Part 5: To the End of the Wilderness

Alright, when I first started writing my updates, I was wondering if I should devote an entire update to this, or combine it in part of a future update. Well, as it turns out, real life issues ate up a lot of time since my previous update, which got priority over the LP. So I'm posting this for now, and then I'm going to be spending the next few days blitzing to get a proper update out. Fortunately, I got most of the real life issues set aside for now, so I should have few problems. Regardless, sorry for slowing you down, Azure. If this ever becomes a problem, I won't mind if you move on ahead.

Anyway, the reason why I wanted to do this as a separate update?


Does anyone know what this is, just by looking at it?


This song holds a special place in my heart...


For it's soothing soft whistling...


And the power that it suddenly swells with...


Like a flower growing in the barren wilderness.

Link to the opening video. Watch this. It has a lot more symbolism that won't become clear yet (and I won't elaborate on yet), though I expect a good portion of Alter Code F was designed with the intention that you already know everything about the original game already.


This song alone, is probably why I love the Wild ARMs series so much. I will be the first to admit that most of it is probably nostalgia, as I still remember the moment I fell in love with the intro video to the first Wild ARMs game, when my brother and I rented it from Blockbuster over a decade ago. This one song is the number one reason why I'm a fan of the Wild ARMs series. There are still plenty of other good reasons as well, but this song reigns on top.

In a way, this song is Filgaia. Filgaia is a world troubled by all sorts of outside threats, before the game even begins, and the song begins almost sorrowful. Then the whistling part comes in, and you can almost feel the song telling the tales of old, of how Filgaia came to be so troubled. Then the melody plays a second time, and you can hear the drums beat out a rhythm, as it is time to take action to fix Filgaia.

And it swells, taking in the power from all sorts of instruments at once, the old whistling no longer heard. One person alone cannot save Filgaia, it takes the efforts of many people working together. The melody returns, reminding us that the beauty of Filgaia That Was can become Filgaia That Is. But the battle to do so is tough, as there are those who still seek the destruction of Filgaia.

When the melody appears for the last time, the guitar and the whistle stand out again. Has the battle to save Filgaia caused only more destruction? We fought to bring back the Filgaia of old, but why has it not returned yet? Will Filgaia ever be restored to its former beauty or will it remain a barren wilderness for all eternity?


The answer lies within this flower.







...ahem.
TL;DR: I really like this song.

And now, for remixes of this song.



The first is the Rocking Heart version of "At The End of the Wilderness ver. Detonator", which is the Wild ARMs 4 version of this song, which got arranged into a boss battle theme that is simply awesome. Honestly, I think 4 had probably one of the strongest soundtracks in the series, despite Michiko Naruke being only able to do half of it. Even still, it seems like my favorite songs in that game come from her.



Next, is the Feeling Wind version of this song, which just increases the amount of sorrow the song portrays. If a rocking remix like before can set your heart on fire, do not forget that moving in the opposite direction towards softness can cause your heart to weep. I think I did the first time I heard this.

OC ReMix: A Symphonic Tale

And I know I wept at the third one, which is from OCRemix, which is why I'm not hosting in Tindeck, because it's already out there, and I'd rather try to keep credit to the person that did this, by having a live orchestra perform an arrangement of this song. The tears started rolling the moment I heard the violin about halfway through. Violins trigger a stronger emotional response for me, because I consider that my primary instrument of the several that I have played. So when I hear one being played beautifully, the waterworks turn on.




...ahem.
TL;DR: I really like this song. (And violins.)

Anyway, now that I've cleared the three prologues, this video will start playing every time I load up a save file. Unlike Wild ARMs 2, 3 and 4, it will not change as time passes. Wild ARMs 2 used a whole different song for the second disk, Wild ARMs 3 changed odd parts of the video as the game progressed, and Wild ARMs 4 changed nearly the entire video for about the last third of the game. Sadly, Wild ARMs 5 and XF dropped this tradition, and only played the song after what I consider the "prologue" section of the game. Which is a pity, because those songs were really great as well.

All in all, I still think I prefer the original Wild ARMs method of playing it at the title screen, so it's the first thing you see. That's when you can get maximum impact.


… … … Eh, why the hell not.


I don't exactly remember where in the anime I heard this song sneak in, but the anime used five songs from the first two games that Michiko Naruke also arranged, three of them from the first game. I'll include them when they come up too. This arrangement is rather nice, and feels a lot more wild-westy.

And although Azure put it in his OP, I might as well put it here with all of my stuff for this song. A goon here actually wrote lyrics to the song.