Naveronasis Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) So I have been around games and game music all my life. I work in the game industry (not as a musician) and for fun, I decided to come up with a ranking system for OST. In this post I'm going to maintain the list of OST In order of Rank, and in the Next post, I will explain how the system works. Individual sound track reviews will be posted after that as I do them. Feel free to comment, suggest OST, complain Just have fun with it. Spreadsheet Link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eRmXzG2gozNRcG2xcZTpEDYuEQtTmke0f15Ew7kBC64/edit?usp=sharing +T Means I May have over-rated the song due to personal taste -T Means I may have under-rated the song due to personal taste -N Is Nostalgia warning! Song has been rated lower than you expect, even though I have fond memories it does not mean the song is good. +N Nostalgia may have influenced this rating to be higher than it should be. OST Rank Chart:By Evaluation Calculation (SS~A*QI)Rank: Game | Quality Index | SS~A Sum Points | Evaluation |1: Chrono Trigger | 4.38 | 206 | 578 |2: Final Fantasy X** | 3.75 | 109 | 409 |3: Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 4.74 | 80 | 379 |4: Streets of Rage 2 | 4.9 | 72 | 352 |5: Pokemon R/B/Y/G | 4.44 | 151 | 350 |6: Castlevania 3 | 4.78 | 70 | 334 |7: Phantom Brave | 4.11 | 65 | 267 |8: Megaman 3 | 4.79- | 53 | 253 |9: Mario 3 | 4.22- | 55 | 232 |10: Zelda (nes)* | 6- | 25 | 150 |By SS~A Sum (All A, S, SS Song points added up)Rank: Game | Quality Index | SS~A Sum Points | Evaluation |1: Chrono Trigger | 4.38 | 206 | 578 |2: Pokemon R/B/Y/G | 4.44 | 151 | 350 |3: Final Fantasy X** | 3.75 | 109 | 409 |4: Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 4.74 | 80 | 379 |5: Streets of Rage 2 | 4.9 | 72 | 352 |6: Castlevania 3 | 4.78 | 70 | 334 |7: Phantom Brave | 4.11 | 65 | 267 |8: Mario 3 | 4.22- | 55 | 232 |9: Megaman 3 | 4.79- | 53 | 253 |10: Zelda (nes)* | 6- | 25 | 150 |By Quality Index (All songs SS~F points/number of tracks excluding X)Rank: Game | Quality Index | SS~A Sum Points | Evaluation |1: Zelda (nes)* | 6- | 25 | 150 |2: Streets of Rage 2 | 4.9 | 72 | 352 |3: Megaman 3 | 4.79- | 53 | 253 |4: Castlevania 3 | 4.78 | 70 | 334 |5: Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 4.74 | 80 | 379 |6: Pokemon R/B/Y/G | 4.44 | 151 | 350 |7: Chrono Trigger | 4.38 | 206 | 578 |8: Mario 3 | 4.22- | 55 | 232 |9: Phantom Brave | 4.11 | 65 | 267 |10: Final Fantasy X** | 3.75 | 109 | 409 | *Short Soundtrack **Long Soundtrack -Lenient Scoring Edited April 8, 2015 by Naveronasis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) Okay so, Here is how the system works. Quality Index: The songs are ranked by tier like characters in a fighting game. Rank (graded on a bell Curve) SS <- Legendary songs like Zelda Overworld most games don't have this. S <- Amazing tracks that will stick with you for years after playing Few games have these, and usually only 1-2. A <- Excellent all rounders, the stages you look forward to. Most games have 1-3 of these. B <- Above average songs that elevate above the norm. C <- Basic solid tracks that you may not remember... But don't upset the ears. D <- Sub-Par songs, usually filler tracks that perhaps aren't really bad, but out of the context of their intended use dont hold up musical merit. E <- Tracks that are bad, they stand out as being poorly produced or musically flawed. F <- awful tracks that are bad enough that even detract from the overall fun of the game. X <- Tracks with either no musical merit, or aren't really songs, sometimes just a 5 second jingle for victory, tracks here are basically music, but not full songs. (the death music from sonic 1, or the stage ending to mario world when you get the flag) Each rank is evaluated into the "Score" Of the album somewhat like a racing poll works. SS +10 points S +7 Points A +5 B +4 C +3 D +2 E +1 F +0 X Not Counted toward score or average. The average is the total score divided by the total number of songs. This means albums are ranked from 0-10 with 0 and 10 being near impossible. The average for most should fall around 3.14 Since SS rank songs are so rare that average is based on F-S which is what most games will have since generally most games soundtracks that end up remixed in the first place have a few S rank songs. If you include SS rank that expected average goes up to 4... But like... There may only be.... 10-20 SS rank songs in existence. (Example, Zelda Overworld). Evaluation Score: This score is meant to combine the total quality index multiplied by the SS-A points... Effectively factoring in the overall quality of the whole album... by the total points of the best tracks. This meant to help combat issues that come up from edge case albums. Example, Zelda has like all superb tracks but it only has 6 tracks... So it looks better on paper because it has no filler music if you do just an average score... But if you do it by the total SS~A points it has a very LOW score. This calculation is meant to place Zelda (and other games) on a adjusted index. SS~A Points: This is the total points contributed by the games SS S and A songs combined. Naturally larger albums with many good tracks will have more of this but longer albums are almost all subjected to having more filler tracks as well. Thus the need for an evaluation score. Edited April 3, 2015 by Naveronasis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) What metric do you use to evaluate the songs? Are you a musicologist (or similarly qualified in music theory) and are judging the composition quality, or is it just songs you like, or is it based on popularity, etc. Normally it wouldn't be a pertinent question in reviews, but you're actually quantifying quality of the music with number scores, which is a big no-no in art. There are different things people look for in music, and something you'd give C rank is something I'd give an A rank, etc. I'm genuinely curious. Edited March 19, 2015 by Neblix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 (edited) Arbitrarily based on person taste Cause I don't have a lot to do at work. Ill post some charts once I get a few of them done. I didn't wanna spam posts so I was going to do like a batch post once I get a few done. Popularity is not really a factor. . . Other than in some extreme cases I'm not going to over-rule general consensus. Example, even if I hated the Zelda over-world theme on a personal level (I don't hate it but just for fun pretend I do)... I'm not going to argue that its anything other than SS due to its special case of extreme popularity. This is all just for fun anyway and shouldn't be taken too seriously, or as anything other than one persons opinion. No one can rank anything free of Bias either, but I'm trying very hard to leave that out of it. Edited March 19, 2015 by Naveronasis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Arbitrarily based on person taste Cause I don't have a lot to do at work. Ill post some charts once I get a few of them done. I didn't wanna spam posts so I was going to do like a batch post once I get a few done.Popularity is not really a factor. . . Other than in some extreme cases I'm not going to over-rule general consensus. Example, even if I hated the Zelda over-world theme on a personal level (I don't hate it but just for fun pretend I do)... I'm not going to argue that its anything other than SS due to its special case of extreme popularity. This is all just for fun anyway and shouldn't be taken too seriously, or as anything other than one persons opinion. No one can rank anything free of Bias either, but I'm trying very hard to leave that out of it. That's absolutely fine! Just make sure you make it clear. There are different types of reviewers and anyone reading your stuff should know beforehand the personal frame with which you use to evaluate things, so they can better understand what to take from what your reviews (and what not to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiBlade Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Oh boy...forecast calls for a shitstorm on this one... and something you'd give C rank is something I'd give an A rank, etc. Would that then make it a B? Is this is more of a Rolling Stone style"Greatest _______ " evaluation..where it's not so much the merits of composition, but rather cultural impact? Seems like this could be filed under top ten variant... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Well I dont plan on arguing with anyone so.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenogu Labz Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 For purposes of formatting - and possibly to provide song-by-song breakdowns - maybe this is a suitable project to push to Google Sheets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 (edited) I could, I'm already doing it mostly in a basically excel sheet. But theres really minimal math involved... But i could probly make a poll type submittable format... Idk, you will see some of my stuff later on how Im breaking it down I was going to get to a 10 count then do a first batch. Also im purposely targeting candidates that would be in the top... PS: Contribution score is a terrible name for that system so if anyone has a better name throw it out there . Again this is 1 random persons general opinion so feel free to disagree its just for fun anyway. PPS: After going through about half of FFX soundtrack... Im starting to think I went WAY too hard on Phantom Brave. lol. Edited March 20, 2015 by Naveronasis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 If you're trying to do tables, wrap your "tables" in code blocks. 1: Zelda (nes)* | 6+ | 252: Streets of Rage 2 | 4.9 | 723: Megaman 3 | 4.79+ | 534: Castlevania 3 | 4.78 | 705: Mario 3 | 4.22+ | 556: Phantom Brave | 4.11 | 657: Final Fantasy X** | 3.75 | 109 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 awesome thanks! sorry I meant to follow up on this sooner but we had an insane work week last week, and we are still cleaning up this week. So I haven't had time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Still working on it, here you can view the spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eRmXzG2gozNRcG2xcZTpEDYuEQtTmke0f15Ew7kBC64/edit?usp=sharing ill write an entry about each soundtrack soon. Once I get a first 10 (should be today) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naveronasis Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 (edited) I need help! I just did Grandio Espada, and its a soundtrack I am on the fence about a lot of songs. If I rate it the way I want, it becomes the second best album by index and 3rd by Eval... Also I have 3 SS songs, but the game is fairly unknown, so its hard to really say they should be SS, but that implies popularity has a say vs quality... and if I take just those to S the album drops down. Further more there are 6 songs I don't really feel on a personal taste level, so while it already has a high quality score, its score could be also be being devalued a bit by bias... as well as over valued. In short, I'm looking for feedback on any song with a +T or -T next to them. Any further opinions are more than welcome as well. The soundtrack is listed 3 times near the bottom of the document. Lets for the sake of simplicity only debate the first entry (the one in blue) also using the short soundtrack with 25 songs... not the 127 all expansions soundtrack. (also note it only really has 23 songs because 1 is a duplicate and for some reason the author put in a bonus track from outlaw star (wtf?)) Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eRmXzG2gozNRcG2xcZTpEDYuEQtTmke0f15Ew7kBC64/edit?usp=sharing Soundtrack PS: I also swear Barracks is a real song they "borrowed" from actual classical music. But I'm not sure... If its a clever rework If it is I would need to find the original song and consider if its been sufficiently changed enough to count. UPDATE: I have more or less sorted it out at this point but feedback is always welcome Edited April 8, 2015 by Naveronasis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.