Listen To This Spectacular Arrangement of Link’s Awakening’s “Ballad of the Wind Fish”/”End Credits”
Posted on February 11 2021 by Sean Gadus
In many ways, Link’s Awakening was an ideal candidate for rerelease on Nintendo Switch. Many long-time fans love the game because it features a unique setting and contains many memorable characters. Additionally, the remake on Switch took away many of the restrictions that limited the original. For example, the remake was able to flesh out the sounds used in the soundtrack, a wonderful treat for Zelda music fans.
This wonderful rendition of “Ballad of the Wind Fish” and “End Credits” by Virtual Video Game Orchestra is a tour de force celebration of Link’s Awakening. VVGO opens with a haunting choral arrangement of “Ballad of the Wind Fish” that is sure to give listeners goose bumps. The choral arrangement eases the player into the song before the full orchestra explodes onto the scene. At 0:55, the lush arrangement of “Ballad of the Wind Fish” segues into “End Credits”. There is an incredible contrast between two songs, with “End Credits” having a more adventurous, less operettic sound.
Virtual Video Game Orchestra has a wealth of instruments on display in this arrangement, with percussion, woodwinds, and strings on display. Eagle-eyed music fans will have fun identifying the different instruments and hearing how they work together to create this lush sound. My favorite moment in the song is the all woodwinds section of the arrangement that starts at 4:00. This peppy section feels like a call back to the classic Zelda sounds heard in games like Ocarina of Time.
Overall, I also love the video that Virtual Video Game Orchestra created for the YouTube video. The creators do a great job of integrating footage of Link’s Awakening with footage of the musician playing their instruments. It is really fun to watch as each scene transitions and try to guess how the performers will be arranged in the next slide. Additionally, the blue sky backgrounds seen several times in the video do a great job of centering the listener into the wonderful, wild world of Koholint Island.
On their website, Virtual Video Game Orchestra presents themselves as an “online volunteer-run music ensemble predicated on providing a musical performance outlet for musicians whose IRL [In Real Life] rehearsals and performances were cancelled due to COVID-19”. Their goal as an organization is to create and maintain a “fun and accessible virtual community of musicians from around the world through performing video game music”. You can check out VVGO’s other work on their YouTube channel.
What do you think of this arrangement of “Ballad of the Wind Fish”/”End Credits” by Virtual Video Game Orchestra? Let us know in the comments below!
Sean Gadus is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. His first Zelda game was Ocarina of Time, and he loves all of the 3D Zelda games from 1998-2011. The final battle of Tears of the Kingdom is one of his favorite final battles in the entire series. He wants to help build a kinder, more compassionate world. You can check out his other written work at The-Artifice.com.
