Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon
Download (MP3)
Download (End card acoustic short: Conversation With Culex)

 

 

 

 

Just when you thought it wasn’t possible… just when you thought your crystals were safe… and just when you thought ‘maybe Jonny is taking a little break with Super Mario RPG’…

 

…you’re suddenly transported to a dark, 2D world, and the Dark Knight of Vanda himself challenges you to a duel. Enter Culex!

I got the idea for this arrangement when I kept seeing requests to “do a remix of Culex’s theme”… despite the fact I’ve done the Final Fantasy IV Boss Theme before (including a recent remaster of said remix on the XI album). But I know what some of you (including those fine requesters) were thinking: but this is Culex’s Theme I’m wanting, not some Final Fantasy boss song!

So I set out to create not just some ordinary remake of the FFIV Boss Theme, but a complete reimagining of it. I give to you: Fight Against Culex, a song that is totally not from Final Fantasy IV.

This arrangement has four ‘phases’. Phase 1 is a slow dramatic buildup. Phase 2 is when things kick into full gear and is a bit closer to what you may be used to hearing from this song. Phase 3 goes past full gear and into overdrive, inspired by the part of the fight where Culex said “it’s Culexin time!” and Culexed all over the place. Phase 4 is when our heroes triumph over evil and finish off Culex once and for all.

I took a lot of inspiration from mainly two songs for this arrangement: the JENOVA Quickening (which has a super, super, SUPER long buildup into the usual high-tempo JENOVA), and the Advent Children version of One Winged Angel, because an Advent Children of Dancing Mad would’ve been too much for the world to handle so they had to settle for making that instead, and it’s pretty cool.

Also, jokes aside, there are a few small differences between the Super Mario RPG arrangement of this song and the original version from Final Fantasy IV. Can you spot them? 🙂