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- Nov 25, 2016
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Hey everyone, I don’t know what compelled me to make this post but I was recently struck with a moment of inspiration while listening to Majora’s Mask’s OST again. I realize that the music’s role has changed and evolved throughout the Legend of Zelda’s history. It’s started as a simple atmospheric piece to becoming an integral part of each game’s design. So I decided to analyze the history of Zelda’s music.
We should start at the beginning of Legend of Zelda’s history, with the first game.
Now the first game used it’s music in the most basic way as possible, to set a certain atmosphere for the player. That iconic theme that you hear when you first boot up the game instills a sense of adventure and wonder within you, even to this day. Which is impressive because they made the original theme literally the day before production started on the cartridges. The original Legend of Zelda also used music to indicate a player that they had found a secret or completed a puzzle. That satisfying tune let you know that you had done something right. That little jingle was probably a better reward than the one you actually found in most cases.
Moving on from the original Legend of Zelda, all of its predecessors would adopt the way the original game used it’s music. That is until Ocarina of Time came out.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0nMhQzni0htjlw***tRYOb1lw
Say what you want about Ocarina of Time, “It’s overrated”, “It killed the traditional formula”, “It’s too linear”, but there is one way that Ocarina of Time truly shines. The way that Ocarina of Time integrates it’s music into it’s gameplay is nothing short of incredible. Of course Ocarina used it’s music in the same way the previous games did, to set the mood, to convey to a player that had done something right or found something of interest, but it also adds something else to the mix. Ocarina of Time allows you to use music as an item. While previous games had a flute or some sort of instrument as an item, you could only play one song it and the uses for the item were very limited. In Ocarina of Time however, there are multiple songs, some of which have multiple uses and effected the environment around you. It made you look around the environment to see if any of these songs could help out. Also, each song had some type of lore behind it. The Sun’s Song was the last song ever written by the Sharp Brothers, Zelda’s Lullaby was a secret song passed down by the Royal Family from generation to generation. Each song had some sort of emotional weight behind it, none of them were just written thoughtlessly.
While Majora’s Mask also had incredible music, it integrated its music into it’s gameplay the same way Ocarina of Time did and had very similar style. So, the next evolution in Zelda’s music wouldn’t come until Wind Waker.
Wind Waker is very special case in terms of it’s soundtrack. You see, most of the Zelda games have very classical music in it’s soundtracks. Wind Waker strays from the norm in terms of it’s soundtrack by adding elements of Celtic music into its own. It’s much more smooth than most other Zelda soundtracks and captures the feeling of exploring a giant ocean. While not adding anything new in terms of using it’s soundtrack in a unique way, it does have an interesting and unique soundtrack with a theme that is not found in any other Zelda game.
The next big evolution would come with Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword would make history for the series by having the first fully orchestrated soundtrack in a Zelda game. Despite a lot of people being excited when they heard this fact for the first time, Skyward’s Sword’s music is not really any different from any other Zelda game. True, it’s fully orchestrated and absolutely nothing is digitized but that doesn’t really change anything in my opinion. Not to say it’s bad(in fact its probably one of the best soundtracks of the series), but whether or not music is digitized doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
Finally, we come to the most recent game in the series, Breath of Wild.
A lot of people are divided on Breath of The Wild’s soundtrack due to the fact Breath of The Wild doesn’t have a lot of traditional melodies or tunes. Instead it’s just ambience, which is normal for open world games. As result, there’s not much to keep your attention. I’m not going to lie, I don’t really like Breath of The Wild’s soundtrack. They should’ve gone with traditional melodies, ambient music is extremely forgettable, but to each their own.
If you think I missed anything or you want to tell me your favorite soundtrack, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!
We should start at the beginning of Legend of Zelda’s history, with the first game.
Now the first game used it’s music in the most basic way as possible, to set a certain atmosphere for the player. That iconic theme that you hear when you first boot up the game instills a sense of adventure and wonder within you, even to this day. Which is impressive because they made the original theme literally the day before production started on the cartridges. The original Legend of Zelda also used music to indicate a player that they had found a secret or completed a puzzle. That satisfying tune let you know that you had done something right. That little jingle was probably a better reward than the one you actually found in most cases.
Moving on from the original Legend of Zelda, all of its predecessors would adopt the way the original game used it’s music. That is until Ocarina of Time came out.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0nMhQzni0htjlw***tRYOb1lw
Say what you want about Ocarina of Time, “It’s overrated”, “It killed the traditional formula”, “It’s too linear”, but there is one way that Ocarina of Time truly shines. The way that Ocarina of Time integrates it’s music into it’s gameplay is nothing short of incredible. Of course Ocarina used it’s music in the same way the previous games did, to set the mood, to convey to a player that had done something right or found something of interest, but it also adds something else to the mix. Ocarina of Time allows you to use music as an item. While previous games had a flute or some sort of instrument as an item, you could only play one song it and the uses for the item were very limited. In Ocarina of Time however, there are multiple songs, some of which have multiple uses and effected the environment around you. It made you look around the environment to see if any of these songs could help out. Also, each song had some type of lore behind it. The Sun’s Song was the last song ever written by the Sharp Brothers, Zelda’s Lullaby was a secret song passed down by the Royal Family from generation to generation. Each song had some sort of emotional weight behind it, none of them were just written thoughtlessly.
While Majora’s Mask also had incredible music, it integrated its music into it’s gameplay the same way Ocarina of Time did and had very similar style. So, the next evolution in Zelda’s music wouldn’t come until Wind Waker.
Wind Waker is very special case in terms of it’s soundtrack. You see, most of the Zelda games have very classical music in it’s soundtracks. Wind Waker strays from the norm in terms of it’s soundtrack by adding elements of Celtic music into its own. It’s much more smooth than most other Zelda soundtracks and captures the feeling of exploring a giant ocean. While not adding anything new in terms of using it’s soundtrack in a unique way, it does have an interesting and unique soundtrack with a theme that is not found in any other Zelda game.
The next big evolution would come with Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword would make history for the series by having the first fully orchestrated soundtrack in a Zelda game. Despite a lot of people being excited when they heard this fact for the first time, Skyward’s Sword’s music is not really any different from any other Zelda game. True, it’s fully orchestrated and absolutely nothing is digitized but that doesn’t really change anything in my opinion. Not to say it’s bad(in fact its probably one of the best soundtracks of the series), but whether or not music is digitized doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
Finally, we come to the most recent game in the series, Breath of Wild.
A lot of people are divided on Breath of The Wild’s soundtrack due to the fact Breath of The Wild doesn’t have a lot of traditional melodies or tunes. Instead it’s just ambience, which is normal for open world games. As result, there’s not much to keep your attention. I’m not going to lie, I don’t really like Breath of The Wild’s soundtrack. They should’ve gone with traditional melodies, ambient music is extremely forgettable, but to each their own.
If you think I missed anything or you want to tell me your favorite soundtrack, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!
