Mini-interview with sound director Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Dec '99)

Awesome work as usual @Switch.

Q: During the Premiere*, it was mentioned that the concept for the game was built out starting from a single song, wasn't it? How did that work?

Mitsuyoshi: At the beginning, Mr. Suzuki talked about wanting to create something like Disney: the music would come first, and that would inspire the drawing of art and designing of the characters. I thought this approach of building up from sound and music would be worth trying. At that time, there was already a main scenario in place, but it wasn't yet in a detailed form. So the concept for the game was built up drawing inspiration from a piece that I wrote while actually visiting China.
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Have we ever had confirmation on what piece Mitsuyoshi wrote in China and whether it ever made it to main game. I would presume it Shenmue theme song but I’m curious if we know?
 
Thanks @code l name !

code l name said:
Have we ever had confirmation on what piece Mitsuyoshi wrote in China and whether it ever made it to main game. I would presume it Shenmue theme song but I’m curious if we know?
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This was revealed by Mitsuyoshi in another interview as quoted below - interestingly it wasn't the Shenmue theme song as you might expect!

Q: I heard that the Shenmue project began with the creation of a single piece of music?

TM: In the early days of Shenmue's creation, the director asked to me first of all to create a song. He said that he wanted to expand the vision starting from the song, to create the story, and then create the whole thing.

So I went to China to carry out some background research. Inspiration came to me when I was on a domestic flight in China. While on the plane, I looked out the window and there was nothing there! Just a vast expanse of land. That's when a melody popped into my head.

I knew I had to record the melody somehow, so I sang it to the DAT [Digital Audio Tape recorder] I had brought for the research. So I sang it and recorded it by myself while on the plane (laughs). The song that I recorded is the one that's called "A New Journey" on the Shenmue Orchestra Version CD.
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Switch said:
"[Yu Suzuki] said the music during the game needs to be there but mustn't draw attention to itself".

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2023/07/interview-with-shenmue-sound-director.html

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Thank you very much Switch. This content is crucial. It made me laugh because while its true Sega AM2 sound department went minimalistic for S1, they couldnt stop to make awesome tracks which draws you in game but also attention to the wonderful track itself. Every single Sega game had at least one killer track that could make it to dancing floors or conceptual musical albums. Sega Bass Fishing soundtrack comes to mind. Many times, sound teams doesnt get the credit they deserve... I dare anyone to play a little bit of Shenmue muted.
 
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