Sonic Forces - OST Thread

[C4k3]

Just wanna say I thoroughly enjoyed Mortar Canyon. It's criminal how short the stage is because its track is possibly the best in the game.

Didn't really enjoy the rest of Modern's OST outside of Sunset Heights and Network Terminal, mainly due to the excessive synths. Classic's not really memorable for me but I liked bits of Ghost Town. Avatar's is a serious guilty pleasure of mine, though.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

I gotta admit, I like this little tune. The goofy sounding melody just works.

[Ryusuke]

The vocal themes in the Avatar stages give me life. 

 

[The Man On The Inside]

Unpopular opinion but I feel like those Avatar tracks would be better without vocals - it's not that the singers can't sing, it's more the lyrics themselves are way too cheesy. I really hope that they release an official OST on Spotify with instrumental versions of those tracks. Listening to Park Avenue has me cringing one moment and smiling the next - same goes for Spaceport. "THIS IS JUSTICE THIS IS WHAT'S RIGHT",  please no. I honestly wouldn't mind the lyrics if they weren't so cheesy (probably originally written in Japanese and then translated).

 

[Lux Klonoa]

4 hours ago, The Man On The Inside said:

Unpopular opinion but I feel like those Avatar tracks would be better without vocals - it's not that the singers can't sing, it's more the lyrics themselves are way too cheesy. I really hope that they release an official OST on Spotify with instrumental versions of those tracks. Listening to Park Avenue has me cringing one moment and smiling the next - same goes for Spaceport. "THIS IS JUSTICE THIS IS WHAT'S RIGHT",  please no. I honestly wouldn't mind the lyrics if they weren't so cheesy (probably originally written in Japanese and then translated).

 

Uh, honestly, all of the game's vocal tracks except for the ending theme are cheesy. Seriously, even the title "Fist Bump" alone screams cheese, along with "I'm the x of y" in Infinite's theme.

But I don't mind them as much, really. Especially with Jon's vocals.

[Ultimate Victory 64]

I would've love for the Modern Sonic themes to have less synthesizers

[JezMM]

6 hours ago, The Man On The Inside said:

Unpopular opinion but I feel like those Avatar tracks would be better without vocals - it's not that the singers can't sing, it's more the lyrics themselves are way too cheesy. I really hope that they release an official OST on Spotify with instrumental versions of those tracks. Listening to Park Avenue has me cringing one moment and smiling the next - same goes for Spaceport. "THIS IS JUSTICE THIS IS WHAT'S RIGHT",  please no. I honestly wouldn't mind the lyrics if they weren't so cheesy (probably originally written in Japanese and then translated).

 

Hardly the worst the series has done, I'd take cheesy generic "save the world" lyrics over the explicit mentioning of character names in some of the songs from the Adventure era.

[Azure P]

8 hours ago, JezMM said:

Hardly the worst the series has done, I'd take cheesy generic "save the world" lyrics over the explicit mentioning of character names in some of the songs from the Adventure era.

'All hail Shaaaadow. Heroes rise again!'

[Blue Blood]

9 hours ago, JezMM said:

Hardly the worst the series has done, I'd take cheesy generic "save the world" lyrics over the explicit mentioning of character names in some of the songs from the Adventure era.

"Yeah Rouge, she's sexy and smooth"

"You know me the fighting freak Knuckles"

"This your main man Knuckles and we at Meteor Herd. Help me get the Emeralds"

"Eggman wants to get the stones. Sonic what you doin' here?"

 

 

I don't hate the avatar tracks. Some of them are pretty cool, others are more forgettable. I think it's the style that I dislike. Modern Sonic has some good tunes, like Egg Gate, behind that overused synth. Forces soundtrack is one of the worst for the entire series, but that really only means that it's good instead of great. It's a bad soundtrack by no means, and is better than the cliché generic tunes from Lost World. There's a bit too much wub wubbing and techno stuff going on here. The Classic tracks are mostly bad.

Ohtani needs to direct something more akin to his work on '06 and Unleashed. Or they need to get Senoue, Tokoi or another musician to direct. I know Tokoi doesn't work for SEGA these days, but he's clearly working on contract because he took part in Forces. He directed Colours and did a wonderful job. Although I do wish they'd drop the orchestral nonsense that's reserved for title screens and menus. Give me more of that SA1, SA2 and Heroes goodness

Edited November 12, 2017 by Blue Blood
Fuck this board is stupid these days. For some reason, it keeps moving the closing spoiler tags to the end of the post. And you can't unspoiler something on mobile. Urgh...

[JezMM]

To be honest I actualy completely adore the soundtrack, I haven't been able to stop listening to it for days.  I DO wish the lead synth instrument for Sonic was scaled back and replaced with some more environmentally-inspired instruments a little but honestly the actual melodies are too good for me to not love.  The thing that I adore the most about this soundtrack is the way a sense of melancholy and urgency makes it's way into the mood of almost every single song.  It's a shame the gameplay doesn't reflect it, because all the tracks really capture this feeling of being up against it with a world that has already been taken over.  Egg Gate, Network Terminal, Mortar Canyon, Imperial Tower, Arsenal Pyramid, Red Gate Bridge are probably the biggest examples of tracks that are (and I really wish we could find a word to replace what I mean and you know I mean by this) "epic enough" to be final stage themes and yet they aren't.  Egg Gate and Arsenal Pyramid are the third and fourth stages even!  And many other tracks might not have this feeling pervade the start or entirety of the song but they'll usually have a final segment before the loop that captures this feeling.

Of course, sadly it's one of the biggest reasons that the Classic Sonic music is such an exception to all the above praise, it's not just the soundfont, it's the fact that it completely ignores the mood of the rest of the soundtrack.

Honestly if modding the PC version becomes easy, I'll be gathering up fan-made "improved versions" of Classic Sonic's music and slapping those in the game, or if the internet can't provide that, just straight-up replacing them with the modern Sonic music from each respective zone.  At least I'll be able to enjoy them for more than a minute and a half that way, lol.

 

As for the orchestral music, I really enjoyed it since they were all really good tracks, but I'd definitely like to see it used more in combination with the more "Sonicy" techno/rock stuff.  The Avatar customisation screen was very much a highlight in this regard, as was Final Judgement and the final boss theme.  I feel there is potential to not just save the orchestral stuff for "serious bits" in future games, much like how they've (FINALLY) started to play more loose and wild with vocal tracks again (as oppose to your mandatorily sanctioned main theme and ending theme per game; final boss theme flexible).  Imagine Casino Forest played Generations Casino Night Act 2 Big Band style with some wacka-wacka-wow electric guitars too and just the occasional 16-bit flair to solidify it as a Classic Sonic tune.

[Brad]

I thought this is one of the weakest Sonic soundtracks in years. Lost World was unmemorable with a few highlights but nothing sounded outright bad like here.

That being said I'm completely enamoured with the World Map theme and the transition to Team Sonic's control. For in game themes, I do think Arsenal Pyramid both inside and outside are pretty dope. Ghost Town is pretty cool. None of the Rookie stuff is appealing to me in the slightest though.

 

[CleverSonicUsername]

I've been listening to some of Classic Sonic's music and while it's mostly nowhere near as outright shit as Green Hill's dumpster fire of a theme, none of it particularly feels Sonic-y to me. Like these would be perfectly fine Genesis songs from some game totally unrelated to Sonic the Hedgehog. It's... weird. Like I don't hate them as much as I was bracing myself for, but they def don't feel right.

[Meta77]

Outside classics Sonics themes this is by far one of the best sonic oats in years it almost  comes to par with 06s ost

[Soniman]

Man it kinda sucks to see the near universal panning classic Sonic's music is getting. I only think Green Hill is the intolerable one, Ghost Town is very underrated a track and Death Egg/Chemical Plant isn't that bad either L. I also enjoy the Egg Dragoon boss theme 

[Dizcrybe]

Most of classic's music is actually pretty good, but I've noticed it's not really trying to sound "Sonic-y" so much as "garden-variety Sega Genesis soundtrack" and I dunno whether that help sit or hurts it.

[JezMM]

For me it just clashes with the rest of the soundtrack and the aesthetics too much.  If Classic Sonic's stages suddenly turned into 16-bit sprite artwork versions of the stage they're set in, the music would fit ten times better (though I still think the melodies are too "silly" compared to Modern and Avatar's very serious themes filled with urgency), but Classic Sonic's stages, visually, look just like the other stages, with a rich graphical fidelity... so the music just sounds flat and unatmospheric at times.

In a vacuum, some good tunes, but just so out-of-place with the rest of the soundtrack.  I just don't get what was wrong with how Generations did it - the classic music in that game for the modern stages was perfect.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I think one of the issues with Classic's OSTs compared to the likes of Generations is Generations was legitimately trying to modernise and push the songs we liked. It kept the spirit of the OSTs but upped them to new levels, like if you redid them nowadays with modern sounds and such. Compare Gens' version of Sky Sanctuary to the original for example: 

It feels like the original but more grander and fleshed out in my opinion. That's what I thought was cool about Gens' versions of older songs for Classic, and then you go to Forces and it's like: 

It feels like you're trying to hold back modern sound techniques and such to replicate the Genesis soundtracks without really understanding what made the originals work in the first place, making the wide majority of them just sound like a bunch of bad electronic beeps and sounds mixed together without a clue why they worked well with the Genesis' versions. It's like you're just intentionally lowering the quality in a botched attempt to replicate that era without understanding it. Compare that to Mania:

Mania not only has an idea of what made the original tunes so appealing in the first place but knows when to keep the spirit of the original Genesis sounds and when to completely boost and elevate them to new heights. I loved the original Metal Sonic battle theme, but I adore this remix because it keeps the original while taking it to completely new heights and adding something to it. 

[Dizcrybe]

Honestly I don't think Mania and Classic Forces' music are comparable, because in the first place, Mania isn't even trying to replicate the Genesis sound. The soundtrack is much more in the spirit of Sonic CD than anything.

[Soniman]

26 minutes ago, Dizcrybe said:

Most of classic's music is actually pretty good, but I've noticed it's not really trying to sound "Sonic-y" so much as "garden-variety Sega Genesis soundtrack" and I dunno whether that help sit or hurts it.

Yeah I noticed on closer listening to them that some of it doesn't sound like "genesis" Sonic but like the genesis sound you hear in most other genesis games, you know that grungy bubbly sound? Think like Sonic Spinball music 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, Dizcrybe said:

Honestly I don't think Mania and Classic Forces' music are comparable, because in the first place, Mania isn't even trying to replicate the Genesis sound. The soundtrack is much more in the spirit of Sonic CD than anything.

I agree with this sentiment, but it doesn't really change the fact that this is a big reason why Forces possibly misfired. Mania kept the spirit of the original OSTs but tried to up the ante so to speak, while Forces tried to actively hinder itself without even understanding what made the originals good in the first place.

[Dizcrybe]

4 minutes ago, Soniman said:

Yeah I noticed on closer listening to them that some of it doesn't sound like "genesis" Sonic but like the genesis sound you hear in most other genesis games, you know that grungy bubbly sound? Think like Sonic Spinball music 

I was thinking more like Golden Axe or The Hybrid Front. Something from a Japanese composer rather than a Western one.

5 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I agree with this sentiment, but it doesn't really change the fact that this is a big reason why Forces possibly misfired. Mania kept the spirit of the original OSTs but tried to up the ante so to speak, while Forces tried to actively hinder itself without even understanding what made the originals good in the first place.

This is true.

[JezMM]

Tbh I don't really care to refer to the Act 1 music from the first three zones from Sonic Generations when talking about what I wish Classic Sonic music in Forces was, I'm more thinking stuff like Speed Highway, City Escape and Crisis City.

Where the Act 2 music is "cool", the Act 1 music is "fun".  It has a boppy beat, or quirky instruments (think the opening seconds of Crisis City, it's kinda silly and weird right?  And yet the song overall does not sacrifice the tone of the original song or envioronment to get that classicness going).

I feel the tunes for Ghost Town, Casino Forest, Chemical Plant and Death Egg are alright and wouldn't need that many changes if converted into a more Generations style, but Green Hill and Iron Fortress would need some serious rewriting to match the mood that Sonic and Avatar's music for those zones provide.

Great as Mania's soundtrack is, I don't think that style would QUITE suit Forces' visuals and tone either.  I feel that should be the standard style for Classic Sonic in 2D romps (assuming they keep the modern polish on the sprite visuals), while Generations style works best for Classic Sonic appearances in 3D games, if they continue to be a thing on occasion.

[Feanor]

I find Forces soundtrack to be entirely forgettable, much like the game itself.  The music in the classic stages is just intolerable though and doesn't even suit the theme of the stages, with Death Egg being the worst offender. 
The only song in the game I actually enjoy listening to is the White Jungle remix, and I can't even give Forces full credit for that one. 

[Tails spin]

I've played up to beating eggman with classic sonic.

So far the songs i like are Space port , Infinite's boss theme, egg gate and Luminous Forest.

[TranslucentDuck]

The track listings have been revealed thanks to Amazon.jp.

Sonic Forces Original Soundtrack - A Hero Will Rise

Spoiler

ディスク：1

  1. Fist Bump

  2. Theme of the Resistance -Title Screen ver.

  3. Cutscene -Quickening of Evil

  4. Lost Valley

  5. Cutscene -A Hero Falls

  6. Theme of the Resistance

  7. This Is Our World -A New Hero

  8. Fighting Onward -Space Port

  9. Action on the Rails

  10. Cutscene -It’s Good to See a Sonic

  11. Ghost Town

  12. Unstoppable

  13. Cutscene -Frightful Reflection

  14. Nowhere to Run -Prison Hall

  15. Cutscene -Zavok Appears

  16. Battle with Death Queen [Battle with Zavok Remix]

  17. Egg Gate

  18. Danger in the Sky

  19. Arsenal Pyramid

  20. Arsenal Pyramid -Interior

  21. Double Boost!

  22. Luminous Forest

  23. Coiled to Strike

  24. Taking It Back

  25. This Is Our World -Phase 1

  26. This Is Who You Are

  27. Up To The Challenge

  28. Mission Failed

  29. Fist Bump -Instrumental ver.

  30. Fist Bump -Piano ver.

 

ディスク：2

  1. Infinite

  2. Cutscene -You May Call Me “Infinite”

  3. Battle with Infinite -First Bout

  4. Faded Hills -Green Hill

  5. Battle with Egg Dragoon Mk. II

  6. Cutscene -The Phantom Ruby ~ Evil Deed

  7. Justice -Park Avenue

  8. Casino Forest

  9. Moonlight Battlefield -Aqua Road

  10. Sunset Heights

  11. Cutscene -The Fake

  12. Virtual Enemies -Capital City

  13. Cutscene -This Is Your Moment!

  14. Battle with Infinite -Second Bout

  15. Cutscene -Divine Intervention

  16. Chemical Flow -Chemical Plant

  17. Fist Bump -FM ver.

  18. Red Gate Bridge

  19. Mark II Locks On

  20. Battle with Metal Sonic [US ver. Remix]

  21. Double Boost! -Short ver.

  22. This Is Our World -Phase 2

  23. Episode Shadow

  24. Enemy Territory [Westopolis Remix]

  25. Eggman’s Facility [Rhythm and Balance Remix]

  26. Virtual Reality [Supporting Me Remix]

  27. Cutscene -Infinite’s Beginning

  28. Fist Bump -SXSW ver.

 

ディスク：3

  1. This Is Our World

  2. Set in Motion -Guardian Rock

  3. Death Crab Pursuit

  4. Network Terminal

  5. Network Terminal -Interior

  6. Death Prison -Death Egg

  7. Cutscene -Scrambled Death Egg

  8. Metropolitan Highway

  9. Cutscene -Null Space

  10. Null Space

  11. Fist Bump -Escape from Null Space

  12. Cutscene -Nothing Can Contain Us!

  13. Cutscene -Sun of Despair

  14. Fading World -Imperial Tower

  15. Cutscene -Valor and Wonder

  16. Mortar Canyon

  17. Cutscene -Infinite Showdown

  18. Battle with Infinite -Showdown

  19. Cutscene -Infinite’s End

  20. Iron Fortress

  21. Last Judgment

  22. Final Judgment -Reactor

  23. Cutscene -Mega Death Egg Robot

  24. Battle with Mega Death Egg Robot

  25. Cutscene -The Resistance Prevails

  26. Cutscene -Parting Ways

  27. The Light of Hope

  28. Cutscene -New Journeys

  29. The Light of Hope -Title Screen ver.

Sonic Forces Vocal Traxx - On The Edge

Spoiler

ディスク：1

  1. Fist Bump

  2. Infinite

  3. Fighting Onward -Space Port

  4. Nowhere to Run -Prison Hall

  5. Justice -Park Avenue

  6. Moonlight Battlefield -Aqua Road

  7. Virtual Enemies -Capital City

  8. Set in Motion -Guardian Rock

  9. Fading World -Imperial Tower

  10. The Light of Hope

Apologies if this is old news...