Are you already feeling a little nostalgic for The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild? Then we have something right up your alley.
As shared by Video Games Chronicle, there is a new nearly two hour performance of The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild from a full orchestra that is available to view on YouTube.
Said performance comes from the Ensemble G.A.P., who make orchestral covers of music from the world of anime and video games. As Ensemble G.A.P. explain, this performance is not an official project with Nintendo, and was just undertaken out of their interest and fandom with the game and its music.
It’s actually a very interesting choice, as The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild handles music in an unusual way. In a first for the series, and also unusual for most Nintendo games, most of the time you will find yourself playing the game to zero music.
On the surface, this sounds like a terrible idea for any game. It would leave the game with too many quiet parts, and might make gamers bored or annoyed. In fact, there are quite a few The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild players who have that complaint about the game.
But the Zelda team under Eiji Aonuma had some very important sound design in mind. The range of audio cues and musical tones appears frequently and often in the game, and that’s partly because of how dense The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild’s map is with points of interest. You don’t get far before you come across a place which could have a hiding Korok, or an enemy encounter, or a place to forage or hunt food and materials.
If that’s the case, then does Ensemble G.A.P. even have anything to play? The answer of course, is they still do. While used sparingly, music is used in The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild as a sort of announcement music. You hear new music any time you enter a new area, enter a fight with enemies, whenever a Blood Moon appears, etc.
Some fans would say that Zelda team’s choices make The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild’s music stand out even more when it appears, and that makes this music even more memorable. You certainly develop an auditory memory of what area you are in based on the music that you hear.
It certainly makes one wonder what fans could possibly expect with the pending release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild’s sequel.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases on May 12, 2023, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. You can watch the concert below.
