Which game has the best soundtrack

[Jotari]

Topic. I don't have any strong opinions on this myself, but I'm curious as to where others fall.

I've only put main series titles in the poll, and remakes have been bundled with the original game (since none of them completely overhaul the sound tracks, though they do have additional music). I would, and might later, but Three Hopes and TMS up there, but I honestly couldn't tell you of Three Hopes has a distinct soundtrack from Three Hours, and it'd be weird having TMS be the only spin off up there (though it probably should be part of the conversation since it seems to care more about music than any other game, at least from a surface glance). Warriors and Heroes, while having unique tracks, is primarily music from previous games if I'm not mistaken.

Edited Friday at 03:29 AM by Jotari

[Florete]

Easily Fates for me.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

to be honest, Gaiden. They may have shirked the playtesting on that game, but not its chiptune. Smash Bros Brawl came out in 2008, and even back then Sakurai was like "Hey you guys remember the Act 2 music from that kusoge?". Dude added 11 Fire Emblem songs to that game (keeping the one from Melee), skipped Jugdral entirely, and gave a song to Gaiden because he knew it's a one of a kind piece. Actually it's kind of bullshit that there's only one FE4 song in Ultimate and no FE5 songs.

In the month before SOV's release where people were posting spoilers on the remake, I purposely spoiled myself on Encounter. Just one song I wanted to hear gussied up, and I felt like crying. They nailed it. On top of a lot of brilliant new tracks. Shadow Dragon got exactly one good original work. Great corruption of the player phase theme. Just wish they didn't butcher the song that they're riffing on.

Edited Friday at 04:35 AM by Zapp Branniglenn

[Metal Flash]

Tough question, I usually only remember a few notable songs in each game. If I had to pick, bias and all, it would probably be Fates. The contrast between the European style music of Nohr and the Japanese style of Hoshido makes for such an interesting soundtrack to me.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Imagine playing with sound on.

[Dayni]

Not allowing the originals and remakes to be separate's a shame, some people would argue for MotE over the DS remakes.

That being said, SoV is the best soundtrack imo, fantastic updating of what was already a solid NES soundtrack and great new additions.

It's been a little worrying that the Switch hasn't had a soundtrack better than any of the 3DS titles

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

Imagine playing with sound on.

Ha. Some truth is to that for me. Why listen to a game when I have unread audio books!

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

Not allowing the originals and remakes to be separate's a shame, some people would argue for MotE over the DS remakes.

In styling of how the songs are produced perhaps, but they are the same tracks at the end of the day. I think the most drastic difference is Gaiden and Echoes, as Gaiden goes for a much more dreary feeling reminiscent of Final Fantasy II while Echoes went for a grander orchestral feel.

On the subject of New Mystery of the Emblem, I do have to say that a lot of the music they added to that is some of my favorite Archanea music period. Murderous Puppets, Tearring Shadows and, especially, Endless Battle are all bangers.

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

That being said, SoV is the best soundtrack imo, fantastic updating of what was already a solid NES soundtrack and great new additions.

It's been a little worrying that the Switch hasn't had a soundtrack better than any of the 3DS titles

Yeah the DS games seem to be dominating. I've voted for Awakening myself. I think I can name more individual tracks I really like a lot from across all the different games, but for overall sound based vibe for a game, I think Awakening manages to do rather well. I'm a bit surprised for all the Fates love, because I'm honestly struggling to even think of any Fates tracks now aside from Lost in Thoughts All Alone.

[Etrurian emperor]

I think the Tellius games. A big part of the charm is that the music is very personalized with each mayor character and faction getting their own theme music. 

[Yexin]

I agree with the Tellius games, they're the FE tracks that stick to my mind the most

[vanguard333]

I voted Path of Radiance, but really its both Tellius games that have the best soundtracks. They're somber when they need to be somber, epic when they need to be epic, and the character themes are very effective at, well, conveying their respective character. They're also very memorable; for most Fire Emblem games that I've played, I remember maybe one or two songs from the soundtrack (including the game's theme song); for the Tellius games, I can remember a lot more than two each.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'll give the best crown to Shadows of Valentia. That music gets me hyped up every single time.

For worst, Engage. A couple good tracks, but also some of the cringiest tracks I've heard.

[Dayni]

19 hours ago, Jotari said:

I'm a bit surprised for all the Fates love, because I'm honestly struggling to even think of any Fates tracks now aside from Lost in Thoughts All Alone.

See, the thing about that is that it's used as leitmotif in much of the soundtrack. Like, at least 3/4s of it. It's a bit blessing and curse, bothers me enough to put it down a bit, but a soundtrack with Egdelwonk, A Dark Fall and Alight? Still very good imo.

19 hours ago, Jotari said:

In styling of how the songs are produced perhaps, but they are the same tracks at the end of the day. I think the most drastic difference is Gaiden and Echoes, as Gaiden goes for a much more dreary feeling reminiscent of Final Fantasy II while Echoes went for a grander orchestral feel.

I mean, you make that comparison and I would say it feels like the reverse applies between MotE and NMotE for Holy War.

[Hrothgar777]

I only remember one song from Awakening but...Awakening. That song has been burned into my consciousness for the last 11 years.

 

I'm talking, of course, about Id/Purpose. When I think about the entire historical period between 476 and 1500, Id/Purpose is playing in the background.

Edited Saturday at 05:02 PM by Hrothgar777

[Hrothgar777]

14 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

For worst, Engage. A couple good tracks, but also some of the cringiest tracks I've heard.

I would defend Engage's soundtrack as one of the few redeeming aspects of the game. The opening is cringe and wasn't a great leitmotif but they somehow made it work. To me, even the worst tracks in the game weren't insufferably boring.

 

What Engage's music has going for it is its raw weirdness. FE games know how to do epic, but some of Engage's OSTs are practically meant to be listened to while high. No other installment can honestly say that. Admittedly they often start out plain and generic but they build up to a climactic finish (or at least, that's what I would say if they weren't on loop).

Edited Saturday at 05:43 PM by Hrothgar777