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The Official Zelda Music Remixes


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#1 Koh

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Posted 19 February 2017 - 10:58 AM

Inspired by a comment I saw on Youtube.  Someone thought all the LTTP music remixes in Minish Cap were worse than the originals, which is fine, they're entitled to their opinion.  But I thought this would be a good topic of discussion to have here.  What do you guys think of all the official remixes of Zelda music peppered throughout the games?

 

I've personally often found them to get better over time.  For example, the Zelda 1 dungeon theme.  IT's okay for what it was back then, but it's only like a 20 second loop and you have to hear it 8 times.   When Link's Awakening DX remixed it and made it longer, it sounded much better to me.  Then of course, Minish Cap took it again for the Royal Crypt, and while it was still great here, it seemed shorter than LADX's one.  But at the very least, the quality was still top notch.

 

The LTTP remixes in Minish Cap, I've personally enjoyed.  Most especially the Time of the Falling Rain remix for the rainy portion of Mt. Crenel.


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#2 Norzan

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Posted 19 February 2017 - 08:50 PM

I also enjoyed the remixes in Minish Cap. I guess the main reason why some people didn't liked them is because of the inferior sound capabilities the GBA has compared to the SNES.



#3 Anthus

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Posted 19 February 2017 - 09:10 PM

Minish Cap is very bassy. I liked it, but find the tinny bass to be a bit much at times. I like the piano version of Hyrule castle that plays when the king is talking at the end of wind waker. And the sacred Grove in twilight princess comes to mind too.

#4 Russ

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Posted 19 February 2017 - 09:48 PM

Some remixes are good, some aren't so good, and some are Skyward Sword quality. In general, I prefer to songs that aren't straight up remixes in the "Here's the song in a new soundfont" sense, but rather evoke a similar feeling or reuse certain motifs. For example, perhaps my favorite remix of the series is Impa's Fate. It's a very subtle "remix" of Sheik's Theme from OoT, building on similar chord progressions and using even tiny little pieces of the song in various places, such as from around 1:25 to 2:00. While it's certainly much more overt a remix, I'm also fond of Queen Rutela's theme as a remix of the Serenade of Water from OoT.

That's not the say the various remixes of themes like Zelda's theme, Ganon's theme, Kakiriko Village, and other songs that go all the way back to LttP aren't cool. Cuz they are. In addition, since Minish Cap was brought up, I like how it used a lot of Zelda II music, though the miniboss being a remix of the Japanese encounter theme didn't do much for me since I grew up on, and far prefer, the American encounter theme. I gotta respect the little ones, like how the Zelda Awakens theme from Zelda II got remixed into Zelda's theme. It was a really cool touch, and a nice way of changing up Zelda's Lullaby that we've heard in almost every game for ages.

I dunno if it counts, since it's barely from a Zelda game, but as an aside, one of my favorite remixes will always be Pictobit's take on Zelda I's Death Mountain.
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#5 Koh

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Posted 20 February 2017 - 12:06 AM

Something I never noticed until today....

 

Zelda 2 FDS's Battle theme was enhanced into the Mini-Boss theme in Minish Cap.  I wasn't even aware the FDS version had different music.  But it's cool~  I know Russ just mentioned it above, but I found out before I read his post, lol.  But still, I think it's a pretty cool theme.  I personally don't have a preference, but it'd be nice if both were used in the NES version, lol.    Maybe this one reserved for like, the event-squares or something on the map.


Edited by Koh, 20 February 2017 - 12:08 AM.


#6 Russ

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Posted 20 February 2017 - 01:15 AM

I wasn't even aware the FDS version had different music.  But it's cool~

Yeah. It's not the only game that does this. In two different ways. The FDS had a game chip that could handle more instruments at once. Compare the FDS Title Theme for Zelda I with the NES version. Though the instrument changes weren't the only changes. Some songs were lengthened or completely changed. The battle theme in Zelda II is a great example. Zelda II's boss theme is another (it's almost twice as long in the NES version), while an example outside Zelda is the Metroid escape theme. Compare The FDS escape theme, which is about 30 seconds long, with The NES escape theme, which is about double that due to the addition of a third movement to the song. It's clear to see why the songs that relied on the FDS's sound chip were changed, but I'm not sure why songs like the Metroid escape theme or Zelda II battle theme were. Not that I'm complaining; I prefer the NES versions in almost all cases where they were changed.
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#7 thepsynergist

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Posted 20 February 2017 - 01:22 AM

That would be the VRC6 chip that wasn't used in the NES, but was in the FDS.


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#8 nicklegends

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Posted 20 February 2017 - 01:34 AM

The quality of Nintendo's Zelda remixes is usually excellent. It says to me that their composers have a great respect for the history of the series they write music for. I especially like it when the "remixes" borrow only bits and pieces from the original soundtrack, placing a new touch on an old classic.

Sometimes it goes well and other times it doesn't. An example of the latter was Twilight Princess. I felt like the composer was constrained (for one reason or another) by Ocarina of Time music and didn't put a whole lot of care into songs borrowed from that game. The Zora's Domain and Death Mountain themes in particular exhibit this. (They're not bad; they're just not fresh.) Twilight Princess might have had a stronger identity had it not halfheartedly utilized so much older music.

I think The Wind Waker hit the sweet spot when it came to using motifs from older Zelda games: the Forest Haven themes (1 and 2) are heavily based off Ocarina of Time's Kokiri Forest, as is part of Outset Island. The second Forest Haven theme even references Ocarina of Time's Lost Woods briefly. Still, the feel between the original songs and Wind Waker's reinterpretation is radically different. As a less obvious example, the Windfall Island theme has the same chord progression as Kakariko Village. The Hyrule Castle borrows more closely from the original, but it's creepy as hell. (I could go on.)
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#9 Spacepoet

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Posted 21 February 2017 - 07:45 AM

An interesting thing I noticed in my most recent playthrough of Wind Waker is that the theme when you meet Jabun inside the cave on Outset, is a strange remixed version of Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly from Ocarina of Time. It's clear they were trying to tie the 2 deities together, and I guess since that was really the only song that had anything to do with Jabu Jabu, it makes sense in a way, but something about that strikes me as a little morbid(?) or at least unsettling. Pretty cool nonetheless!


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