To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

(Chapter 7 and beyond)

What type of music do you prefer ? (Total votes: 11)

FREE Music
5
45%
Location Based Music
6
55%

To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby shredingskin » Thu Aug 31, 2017 5:50 am

This is one of the pet peeves I have with SII, is that trying to convey a chinese feel, every location has a different tune (one for night and one for day IIRC), that means that no matter where in the story you were the music would be the same and change according to location.

In the first Shenmue there was FREE music that would be played depending on which part of the game you were in, and while lacked variety, it added a lot more to the atmosphere and immersion of the game.

The question is simple, which approach would you like in Shenmue III ?
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Hadoken Hazuki » Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:54 am

To FREE! I much preferred the Shenmue 1 method where story progression dictated the music, as I think I've mentioned on these forums a few times. :) Found it made the world feel much more seamless, and on top of that I preferred the specific pieces themselves much more than the ones from Shenmue II.

The Shenmue II open world music felt much less ambient and immersive than the original to me, way too bouncy and less fitting I think. Some exceptions do come to mind, like Fortune's Pier's night theme and Thousand White Qr's night theme. But I really don't find the likes of Stand Qr's day theme or Worker's Pier's day theme to be particularly great or that well suited to Shenmue, as memorable as the latter now is. (It's primarily the day themes I don't like by and large, now I think about it :lol: )

Yasuhiro Takagi was the sound director for the second game, whereas Takenobu Mitsuyoshi had that role for the original, so I assume that played a part. I guess it's the "synthy chill" pieces that were very distinct in the original game, that often seemed missing in the sequel. Hoping they'll go for that in Shenmue III, but I have my doubts. Especially with Yu Suzuki talking of possibly no new music being composed for it!
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby shredingskin » Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:46 am

Yup the lack of new music is a little bit disappointing but expected if they wanted to keep a tight budget.

Hopefully they do have the stems, it would be pretty cool to hear some remixes of old songs.

But there's not much free music (I think it was like 15 tracks only)
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Yokosuka » Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:54 am

I think he meant reusing the music that has been already produced. As a matter of fact, we heard only 20% of the Shenmue OST.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby BlueMue » Thu Aug 31, 2017 10:41 am

I really love the atmospheric style of the FREE music but I like the approach of each area having it's own music more.
Changing the music based on where you are in the story is a very clever idea but there are problems. For example, I really like FREE 1 but you can only hear it early in the game, then never again. On the other side we have FREE 7, wich is the only thing you'll hear for days later in the story. Being stuck with something and having no chance to hear certain tunes ever again is actually a pretty flawed system if you think about it.

Having music based on the area you're in ensures you don't have to listen to something for days everywhere and you can easily go back to your favorite music by just going to its area. It's also just a regconition thing. I'm sure everyone that played Shenmue II a couple of times will instantly have vivid images of the area when for example the South Carmain Music plays. Having different music at night also greatly enhances the mood. Shenmue very rarely changes the music after the nighttime sequence and pausing the current FREE music just to go back to it again afterwards is just wasted potential of the soundtrack.

I'm clearly for the Shenmue II style here, the reasons I stated above make it obvious why. But they could expand it by having story based music playing in every area at key points in the story to heighten the tension. Shenmue II actually kinda does that too already, when you're looking for Ren at Pigeon Park.

BlueMue has received 3 thanks from: Hadoken Hazuki, VukBZ2005, Yokosuka
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby shredingskin » Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:22 pm

Yokosuka wrote: I think he meant reusing the music that has been already produced. As a matter of fact, we heard only 20% of the Shenmue OST.


I missed it, can you remember where did YS said that ?
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby KidMarine » Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:33 pm

shredingskin wrote:
Yokosuka wrote: I think he meant reusing the music that has been already produced. As a matter of fact, we heard only 20% of the Shenmue OST.


I missed it, can you remember where did YS said that ?

It was at Magic IIRC.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Hadoken Hazuki » Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:32 pm

That's something I was thinking about recently with regard to this "Way more music was done for Shenmue than we've heard" idea.

If any Dojo veterans recall the announcement of the ill fated Shenmue Online (Isn't it interesting that no interviewer has asked Suzuki about that game since Shenmue III's announcement? I know it's dead, but there was never an official statement about its cancellation after all!), they might remember that the official website for the game contained an archive with a ton of Shenmue music on it, purportedly for different parts of the game such as day/night themes, battle music etc. Some were higher quality versions of pieces we'd already heard, some were new. The Dojo's youtube channel has most, if not all of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ33hIK ... F232D2DD98

I doubt these were created specifically for Shenmue Online, I think it's likely they are part (hopefully not all) of the supposed "80%" of music absent from the first two games. It's quite possible we'll hear some of these tracks in Shenmue III, for better or worse.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby killthesagabeforeitkillsu » Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:54 pm

Doesn't really matter to me as long the music feels iconic. Despite the smaller budget, I hope it's not just a bunch of remixes.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Yokosuka » Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:38 pm

shredingskin wrote:
Yokosuka wrote: I think he meant reusing the music that has been already produced. As a matter of fact, we heard only 20% of the Shenmue OST.


I missed it, can you remember where did YS said that ?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-_kR2f ... e&t=13m29s
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby jasonorme666 » Thu Aug 31, 2017 4:20 pm

As much as I liked those Shenmue 2 tracks for day and night. The FREE tracks are my favourite Shenmue tracks of all time.

The free system all the way!
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Suzuki Yu » Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:37 pm

it's hard to tell... it's really really HARD!
Shenmue was always a masterpiece at delivering sounds that would help creating a strong atmosphere.
but one thing i surely missd in Shenmue 2 is these moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IOiyNYWqis

i wish they used the same exact music in Shenmue II
Last edited by Suzuki Yu on Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Chaikilla » Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:56 pm

I'd go for FREE.

Shenmue 1 really knew how to set the mood for forthcoming events with its OSTS. The FREE music that plays before you meet Chai at the Arcade and before you bring the Phoenix mirror to Chen really set a "something big's about to go down" mood that not only piques the curiosity of the player but also instills a little bit of anxiety in us as the player, too.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby JohnBlack » Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:34 pm

Shenmue 1 had pretty much one location with one atmosphere. SII is too diverse, so FREE music is really hard to fit right.
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Re: To FREE or not to FREE ?? (music)

Postby Centrale » Thu Aug 31, 2017 10:38 pm

I loved the way the music worked in Shenmue II. I would lean toward that approach, but instead of the loading screens that divided everything up, nowadays the themes of various areas could subtly crossfade as you walk along.
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