The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda series is praised for many reasons and even to this day it has successfully maintained its reputation as one of the finest adventure videogame series of all time. It has some great art direction, an immersive in-game world, clever puzzles, epic boss battles, interesting stories and some truly captivating adventuring.
While we would love to ramble on and on about why we all love the series, our focus today will be on the great and truly epic music that can be heard in these brilliant games. What makes the soundtracks in these games so special is they are very simple and yet so beautiful. The wonderful melodies you will listen to in this feature are quite simple and consistent but they end up being truly unforgettable and timeless.
Notable composers
- Koji Kondo
- Toru Minegishi
Reoccurring themes
We admit that Nintendo loves to recycle many things and they somehow always seem to get away with it. This over world theme here is a tune Nintendo has included in most The Legend of Zelda games and long-time gamers will instantly recognise it, as it has become the signature and trademark of the series. Let’s take a look at how this theme has evolved over the years.
The music in this game was ahead of it’s time. As primitive as it sounds, this track here is the heart and soul of the music in this series.
It gets much better in the SNES era, proper instruments can be heard here and again this music was ahead of its time. The quality of the music matched that of early CD ROM games.
A few versions of the theme can be found in other games but this here is a good example of Nintendo trying something a little different while retaining the spirit of the original.
Strong cultural influences
One thing worth noting is that the The Legend of Zelda has a very strong western/European vibe to it and this is somewhat reflected in the music. The music however has several other cultural influences and it ends up sounding very rich, diverse and varied. At the end of the day the music in these games showcase the best of what video games have to offer.
A very cheery and happy tune, it captures the feel of being in a busy and friendly market place.
This one here is an amusing one, sounds like something you would hear in theatrical music performance.
This one has a bit of a dance centric feel to it - it's quite Spanish. An example of the many cultural traces you can find in Zelda music.
Light and cheerful tone
The Wind Waker was a major turning point for the The Legend of Zelda series as it introduced a whole new look and style. The game had a colourful platformer style ambience which was unlike what we saw in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Phantom Hourglass and the upcoming Spirit Tracks follow up on that style and even Minish Cap had a similar uplifting charm. The music in these games reflected in a colourful and cheery tone.
A game that was released late in the GBA’s life, we strongly urge to play this if you missed out the first time.
Chibi Link is cool and this is some nice music.
Dark and serious tone
Wind Waker, Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass are all very bright and colourful games but we have seen the darker side of the series in Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time. The dark themes in those games have to do with being haunting, mysterious and even sorrowful. Some of the music was indeed very hauntingly beautiful and mysterious, some were even quite scary. Some gamers will probably find these tracks in similar vein to what can be heard in Shadow of the Colossus.
This spooky tune here is a favourite among fans. Makes you feel all empty and meaningless inside right?
A beautiful track filled with sorrow and despair, music like this really helps to tell a better story.
Boss themes
As mentioned earlier, we love the The Legend of Zelda series for many reasons and the clever and epic boss battles was one of them. If the challenge and puzzle solving element wasn’t already good enough, these battles were accompanied by some pulsating background music.
A nice fast paced boss theme that captures the feel of an ancient tribal battle.
A boss theme that truly feels epic and dramatic.
Link’s music career
Um Jammer Lammy has her guitar (what a short career that was), Parappa the Rapper has his rhymes and a whole lot of video game characters love their guitars and singing but no one plays the ocarina quite like The Legend of Zelda protagonist ‘Link’. We now observe Link learning and playing some of his greatest hits.
Song of Storms
Saria’s Song
Wrapping it up
That concludes the second edition of the Sound Test and we hope you enjoyed the track selection. While some avid Zelda fans will surely point out some gems that were criminally overlooked, at the end of the day we can only cover so much. We now leave you with the theme of Princess Zelda herself.
Ah Princess Zelda, how we wish you had your own game… No wait, bad idea.
Once again, send us your feedback, comments and suggestions. It will only help us to make the feature better!
Loading...
