155 - Music of the Year 2024: Part II

02/17/25 • 109 min

It's time for more of 2024's best RPG music! In the last episode, we featured nine excellent songs from last year, and today we return with Part II, bringing nine more tracks! Look for some Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Flowstone Saga, a double dose of Stellar Blade, and more! Scarlet Moon's Jayson Napolitano joins us to share some of his picks as well, so don't miss out.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Michael Sollosi, Gio Castillo, Patrick Gann, Jayson Napolitano; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

Tracklist
Gio's Picks
‌0:02:16 - Raven (Oliver Good) - Stellar Blade
0:04:56 - ‌Battle -no hypocrisy- (Ryota Kozuka) - Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
0:08:13 - Detective Theme (Takeshi Abo) - Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club

Mike Salbato's Picks
‌0:35:29 - The Climb (Andrew Luers) - Flowstone Saga
0:38:40‌ - A Turn of the Page (Failpositive) - Paper Perjury
0:40:58 - Sword Search (Minako Hamano, arr. The Deku Trio) - Zelda & Jazz II

Jayson's Picks
1:04:23 - Charred Passage (Tsuyoshi Sekito) - Visions of Mana
1:06:23 - Silent Street (Battle) (Hyunmin Cho, seibin, Youngkyoung Choi) - Stellar Blade
1:09:53 - Penny's in a Pinch (Sean Bialo) - Penny's Big Breakaway

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Michael Sollosi, Gio Castillo, Patrick Gann, Jayson Napolitano; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Previous Episode

154 - Music of the Year 2024: Part I

It's time for Music of the Year! 2024 was absolutely stacked with game releases. Some even felt it was one of the all-time best years in gaming. And the side effect of a year filled with excellent games means a year of excellent soundtracks. For this annual special, we let each panelist bring on three songs. Even so, how did we pick just nine today? It wasn't easy.

2024 being such a great year for RPG music meant that one episode could not contain our Music of the Year celebrations, so we have split it into two back-to-back episodes. Enjoy the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Arco, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and much more today. Then come back next week for three more panelists' highlights of the year!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Michael Sollosi, Gio Castillo, Patrick Gann; Edited by Mike Salbato

Links for this episode

The End of Service: A NieR Re[in]carnation Postmortem Retrospective

Pat's Picks
0:02:58 - The World's Heartbeat (comp. Kenji Ito, arr. Tsutomu Narita) - SaGa Emerald Beyond
0:04:49 - Battle! (Terapagos - The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero) (comp. Toby Fox, Go Ichinose, Rei Murayama, arr. Go Ichinose) - Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
0:08:16 - Lantern&End (Keiichi Okabe) - SINoALICE

Hilary's Picks
‌0:39:58 - Renoir (Lorien Testard) - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
0:42:55 - Moiety Theme (Robyn Miller) - Riven (2024)
0:45:01 - Nadie Los Podrá Salvar (José Ramón "Bibiki" García) - Arco

Michael Sollosi's Picks
‌1:17:52 - Impregnable Triangle (Chihiro Aoki) - Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
1:20:59 - Coral Crown (Darren Korb, feat. Erin Yvette, Ashley Barret, Judy Alice Lee) - Hades II
1:25:04 - Queen's Blood - Prodigious Pedigree (Mitsuto Suzuki) - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Next Episode

156 - (Xenoblade) X Gon' Give It To Ya

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is almost here, so what better time to dive into this musically fascinating "side" tale from 2015? Many fans were surprised that the first Xenoblade Chronicles was not followed by a "2" (though that happened later), but by Xenoblade Chronicles X. The name and looks alone made it clear this was a different beast: XCX features some now-familiar Xenoblade components and scale, but the more "worldly" nature of its story outside of the "main" plot thread was almost as divisive as its soundtrack to some players.

When your first game features music by Yoko Shimomura, ACE+, Manami Kiyota, and Yasunori Mitsuda, pivoting soundtrack duties to "Attack on Titan guy," Hiroyuki Sawano, makes people take notice. The whole Xenoblade series is packed with unforgettable music, but there's no denying that none of them sound quite like the sometimes weird, often catchy, and above all, wholly unexpected, Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Wes Iliff, Stephanie Sybydlo, Sean Cabot; Edited by Mike Salbato

Tracklist
Uncontrollable Wes
0:08:25 - ‌Uncontrollable
0:11:05 - Don't worry

Z5 Sean
0:25:55 - ‌Black tar
0:29:55 - ‌Z5 Mira

Wir Stephegen
0:43:03 - ‌Wir fliegen
0:46:25 - Manon

Mike X
1:00:44 - Shiro no Tairiku
1:05:44 - ‌Theme X
1:32:44 - Everyone's Bonus Track

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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