sobkre

Minor chords sound like a better fit, but I'm not sure that high tempo chords are the best approach, unless, like you suggest, you simplify them a bit into the background and look for the End Title vibe, which sounds like an interesting option. I like this piece as inspiration for the second part as well because of its use of longer, sustained notes, which I think could really help to slow down Aerith's theme a bit, giving you some creative room to alter the upbeat feeling of the melody. If you slow it down it leaves you some room to more effectively change the feeling by adding an extra note to each segment of the theme to change it's feel, or to add a secondary melody after each segment as you did to great effect in the opening of the song. I apologize if my suggestions are unclear, unfortunately I lack the musical education to comment using more appropriate jargon.

Both of these are excellent pieces so I very much appreciate the effort. I would guess that you made this primarily for the early build up into the point between about 0:46 and 1:10 which I find to be exquisite and worth the effort on its own, well done. In the rest, however, I don't hear much synergy. Aerith's theme is very melodic and Vangelis is very atmospheric which I guess is what makes this difficult. The period after 1:10 where Aerith's theme becomes more playful especially with the quicker notes you've added changes the tone a lot and also seems to muddle the meaning of the previous Vangelis inspired part because it is so different. I wish I could offer you more constructive advice, but all I can suggest is that you could try to drastically slow down or even change Aerith's theme after 1:10 so that it works more with the Vangelis tone you have set in the first 1:10. Good luck!