Breath of the Wild OST Appreciation

Breath of the Wild’s OST is built different.

It is not the most musical compared to other scores in the series. It’s very ambient; with the score being less prominent compared to the rustling leaves, the wind blowing through blades of grass, the sounds of wildlife, Link’s footsteps, the ‘clank-clank’ sound effects of Link’s weapon hitting against his shield as he runs.

Nature and sunsets - a therapeutic post-apocalyptic world sounds like an oxymoron but BotW delivers it with ease

The Zelda series is a masterclass of sound design - and Breath of the Wild is absolutely ace in this regard - continuing that long tradition.

One of my favorite aspects of this soundtrack (and in Zelda scores in general) is picking out the many musical easter eggs - those old classic motifs from the series’ past that are skillfully woven into the new pieces of music.

Playing Breath of the Wild is meditative experience for me. It’s very calming; very relaxing. The audio plays a HUGE role in that. My style of playing BoTW is traveling on foot and spending a lot of time in Hyrule’s canopy - I climb A LOT.

For my style of play, this armor set is essentiald

it’s minimalist musical score and nature soundscape is juxtaposed with the most gorgeous and lush post-apocalyptic world. If you love nature, you’ll love exploring in this game.

The Zelda series’ is set in a medieval time period but Hyrule has a very high-tech and futuristic past. That dynamic plays out in the score as well. BoTW has a piano based OST - and sometimes those piano keys are purposely distorted to sound more like an old landline phone’s touch tones (you can hear this very clearly in the “Guardian Battle” piece).

BoTW may not have the strongest OST in the series in terms of banger count, but in my opinion it is the best use of a soundtrack in a Zelda game; fitting the theme of the game perfectly.