Daily Debate: Could Zelda Work With a Modern Soundtrack?

The Legend of Zelda series has always been famous for its revolutionary soundtracks; Koji Kondo and his team have always done an amazing job giving us some of the greatest music seen in the gaming world, and the Zelda series certainly wouldn’t be the same without it.

The music in the series has always focused on a very classical, orchestral feel; this does a great job of fitting in with the atmosphere and lore of all the ancient worlds, and has always given the series a certain mystical and beautiful feel.

Would it be possible to have a Zelda game with a much more modern soundtrack, akin to that of The World Ends With You or Bayonetta? Personally, I think it’s definitely possible, and could be a great idea for Nintendo going forward.

One of the main aspects of this argument is that modern music would not fit into the medieval nature of most Zelda games; a modern soundtrack, featuring music more akin to Pop or Rock (or maybe rap music, like the Knuckles levels in Sonic Adventure 2) would destroy that atmosphere, and take away the ancient charm that forms such a big part in the series. I do have to agree with at least some of those points; I wouldn’t very much enjoy having Led Zeppelin blasting out while running through Hyrule Field.

However, it could fit into the series in a much better way than we think; do any of you recall that Hyrule Warriors trailer we got a while back, featuring an electric guitar rendition of the Zelda theme? That sounded amazing, and if in the future, certain games had a few songs resembling that, I would love it.

This also kind of bring in another debate: if the problem with modern music is it would destroy the medieval style of the game, could it work with a modern or futuristic-type Zelda game, if that was ever made? And in that case, my answer is definitely yes; I would love to see a modern Zelda game, and the music would fit in wonderfully there.

In the end, I have to say that a fully-modern soundtrack just would not work in a Zelda game like the ones we know, but a few songs with this theme would certainly be a delight in the future, especially if we ever saw a futuristic Zelda game.

What do you guys think? Could a fully modern soundtrack work with the Zelda series? Let us know in the comments!