Your Opinion About Music Integration

Yokosuka

Yokosuka

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Not a big deal but I didn't expect hearing so much old tracks from Shenmue 1&2. Shenmue 2 itself re-used some tracks from Shenmue 1. Are the zone music going to change like Shenmue 1 did with the "FREE" tracks according our story progression?
 
Honestly... this is still my biggest issue with the game. I walked into a Chefs store earlier and it began to play the original Darts theme & it was just really distracting. I'd rather have just kept the theme that was outside the building than the transition.

Also, in Shenhua's House when she is cooking, I've found that when I focus on thefood she is cooking it transitions into a different theme and then when I talk to her it goes into another one and it's quite jarring.

Another instance is at the Training Area, during the loading screen it would have a seperate theme blip for a second between two other tracks - So the track before activating the fight [1 second Blip from another theme during the laoding screen] t hen the music during the fight scene.

I'm really not happy with the music at all - This doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game by any means but it does creep up on me at random points.

One moment I loved was when you finally get Sun to talk about Iwao, theme in the background is a classic theme but a new variation and it was perfect!
 
Agree with all you said.

The music transitions sound very rough in some zones. For instance, when you're walking too far away from the backside of Shenhua's house, the music abruptly stops or restarts with no tolerance margin.

I don't think the team had the time to polish this stuff. I'm expecting some fixes via the following patches.
 
Vivi-gamer said:
Also, in Shenhua's House when she is cooking, I've found that when I focus on thefood she is cooking it transitions into a different theme and then when I talk to her it goes into another one and it's quite jarring.
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I've noticed that this happens when I interact with drawers. It seems to be systemic to some sort of "focus mode". I agree it's jarring and the current background music should just continue on since you're not changing environments.

Also agree with music changing when you enter shops. It's the same idea as above, you're essentially in the same environment in S3 and it's easy to quickly walk in and out of the boundary to change the music. It's different in S1 and S2 because you switch to the shop interior through a loading screen, so switching music makes sense, or at least transitions more smoothly.
 
Tomato Convenience Store said:
I've noticed that this happens when I interact with drawers. It seems to be systemic to some sort of "focus mode". I agree it's jarring and the current background music should just continue on since you're not changing environments.
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Associating drawers with their own background music is a brilliant idea imo. It's like entering another universe with its own mysteries, I'm totally loving it. But I agree it should not be systematic according the context.
 
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In addition to the things you already mentioned I find it really weird that one of the best new tracks, the wood chopping theme, can hardly be heard for more than one or two seconds once you have learned the timing for perfect chops. It is a nice gag and all with the music change but it is really a shame in regards to the new theme, it has this nice calming sound like with the theme for airing out the books.

Maybe the transitions can still be fixed, it would also be great to loop the tracks properly when you‘re in an area are for a longer time, not starting them again with a pause.
 
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Saven said:
The one thing that bothers me is how most songs don't loop at all. That should not be a thing in 2019.
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It's like Suzuki asked Ryuji Iuchi to just upload his old lossless tracks and leave the studio because he cost too much money otherwise.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Would’ve been better to spend more time and money on music than the English dub.
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Yeah, I always dreamed of a Shenmue III with a full orchestral score no longer limited by the GD-ROM capacity constraints of the Dreamcast. Ah well, maybe for Shenmue IV.

I wonder if a better approach would have been for a suite of music to play continuously, as opposed to having jarring transitions between areas? The dedicated music for each area made sense on the Dreamcast, but I feel like having say a 30 or 60 minute suite of songs for Bailu and another one for Choubu/Niaowu would make more sense these days with the lack of loading between areas.
 
It would've made more sense with them to use the first game's system: FREE tracks that play in every outside area, that change depending on story instead of location, and keep location-specific music to indoor areas.

Generally speaking I don't mind the music fading out and fading in a new track, but there's no related visual cue - if a little thing popped up in the corner saying "Sunflower Grove" for example (like a lot of other games do), I think it'd be a lot more palatable. It'd also serve as a replacement for the loading screens telling you where you are.
 
Yeah there's lots of questionable music implementation in the game. As noted in the opening post I think the one that hurt the most was the darts theme in some random restaurant. That was a proper gut punch. It makes me think they just threw anything together sometimes.

Sometimes the battle music didn't feel serious enough too when fighting thugs and Red Snakes boss. I dunno didn't do it for me.

There were times the music were amazing though, walking up to the temple at Blossom Hill etc.

I also think the end credits theme was very underwhelming. It felt like just a random song.

It could have been curated a lot better.
 
DigitalDuck said:
It would've made more sense with them to use the first game's system: FREE tracks that play in every outside area, that change depending on story instead of location, and keep location-specific music to indoor areas.
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Yeah I think that would have been a better solution. While it didn’t pull me out of the experience the lack of proper looping was one of those rough edges I’m willing to to tolerate but it’s clear the same level of polish with the Dreamcast games wasn’t seen here.

You Arcade said:
Yeah there's lots of questionable music implementation in the game. As noted in the opening post I think the one that hurt the most was the darts theme in some random restaurant. That was a proper gut punch. It makes me think they just threw anything together sometimes.

I also think the end credits theme was very underwhelming. It felt like just a random song.
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Like I said in earlier thread, we as dedicated fans have been accustomed to associating certain music pieces with scenes or characters in previous games for the last 18 years so it’s hard to disassociate those memories. The dart theme didn’t bother me as much as hearing Fangmei’s theme in a random store in Niaowu. In context that song wasn’t completely out of place but because that piece was so closely associated with the character it felt cheap.

It’s just one of those concessions a limited budget brings.
 
Honestly, it's kind of weird to hear the classic Darts music play when you enter one establishment in Bailu. One of those, "hey, I know you! Why are you playing here?" moments.
 
I have zero issue with the soundtrack or transitions...aside from the darts theme randomly playing in a house.
 
The music is unfortunately a low point for me too. This was the one thing I had zero doubts about and yet it disappoints.

There is some genuinely good music that hasn't been heard before at all in there and some is placed fittingly and really works well. But overall I sometimes catch myself thinking they used a randomizer to pick what goes where. Way too good music is almost wasted for things and big areas can have rather lame sounding tunes. Then there is even music recycling within the games' soundtrack itself, and on the other hand areas that have way too much music associated with them. Or cutscenes where it switches with every scene change. That is like... no direction.

Also have to agree that the transition zones are too aggressive in spots and I really don't get why there are dead spots.
And agree on that some little reminder what area you entered would've really been nice.
 
I heard the Green Market Qr. music during a cutscene yesterday.

That threw me for a loop even more than the darts music did.
 
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