Video Game Harmony

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Released: May 12, 2023

Developer: Nintendo

Composer: Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi, Tsukasa Usui

Just like Link, I have returned! I’ve been MIA for awhile because I’ve been figuring out my life AND because I’ve been playing one of the biggest games of the year. This may be a record for the longest time it’s taken me to complete the story in a game at over 65 hours.. whoa!

This game is like Breath of the Wild, but bigger, because now you’ve got the same map but you can go into the sky and underground. This leaves us with 4 1/2 hours of soundtrack that I was paying attention to but definitely didn’t get to hear all of while playing, because the map’s massive! It’s too much to go through all of it, but I will go through some of the standouts while playing.

First of all I had to talk about the opening. It was nice having 30 hearts and three circles of stamina for a brief moment (I wonder if it’s possible to get back to that many. It probably is). I am on edge because I know something bad is coming. The weird kind of backwards voices that you hear are rather off-putting. The music builds up as you go further and further down, getting closer to the evil man himself.

Next I want to talk about both a boss and score that I love to hate. I am of course talking about none other than Mucktorok! It’s a perfect blend of intimidating and annoying, just like him. One YouTube comment summed it up perfectly when they said “love how the music is intimidating and intense until you strip away the muck on the boss and the music turns into something pathetic sounding in a way like the boss.” I wanted to get that little runt, and even more thanks to this music. This isn’t to say that I dislike this part, but it’s more to say that I love to hate this part because it’s difficult and annoys me just a bit, which is something I give the game credit for.

Now let’s go on to a part of Zora’s Domain that’s more pleasant. After you’ve cleaned up the town, the music you hear during the day gives me nostalgia for something, but it’s hard to tell what. It reminds me of some game I must’ve played when I was younger (and I haven’t played Ocarina of Time so it’s not that), probably with an ocean world. Whatever the case I really loved this part. I tend to love the “oceany” scores in games.

Coziness has been brought to a max here. Village music is usually relaxing, but I loved this one in particular. It kind of sounded a bit Celtic with some marimba in it too. Slowing down when you get to a village is always nice in games where you’ve been fighting a bunch, and especially here. I could just chill there and listen to this music until the sun sets.

Now onto buildup like in the beginning, I will finally mention the buildup to the descent into Gloom’s Lair. There is so much tension as you realize you are getting closer and closer to the final boss. It has more of those backwards voices which really put me on edge, and the first time I was totally freaking out because I was wondering “what will Ganondorf be like!?!” and “how hard will it be to defeat Ganondorf!?!” At the end it gets so heroic! I am almost there, I can do it! This leads to the moment that you take the final leap into the wave of enemies right before fighting Ganondorf, and that makes this whole part so cool.

I actually liked this soundtrack even better than Breath of the Wild. For BOTW I thought the soundtrack was fitting but I wouldn’t listen to it outside the game, but here I do like listening to some of the score separate from gameplay. Parts such as Zora’s Domain or Hateno Village are great to listen to while working. This is my third Zelda game to talk about, and my favorite so far. Maybe one day I’ll get to Ocarina of Time or some other game in the series, but for right now I give this 5 out of 5 heart containers.

I need to post more often. October is a couple of days away, which means that this will be a fun time! I will be posting new content, and I will just say that it will be fitting for the season. Until then, may the light of blessing grant you the strength you seek.