Metaphor: ReFantazio Battle Theme (Shoji Meguro PS2 Rock Remix)

This is a cover of the battle theme (which we currently don’t know the official name of) from Metaphor: ReFantazio by Shoji Meguro. I have remade the track in the style of Shoji Meguro’s rock battle tracks around the PS2 era of Shin Megami Tensei games, as if Metaphor: ReFantazio released on the PS2 in the mid to late 2000’s. While the full track hasn’t been released yet (let alone the game), it is 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 similar to the structure of Fear of God from Strange Journey. Not too surprising considering this is Meguro revisiting his orchestral style but regardless, it’s a pretty damn good song. In order to translate the track over to this style, I had to make some key decisions that would give it the Meguro sound. Replacing the high strings with guitar was a no-brainer, but the staccato strings and horns were a bit trickier. I took some inspiration from Hari-Hara ~The Second Movement~ and Heroic Battle by using muted guitar and synth chord stabs respectively. There is also an arpeggio happening on marimba in the original track which I swapped out with a harsh sync lead taking inspiration from Madness. I wanted to make sure that I kept both vocal parts in the mix as I feel they are a strong part of the track’s identity and tried to clean them up the best I could. I feel they turned out better than the vocals in It’s Going Down Now, but anything is easier to mix than a scuffed sample of Lotus Juice whispering. Once the full track is released, I may come back to this and update it to the full version, but we’ll be waiting a while for that yet. Of course, Meguro’s signature guitar tone is always the most important element of these remixes, for a more detailed breakdown of how I recreated it, I’d advise checking out the description for the cover of An Honour Befitting That Name I made here: I’m looking forward to the game in October, hopefully there are some other great tracks to find. I hope you enjoy the track! Follow me on Twitter: Follow me on Instagram: