LogFAQs > #936735300

Xenoblade Chronicles X - Don't Worry
Flywrench - King Noah
Sound Voltex III - Preserved Valkyria

MATCH 1

This match is definitely the strongest round 1 match that's showed up in the main bracket so far!

Apostle's Maraud is a really cool song! Definitely a good example of prog music that I do enjoy. The first half of the song is definitely what I enjoy the most about it. Particularly, 0:39-2:55. I guess the key to making a good prog rock song for me is an enjoyable melody (in other words, not any of the atonal stuff that sometimes show up in "prog" songs. This will kinda sorta get contradicted later with a different song in the bracket, but whatever) paired with some cool rhythmic stuff, which this song definitely delivers on both accounts. This is one of those songs where I cannot for the life of me count out the time signature lol. Even following along with Toxtricity's post, I'm just not getting it. It's far easier for me when it's pretty consistently something like 7/8 with 3+4 groupings, but I digress. I think my favorite part of the song is 1:43-1:59. I guess I just like the melody the most there. I don't feel as strongly attached to the latter half of this song, but there are still some cool parts to it. Mainly 4:27-4:35 because of the added harmonization with the trumpets. I picked this song as my wildcard for A2 in my favorites bracket and had it advance to round 4 before losing, which definitely attests to how much I like it.

Don't Worry is probably my favorite Xenoblade Chronicles X song! It's just a very feel-good song. Reminds me that I also like another Hiroyuki Sawano + Aimee Blackschleger song, Light Your Heart Up from Kill la Kill, for the same reason but in a different way. With Don't Worry, I really like all the synth stuff going on from the intro to some of the lighter sounding stuff in the background throughout the song. I also really like the melody in the vocals, especially during the chorus. It pairs so well with that other melody in the background that's used as the intro to the song. I also really like the key change at the end of the song. I think it has to do with the instrumentation when the chorus repeats? Anyway, both songs in this match are really good which makes this tough, but overall, Don't Worry is more my kind of song, so that's why I pick it here. I'd gladly sacrifice both songs in match 2 to make both of the match 1 songs advance.

MATCH 2

The intro to Battle! (Colress) is cool, but aside from that, it's not the most interesting song to me. 1:22-1:46 is the other part that stands out compared to the rest of the song, but it's not amazing so I guess it doesn't quite redeem the song for me. It's not bad, it's just not really the kind of song I'd want to listen to.

King Noah has the problem of adding a lot of breakbeat-esque stuff in a way that I don't particularly like. As in, the way it's added in there feels like a lot of noise. The most egregious example of this being 0:42-1:24, but this also happens from 2:34-3:26. That part at 1:25, though, when the main melody comes in strong is my favorite part of the song. I really like that repeating melody, I just wish the rest of the song was better. I think it's good enough to make the peaks of this song be stronger than the peaks of Battle! (Colress) which makes it easy enough to pick King Noah here.

Kind of an underwhelming match, but there are still some things to like about both songs, fortunately.

MATCH 3

Oh no! Only one day apart, we have two ToC matches where both songs are really good and I don't want to vote against either one!

Preserved Valkyria is a such a great example of really good rhythm game piano music. It's just really great from start to finish, but I especially love this song once it starts to build up at 0:48 and after it finishes building up at 0:57. Not a whole lot to say about this one other than that melodically, it's very much my thing.

Starry Heavens is basically just really good anime OP style of music. Once again, not much to say about this one. Just like Preserved Valkyria, this song succeeds at being the type of song I want from this style of music. Great melody in the vocals, good backing instrumentation with the trumpet and the electric guitars. I'm happy that this song is retired even though not as many others seem to share the same sentiment as with Preserved Valkyria lol. Super tough match, but I have to go with Preserved Valkyria here. I'd be fine with either song winning here, though, because like I said, they're both so good.

Preserved Valkyria > Don't Worry = Starry Heavens > Apostle's Maraud >> King Noah > Battle! (Colress)