VF5 Final Showdown Soundtrack/Stage Impressions

As usual I'll start off with the obligatory "Not sure if I can post this here so I apologize ahead of time" message. I remember a while back we had the VF5R Soundtrack Impression Thread and I thought it'd be great to have a thread dedicated to everyone's thoughts on the new aesthetics like music and stages. I know the stages and music might still change up after the location tests are done but this is just for your first impressions.

Here are my thoughts so far...

Akira: The stage to me doesn't seem all too changed from Vanilla 5. The music however is probably the best track in Final Showdown, it reminds me of something you'd hear pre-VF4 before they went heavy with guitars.

Aoi: N/A

Brad: N/A

Dural: The first video I saw of this stage looked the same as R's but I know there tends to be at least 3 versions of Dural's stage in each iteration of VF5 so I hold judgment until I see the other renditions. The track on this stage is from the first gameplay trailer which I thought would be used for Jean's Stage but I guess I was wrong. The track is pretty good, it's better than R but not as good as regular Vanilla's track with the organs.

Eileen: This stage is probably the biggest disappointment for me, no new scenery or even a change of lighting or color. They just switched the water in the stage out for sand. The track doesn't seem to stick with me like Vanilla or R's Track did. Overall pretty lackluster stage compared to some of the others.

El Blaze: N/A

Goh: This is my favorite rendition of all of Goh's stages so far, I love the ominous flames in the background. The music is 'ok' nothing special but not as dull as some of the other tracks on the other stages. I'll admit it's growing on me.

Jacky: This stage for the most part has remained unchanged since Vanilla only getting a change of coloring in the background (Green to red then finally blue). I'm not impressed with the track that plays in the background like I was with R and Vanilla. It's just kind of background noise.

Jean: N/A

Jeffry: Again the stage just seems like Vanilla's with a fence around it's border and slightly brighter lighting. The music is the most fitting for the stage with the Congo drums and wind instruments and what not. Again nothing memorable but better than Vanilla 5 and a little lower than R.

Kage: His stage was great in Vanilla 5 and kind of sucked in R. This new one is eh kinda iffy, I suppose the green leaves are kind of nice but they still don't compare to the sakura petals in the first iteration. The track is severely lacking here compared to the techno beats of the Vanilla track though little better than the R one.

Lau: I suppose the stage is alright, doesn't look too different from the R version besides the floor being wet in certain places and darker. The music on this stage doesn't really stand out too much, kind of a forgettable track. I think the Vanilla track was the best version personally.

Lei Fei: Now this is what I call a good stage! I like the moon and the lights reflecting off the water in this stage. Overall one of the better stage revisions of Final Showdown. The music fits the stage, it kind of sounds like something you'd hear in Otogi.

Lion: N/A

Pai: N/A

Sarah: N/A

Shun: N/A

Taka: The stage doesn't seem to changed from R besides the lighting and bluer tint. The music is kind of 'meh' nothing special that stands out. The R track was much much better imo.

Vanessa: N/A

Wolf: This stage is definatly a step down from the R stage both music and track wise, the blizzard gave the stage some much needed flair. Even the Vanilla stage was better than what they have right now.

 

I'm a muscician myself and I can honestly say whoever makes music for VF needs to be fired asap. Seriously what the hell is wrong? Listening to these tracks for VFFS I'm honestly surprised they made the cut when any kid with reason could make a better set of tracks within a 24h timespam. This isn't a joke cause it isn't funny - these shitty tracks is what you'll be listening to for years to come. If I hear another samplebased guitarriff I'm going to hurl.

 

I like the music from most of FS so far. Some of it sounds mid-90 SEGA arcade, which I like. I think Eileen's was an improvement musically. I'll miss "Excitement and Invigoration are offered to all men" on El Blaze stage. I wasn't really feeling the FS track compared to the R one.

 

Stages are few hit and mostly miss. What happened to the unique environments from previous VF games? Like Sarah's stage having the lightning strike the ruins and having them crumple and collapse. Or Jacky's stage having a helicopter circle overhead with dynamic lighting from its spotlight. Or Pai's stage being entirely underwater and being able to watch fish of all sizes swim around in the background. The backgrounds of the stages in VF5:FS are so bland and uninspired compared to stages of the past.

I'm not asking for space station stages or ones with giant pink heart balloons like Tekken, but these new stages are aesthetically unpleasing.

Why isn't Jacky's stage at a race track with cars zooming around the stage? Isn't Jacky an F1 driver? That would be fantastic. They could even have the cars have Sonic and other Sega logos on them. Sega marketing team would cream in their pants over that idea.

Couldn't have said it better.

Not only are these tracks awful for a VF game. But they are awful on their own. I couldn't imagine these tracks fitting in anywhere. If I got into an elevator and a song from VF5:FS came on I'd take the stairs instead.

 

Damn! LOL. Thats relentless.

 

Yeah, I feel like almost all of these stages (except for Lei Fei's awesome one and Pai's totally bland and waaaay more boring one) look almost the same as they did in Vanilla, which is a big step backward. Eileen's Jeffrey's, Aoi's, Jacky's, Jean's, Shun's, and Lion's look just like past versions. Aoi's is particularly disappointing. Between 4 and 5 we've gotten 6 versions of basically the same stage. Why don't they go Kill Bill with it and do a nighttime, winter scene?

 

Would you say that they're done with an electronic keyboard? That's what I think about when I listen to this music.

 

Notice how the phrasing is done with El Blaze's theme for the trailer for VF5:FS. See how right as the music changes direction it perfectly coincides with the 'round 1' announcement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjAb7wTo628

Yet the song isn't timed like that for a replay if you watch one. The VF5:FS El Blaze theme isn't actually composed for a VF replay but it seems like it was phrased specifically for the trailer. You can see in the trailer that the music shifts right with the 'round 1' announcement and it's very organic and actually quite well done. In a VF5:FS replay the timing is off because in the trailer they cut out the beginning part of a replay where the camera pans around the stage. It's almost as if El Blaze's theme was written with its phrasing for the trailer and not as an actual stage theme.
http://zoome.jp/ninjapapa/diary/50

 

I'd say it's one guy doing the tune yeah and it's sample / software based for sure. The problem is also that the QUALITY of those samples (particulary drums) are shit. There's no excuse for that. Also fx placed on (reverb/delay/echo/ANYTHING etc) are virtually non existent. There are basicly no melodies or structure (atleast old VF tracks had melodies) just one guitar grinding and moving between 4 keynotes over and over. It also seems eq'd/mastered very poorly. I hate to do this but compary VF's music to it's biggest rival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4dn0CwEqrQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QakWMqLl3n8

You can basicly pick any track from T6 and it kicks VF's so hard it's not even funny. I don't care if you're nostalgic or love the series - the music simply has to be improved and is a big part of the overall experience (for instance faster music gives the illusion of faster gameplay). The tracks are really terribad; I mean that peopl wish that there was an option to play old VF2 tracks should really say something.

 

Well VF5R already has all of the old tracks in it. Basically you hold start and press a direction during the character loading screen, and you'll hear a sound prompt if you did it right, meaning the stage will load with old music. I think if the game is in arcade mode you have to be the winning player to change the music but if the system is in event mode either player can change it.

http://virtuadojo.blogspot.com/search/label/Alternate%20BGM

Either way the new music is flat out garbage.

 

Don't mind the new tunes, but is the quality of them is what throws me off. They sound like they were recorded in "mono" sound. At times, is like some tracks sounds like they're missing instruments, lol. VF5R>VF5FS...BIG TIME.

 

Gonna make a better / modern VF soundtrack. Gimmie 30min to fix.

Edit: up @ http://www.dvine909.com/akirathemermx.mp3
The strings and so on became shitty but I can't be bothered making it any better then it is.

Now imagine if VF had proper music and you had akiras dojo stage with all his students sitting around watching the fight and Akira himself was in a totally worn out gi dirty as fuck. Appareance is SO MUCH in fightinggames as it is what pulls you into the game in the first place (ultras anyone?).

 

Problem is that the audio is 48kbps on the replays so everything sounds pretty much muffled even the CH sound.
Having said that I only like a few tunes at the moment. I was hoping they were just place-holder..

Personally I think T6's OST is pretty bad compared to the old ones too. Apart from Fiesta.. But that is a trend with current modern video games now sadly..

Do any of these guys still work on the VF music?

VF2 Takayuki Nakamura, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Akiko Hashimoto
VF3 Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Sega Sound Team, and Fumio Ito
VF4 Fumio Ito, Sachio Ogawa, Yasuhiro Takagi, Keisuke Tsukahara

Don't know who works on VF5.

AM2 sure do love the guitars though now hehe.

 

I don't believe Mitsuyoshi is really working on VF stuff anymore. He's still with the company, and still working on the arcade tunes though. I don't know what he's doing though.

Only a few tunes in FS are good to me. Mainly just Akira and Aoi.

 

Re: VF5:FS Location Test Discussion Thread

It's something I've often wondered about considering the music up until VF4 was awesome. Once EVO hit it started going downhill immensely!!! VF1's music actually isn't memorable and probably wasn't meant to be, except for a couple tracks. VF2 kicked ass. Memorable tracks were Lau, Lion, Kage, and of course the best, Akira. Even the intro and especially the credits tracks were great!

VF3 continued a very similar techno theme with memorable tracks being Lau, Lion, Wolf, Shun, Jacky, Sarah, and Pai.

Once VF4 hit, even though the music was still good, the theme changed considerable. Instead of purely techno it became Rock+Techno(Rockno). Actually the only pure techno track was Shun's. Does anyone remember hearing the faint speech in the background of that track? "Where do I go to check out the site?" "I said where do I go to check out the site?" LOL

There are only two tracks I like from VF4 EVO, and just barely. And VF5... I can't think of one memorable one at all. This is saying a lot considering I have purchased every CD Japan has made for this game except the first one. Albeit VF5 never came out on CD, I wouldn't care if it did anyway. If I really liked the music I would just rip the tracks, but, not gonna do it! =)

I think part to do with this was the fact the best music for VF was made in the '90s. Things have unfortunately changed since then. Oh well, long live the past in this case!

 

Re: VF5:FS Location Test Discussion Thread

Gentlemen.



Ladies

 

I don't really like the music that much... especially Jeffry's. They sound like they were just thrown in. As far as the soundtrack goes VF5R>VF5>VF5FS... in my opinion. I think Lau, Lei Fei, and Pai have the best stages from what I've seen.

 

Re: VF5:FS Location Test Discussion Thread

Vane needs more love...so far, she's only appeared in three videos.

 

Re: VF5:FS Location Test Discussion Thread

Looks below the belt to me. Just look where the white 'explosion' effect appears.