ReMix: The Last Blade 2 'Kizukaseru'

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YES! Word to yer freakin' mutha! Sorry, you'll have to excuse all that, but I love this ReMix. I'll come right out and say it's one of the very best first ReMixes we've ever received, which is saying a lot. It doesn't hurt that Last Blade 2 holds a dear place in my heart as being the closest gaming equivalent to a Rurouni Kenshin fighting game, with a tight engine, great tunes, and simply inspired character design. No offense to the Samurai Showdown fans amongst you (it's not bad), but Last Blade and its sequel are the tightest weapon-based 2d fighters on the Neo-Geo, and probably any other console (Guilty Gear ain't bad), and it's such a beautiful thing to see A. the game's music covered at all, B. the game's music covered WELL, and C. the game's music covered well by a first-time ReMixer, out of the blue. Yeah, so I'm pretty psyched. Maybe you'll hear it and think "eh, pretty good, but nothing to wet my pants over", but whilst my own pants are dry (really, I swear), I encourage you to check out the original and see what Unipulator has done with it. Elements of new age and contemporary jazz merge with ambient, flowing in and out of mutating forms and ephemeral arranged portions of the main melody. Fretless bass, harp, piano, church bells, both light jazz and more rock-style drum kits are utilized, a variety of synth and choral pads, a flutey calliope lead, the list goes on . . . you could literally cut pieces of this out and build full, developed ReMixes out of each, and to have them all in one track is delicious. I can listen to the original and this ReMix back to back and nod my head at every decision Unipulator (Eric Weg) made, see where he was coming from, and just appreciate what he's created. In Eric's words:

"The main character of the game is Kaede, but see, there’s actually two versions of him to play…before and after his “awakening”. This remix is called Kizukaseru (the Japanese word for “awakening in the intellectual sense”), and presents Kaede’s transition from a muddy-headed fighter to a godly-type warrior. The main theme comes in at 1:50 after an extended intro, and then works with the melody in sections until he’s finally all heavenly and enlightened and whatnot.

- yes, friends, there's even an interpretive narrative at play, and a good mix name was chosen to boot. I won't go too overboard and say this is a perfect piece of music - there's nitpicks I might usually make that I'm omitting, largely due to the overall arrangement being just very creative and well-executed. Highly recommended.

― djpretzel