ReMix:Dark Souls III "Journey's End" 11:54

We begin the week with an ending, as RoeTaKa (Alex Roe) pays a grand farewell to his time spent arranging the Dark Souls series in the form of an 11+ minute sprawling magnum opus, merging pieces of previous arrangements into a new, unified superstucture. SPOILER: It's awesome. He writes:

"This should be a celebration, and it is, but it's also bittersweet as what comes is now the end of Dark Souls, and the end of my time remixing it.

This is my final Dark Souls remix. I didn't think it would affect me as much as it has. It's been pretty crazy, to be honest. I never imagined I would make this many remixes for one series of games. I knew I couldn't keep doing these forever and there is so much I want to move on to. I feel like I've done everything I can with this series. This release marks my 25th release between the Souls games and Bloodborne. Writing this arrangement was bittersweet and far more impacting than I expected it to be. The response I got from the following I have was just a really powerful moment and it made me reflect on just how great and important these last few years have been for me. I knew I owed everyone something worthy and meaningful for a final remix and I was inspired by people's love for the series to do it. Coming up with the idea for this remix was one thing, but to actually do it and think about my time with the series has left me both sad and yet hopeful. Now that Dark Souls is over, I think it is also time for me to stop with it. Don't get me wrong, whatever FromSoft does in the future, I'm pretty sure that I will want to remix the music from those games. I made this decision because I have less time to think about doing remixes. Recently, I accepted to write the soundtrack for the game The Iron Oath, and I have other projects I'd also like to work on which I hope to reveal someday soon.

I want to thank you all for the amazing support you've given me with these remixes, original albums, and music in general. I am very lucky to be in the position I am in right now and it's something I will not take for granted. So much in life is just luck or a product of the moment, and making the right connections, then the rest is about how much you want it. I want to thank EpicNameBro, as without him I have no idea if I'd even still be doing these Souls remixes. I tweeted him "Epitaph for Boletaria" on a whim and he liked it enough to retweet and use it in his videos. He would continue to use my music in his videos, as well as "Kindle the Soul" in his From the Dark playthrough, which was excellent. I'd like to thank VaatiVidya too, as he basically turned what was something more of a hobby into more of a job. His shoutout to my Bloodborne inspired "Borne in Blood" album provided me so much exposure. He also used my music a lot in his videos. Without these kickstarts, I'm not entirely sure what I'd be doing right now, but I am eternally grateful that they and the Souls community have wanted me to keep writing this music. And I want to thank Yuka Kitamura. Her music really was a breath of fresh air, particularly around Dark Souls 2's DLC and onwards. I have the pleasure to speak with her and share music, and I'd love to work with her on something one day in any capacity. I hope someday soon we can work on something together! Of course, I have to thank FromSoft and Miyazaki for creating these incredible games. There's really not been a community like this and I hope it continues to stay strong for as long as it can. I've made great friendships due to these games and I've never embraced a community as much as this since I first joined OverClocked ReMix. Another person I must absolutely thank is Shnabubula, who has always supported my music and has always been the encouragement that helps me be more excited about the music I make.

I'm not sure if I've ever heard a remix that is a medley and also incorporates the artist's previous remixes. Remixing something new and revisiting/updating some remixes from the past felt very right, and something of a thank you to everyone who enjoyed those when they were released. I wanted to do an arrangement that reminded everyone of their journey with the games and I thought it would be great if I tried to make that feel even more personal by my own journey with these remixes. Anyone that has never heard them before gets something new out of it, and anyone that has heard my stuff since the start or just heard them all anyway gets some nostalgia from that too. In the case of the "Gwyn" section, for example, that was a remix rejected here and I was tempted to remake it. This was a good opportunity for me to revisit that and give it a better production. I almost didn't make the "Gael" part of this arrangement, but as I wanted this to be quite a long remix (My longest remix to date? If you can count the reused remixes), it felt right to get some energy there.

Dark Souls is over now, but if they ever return to make Dark Souls IV, then I probably will come back and do more remixes from it. Same goes for Bloodborne 2, if they ever make that. I'd go nuts for Bloodborne 2. I'd actually be pretty depressed that I didn't get to work on that if it is real, haha, but it is what it is. I'm mostly hoping for something fresh that plays like a Souls or Bloodborne game, perhaps rooted in horror but I know whatever it is, it'll be great. All good things come to an end. However, I'll of course continue to remix other things in the future. I promise, if you have any interest in me as a composer, then whatever I release should be something you'll enjoy. So, please, I hope you enjoy this final Dark Souls remix and I'll be back soon with something new. Cheers, everyone! One last "Praise the Sun." \[T]/

• Games Arranged - Dark Souls III, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II
• Songs Arranged - "Epilogue" (Dark Souls III), "Maiden in Black" (Demon's Souls), "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder" (Dark Souls), "Majula" (Dark Souls II), "Slave Knight Gael" (Dark Souls III), "Nameless Song" (Dark Souls)

Arrangement breakdown:

A remix of "Epilogue" and later "Slave Knight Gael" from Dark Souls 3, and a medley that uses previous remixes of mine. The "Maiden in Black," "Majula," and "Nameless Song" remixes are essentially the same as they were before but now a higher quality. The "Majula" section is a little different to my original.

There are two versions of "Epilogue" now that the final DLC is out, the newer one mainly adds a piano to the arrangement. Anything I've used from that is pretty much in the first two minutes. It repeats throughout the song.

"Slave Knight Gael" is a lengthy track and I only used certain sections. Parts I took are at 3:45-4:12, 3:14-3:28, 6:41-6:52 (that's the order they appear in my arrangement).

• 0:00 - "Epilogue"
• 0:33 - "Maiden in Black" ["Epitaph for Boletaria"]
• 1:22 - "Epilogue"
• 2:10 - "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder" ["E.S. Gwyn"]
• 3:20 - "Epilogue"
• 4:22 - "Majula" ["Like a Dream"]
• 5:13 - "Epilogue"
• 6:22 - "Slave Knight Gael"
• 8:25 - "Nameless Song" ["I Had a Name"]
• 9:09 - "Epilogue"

"Epic" doesn't do this justice; I've written at length about how unique Alex's relationship to this series has been, how it's formed a narrative arc within the history of OCR itself and singlehandedly injected our canon with vast gothic atmospheres, unforgettable beauty, & intense, spiralling motifs. Much can be said, and much has, but this piece actually tells the story better than I can & provides a retrospective that highlights all the many qualities that have made each mix something to be anticipated, explored, and enjoyed. It's bittersweet, as he says, but musically this is a satisfying & powerful ending, one which his thorough and brilliant meditiation on the series' scores really deserved. Liontamer adds:

"Beautiful work, Alex! Wonderful medley and, you're right, the cameos of the other arranged themes were more powerful, forceful renditions than the previous mixes, so you were able to add some new dimensions to the piece while not having anything sound like just a retread. Great stuff, and it's a wonderful retrospective on how far you've come as an artist. I'm really glad you've been able to find a bigger audience through the Souls/Bloodborne fandom, and I'll definitely keep my fingers crossed that formal involvement in either of those franchises is in your future. Always looking forward to your next submissions! :-)"

Ditto all that; it's great to see the time, love, & energy Alex has invested in his craft take him places he deserves to go, and this crowning metamix that looks back on his previous arrangements also looks forward, in a sense, to all the opportunities & destinations the future holds. Highly recommended, a highlight of the year, and also a culmination of everything Alex has done so very right in paying homage to these amazing soundtracks - a virtual standing ovation is definitely called for; bravo.