ReMix: Final Fantasy 'Warriors of Light'

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Final Fantasy

Darangen recalls:

"Nostalgia... This was always one of my favorite vg themes ever, and still is to this day. I can remember when my friend down the street brought Final Fantasy 1 over, we all thought it was the neatest thing to have 4 black mages with confuse and watch the enemies hit themselves (well, the few times that confuse would work). A few weeks later, my brother and I begged our parents enough to buy the game for ourselves. We finally got it, and I've loved the music ever since, the whole Final Fantasy 1 soundtrack is amazing."

I've been into Darangen's pieces to date, but this track especially shines and for me represents improvement in terms of both timbral and compositional variety. The intro mixes ambient with rock, with a piano lead over acoustic guitar and kit, with abysnthian/maelstromian pads and bells providing ambience, until an electric lead enters at 1'03" and the drums get a bit more mojo and some heavy cymbal additions. I love the Cream-style wah-lead that's transitioned into at 1'32". Now, I think the entire panel was basically in consensus that there's some of them dreaded "wrong notes" from 1'53" to 1'58" - analoq spoke with Mike about it and he indicated it was intentional and simply "odd", but for my money, there's good odd and bad odd, and this doesn't sound particularly intentional, even if it was... however, that's five seconds of a 4+ minute ReMix that's one of the more memorable Final Fantasy I mixes I've heard, and which takes Darangen's already polished guitar-driven sound and incorporates synth and piano successfully. GL writes:

"Being very familiar with this theme, I'm surprised someone was able to pull out a mix that gives the original its dues while at the same time going many steps further. Arrangement as a whole is splendid, and easily the best Darangen has done."

The one other thing that some pointed out was that the fade-out ending isn't executed in a fashion that the rest of the mix deserves - some people just have a thing against fadeouts in general, but I think it could have worked better here if the curve had been more gradual. I've personally had to do trial and error for almost an hour just on a fadeout for a track - if you get it right, it sounds natural, but if it's a little off, it can end up sounding like someone just turning the volume down on your music, which isn't ideal. So, I've done due diligence in mentioning the five seconds of squirreliness and truncated fade, but that should in no way damper my shared conviction that this is Darangen's best piece yet: epic, tragic, moody, cleanly produced, and goodstuffs.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Awesome intro synth/texture. Very warm, yet detached at the same time! Classic Darangen rock. Better kick drum definition in this piece; major change from your first piece. I agree with OA, those wrong notes throw me for a loop when I hear them. Fortunately, I don't feel that way for too long and the song draws me back in. The snare drum fill feels a little synthetic and rigid, but it's not used too much. The breakdown with the piano and sweeping guitar is great. The bass line finds the pocket and just rocks it. You do love your fade outs :). Good stuff mate.

- tweek on October 14, 2009
Great stuff, but those wrong notes are horrid.
Seriously, there's nothing at all wrong with this except for those few notes, and it strikes me as being very weird.
Otherwise, beautiful.

- OA on March 18, 2009
I can't get enough of this one lately. It just seems to grab me and not let go.
Great work.

- WarpstarRider on March 23, 2006
10/10!!!!!!!!!!!O MY GOD!!!!! LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!
BOKU WA DAISUKI DESU!!!!!!!!

- Xx~~Zangetsu~~xX on February 2, 2006
What can you expect from Darangen?
I tell you:
Some great guitars with nice drums and guitarsolos
that gives the word REMIX a new meaning.
Great stuff! :D

- Bummerdude on September 16, 2005
It all started out surprisingly soft. It's been a while since I've heard the Chaos Temple theme, so I was a little naive of the melody. Still, it all came back when piano went verbatum. Very nice builds, even if they may seem long. Very enjoyable when the guitar started to rip.

- jeffrey6283 on May 5, 2005
Really nice work there man.
I really love how the whole construction of the tune and how it transports me. Really lovely acoustic/piano parts and the electric guitar work comes out as very tasteful, instead of sounding forced and intrusive.
I do agree that the fadeout was brutal :) But that's a really good piece you have here. A definite keeper.
P.S.: I'll try to remix more often :D

- mv on April 14, 2005
I don't like electric guitars in the remixes that much but I have to say I like this one. Sounds really good.

- Flaillen on April 14, 2005
To be honest, I've listened to this mix several times, and I'm not sure why people say 1:53-1:58 is "wrong." It's the same sequence, and although the key is different, the rest of the song is in the same key at the same time, and there is no dissonance to make it sound bad. In fact, it sounded like it changed key all the way back at 1:32, then changed to the original key after 1:58. There is nothing wrong with this, since the transitions are done well and the phrase just sounds like it was transposed slightly upwards for playing on a different part of the neck.
It's part of the character of the song, and if it lacked this segment, the song would be a lot more boring. I'm only going by my ears, though, so if my guesses about the key are wrong, please correct me Darangen.

- kefkafloyd on April 13, 2005
I was just thinking how good it would be if someone made another Final Fantasy based remix.

- JC83 on April 12, 2005
Yeah, pretty good! I personally don't like rock much but the ambient elements were well implemented. The intro was great. I thought it was a bit heavy when the guitars kicked in but it tends to smooth out as it goes on. Yep. Nice.

- kaip on April 12, 2005
BlueMage wrote: I'm trying to give people who haven't heard his other stuff a hint here!

Well, anyone could always check out my website at www.darangen.com and find many remixes not here at OCR. :)
Thanks for the comments everyone :) They are greatly appreciated.

- Darangen on April 11, 2005
I don't see what the problem with the 'odd' notes are - as I hear it, it's a great setup to flow into the next part of the melody. Rather than sounding at odds with the rest of it, it sounds right to my ear.
But then again, ever since I started getting stuff from VGMix too, I've come to expect this sort of quality from Darangen - his Lufia remixes have made sure of that :)
Also, I'm a sucker for electric guitar and piano mixes, so pretty much any mix that uses both will be a winner as far as I'm concerned. (Hence, Lufia mixes)
I'm trying to give people who haven't heard his other stuff a hint here!

- BlueMage on April 11, 2005
I like what Darangen's has to offer. It's great to see someone get at least a few hits on this site while his other (just as good tracks IMO) get the boot in the Judges Decisions threads.
That being said, I really like this song. It's an improvement over some of your other works.
9/10

- A-RoN on April 11, 2005
Another great ReMix by Darangen. Good job indeed!

- Txai on April 10, 2005

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