General Zelda Which Game Had the Best Music in Your Opinion?

[Spyguy8404]

All right, while I'm sure many of you will have quite different opinions, I'm going to go ahead and say which game I think has the best music. Hate mail me all you want, but I'm saying it:

Minish Cap.

DUN DUN DUNNN!

Now, you're probably thinking, What?! But that game doesn't even have full HD sound or music! It's all like, "swish swish, mumble, DWEEBOO" sounds. Not always.
Have you listened to the theme for the Palace of Winds?
It's...it's a masterpiece! Thinking about it right now gives me nostalgia. And anybody remember the Hyrule Town theme? I thought that was a good one too.

But enough of my musical rant. Let's hear YOUR opinions.

 

[Dimooshky]

I'm not thinking 'What?!, I'm thinking YES!. True an odd choice but The Minish Cap's soundtrack is brilliant. The Palace of Winds as you mentioned, but also the Minish Woods and Minish Village. A lot of it is just remixy stuff from previous games e.g Dark Hyrule Castle, but they are so well done. All the tracks are just so epic and make it feel like a proper adventure.

[video=youtube;l7-fWrcFWUA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7-fWrcFWUA[/video]

Majora's Mask is a close second for me.

 

[CraptainFalcon]

There's already been a thread like this, right?

Twilight Princess had the best music. It's even better now that ZREO released Twilight Symphony.

 

[Mangachick14]

I don't really know, to be honest. All the soundtracks are great in their own ways, it's difficult to really pick a favorite.

 

[pkfroce]

Wind Waker. Dragon Roost Island is always amazing to listen to, mini bosses are a pleasure to fight because if their music, and let's not forget Molgera. Oh. And Ganons Tower was really good too. So dark and evil. It's so good. Ya know what? Here. Listen to it.

[video=youtube;lktCyPMRiSs]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lktCyPMRiSs[/video]

 

[the8thark]

The problem in choosing here is a lot of the Zelda music in games is just reworked pieces already featured in earlier games. This makes the music very nostalgic but defo not new and interesting at times. This is not a bad thing, just a design choice by Nintendo. So for me my Zelda music in Zelda games are:

Zelda 3 (not my favourite Zelda game by far but the music here was new, interesting and very good for what the snes had to offer).
Majora's Mask - Sure a lot of it is the same as OOT (which is very similar in theme to Zelda 3 in turn) but there is a lot of MM specific music that's really good.

 

[Random Person]

Wind Waker. Spirit Tracks gets second place, but the double W takes the winning spot hands down. The songs do a really decent job of portraying the atmosphere, not to mention being extremely catchy and memorable, just how we Zelda fans like it. But if that was all it required to be number one, almost every Zelda game would win. What really makes this game take the spot is it's ability to instill adventure into the player by its music alone. Both the Ocean theme and the Credits theme both give you a sense of adventure that I've yet to see recaptured in tunes. (SS's sky theme comes close but... meh). The adventure these themes portray isn't just "save the world" kind of adventure that we've come to expect from the Zelda series. To quote youtube's youngtown "It means freedom."

 

[Sanchezmran]

Based on what I played:

Skyward Sword. I find orchestrated music was so moving and so epic. This has to be No. 1 for me.

I'm looking forward to music in Wind Waker when I first play WWHD (I don't want to the music yet before I play )

 

[Sheik]

I voted wind waker but skyward sword is SUCH a close second.

 

[Seth]

OoT, MM's was also great and captured the atmosphere really well.

 

[Big Octo]

Here I go again giving endless praise to my favorite game...

The Wind Waker. Everything about the soundtrack is so charming and memorable. Each track compliments the area it's in and aids in establishing the atmosphere or mood. The Great Sea theme is a good example, as it makes the player feel as if they're embarking on a grand adventure. It always brings great memories and feelings whenever I listen to the soundtrack.

I also like the soundtrack of Skyward Sword. The quality of the orchestration is grand, with much effort put into much track. While I didn't find the soundtrack to be particularly memorable, I still give it a listen occasionally.

 

[elliotstriforce]

twilight princess had the best soundtrack to me, the symphonic booms made the music really pretty.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

its gotta go to twilight princess for me

 

[Keeseman]

I'd have to say OoT, as it had a great mix of previous themes (aLttP) and masterful new themes. MM would be my second, as it again uses old themes and new ones to create great atmosphere; the best example of this would be the differences in the three days in Clock Town. aLttP would be my second pick, and since ALBW will be reorchestrating that music, I'll probably like it even more (but not as much as OoT or MM).

In terms of some other games, I really like TP music, but mostly because of Twilight Symphony, so I don't know if that really counts...

I though SS had great uses of music in terms of gameplay, such as it changing depending on your area or if you activate a timeshift stone, etc. However, some of it was kind of annoying, and generally didn't stand out as much to me. I did really like the Ballad of the Goddess when Zelda sings it, though.

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

When it's a question of which game has the best soundtrack, Skyward Sword wins for me every time. The orchestration alone puts it in first place automatically, but that isn't the only reason I love the soundtrack.

If I were to analyse the entire 6 1/2 hour soundtrack, I'd be here for a very long time; so, I'll make it brief.

This soundtrack is powerful. From the very grand Sky Theme, to the ever so beautiful Fi's Gratitude, the soundtrack is very diverse despite being completely orchestrated. The instrumentation is amazing. I could hang out in the Sky and listening to the beautiful strings and horns with great snaredrum backing for hours. Every single track fills me with a type of emotion that I have never gotten from any other soundtrack in the series. I can't really explain it though, since I am not too sure what that emotion is myself. I just know that the tracks make me happy and sad at the same time, sad because the songs are all so grand and beautiful.

The songs were also very well composed. As much as I love Koji Kondo, I need to give a massive shoutout to Super Mario Galaxy Composer Mahito Yakota for orchestrating such an amazing video game OST. Each song corresponds perfectly to the cutscene/area in which it is represented, creating the perfect atmosphere in each instance the songs are played. Skyloft is peaceful, so it has peaceful music; The Sky is very large and open, so its corresponding audio track is very grand; The Silent Realms are silent and rather spooky, and their respective tracks contribute greatly towards their undeniable eeriness. I was amazed when I first played the game that they were able to compose a soundtrack that sets the mood for literally every cutscene and area in the game. None of the other soundtracks have really accomplished that.

I honestly fail to find much of the music in Skyward Sword to be particularly catchy. Is that a problem though? No. The soundtrack is too well put together to worry about such small details as catchiness. It is primarily the style, instrumentation, and complexity that draws me into a soundtrack, and Skyward Sword accomplishes all of those things plus some.

When talking about soundtracks though, I suppose I should give an honourable mention to that of The Wind Waker. To be quite honest, if it weren't for the excessive use of MIDI to create the tracks, this soundtrack may have won for me in place of Skyward Sword. It fails to fill me with the same emotion that I get from the Skyward Sword soundtrack, but the style, instrumentation, and complexity are all there. The only real problem with it is that the MIDI oriented instruments do not even compare to live recordings. A notable track from this game would be the Ganondorf Battle Theme. The song features a rather complex time signature, and sets the mood for my favourite final boss fight very well.