The Best and Worst of Zelda: Overworld Music Part One

Hello readers! It’s Brian, back from a two week hiatus with the twenty-first edition of “The Best and Worst of Zelda.” Today’s topic is something of my own creation, mostly due to the fact that there just have not been many suggestions lately (and not for lack of comments), but do remember that I’m always taking ideas for future editorials, so leave those in your comments below!

I absolutely love writing about music. It’s not only something I am quite passionate about, but it is also something I tend to focus on in all video games, Zelda included. The overworld being the main area of travel, it contains the music you’ll be listening to the most for the entire game, so there’s a lot of skill that goes into making music that won’t get boring (or at times, painful) to listen to for multiple hours straight. How come I can’t listen to a perfectly good song more than three times in a row outside of a video game, but I can sit for hours in Hyrule Field and still be enchanted by the gorgeous melody? Well that’s part of what makes Zelda music so interesting and brilliant.

Take The Legend of Zelda for example. I once took a course in video game music, in which the instructor pointed out that despite the length and depth of the game, there were only really three songs in all: the dungeon theme, death mountain and the overworld. A majority of the time spent in that game is in the overworld, especially if you are new to the game, and while you’re busy exploring the secrets to be found around Hyrule, that same, 8-bit tune marches along in the background. The loop is only thirty seconds long, meaning that if you can’t find the seventh dungeon for 20 minutes, you’ve heard the song FORTY times! That’s really crazy, but what’s even crazier is that nobody seems to have an issue with that. Of course, we can blame age-old technology, but the truth is that the song just never gets old. It’s got a steady rhythm with an up-beat, adventurous melody that get’s stuck in your head very easily. I imagine that something along these lines could never be successful now, but for the NES’s limited capabilities, I think it’s simply brilliant. The same can be said for the overworld theme from Zelda II, which I generally prefer to The Legend of Zelda‘s. The loop is about the same length, but I think the breadth of other songs that interrupt it, whether it’s enemy encounters or entering a town, means you are listening to it a bit less. But still, after twenty minutes of playing, you are most certainly going to be whistling along!

Once bit power doubled and more musical variety was expected, A Link to the Past delivered two times the amount of overworld themes! Of course, that still means only two themes, but they are both excellent and memorable. The Light World’s Hyrule theme is actually just a remastered version of the main Legend of Zelda theme, with those horn noises that are just about everywhere in A Link to the Past. There is something about the trumpet-esque noise that feels powerful, and pushes me forward towards more adventure. It is definitely an improvement upon the original, but to be honest, I may have been a bit disappointed if they had left that as the single overworld theme in the game. It is, of course, the Dark World theme that is so iconic to A Link to the Past that earns the title of my favorite song in this game. Those horns are there, as always, and there are actually three layers of music going on behind each other, all made with very similar synthesized noises. Even more amazingly, the loop is a full minute, allowing for more complex build-ups and changes within the piece itself. It’s a really memorable one, that received very little recognition outside of A Link to the Past for quite a long time, until it’s sequel of course, but we’ll discuss that next week!

Link’s Awakening will only get a brief paragraph, as it’s overworld theme is mostly the same as The Legend of Zelda‘s. While I understand the idea of keeping things familiar, I really am not a huge fan of repeating an already repetitive tune. Still, this is the iconic tune of Zelda,, but I do wish Link’s Awakening did a little more with it. What I applaud this piece for is the extra fifteen seconds added to the loop at the end. Despite its brevity, that extra little melody is the musical piece I remember when I think of Koholint Island.

Ocarina of Time is a whole new ballpark. We no longer have short loops, we instead have full-length, 64-bit songs which do a fantastic job of both emulating instruments and working with the time-of-day feature in the game. With Hyrule Field, there are multiple melodies and recurring themes within the single song, including pieces that sound ominous full of raging horns, or pieces that sound calm with soft flute noises. This musical depth has never been achieved in prior Zelda games, most likely due to console limitations, but Ocarina of Time not only achieves it, but also capitalizes on it. Every song in the game is a masterpiece, but Hyrule Field shows off Koji Kondo’s capabilities as a composer in a mere four minutes. What amazes me most, looking at this game from the perspective of it being new, is the plethora of different sounds made during it. If we look back at the first two games, your “instrument sounds” were really just 8-bit beeping. Look ahead further to the SNES era, and hey, looks like they’ve added some trumpets. With Ocarina of Time, you have a viable orchestra. Just in the beginning runs, you can hear what sounds like horns, flutes, a keyboard, and even a violin. As is common in orchestral music, Kondo often repeats the same tune twice with different instruments playing each time. If you have a good ear, you’ll also recognize themes from The Legend of Zelda that are tossed in. Notice that the game does not repeat the original overworld theme, but rather uses it as a point of style. I believe this to be the turning point for Zelda music. It has evolved as the consoles have, leading to impressive growth in every game.

Strangely enough, I find Termina Field to be a step backwards in terms of music. I love the music in Majora’s Mask; overall, it’s soundtrack is one of my favorites; but my issue here is that the music has reverted back to loop format that once again just repeats that old main theme. Now there is some merit to this, because it is the first chance we’ve had to hear a new 64-bit version of that classic tune, but in my opinion, there should be more influence from Ocarina of Time here. There is no depth or complexity like there was in Hyrule Field, and the song is basically unchanged except for some nice additions of instrumental noises throughout. The one thing I absolutely love about this theme is the driving tuba sound that plays the same two notes every other beat in the background. this slow, heavy rhythm reminds me of the round, slimy chuchus running around Termina, and while I don’t expect that was meant to be when the piece was composed, it certainly makes me chuckle.

And to finish off this week (mostly for completion’s sake) are the Oracle games, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. They aren’t really worth bringing up, as both Labrynna and Holodrum have the same theme as Koholint Island. Yup, it’s straight from Link’s Awakening, and they didn’t even change the tempo! It’s the exact same piece.

Well that’s the first half of the games! Be sure to check back next Tuesday at 11:00 AM Central Time for part two. I’d love to hear your opinions and ideas in the comments below, and don’t forget those suggestions for future topics. As always, thanks for reading!