Shenmue III - Will It Feature An Original Score?

Vivi-gamer

Vivi-gamer

Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Hi,

I know it's been discussed in the IGN Preview article, but I think it is something which still needs to be addressed.
and most of the game’s music is reused from the original games, be it with many pieces that were never used in the originals.
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I still feel uneasy about this & I have to admit this is something which has bothered me even with the trailers we've seen - especially the latest one, it just made it still feel rather undeveloped. I don't mind old themes being re-done, but having the exact same recording from previous games is going to be very distracting.

Also, I read somewhere that there was a lot of music made that was not even used in Shenmue I & II (Couldn't find the quote but I remember it being a high percentage!), I'd be more than happy for them to re-surface - provided they don't conflict with the tone of what newer tracks should offer.

When they announced team members involved with the production, they noted Ryuji Iuchi:

So I am still hoping an original score will be present, but that line in the article did strike a red flag. But I'd like to hear fans thoughts on it & if there is any insight to the matter I may have missed.
 
For me the music being taken from unused tracks is fine. I'm sure the quality of the tracks will be that of the first 2 games.

It comes down to budget and I'd imagine they will have saved a significant amount of money by not doing all the music from scratch.
 
Whether a piece of music was recorded in 2019 or 1999 matters very little to me, as long as the same Shenmue quality is there.

Haven't we already heard a brand new track for Shenmue III that was revealed a while back?
 
We've known this for a while. With the vast, vast library of unused music created during the days of the original Shenmue games, it makes sense to delve in and make use of that asset both from a financial and continuity standpoint.

The actual source quote eludes me, but I believe Yu Suzuki said they'd use the library, but commission new songs if they ran into an instance where nothing was appropriate for a certain scene, etc. There may be some re-arrangement and re-recording with newer synths, but for the moment we just don't know.

In any case we've heard a lot of the source tracks from the original games recently with the release of the Shenmue I & II sound collection, and they hold up pretty well IMO. They're very distinctively "Shenmue".
 
I'm not doubting the quality of Shenmue I & II's compositions - They're great and I listen to them weekly at work! But with Shenmue III being a new game with new areas and events I'd expect a new score to go with that - Once again I'm meaning I don't want to have tracks used in Shenmue I & II present, but more than happy for them to use the tracks that weren't put into the actual games.

I just think hearing the exact same recordings of themes used in older games will sort of ruin the moment for me - but I'd love new variations on themes - Like how many movies integrate a character theme with elements of the main films theme. I just don't want to embrace a new iconic moment in Shenmue III with the exact same track that has been used in a previous moment in a previous game.

As an example, when Ryo arrives in Choubu by boat shown in the trailer, I don't want to hear the exact theme of Shenmue II's Hong Kong arrival sequence, as it would just take me out the moment. I want locations like Choubu, to have it's own unique feel and hearing scores actually placed in Shenmue I & II will be very jarring to me.
 
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Yu Suzuki in February 2016:

When asked about the use of music in Shenmue III, the maestro explained that when originally planning out the series he "thought of musical pieces to fit the various scenes" that would form each chapter. "And so we have lots of music available to us now: a great many pieces, that were composed and created back then. And I would say not even 20% of them have been used in Shenmue I and II."

"With Shenmue III," he continued, "There are a number of musical pieces we will be creating, but we'll also be making use of past ones, for example in arrangements. There are many pieces that fit the original concept well, so this is the approach I'd like to take."
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Honestly I love the music from the two games and while some original tracks would be appreciated, I don't mind not having them...

It will be sad to not have certain musical moments, of course. I think one of my favorite moments in terms of music in the entire series when you first meet Zhang. This very eerie and ominous, yet all too familiar track plays that let's you know "holy shit it's about to get dark". It was a track that was very similar to the track that plays in the beginning of the first game when having nightmares about Lan Di. Still gives me the chills every time I get to this part...

So yeah, something like that probably won't ever happen again, but my god is the music still awesome. Hell maybe this will be a good thing, and they recycle some music we really miss from the other games. I'd love to hear the forklift working music again...
 
Some of the music tracks that may be used in Shenmue III (new or unused in Shenmue I or II) can be heard on the MAGIC 2016 conference with Yu Suzuki.

 
Kiske said:
Some of the new music tracks composed for Shenmue III (or unused in Shenmue I or II) can be heard in the MAGIC 2016 conference video. (starting ~50:57)

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These are from the library I believe, and not all unused!

The first song is from the Stone Pit when Shenhua reads her father's letter, the next is a track we heard in the Shenmue Premiere video, the third is one we've never heard at all, and the fourth is just the flute instrumental of Shenhua's theme.
 
It would simply defy logic NOT to include older tracks. Not to mention that would disappoint me more than just about anything they can do, as the music is one of the most defining things about Shenmue and I want to hear all these. There are 800+ tracks on Yu's laptop as we speak, which were all created in the 90s for the entire series as a whole. We've heard around 350-400 of them between what's featured in Shenmue I and II, unused tracks dug out of the games, songs that were in the Shenmue Online OST and other soundtracks, various ads over the years and so on. So yeah, there are many more out there to be heard, not to mention many fantastic unused tracks we have heard that were always meant to be used in Shenmue III, IV and so on.

I expect many tracks to be reused. Character themes and such, but I wouldn't expect to hear in-game tracks like the Wise Men's Qr music in Shenmue III. There would be no reason to do that, and I certainly hope they don't. There's far too much of a selection of yet unused musics to use to define these new locations instead.

Of course it will be interesting to hear new compositions too. And it's probably a good idea to make a few because considering the size of these games, by the time we reach Shenmue V we may be getting near the end of the 800 tracks to use.
 
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Kodama said:
OH I noticed lmfao love that shit...
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In 2015, I asked Iuchi who was the author of the track and he answered me he didn't remember lol. The load of work made on the soundtrack is insane, and for Shenmue 3 they probably had to re-listen to all these tracks to make sure what have been used, re-used or not and when.
 
Van Joel Sandwich said:
So man, after watching the Ryo and Master trialer multiple times, did you like it after all?
I remember you being very disapointed for not seeing the trailer in morning during MAGIC.
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Absolutely. To me, it looks as authentic as it possibly can. It has actually greatly exceeded my expectations. And with 5 months left for the team to just polish and shine it? No doubt it'll be just fine.
 
Good to see the tracks meant for Shenmue Online getting noticed more, though in all likelihood they're probably reuses from the sound library too considering over 50% are probably Shenmue II tracks in their original form being being interpreted/compressed by the Dreamcast.

Some absolute bangers in there though.


 
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