Soundtracks With Soul: Eminence Orchestra Director Hiroaki Yura Talks Soul Calibur IV

Game music performed by a full symphony orchestra? Completely awesome. We’re huge fans of the Australian based Eminence Symphony Orchestra, so when it was announced that they would be recording portions of the score for Soul Calibur IV, we could barely contain our excitement. Well, the game ships tomorrow, and we have an interview with Hiroaki Yura, the director and founder of Eminence.

We discuss things like what the project means to Eminence, whether they’ll be playing the music at their future concerts, and what Yura thinks about Ivy’s breasts. All the important stuff.

Will you be picking up Soul Calibur IV on the Xbox 360 or the PS3? Have you enjoyed the awesome orchestral music in past Soul Calibur titles?

Hit the jump to find out if the Eminence Symphony Orchestra truly has soul.

OSV: It was announced sometime ago that Eminence was recording a portion of the score for Soul Calibur IV. How much music did you end up recording for the game?
Yura: Several tracks have been recorded, including the opening cinematic and the title screen. There are a few pieces in the actual game itself.

OSV: A soundtrack album has been announced in Japan consisting of two discs of music. Will all the music recorded by Eminence be included on the release?
Yura: I am guessing (and hoping) it would be!

OSV: Can you tell us at this time the names of the composers working on the title? The only composer that we’re aware of so far is Junichi Nakatsuru, who wrote the music that Eminence recorded.
Yura: All I am aware of is Mr. Junichi Nakatsuru at this stage.

OSV: Now that the project is complete and it’s about to ship, do you have any thoughts about the project in retrospect? Did you enjoy working on the title? Did it open doors to Eminence that were closed before this project?
Yura: Well, it’s awesome that we’re working on a PlayStation 3 title which has a simultaneous worldwide release. This marks the second PS3 title for us, the first one being SEGA’s Gallian Chronicles, although it’s only available in Japan at the moment. They’re working on releasing it overseas. I hope to work on more titles for the PlayStation 3, and it’ll be nice if we can start working on non-Japanese titles as well.

OSV: I know that many of the musicians in the Eminence Symphony Orchestra are young. Are they avid gamers, and were they enthusiastic about this project?
Yura: Young? Well, I hope I’m classified as “young” still. Of course there are avid gamers in the orchestra, most people knew what SC4 was and they all gasped at the images of Darth Vader we saw in the demo of the game.

OSV: Any chance you’ll be performing music from the game at future Eminence performances?
Yura: Currently, we have no plans since we are working on a big project which is still confidential at this moment. However, when the opportunity presents itself, we’d like to perform SC4 somewhere in the future.

OSV: There has been a lot of talk regarding Ivy’s breast-size in the game. While I don’t know whether or not her breasts have indeed been reduced for release outside of Japan, I wanted to know what your take on it was. Is this censorship justified?
Yura: [Laughs] I’ll have to be honest and say breast size is really none of my concern during recording and mixing sessions, although it’s really shoved in your face with the 50-inch monitor… again and again. And since we have nothing to do with the creative design of the game, I will refrain from commenting officially. However, personally, I think important bits have been covered so I don’t see why they’d need to reduce the size. I always wonder the practicality of combat with those skimpy clothes though…

OSV: I know I’ve asked you before, but maybe you’ve changed your mind. Are you more excited about playing as Yoda or Vader?
Yura: Mmm… I don’t really know. What did I say before? Since I’m a changed man since we last spoke on the record, I’d say I want to play both. I might ask Mr. Nakatsuru to rig me a PS3 version of the game that includes both. Or I can go buy an Xbox 360… which is long overdue, seriously.