Nah, it's exactly the same.  It's the 'Epona version'.  When Link's on foot, the melody is on woodwinds, when he's on Epona, the melody is on brass.  TP's overworld theme totally demolishes OoT's in terms of interactivity.

It follows the exact pattern from OoT:  an 'adventurous' iteration when you're trekking, a 'battle' version when you're fighting, and a 'serene' version when you're standing still and taking in the surroundings.  Now multiply each one of those by 2, one for Link on foot and the other for Link on Epona.

Also, TP's overworld theme has a nighttime arrangement, which OoT didn't have at all...

Oh yeah, hadn't noticed that. I think the woodwinds version is better, though.
But what I did notice is that the Castle Town music changes as well.

Well it's week 3 in Japan and ZELDA is not in the Top 30.  I'm beginning to think we'll never see a soundtrack to this game at all.

But wait a minute.  Some games in Japan haven't exactly earned the highest sales numbers and they still got soundtrack album releases.  Case in point:  METROID PRIME and F-ZERO GX were not successful in Japan.  At all.  And yet they still received soundtrack album treatments.  So maybe perhaps the same will happen to ZELDA TP?

Or better yet, will ZELDA TP become a best-seller for the Wii when and if the system gets more and more popular in Japan?  I hope so, it certainly deserves to be successful.

And while people say that ZELDA is not popular anymore in Japan, then why is the newest title, PHANTOM HOURGLASS on the Top 20 Most Wanted in Famitsu?

Maybe I'm fretting over nothing.  Nintendo has already announced that the next ZELDA is in development, it's proven to be a bonafide hit worldwide thus far, and at least in Japan it's still the third best-selling Wii game.

Sorry, wanted to blow off steam.

-Jon T.

I don't understand why people aren't pickin' up TP on the Wii in Japan.  I guess they all ordered the Cube version???  I was shocked to see Wii Sports and Wii Play outselling Zelda.  But "niche" games are mainstream over there.  Also, I'd think that as the system becomes more available, TP will sell more copies on the Wii.  Releasing such a big game across two systems (current and next gen) doesn't bode well for sales tracking.

Well when I checked again it was on the Top 50 (#33), so while that's not exactly stellar, it's at least not as abysmal as we may think.  It still has a 1/4 attachment rate to the owners, so I think it will probably continue to sell as more consoles become available.  ZELDA may not be as huge in Japan as it is elsewhere in the world, but it still sells in the land of the Rising Sun; otherwise Nintendo wouldn't keep making new entries to the franchise.

I only hope that there really IS a TP soundtrack album in Japan, and that it's a full-fledged OST, and not just a half-assed 6-track promo.  As I've said previously, games that weren't as successful still received OST albums, so maybe TP will get one.

-Jon T.

Lord, you're just like me when I was expecting the composer/OST announcement for Kingdom Hearts II.

I'd wait until March or April before I lost All hope whatsoever. Hell, look at the way-after-the-fact ost releases fer Rockman, UN Squadron, Resident Evil Cubed/re Zero/re4, etc. True, those are all Capcom games but still..

Back in 1998, no one really thought the RE2 songs missing from the January release would ever get their own disc and lo & behold they did, half a year later.
(Not only that, but when you mentioned the possibility of a biohazard 4 COMPLETE TRACK release sometime ago, I was pretty skeptical myself that Suleputer would pull another CODE Veronica double-release, but sure enough they did). Suleputer must be swimming in yen to be able to release and rerelease albums with such wanton abandon. The head CEO of SillyPuter must 'suffer' from that Montgomery Burns complex "Sorry Homer, but it would seem at the moment that Smithers and I are.. strapped for cash.", heheh.

If worse comes to worst you could write to Suleputer and see if they'll do an ost release? After all, Capcom and the Big N are still on pretty good terms and I'm sure even stranger things have happened before in the Land of the Eccentric Rising Sun.

If nothing else it would make for an eye-catching PR stunt in the VGM community.. (IGN, 1Up, OCREmix, etc.)

True enough, and as I've said previously, there have been many games in Japan which haven't been so phenomenally successful, yet still got OST treatments.  (Another Capcom title, the awesome but too niche KILLER 7, comes to mind.)

So however well ZELDA TP does in Japan (and I'm hoping it at least will cross the half-million mark as more consoles are sold), it is hopeful that its music will get released.  ZELDA may not be what DRAGON QUEST and FINAL FANTASY are in Japan, but interest in the franchise in Japan is non-existant?  Some on various game boards say so, but I think not.

-Jon T.

Back to the original topic of the NA CD release (trying to blissfully ignore the possibility of a cold, cruel future in which there is no full ost released for the game), now that I've finished the game I'm wondering just where the heck that orchestra piece #2 comes from, being that it's not really specifically an arranged track of music from the game.  It sounds like something that should've gone in somewhere but just didn't make the cut.  Did I just miss it somewhere?

No, I heard that song featured in a commercial for the GC version.  I've forgotten the link, but http://www.thehylia.com/ pinpointed it out.

Don't worry, let's not give up hope for a full-fledged release yet.

-Jon T.