Introduction by Hilary Andreff

Begin the fanfare and other celebratory music! RPGFan's Music of the Year is back again, and we are all very excited. If 2018 brought us some new music that surprised us, 2019 brought us surprises of an entirely different sort. Well-known composers from the SNES era came back to lead music for new indie games, and multiple orchestral releases that we've been waiting years for and weren't sure would come to fruition finally appeared. There were the usual late year releases that we really wanted to include, as well as some music we couldn't include because there hasn't been an official soundtrack release yet. We laughed, we cried, we had trouble picking a single Chrono arrangement we liked the most. On top of that, there was still some notable new music to be had; it's a great time for VGM in general!

We've divided Music of the Year, once again, into two sections. For those who want a list of top albums by RPGFan consensus, we have our overall picks, and for those who want to know which albums Pat thinks are best because goodness he reviews a lot want to know our individual thoughts can look at our Editors' Favorites. 2019 may have been a trying year in a lot of ways, but it's comforting to know that the VGM world continues to grow and thrive. Here's to a collection of good music in 2020, and for years to come.