Leaderboard

In what may be my final posts this year, I hereby commence the OGM 2021 round-up! I'll split it into two posts this year, simply because I dread potential formatting problems with the record. For this post, I'm focusing on my personal top five video game soundtracks of the year, though there's a few "honorable mentions" I'd like to address first. Friday Night Funkin' has managed to endure, and I'd be remiss not to commend it for the many uniquely styled pieces it has inspired. I didn't rank it mainly because most of my favorite songs are from outside the official game, and ultimately it doesn't quite measure up to some of my other options. I'd recommend Overwrite from the "X Event Mod," Manifest from the "Vs. Sky Mod," and Triple Trouble from the "Vs. Sonic.EXE Mod." Monster Hunter Rise was difficult not to rank, but I didn't feel I was capable of doing so properly. Ideally, a new entry in a well-established series should be estimated against its predecessors for innovation (dangerous word . . . oh well). Despite being far more familiar with Monster Hunter now than I was a year ago, I am certainly still lacking the experience necessary to do this justice. That being said, my limited dips into this soundtrack turned up Domain of Dust and Desolation, Where Wyverns Go to Die, and Stage of the Strong (also see buskerdog's four part feature from July). Finally, I'm sure everyone's aware that Deltarune Chapter 2 came out this year. The quality of Toby Fox's compositions need not be argued for, but I am conflicted over whether to consider this a 2021 release. As Deltarune is officially considered to be a single entity, each chapter may technically be viewed as some form of DLC or, perhaps more accurately, updates to an "early access" title. In any other situation, I would prefer to consider the earliest release date as the official year, thus disqualifying any music added in later years. However, Deltarune currently advertises itself as a demo, which might be considered a different category entirely. For now, it's more trouble than it's worth; nonetheless, A CYBER'S WORLD?, Pandora Palace, and BIG SHOT are all amazing pieces (as are Smart Race, Attack of the Killer Queen, Lost Girl, Cyber Battle . . .) That being said, my number five is an early access release. Also, I coincidentally haven't played any of these games, same as last year. Should I put all of them in one box, or separate them out? Now I feel obligated to put some text in between boxes to preserve the aesthetic. I always default to the main theme for these, even if I've used it in a previous feature. But what about games without main themes? . . . There y'all have it! If anyone else is interested in doing their own rankings, I'd love to see them!