Aside from the announcements of the ZELDA concerts, I'm surprised no one took any mention of the upcoming score to its newest installment, Skyward Sword. This is going to be the first time that a ZELDA game is fully underscored by a symphony orchestra, and the man behind the project is none other than Mahito Yokota, the talented musician whose SUPER MARIO GALAXY scores earned well-deserved accolades.  I wasn't able to hear much of the score (blame that on the lack of direct feed from the E3 videos, but what I heard sounded quite solid.  In fact, there's a track from the new trailer which is actually "Princess Zelda's Theme" backwards!  It's about time that a ZELDA game has a fully orchestrated score.

My only hopes are:

1) That the score will be as good as the others -- probably not enough to top ALTTP, OoT, MM, or TP, but still impressive in its own right.  (Although I really have not found any ZELDA score I've disliked at all.)

2) That there'll be a soundtrack release.  I understand Nintendo is very iffy about soundtrack releases, but if they released OSTs for both MARIO GALAXY scores, then why not do the same for this?  If anything, I think this score deserves a proper release, especially after the non-existant "treatment" that TP received.

3) That it'll actually be a WIDE release, not some club exclusive.

Since they're releasing two new soundtracks already for the 25th Anniversary, I would think they'd release a Skyward Sword OST as well.  Or so I hope.  And I'm willing to bet that it'll be a Club Nintendo exclusive for Japan. 

I doubt it's going to be fully orchestrated though, Kondo likes interactive music too much.  We might see more of what they did in the Galaxy games where the orchestral track and MIDI track are streaming simultaneously and smoothly segue between one another depending on the players actions.  I like this direction.

And Is Yokota indeed confirmed to be the composer?  I thought he was just on the project as an orchestrator.

I didn't like Twilight Princess much....most of it seems to be trying to stay Zeldaish but without Kondo's melodic talent. I hope SS is a lot better (the trailer is promising).

Given the videos at E3, it won't be. Several of the pieces there were clearly MIDI. If the quantity of music is as ambitious as Twilight Princess (which had hours of music in it), it'll be a mix, likely favoring the MIDI.

Personally, I think Yokota has pretty much created some of the best music ever in Nintendo games (never was much of a fan of Mario music before him), so this news fills me with hope.

Judging from this video (15 min. gameplay, E3 version), it is going to be a mixture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpFP2ijdAg

I'll bet it will get a Club Nintendo release in Japan only.  As long as it gets one.  The Mario Galaxy soundtracks are two of my favorite game soundtracks ever, so count me in as excited.  I'm way more excited now since I thought pretty much the majority of the TP soundtrack was crap, both in synth quality and composition (except for Midna's Lament or whatever that track is officially called).

I remember you saying that and the other day a friend sent me this video.  That's pretty nifty!  I don't know how anyone would even discover that.  I would never have thought to listen to any song backwards.

Edit: fixed url code

I didn't either, except when I DID hear the song in reverse, I was really surprised!

Anyway, as it turns out I was a bit mistaken in terms of Mahito Yokota's role in SKYWARD SWORD.  He is indeed the orchestrator; Hajime Wakai is the going to be the composer of this game's score, with Kondo providing some occasional tunes.  The last part of the interview where he mentions that there will be "few" orchestrated pieces feels a little bit ambiguous, though, but I hope most of this game's score is indeed orchestral.  ZELDA has been dying for such a score.

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/koj … ard-sword/

I am very happy to hear that and I'm glad that Hajime Wakai is finally getting a chance to shine on a big project.  After Kondo, I think he's Nintendo's best composer (next to Yokota).

Thanks for that link.

The only works of Hajime Wakai that I'm familiar with is his work for STAR FOX 64, but I do not remember any other particular title he's done.

But either way, this game's OST is shaping up to be pretty damn good.

Another update about the music on GoNintendo:

- will feature orchestrated music as well as music created with folk instruments
- there's a secret instrument that plays a big part in Skyward Sword
- sound director is Hajime Wakai
- core sound staff is from the Software Development Department at the main office
- Yokota-san and one other person from Tokyo are involved
- Yokota focuses in on the orchestra elements
- Kondo's songs didn't come into play until the last moment
- Kondo pulled an all-nighter to finish up his content
- Miyamoto believes orchestrated music fits better with Zelda than Mario
- Skyward Sword features updated orchestrated versions of some previous Legend of Zelda songs
- Yokota has been pushing for Zelda orchestra live events since he joined the company
- He was turned down multiple times, but that all changed with the series' 25th anniversary
- Yokota already had tons of songs he wanted to see played live

And this is from Miyamoto's mouth:  "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has more orchestral songs than any other game in the series. So—as already announced at E3—we're going to hold Legend of Zelda twenty-fifth anniversary orchestral concerts in Japan, America and Europe. Japan's will be held on October 10, which is National Sports Day, in Tokyo at Sumida Triphony Hall. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform, with Mr. Taizo Takemoto conducting."

All of this info can be found here for anyone interested.

Very interesting information in this latest segment...

You know it only needs, like, 2 orchestral songs for that, right?

It's definitely weird that Mario would get a big orchestral treatment before Zelda did.

lol, yeah, only two orchestral tracks would give it the record, haha!

I think Mario just got the benefit of the timing of this new orchestra-embracing philosophy Nintendo seems to have nowadays.  After Twilight Princess and before Super Mario Galaxy, it took Yokota to constantly beg Miyamoto to record some songs for orchestra.  We can all agree that the results were fantastic.  And obviously, Miyamoto thought so too. 

And here we are...

So Mahito Yokota himself championed for an orchestral soundtrack, huh?  That's so inspiring.  Sometimes it DOES take a bit of campaigning to accomplish something (waves to OPERATION RAINFALL, who I am proud to be a part of, but that's off-topic.)

For anyone wondering how the soundtrack of SKYWARD SWORD turned out, listen to these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0_xtoAZgkE

The opening theme of the game, and Koji Kondo's sole contribution to the game.  No really.  It's absolutely epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JYbkcl9Av4

The Sky Exploration theme.

And finally,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOPtJJSBkxQ

The End Credits theme.  The moment I listened to it, my reaction was:  BEST.  ZELDA.  ENDING.  THEME.  EVER.  It really IS that spectacular; seven minutes of pure orchestrated beauty with a nice remix of the "Song of the Goddess" as well as the classic overworld theme.  Add in a choral backup toward the end and a rousing climax, and you have one hell of a finale.

After hearing this, does anyone WANT a soundtrack CD of this game?  I know I do!

Of course I do.  I don't think it'll happen, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

As would I.  This is the best ZELDA soundtrack in years.  Not that I haven't enjoyed any of them, but SKYWARD SWORD is really going above and beyond the call of duty.  I might even argue that it surpasses (or rivals) the MARIO GALAXY OSTs.

I like that end credits tune quite a bit. As expected, the orchestrated stuff is very good. The midi material is more hit-and-miss (but no doubt works effectively in-game).

The end credits is gorgeous.  Anyone know if the classic overworld theme is featured anywhere else in the game?

I'm not sure where else the Overworld theme is used.

Anyway, worst case scenario is that SKYWARD SWORD's OST could be announced sometime next year as a Club Nintendo 2-CD set.  After all, DKC RETURNS' CD didn't premiere in Japan until about SEVEN months after the game's release.  Seven months!  Something tells me this will probably be the case with SKYWARD SWORD.

I thought I read an interview with Kondo months ago where he stated he created a very special arrangement of that theme... somewhere in the game.  I could be mistaken?

SKYWARD SWORD's OST has just received an award from X-Play for "Best Game Soundtrack".  Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 received similar awards.  I hope Nintendo capitalizes on this and makes a CD available from Club Nintendo, if not at least team up with, say, "Team Entertainment" for a more mainstream release.

If they made a CD of just the highlights, it would easily be worth the purchase. On the other hand, if they tried to cram every piece of music on the release, it would be agony.