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The Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack has aged incredibly well

AnilP228

AnilP228

Member
Mar 14, 2018
1,194
So I'm working from home and needed some music to listen to. After getting bored of my Spotify playlists, I stumble across the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack, which was composed by the one and only Yuzo Koshiro. Oh boy.



Just...wow. I must have played through this game at least 100 times growing up but never truly appreciated just how wonderful the soundtrack is. 'Go Straight' and 'Dreamer' immediately jump out as some of the best music of that era. The piano loops, bass, catchy melodies...everything just works so well. It's no surprise that Yuzo spent time in L.A becoming familiar with western underground/hip hop because here I am rapping the lyrics to Rebel With A Cause and singing The Shamen's Move Any Mountain whilst I listen to tracks like 'Too Track' and the aforementioned 'Dreamer'.

I'm fairly certain this game had a huge impact, at least subconsciously, into the music I began listening to in my teens. It's just pure awesome.
 
AaronMT

AaronMT

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,530
Toronto
Please don't link to the material in question as it's not an official source.
Do yourself a favor and download the soundtrack in FLAC (or MP3):

[Please don't link to material]
 
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sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,480
Most Yuzo Koshiro stuff ages well.

I'm replaying Story of Thor right now, and though it's not one of his more popular works, I still absolutely love it, and it's perfect for the game.
 
Sgt. Demblant

Sgt. Demblant

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,030
France
One of the all-time great videogame soundtracks.

Here's a great documentary series about japanese game composers featuring an interview with Koshiro:
 

rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
I don't know who at Dotemu is convinced they'll be able to get away with releasing SOR4 without a Koshiro soundtrack but they're out of their goddamned mind.
 

rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
sir_crocodile said:
I thought they weren't saying anything with the idea they're still in discussion with him. Is it confirmed he's not involved?
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They haven't straight up said he's uninvolved, no. The inference is that he may end up contributing in some capacity but not as the primary composer, which doesn't strike me as much better. Any SOR game that treats his involvement as non-critical isn't legitimate.

Maybe they'll surprise me and he'll handle the whole thing (with or without Kawashima) but the very fact that it's been, what, nine months? and they're still hedging on this doesn't strike me with confidence.
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,480
rawhide said:
They haven't straight up said he's uninvolved, no. The inference is that he may end up contributing in some capacity but not as the primary composer, which doesn't strike me as much better. Any SOR game that treats his involvement as non-critical isn't legitimate.
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Ah

I already wasn't happy with the look, if he's not composing the majority of the tracks then I'm not interested in it.
 
Znazzy

Znazzy

Member
Aug 27, 2018
1,239
rawhide said:
They haven't straight up said he's uninvolved, no. The inference is that he may end up contributing in some capacity but not as the primary composer, which doesn't strike me as much better. Any SOR game that treats his involvement as non-critical isn't legitimate.

Maybe they'll surprise me and he'll handle the whole thing (with or without Kawashima) but the very fact that it's been, what, nine months? and they're still hedging on this doesn't strike me with confidence.
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It'll be hugely disappointing if he isn't involved, but SoRR had fantastic music (even if it was all remakes of Yuzo's) so I'm confident that there are composers out there that will still be able to give it justice if it's in the same vein.
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,340
Despite all the love RPG's and games like Sonic get for their soundtrack during that generation, SoR2 would be my favorite. There was just nothing like it at the time.

sir_crocodile said:
Ah

I already wasn't happy with the look, if he's not composing the majority of the tracks then I'm not interested in it.
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He did say this



Unless he's got other priorities at the moment, Dotemu would be foolish not to hand over the full soundtrack to him. His sound is critical to that franchise.
 
Dust

Dust

C H A O S
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Oct 25, 2017
32,166
I never got over his "inspirations", same with Yoko Kanno.

Sound familiar?

 
Svejk

Svejk

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
699
SOR1 OST has aged even better, IMHO. Ever single track is pure electronic audible excellence.
 
FlashbladeERA

FlashbladeERA

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,259
Dust said:
I never got over his "inspirations", same with Yoko Kanno.

Sound familiar?

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For the 10 or so "major" inspirations these major composers have, they still have 100+ songs they've still have to create. And that's usually just one or 2 properties.

If an artist or even a director can take inspiration from a show or movie they grew up watching (some directly ripping scenes and putting a new coat of paint on it), why can't musicians do the same thing, if they aren't blatantly plagiarizing it.

Honestly in Yuzo's case I'm surprised he was able to emulate half the sounds from his inspiration off the Genesis sound chip.

and Yoko's case... she's done 1000+ songs. She's allowed to have songs that take inspiration from other songs she loves.
Plus we don't know if the director's of her projects wanted a certain song to sound similar to the inspiration/reference.

When troupes and character motivations, and even designs take inspiration or even straight up pay homage to other works, musicians get called out negatively, when attempting to do the same thing.

This...


Takes heavy inspiration from this


Is this a bad thing? is this on the musician... the director.. does this one song take away from the rest of the soundtrack and the composers entire works?
 
Zool

Zool

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,233
Yes, yes, yes!!

Streets of Rage II soundtrack is impeccable. Probably the best soundtrack ever.
 
panama chief

panama chief

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,047
SoR2 OST is a gift from God. Love it and the many was it's been covered.

My favorite version of Dreamer:



The Consouls version of In the Bar:

 
Silvergun-Blue

Silvergun-Blue

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,930
It leveraged the technology incredibly well, it was insane at the time to hear such a contemporary music style coming from a Mega Drive. You could literally have played the tracks in a club and nobody would have skipped a beat.
I still remember the day I plugged headphones into the Mega Drives headphone socket and heard it properly, it was like the audio equivalent of going from black and white to colour. I can't overstate how much the soundtrack influenced my music taste over the years.
 
Sharivan

Sharivan

Member
Dec 29, 2018
411
Belgium
Like others have said most of the music isn't very original, but yeah it still sounds great. I love his Revenge of Shinobi music too.

 
Serein

Serein

Member
Mar 7, 2018
2,345
I think my favourite 16-bit soundtrack is still Super Castlevania IV but SoR2 is a close second.

Love this drum cover:
 
MetalMagus

MetalMagus

Avenger
Oct 16, 2018
1,645
Maine
I haven't seen it mentioned yet in the thread, but if you dig any of SoR's soundtrack - do yourself a favor and pull up the remixes from the Streets of Rage Remake fan project.



Some of the tunes are as good, or dare I say, better than the originals.
 
Richter1887

Richter1887

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,146
I hope they bring him back for SOR4. And if not then I hope they allow us to play music from the past games.
 
IronicSonic

IronicSonic

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Oct 25, 2017
3,639
I love SOR2 soundtrack with all my hearth. As a recent SOR3 soundtrack believer, I think SOR 3 soundtrack deserves an spot right up there as well

Znazzy said:
It'll be hugely disappointing if he isn't involved, but SoRR had fantastic music (even if it was all remakes of Yuzo's) so I'm confident that there are composers out there that will still be able to give it justice if it's in the same vein.
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I remember someone on era a couple of weeks ago saying none of the major composers of the Koshiro-techno-SOR style scene is involved on SOR4. Maybe I'm wrong though. I just hope Koshiro is involved in SOR4 project in some big capacity
 
aisback

aisback

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,738
I wish I could buy sega music digitally.

I've seen the vinyl releases and stuff like that

Sega music is great
 

DJtal

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,467
Capetown / South Africa
I think I spend a lot of time in the menu to play the songs. First time I got my megadrive, I was like what the hell is this slider and a headset jack. My friend told me put them on and play, I was wow it's in stereo ?!? (we got a TV Stereo only few years later, but honestly it was just a stamp on the TV, the effect wasn't there). It was the first I started to play on home console with a headset, never stopped since (thank you Sega).
 

Deleted member 7148

Oct 25, 2017
6,827
Both SOR1&2 have masterful soundtracks, but I still prefer the first game's tracks over the second.
 
immortal-joe

immortal-joe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,417
Koshiro was just different class in that era. Hearing his music generated from a Genesis / Megadrive was just mind blowing.
 
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