There are two selections of game music that I listen to regularly, Metroid Prime and the Zelda games. Across the series, the score is always a principle and outstanding element of each game. I’m going to refer to the soundtrack a lot, so if you don’t have access to a copy of it, do a quick Google search and listen to it as you read this chapter.Īs an iconic piece of pop culture, The Legend of Zelda series has memorable music. There are great songs, and good ones as well, and this chapter outlines some of the strengths of music as an important element of the game. While I wish these fanfares and jingles were excluded, this is still a great soundtrack 5. But even the “real” songs are rather short, leaving you to wonder if they could have been longer if the SFX were cut from the CD 4. Most of the tracks are short-merely jingles that represent different accomplishments in the game. What strikes me most about the soundtrack is its length: 133 tracks spread over 2 CDs. Listening to it countless times, I’ve also found other trends in the score. The motif of the Great Sea reflects this new direction, with a natural rhythm that mirrors the waves of the ocean. You can hear the natural ebbs and flows in the soundtrack, reflecting travel by boat 3. With Link no longer exploring on foot or horseback, the sea had an impact on the music.
The new landscape of Hyrule also changed the musical landscape. With more composers working on the score, the themes and motifs were expertly crafted to build the tone of the game.īut improved sound cards and a larger compositional group were not the only changes to the Zelda formula with this game.
While most games usually only have two or three composers, due to the rushed development schedule The Wind Waker had five to six 2.
While some of the track fall flat, none of them sound intolerable.Īnother change in this game is the number of composers involved in the production. While it wasn’t technically fully orchestrated, the MIDI-based instruments sound much better than the N64 scores 1. One of these improvements included a drastically better sound card, allowing for improved music. Below is a chapter from my upcoming book, The Symbolism of Zelda: A Textual Analysis of The Wind Waker.īeing released on a new console-the GameCube-meant that The Wind Waker could take advantage of the new and improved hardware.
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