Octopath Traveler II "The Leaflands (Reflections Version)" 3:43

Yasunori Nishiki's music of the Leaflands already had a delightfully nostalgic, yearning feeling, and MkVaff leans into that with this emotive solo piano arrangement of Octopath Traveler II. MkVaff writes:

"Even before I began looking through the actual footage of some of my old videos recently, I noticed that quite a few of the cassettes I had were labeled with "Christmas" on the case or box. Even though Christmas had been celebrated every year in my family since I was young, I loved the season so much that I wanted to capture those moments in photos and videos for years to come. Looking back, I'm so glad that I chose to do so.

After my brother and I moved out of my parents' house, the holiday felt different. And after my folks moved to a new house, it felt different still. And after my mom passed and our family was suddenly smaller, Christmas felt like a tiny shadow of the bright, beautiful holiday it once was when I was growing up.

After my mom's passing, I had a period of not wanting to celebrate the season anymore. Christmas was always our holiday. She and I would decorate the house together. We'd go shopping together. I would do most of the organizing and gift wrapping, and she would clean the house and set up many of the smaller details. We were the perfect Christmas team - and one day that team was suddenly no more.

As the seasons passed, I began to embrace the new version of the Christmas holiday that we have now. It's smaller and more separated than it used to be, but it's still a warm, wonderful time of year, and I'm learning to make the best of it as our lives continue to change.

Watching these old videos is a reminder of those family days when I was growing up - how special they were, and the realization of how much changes through the years - even traditions that at one time I believed would go on forever, exactly as they were. Of course, that was a childish view that could never realistically happen - but back then, I didn't consider that as much. I was just having a great time helping put up the tree, decorating the house, and wrapping gifts with my mom and my family.

While listening to the Octopath Traveler 2 soundtrack, the theme for the Leaflands region captured some of the warmth and beauty that I had closely associated with celebrating the holidays during the cold northeastern winters with my family when I was younger. It's a sweet, simple melody that sounds lovely on the piano, and it seemed to go perfectly with sharing some of the experiences we had during our winter traditions in the past.

I've been reluctant to submit anything I've worked on for my recent Reflections project because most of the music for that has been stripped-down piano arrangements that are fairly conservative and close to the source material in their approach. This particular project for me was much more about visuals and storytelling and nostalgia, and I've found that the more traditional piano cover approach works well for that media.

While my rendition of the "Leaflands" theme from Octopath Traveler II is similarly fairly close to its source in the structure, I was happy with some of the arrangement choices I made, and it covers an absolutely beautiful original piece from a soundtrack that has, as of yet, received little love on OCR. This particular arrangement in the context of my project is meant to convey a feeling of remembering past holiday gatherings and the wistful realization that the family and the world of those times is in many ways lost forever. The original melody has such a feeling of childlike awe and a tinge of longing that, for me, it worked beautifully as a piano rendition as well."

Beautifully indeed! One thing that always stands out to me about MkVaff's arrangements is the clarity; no matter what instruments he's using, you can always clearly hear every single note, with nothing ever getting lost in the mix, and this arrangement is no exception! While MkVaff initially worried the arrangement might be too conservative for OCR's standards, the judges felt that the arrangement brought more than enough interpretation, with the dynamic performance working well to draw out the warmth and emotion of the melody. Hemophiliac had this to say:

"Very emotive performance here. Absolutely fitting in with the rest of the "Reflections" series that you have been doing. This is a nostalgia of positive feelings.

There's some interesting decision making here that was unexpected. The first is at 1:01, the chord change here is unexpected but in a good way. Deceptive cadence that extends the phrase out just a little bit more before giving a more stable resolution at 1:04. The second is the direct modulation at 2:58. This was unexpected and unprepared, but handled well. The modulation catches your ear as it signals a new section and gives a contrasting feel. Bold choices like this can be rewarding when handled well, and you absolutely handled it well.

Dramatic rubato and syncopation late into the piece really energize and uplift of the climax just before the key change as well.

I understand your concern for this being conservative but this does not feel that way to me at all. There's a lot of personalization in the performance and expression that's not present in the original. Not to mention the lack of orchestration around it, this is a piano reduction after all.

Great evolution and storytelling over the course of the piece backs up the strong performance."

Nishiki has proven himself a strong composer for moving, melodic pieces, and I'm hopeful that the series will get more love on OCR. In this track, MkVaff did an excellent job capturing the beauty of the original melody and giving it even more emotional punch. I can practically feel the warm breeze through the trees while listening.