Ranking All 3D Zelda Soundtracks - Including Tears of the Kingdom

o Ranking all 3D Zelda Soundtracks, including Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom!

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Tim needs to vent his... feelings on Tears of the Kingdom's music and decides to make a 45 minute epic with lots of sloppy editing that nobody will watch!

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0:00 Intro & Rules
1:44 Ocarina of Time
5:15 Majora's Mask
9:19 Wind Waker
16:10 Twilight Princess
21:39 Skyward Sword
27:55 Breath of the Wild
35:02 Tears of the Kingdom
44:09 Conclusion & Time To Call Me A Doodoo Head In The Comments!

[steiin]

Amazing video! I'm glad to see Skyward Sword getting some recognition, I'm playing through it for the second time now and the music is truly amazing, with Lanayru Sand Sea and Romance in the air being my favourite tracks.

[Iffondrel]

TP is my personal favorite because I'm obsessed with its use of motifs. It's just so beautiful and haunting. I love the fanfare theme during boss fights. I love the prominence of Link’s own dedicated motif, which we can hear in Midnas Lament and Courage. It's just so good.

[ResurgentRaven]

I definitely have some beef with this list, however, I do appreciate that this list was actually made by what seems to be an actual music professional and not just someone trying to act like someone who took a Music 101 course and act like they know everything.

Ocarina of Time: I have no issue with this placement. OoT has some great tracks. However, I think the Dungeon music should be docked half a point. The main reason being that the first two dungeons aren't unique musically as they're both used in different grottos respectively depending on the environment. So I think 9 points would be justifiable.

Majora's Mask: Personally, I think Termina Field is better than Hyrule Field from OoT, but that's probably just me. Each of the overworld themes, while they don't necessarily have anything too different when it comes to the song itself, their sounds do a good job of making sure each realm feels the way it's supposed to feel.

Wind Waker: I feel like Wind Waker was thrown under the bus here. Especially when compared to a later game in the series. The overworld I think deserves full points, especially since there are enemy themes that differentiate fighting on land and fighting at sea. Not to mention that for a certain section of the game, we get hands down one of the most jarring overworld themes in all Zelda (The Cursed Sea, which combines Ganon's theme and The Great Sea). The temples I think do need a bit more to them, so I can understand that scoring, though. But I think the Overworld definitely deserves full points.

Twilight Princess: I disagree with the live 2018 performance contrasted against the game's music. I thought the in-game music did a fine job on its own. Where I do agree is the temple music. Similar to Wind Waker, certain Temples are good, but some just don't have much to them, Arbiter's Grounds and Forest Temple being two. I'd keep Twilight Princess where it's at though.

Skyward Sword: This game wouldn't come close to being my favorite, but its soundtrack is definitely what makes it stand out over everything else. Have no issues with it being at the top. Moving on.

BotW: The overworld doesn't deserve that many points. The overworld is so bland that I have to put my own music on to make the experience of BotW not burn me out. The environmental sounds are nice, but unnecessary. I get what the sound designers were going for, I really do. But putting very little overworld sound in a game from a series known for its banger overworld themes was poor execution. The dungeons, as much as this pains me to say it, do deserve points for the innovation of making the music more explosive as you unlock more terminals (even though I can't tell half of these divine beasts apart when it comes to their music). Everything else is fine. But overworld doesn't get any sympathy from me. It's lucky if it gets half a point, let alone one. To see Wind Waker reduced to jarring sounds while this one is praised for its "occasional set pieces amidst a sea of monotony, " I don't really know what to say.

I haven't played through ToTK, so I just jumped to the ending to see the score. It is pitiful, but I haven't played through all of TotK yet, so I can't make a judgment yet. At least Wind Waker didn't get last.

[takriel]

An excellent analysis putting many of my feelings into words. Skyward Sword absolutely deserves that first place, its musical ambition is still unmatched.

[WatchVicarious]

This is so good!!! Love having such in depth analysis from someone who has such good musical knowledge!

[AlaiaSkyhawk]

I agree with the rankings. It was such a shame that TotK never got the chance to truly have it's own musical identity.

[viravian]

Great video! I hope that if Twilight Princess ever gets a port on Switch or the next Nintendo system, they re-orchestrate the OST. I believe that that would help it a lot.
As much as a banger songs like "Colgera" and "Catching Zelda" are, I completely agree that TOTK faltered in it's Overworld themes.
I wish more people would make videos like this on Zelda music analysis. Keep it up!

[nottbarrett]

absolutely loving these long-form videos Tim! the analysis is extremely engaging and i really enjoy hearing your opinions! hope you continue to be as passionate about making these as you are wonderful with your compositions!

[roosandringa]

Great video! I also think Skyward Sword is the best Zelda soundtrack, it is also my absolute favourite! The beautiful orchestrations always make me feel so many emotions, specifically Zelda's Lullaby and the more romantic themes like Romance in the Air and Crimson Loftwing! And Ballad of the Goddess being Zelda's Lullaby backwards is still so crazy to me, and it sounds so amazing! I just love everything about Skyward Sword, nice to see someone agreeing that the soundtrack is top-tier!

[HyenHks]

Great to see that I'm not the only cultured individual basking in the Lanayru Sand Sea! It and Lanayru Desert are possibly my favorite Zelda tunes, just sublime! What a great video Tim, couldn't agree more with the rankings. Excited for the future of the channel!

[LauraVlrs]

I think that Yunobo's theme in TOTK is amazing as well. I can listen to it on repeat - it's so sad you can only hear it once in the game - just like almost every new and great pieces of music in this game...

[JJJetz]

Great ranking, glad you didn’t cave into tears of the kingdom pressure and put it higher than it deserves. Pretty insane how this is the music we get after 6 years of development.

[martinginski]

Great video! Love hearing passionate and in-depth discussion about music, especially Zelda music!

[apersonn]

Personally, I think the differences in ToTK’s music from BoTW are slight and require some analyzing, but I think the differences that are there perfectly capture the differences between the two games. I don’t disagree with its’ placement, but especially the main theme and theme all the way from Gloom’s Descent all the way to the end of the game are so beautifully complex and feature themes and leitmotifs from across the entire series, so I do think the new tracks that are there do a lot of work to make up for the reused ones. I know you mentioned these things, but I would’ve placed it a little higher personally. However, I am also a big fan of more textured and complex music. Probably my favourite difference is that while the Hyrule Field theme in BoTW sounds ambiguous and somewhat lonely, fitting the tone of the game’s plot and Link as a character, Tears’ Hyrule Field theme has woodwinds joining the piano, symbolizing that although it might still be ambiguous, the loneliness and emptiness left by the simple piano melody are replaced by the warmer sounding woodwinds, as Link now is known by other people, he knows his purpose, and has had time for more character development than in BoTW.

[gustafadolfsson]

Great video! Love seeing Zelda music getting recognition!

[stinegregersen]

I’m so glad Skyward Sword’s soundtrack is getting some love!! I definitely agree it’s the best soundtrack in the Zelda series. Some of these tracks make me feel nostalgic even though it hasn’t been long since I played it, or even if I only heard it once. It hit me while watching this that I only heard the ancient cistern boss music once before, but I still remembered the whole thing while watching this vid. Whereas I’ve already forgotten most totk music even though I have over 200 hours in it :C

[guanchampo]

What a great video! I love the breakdown, discussion, and scoring format of each game. And I agree with all the rankings! OOT is obviously a classic, and BOTW does not get enough credit for its music. But SS has no real weakpoints when it comes to the music, and is subtly so pervasive in the Zelda community; someone who didn't play it might think it only has Ballad of the Goddess and Fi's Theme, but so many of its other themes are used in the backgrounds of Zelda theorist videos. As for TOTK, I'll repeat what I put on another video - I think its shortcomings just present an opportunity for you to craft your own 'What If' renditions for each of the repeated Village themes to capture the changes - e.g. sudden changes at Kakariko, a sweeping mushroomy vibe at Hateno, etc. And I'll agree with another commenter that Age of Calamity also deserves recognition as well for in a way filling in the gaps that BOTW naturally left behind.
Lastly - I'll understand why you left it out, but in my opinion just as it set up the Zelda formula, ALTP may be the most musically impactful game on the series with it introducing themes like Kakariko, Zelda's Lullaby, Hyrule Castle, Great Fairy, the unlocking the Master Sword theme, etc. And I can still listen and enjoy to the whole thing despite it being made in 1991!

[chriswilson]

Yeah, I strongly disagree. As someone with a degree in music, I would say:

1. Skyward Sword
2. Wind Waker
3. Majora's Mask
4. Twilight Princess
5. Ocarina of Time
7. Tears of the Kingdom
8. Breath of the Wild

[lordlazza]

I love a good long-format video, feels like a healthy refresher from addictive shorts/tiktoks. And what better topic than a combination of Zelda and music ❤

[deathofcows]

This was a very fun watch/listen (accompanied a run too!). Especially a fan of your own Skyward Sword fandom, the music of which I think is outrageously gorgeous and full-hearted (I think Romance in the Air and the Sky Island are so good and severely underrated in the Zelda canon - at least Fi's theme gets its due praise!)

I can't agree overall with the TOTK verdict (simply because of how much fuller and warmer it felt to have the warm synth added to the overworld theme, and the Stable Trotters finale hits a musical high for both games I think! Don't get me started on the weirdo sci-fi-y Metroid-y themes of Zora Waterworks and Thunderhead...) but videos aren't made to be just agreed with but entertained by, and this was brill (and funny!)