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Destructoid's weekly Sound Card Remixer Profiles highlights the works and music of the internet's game music remixers. If you've read our game music primer, you'll know that "remixers" are what the game music community calls fan arrangers of videogame tunes. There's a bunch of them out there, and we aim to cover the best ones for you here.

This week we look at the varied and awesome works of Japanese release group Hyadain.

Hyadain. What a perfectly geeky name for a group that reworks videogame music for public performance. Never heard of them? Well-versed gamers know "hyadain" as the name of one of the stronger ice spells in the famed RPG series Dragon Warrior. Too geeky for you? Well-versed game music fans know Hyadain as the makers of incredibly popular remixes sweeping YouTube right now.

Hit the jump to read more on (and hear more of) Hyadain.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of information on Hyadain out there. We do know that they are probably a group (some say a trio) of Japanese musicians who made themselves net-famous with their vocal remixes of popular RPG tunes on Japan's Nico Nico Douga video sharing Web site (think YouTube with real-time text scrolling over the videos). As is the case with much of the other crazy/notable content of Nico Nico, Hyadain's songs slowly made their way onto YouTube, and now the group is slowly becoming a worldwide name. 

Hyadain takes music from popular role playing series like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and even Mother and puts their own spin on them. This "spin" is usually full instrumentation, high quality production values, and, most importantly, awesome vocals. Their works usually have a dance feel to them, and many contain vocal harmonies. It's hard to summarize their works, as they vary in source and type. They're all great, though!

Check out this "villans" song from Final Fantasy IV; all of them sing! 

 
Of course, they're not an RPG-only group. Hyadain has taken on Dr. Mario, Megaman, and, of course, Super Mario World ("Super Mario World Western Show" above). One of their most recent releases is a tribute to Street Fighter II, with "solos" from the game's cast and a hilarious two-part harmony breakdown starring Ken and Ryu.
 
 
I'm sure you'll agree that "Flash" (Megaman) is equally impressive:
 
 
One of my personal favorites is their arrangement of "Figaro Castle" from Final Fantasy VI. If you've ever wanted to hear Sabin rhyme over a slick hip hop beat, now's your chance.
 
 
And finally, it seems that Hyadain has strong retro roots, just like the rest of us. They show respect with a couple of classic Konami remakes.
 
 
Even though Hyadain's works are in Japanese, it's still easy to appreciate the work they've done with the original songs. As their fandom grows, more songs are sure to be translated, as the one at the top of this story is. Their body of work is wonderfully varied and extremely polished. We don't know many details of what goes on behind the scenes, but it's apparent that Hyadain is made of up talented musicians that just happen to love videogames.
 
Here's to hoping we'll learn more about this group of Japanese remixers soon.  For now, check out the rest of their remixes on YouTube. Of course, for the Japanese-savvy, they're also available on Nico Nico.
 

Continue: More The Sound Card stories





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17 comments | showing # 1 to 17

nademagnet's Avatar
nademagnet at 05/05/2008 12:58
"...Men compete with their hear..." HAHAHAH!!!
Good stuff.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 05/05/2008 13:00
Okay, I totally love this stuff. I'm going to have the SFII song stuck in my head all day. Thanks for sharing Dale!
naia-the-gamer's Avatar
naia-the-gamer at 05/05/2008 13:05
My favorite is definitely the Flashman remix. I'm not a fan of "remixes" per se, but re-orchestrations. Since the Flashman stage was already pretty electronic, it still fits in the spirit of the original.

They could put that in a Mega Man Powered Up 2 release! sigh...

Who did the artwork for the Mario video? Mario and Bowser look frightening
Batthink's Avatar
Batthink at 05/05/2008 13:06
I've already seen the Mario and Street Fighter videos on Japanator, I must admit that the subtitles on the Mario one help me understand and enjoy it a lot more. :O)

"Men compete with their face".
Bizznet's Avatar
Bizznet at 05/05/2008 13:07
Wow. Just wow.
Justice's Avatar
Justice at 05/05/2008 13:14
I like the way Zangief sings along to the Tetris tune haha. Great find. I too will have the SF2 song in my head all day.
MechaMonkey's Avatar
MechaMonkey at 05/05/2008 13:20
The villain song was fantastic. I hope you continue to feature artists that do more than add a heavy drum beat to a song.
Luigi takes over's Avatar
Luigi takes over at 05/05/2008 13:51
The street fighter song was so beautiful it made me cry.
Wexx's Avatar
Wexx at 05/05/2008 14:43
The images in that mario song really scarred me. I don't know if I'll ever recover. Good find though.
Blake's Avatar
Blake at 05/05/2008 15:16
....

Dale North, for finding these, I will always love you.
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 05/05/2008 15:17
That Mario vid is awesome, and frightening
SWE3tMadness's Avatar
SWE3tMadness at 05/05/2008 15:59
This totally made my day. Very funny, very creative, and slightly creepy. >.>
MissHinasaki's Avatar
MissHinasaki at 05/05/2008 16:12
A little fucked up, but a little awesome. ^_^
Wedge's Avatar
Wedge at 05/05/2008 18:45
I could totally see a Figaro Brothers R'n'B pair.

Also that Street Fighter one is amazing, I'm a sucker for integration of game sounds into the music (or practically used as the basis here).
SLiFE's Avatar
SLiFE at 05/05/2008 19:33
Lookie at what I just spotted over at the Hair Palace:
http://kotaku.com/387396/the-so+bad+its+good-street-fighter-ii-mash-up
itzfurrball's Avatar
itzfurrball at 05/22/2008 17:58
Hyadain is rumored on nico to be one person doing everything, including the female voices (w/pitch change).
rekenner's Avatar
rekenner at 06/19/2008 03:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EupikPl_PW4

Version of the FF4 one with translations.
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