KOTOR2 Soundtrack....Dissapointing?

[Jedi Master Bumfluff]

G'day Folks, I'm just writing to say that after finishing the game and listened to all the music I must say that compared to KOTOR1 the music in KOTOR2 is VERY dissapointing. It all seems to blend in with one another and you can't really tell them apart too much. As much as the game is meant to give an atmosphere of 'doom and gloom' there should have been a more varied soundtrack.

 

At least with KOTOR1 if you listen to the tracks without playing the game you can pretty much tell what planet or what scene would be played, it just seemed to suit the type of environment you were in.

 

Anyway I'll stop the griping but I would have thought that considering how important a soundtrack can play in a game (especially a Star Wars game) they would have done better than what we ended up with.

[Osiris]

that might have to do with the poor sound quality the soundtrack is on.

 

Honesty. I hardly paid attention to the music in either game. The action is too fast pace. I tend to notice music in "slower" rpg's such as Baldur's Gate or even Neverwinter Nights.

[Jedi Master Bumfluff]

that might have to do with the poor sound quality the soundtrack is on.

 

Honesty. I hardly paid attention to the music in either game. The action is too fast pace. I tend to notice music in "slower" rpg's such as Baldur's Gate or even Neverwinter Nights.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It wasn't so much to do with the listening quality as it was the 'type' of music used for the game. You didn't really feel the contrasts (e.g. Taris Upper City and Taris Lower City in KOTOR1 is a perfect example of the contrasts I am referring to). As much as you say you may not pay attention to the music it still plays a very important role with regards to a good gaming atmosphere.

[Ace]

The main problem is that the low resolution of the music kills most of the subtle differences.

 

Experiment with the KOTOR1 music being at the same sample rates, mono, etc. as the KOTOR2 music and you'll experience the same thing. Many of the tracks will then fall flat.

 

Anyway, the composer's site has some higher resolution versions of the tracks and they sound quite nice.

[Sarjahurmaaja.]

"Anyway, the composer's site has some higher resolution versions of the tracks and they sound quite nice."

 

What's the address?

 

edit: nevermind, tried http://www.griskey.com, and surprisingly, it worked.

[2DarkWolf2]

Music in games is always important to me, and like you I really liked the KoToR I soundtrack. The music was great, it had a very star warsish feel to it. I think it added alot to the game

 

I don't think the KoToR II music is quite as good, but it's not bad. I'd agree that alot of the music does'nt really stand out, but there are some new tunes in there that are good. Though it's odd how they make all new music for the in game sequences, but in the transitions between planets they reused alot of the KoToR I music. I don't think the KoToR II music was stellar, but I don't think it detracted any from the game either.

 

2DW2

[Sarjahurmaaja.]

^

 

Checked out the tracks at Griskey's? Way better than ingame... Almost makes me want to cry, really.

[2DarkWolf2]

I tried the site, and the couple peices of music I tried don't sound too bad. Though I don't know the music well enough to really be able to say one way or the other.

 

 

2DW2

[Kissamies]

Didn't expect better quality make so much difference. K2 soundtrack is more starwarsy of the 2 and pretty good, but I still like K1's better.

[Ace]

K1 had some awesome tracks, but some of it was generic D&D music. Indistinguishable from the likes of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

 

K2 does have a few clinker tracks too, but it also has quite a few fun ones.

[Meshugger]

Both soundstracks capture the Star Wars feel IMO. While K1 had several different contrasts, K2 was consistent with a dark, gloomy one. It goes down to personal guess i presume. I really liked:

 

- Darth Sion theme (played in the menu)

- The Sith Lords

- Ruins of the Jedi Academy (played when you're in the re-built academy, facing the Jedi Masters)

- Iziz Palace

- Darth Traya theme

- The Final battle

 

The only track that was a bit out of place was Dantooine.

[darknesslord]

kreia dark theme and the jedi were my too favorites, in one, taris theme and bastila theme

[Eji]

Ah, you beat me to it! I was going to post about comparing the soundtracks too.

 

I'm not really disappointed in K2's soundtrack, but I do like K1's more. K1's music had a lot of catchy recurring themes (I personally like the Sith theme the most, with its chanting and all), and reminded me more of how John Williams also likes to have recurring strong themes as well. It was like SW music in that respect.

K2 was very SW with how its instruments sounded more real than some of the more synthesized intruments in K1's music. K1 could sound a bit videogamey at times, where K2 sounded more or less like a movie all the time. Unfortunately, a lot of the music isn't really contrasty enough and as someone mentioned earlier, many themes tended to blend together so you didn't get the same "ohh that's the Taris theme" kind of reaction as I did in K1.

 

So, basically, I liked K1's catchiness and K2's orchestral feel. It's too bad these couldn't be combined somehow... maybe for K3?

 

kreia dark theme and the jedi were my too favorites, in one, taris theme and bastila theme

 

Y'know, I know in the music folder it's labelled "mus_theme_Bast" (Bastila) for that theme, but I had actually always associated that with Carth, since the first time you hear it is in the beginning when you're in the Taris apartment and he's talking with you.

[Darth Jebus]

I was actually going to start a thread about this. The music in K2 was another one of the disappointing things to me about the game. And by the way, I'm one of the few players that thinks music is just as important as any other major aspect of a game.

 

In K1, the music sounded like Star Wars, but in a different era. It REALLY worked and totally transported the gamer into the experience.

 

But in K2, all the music sounded exactly the same. There was no contrast to it whatsoever. The only music I really liked was the combat music that would play on Onderon and Dxun, as it sounded alot like the Droid Army theme from the prequels. So, again, not to beat a dead horse, but that's why Onderon was the best world IMO. It just felt like a KOTOR world. From the music all the way down to the environments.

 

I mean, who didn't walk into the Cantina in Iziz and hear that music playing and immediately think of Mos Eisley? Hell, the cantina felt like Star Wars.

 

But the music everywhere else in the game was just indicative of almost everything else in the game: it lacked personality and identity.

 

I was hoping for more themes from K1 in this game. Like, for example, I thought it was really cool how they used the Sith theme from K1 onboard the Ravager. Very nice there. But it would've been cool if there was a bit more of that to preseve continuity in the KOTOR universe.

 

You could be original and create new music, but you can also just take existing themes and modify them for your purposes, in an effort to match the context of the story you're telling. That's what John Williams does. And that's what the composer on K1 did. This is why the score to K1 worked so well.

 

For good measure, I did like the music in the Jedi Enclave the second time you go there. The same music also played at the end of the game if you were LS. But overall, I thought the music in K2 missed the mark.

[jaguars4ever]

The Ruins of the Jedi Academy was truly epic - both uplifting and sombre at the same time. :cool:

[2DarkWolf2]

"as it sounded alot like the Droid Army theme from the prequels."

 

 

Funny you mention that. Has anyone else noticed that the droid army theme in Episode 1 is almost identical to the Nazi theme from the last Indiana Jones movie? Only part of the tune is changed.

 

2DW2

[darth spock]

One track I really like is the theme and when the Ebon Hawk flies by in the ending cutscene before the credits roll.... that's nice instrumental music.

[Ekkest]

Yeah, "Ruins of the Jedi Academy" was great.

[will_990]

The Ruins of the Jedi Academy was truly epic - both uplifting and sombre at the same time.  :cool:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Absolutely right! The Jedi Theme (and Academy, which is the same) ist one of the best SW music I

[Hilikus]

I quite liked the Music Soundtrack. Compared to KotOR I, I enjoyed it. They were both epics, though!

[Malagance]

Another fan of the Jedi Academy theme here. I heard that and it really made me feel like I was returning to a place that my Light Sider had fond memories of, and that it was time for me to face my fears and speak to the council.

 

Also, I liked some of the varied battle music on the different planets. That was one thing I noticed on my first playthrough, were the changes in the battle music, which kept things pretty fresh, as some of the tunes were memorable.

 

But yeah, the low quality really detracted from the experience. Of course, the only place where I felt truly encompassed by the music (aside from late game at the ruins of the Jedi academy) was the launch menu. Which is, of course, the only time when the game's music is presented in stereo instead of mono.

[Msxyz]

While we're at it: is it true that Xbox owners didn't suffer from the downsampling of the soudntrack? Someone with a modded Xbox can verify this ?

[Grimlock]

The Ruins of the Jedi Academy - What a great track!! =)

 

Is there any way of listening to the music without playing the game? There was something that i had to download before the music files of kotor1 were playable. Is it the same for kotor2 ? Cause when I open one, they're all crackly !! =*(

[Meshugger]

While we're at it: is it true that Xbox owners didn't suffer from the downsampling of the soudntrack? Someone with a modded Xbox can verify this ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

When reading through the xbox .ISO, i noticed that it's the same. Funny thing though, the Republic Commando demo eats up almost every byte of the image, there's no room for another 40mb for a higher resolution of the audio. Hmmm....

[Mark Havel]

If there is some tool to read XBox disc on a PC, I can try to check the XBox music quality.