I recently purchased Star Ocean 4. So far I'm loving the game. The Combat System is great, the character's personalities are alright, and the storyline is pretty dang amazing 18 hours into the game. However, that being said. I can't help but complain over Tri-ace's and Square-Enix's soundtrack for this game, it feels lazily done and in comparison to another JRPG for the xbox 360 that came out. Tales of Vesperia, I can't help but feel jipped when it comes to sound quality in this game.

Now, what I find absolutely amazing is that Motoi Sakuraba did both Tales of Vesperia's and Star Ocean's 4 soundtrack. So why is one so much better than the other? To give you a example, here is the main battle-themes to both game.

Now, it's very easy to say that Star Ocean's 4 battle theme starts off pretty epicly. I agree, it does. But that's the only part that stuck with me, after that the entire music dies down completely. Battle Theme's is just one example however, the entire theme music for star ocean feels tired and I often forget it's there.

Please tell me someone disagrees with me and finds the music to star ocean 4 good, because I'm more entertained with the vocals than the soundtrack, and that's sorta depressing.

Disappointing recently.

The two do seem pretty similar to me... (i skipped in the links you gave).

Hard to tell though without having played the games (EU yay)

The two battle themes seem rather similar. However, the difference really lies in the musical composition of the cut-scenes. I found the ones in Tales of Vesperia to be more bold, abudant, and reflected the mood very well. Although the soundtracks in Tales of Vesperia were often re-used again and again, anyone who plays Tales of Vesperia can tell you that.

However, Star Ocean 4's soundtrack is more subtle. I'm playing it right now and watching a cutscene while I type this out. Just by watching this right now, I can tell there's a musical soundtrack playing in the background. But that's not the main point, it's so subtle that if they removed it. It would hardly make a difference.

Soundtracks should represent emotion that characters feeling, powerful; bold music playing during exciting moments. Sad, Slow music during sadder moments. Star Ocean seems to lack that, it makes it difficult to connect well to the characters. Heck, I don't even think the characters have their own theme music.

Star Ocean 4 has my least favorite soundtrack of all the Star Oceans. Even the remixes from the older games are a little weak...which is amazing because I like Sakuraba's rearrangements on their official Arrange Albums compared to the actual remixes presented in SO4.

But Vesperia is not a good example to use for contrast because it's battle theme is weak and mediocre for a Tales game.

Sakuraba is a JRPG music god but I think they're starting to wear into him. He needs to go back to his SO1/2 style for SO5.

EDIT: Actually, I take back what I said about Sakuraba being worn out because I think the Valkyrie Profile DS battle theme (slightly arranged) shits all over SO4's and Vesperia's.

Connecting with the characters has nothing to do with soundtrack.  I can name quite a few RPGs that have great soundtracks but forgettable characters and vice versa.  Soundtrack just heightens the emotions in a cutscene as well as gameplay.

I know your love for the Star Ocean series has clouded your judgement and Sakaraba is a decent enough composer but JRPG music god is kinda overdoing it.  He isn't known for consistently excellent and memorable soundtracks like Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda are.

That may be, but I've always been able to reflect well with characters who are properly representated by their soundtrack. Yes, you are right. Soundtrack does heighten the emotions in a cutscene or gameplay, and the characters are part of those cutscenes. Think of it as a Triangle. Soundtrack -> Cutscene -> Character -> Soundtrack -> So forth.

Without all 3 supporting eachother it falls flat and well bam. Suddenly it's hard to care for the cutscenes, or characters. Not impossible, but now it relies more on other elements, vocals, script, story.

Every bit helps, but in a game like Star Ocean 4 where soundtrack falls flat? It means the other elements have to try harder to compenstate. Maybe that was their intention, but if I'm not praising the vocals and script on a regular basis. Critism begins to rise, like this thread.

Are you speaking from experience or are you parroting other people's opinions as fact again?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Sakuraba is a god. Star Ocean, Tales, Baten Kaitos, Smash Bros Brawl, Valkyrie Profile >>>>>>>> You.

I can assure you I have listened to Sakaraba's music enough to form a fair opinion.

Here are some more good ToV battle themes