Personally, I’m a huge fan of Hollow Knight, Ori and the (Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps), and Kingdom Hearts. Orchestral soundtracks are just something else…
What an intersting question, I have a bunch I liked but these are my top picks:
- Final Fantasy Crisis Core - the soundtrack made me play with earphones
- Bastion - f.e zias theme
- Persona especially Persona 5
And I love Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom overall sound design including the OST
Definitely the Deadbolt Soundtrack by Chris Christodoulou. I can listen to it pretty much every day and it really makes the game much better.
Indie games in general have great OSTs, MGS:R and Persona (and SMT in general) are obvious popular picks.
The World Ends With You is less mainstream (with one of the few gripes being the lack of boss-specific themes, at least in the DS original I played - but it makes up with the diverse overworld and normal battle themes), as is Etrian Odyssey.
I think orchestra is mixed, it’s either the best fucking tracks ever (often when mixed with electric guitar or other modern instruments, but not necessarily), or they kind of blend with other orchestral tracks I know and don’t end up being unique enough to remember.
There are so many good OSTs and often it’s the combination of the memory of the game szene and the song, but trying to separate those two I still love Hollow Knight, Nier automata and the new Zelda tears of the kingdom. Also Hades and some diablo songs really slap.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is surprisingly good. Surtur’s theme is one of the best boss themes ive ever heard. I also really like using the Battle Brothers ost for my Pathfinder games.
