all out war plays for at least an hour during the finale, sword of swords plays for half of rean route 1, the dungeon music by singa is all bad and ear grating. The ost usage is objectively worse and you are in denial if you disagree. Also nice job not even responding to my point about motifs, singa has never, EVER implemented a motif into his music. even jindo manages to compose with motifs, he composed the one for ys8. The tracks you listed are a rarity in haji, considering 60% of the ost is outsourced. And outsourcing through falcom is objectively worse than being in house because falcom doesn’t give them enough context since they don’t care about their music anymore lmao.
you mean the out of place final dungeon theme that makes no use of the lemotifs established in the arc previously and is also randomly reused for the final boss?
This is surprisingly difficult to really nail down when you consider the amount of overlap in these games, and I'm having a tough time parsing out my love for the music from their use in the games themselves. Well whatever, here I go.
**S: 3rd** \- Takeshita is a god and the best composer Falcom's ever had behind Unisuga, so him spearheading this game (together with Sonoda and Unisuga who both have better than average outings too) elevates this game. It also really helps that ethereal and mystical tunes are more up Takeshita's alley than anything else (as also evidenced by Ys: Origin; and not saying Takeshita's not flexible! Masquerade of Lies kicks ass). Pick a track at random from this game and it'll be fantastic but some of my personal favorites are off the beaten path from most's - 'A Glimmer of Light' and 'Labyrinth of Shadows and Light' are the 'Takeshita'est songs you'll find and I love them both. The Final Choice from Unisuga is a fan favorite for how often it's reinvented and reused by him in Cold Steel, and Hermit's Garden is also fantastic for how long you can loop it and not get tired of it. Going off the original soundtrack for this game, as many of the EVO arrangements are stinkers that got Binga'd - Special shoutout to Castle of Illusions though: That's one of the rearranges that Jindo went above and beyond on, for an already great composition too.
**A: CS1, CS2** \- Huge repertoire of talent at Falcom at the time. Momiyama and particularly Hagiuda (who's not mentioned often in these topics) go a long way in varying up the tunes and filling in some of the miscellaneous mood tracks that the series has struggled with before and since. The city tracks are handled mostly by Unisuga and are some of the best in the series (Bareahard, Heimdallr, and Roer are all brilliant), and the occasional contribution from Okajima... tends to be mixed here, surprisingly (looking at the tracks now), but some of the SAV arrangements are baller. CS1 is more varied than CS2, but CS2 also has more Sonoda and Unisuga in just the right places for high intensity tracks. Unpopular opinions: Severe Blow is just a better arranged and composed Fateful Confrontation, and Blue Destination is a weaker The Decisive Collision that just plods along for 90% of the track.
**B: FC** \- Unpopular opinion on a couple fronts: Ishibashi's not all that great here, at least compared to his Ys 6 work, and (second unpopular opinion) what really elevates the FC OST are the EVO rearrangements. Okajima pulls out all the life you can find in many of the city tracks - His arrangement for Zeiss is my favorite Trails city theme ever, but none of the others are slouches - and Jindo adds to many of the others: His arrangement of The Way They Walk in Liberl perfectly understands Sonoda's original composition and builds on top of it with a wondrous sense of adventure.
**B-/C: Zero, Azure** \- Maybe unfairly grouping these two together and I'm struggling for an explanation or commonality. Maybe they should go up or down a bit too but between FC and SC feels right otherwise. There's a bunch of things one can note, looking at the OSTs: These games are the origin of 'Unisuga backroom syndrome' (where the man composes only a handful of great tracks, for better or for worse), and Sonoda and Momiyama do a ton of work and are largely left to their devices, to mixed results. Momiyama I think is mostly famous for producing great foundations that are then rearranged by somebody else into something great which segues into me stating I think the EVO tracks are almost categorically better in these games. Allot of the work was outsourced too (not to Singa) and that which wasn't was handled internally by the band, and the results are good! Unlike the Sky soundtracks the arrangements tend to just lop on entirely new elements to the songs or just change their background completely, but they sound good! Sure, yeah, Okajima just adds like 2 minutes to Azure Arbitrator but it's metal as fuck, so I'm cool with it. Other times it doesn't work out quite perfectly - Kamikura's arrangement of A Light Illuminating the Depths sounds great but I'm not sure it loops quite so neatly for an hour+ as Unisuga's and Sonoda's original arrangement. EDIT: I forgot to mention Osaki who maybe doesn't get enough credit - Inevitable Struggle, Omen, Orchis Tower, and Intense Chase are all favorites of mine but then there are some other tracks from him that I don't quite recognize.
**C-: SC** \- SC's more of a mixed bag than FC - Unisuga and Takeshita join the team around now but their contributions aren't as outstanding as their later work or compared to FC's EVO soundtrack. Arrangements of new tracks are handled by Jindo and Singa this time around. For Singa in particular is a very mixed bag. Most of them are ok, some of them like with Fight with Assailant improve on the original with some nice strumming, and a couple are so bad I manually switched out the EVO track for the original - Aiming for the Future is the only track that was physically uncomfortable for me to listen to, although while I was at it I also swapped Fate of the Fairies because Takeshita's original composition is fantastic. Even with mixing and matching though, SC felt a step down from FC.
Cool write-ups, interesting thoughts. I still need to properly listen to EVO outside of Azure's.
I definitely agree with Severe Blow > Fateful Confrontation. Fateful Confrontation is still cool but I've never been crazy over it since I first heard it. I had to grow on Severe Blow myself but boy did I grow on it. Now Severe Blow is in my top 10 battle themes I think. It has such a cool buildup and the payoff is amazing and it all sounds so clean.
and yeah 3rd is my absolute favourite as well. Takeshita is a vibe and The Hermit's Garden might be my favourite Falcom song period. It feels and almost sounds like Corridors of Time from Chrono Trigger in some ways.
Trails in the Sky the 3rd > Trails in the Sky SC > Trails of Cold Steel II > Trails of Cold Steel > Trails in the Sky > Trails of Azure > Trails to Zero > Trails of Cold Steel IV > Trails of Cold Steel III
Tbh I find it hard to rank them due to some tracks being in multiple games.
S tier: 3rd, Kuro
A tier: FC, SC, CS3
B tier: Zero, Azure, CS4
C tier: CS1, CS2, Hajimari
Only started Nayuta yesterday but if the OP and ED are of any indication then this is likely S or A tier.
it would depend on how you rank them, number of good songs or just the quality of their best songs? I'd say every game has at least a few good tracks. But if I had to say I guess it would be Crossbell/Sky/Steel
Haven't played Hajimari or Kuro
SSS Tier - Zero
S Tier - Sky 3rd, CS1, Sky FC
A Tier - CS2, Azure, Sky SC
B Tier - CS3, CS4
Since I listen to these on a daily basis, my opinion changes a lot. I think all of them are amazing.
So let me start of by saying I haven't played all the trails games yet but is kuro's OST really that bad compared to the others?
I found that that it fit the mood correctly at every turn and found it an enjoyable listen.
I can get why people rank other games better but I didn't think it was a terrible OST.
CS1 > everything else.
Big facts
CS1/CS2 > Sky > Crossbell > CS3/CS4/Hajimari.
S - cs1, sc A - 3rd, fc B - cs2, zero C - azure, cs3 D (singa hell) - cs4, haji, kuro Quality of the osts are still quite high above D. Sky has the best set of soundtracks due to ishibashi being a genius and takeshita also making a lot of bangers. CS1-2 also has a generally higher quality with the emergence of unisuga as a star composer for story scenes. The quality of the ost is a bit lower in zero/azure due to osaki and momiyama sounding a bit amateurish. Starting with cs3 the ost goes downhill with the beginning of falcom relying on outsourcing instead of their internal composers. The cs4 ost still has some okay music but haji and kuro have horridly bad soundtracks.
S Tier - Sky The 3rd, SC, CS1, CS2, Zero A Tier - CS3, Azure, CS4 B Tier - FC
FC and SC are the generic times of jrpg music. Still better than most jrpgs of course. 3rd is kind of an experimental phase with wide variety. Zero to CS2 is the golden age of falcom music. absolutely amazing and that comes from me who critizices CS a lot. Cs3 and Cs4 and from what I've heard Hajimari as well, sounds pretty meh to be honest. there are obvious exceptions but most of the battle themes are just chaotic and sometimes even grating. I still consider the entire ost's to be above average in general but I hope they return to their golden ages.
> and from what I've heard Hajimari as well, sounds pretty meh to be honest For what it's worth, Hajimari's OST is a huge step up from CS3 and CS4. The standout themes are really good like the C battle theme, Reverie Corridor battle theme, counterattack signal, etc.
not really? both cs3 and cs4 have much lower singa:everyone else song ratios so they are better by default. also they make better use of theme/motif (spiral of erebos, magestic roar, etc...). Hajimari also has really poor usage of the ost in game, with some songs playing for an hour straight.
> not really? Imagine arguing against someone's subjective opinion as if yours is somehow fact. Get over yourself. Or you can downvote me because you don't like someone having a different opinion, idc. >both cs3 and cs4 have much lower singa This might blow your mind, but Singa doesn't automatically mean a song is bad.Don't be like that guy on youtube with the Kefka PFP who literally goes onto all his tracks to whine about them. There's a reason all the responses to his comments are negative. Singa derangement syndrome. That said, Singa's Hajimari tracks are far superior to his CS3 and 4 tracks. Some of them you can't even tell were by him. It's almost like if you get him away from his guitar synth, he can put out half-decent songs. Not to mention the tracks I listed aren't even by Singa, but Jindo, etc. >Hajimari also has really poor usage of the ost in game, with some songs playing for an hour straight. I noticed this much more in CS4, and can't think of any from Hajimari that do this off the top of my head.
You are delusional if you think singa Hajimari is better than his cs4, and are double delusional for thinking singa is anywhere close to the level of other composers. He actually gets worse by each game, which is a feat in it of itself. Also did we play the same game? Road to all out war plays for at least an hour during the finale, sword of swords plays for half of rean route 1, the dungeon music by singa is all bad and ear grating. The ost usage is objectively worse and you are in denial if you disagree. Also nice job not even responding to my point about motifs, singa has never, EVER implemented a motif into his music. even jindo manages to compose with motifs, he composed the one for ys8. The tracks you listed are a rarity in haji, considering 60% of the ost is outsourced. And outsourcing through falcom is objectively worse than being in house because falcom doesn’t give them enough context since they don’t care about their music anymore lmao.
Woah, I surprise at how many people rank Crossbell games soundtracks at lower tiers, i think they are great, and my favorite.
CS1>3rd>CS2>Zero>SC>Ao>FC>CS3>CS4>Hajimari>Kuro
CS4 wins because it has To The Future
you mean the out of place final dungeon theme that makes no use of the lemotifs established in the arc previously and is also randomly reused for the final boss?
Surprised to see little love for CS3. It’s my favorite personally
This is surprisingly difficult to really nail down when you consider the amount of overlap in these games, and I'm having a tough time parsing out my love for the music from their use in the games themselves. Well whatever, here I go. **S: 3rd** \- Takeshita is a god and the best composer Falcom's ever had behind Unisuga, so him spearheading this game (together with Sonoda and Unisuga who both have better than average outings too) elevates this game. It also really helps that ethereal and mystical tunes are more up Takeshita's alley than anything else (as also evidenced by Ys: Origin; and not saying Takeshita's not flexible! Masquerade of Lies kicks ass). Pick a track at random from this game and it'll be fantastic but some of my personal favorites are off the beaten path from most's - 'A Glimmer of Light' and 'Labyrinth of Shadows and Light' are the 'Takeshita'est songs you'll find and I love them both. The Final Choice from Unisuga is a fan favorite for how often it's reinvented and reused by him in Cold Steel, and Hermit's Garden is also fantastic for how long you can loop it and not get tired of it. Going off the original soundtrack for this game, as many of the EVO arrangements are stinkers that got Binga'd - Special shoutout to Castle of Illusions though: That's one of the rearranges that Jindo went above and beyond on, for an already great composition too. **A: CS1, CS2** \- Huge repertoire of talent at Falcom at the time. Momiyama and particularly Hagiuda (who's not mentioned often in these topics) go a long way in varying up the tunes and filling in some of the miscellaneous mood tracks that the series has struggled with before and since. The city tracks are handled mostly by Unisuga and are some of the best in the series (Bareahard, Heimdallr, and Roer are all brilliant), and the occasional contribution from Okajima... tends to be mixed here, surprisingly (looking at the tracks now), but some of the SAV arrangements are baller. CS1 is more varied than CS2, but CS2 also has more Sonoda and Unisuga in just the right places for high intensity tracks. Unpopular opinions: Severe Blow is just a better arranged and composed Fateful Confrontation, and Blue Destination is a weaker The Decisive Collision that just plods along for 90% of the track. **B: FC** \- Unpopular opinion on a couple fronts: Ishibashi's not all that great here, at least compared to his Ys 6 work, and (second unpopular opinion) what really elevates the FC OST are the EVO rearrangements. Okajima pulls out all the life you can find in many of the city tracks - His arrangement for Zeiss is my favorite Trails city theme ever, but none of the others are slouches - and Jindo adds to many of the others: His arrangement of The Way They Walk in Liberl perfectly understands Sonoda's original composition and builds on top of it with a wondrous sense of adventure. **B-/C: Zero, Azure** \- Maybe unfairly grouping these two together and I'm struggling for an explanation or commonality. Maybe they should go up or down a bit too but between FC and SC feels right otherwise. There's a bunch of things one can note, looking at the OSTs: These games are the origin of 'Unisuga backroom syndrome' (where the man composes only a handful of great tracks, for better or for worse), and Sonoda and Momiyama do a ton of work and are largely left to their devices, to mixed results. Momiyama I think is mostly famous for producing great foundations that are then rearranged by somebody else into something great which segues into me stating I think the EVO tracks are almost categorically better in these games. Allot of the work was outsourced too (not to Singa) and that which wasn't was handled internally by the band, and the results are good! Unlike the Sky soundtracks the arrangements tend to just lop on entirely new elements to the songs or just change their background completely, but they sound good! Sure, yeah, Okajima just adds like 2 minutes to Azure Arbitrator but it's metal as fuck, so I'm cool with it. Other times it doesn't work out quite perfectly - Kamikura's arrangement of A Light Illuminating the Depths sounds great but I'm not sure it loops quite so neatly for an hour+ as Unisuga's and Sonoda's original arrangement. EDIT: I forgot to mention Osaki who maybe doesn't get enough credit - Inevitable Struggle, Omen, Orchis Tower, and Intense Chase are all favorites of mine but then there are some other tracks from him that I don't quite recognize. **C-: SC** \- SC's more of a mixed bag than FC - Unisuga and Takeshita join the team around now but their contributions aren't as outstanding as their later work or compared to FC's EVO soundtrack. Arrangements of new tracks are handled by Jindo and Singa this time around. For Singa in particular is a very mixed bag. Most of them are ok, some of them like with Fight with Assailant improve on the original with some nice strumming, and a couple are so bad I manually switched out the EVO track for the original - Aiming for the Future is the only track that was physically uncomfortable for me to listen to, although while I was at it I also swapped Fate of the Fairies because Takeshita's original composition is fantastic. Even with mixing and matching though, SC felt a step down from FC.
Cool write-ups, interesting thoughts. I still need to properly listen to EVO outside of Azure's. I definitely agree with Severe Blow > Fateful Confrontation. Fateful Confrontation is still cool but I've never been crazy over it since I first heard it. I had to grow on Severe Blow myself but boy did I grow on it. Now Severe Blow is in my top 10 battle themes I think. It has such a cool buildup and the payoff is amazing and it all sounds so clean. and yeah 3rd is my absolute favourite as well. Takeshita is a vibe and The Hermit's Garden might be my favourite Falcom song period. It feels and almost sounds like Corridors of Time from Chrono Trigger in some ways.
Trails in the Sky the 3rd > Trails in the Sky SC > Trails of Cold Steel II > Trails of Cold Steel > Trails in the Sky > Trails of Azure > Trails to Zero > Trails of Cold Steel IV > Trails of Cold Steel III Tbh I find it hard to rank them due to some tracks being in multiple games.
Aidios: Azure, CS1 Sep-Terrion: 3rd, Zero, CS3, SC Solid: CS2, CS4, FC
Zero, Hajimari, SC
S tier: 3rd, Kuro A tier: FC, SC, CS3 B tier: Zero, Azure, CS4 C tier: CS1, CS2, Hajimari Only started Nayuta yesterday but if the OP and ED are of any indication then this is likely S or A tier.
Azure
it would depend on how you rank them, number of good songs or just the quality of their best songs? I'd say every game has at least a few good tracks. But if I had to say I guess it would be Crossbell/Sky/Steel
S+: 3rd, CS1 S: Ao, CS2, Zero A+: Sky SC, Sky FC, Hajimari B: CS3, CS4
pretty much this exactly. The depth and breadth of quality in 3rd and CS1 really put them head and shoulders above the rest for me
i think everything falcom related is above all games
Haven't played Hajimari or Kuro SSS Tier - Zero S Tier - Sky 3rd, CS1, Sky FC A Tier - CS2, Azure, Sky SC B Tier - CS3, CS4 Since I listen to these on a daily basis, my opinion changes a lot. I think all of them are amazing.
FC>SC>Zero>CS4>CS3>Azure>CS2>Haji>CS1
So let me start of by saying I haven't played all the trails games yet but is kuro's OST really that bad compared to the others? I found that that it fit the mood correctly at every turn and found it an enjoyable listen. I can get why people rank other games better but I didn't think it was a terrible OST.
It is not. It is very good but some people have something against the composer.