That time I fiddled with The Circle from Guilty Gear Strive

Back when Bedman, oh, I'm sorry, I mean BED, officially known as "Bedman?" with the question mark (yes, just like Goku®), was unveiled and then released for Guilty Gear Strive, that formerly known as the bird site (but always, ALWAYS known as the place you're better off not being close to) as well as a subreddit, can't remember if it was the GG one or r/Fighters, were debating over this specific song and its nature in-game.

You see, the songs in Strive always play like they are made from start to end- also happened with the previous games, so it isn't something strange in itself. What people had come to get bothered with though is how this theme song has a whopping one minute intro before the big rock guitars and chorus kick off. Yes, it still plays in-game in its entirety even if your match lasts less than a minute.

I remember there was some level of heated discussion about this because, for example, someone had attempted modifying it to have the more dynamic parts of the song start earlier and callled it an "Improved Version"...then got bombarded with negative comments- that person soon unlisted the original and reuploaded it with just changing the name and video text to "Battle Background Mix" to save themselves the problem. He actually did a small video himself talking about it which includes some screenshots from the incident, though with a bit of humor in it with the depiction of himself and sane Strive players versus the horde (I'm just saying that's what's on the video) but...yeah. People were probably split between fans of the music or GGStrive music in its entirety and would spite anyone that said otherwise, and the people that either had their formulated reasons to criticize or try modifying the original...or already were in the "GGStrive music sucks" bandwagon- BUT WAIT-

This is actually not going that deep into that mess.

I did bring all of that up just to add that background context that had me even know of the song...and try making my own version as well, though since I had seen that happen, I made sure to just name my attempt Battle Mix or something.

And this is my brief commentary about what was in my head while doing it.

The described scene

So for starters, the first difference between my mix and the original song AND that Battle Background Mix is how I wasn't having any of it and just wanted the song to get going- which by the way this is obviously personal taste and interpretation.

The original does take 1:05 to start the bridge with the chants and buildup to the rock out, while BBM keeps the first 43 seconds and then cuts directly to the Pre-Chorus- skipping the bridge.

I instead cut off the I SEE THE CIRCLE intro chants that went after the initial guitar riffs and went directly to the riffs after that, then jumping to the Bridge instead of waiting for it to come or skipping altogether. What I thought that was cool was what I did after that- aside from now taking 48 seconds for the Chorus instead of like 1:30 minutes, I mixed the "copy that" line with the building effect that comes after it, removing the slight pause before it for it to just flow faster at least in the first time it appears.

After that I went straight into the "Where I’m left and can’t reach" of the second verse...not textually planned, but the lines before that didn't have the guitar blazing so I skipped to the one that did. I also let the buildup noise play alone instead of mixing it with the COPY THAT for the second time it plays, but still skipping the pause as I did before- I guess its a thing that I just wanted to try and hear how those would sound without having the pause throw the rhythm slightly off the expectation on my head.

Then I had skipped the first half of the final Bridge (which has a nice buildup to the second half...but in the context where my head was at, I was thinking "this is fighting music, hurry uuuuup" despite how an average GG Strive match would likely have been over somewhere before this), leaving the second half and the rest of the remaining song intact.

And that was my experiment. Done in Kdenlive, there probably are a few minuscule details when transitioning from one cut to another which I might happen to think of when I listen to this again after months since I did it...but it was an interesting experiment to share back then, even though maybe as a standalone song, if you can stand the lyrics (don't look at me, I couldn't understand most of it without a lyrics page- both because of how I'm not a native english speaker and...well...uhh) then there's probably that feeling that the original song might be more complete with some of the slower missing verses.

Aside from that weird COPY THAT pause- that little thing was probably one of the things my brain wanted to see in a different way just for the sake of it. But hey, if you who are reading this enjoyed my experiment, or even enjoy it more than the original, then more power to you (and thanks for coming by!)

And yes, I had too much fun plastering Colgate Ryu in Bedman's head just as a little signature that I was, indeed, consuming ten billion years in an instant.

oh and wait for the end of that video lmao