coldlasagne1999-blog

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Has an Underwhelming Soundtrack - And That’s a Good Thing!

I want to start this off by saying that I know I’m late to the party. But, in my defence, I only got into the Zelda franchise last year. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was my first contact with this series of games that are near and dear to so many people, and it’s also my favourite so far. Having had no nostalgia strings holding me back going into the game, I loved the sense of adventure, of not knowing what lies ahead and being able to explore anything that caught my attention.

The story of Breath of the wild is very simple at first: you play as Link, the fallen hero of the Kingdom of Hyrule. 100 years ago, Calamity Ganon returned from death to destroy Hyrule. The four chosen heroes were killed in battle, Link was defeated, had his memories wiped, and put to sleep until he was ready to fight again, and Princess Zelda has sealed Ganon for now, but she is running out of strength. To beat the game all you need to do is defeat Calamity Ganon, which can take anywhere from five to 115 hours depending on how you play it. A completionist playthrough of BotW, collecting all 900 korok seeds and completing all 120 shrines, takes roughly 120 hours.

While many agree that the gameplay, graphics and the overall gameplay of BotW are all fantastic, the official soundtrack has been met with mixed reviews.

I came across this review recently, that was disappointed with BotW’s soundtrack in comparison to the orchestral masterpieces that Zelda usually puts out. While I agree that it’s not like the soundtrack from previous games, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. There are two main reasons why I say that.

Firstly, it’s a 120-hour long game, with a map that is roughly 360 square kilometres. Having a heroic orchestral score during 120 hours of gameplay would definitely get tiring not even halfway through. Memorable, inspirational songs are reserved for great battles or story-heavy moments, which makes those so much more important.

But even without the scores full of grandeur, wouldn’t it be better to have at least some ambient music playing throughout your journey? Usually yes… but that’s when the story of BotW comes into play. This is a post-apocalyptic world. Settled communities are few and far between, most of the people of the land are still recovering from the Great Calamity - for most of the journey, Link is alone. The silence of exploring sets the mood of loneliness better than any sombre soundtrack would. The “piano flourishes” that the review mentions are actually the best example of this minimalist soundtrack. You first hear them when you approach the ruins of the temple of time, and if you pay attention, the flourishes are actually a slowed down version of The Song of Time, a song from the “Ocarina of Time” soundtrack. But this version is stripped apart and broken, just like the ruins. Just like Hyrule.

The music of Breath of the Wild is merely a shadow of its former self. It’s broken, merely the shattered bones of what was once a great, heroic score, that was stripped away of its grand elements and left with just the scraps. Just like Hyrule. Just like Link. What makes a good soundtrack is one that can evoke the feeling of the story onto the viewer when they listen to it, and BotW does exactly that with silence and piano flourishes.

My favourite song from the soundtrack

[coldlasagne1999-blog]

I N  D E F E N C E  O F  Z A N K Y O U  N O  T E R R O R

Or How Expectations Destroyed an Anime

Cowboy Bepop is a 1998 sci-fi anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. It’s regarded by many as one of the best animes of all time. But Watanabe didn’t stop there - many of his other animes are highly praised and remembered as one of the best, like Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy.

2014’s Zankyou no Terror, however, doesn’t usually make the list. And that’s a damn shame, because ZnT is a really good anime and also my favourite piece of media EVER.

I recently rewatched it for the nth time, and after crying over episode 11 once more I promptly started searching for Zankyou no Terror reviews to remember what people thought of it back when it came out. I was met with this review that called the anime frustrating and disappointing. However, once I read the article I quickly realised why the author thought so.

To make it clear, I don’t disagree with everything they mentioned, especially some of the points made about the writing and how it could have been stronger (though I don’t find the writing as abhorrent as the author did).

The first thing that stood out to me was how they seemed to be trying to find “The Big Bad Guy”. They mention how at first they thought the main characters would be the villains, then it was the police, then the Japanese government, then the American one. But the thing with ZnT is that there is no Big Bad Guy, because the show is not trying to make things as black and white. There is no one inherently good or bad in the show, everyone falls in some of the many shades of grey. I’ve heard there are over 50.

You can’t say that Nine and Twelve are bad, because they never wanted to cause harm, only bring awareness to what was done to them. But they’re not good either - they’re terrorists. Same goes for the police, who neglected their internal problems but in the end tried to help; or the Japanese government that had good intentions but terrible, terrible execution. Labels are nonexistent in ZnT.

But the thing that stood out the most to me, because it’s something so consistent in reviews and comments for this show and I hate it, is the comparison to Cowboy Bebop. “[Watanabe and Kanno’s] names are synonymous with the sort of quality series that creates anime fans”, they said. They mentioned the hype the series got when it was announced, how everyone expected great things. One comment I’ve read said that it was supposed to be the new Bebop.

And that just isn’t realistic when you consider ZnT is an 11 episode series made by a studio that, at the time, was only two years old.

Because of the names attached to it, Zankyou no Terror suffered from the expectations people had that it had to be a masterpiece. And when it wasn’t, people were quick to dismiss it as a failure. But Zankyou no Terror did many things right! The suspense kept you on the edge of your seat; the character interactions were on point; the plot, the visuals, the soundtrack, the romance - it was all done right. There are so many more shows that do much more wrong than ZnT did, but they still remain in people’s minds and are regarded as good shows while Zankyou no Terror is just a disappointment.

At the end of the day, despite its shortcomings, Zankyou no Terror is a really good anime, an entertaining show to watch, and a thoughtful piece of media that leaves an impact in anyone who watches it. It’s sad that the comparisons to other Shinichiro Watanabe shows effectively wiped this anime from the public’s memories. But I will always hold it near and dear to my heart, as I rewatch it one more time.

You can watch the trailer for Zankyou no Terror here (English Dub)