SEGA implements SYMPATHY - dynamic music

[sugarFO]

From http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-s...stem-sympathy/

It's basically what allows the music to change from different scenarios.

I've read some of the comments and I have to agree with the ones who say that the music lacks emotion and mood because of the constant shifts and the composers arranging pieces of music to these shifts. Yes, in PSO, it felt a little odd when the wandering BGM would still play even when you were fighting monsters, but the tracks were really amazing anyway. (Seabed battle theme is still my favorite VG music, like EVER.) I even listen to PSO music just for fun, hehe.

What are your thoughts on this system? Do you enjoy it? Does it seem to work for you?

[blace]

It just drones on and on, a bit difficult to notice the shift in between exploring and fighting and feels like it lacks the edge PSO had when creating a tense mood with its sound score.

[Mikura]

I personally don't like it. There's so many transitions that take place in any given run that it doesn't feel like you're listening to "music" per se, so much as just a bunch of random noise.

The concept is good I believe, it was just poorly executed in PSO2. If it had less transitions, the music would be pretty solid. I've listened to all the BGM without the constant transitions and what's there is fantastic. As it is though, it's just too....busy.

[Shadowth117]

I definitely notice the difference, but I won't lie; most of the music isn't amazing to me. Bad no, but not what generally feel like listening to for hours. Some of the boss music really isn't bad though (Boss fight BGM's come to mind). If nothing else though, it doesn't sound like I'm listening to a static song. It changes a lot during things like PSE Bursts and battles although its smooth and subtle when it does.

I still like PSO's music better overall, but the music system in this isn't bad.

[gravityvx]

That ruins, seabed & mines music back in pso really nailed the atmosphere & mood both in and out of battle. Only the city in pso2 does it right.

[HFlowen]

PSO1s music worked fine, you had calm ambient music and your battle music and that's all you needed.

PSU was UNTZUNTZUNTZ all day, so fuck that.

PSO2 is... i dunno. sometimes I feel like the exciting music drags on way too long after I've killed everything.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Personally, I'm fine with it. I think it's an interesting concept and I really like it when the music changes based on the situation. For example, it gets faster and more upbeat once a PSE Burst activates.

That's pretty cool to me. Granted, they just add drums and such on top of the original BGM already playing, but still, lol. It gets me hyped all the same (same goes for the Duel transition).

[Jakosifer]

I listen to my own music usually. The reason this worked in PSO was because it was much slower paced, and everyone had the same movement speed, along with there sometimes being quite a bit of space between the rooms where you do battle and the corridors/spaces where not much is going on.

[NoiseHERO]

I think they made the music TOOOOO atmospheric...

I don't feel anything from it, it doesn't help that it meshes together so damn much from like 8 different music changing situations.

Even if there's a part of the song that sounds nice, you won't notice it go over your head after hearing these random atmospheric sounds for like 10 minutes and not getting anything out of hearing them.

It's nice to set the mood... but... they went too far... At this rate I'm finding most of PSU's music more memorable...

[Mikura]

I wanna point out too, and maybe this is just me, but it seems to me like a lot of music composers that may have struck gold with a particular soundtrack years ago can never duplicate it again years later. And when they try, it just doesn't sound quite right.

Like when you listen to the music, it may have that PSO vibe, but it's like something's missing that you can't quite put your finger on. I'm talking about the bgm as it is without all the jumpy transitions by the way. It's good, but it doesn't quite hit the sweet spot.

I don't know, could just be me being biased because the original PSO soundtrack has a lot of nostalgia attached to it for me.