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Zelda Music - Memorable, Quality or Both?

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
Something that struck me with the advent of Skyward Sword was that its music quality was stellar, what is there to be expected from orchestrated music, but like...none of its OST is even memorable, at least for me. I remember Song of the Hero minus Fi's vocals, the Sacred Grounds theme or w/e it's called, and the various Romance themes. That's it.

Whereas with games like Majora's Mask, I remember all of the music except for Stone Tower Temple, but I avoided stoner tower anyway. :right:

So yeah, cut to the chase. What do you prefer out of Zelda music? Do you prefer the memorable MIDI work, the good quality of orchestration, or do you perhaps want both?

When it comes down to it, all I want is memorable stuff. I don't care if the quality is inferior, it just has to be able to be stuck in my head or else IMO the track is bad. Sounding good doesn't mean it IS good, after all.
 

theoathtoorder

“Zinga-dingding!”
Joined
May 10, 2012
bwhaha- stoner temple? hmm, one of my favorite dungeons too.

anyway- some of the 8 bit music from LA is just as good as SS's in my opinion. Ballad of the Windfish when Marin sings it, Face Shrine theme, the Storm, etc. SS had beautiful music except for Lake Floria. Sounded like wedding/elevator music.
 
Orchestration is traditionally associated with ambiance sounds therefore none of the soundtrack particularly stuck out. The sounds took a backseat to the sights in Skyward Sword and this detracted from the experience particularly during cutscenes.

In future installments I believe Nintendo should mesh orchestration and MIDI-natural and digital sounds. Not only would it continue the progress the franchise has made in the audio department but produce new memorable selections.

I also believe that the problem was compounded in Skyward Sword with its passive instrument. The harp hardly saw any action throughout and the slower melodies it produced failed to live up to the heights of the ocarina or wind waker. In retrospect the instrument felt like an afterthought.
 

Ronin

There you are! You monsters!
Forum Volunteer
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Location
Alrest
Unfortunately, of late, Zelda appears to be making a departure from its earlier musical roots. With each new release, Koji Kondo is seemingly trying out new styles that don't have the nostalgia of his past compositions. They are still beautiful—that's always a given for him—but his contemporary scores are not nearly as memorable as Ocarina of Time's or, on a larger scale for me, the songs from Majora's Mask. It is always nice to recognize variations of used tunes (such as the Fairy Fountain or Zelda's Lullaby) so that, musically, these old themes don't pass away in time, or become completely forgotten.

The struggle that the current soundtracks go through—compared to the older ones—is that they're evolving into a more atmospheric stature. Conversely, Kondo-San's older masterpieces stood out far more while not interfering with the environmental essence of an area. Instantly the latterly examples are remembered as the classics that dominated the childhoods of many fans; they are acknowledged as memorable by default, and something people will recognize if it's played pretty much anywhere. This is what Zelda music should be like, in my opinion.

So memorable, to me, is better overall. The quality of a song doesn't mean that it will be held as a beloved favorite by fans, at least not for very long, I should think. Skyward Sword's orchestrated pieces had pretty much the same purpose of Star Wars' compositions—to add a mellow and dramatic atmosphere to the films. That's how SS pretty much felt to me (not to mention it was very cinematic also), whereas I believe Zelda music should be collectively engaging and adventurous.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
I found Skyward Sword's music be memorable and have higher quality, and SS has both the best and my favorite Zelda soundtrack, so... yeah. Both is my answer.

TANGENT!

What's most important, though, is SS knew when to make its music catchy, when to make it atmospheric, when to make it eerie, when to make it epic, and when to make it simply gorgeous, and it always fit with the surrounding areas/corresponding moments. That's what makes it so stellar and why it's one of the best soundtracks in gaming.

EXAMPLES!
[video=youtube;H_2zBH30HJU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_2zBH30HJU[/video]
[video=youtube;0LfAcKnDYWQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfAcKnDYWQ[/video]
[video=youtube;n8_LJN-dxtc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8_LJN-dxtc[/video]
[video=youtube;MzL4IA16k78]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzL4IA16k78[/video]
[video=youtube;B3_zZC2TdX0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3_zZC2TdX0&list=PLC5AE6E1EEA630D30&index=10&feature=plpp_video[/video]
It's all just freaking amazing.
 
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Chilfo Freeze

Emma Jean Stone
I'm gonna have to agree with Vanitas and say that memorable is the way to go when it comes to music in the Zelda series. Although, I do love when the games are orchestrated. Why? Ocarina of Time, that's why.

Ocarina of Time was both orchestrated and memorable, as I previously stated. I believe this combination was the reason that the music was so memorable to me. I'm pretty sure that if you named the dungeon, I could instantly remember the tune from that said dungeon and hum it. The sounds fit the regions perfectly, and the fact that OoT was orchestrated meant to me that it fit the game perfectly. Every other Zelda game that I've played... I don't think I could hum the tune if you asked me about the location. Ocarina of Time and its music was - I'm going to sound like a broken record - something that cannot be redone again, for it set the bar too high, IMO.

Some of the songs in Ocarina of Time are so very memorable, that from time to time I find myself humming it, even though I haven't heard it in a while. Zora's Domain, anyone? That tune is one of the most memorable for me. I entered the Domain and upon hearing the music, I started to sway along with it. No other game has ever done that to me before. Thus, I added the Zora's Domain theme song - along with a bunch of others, such as the Fire Temple theme and some of Shiek's songs - to my playlist.

So, maybe it's a combination of both that really takes the cake for me. Anything but orchestrated, and I doubt I'll remember the tunes at all.
 
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Mr Reaper

Fear The Reaper
Joined
Aug 16, 2012
Location
Myrtle Beach, SC
Memorable would usually mean short loops of very distinct notes, "quality" as you put it is more of an orchestral-symphonic "ambience", Skyward Sword has the "ambience" because the soundtrack was made in collaboration with and heavily influenced by the same person who wrote the soundtrack for Super Mario Galaxy (Yokota), so although a great soundtrack, it still takes a backseat instead of being the centerpiece like Kondo's compositions, personally I prefer memorable because music was always one of the main things that made it such a great game and personally, while both excellent, I prefer Kondo's work over Yokota's, Yokota's is epic for background music but if you want a game to be remembered, the tunes hummed (Super Mario Bros. anyone?), then Kondo is your man.
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
I don't understand why people didn't think SS's music was catchy, it DEFINITELY was for me. Perhaps it's because I've been listening to the soundtrack for it for a while now, but I can now just as easily hum the tunes of SS just as well as with any other Zelda game. Add that to the fact that the quality is by faaaaaaaaaaar higher here than elsewhere, and I consider it the best soundtrack out there (tied with Okami's).

And like with what JuicieJ said, it knew how and when to interact with the environment and with what was going on in the story. It wasn't catchy just for the sake of it, the music had purpose, so it's more memorable to me that way. My favorite example is near the very end when you're making a mad dash down the spiral descent, the music puts you into full-out panic mode. As it should, when you first play through the game you have NO idea if there's a time limit or not, so you feel like if you don't make it down to Ghirahim in time you'll fail. And so you run and plow through the enemies as fast as you can. The music also changes depending on what kinds of enemies you're facing as well, which is awesome.

But at the same time I don't want the music to go in the direction so many other franchises are going. Most of the time you can't even hear the music (if there even is any), and most of it's just generic orchestrals or Latin-chanting choirs.

So yes, memorable is more important to me. But seeming as how I find Skyward Sword's music VERY memorable, I'm in a minority position.
 

r2d93

Hero of the Stars
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Location
Lost Woods
I think you meant to say "I don't understand why people didn't think SS's music wasn't catchy".

No I think Sir Quaffler was right the first time lol

Hmm... well I want Zelda music to be memorable and have great quality. I'd rather have it be good and not memorable than memorable and really crappy.

SS's soundtrack was fantastic IMO, but for some reason less memorable than other soundtracks for me. It might just be because the whole OST was orchestrated so some songs kind of melded together to me if that makes any sense. I do remember a select few tracks from the game but not as much as I normally would had the soundtrack not been fully orchestrated.

I most often find myself humming songs from either Wind Waker or Twilight Princess
 

Skunk

Floof
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Dec 31, 2011
Location
New York
Gender
Nonbinary
Both! Good music is always a great thing for any game. I really only remeber the Hero's Song and the Ballad of the Goddess soo...
 

AnimeHat

Humming Swordsman
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Location
Arkansas, US
I think the quality of music should be so good that it becomes memorable, so both. And yes, I love the quality and memorability of all of Zelda's various themes and melodies!
 

HyruleLove

Twilight Princess
Joined
May 9, 2011
Location
Puerto Rico
I love quality. I LOVE the orchestrated music. Its so beautiful. You cannot even tell its video game music! I listen to my Zelda cd all the time, my mother in law, who doesnt even know what Zelda is other than a game, loves the music as well, and will be coming with my man and I to the Zelda orchestra. Its just really pretty and very enjoyable.
 

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