Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - New Battle!!!
Donk! The Samurai Duck (CD32) - Main Title
Sonic Adventure 2 - Live & Learn ...Main Theme of "Sonic Adventure 2"
MATCH 1
New Battle is a pretty fun, upbeat song! It feels like it's in a similar style to other jazz-esque Xenoblade songs like Torna's battle theme, but it never feels like it's repetitive or same-y. The interplay between the guitar, piano, and strings is very nice. The key change is also a cool touch to the song.
FightFirstDeusExMachina_Dearest is pretty interesting. It has some nice vocals and background instrumentation, but I feel like it's missing some melodic oomph that I find myself wanting to hear from the song. I think if there was more of a melodic focus to the song, I could see myself taking it here. That's not to say it's bad, though! It's solidly in my top half of songs for today. I'd take it over either of the match 2 songs, but it got a rough draw unfortunately.
MATCH 2
I feel like there are better 90's dance songs out there, but Main Title still has a cool vibe to it with its danciness! It's not exactly a standout song to me, but it's plenty serviceable.
So this is the fabled suite. The Suite. It's not bad! I only really start to get into it towards the end, though, at 7:40. The buildup to it is fine, but it doesn't really hold my interest all that much, although I do appreciate the chill vibes to it.
MATCH 3
While not my absolute favorite Sonic song, Live and Learn is still a great representative in its own right and is an incredibly iconic song. Jam-packed Crush 40 rock at its best!
New Bodhum is pretty cool too! I like the mix of the drums, piano, and acoustic guitar in the first half or so of the song as wells as the vocals. The delay effect or whatever you call it on the vocals that gives it that echoey sound is a cool addition to the vocals as well. There's a few dull parts with the song in my eyes like 2:28-3:06 and 8:08-8:52, and I'm less big on the trance-like back half of the song than the first half, but overall, I do like it! Live and Learn is the clear pick here for me though.
Live & Learn ...Main Theme of "Sonic Adventure 2" > New Battle!!! > FightFirstDeusExMachina_Dearest > New Bodhum ~ New Bodhum -Aggressive Mix- > Main Title > Awakening ~ Nrburgring Suite
Good start to the contest! New Battle and Live and Learn were very close for my A1 retiree pick. Ultimately, I picked Live and Learn, but I'd be very happy with either of them being it.