Finished listening. S3K and SA1&2 Medleys both gave me chills. They felt epic, the kind of themes one could hear in a movie release. Unleashed & Colors already have themes orchestral-like enough. The Rock part of the concert felt a bit 50/50, but still entertaining.
Wasn't sure where to put this, but DCT's new cover of Green Hill Zone that Masa mentioned during the concert is out on Spotify now: https://open.spotify.com/track/4NfRe9VUwhZOG6lKFcH9iP?si=29965350e62944c1 It's not bad. Has a nice, breezy feeling to it.
It's also available on YouTube now. It's certainly nice to hear how Masa-san would turn the track into a full song and since it's still him it's imminently faithful to the original track. He even added in that intro from his initial demo which is a nice touch. The added bridge is a great addition too and I'm curious to hear someone add it back into the Genesis SoundFont. I'm honestly hoping there's an English version at some point, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
For anyone who happened to be disappointed that only one Heroes song was present at the symphony, here you go: This arrangement was done by Game Symphony Japan back in 2016
I don't know about you, but I'm getting a kick out of the performance of I Am... All of Me. Johnny is awesome in this one! ^^ Maybe they could revisit it eventually. You know, like the It Doesn't Matter remix from 2014, but with heavier guitars and drums and a modern production. My top 3 of Sonic Symphony: 1. Sonic Colors Medley 2. I Am... All of Me 3. Sonic Game Gear Medley
Live and Learn and Sonic 06 are the highlights for me. Live and Learn needs no explanation, but for 06, the way they implemented the intro to lead in to Crisis City, then have My Destiny as a whole and His World with those fuckin' horns, it just works.
What I'm gonna say about it is I fucking love it and its section at the Symphony helped me realize just how much I did, beyond just the music.
I replayed '06 last year. There have been a lot of discussions recently that basically can be summed up as "06 isn't actually that bad" and "at least it's more ambitious than Forces". And whilst I can appreciate on some levels what '06 tried to be, that's as far as it goes. Replaying the game reminded me of just how truly awful it is, something that was lost to me after something like ten years of not playing it for myself. It's scope and ambition count for next to nothing when when the majority of design and creative choices were God awful, and the execution of what few good ideas it had was totally butchered. And that's all that I'm going to say on that matter here in the Symphony thread. The soundtrack is literally the only part of the game that holds up against any scrutiny, and even then it's a bit bland for my liking. Still great as is standard for Sonic music, but I wouldn't rank it amongst my top ten Sonic soundtracks. The symphony rendition of Solaris Phase 2 was... Actually pretty disappointing. It felt weak. My Destiny was a welcome surprise though. They did that song, and Crisis City, justice. I keep coming back to the second half of the symphony though, the part with all the vocal themes. The first half featured too many brief segments of tracks instead of the full versions. Like for example, I wanted to hear the orchestra play the full (or at least longer) versions of Rooftop Run and Can You Feel the Sunshine instead of just a heavily abbreviated versions. It wasn't quite a quantity over quality situation because the quality was absolutely top notch. But I think I'd have preferred if they cut the number of tracks a bit and dedicated more time to each piece. I do still really appreciate the breadth of what was included though.
An album version of the Symphony is out on iTunes and Apple Music, and it's coming to other services next week at the earliest.
God, I'm so happy we're getting what we asked for with this. Absolutely adding Live and Learn to my workout playlist, and I honestly think I could perhaps sneak Speak With Your Heart into my general pop playlist without anybody being any the wiser.
Welp.. now I got my background music for the weekend to listen to while taking care of my daughter. Can’t wait to listen and enjoy this again.
I'm going to try to hold off in the hope of a CD coming down the road, but not sure I'll be able to resist for too long...damn you, Sonic symphony.
If it's going to show up on Spotify, I would be happy. A lot of Sonic music is there, although some albums feel incomplete.
I still can’t believe that they seemingly retconned Sonic 4 out of existence. There wasn’t even a nod to Splash Hill. I get that the S4 series will forever be infamous in the eyes of all, but pretending it doesn’t exist is rather cruel. I really wanted to hear them do Sylvania Castle Act 1.