The new London stage music is quite good.
I’m getting major 3S vibes from it. 1st, 2nd and 3rd round are different variations, plus the general music direction sounds great. We’ve all complained here about IV being too much of a mish-mash of electro crap with an identity crisis; yet here we see the distinction between instrumental/orchestral and electronic be very defined and up-beat. I’m loving the snippets of this new track, and here’s hoping for the rest of the tracks to be akin to this one.
I would be in favor of a stylized soundtrack like we got with 3rd Strike and Alpha 3.
The problem with SFIV was just how bland it sounded. So uninspired and awful. When you can somehow turn absolutely epic compositions such as Ken, Guile, or Cammy’s themes into elevator music than you know something went terribly wrong. Like that took serious effort to make those songs boring.
Alright, IGN posted new gameplay videos. Shit-tastic soundtrack confirmed, thanks Capcom.
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Which ones? And what exactly don’t you like about them?
I just don’t feel any personality or excitement from any of the stage music in the game. I noticed they’re trying to do a multi-round mix like they did with Third Strike but the music is just so mediocre that it’s a lost effort.
Agreed. Right now, I wouldn’t say it’s bad for that stage, but it’s not that great either. You’re right, they did change it to a multi-round mix like 3S. I wanna get a good listen to the London stage that someone said sounded decent. Every SF game has had some songs that weren’t all that great, so I’m hoping with more stages, we’ll get some damn good tracks. The “street/restaurant” song in the video above leaves me kinda feeling meh, but something about it leaves me with a glimmer of hope we’ll get some pumping tracks.
London stage music can be found here. It’s better than the Hong Kong stage but still not very good either.
For starters there is nothing to suggest that either of these tracks belong to either of these stages. You could have the HK music on the London stage and vice versa and it wouldn’t make a difference, they’re interchangeable because they have nothing in the music (cultural instruments, cadences, etc.) that ties either of them to the locations they’re set in.
I dont’ really care if the music is mediocre. As long as it isn’t distractingly bad, it’s whatever. Like Ken’s SF4 theme, that was so bad it was a distraction.
I actually really like the London stage music. It’s the kind of music I listen to on a regular basis though, so I’m obviously biased.
I mean, it’s listenable, but it has no personality. That’s a big problem. This isn’t just some generic disconnected production where the music stands on its own, it needs to be tied to the characters and locales in the game.
I’d assume the current two tracks will be remixed and remade a hundred times before the final version of the game comes to retail, so let’s not write off the soundtrack just yet
I don’t think they can top CPS1 Street Fighter II soundtrack.
Agreed, it could be placeholder music, or an early iteration. I look at how many of the tracks in Skullgirls went through a bunch of changes before their final versions (Beowulf’s in particular was shortened)
Either way, as long as there’s some solid tracks, I could handle what we’ve gotten so far. While I liked some of SF4, I don’t want them to do things like Balrog’s SF4 theme, Gen’s, etc.
Personally I think that without any of the legacy SF composers that made the soundtracks so incredible in the past, it’s a write-off no matter what. Today’s Capcom clearly doesn’t understand how important music is to this series.
I doubt very much that it’s placeholder music because the Hong Kong stage has had the same music since the very first gameplay demo. If it was going to have new music it would certainly have changed by now.
Actually, I think the Hong Kong stage music has changed since the first time we heard a lil’ of it at Capcom Cup. The first time, it sounded like it had voices singing a melody – not lyrics, but just a melody. The ones from yesterday, I don’t hear the voices.
I still need to hear more, but so far, the 2 we have are “passable”, for now… 
Sure, but “passable” is not good enough. Would Ken’s theme, Guile’s theme, Ryu’s theme, Dudley’s theme and so many other character themes have so many accolades and remixes if they were merely “passable”? They’ve lost sight of one of the most important aspects of the franchise.
Killer Instinct will continue to have the best soundtrack in modern FGs… These songs are just… there. Totally forgettable, and that’s a cardinal sin in VG soundtracks, ESPECIALLY so for the flagship fighting game, that used to redefine the genre mechanically, visually, and musically.
I guess good music*(much like good gameplay)* cost too much to make, eh, Capcpom?
Probably because they are giving the game itself (overall system, mechanics, flow of battle, etc) much more attention and seeking feedback from players both pro and casual alike, hence why they haven’t bothered to put updated hong Kong theme in the current press build (which quite probably might be used at E3 in a few days as well), right now the focus should be more in the technical stuff and improvements from SF4 rather than OST which can be written anytime after the major game elements are fleshed out
It’s very hard to think about SFV’s soundtrack since there’s been only 2 tracks and they are only avalaible alongside gameplay videos.
I also wonder the hate for SFIV since I think (still) it’s the best with Super Turbos. 3rd Strike had unforgettable or better themes that their counterparts in IV like Ken’s, Elena’s, Akuma’s or Ibuki’s but some of them were just meh. The prime examples of these are Ryus, Yun / Yang’s (Bond rip-off) and especially Urien’s, Chun’s and Remy’s theme that were just lazy and uninspired.
And how anyone can hate for instance Rufus’ them in SFIV? It’s awesome and fits the character.
But overall, music is extremely hard to rate. It’s so much about the genre of music you like, nostalgia etc.