Unpopular opinion: Tekken 2 has better music than Tekken 3 I like how atmospheric the soundtrack of Tekken 2 is, the arranged soundtrack is fine but the original arcade soundtrack is amazing! 🎵
There's just something so cool about all these fighting game backdrops from the 90s. It makes you want to explore them, something modern open world video games fail to capture.
@@baberuthless it’s like the characters decided that they were going to come looking their best in tekken 2 and then decided to take it a little bit easier in every other game 😂. Kazuya in his purple suit, Paul phoenix looking like a model and his iconic red gi, Lee Chaolan with his unicorn black vest, Anna Williams looking like a run way model in that red dress. Not forgetting the iconic music! I could go on and on about this beautiful game 😂
@@baberuthless Tekken 2's stories were very interesting, I wish they'd stuck with the whole Devil thing beyond Tekken 4. It paints a pretty tragic picture for Kazuya, and I wish we got to learn more about Lee on a personal level.
Found you from the Triple KO you were featured on as a guest, and wow what a first impression. I'm with you, Kazuya's Tekken 2 theme has lived in my head for like 25 years.
I really love the stages from these two games. Their designs is super impressive at the time for the PS1. I dig the arcade and crt overlays and the polygon tekken cases at the beginning. Great video and looking forward to more of these for the tekken series.
Thanks! The editor for the video did an excellent job and I highly recommend checking out their portfolio in the description. They captured that classic tekken feel perfectly
Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU! For making this video! Tekken 1 and 2 had not only got me interested in Martial Arts / fitness (and techno lol) but Geography as well! Being an 7 year old kid in 99; I was so fascinated with these stages. FFWD to now, one of the main things I enjoy watching on youtube (other than ice berg videos ha) are hour long video documentaries such as these. Even though you aren’t talking about the game specifically, your in depth video essays on something as nuanced such as the stages are very interesting to me. Keep doing more essays! Subscribed!
Every now and then youtube blesses me with a channel full of yapping for games i love from my childhood i am blessed thank you the yapping must never die
You gotta do Tekken 3 & Tag 1 now!!! 😂😂😂😂 might as well keep the trend going you’re the only RU-vidr that does these in depth looks at stages on games 🔥🔥🔥🔥
I'm so glad Tekken 2 was one of my first fighting games. It's like a snapshot in time. It feels like a Polaroid from the 90s and I remember every scrap from that game. The most random thing ever.....I always thought Oprah Winfrey was on a poster in Lei's stage. My favorite stages: Yoshimitsu, Jack-2, Lei, Anna, King My favorite themes: Arranged (Yoshimitsu, Nina, King), Arcade (Jack-2, Heihachi), Michelle for both!
As a kid playing Tekken 1 I would always mute the tv when I got to Monument Valley. It scared the crap out of me and felt so unsettling. Contrasting that with Michelle’s stage in Tekken 2 which is so much brighter and energetic. Her theme is one of my all time favorite Tekken tracks. Incredible video that wonderfully breaks down the stages and their music. As a fellow Tekken fan I think you did a fantastic job!
Thank god i'm not the only one who autistically obsessed over Tekken 1 and 2 stages. Aaaaand for some reason i keep going back to Tekken 1, like, yeah it's objectively not good but it's fun. Unfortunately nobody else plays it, so, it's just me cheesing the CPU in hardest modes trying to get the fastest time. Tekken 2 has my favorite stages and soundtrack, out of any. One thing i liked about Tekken 1 that wasn't really done again in Tekken 2, were parallaxed layers, you can tell in stages like Kyoto, the trees are scrolling at different speeds than the rest, same goes to Fiji, Windermere, King George Island, and that, also, same sample? No, they aren't really, it's just plagiarism, other-wise the instruments and such are all different, specially since the T1 music is not real, just, Redbook MIDI. The vocals are just MIDI in Yoshi's PS1 song, i would doubt somebody kept actually singing that, i mean... every 90s game song is basicaly just MIDI from this era, pre-recorded usually. Stages in Tekken 1... Aren't they just randomized? Other-wise, not much else i can comment on this video other than "cool, somebody is also talking about Tekken 1 and 2 stages in detail", heck a lot of which i never even thought of!
Tekken 2 was my first 3D Fighting Game. I remember playing the hell out of the demo. I can't tell you how many times I've unlocked the characters, going into the practice mode to study the moves and listen to the music and so much more. This game made me fell in love with the PS1
Always preferred Sega’s stages (Fighting Vipers, Virtua Fighter and esp. Last Bronx) and even Soul Edge/Calibur’s stages to early Tekken, but I agree the Chiba Marines stadium is iconic. Thanks for another nice video. Would love a similar video on Star Gladiator 1 & 2, as Capcom had to invent and communicate an entire universe and mythology just with the visual information gleamed from those stages.
Having the name in the bottom-right of the screen was such a strange choice, you'd think it'd fade away after the round started. As a result, it's part of my mental memory when I try to remember the game. I'm dead serious when I say; when I think of Tekken 1, I think "Angkor Wat" in a blurry font.
I played Tekken 1 probably once or twice in the arcade back when it came out, and I just thought of it as a VF clone. But it wasn't until Tekken 2 that I became a fan of the series. I remember borrowing it from one of my neighbors, and damn near wore his disc out from playing it so much. The gameplay and music just totally enthralled me to no end. Michelle and Bruce stages are still my favorite, but the whole OST goes hard. I still go back and listen to it from time to time. This game is pretty much the reason why Jun, Nina, and Michelle (or Julia now) are my mains! Great work on the video, each one you release gets better and better. I love the history lessons on the locations of these stages, as well as explanations on the characteristics on the OST (I'm a music head lowkey😅)
Jack 2’s theme is just the terminator theme but with random mechanical noises to mute it out just enough to not get sued I will say the terminator theme does fit with jack 2 but the devs def couldn’t use it for obvious reasons
Regarding the Jack-2 stage, I looked up pictures of Industrial zones in Japan and searching Shunan Industrial Zone bought up images that match the look pretty well. Not a clue if that's where it's supposed to be set, but Japan is pretty plausible. Love the video btw.
Love your in-depth videos! I feel like we'd talk for hours about fighting game lore and details. Tekken 2 was also my first and is still my favorite Tekken along with 5. It had more "melodic" tunes... dunno how to explain it but from 3 onwards the music changed drastically. Yoshimitsu's arranged theme from 2 is one of my all time favorites and it sucks that it's never on the jukebox mode in more recent games.
Would love to see a video of the stages of Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament. TTT’s version of Xiaoyu’s carousel from Tekken 3 is my favorite fighting game stage ever (and it was also a real life amusement park owned by Namco named Wonder Eggs!)
The final two stages of Tekken 2 will always be top tier for me, I think the design and soundtrack captures exactly what it's going for in those. We hear Emotionless Passion in Eternal Darkness, the floor is set with modern but still kind of traditionalistic styling, but the background details are completely absent, since they don't matter as all of your attention has to be on your opponent Kazuya Mishima, this mysterious "Ice Cold Heir" of the Zaibatsu looking down at you from the top of the chain with his insanely ominous aura. However these details are very subtle in the soundtrack, like Kazuya's most evil deeds being done behind the curtains, therefore the traditional instruments are louder and in the front. In Mirror Darkness however, those upbeat instruments are nowhere to be heard as we are left with a sinisterly altered version of the main beat from the previous stage. Now everything is uncovered and obvious, as we see Kazuya's true form as the "Devil" himself menacingly towering over, pretty much symbolising Kazuya's complete loss of his humanity. The fight is reflected on with mirrors descending into infinite darkness, with no other details at all neither on the floor or the surroundings. The fight itself is all that matters. One might think that it takes place only in Kazuya's dark subconscious, but its not entirely possible to know for sure if your encounter with this terrifying entity is actually a part of reality or not. Overall I think these two stages are just pure genius overflowing with identity. Prime examples of show but don't tell, not even a single word.
Tekken 2 is my favorite Tekken game. And I say this while only having the slower PAL version. This game to me has the best character roster, really good music and best aesthetics. I also really like Tekken 4, Dark Resurrection and Tag 1.
I really enjoyed this video. Well done! Tekken 3 was my first game, and what I would say is the best in the series, but I love the music and stages of the first two games. We lost the more grounded and realistic design as the series has gone on and I think that’s a shame. I could say something similar about character outfits as well. And it has to be said, TEKKEN 2 has one of the best (if not the best) openings in all of video games.
Please do Tekken 3 and Tag next! Tekken is my favorite FG franchise, and I never really researched the places the stages were inspired by. You're really helping me craft my retirement bucket list lol. I'm sure T3 isn't as referential as T1 and T2, but I'm excited to hear you talk about them, regardless!
Glad to know that I'm not the only one who spent hours upon hours of just starting at these moving JPEGs while listening to the music back then haha. All in all great video as usual, I don't comment a lot but I'm really glad that a channel that covers this niche exists, fighting game stages don't get enough love.
T2 is also my first Tekken game. Although I already had played VF2 and Battle Arena Toshinden before it. But for some reason, I was way more absorbed by Tekken than any other 3D fighter, or fighting game, or video game in general. I am a huge fan of Wuxia films, and martial arts movies on the whole, and T2 seemed to match their vibe way more than any FG. My favorite stages from both games would be King George Island, T2 Yoshi, T2 Lei, T2 King's, T2 Kaz, and Devil's. I also have a soft spot for the Fiji music lol.
I love the amount of effort, research and polish in which you present your videos. Having come back to Tekken after seeing how Mortal Kombat is headed for a downward spiral, I absolutely enjoyed watching this video. Looking forward to your upcoming videos for future Tekken games, especially T3! Also, thanks for the nostalgia hit ^^
The stadium theme is straight up my favorite Tekken song outside of Bitcrusher. Didn't know about that factoid about The Wiz, holy shit Really dig the CRT and arcade cabinet overlays, too
I really hope you someday do a deep analysis of the DOA stages, that would take a lot of time due to their quality, details and many many interactions, but for a channel who loves to talk about FG Stages I think there's no better series.
I love these empty ass Tekken 2 stages! Just the two combatants attending to business, no distractions. Helps that they're absolutely gorgeous with kickass music, would be easy to make them boring otherwise, I'm sure.
Just beat Tekken 2 again yesterday, that marks my second this year. Unlocked everything and played through it with every character. The only thing I don't like in that game is how long it takes to get back up after being knocked down and the lack of side stepping. But the soundtrack, the characters and the vibes in this game... it's still a lot of fun. Currently working my way through Tekken 3 as well, also for the second time.
Really good video except it would be great for each stage when you talk about the music, if you then played a few seconds of the track to explain what you’re talking about so people know what you’re talking about. Especially with you going into detail on each one. Its’s really hard to hear it in the background since it’s so quiet and there’s no breaks in the voiceover. Give us some time to breathe between each stage maybe by playing a few seconds of gameplay with the music. Otherwise keep up the good work ❤️
Like you, I also played 2 1st, then ehen I finally picked up 1 I thought it looked weird, and I was a To Shin Den 1 guy, so I was prepared for smt strange for such early 3d, but the helium balloon version of Jack still haunts me. About the stages... I think that bc of what we had back then, I don't feel that they look like everyone has disappeared except for the fighters, maybe bc I was used to VF1 and BATSD, now I think it was better this way bc some other games tried more crowded areas and they failed bc of technical capabilities... Even Fighters Megamix, a late Sega Saturn entries feel a lil bit like that... To be frank now I'm thinking of Sf Ex + alpha!
I gonna be honest: I never really liked T1 too much, I saw it as a VF copycat and wasn't attractive enough. Neither the stages or the music was a catch to be, it was still ways to go to get the charming style and ambience that was characteristic from Tekken 3 onwards. Though Monumental Valley stage remains the coolest of them all with that eerie, foreboding music and stage (and the ONLY stage pre PS2 era that actually was animated and with weather change). Tekken 2 got definitely more personality and style. The intro itself was fire, music took a notch higher, most stages were meh (most just pasted photos) but the characters and their outfits started to have a cooler identity. I'm glad T2 characters in TTT got their outfits back and model them in higher resolution along with the T3 outfits as well. Yeah, at least they've got the liminal ambience in some of those stages (Yoshimitsu´s, Jack-2's, Kazuya's, P-Jack's, etc.) long before the concept of liminality even existed as we know it. Great video as always, Babe. Looking forward for your exploration of Tekken 3/TTT stages... THERE I'm gonna be nerding my ass out along with you.☝
Although I’ve only played the arcade versions of those games, I think what adds to the charm of the game is the fact the music matches the stages and the environments. I'd arguably say Tekken 2 paved the way for Tekken 4 in that way. Then you have tracks that have an eeriness to it, the rompler-heavy synths, along with ambient, club-ready tracks, too. I always liked how the music was arranged differently from the arcade and console versions. Great video!
It’s wild that they essentially made a new soundtrack every time for their home versions of tekken every time. I’m glad they did of course but dang that’s a lot of work
@@baberuthlessI agree. I think it’s to do with the arcade sound-chip limitations they had compared to the PS console that had more of a CD sound quality as it was a 32-bit system. I think the reason why Tekken 1’s Chicago stage has dance music (for the arcade version, which I prefer) I’m guessing is because Chicago is also the birthplace of house music. And considering the genre’s inception in the early 80s and this game came out in the 90s, it makes a lot of sense. Could be a reach, though. 😅
I have not gotten to play much Tekken as 6 is the only one I've played consistently since getting it, (I do have 3 and both Tag games but my PS2 is on the fritz rn, and I don't have enough space for Tag 2 on my PS3) so I don't really have much to say here. It is neat seeing how early 3D fighters made stages though. I really should get around to buying Tekken 2 on the PS4 store.
Your videos are always so soothing, but wanted to mention how your pronunciation of Khmer when you were talking about the Angkor Wat stage was kinda off. It is more pronounced like, K-mai or kuh-mai. Mai like Mai Shiranui.
I don't know if it's an emulation issue or what, but when I played the first game on the PS3 (also the PAL version so a few factors could've been at play), a bunch of the background elements had rectangular borders around them showing the edges of the images. Not the most immersive way to play, but still kinda funny.
Electronic music doesn't exactly mean its western style music with the art form of electric music being heavily popular in Japan and having a long history there since the 80s with stuff like J eurobeat or just video game music in general
kinda unrelated but when u said anna wears a chinese dress, i pointed out somewhere that she probably wears it for lee since they know eachother, cant be a coincidence
So you really go in deaf when it comes to the music just like you do with the stages I was curious can you in the future really high like the music sound like let us hear it better because you go in such detail, but I would generally like to hear the music, but this was a great watchas always need to marathon more stuff
Well, I tried to mod Tekken 2 to replace many of the music tracks, but Tekken 2 doesn't use redbook audio like the previous game. Not only that, all of the XA audio files only cover part of the game's OST, but not all of it. Therefore, it's not possible to mod the entire Tekken 2 OST. If I can mod the game's music, I would have set it to the following: Character Select - Gravity Beetle stage music from Mega Man X3 Paul's Stage - "Black Cat Moon" from VF2 or Bahn's theme from Fighting Vipers Heihachi's Stage - "Young Knight" from VF2 Yoshimitsu's Stage - "Ride the Tiger" from VF2 Kazuya's Stage - Password music from Mega Man X3 Lee's Stage - "Star from Hong Kong" from VF2 or Grace's theme from Fighting Vipers Prototype jack's Stage - South Island stage music from Sonic the Fighters Ganryu's Stage - Flying Carpet stage music from Sonic the Fighters To make things simple, I'd like the stages' music to have something with mostly a Sega flare, with a hint of Capcom in there. I know Sega was busy with the Saturn and Dreamcast during the PlayStation's life, but imagine a Tekken 2 custom soundtrack that does just that. I even made Street Fighter IV custom soundtracks that gives out the Namco and SNK vibes, among a few others. I was able to make the SFIV custom soundtracks a reality, but making one for Tekken 2 seems very unlikely, unless someone's able to make a version of the game that uses a redbook CD audio soundtrack like the first Tekken game.
