I'm at Scenario 14 so far.
Changing music to 'game-size' is definitely a big plus. On the other hand, the problem that I expected definitely exists - vocals overlapping with dialogues. I'd like to hear what they say. Not exactly a seiyuu/VA fan, but I appreciate their acting.
As far as vocal songs in battle (mostly default ones), the only one that worked well so far is HEATS. I didn't even realize it was on vocal at first since it didn't interfere at all. I'm wondering if it's due to the nature of Ryouma (and Getter Team) always shouting or it just happened that the song had the right amount of volume on vocals. TOMAHAWK BOOMERANG!
Great Mazinger + Guardian/Kanjite Knight? Nope. Switched it to 勇壮 (from Getter) and it felt soooo fucking awesome. I haven't played Z3 yet, but I think this is the first time I heard it in an SRW. And where is the Great Mazinger theme or a Kanjite Knigt instru? I don't like Kouji but it was worth to us him more often than I wanted in Z2 just to hear Kanjite Knight.
Might Gain? Nope, switched to non-vocal on both Gain and Bomber/Diver songs.
ZZ? On UC side, I've only got ZZ guys so far, and Silent Voice has some overlapping problems.
00 Trailshitter? Daybreak's Bell has quite a long startup, so it kinda works on those parts. Again, kinda bummed that there's no instru version.
This game made me realize how much I hate TIME TO COME (ver. OG). I think it's 'too fucking noisy'. It's kinda funny since I like Sawano Hiroyuki and his "noisy" music (watched/heard UC, Kabaneri, Aldnoah). Speaking of Aldnoah, if they going to include it, they have to put BRE@TH//LESS, otherwise, they might as well not include it.
Also, with all the dialogue and shit in the game, why not make an entirely new BGM for Welt and Charlotte? Stuffing that shitty version of TIME TO COME is shitty. Terada dude, come on.
It's really dumb to high heavens that we have BEYOND THE TIME song, but not an BEYOND THE TIME instrumental. It has been, and will always be one of the best music in SRW. I don't even care about if they just rip the older SRW renditions and put it in the premium song version. I'll try this again when I get CCA/OYW characters.
Since I'm rambling about BGMs anyways, I definitely thought that the original song 戦場にて was a Yamato BGM (never watched Yamato).
The funny thing is that if I ever make an effort to get custom BGM, it'd be bringing 'missing BGMs' - and most of them would be SRW renditions of older SRWs taken from Youtube or something. Or putting Soul Stranger into the game, because this shit is a fucking masterpiece (maybe I will, if I find a unit to put it on that doesn't have a half-decent BGM).
Now that I think about it, has Banpresto/BanNam ever put their SRW OSTs digitally? Outside of OG ones, of course.
I checked Amazon and e-onkyo, and they only have JAM Project and OG ones as expected.
Yeah, I switched around a TON of the music for custom soundtracks and it worked out really well, though what works for songs seems to vary alot.
It's actually fairly easy. You just need a USB drive. Load the music into a folder called "SRWMUSIC", plug into the PS4 and press the "Option" button during the BGM change menu. You don't have to mess with the system menu or anything, hell you don't even have to exit from the game. It's all automatic. You can even assign specific attacks different music. I do confess to using a video to mp3 converter to take music from youtube or soundcloud though.
I think the Mazinger songs vocal forms work amazing for SRW, since they have strong melodies right out of the gate. If you do try custom BGM
"Kabuto Kouji won't stop" is a really upbeat fight theme from the actual show that really fits with Mazinger Z. I saved the big vocal songs for the upgraded Mazinger units.
Pretty much every single Getter opening is super-high octane and works really well, Heats being the standout.
Gundam 00 actually has a glut of good music, a great deal of them that launch straight into the melody without any startup. There's good material yet they ruin it with like 50 remixes of the stupid trans-am song. Z2 had a really good
Hakanakumo remix (though the I think the vocal is better), but G00 in general has really good vocal songs that play with strong melodies so there's no awkward build-up period.
Friends is what I used for non-Setsuna
Qualia for Setsuna. I think I watched more of G00's attack animations just cause I liked the songs.
UC Gundam has a billion and a half amazing songs, and the on-disc stuff is excellent. I ended up using
sternengesang for the awakened Unicorn since I thought a quieter song would fit the Newtype-Super Power mode more than the higher intensity songs would. Really can't go wrong with UC Gundam's absurdly good music.
All the Universal Century gundam series have alot of material to work with. Beyond the Time is an obvious inclusion, instrumental as well. I'm pretty partial to the
Ai Senshi SRWAP remix. The
original vocal version is amazing too; I used it for Judau when I got sick of Silent Voice. Just please stay away from the Gackt version, it pretty much butchers the song.
Zeta gundam is also missing the almost-mandatory
Bio-Sensor Theme.
Gundam SEED, despite myself generally remembering liking the music, doesn't really have much to work with since most of the songs have really long start-ups.
Zips is probably the best song that was sorta the unofficial Shinn theme song in SRWK. Also these guys get benched really easily.
I watched Yamato and I think they literally got all the best songs included. The Space-Anthem like opening theme just doesn't really fit.
Cross-Ange I knew nothing about and the theme they use is pretty catchy, but there's this song that features heavily in the plot of Cross-Ange that really
should have vocals. Not a big fan of the song but if the fact that they're singing is plot important maybe it should have vocals?
Evangelion is also pretty hard to do BGM for; they got Sin From Genesis but I'm partial to
Beast, the first berserk Eva theme. Can't beat that guitar riff. I also tried like 5 remixes of Cruel Angel's Thesis, including the SRW@ one, and the song just doesn't fit right.
The other series I didn't really know well enough to change out the BGM. All of the Might Gaine themes are winners, the main theme actually being the weakest for me but still amazing.
For Welt and Lotte you kinda just have to out and find something that works. Welt is apparently some kind of Mecha-Otaku so I tried out some Build Fighters song.
Wimp (BF Opening 2) works really well if you're okay with Jpop. It starts off with vocals but the guitar hits at like 10 seconds in which is usually right when the impact of the animation starts. It pretty much times up perfectly with Roche Saber (can't get enough of that animation). I gave Lotte the same theme cause I was lazy and I liked the song enough to give two people it.
Edit:
Also, Nadeshiko is going to be an pain to Ace on a no-upgrade run unless it gets a P attack somehow. I'm sticking as many boosters to it as soon as I get them. -___-
I wouldn't worry about it. Ex-Actions make MAP Attacks much easier to use, and Battleships gain Ex-Actions just by being around. Ruri has one of the biggest and earliest MAP attacks in the game, and in true SRW fashion you'll really start needing them when the beefy grunts start showing up. The Nadesico is also a superb frontline unit due to its barrier and Ruri's pretty high accuracy, not to mention it's one of the few reliable early game units that deals well with NadesicoPOD grunts. Ruri was actually my first Ace without even feeding, though I did go out of my way to avoid giving kills to Yamato. That stupid ship oneshots like every enemy grunt till like 2/3rds of the way into the game.