Yesterday I finally beat Twilight Princess! I think Vince bought me this game about three years ago and I finally got around to playing it. Although I thought the fighting was quite a bit simpler than Skyward Sword, I really enjoyed the puzzle nature of the game.
One of my favorite themes in the game is the music when you're in the bomb shop in Kakariko. I love the Caribbean sound with the steal drums! I'm not sure why the shops would play music like this, but it makes me feel like I'm on vacation!
Easily my favorite music in the game is Hyrule Castle's theme right at the end. This music is a blend of the Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past (:12-:40) and Ganon's Theme from A Link to the Past (:24-:36). The Twilight Princess Hyrule Castle music is changed slightly from the Link to the Past music so that instead of going down at the end of the phrases, it goes up (octave displacement). This almost seems to me to foreshadow what the composers would do with Zelda's Lullaby as they inverted it for the Skyward Sword Theme. We've had our ears prepared for this music earlier in the Twilight Princess as this music sneaks in to some cutscenes as well.
There are a lot of Zelda-isms snuck into the music of this game-- enough for a person to write a dissertation about-- if it were possible to get a doctorate in game music!
Final thought: The soundtrack to this game is roughly three and a half hours. It took me just over sixty hours to beat the game-- and there are still a few heart containers I could get. That's roughly a 1 to 15 ratio of music to game play-- and much of the music is for cutscenes that might only be heard once. I never found the music repetitive or irritating, but I'm really surprised at how little music there is for the gameplay time. Ratio of play time to amount of music is something I'm wanting to investigate further...
I, along with most youtube list-makers, was a big fan of Midna's Lament/Desperate Hour. Perfectly fit the intensity of that moment.
ReplyDeleteThe other song from that game that sticks out the most is the Hyrule Field Night theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeUAPGZ3imQ). When I first heard it, I immediately thought of Malon, but thought nothing of it. After hearing the Hyrule Castle music you mentioned and Saria's Song in the Sacred Grove, I began to wonder if there was a connection between Malon and Twilight Princess. Did some googling, and found a theory that it's Malon's ghost haunting Hyrule Field (http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/general-zelda/96025-malons-voice.html).
Given the history of this game and series in general, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of connection between that theme and Malon/Epona's song.
I gave Midna's Lament another listen since I didn't remember it well. Wonder why I didn't connect very much with this moment like so many online clearly do. This track has numerous covers, guitar, piano, etc. I love that great game music inspires people to remake it in their own way!
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the Hyrule field/Malon singing connection too, Kevin. I gave it a listen and I definitely think the sound of Malon's singing and the background "singing" of the Hyrule night time are practically the same sound (if not identical sounds). I'm not exactly sure of the audio technical aspects between the consoles, and since Ocarina was for N64 and TP was for Gamecube/Wii, I'm hesitant to say they're precisely the same, but from an audio standpoint they might as well be. This is definitely plays back into that nostalgia feeling that game music (or really, any music) can create. As soon as we hear something, we can be pulled back to another thought or sound-- much the same with our sense of smell.