ReMix: Final Fantasy IV 'Leap Into The Darkness'

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Final Fantasy IV

DarkCecil13 gives us some interesting Final Fantasy 4 rock / electro mixage. With an ominous intro featuring cavernous hybrid synth textures, rock drums and full orchestration come in rather quickly at 0'11", with some nice drum work and well-imaged melody and chords. There's a cool chiptune break at 0'33" that catches you off guard, but the normal style returns quickly and some nice descending bell pads join in. Things then slow down for a totally different ambient section with crystalline, heavily key-panned electric piano with lots of tine. I don't particularly like the louder coverage that follows or the abrupt transition into it, though I can appreciate the surprise effect that it achieves. The ritard on the ending leaves a little to be desired, as does the ending itself, but the first two sections make up for the third, with the sparse and minimalist yet very atmospheric middle being my favorite of the three. Interesting work from DC13 - my overall impression is that this is a strong work that would have benefited from being composed of only one or two discrete sections but having those portions more fully developed, but I think nevertheless you'll enjoy it. It is, after all, a medley piece, and part of my own hesitation is a general drifting away from medleys towards either hybridized (intertwined) or single-song construction. Judges had some beef with the NES chiptune break but I thought it worked rather well and gave the mix some spice. Props to DC13 for choosing some less common FF4 tracks to cover, and coming up with some imaginative ways of doing so. Cool.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Cloudy in most sections, empty in a few others. Production is definately not this mix's selling point.
Overall, I liked what I heard in arrangement. I don't know if I dig the middle, quiet section too much, as I find my mind wanders a little by that stage. And the transition out of it is extremely jarring. But the sections at the beginning and end, though noisy, are quite nice and energetic. There's definately some good writing stuffed in there, and it doesn't take much to hear it.
It's probably more for a niche audience; it does sound pretty archaic and there's an unsettling imbalance in sound levels. But looking past that can bring some special rewards. Definately worth checking out to see what you can get from it.

- Marmiduke on September 7, 2009
Gotta give Tom credit though, I mean he was like 13 when he wrote this. On a side note, when you gonna try to remix again DC13 eh?

- Monobrow on March 25, 2009
Even though I love FF4, i'm sortof finding it difficult to focus on this one. THe transitions between the different themes are really abrupt, especially going into Long Way to Go. It just suddenly happened.
THere are some nice parts of the mix, like the solid drum writing, and the chiptune section was decently thought out, though it had a bit of a piercing sound to it, and not much in the way of transitions, either in or out.
So the pros are that the source tracks are great, and there are some creative flourishes and good drum writing, and the cons are weak transitions, and poor sound quality. Personally, i'll pass, but people should check it out and decide for themselves. :-)

- OA on March 24, 2009
Good choice of source tunes, but on the whole it didn't feel like a cohesive piece, nor was the production that great. I liked that chiptune bit, though, the crystal keyboards / drumming combo sounded pretty good after that. The writing after Fight 2 on the lone electric piano was good (original I assume? correct me). The marching percussion with the crystal keyboards sounds pretty good, although the sound idea could be produced better. So, there was quite a bit of good things in this piece, but it didn't really work as a whole to me.
--Eino

- evktalo on December 12, 2008
DarkCecil, the boss over the bosses is back with a mix for bosses. Did I just confuse myself?
A cool orcestral together with some techno, that must be my favorite genre I think. DC13 sure made it sound awesome anyway, so kudos to him. I got a little off guard, and then that MIDI-part at 0:42 stroke me, didn´t expect something like that in this one, but different to use some MIDI samples to improve the listening experience, has that happened before?
And then came the beautiful and calm part, a mix of "the lunarians" or the moon theme, sweet anyways.
And then it went back to the tempopumping techno/orchestral style again to finish off with a renewed "Long way to go" track. Mmmyesss, this is pure quality and a good deal of quantity in this mix.
Thanks DarkCecil13.

- Bummerdude on October 4, 2005
I really enjoyed the fight music, it took me way back and it makes me imagine the drama behind the music. Being a drama queen and having several enemies in my life, nobody will truly appreciate the final fantasy like I do.

- Kantir on December 3, 2004
Culex was actually [b][i]NOT[/i][/b] in Final Fantasy 4, just placed in SMRPG by Square. The music [u]is[/u] from FF4, also stuck into SMRPG by Square, probably because it's the most recognizable boss theme.

- BardicKnowledge on October 4, 2004
Still remains one of my all time faves. Too too good to have anything bad to say.

- Pixelated on January 16, 2004
Culex was a boss from FF4(j), he made a cameo in SMRPG as the strongest enemy but not the end boss, much like diamond(?maybe it was one of the others) weapon in FF7. They used the FF4 boss music for that reason(as well as the FF victory theme and crystal theme afterward).
btw, since you apparently haven't played FF4...go find a rom of it or something you missed out.

- Eric Cartman on December 6, 2003
I can't believe people are actually UNHAPPY with the chiptune part, at 0:43, that was, in my opinion, the best part of the song. For those who have played it, don't you remember hearing this song, and just thinking "WOW", because this was before the days of Chrono Trigger. I don't normally post here, I just download the mixes and read the forums, but when I saw that this song wasn't being done justice, I had to jump in and say something. There are plenty of good remixes on this site, but this is definitely my favorite.
Strider Kyoden wrote: !?! Uhhh...This isn't Final Fantasy? Or...Is it!?
Go play Super Mario RPG, Then Fight the monster, Culex. This is his Boss Music also. Wow....That's frickin' cool. Final Fantasy 4 and SM:RPG have the same Boss Music? Well, Culex was an original boss on SM:RPG. Nice job on this mix though, all in all.

Sorry guys, but I had to chip in with my two cents again. The music you're thinking of from SM:RPG is actually there, but it was a camio from FF2/4, You remember the crystals from FF4, right? The ones you had to get to stop the end of the world? Yeah, in SM:RPG, you fight against them, as well as a monster which appears to be from outer space, and in FF4, you went to the moon......
Sorry, just had to say somethin.
~Lysander

- Lysander2003 on October 15, 2003
Freaking awesome yo! I love the drums. Soo freaking good. My favorite part is around 0:43 thou. When i first heard it, I literally said "OMG..this is freaking good." LOL

- PaRaNoiA : ReBirTh on June 20, 2003
Really great work as others have said. My favorite part is the intro, when the drums kick in. It reminds me of really, really good jpop/anime music. Of course the drumwork is sweet throughout. Lovely work DC13. ^_^

- GrayLightning on April 24, 2003
well seeing as how SMRPG came out after FFIV, that means that SMRPG got it from FFIV, if you've ever played FFIV with sound , you'll notice during I think the final boss fight maybe that this is the music played

- SlashEdgewind on April 8, 2003
Strider Kyoden wrote: !?! Uhhh...This isn't Final Fantasy? Or...Is it!?
Go play Super Mario RPG, Then Fight the monster, Culex. This is his Boss Music also. Wow....That's frickin' cool. Final Fantasy 4 and SM:RPG have the same Boss Music? Well, Culex was an original boss on SM:RPG. Nice job on this mix though, all in all.

Yea, since Square did SMRPG, they decided to throw a tribute to final fantasy of sorts in there for good measure. Great song I say.
As for the Remix, pretty good work all around, the standard for me is really high because FF4 boss music is probably one of my top 3 favorite vg themes, (the other 2 are final fantasy boss themes too...hrmm...). but DC13 has done a good job overall.
The intro ambience could have been....cleaner.....but conveys a great feeling anyway. The drum sequencing I have no beef with (actually pretty impressive), but it seems like he 'verbed the whole drum set, and that, for me at least, is a huge no-no. Verb the snare, maybe toms and cymbals LIGHTLY, NEVER the bass drum, but verbing a whole drumset to me makes it sound synthetic no matter how good the samples are (which they are great samples, btw). Again, if the whole set is not verbed and I am wrong, sorry. :oops:
I personally dug the chiptune interlude, especially because it isn't "authentic", per se. It has reverb, and is really clear, unlike actual nintendo music. So it's kind of like, an updated chiptune. while the transition into it isn't perfectly smooth, the outro back into the regular song is done very well.
Now personally, I wish he would have stuck with the one song, but his transition into another song (the name eludes me presently) is a decent addon to a great tune. Overall, transitions weren't on par with the rest of the mix, and some mastering/fx issues got in the way of a real saucy sound. But great work overall, and it does the original justice.
This one's a keeper. :)
-SM

- danny B on February 28, 2003
!?! Uhhh...This isn't Final Fantasy? Or...Is it!?
Go play Super Mario RPG, Then Fight the monster, Culex. This is his Boss Music also. Wow....That's frickin' cool. Final Fantasy 4 and SM:RPG have the same Boss Music? Well, Culex was an original boss on SM:RPG. Nice job on this mix though, all in all.

- Strider Kyoden on February 28, 2003

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