Table of contents:
0:00 Befall
02:04 Nightglow
04:37 Dual Ego
06:33 Starfall
08:38 Lyin (See You in the Next World)
10:11 Honkai World Diva
12:41 Rubia
15:34 Moon Halo
18:05 TruE
20:03 Da Capo
First thought when I really love a piece of media: I have to arrange the music. The highest form of that, for me, is to make a medley.
Why record 10 separate videos when I can simply play them all in a row, right?
I knew HI3 had great music because I watched some of the animated shorts from it before, and I loved Moon Halo ever since it released. But the final push to actually try the game for me was when the Da Capo graduation short was released, and I decided I'd very likely enjoy the story because I loved the bittersweet feeling it gave me, even without having much context for it.
I got...pretty consumed at some point. I didn't expect to get that invested, and if I started talking about it here, I wouldn't stop. Bottom line is, I loved it a lot. It's pretty clear that the creators really care about the story and characters, and it shows.
In my mind, there are three more or less cohesive parts to this "medley," though even calling it that should probably be taken with a grain of salt, considering how much time I give between some of the pieces, completely separating them at times. It's mostly because I didn't want to cut anything too short, so all the songs are given their time. The first part would end on Starfall, and the second on TruE. The third is just Da Capo, serving as the ending.
Huge thanks to @ccmusicc for transcribing literally all the songs and giving me a wonderful sheet music base to play on. Sometimes I changed a lot, sometimes I stuck to the sheets, but it definitely made things so much easier for me.
Personal awards list and thoughts:
Most difficult - Dual Ego
Favorite to listen to - Moon Halo
Most troublesome to record - Moon Halo (because I couldn't decide on how to play it up until the very end; I'd been improvising on it for months even before I started working on the medley, which, turns out, was terrible for actually recording it) and Nightglow close second
Most pleasant to record - Starfall, Rubia close second
Favorite to play - Dual Ego, NO CONTEST, I absolutely love playing it and I've practiced it the most by far out of all the songs
Recording notes:
Would I be able to record this whole thing in one continuous take? Theoretically, yes. In practice? No. This video was recorded in one sitting (two if you count me getting up to reset the camera) but I picked and chose the better takes from a two-hour recording session. It's summer, I can't run the AC while recording, my fingers were sticking to the keys and like 3/4 of the medley is so, SO loud. So I decided I'd simply glue parts together in hopes it'll end up sounding nice. I think it turned out pretty smooth in terms of sound despite some stumbles here and there, but those are pretty unavoidable with something this long, even with split takes. Hope it's enjoyable nonetheless!
See you next time!
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IG: / calikospiano
musescore: musescore.com/caliko
#honkaiimpact3rd