Following the release of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, there was a slight sense of anticlimax. Of course, this is a very good game, but it’s probably a few steps short of the greatness we’ve come to expect from this series. The new indirect gameplay style, in which Zelda conjures echoes of objects and monsters to solve puzzles and win battles, demands quite a lot from both the player and the game’s designers, and is never fully realized. I feel that it has not been done. Even Princess Zelda’s first starring role in a series that has lived up to its name for 38 years now comes with an pesky asterisk or two.
However, there are aspects of Echoes of Wisdom that fully meet, and perhaps exceed, the extremely high expectations fans have for the Zelda series. It’s music. In terms of musicality, production, and the unexpected genius of the concept, this may be the best, most exciting, and most appropriate soundtrack since Nintendo’s…maybe Mario Kart 8?
I know it sounds like an odd comparison, but hear me out. We all know that Mario Kart 8 has a great soundtrack. Why is it terrible? One reason for this is that it reimagines classic video game music in a new context. The song takes the frenetic, funky theme of 16-bit era chiptune and arranges it for a live jazz-funk band, complete with shredding lead guitar, frenetic slap bass, and a full brass section. It’s a big, exciting sound that amplifies and refreshes the nostalgic, but at the same time humanizes and makes it more analogue, creating an even deeper connection with the listener. It can be torn.
Echoes of Wisdom’s soundtrack starts (but doesn’t end) with a similarly simple and genius instrumentation idea: What if Zelda’s music was woodwind? , recorder, and penny whistle play the dominant melody and tone, flowing along a modestly sized string section. It’s an unexpected and fun sound. It feels warm, innocent without being too childish, intimate yet mysterious and even melancholy.
The music for Echoes of Wisdom was written by a team of composers, with Nintendo veteran Hajime Wakai serving as music director. Wakai has already reinvented Zelda music twice. First, he did the obvious thing and gave Skyward Sword a cinematic look with a full orchestra. Later, as sound director for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, he oversaw a radical change in direction towards a gentle, ambient approach guided by meandering, unresolved piano lines.
Also just as relevant, if not more so, than the score for Echoes of Wisdom, Wakai was the composer for the original Pikmin and wrote many of that series’ signature songs. Pikmin games have a unique musical soundscape, with whirring synthesizers creating mesmerizing melodies over strange, shuffling rhythms. Wakai’s instinct isn’t always to make big, enveloping music. In Echoes of Wisdom, as in Pikmin, he has stripped down his arrangements, and each of his unusual instrument choices feels more like a toy than an immersion in a cinematic world. I can almost hear myself being dragged into a world like this.
The score for Echoes of Wisdom is also melodically playful. More than Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, this score looks back and incorporates the Zelda soundtrack by the great Koji Kondo, especially his original theme and the immortal Ocarina of Time score. We incorporate a lot of. But instead of repeating Kondo’s melody, Echoes’ score repeatedly takes half a phrase from it and goes somewhere else. The main overworld music begins with the familiar fanfare, and then a completely new, less loud, and more lyrical Zelda theme is written around the old chord progression. The Ranch Theme plays the first three notes of “Epona’s Song,” but then segues into relaxed recorder playing over acoustic guitar, mandolin, and bongos. Sea Zora Village’s absolutely gorgeous music is reminiscent of the harp arpeggios from Zora’s Realm, but intertwines with nimble flutes, plucking guitars, and chiming glockenspiels.
The full soundtrack has even more of these lovely songs, witty arrangements, and beautiful musicality. But the point is that Wakai and his collaborators approached this score the same way the designers approached the game. The aim was to use the familiar nostalgic fun of The Legend of Zelda as a springboard for new journeys and fresh reinterpretations. Perhaps the musicians could have done a better job.
