Posted
— January 12, 2010 at 4:11 p.m. PST
All of the fighters in Super Street Fighter 4 will be getting remixed versions of their theme songs according to an
that was added to the Japanese blog, which Azrael has again translated.
Here's what the game's developers had to say about the background music in the new title as well as the old one.
Well then, please introduce yourself.
Tomozawa:
Nice to meet you, I'm the Sound Creator, Tomozawa. Continuing from Street Fighter 4, working together with the Sound Designer Mr. Endo I'm in charge of everything related to sound. My personality is that of a shut-in. As my job entails making sounds, I isolate myself so I don't bother everyone else. I also had the flu, so that played a part. At home, I'm in charge of babysitting, so that also contributes to my personality.
A recent picture of Mr. Tomozawa
First off, tell us about how you chose which character themes to make a remix version of in Street Fighter 4.
Tomozawa:
Up until now in Street Fighter 2, the characters had their own stage and background music, which were paired together. But in Street Fighter 4, for various reasons characters didn't get their own stages, so we decided to make the background music go together with the stage. But we felt that just that wouldn't be enough for the players, so we also decided to make remixes of the character themes for the rival battles. But in the Street Fighter 2 series, basically you didn't get to hear your own character's music, but your opponent's. So, even if you were using Ryu, if your opponent picked Guy it'd be Guy's music, if your opponent picked Chun-Li it was Chun-Li's background music, like that. In Street Fighter 4, the rival battles are handled the same way in that you hear your opponent's music. But then not all characters appear in the rival battles.
So that's why there are some characters without a remix of their themes.
Tomozawa:
Yes. But for Rose, Sakura, Cammy and Bison, those themes are extremely popular, so the development staff wanted to get them in somehow. So for those 4 characters only, their own theme plays as the background music during the rival battle. Also, for Akuma and Gouken, their rival battle music is Ryu's remixed theme, but the previous sound director Endo said he wanted to get their themes in there, so we just managed to slip them in at the end of the development schedule. As that music was made for the promotional video and wasn't meant for the game, I felt we did a good job getting it in there. The players who saw the video also felt that the music was really cool. So we tried getting a loop, and when we did we felt like "we can do this!"
Cammy's Confrontation
What do you mean by "getting a loop"?
Tomozawa:
In fighting games, we don't know exactly how long we need the background music to play, and we can't have it stopping in the middle of the fight. So within the song, when it gets to a certain point, it will return back to another earlier point - so the background music continues in a loop. With this in mind, the music for most fighting games is made to loop back to the beginning. But for those 2 songs, as they were made for promotional video, we had to go and look for a place where we could loop it back to. So that's what I meant by "getting a loop".
Tsukamoto:
The flow of those 2 songs is really cool! In the promotion video version, I really liked the taiko drum part, it got my body moving. For the songs in Street Fighter, after hearing them it really gets you pumped up.
There are a lot of interesting character theme remixes in Street Fighter 4.
Tomozawa:
The guy in charge of the music and remixes at first, Mr. Fukazawa, made them sort of with no idea how to proceed. The first remix that was completed was Ken's, and in a lot of ways it was almost like an original theme. When Endo heard it, he said that he felt the Street Fighter 4 players would really enjoy original remixes, and Fukazawa said "Well then, let's bust em open and go all out!" (laughs). That's how we decided on the direction of the remixes in Street Fighter 4.
In Super Street Fighter 4 all characters will be getting a remixed version of their theme - how did that come about?
Tomozawa:
The biggest reason was that this was a huge request from a lot of the fans. In the comments on the official blog, even if the entry had nothing to do with music there would be comments such as "no remix theme for such and such character?" We felt that this is something people really wanted, so when it was time to make Super Street Fighter 4 this is one of the first things we decided on. This time, we would definitely have themes for all the characters.
This time, we can hear the remix themes outside of the rival battle, right?
Tomozawa:
That's right. As the people also wanted to hear them during battles, we made it so that this can be easily unlocked. Ms. Shiozawa already mentioned it on her blog last week, but to explain it again - on the Status screen if you set your icon and title, it will unlock the Arrange background music option. From Sound in the Options menu, set Arrange background music to on and you'll be able to hear the remix themes during battle. And when you go into an online lobby, you will hear either a stage background music or the remix background music randomly. Also, for all rival battles, this time around you will hear your own character's theme.
Online Lobby Screen
Tsukamoto:
The bug check staff said that if they go into a lobby and hear their favorite theme it gets them really motivated (laughs). With voice chat, you can say stuff like "If this song plays I think I'm gonna lose" or "OK! If its El Fuerte's theme then I'm gonna win!"
Tomozawa:
I hadn't thought of that, but that's kinda interesting (laughs). Endo really likes pro wrestling, so when he made El Fuerte's theme he really went all out.
Tsukamoto:
The staff, who loves Fuerte, are also a big fan of his theme. There are guys who just keep saying how cool it is over and over (laughs).
Do you have any favorites out of the remixed character themes?
Tomozawa:
My favorite is Cody's. It was made from the Final Fight opening music. It's great on its own, but its even better during the rival battle! Its kind of a sad, sorrowful theme, but it fits really well with Cody's lines and his character setting. And, Endo would probably pick Balrog's remix theme. I really like it too, but then I heard Cody's theme and it lost out to that (laughs).
Tsukamoto:
I like Ryu's theme. I listen to it every day while working. And when I'm coming to work, I have it on my music player, so it gives me a great boost to start off the workday! (laughs)
In a previous blog, it was mentioned that Rufus has voice samples in his character theme.
Tomozawa:
He does. The original idea for that came from the designer Ikeno. He said "Wouldn't it be interesting if we put this voice in the character theme." Not just for the background music, but Rufus' voice actor, Mr. Hatano really had a big impact, I think.
Rufus Vs Ken Confrontation Scene
Tsukamoto:
Yeah, that's a really good example. His voice fits the characters image perfectly and really enhances his presence. And before we knew it, Rufus' voice had made it into the background music as well. "Cho-ha! Cho-ha! Ayee! Ya-ha!" (laughs)
What about those who want to set the remix background music freely as they like?
Tomozawa:
Yeah, about that. For example, even though Ryu and Ken are fighting, the background music is Guile's music - that's kind of strange, isn't it? That's the only reason why we're not doing that. This is something that I as a creator wanted to protect. It becomes like - for who did I make this song for? My apologies, but please give me a break on that. Its a bit selfish, and I do feel bad about it, but this is just something I feel personally.
Tell us about the stage background music.
Tomozawa:
The first background music stage music we completed was the Drive-In Stage. It's a pretty hip theme. Right before the theme was completed, the feeling within the development staff was that we wanted the stage music in Street Fighter 4 to be hot, down and dirty. So when I asked Fukazawa about where this music ranked between hip and down and dirty, he said "It's at the extreme edge of hip!" I was happy with that (laughs).
America Stage
So then, we can say that the Drive-In Stage background music is the most trendy in all of Street Fighter 4.
Tomozawa:
That's right (laughs). Even though its a fighting game, the melody uses a piano.
While we're talking about it, how were the stage background music created?
Tomozawa:
Ideally, we would have created the music to go with the stage after it was all finished. But that was difficult according to the development time tables, so before the stages were made we used the image boards and other reference materials to get an image of the stage, and made the music from there. For the India stage, we had a picture of an elephant. For Super Street Fighter 4 we got the image boards pretty quickly and that was nice, but for the home version of Street Fighter 4, for the console stages there was no time so we didn't get much. Especially the Volcano Stage, nothing had been done for it for Fukazawa was only told, "Its a volcano with lava and molten rock flowing," and he had to make the song from that.
Tsukamoto:
You were only told about the most important aspect of the environment.
Tomozawa:
Yes, and also the stage color. We were told that the stage would just be a strong red, so we made a song to go along with that.
Tomozawa:
Whether the stage is red or blue, that's a big thing. If its blue, we need a cool image, and if it's red we need a background music that's hot. But I don't think there are really any blue volcanoes (laughs).
Volcano Stage
Tsukamoto:
But for a stage that's hard to imagine that's essential information.
Tomozawa:
That's right. For example, for console Street Fighter 4 and the EX version of the China stage, the designer in charge thought of an image and told Fukazawa that the base color would be blue from the start.
How about the music during the end credits?
Tomozawa:
About that, I have a comment from Endo.
"For the end credit music, we wanted to retain the image from the previous title, and of course improve on it. Just saying that is easy but actually doing it is quite difficult, so even in Super Street Fighter 4 I hope everyone listens with that in mind."
The end credit music in Street Fighter 4 also got high praise.
Tomozawa:
Yes, we did the character theme medley in Street Fighter 4's end credits, but all the songs have a really strong arc to them, so no matter which one we used it always felt like the closing one. Getting them all together in one song without it being clumsy was very important, and I feel that we did a good job of it in both Street Fighter 4 and Super Street Fighter 4. In Super Street Fighter 4 as well we wanted to use as many character themes as possible, and we got 15 of them in. The melody gets pretty heavy as it goes, so as you listen it'll become difficult to separate which is which.
Tsukamoto:
Even though there are a lot of last-minute changes, the sound team always does the voice tweaking at super-speed, and they give us such great songs and SFX, so I really am grateful to them!
Well then, did you enjoy this week's entry? This week was all about the background music, so next week we'll continue on with the voices and sound effects. I hope you're all looking forward to it!
All of the fighters in Super Street Fighter 4 will be getting remixed versions of their theme songs according to an entry that was added to the Japanese blog, which Azrael has again translated. 