There has been a slight sense of anticlimax after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It's a very good game, of course, but perhaps it's a few steps short of the greatness we've come to expect from the series. Its new style of indirect gameplay, with Zelda conjuring up echoes of objects and monsters to solve puzzles and win battles, demands a lot from both players and the game's designers, and there's a sense that it hasn't been fully realized. Even Princess Zelda's first starring role in the series that has borne her name for 38 years comes with one or two worrying asterisks.
But there is an aspect of Echoes of wisdom which lives up to, perhaps exceeds, the sky-high expectations fans have of the Zelda series. It's the music. In terms of musicality, production, and the unexpected genius of the concept, this might be Nintendo's best, most exciting, and most fitting soundtrack since…maybe. mario kart 8?
It may seem like a strange comparison, but hear me out. Everybody knows that mario kart 8The soundtrack is great. Because Does he kick ass? Partly because it reframes classic video game music in a new context. It takes the type of frenetic, funky chiptunes themes of the 16-bit era and arranges them for a live jazz-funk band with a smashed lead guitar, frenetic bass, and a full horn section. It's a big, exciting sound that amplifies and refreshes something nostalgic, but also humanizes it and makes it more analog, so it has an even deeper connection with the listener. It breaks.
Echoes of wisdomThe soundtrack starts (but doesn't end) with an equally simple and cool instrumentation idea: What if Zelda was music, but made of wood? Throughout the first part of the game, the dominant melodies and tones are presented by clarinets, oboes, recorders and whistles, played over a modest-sized string section. It's an unexpected and delightful sound: warm, innocent without being too childish, intimate but with a sense of mystery and even melancholy.
the music for Echoes of wisdom was written by a team of composers working under the direction of a musical director: Nintendo veteran Hajime Wakai. Wakai has reinvented Zelda's music twice before. First, he did the obvious and outdid it cinematically with a full orchestra for Sword towards the sky. Later, as sound director of Breath of the wild and Tears of the Kingdomoversaw a radical shift in direction toward a soft, ambient approach, led by meandering, unresolved piano lines.
Furthermore, as relevant to the Echoes of wisdom score, if not more: Wakai was the composer of the original Pikminand wrote many of that series' signature tunes. The Pikmin games have a unique musical soundscape, with warbling synths describing woozy melodies over strange, slurring, plinky-plonk beats. Wakai's instinct isn't always to make big, immersive music. In Echoes of wisdomLike Pikmin, it simplifies the arrangement enough that you can hear each of its unusual instrumentation choices that immerse you in a toy-like world, rather than a cinematic one.
Echoes of wisdomThe score is also melodically fun. Much more than Breath of the wild and Tears of the KingdomThis score looks to the past, with many references to the great Koji Kondo's Zelda soundtracks: his original theme and the immortal one. Ocarina of time particular score. But, instead of repeating Kondo's melodies, the echoes The score repeatedly takes away half a phrase from them and then goes somewhere else. The main music of the overworld begins with a familiar fanfare before writing a new, less strident and more lyrical Zelda theme around the chord progressions of the previous one. The ranch theme plays the first three notes of “Epona's Song,” but then veers into relaxed flute playing on acoustic guitar, mandolin, and bongos. The truly beautiful music for the village of Sea Zora brings back the harp arpeggios of “Zora's Domain,” but then intertwines them with lilting flute, plucked guitar, and carillon.
There is much more of these charming melodies, clever arrangements and beautiful musicality to enjoy on the full soundtrack. But the point is that Wakai and his collaborators approached this score the same way the designers approached the game: with an eye to using the familiar, nostalgic joys of The Legend of Zelda as a starting point for a new journey and a new reinterpretation. The musicians arguably did the best job.