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This is a theme that I originally had in my head all the way back in 2009, after I'd emerged from conscription in the place of my birth. I wrote this for a character I'd dreamt up, a no-nonsense girl with little school education but a lot of wisdom, called Sybil Françaix -- hence the title of this piece.

Because yes, I wanted to make a game based on what I went through as a conscript. I wanted to make a game about a girl and her friends carrying out missions and uncovering the corruption and unmasking the indoctrination that they would endure / see during the time in which they are enlisted as soldiers. Of course, I had no idea how making a game would work, and that idea fell by the wayside after a while.

The character in question was loosely based on an actual real-life person I knew, one who was only educated for four years in primary school, but who had a strong sense of justice and the people skills to talk to people and find out the truth. She singlehandedly found out about the harsh, slave-like working conditions of the cookhouse staff in the camp where I was based. I respected her then and I still respect her now. It's highly likely that she may not ever read this message, but I am thinking of her and I hope that her sense of justice leads her to do great things.

I finally put it down into a DAW on 6 April, the sixth day of the penultimate 21 Days of VGM, with the prompt being "the JRPG special." True to said prompt, the instrumentation of the original, which you can follow in the link below, was only meant to have three instruments -- piano, flute and violin, and so the instrumentation was sparse and the mixing was non-existent.

With this version, however, I decided to give it the full treatment. I gave it a good bit of extra strings and woodwinds, and expanded upon the bassline. The remake was done in a single night. Hope you all enjoy.

The 21 Days of VGM iteration can be heard in this tweet:

https://twitter.com/Troisnyx/status/1247248796586737669

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HocusPianocus

2022-01-05 00:36:36

This one is great too, thanks for the link! I like it a lot again, and I could imagine this not only in J-RPG but also in anime. I think its pretty reverby quality makes it more unique sounding, and I see the idea was to have a growing reverb solution against the 3-instrument-only limitation at the part towards the end the big crescendo, to my taste it became a little too reverby but I think the idea was a creative solution to the instrument limitation. I would love to hear a new version with a little less reverb at the end and using just a few more instruments maybe instead towards the end (so there would be no instrument limitation).

So I think it sounds already very nice as it is now, but I think that new version could sound straight awesome!

I hope you have a nice day :)

Troisnyx responds:

I forewent the instrument limitation in this version already, there was a full-on orchestral swell.

If you were looking for the instrument limitation version, in the description to this I posted the first version of this, it's a Twitter link. Hopefully you'll see it then.

CIEIRMusic

2020-12-15 19:51:34

When Shigeru Miyamoto first created Zelda, he based most of the overworld off the various things, he discovered while exploring as a child. He had no map and relied on sheer wits during his travels. The fact that you are able to make a song and be inspired to want to create a story based on your own life and the lives of those you known, shows to me at least that you are on his level of creativity. This is a beautiful song and you should be very proud to make it as well as express your story behind it. Bravo.

Troisnyx responds:

That is high praise; I've let it sink in over the months and I still am touched by your words. 💖😭 Thank you.

HoboKa

2020-11-11 19:16:01

Beautiful!! Wow, the dynamics here are phenomenal!

MrHtuber

2020-11-09 18:51:08

I really enjoyed the song and story, it really gives me a fantasy adventure feel. It reminds me of when I went to camp with my friends or did some other stuff, it gives me a nostalgic feeling of having no limit but your imagination and exploring the world, and I really like that, keep up the good work!

LuckyDee

2020-11-04 13:26:42

It's funny how the story breathes an entire extra dimension into the music. I mean the song itself is already very well-crafted but as with the game it's meant for - as is the case with just about every song that sticks with you throughout your life, I've found - it's the context you are in when the song features in your existence that really breathes life to it. Respect.