Gitaroo Man "Slow Dancing at the End of the World" 4:40

If you're going to arrange "The Legendary Theme", it helps to have a legendary team! ;-) That's exactly what judge Emunator's done in tackling Gitaroo Man's greatest composition, i.e. assemble a genuine dream team:

• Emunator: arrangement, programming, additional keys/percussion, mixing
• Chimpazilla: additional pads/FX, final mix, mastering
• Flexstyle: programmed drums
• jnWake: keys/synths
• ZackParrish: electric guitar, electric bass

When you know a theme's been really creatively covered in the scene, it can feel impossible to make something "better than", and you sure as shit don't want to be "less than". So, in deciding to try this theme on for size in a DoD compo, Emunator knew his best route would be "different than":

"This song was my entry for the April 2025 Dwelling of Duels competition. The theme for the month - rhythm games - didn't immediately strike any inspiration for me, so I was planning to sit this month out. It wasn't until I was at VGM CON with a group of DoD regulars, watching The OneUps perform (my first time seeing them on stage in 16 years!!) and they played their cover of this theme that the vision finally clicked. I don't know this game at all, but I'm intimately familiar with J Damashii's classic rendition. As with anything that man touches, I don't think I can do a better version of it myself... so, instead, I just set out to do something different.

I went for a saccharine slow dance-friendly ballad inspired directly by Carly Rae Jepsen's "All That", and pulled it together with a lot of help from a familiar cast of characters that should all be familiar faces from previous months' entries (all 4 of these collaborators also featured on my Phoenix Wright arrangement from last year). Chimpazilla and I worked on the final mixdown of this track in person at her home studio, which was a really rewarding experience in its own right. Y'all helped bring this to life in such a beautiful way, thank you!!

This is one of my most directly conceptual remixes - to put it simply, I wrote this as the soundtrack to the high school prom night that I never went to. The plot goes something like this: you're awkwardly floating around the perimeter of the school gym, too shy to ask your crush to dance. Then, a voice comes on the loudspeaker and announces that, due to an impending cataclysmic event, the world will be ending soon and the band only has time for one last song. So, after a moment of contemplation, you summon all the courage you have left, go up to her and ask for one last dance. The rest, I think, speaks for itself.

Letting myself make something this direct, a little cheesy, and painfully sincere took a bit of time to warm up to, but it was also wonderfully cathartic. If the world is ending, might as well go out on a high note. <3"

I too had the good fortune of being in the audience for The OneUps' VGM CON concert and was so glad to see Emu there as well as witness Mustin, Tim, William, and Jared include this amazing theme in their repetoire. Sure, it's sappy, but it's undoubtably a winner. For Emu's spin on it, judge XPRTNovice said, "I feel like this is right out of Top Gun, or something" and I immediately recoiled, because if you've ever seen Top Gun, they kind of overdid it with "Take My Breath Away" popping up seemingly every three minutes. But, I digress... :-D Let's allow panel top gun prophetik music to take our breath away with his play-by-play prowess:

"opens with washes of sound, because it's wes, but the ep and bass that come in after are delightful. the FM ep and clicky kit are very familiar sounds in this style and vibe. [...] the first chorus is also very rich and full sounding. [...] the second verse has lots more harmonic and countermelodic elements, which is a nice way to mix it up a bit. [...]

there's a big drop at 2:50 with some sfx, and then we get the big chorus that we all wanted at 3:04. there's some real proggy elements here with how the beat and chord structure gets mixed up for several bars, and then we finally get the guitarist on his knees out in front of the band with the screaming lead that we've been waiting for. there's a ton of sfx and other stuff going on throughout this last section, and it finally all resolves a 4:23. [...]

this is a fun package overall. [...] a great example of how to take a really overdone song and make it super unique and your own. definitely above the bar."

Can a video game theme truly be overdone? Say what you will, I haven't heard it yet! Truly, I could think of worse fates than eventually posting a dozen more takes on "The Legendary Theme". With Emu & crew's version in your ear, may you finally get your heart's desire! :-)