ReMix: Romancing SaGa 'Tant Mieux'

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Romancing SaGa

I know what you're thinking... Sixto? He ain't no n00b. He's like... the exact opposite of a n00b. Especially this year. Don't worry, we're not breaking form, as he's only one half of the equation on this track, our first ReMix from Kenji Ito's score to Romancing SaGa. The arranger is newcomer Dustin Lagaly, alias Theory of Nonexistence, who writes:

"So, I have a playlist of about 400 songs that I play while I sleep and this source tune is one of them. I woke up one morning with it playing and realized "hey...this could make a pretty kickass rock tune". I have no idea what made me think that, seeing as it's nowhere close to the same style. Kinda one of those weird half-awake thoughts. But I got up and started writing it before my half-awake thought left me and it did indeed kickass. At the time, I had no real intentions of submitting it because the guitars were really fake and stuff, but I asked Sixto for some feedback on it and the next day he offered to collab. So I finished the arrangement up and gave him the midi. A couple weeks later, this epic remix was created.

The hardest part about making the song (in my opinion) was coming up with a name. I had a friend popping out random titles such as "Oh Shit, I Lost my Loli", "Dinkles Hurt My Feet", and "A Day Without a God is a Day That You Don't Have to Worry About". Needless to say, that wasn't working. I started thinking about it and made some kind of connection with the source tune being "Unerasable Pain" and the remix being just the opposite; the pain being erased after previously being unerasable. So I thought "A Better Eraser"...but that didn't sound good. I don't remember exactly how I got to "Tant Mieux", but it's French for "So much the better". Didn't feel like thinking anymore after that and I was getting impatient, so I subbed."

"Dinkles Hurt My Feet" would have been a real show-stealer, but it seems tasteful French prevailed. Things intro mellow with some Badalamentine pads, but pizzicato comes in and livens things up before an in-your-face blend of rock drums, guitar, and C64 SIDpeggio fills your ears with bliss. There's nice variation with the drums and a bunch of downbeat snare parts, plus a nice extended roll at 3'09" that DID conjure that iconic "Eeeee hee hee.... WIPEOUT" intro, but was nevertheless a cool touch. Other cool touches include rising and falling synth arpeggios, a badass synth solo at 2'34", cutaway ending (fadeout woulda been weak in this instance), and general Sixto production sheen. While his own arrangements are stellar, Juan also seems particularly adept in taking someone else's vision and framing it just right, with production/performance that does every ounce of justice possible. There are certainly worse ways to debut on OCR than having an arrangement of yours with Sixto at the helm on the production side of things, that's for sure. Dustin's arrangement is solid, though, and kudos for tackling a previously unmixed game and bringing more SaGa love. Great stuff all around.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
l have played this song over eighty times since downloading this last year and it still never gets old. Epic work

- metalsnakejuice on April 19, 2009
Epic, just epic. I've never played the game, but listening to this makes me want to.
Fantastic!

- MechaFone on February 15, 2009
I got this when it first came out, but figured I ought to write a little something...
This is probably one of my favorite remixes to come off this site. I'm in love with the music from Romancing SaGa, so I was really excited to see that you guys tackled a song from it. It's just.. totally beautiful and epic. It holds true to the source tune, but is still something else entirely. Great job to the both of you!

- The Otaku on January 17, 2009
I guess this is my first post huh? Well, been lurking on this site for quite some time. Im impressed with what you did there. absolutely awesome work. on my mp3 player now. got some of my friends addicted to it as well. this is music how it should be done. great job you two. consider yourself whorshipped :shock:

- HorneT on January 5, 2009
It do not often find myself listening to a track once and again, and much less if it comes from a game that I have never played. That makes me believe this is a great job. Congratulations.

- soflete on December 29, 2008
DJP wasn't joking when he wrote about [i]Badalamentine pads[/i] in the write-up; when the song started, the first thing that came to my mind was Twin Peaks.
I love the chiptune section in this song, and the synth solo from 2:35 is pure bliss. Sixto's guitar work is nice as always, nothing less, but also nothing more.
Nice one.

- Martin Penwald on December 25, 2008
This is sick. It has a very 'final battle' feel to it. Way to kick it off right, ToN!

- metaphist on December 22, 2008
The introduction was intense, I had to listen to it a few times just to figure out what was going on.
Incredible job, you guys! :D

- Emunator on December 17, 2008
I never played Romancing Saga, but I loved this remix. Cool job.

- soflete on December 17, 2008
This is awesome! Very nice mix of energetic rock and sid-goodness. I've never heard any Romancing SaGa music, but this still blows my socks off. High quality production too with nice clear sound. Good job.

- Echo on December 16, 2008
Whoa wall of sound intro. 8O I was transfixed by it. Amazing texture there, the stop-start guitar with the relentless chiptune leads. I was very happy to see that make another cameo near the end. The rest of the song isn't quite as stunning, but still, great writing and production throughout. I really like this one, guys!

- Palpable on December 11, 2008
It started out meh, but quickly escalated to pure epicity! Great job, both of you! I didn't even know it was Sixto until after I listened to it and read the review by DJP there. Awesome job! 5 stars out of 10 points; so awesome the scoring systems got mixed up!

- Mirby on December 11, 2008
You were totally right on, with that half-awake thought for this song.
The guitar/chiptune really kicks some major ass.
Song overall is an awesome composition, my only "if" thing for this would be, I think the snares need to be slightly more pronounced when doing the drum roll. 3:10 - 3:21
Like hit harder, they sounds like dropping sycn'd jelly beans being dropped onto catgut/canvas.
This is a great piece, to a game i've never played (sadly).
Looking forward to hearing more from 'Theory of Nonexistence', Sixto is good as always.
Edit** -- This song definitely shows the 'Squareness' and resembles 'The Black Mages' in a lot of ways.
Good job, great job for teh ear weapons... (now if i can manage to sync macro and mouse clicks to the beat)

- UchihaVilu on December 11, 2008
Darn it, I'm have a wip with nes arps in it. Now I'm gonna look like I got the idea from you.
Seriously though, this is really awesome. :nicework:

- Dafydd on December 11, 2008
Really really like this song! Awesome job, the both of you. Love the initial guitar/chiptune assault.
It's funny how the "Squareness" shows through at times, a couple melodies in there really reminded me of Chrono Trigger. Never actually played Romance SaGa.

- Thrull on December 11, 2008

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