Nintendo Music Update Adds Over 340 Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Tracks

Wow! I’ve been wishing for the ability to blast the Colgera theme into my skull.

Whoa. That's a lot.
But why no music next week? Is there another holiday being observed?

Man, that is pretty insane - I honestly had no idea it had so many tracks. I would've guessed it had roughly 80 or so

I honestly don't blame you for not providing a full track list this time. That's a lot.

I am so happy about this! I will definitely start to actually use this app now.

Also there is a Yunobo playlist now! This is a great week for Yunobo fans!

I haven't been this excited for a Nintendo Music soundtrack in a while!

WOW that is a LOT, especially compared to BotW's 211. They even have the trailer music too, that's nice. Was worried they wouldn't.

A lot of people have been asking for this one. Hopefully this makes a lot of people happy. I'm astounded that there's that many tracks. I think the main reason there won't be any tracks next week is they want to make sure all the focus is on the Switch 2 as much as possible.

• insert the obligatory ... 10 1/2 hours of crickets and birds chirping ambient sounds and 20 minutes of actual music.

Yes... 10 1/2 hours of crickets and birds chirping ambient sounds and 20 minutes of actual music.

Anyway... glad this one is now behind.... bring us the other Zelda music.

@Yoshi3

if you don't like atmospheric soundscapes you can just say so.

@N00BiSH I don't like atmoshperic soundscapes ... there

... I like my Zeldas with iconic music... and not 11 hours of the same reused sounds and wind chimes.

Kind of genuinely stunned there was that much music to even add from it given I don't think I can actually remember a single song from the game that wasn't a direct rip from BotW. Like, I know they're there but I have no clue what any of them sound like and I never would've guessed it was anywhere near that many of them.

@Lizuka There's a lot of songs that are pretty recognizable imo. The Ganondorf fight themes, the Final Fall, the Shrine theme, the Great Sky Island theme, Stormwind Ark's theme, the theme of the Spirit Temple, the Depths music.

Pfft. Only 11 hours and 43 minutes? Many of us spent hundreds of hours listening to most of this soundtrack. This is peanuts.

It is neat that it came to Nintendo Music, but I actually already have the soundtrack on CD. Got it through Play-Asia. I also imported the soundtrack from the discs into my Apple Music app. But for some reason, while the entire album shows up on my laptop at home, only the first 100 tracks show up when I sign into Apple Music on my computer at work. No idea why that is. Anyone have any ideas as to why this is?

...TotK has 300+ tracks? Wat?

Two more Tarrey Town tracks for extended play? Lovely.

I liked how music would fade in as you got closer to each village/area

Tarrey Town was indeed great

@Lizuka This! When are they going to learn it's not okay to just reuse music for games. I thought we went over this with New Super Mario!

That said, there is way more new stuff than I realised, so this will be fun!! 🤎🤎

and they all sound like breath of the wild yeah...

@Yoshi3 I played Breath of the Wild for 300+ hours. Even THE BEST music would be extremely annoying if it was on full blast for 300+ hours. This is why they went with amospheric sounds (that basically still contained every single bit of music from a normal Zelda game, but streched out. Just like the world was)

However you see this is most open world games. Because most people know the little fact I mentioned above here. This in also why in games like GTA you have a radio in your car to change the music.

Sure Nintendo could've done something similar, an optional radio in the Sheikah Slate / Purah Pad. But I don't think it would have fit in the games setting. (At least not in BotW)

This Nintendo app went a long way and while I shrugged at the beginning it now has more use than Apple Music. Nothing like listening to game music to focus on work in office. Hour long extended version and here you go (let’s a go).

Love to hear it! Also, Tears of the Kingdom will finally be played by me on Switch 2 with the upgrade from NSO. For some reason I just couldn't get myself to play it and I've been putting it off for a long time. Can't wait to dig in when my Switch 2 arrives Thursday!

@sanderev I disagree but I understand what you’re saying. And I’m fully aware of that. However, for example, Xenoblade Chronicles have done it for 4 entries, with memorable music and tracks for each biome and area, as well as battle themes.
I don’t think there’s really an excuse for Zelda not to achieve that too when it was a franchise known for its iconic music. Hell, even the battle themes don’t change too much from environmental tracks.
It has a couple of memorable tunes but it’s a far cry from what Zelda music was.
I mean, I’ve played 180 hours in Mira in Xenoblade X and they nailed it with the music. (If they added 10 more tracks to give it some variety in the remaster it would have been perfect)
And it worsens when you have BotW and it’s sequel sounding and looking almost the same.
What happened is that they decided on a theme for BotW, which was interesting because they wanted this “natural and wild” theme going around. Then, for the sequel, they threw all their eggs in the same basket with their development times into the building mechanics and didn’t care for the rest of the elements of the game.
There’s no excuse to reuse almost the same music.

Still no MM. I've been patient Nintendo, but now you're in trouble.

@jfp said it best ... you can trim almost 11 hours of filler from this ost.

I wish they’d put in more cool gameboy and nes music. These new music tracks usually ain’t something I want to listen to outside of the games as they are mostly atmospheric and not very melodic.

For me this becomes just classical music. And that’s usually not something I want to listen to.

But hey, good for people who want to experience certain tracks if they like to.

@Yoshi3
While I think the Xenoblade soundtracks are mostly god tier, your argument with X falls apart because those new LA themes and some of the battle themes became incredibly irritating (at least for me).
Besides I suspect when converted into a playlist, only about an hour will be ambient and the other 10 will be traditional pieces.
Go listen to the Colgera fight songs and tell me that doesn't scratch a primal Zelda loving itch!

@AJWolfTill that's why I said they could have added about 10 more songs to add variety to the X remaster. The thing with the LA theme is pretty irritating even for a single listening, so that's that, its a bad song, let alone in repeat. The rest of the OST is composed by the mastermind Hiroyuki Sawano from Attack on Titan fame... which makes the game feel pretty epic., even in the biome themes (which are not ambient sounds btw)... Something BotW and TotK severely lack.
I agree with the Colger theme... But the thing with Colgera is... yes, its one of the few great songs... and you hear it twice or so in a 150+ hour game. The other 149 hours and 30 minutes is the dullest ost ive heard. At least I understood it with BotW ... but repeating it with Totk was too much... just like its reused map.
Why do the common battle themes have to feel like the most boring pieces of action in a Zelda game is beyond me.

@Yoshi3 You can't compare Xenoblade to Zelda. Gameplay is entirely different Also Xenoblade really isn't an open world game. It's far to linear. Also Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom has different music for each region, biome, town, combat, day, night, etc. etc.

Hearing this for 300+ hours is going to be extremely annoying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdO0Ta8XJqg
That's a fact.

But if you take that song, simplify and stretch it, you really don't notice it. And after 300+ hours it doesn't wear you down. I think Nintendo made the right choices to do this in both BotW and TotK. In a video game good sound design is a lot more important than a lot of music.

@sanderev wait... lol... did you just said Xenoblade (franchise) is "too" linear? Just because they are RPGs doesn't make them "linear". Sure, sometimes you need to go from A to reach point B for the story to progress... (but at least it has a story that makes sense, unlike Totk and BotW which are all over the place and have no order) And Xenoblade X is DEFINITELY open world. I think you need to play a bit of Xenoblade to make those assumptions.
Yes... TotK has different music for each region... being mostly ambience sounds for each one. Towns mostly don't have iconic music, for that please refer to Wind Waker among others. Combat music is preeeeetty dull... except for some boss fights, which is the norm in every videogame.

Yes, the example you gave would be extremely annoying in a 150+ hour game... imagine if they had put the same effort for the TotK ost as they did for Ocarina of Time ... but with 20 or so songs like that to add variety.
But I guess they wanted to go for the cheap and easy route... reuse most of the BotW soundtrack.
The example you gave, there's a reason why its so iconic and is so associated with the franchise in general.
Hell even the open sea theme in Wind Waker is more creative than wind chimes for 100 hours and doesn't become annoying.... and you listen to it... a lot.

And I definitely can compare Xenoblade to this, because you spend HOURS in each biome, in each area, and the music NEVER grows dull. (Except a few exceptions like the LA theme in X, but that is because its a pretty bad song overall)

Anyway... there's tastes for everyone.... but I'll die on the hill that it was a sin to repeat most of the BotW ost in a 150+ hour game that is almost the same as the previous one.

@AussieMcBucket
Perhaps they're giving completionists a chance to catch up with listening to this whole thing.
I think they've done it once or twice before when adding a massive OST.

@Yoshi3 When I was in my teens and got myself a GameCube and TWW I started to turn off the music about 3/4th into the game. (triforce quest) Even though I loved the open sea music. I never did in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, whilst those games being 30x longer.

And about Xenoblade, I honestly think those games are entirely different with a LOT more focus on combat and story progression. It's like comparing MarioKart to Forza.

@sanderev but we are not comparing combat, gameplay or story... are we?
We are talking about music.
And you can't turn off the music in BotW or TotK because you always have to be on the lookout for the pesky Korok sounds to find them.
Anyway, I think we are discussing something that goes more about each person's tastes, but I'll never see an excuse not to have an ost like Xenoblade X, which is the closest example to TotK and BotW... hell, they even shared teams.

For me it was just the Aonuma excuse to use all his resources to develop his building mechanic for 3+ years and leave every other creative element to rot. (And its documented in interviews)

@Yoshi3 No you're just missing the point I try to make. I am talking about game design, which includes sound design. (Chosing which music / sound to play when and why)

And the Korok sound is actually a pro for environemtal music. Becaus then you can actually hear them. With blasting music you wouldn't be able to.

@sanderev and what is the difference with the sound design with Xenoblade X and TotK for example? Both have biomes and each requiere music for it, no? Why can one have great epic music and the other just uninspired wind chimes? Hell... even for common battles in TotK they could have used better songs.

And your Korok reasoning doesnt apply. If so, please tell me why we could find Skulltulas in Ocarina and MM? Even with blown out music? Any other gameplay element would have worked... Link's back starting to glow (any visual cue), your controller having some kind of vibration, ANYTHING.... collectible hunting is not exclusive to sounds.

İ love Tears of the Kingdom so much. Zelda games had always great music like Zelda games Ocarina of Time, Majora's mask, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild.
The music in Tears of the Kingdom is incredible too.

My top Zelda music in Zelda games.
1. Ocarina of Time.
2. Majora's mask.
3. Tears of the Kingdom.
4. Skyward Sword.
5. Twilight Princess.
6. Breath of the Wild.

@Yoshi3 I've already given you reasons why sound design is different between Xenoblade and Zelda. I am not going to repeat myself.

@sanderev you don't have to repeat yourself because there's no reasoning or difference behind it. You can keep the sound design beyond just having the same piano in each piece. There's no reason to have battle themes that are pretty similar to ambience sounds in an action game. But that's your taste.

And if you want a better example, just compare it to the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack, which requires the same sound design as TotK and is way more iconic.

So happy to see this dropped in time for the Switch 2 launch!! 344 tracks! AND they split the village themes between (Day) and (Night) like I asked them to!! That will be a big difference between the BOTW and TOTK soundtracks on Nintendo Music.

I can’t believe this game has 12 hours of music. Most of what I heard sounded like the same music from breath of the wild. I guess probably the boss fights and dungeons had unique music….

I wonder moving forward, if Nintendo informs/pressures composers to organize or structure tracks with Nintendo Music in mind.

Of COURSE they add TotK music the month after my Online subscription expired😭

@jfp I would, but money’s a bit tight right now…

@Pod Oh, haha. That's a thought. It is a massive amount of music. I hadn't considered that. I appreciate your response!

Colgera Battle theme and all of Ganondorf's various battle themes & extended on the app??? Yes, please!!!