Mechonis Field - Xenoblade Chronicles (viola/piano arrangement)

HELLO HELLO HELLO EVERYONE! Sorry for the three month hiatus, was working on some personal projects, went through a Scriabin phase and had to learn the fifth sonata, and also focused on some dream collaboration projects I'd been putting off, like this one!! First, I know I desperately need more Xenogears/Xenosaga/Xenoblade covers on my channel because I adore those games. This is my absolute FAVORITE field theme in Xenoblade 1, to accompany my LEAST favorite area in the game lol, and it had been in my head a LONG time to try to pick it out on piano. Which is a ridiculous notion if you've heard the original, which is synth heavy and electronica and all that. But because I love synths as much as I love pianos and spent many years in my youth picking out Axel F and every Depeche Mode song on a 15-key Casio PT100 lol, I also had a feeling it MIGHT be able to work, since the backbone of synth-driven songs is a constant treble ostinato and a funky bass. Also it wouldn't be me if I didn't try to shoehorn a non-piano song for piano lol.
Anyways, so what you're listening/watching here is the culmination of a harebrained musical idea I started picking out late one night many months ago, refined over the course of a few months. I arranged it for viola and piano, because animevivi is forever my partner in crime for everything Xeno. The piano part is just me and my two hands on one track, no layering, because i wanted to keep it true to my classical training. There are two viola lines (maybe three?) lol
I am REALLY thrilled with how this turned out! It's a huge departure from but i feel it still conveys the essence of the original, despite lack of drums and many awesome synth tracks. Most of all I'm proud that we pulled off the only acoustic cover of Mechonis Field in existence lmao. I hope you guys enjoy!!
(ALSO SPOILER WARNING EVEN THOUGH IT'S NEARLY A TEN YEAR OLD GAME JUST SAYING THERE ARE HEAVY SPOILERY CUTSCENES IN THE VID)
Huge thanks to:
Animevivi for viola and mixing and making fancy thumbnail: / animevivi
Helsionium and Kyle Blane Plays for the use of game footage and cutscenes (someone's gonna have to give me the tutorial on how to main Melia omg)
/ helsionium
/ kyleblaneplays