So as a quick introduction, Xenoblade Chronicles has basically taken over my life for the past 18 months for so. My life essentially consists of surviving to the weekend so that I can play Xenoblade for an unholy amount of time, but my love of the series as a whole will have to wait for another blog because I want to talk about the most memorable part of each Xenoblade game, the music. Specifically the music from the most recent game, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 because it’s the freshest in my mind. Now the full OST is eleven hours long, so I’ll just be highlighting the three tracks that have stood out to me the most and why I like them so much. As a final disclaimer, I have essentially zero technical knowledge of music, so all of this is just me fanboying like the nerd I am.
The Banger
The song that goes the hardest to me is called “The Weight of Life”. To me, the emotional baggage that this song carries brings tears to my eyes everytime I listen to it. It’s a song that plays during major cutscenes of the game, and it only plays twice out of the 50+ hrs of cutscenes. Essentially, it means that it’s tailor made to go hard in the paint when it matters most, and it delivers 120%. The initial “chorus” (I guess) is typical Xenoblade composed of violins, brass, and an electric guitar. However, once the bridge starts from the first chorus to the next chorus, the main motif of the entire game, both plot and sound track kicks in: the flute. Now the flute is super interesting. In the plot, the flute is played during “offseeing rituals”, a way of sending the dead to the next life. It is meant to hold major emotional weight, and so when the flute kicks in during the bridge, before a triumphant final chorus with the flute interjecting into the medley of guitars and violins, it actually hits different. Again, this song plays during a pretty important cutscene (here it is out of context), and when the climax matched the song, that’s when I knew that I was playing the greatest series of all time.
Me after the song starts hitting
The Vibes
Now for the most creative song on this list, “Brilliant Wings”. This song is an absolute bop. The story behind it is that it’s a remix of an older song from a previous game brought back better than ever. Meant to be played when roaming around in the game fighting various enemies, whenever it starts to kick in, it’s very much a deal of me pausing the game just to vibe out. In the previous version, the main star of the song was the flute and the violins, but because the flute is now saved for important songs as a homage to the main characters, the main instrument used in the song is the sax, and personally, I find it to be so much better. Overall, the song is jazzy, light hearted, and compared to more tense and structured battle themes used throughout the series, it feels like a great new venture and experiment in styles for the overall soundtrack. I 100% listen to this song just moving through my day because it’s a great pick me up, and with vibes that hard, how could I not.
How I visualize the Sax player going hard in the recording studio
The Pain
Finally, I would like to talk about the song that absolutely sold me on the series. Having played and thoroughly enjoyed the past two games, I wasn’t sure about how this new game would hold up. The trailers looked good, the reviews looked good, but I wasn’t sure whether or not the story would hold up to be as great as past entries. However, the moment this song played in the cutscene that it did, I knew that this would probably be my new favorite game of all time. The song is “A Life Sent On”, a very emotional duet using the flute (I told you it was important), and it plays at the end of the first chapter. Two “off-seers” (the ritual players) from two warring countries come together to send off the departed, and the way the two flutes play with each other hits different. I’m sure there are plenty of fancy musical terms to describe what the players are doing, but I don’t know what they are, I just know it sounds awesome and it makes me cry. Some additional background to the song is that the composers had two custom made flutes which matched the ones used in game made for the recording of the OST, and it really pays off in songs like A Life Sent On because the care taken helps to elevate the music so much, truly solidifying Xenoblade as peak fiction.
What the flutes look like in real life
Conclusion (because I wanna go play Xenoblade)
For now, those are my current top 3 OST’s from Xenoblade 3. I have yet to finish the game because I keep getting sidetracked and I know that there are some powerful songs yet to be played, so if you ask me in a few weeks what my top 3 were, I would probably give you a different answer than what I’ve written here. Other than that, this has been a complete nerd out session for me with probably very wrong information, so if you made it through and even listened to any of the songs, then I hope you liked them and that your opinion of me and my taste in music hasn’t degraded too much. If anyone wants to actually tell me what’s happening in more detail than “the sound makes my ears happy”, please do so.
Hey Alec!
I did a quick google search on Xenoblade Chronicles, just to familiarize myself with the topic, and it seems very interesting. I can totally relate to getting through the week for a favorable method of decompressing on the weekend. While I am less of a video game player, I totally indulge in baking/cooking shows throughout the weekend. Recently, like everyone on the planet, I have also been looking forward to the end of school week so I can catch up on the world cup. Before reading I was honestly quite intrigued that you chose to write about the music of a video game, rather than the action of the game. I as well have no technical knowledge in music so your analysis seems legitimate to me! I love how you categorized the songs as the banger, the vibes, and the pain. That pretty much sums up my most used playlists. It is essential to have a mix of all 3 genres. The bangers for the moments before soccer games or standardized tests tbh, the vibes for car rides or hanging with friends, and the pain for walks or airpods before going to sleep. Awesome job! Loved reading your blog.
Hi Alec, I knew about your passion for Xenoblade because you have been talking about it occasionally (okay, maybe a bit more than that), but I didn’t get to hear that you also enjoyed the music tracks as well. The funny thing is that I too enjoy listening to OSTs and tracks because it is great ambient noise. (I find it hilarious when people ask me what music I listen to, and I just say OSTs.) Your blog put my detective curiosity on full alert, so I decided to take a listen to these 3 tunes. Now, someone who has listened to a lot of OSTs that has a lot of effort put in, and performed by full orchestras, I was impressed by the feelings and ideas the tunes capture. I have not played Xenoblade, but just my initial listening to the song, I could get a vague idea of what the scene could have been, and when you describe it in your blog, I can almost visualize it. My favorite of the three was “Brilliant Wings” because it was a light, uplifting tune that had the bop of a jazz piece. I am a big fan of jazz, and I love playing it as well, so hearing this song was great. (Although the lack of trumpets was slightly disappointing.) Now you made me want to check out this game series. All you got to do to get me hooked on a game is to make me listen to its soundtrack.