Thanks.

1. Maplestory (easily most underrated people have overlooked how gorgeous so many of the pieces are. Easily the best by far in my eyes)

2. Chrono Trigger

3. Super Mario Odyssey

4. Furi (what an AMAZING game)

5. Persona 4

6. Donkey Kong Country

7. Nier: Automata

8. Final Fantasy XV

9. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future



I'd put Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Indie Story as a #9 if it weren't for the rules.

The one game per franchise rule is kind of unfair, tbh. You should just have us vote for the franchises with the best music rather than singular games, in that case. All 3 Xenoblade games have great OSTs for example, but since people can only pick one of them on their list, they may not all get recognized. Similarly, multiple Zelda games would be on my list, and for that franchise in particular people are having to pick just one game out of more than a dozen fantastic options, thus decreasing the likelihood of any single one of them scoring as high as they probably would otherwise. Conversely, a singular game (ie. the only one in a franchise) with a great OST, like The World Ends With You as an example, has an advantage. This rule very clearly favors games that are part of smaller/shorter-lived franchises, and harms larger franchises that have multiple games worthy of voting for.

By your rules:

1. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
3. The Last Story
4. Fire Emblem: Awakening
5. Kid Icarus: Uprising
6. Super Mario Galaxy
7. Mario Kart 8
8. Pokemon Sun/Moon
9. Splatoon
10. ARMS


My actual top 10:

1. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
2. Xenoblade Chronicles
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. The Last Story
5. Xenoblade Chronicles X
6. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. Fire Emblem: Awakening
9. Kid Icarus: Uprising
10. Super Mario Galaxy

It is exactly for that reason that the rule is in place. If it wasn't most of the list would be filled with nothing but Zelda, Final Fantasy, and a handful of other series, while less popular series would get completely overlooked. And judging by the votes I've gotten so far, there is most definitely going to be no shortage of Zelda or Xenoblade in the top 50.

I understand what you're trying to do, but I still think it would make more sense for us to vote for entire franchises then rather than singular games with a restriction. Because as my lists perfectly illustrate, I'm being forced to only recognize one Xenoblade and Zelda game, and the 'Top 10' by your rules is quite drastically different compared to my ACTUAL Top 10. So we're not really seeing people's top 10 favorite OSTs in this thread. 

I wanted people to think a bit out of the most obvious choices. Half of my top 10 would basically be Final Fantasy games if I didn't enforce the rule for example. Everyone has to work within the same rules, and in general once everyone's votes are counted in it will reflect the opinion of most people. Not to mention the fact that If people could just choose as many games from a single franchise as they wanted the eventual top 50 would be exceptionally boring and repetitive. 

Fair enough. :) I understand that you're looking for diversity. Just as long as everybody realizes that this Top 50 and these Top 10 lists really aren't accurate to what they would be if we could give our actual Top 10s with no restrictions. That's all I'm saying. 

I love this idea, there are so many fantastic game soundtracks that get dismissed because they're from games, they deserve more recognition.

1. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (GBA) (10 points)
2. DKC 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES) (9 points)
3. Fire Emblem: Fates (8 points)
4. The Sims (PC/GC) (7 points)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) (6 points)
6. Earthbound (SNES) (5 points)
7. Civilization VI (PC) (4 points)
8. Kirby's Adventure (NES) (3 points)
9. Animal Crossing (GC) (2 points)
10. Fallout 4 (PC) (1 point)

Pokemon Colosseum and DPPT would have made my list too, but alas

Very hard to narrow it down even with just one game per series, I'm going to feel bad about all the ones that don't cut it, a good idea though.

1. Donkey Kong Country (10 pts)
2. Final Fantasy VIII (9 pts)
3. Sonic Adventure (8 pts)
4. Panzer Dragoon Orta (7 pts)
5. Skies of Arcadia (6 pts)
6. Star Ocean Till the End of Time (5 pts)
7. Wild Arms 3 (4 pts)
8. Kingdom Hearts 2 (3 pts)
9. The legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (2 pts)
10. Golden Sun (1 pt)

I think my list would mostly be Final Fantasy too.  So I appreciate the rules you put in place.  It made me think back to some of the other games where I've really enjoyed the music.  Anyway, here is my top 10.

1. Katamari Damacy (PS2)
2. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
3. Undertale (PC/PS4)
4. Metroid (NES)
5. The Legend of Zelda (NES)
6. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
7. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
8. Castlevania (NES)
9. Astro Boy: The Omega Factor (GBA)
10. Starfox (SNES)

Ironically, the two SNES games on this list were games where I couldn't even really get into them as games, but I can't deny that the music is really good.

Honorable Mentions: Kingdom Hearts, Portal, Ghouls and Ghosts, Earthbound, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (not to mention many, many other Final Fantasy games that could not be included).