By Willow Ascenzo wellmanicuredmusic Bandcamp wellmanicuredman SoundCloud YouTube YouTube mousegard Tumblr wellmanicuredmusic Tumblr wmm_ebooks Twitter qubeley Patreon ← Elegy for a Thief (Dreamscape Remix) Previous track by this artist → Ave Dei Novi Next track by this artist.
Cover art by Ducky Senpai duckysenpai Bandcamp kamokachan Tumblr → Sign of the Scorpion Next track art by this artist.
Released 12/25/2012.
Duration: 4:13.

Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.

Read artist commentary.

Artist commentary:

Willow Ascenzo: (composer, booklet commentary)

I began "Finale Strife" as a long, slow-burning build-up song for the final battle with Lord English, in a similar vein to "Finale Toccata" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That, however, didn't pan out, and it ended up turning into a fast-paced, high-energy strife theme more in the vein of "The Curse of Sorrow" from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (the only Castlevania game I've actually come close to beating), especially the organ, electric guitar, and snappy drum kit. The main melody has some resemblance to the Black King's theme from "Rex Duodecim Angelus" by Malcolm Brown, but not enough to qualify as a remix or arrangement.

Ducky Senpai: (track artist, booklet commentary)

I initially had no idea what I was going to do for this song. I skimmed through the tracks and noticed this one by Willow Ascenzo (who did some of my favorites on coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A like Teal Hunter and Violet Mariner), and I was instantly sold probably because of my love for pipe organs. Anyway, for a lack of better inspiration, I used the description left on soundcloud - "Final battle with Lord English." Tie that to Aranea's mentioning that Jake was destined to beat Lord English, and I had my inspiration. The lineart took much longer than it should have since my tablet had been freaking out and I haven't gotten the new one yet, but the coloring went quite smoothly.