Octopath Traveler - Decisive Battle I & Medley (Prog Version) ft. Zohar Emulator, Myrddin Triguel
17This is my take on Decisive Battle I and all eight of the For... tracks from Octopath Traveler! Huge thanks to Zohar Emulator and Myrddin Triguel for playing guitar and bass guitar on this arrangement!
Tracks:
0:00 Decisive Battle I
2:24 For Truth (Cyrus)
2:39 For Master (H'aanit)
2:57 For Light (Ophilia)
3:15 For Succor (Alfen)
3:39 For Redemption (Olberic)
3:56 For Treasure (Tressa)
4:20 For Freedom (Therion)
4:44 For Revenge (Primrose)
5:30 Decisive Battle I
What makes the For... tracks special is that there is one per character and they all end with a transition that flows seamlessly into the beginning of all of the boss battle tracks.
In this medley I've sandwiched the eight For... tracks inside of two Decisive Battle I arrangements. Decisive Battle I is my favorite track in the game, and I had a lot of fun arranging and playing this version!
I did the arrangement as a part of the Pixel Mixer's Octopath Traveler tribute album titled "Echoes of Eight".
Listen to the whole album - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QxOOCxiOTk
Pixel Mixers website - https://pixel-mixers.com/2021/07/22/octopath-traveler-echoes-of-eight-tribute-album/
Download "Echoes of Eight" tribute album - https://www.mediafire.com/file/dj2sdqry2buqsx3/Pixel_Mixers_-_Echoes_of_Eight_%255BOctopath_Traveler%255D.zip/file
When considering what to do for the eight For... tracks medley, there is already the idea of a sort of timbre motif, or instrument motif, where an instrument's sound is chosen to represent a character from the game. Not all characters here have one, and the ones that do aren't even always used in their original For... track, but I wanted to use this idea here:
For Truth (Cyrus) - Cyrus' theme is a waltz played by the strings. For Truth keeps the 3/4 time signature, but there isn't really a particular instrument I'd associate with Cyrus, so I ended up with a weird spooky synth lead.
For Master (H'aanit) - H'aanit's theme is a piano solo, and I could have used piano, but I didn't use piano. Instead it is funky.
For Light (Ophilia) - Ophilia's instrument is the flute, featured both in Ophilia's theme and For Light. I kept that instrument in my version and added some extra flute melody in the body of this section of the medley.
For Succor - (Alfen) - Alfen's instrument is the saxophone (I think it's an alto but maybe a soprano?) It plays both in his theme and in For Succor, however in For Succor it is hard to tell that it is a saxophone and sounds more like an oboe which lead me to believe it was Therion's track for a time. I kept the saxophone and this is the first recording of me playing the alto saxophone I've used in an arrangement!
For Redemption (Olberic) - Olberic's theme doesn't really have a particular instrument. I was thinking of trying to highlight the french horn as a key instrument in this section since I could see the it being associated with this atmosphere of epic redemption but my VST blended pretty badly with the rest of the instruments here. So I went with metal.
For Treasure (Tressa) - Tressa's instrument is the harmonica, an awesome sounding little free read aerophone. It's possible I could have found someone to play the harmonica melody for me, but I just happen to already play another free read aerophone, the accordion. So I used the musette register on my accordion along with the original string parts which probably makes this section sound most like the original.
For Freedom (Therion) - Therion's theme is played on a oboe, a cool choice for his character. For Freedom actually doesn't use any oboe, but I've taken the melody and put it on my oboe VST in this section. Also I wanted a shift from the previous section's string focus to a woodwind focus here, and along with that some polyrhythms and wub wub synth bass clarinet bassoon appeared.
For Revenge (Primrose) - I don't associate one particular instrument with Primrose but her theme and For Revenge feature strummed acoustic guitar. However in the medley I decided to do a sort of electronic music inspired section. The transition section of For Revenge is extended and used as a riser that resolves back into the return of Decisive Battle I.
Song: Decisive Battle I, the eight For... tracks
Game: Octopath TravelerComposer: Yasunori Nishiki
Arranged by Justin Thornburgh
Synthesizer, organ, alto saxophone, accordion, programming - Justin Thornburgh
Electric guitar - Zohar Emulator (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVdrJnUuLe5RygvYNvEaG-Q)
Bass guitar - Myrddin Triguel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCATUvVNEOis4zoaDl1gT6jg)
Album Artwork - GuitarSVD (https://www.youtube.com/c/GuitarSVD)
Album Mastering: HeavyMetalMixer (https://twitter.com/heavymetalmixer)