Boss Theme II Rock Remix | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement

My humblest apologies. I suffered through a dead computer, a new computer that was MIA for months until a BIOS update, and hubris in thinking incorporating electric guitar was not that hard. I would have moved on to the Great Palace, except this particular arrangement was one I already sounded out in my head years ago, and just couldn't understand why I could hear it perfectly in my mind all EXCITE and yet couldn't translate it into real notes on the keyboard!!! I remember listening to the Shadowbringers Theme from FFXIV Online and thinking that sick opening guitar riff would work nearly 1:1 as the Zelda II boss fight intro. I also wanted to bring back the Main Title theme from the game and make it sound really heroic. By Palace 5 and 6, I remember as a kid feeling the challenge, as it was really hard starting the game and making it to the boss, let alone beat it in the 3 lives you're given. My struggle in developing pixel perfect accuracy in beating the bosses is illustrated in this music track. This is the part of the game I feel is most similar to modern Souls-like games, and I took note of that feeling you get when you encounter a really difficult boss, plant yourself down for countless runs on the boss, and slowly commit the enemy's patterns and timing to memory and naturally start to make more and more progress each attempt. As for guitar and drums, I gave up fighting with the existing sample rock libraries I had, which are now almost 10 years old, and switched to the Shreddage 3 guitar and drum pack. The solo guitar I have playing the melody ended up being the most expressive instrument I've ever controlled. Man you can really bend a guitar note all kinds of ways. During this time, I also had the privilege of attending Hans Zimmer Live. On stage was the most unique setup of performers, with orchestra, rock, random ethnic instruments and drums, a crazy Synth Rack in the back, and it was a great educational moment for me. Zimmer doesn't use the instruments the way they're "supposed to" or "always been played this way." He says "Tina Guo, I want you to shred the cello like an electric guitar, and Johnny Marr and 10 other cellists will back you up." All this to say I wanted the track to really sound like Link is just giving the enemy a beat down, shoving his blade into them extra hard while screaming. Other influences for this track include Chrono Trigger (lots of bass lines in the soundtrack), Command & Conquer, and for pure attitude, SUZUKA from the band Atarashii Gakko!! Support me at   / thesecondnarrator   Arrangement and illustrations by Jeremiah Sun Original Theme by Akito Nakatsuka #ZeldaII #Souls