Why is the music so awful?

[TripSin]

Edit: I would delete this thread if I could, because it's just been mostly a lot of unproductive negativity but it's too old to be deleted.

I don't think I can keep playing through this awful battle music. So many other tracks are bad as well. I feel like the terrible soundtrack is seriously detracting from the game experience :(

[Kaisha]

I quite like the soundtrack, the individual tracks are nice outside of the game.

The problem I found is that the tracks are short, and are played on loop. So a 2min track, which sounds great for the first few minutes, is played straight at full volume for the 30+ min you spend running around an area the first time you hit it. Which quickly becomes VERY grating.

They need a couple different versions of each track, a quiet/mellow one for exploring and running around, an exciting one for battles, an intro sequence, an 'ah-ha' sequence when you discover a secret, etc... then swap between them. That sort of thing.

[EnsembleofWolves]

I love the music XD Guess it’s just not your taste?

[Minneyar]

Have you checked whether your speakers are broken?

[Ferrous Oxide]

Have you tried improving your taste in music?

[Sur_GalaHad]

Its not on the same level as chained echos but its not near as bad as you make it sound lol

[TripSin]

Dang, I guess I'm in the minority. The battle theme on YouTube has a good amount of likes.

I'm fairly surprised though, because most of the music is so bad for me that I feel like I literally want it to get out of my ears. It's literally painful for me to listen to - the battle track being the worst offender since you have to hear it so much, but also some of the city music like the sea port city also being painful to listen to. I might have to turn down or off the music volume which I never do. I might also try to mod the game to play something else during battle.

I think the only track I've liked so far was, iirc, the boss for the colored crystals dungeon in the abandoned mage lair.

Maybe because I'm comparing this OST to Super Mario RPG's soundtrack, which absolutely slaps and has so much more pleasing tonality and musicality to it in my opinion. I also think of Undertale, which was also a low budget game, that still managed to have so much better music. I don't know who the composer is for this game, but I do not enjoy their style and musicality at all.

I have to feel like the people who can like this soundtrack haven't played Super Mario RPG. Probably a lot of young folk who never played it since it came out in 1996. But idk. And obviously while very similar, this is a different game with a different overall tone.

[Nevan]

I palyed SMRPG and I i don't see where the music is so better in it (it's good anyway).
The tracks on this games are stellar, while maybe not your tastes.

[Weltall8000]

I love the Super Mario RPG OST, but this is really good, and probably better. Both have a lot of strong melodies, that makes them catchy. I have had multiple songs from SoS stuck in my head since release. And even a couple from the Demo back in March or so.

Different strokes for different folks, but I reject the notion that one can't like this and Super Mario RPG.

[TripSin]

One of my main problems with this game's music is that it seems to overuse displeasing, shallow and cheap-sounding, headache-inducing, high frequency notes. I also feel like there is a significant lack in tone diversity. I find the music to feel flat, incredibly uninspired, absolutely forgettable, and overly simple with barely any layering to be heard. Feels like there is very little interesting musical phrasing or anything interesting going on thematically. I also find the foundational bass and beat support to be lacking.

[TripSin]

So I finally looked up who the composer is and I'm really surprised it's actually an experienced Japanese VG composer.

I haven't played his other games, but based just on Sea of Stars I have to say that I find Shimomura >>> Mitsuda. Not only did Shimomura rock out on SMRPG, but she also made some godlike tracks for Street Fighter and Kingdom Hearts.

I kind of want to play Mitsuda's other games just to see how he composed for them now. Maybe I'll just listen to their soundtracks, though.

[Crimson Idol]

Originally posted by TripSin:

So I finally looked up who the composer is and I'm really surprised it's actually an experienced Japanese VG composer.

Mitsuda is the composer for only a dozen tracks, though. Everything else is composed by Eric William Brown, who was also the composer for The Messenger, which one will notice as soon as one specific region is reached as there are some reimaginings of songs from Messenger that also help to connect both games story-wise.

For me personally the soundtrack is similar to most soundtracks. There are a few outstanding songs, most are in the range from good to decent and then there are some stinkers.

What I really like is the ingame jukebox. It's a really creative way and gives some songs a nice touch and makes some songs shine even more, like Dance of 1,000 Suns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puD-nSbQpOU

[Val1407]

Ok you memelord

[Koby]

You're not getting Jester points from me.

[Green]

Originally posted by Koby:

You're not getting Jester points from me.

Same. Not worth the points. But we can give him Jester icons in our hearts.

[TripSin]

Originally posted by Crimson Idol:

Originally posted by TripSin:

So I finally looked up who the composer is and I'm really surprised it's actually an experienced Japanese VG composer.

Mitsuda is the composer for only a dozen tracks, though. Everything else is composed by Eric William Brown, who was also the composer for The Messenger, which one will notice as soon as one specific region is reached as there are some reimaginings of songs from Messenger that also help to connect both games story-wise.

For me personally the soundtrack is similar to most soundtracks. There are a few outstanding songs, most are in the range from good to decent and then there are some stinkers.

What I really like is the ingame jukebox. It's a really creative way and gives some songs a nice touch and makes some songs shine even more, like Dance of 1,000 Suns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puD-nSbQpOU

OIC, interesting. That makes things make way more sense.

Originally posted by Green:

Originally posted by Koby:

You're not getting Jester points from me.

Same. Not worth the points. But we can give him Jester icons in our hearts.

I'm good on Steam points. Maybe one day when you grow up you can learn to maturely accept that other people can have their own subjective opinions that conflict with yours.