LogFAQs > #967410026

THEMEX
The Apex of the World (Rain)

Xenoblade Chronicles X - MNN+@0 (Ma-non Ship Day) (Hiroyuki Sawano)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbvB7ks0MNo

Considered League of Legends - Light and Shadow here (which I used as an intermission in my 2019 VGM list; check that out if you're more in a mood for a big dramatic vocal song). I went with a track with a decidedly different flavour: this opens with a pretty tasty guitar and goes on a few different tangents from there. It's another one of those tracks that sets a cool feeling of place, one of somewhat exotic wonder, but also one I just like to bob my head to. Max is running a Sawano list on Supra discord in just over a week-- worth checking out if this kind of thing is your jam.

Tengami - Blossoms Falling (David Wise)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRxES-lUN3Y

I think Wise's strength is heavily in setting a sort of rhythmic atmosphere and ambiance-- it's no surprise that most of my preferred Wise tracks are DKC tracks that I think succeed at doing exactly that, while usually I'm less interested in Wise's more heavily melody-centric tunes. Blossoms Falling splits the difference a bit; this uses some nice sustained pads and synths, panned to the left and right to give it a somewhat wider, enveloping feel, while the drum and pluck bass synth give it its pulse. 1:37 hits a bit harder than it would otherwise because everything up to that point has felt either like an atmospheric effect or something with sharp attack and decay. It's a pretty decent payoff and it grows on me.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Tearing Through Heaven (Rain) (Hiroki Morishita)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kef24Po3pc0

Strongly considered a couple others, including Paths That Will Never Cross and Howling Gears. I used this in my 2019 VGM list; I knew I liked it but wondered at the time if it would stick with me. (It has.) This does a very specific thing that I have a huge soft spot for, which is when the melody is played by instruments of a higher register initially while accompanied by lower instruments, and then on the second iteration it switches-- lower instruments play the melody while higher instruments accompany. I love that! I dunno why. It just feels so dynamic to me. The breakbeat here just clicks for me; it injects just the right kind of urgent energy for me. 2:18 features those classic Morishita thick chords, just for good measure. It's such a fun track, and one I don't get tired of.

Zen Puzzle Garden - Mizuumi no Tera (Module)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NuG8ll4Bac

We end with a non-Shatter Module VGM composition-- there's not a huge amount of it out there. (Shatter - Aurora was considered here, but really if you enjoy Argon Refinery then I think a few different people would tell you to check out the whole Shatter soundtrack.) This has Module's fairly catchy electronic sensibilities but in a much more relaxed, contemplative form; this also grew on me as I listened to it. It feels a lot warmer than the very tech/computer world of Shatter, even if the individual elements don't feel dramatically so; I think it's the absence of the sharper edges of the Shatter synths that drive that home. I noticed that Module recently began to write music again after a long hiatus, which is very welcome news.