Was there any new music composed specifically for Shenmue 3?

S

SMDzero

Joined
Sep 12, 2019
They did hire the original composer... so that must mean new music was actually written for Shenmue 3 right?

I read earlier that only 20% of the music that had originally been written for Shenmue was used in the first two games so that's encouraging (although we have already heard at least 1 track recycled from Shenmue 2 in the S3 demo) but surely hiring the original composer means more music will actually be written?

Before my dream came true with Shenmue 3 another dream came true back in 2006 when the director's cut of Superman 2 was released. but (like Shemmue 3) the budget was small but the worst thing about the new cut was that no new music was written... music was simply taken from Superman 1 and copy and pasted onto new scenes from Superman 2 director's cut.

Anyway, I'm hoping there is going to be a good amount of new music written and recorded for Shenmue 3
 
I expect there will be some new music written but maybe not alot. Riuji Iuchi, the composer, has published some very Shenmuesque compositions on Youtube, I wouldn't mind if any of these pieces made it into the game.
 
Arent there rearangements/remixes in the demo?
 
The demo main theme music is apparently blatantly stolen:

-snip-

Mod Note: Low effort bait removed

See you in court, Mr. Suzuki!
 
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SMDzero said:
They did hire the original composer... so that must mean new music was actually written for Shenmue 3 right?

I read earlier that only 20% of the music that had originally been written for Shenmue was used in the first two games so that's encouraging (although we have already heard at least 1 track recycled from Shenmue 2 in the S3 demo) but surely hiring the original composer means more music will actually be written?

Before my dream came true with Shenmue 3 another dream came true back in 2006 when the director's cut of Superman 2 was released. but (like Shemmue 3) the budget was small but the worst thing about the new cut was that no new music was written... music was simply taken from Superman 1 and copy and pasted onto new scenes from Superman 2 director's cut.

Anyway, I'm hoping there is going to be a good amount of new music written and recorded for Shenmue 3
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What about wood chopping music, and the one for the village? Heck there was a dev report he did years ago giving samples of the new music. He just said it's not being made like it was in 1999, that was a bit overdone. He talked about still loving the Chinese fiddle, he gave samples of combat music too. You'll get your wish.
 
Wasn't there an interview where he said there would be a certain percentage of new music vs old music?
 
From what I heard in the demo I really liked the remixed music we have already heard.
 
Dmitriy1 said:
What about wood chopping music, and the one for the village? Heck there was a dev report he did years ago giving samples of the new music. He just said it's not being made like it was in 1999, that was a bit overdone. He talked about still loving the Chinese fiddle, he gave samples of combat music too. You'll get your wish.
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Yes, but OP asked about music specifically composed for Shenmue 3. We don't know how old these tracks are. Some of these could be over 20 years old because they have exactly the same synthesizer sounds as the old recordings.

I don't think there's any doubt that we'll hear alot of "new" music that we haven't heard before. How much is actually written specifically for Shenmue 3 is another question.
 
Ryuji Iuchi is composing the new music, mabye some others involved too.

From the backer trial alone, most of the music was new such as the ones playing during exploration, mini-games and combat.

There was also one track reused from Shenmue 2 that plays in the backer trial (the music that plays when Ryo is giving money "for good luck")
 
standtrip said:
Ryuji Iuchi is composing the new music, mabye some others involved too.

From the backer trial alone, most of the music was new such as the ones playing during exploration, mini-games and combat.

There was also one track reused from Shenmue 2 that plays in the backer trial (the music that plays when Ryo is giving money "for good luck")
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I'm pretty positive the default music that plays when chopping logs is new too(although it sounds so familiar, It's most likely a variant of another Chinese song, not found in the other Shenmue games).
 
I have to be honest, hearing that tune which you pay to hear at the beginning of Shenmue II transition in during Bailu Village in the demo really through me off, I hope there aren't many incidents like that where the exact same track is re-used within Shenmue III - I'm all for new variations of themes of course and happy for them to dig into the planned music for Shenmue Online.
 
Vivi-gamer said:
I have to be honest, hearing that tune which you pay to hear at the beginning of Shenmue II transition in during Bailu Village in the demo really through me off, I hope there aren't many incidents like that where the exact same track is re-used within Shenmue III - I'm all for new variations of themes of course and happy for them to dig into the planned music for Shenmue Online.
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Not too long ago Yu posted the ratio of returning songs-new. It was either 60/40 or 70/30(can't recall which one it was), so there will be a lot returning, but It's a Shenmue game, so that 30-40% should still= a lot of new songs.
 
I'm at peace with recycled music, so long as it's used well. For instance, the use of "Views of Scenic Beauty" (Langhuishan) for the lucky hit stands throws me off. If anything, that seems a case in which recycling the old music is actually desirable for continuity's sake (same darts theme throughout the series, etc.)

Ironically, I'm nervous they won't use the same main menu theme. It's the one repeat I crave maximally...

As to the new music, I think @Gen framed it best. I suspect a good deal of what's "new" is, in fact, merely unused (Shenmue Online).
 
Ryuji Iuchi doesn't seem to actually be involved in Shenmue III anymore, or at least that's my interpretation gleaning what information I can from his Twitter with machine translation over the last few months. Ultimately, it looks like Ys Net decided to go with music from the extensive sound library created for the original games and simply didn't require an extensive amount of newly composed music.

I wouldn't be too concerned about this though. He says there are hidden masterpieces still yet to be uncovered in the Shenmue sound library, and anybody who has heard some of the music that was going to be used for Shenmue Online (or been a bit naughty like me and listened to tracks pulled out of the Shenmue III trial's data) would know he aint' exaggerating. Even many of the reused tracks have a new lease of life now, and not just because of higher quality. There are additional instrumentals and whole extra parts to some tracks we heard on the Dreamcast, to the point where they'd almost sound like rearrangements if you didn't know better.

Will there actually be new music in Shenmue III? Yeah, but maybe not how you're expecting. Certain stuff like stings and short incidental music I think will be newly created, but probably by Sound Director Takayuki Nakamura.
 
I suspect you're right about Iuchi @Spaghetti. And I agree that we shouldn't be concerned about quality. The so called "Kickstarter theme" that Yu plays in that video is probably one of my favorite tracks from the whole series.
 
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