Why Does Tears Of The Kingdom Sound So Good?

BotW had incredible sound design but is TotK even better?

All the clips in this video are protected from copyright law under fair use for educational purposes.

Credits:

Gameplay Footage from:
The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Pokémon Legends: Arceus

[MarshallMcGee]

The final item pickup sound you hear in the end of the video was attempt #136! Give this a try yourself and don't give up after the first 135 tries ;)

[adibchyy]

When I heard the sound of rain hitting the paraglider, I was seriously mesmerized.

[Paint]

I'm gobsmacked by that item pickup bit. Great work

[rakapratama]

The footsteps sound in BotW is my favorite among all the games I've ever played. It's incredibly crisp and satisfying. TotK somehow takes the sound to an even higher level. I'm not sure what's different, but it sounds even better.

[TessaBury]

The time you obviously put into the small details— like rotoscoping Link running— isn't lost on your viewers. Your work is so informative and polished! Love it.

[space_]

They have the best UI sounds in the world, just navigating the switch menue is super satisfying

[zacharynovak]

Animal crossing has done the matching sound effects to music for a while as well. When you interact with instruments they’ll play notes that emphasize whatever melodic mode is currently present in the music. It’s a small detail and the notes are otherwise random but those kinds of efforts really make Nintendo games so enjoyable to experience.

Iirc, Mario galaxy was the first Nintendo game to start this with, for example, the coin pickup sound being shifted depending on the song key. It uses the recognizable fourth interval while not sounding exactly the same every time.

[honigdachs.]

The sound design in Nintendo games like Tears of the Kingdom, Animal Crossing or Mario Odyssey adds so much to the feel of the gameplay. Every little thing you do feels so much more physical and things just click on a totally natural level. Nintendo was a huge influence on my own sound design work and I always make sure everything sounds haptic and everything's in tune with the fundamental and the fifth, sometimes even diatonically. I've also learned to rely on music instrument samples a lot to create UI elements, notifications etc.

[FinnTheHuman]

I don't think I've seen anyone point this out yet, but the melody that is sped up for the "pick up" sound isn't just an interesting melody. It is a simplified version of the "puzzle solved" melody that plays when a layer of a puzzle is completed, and possibly similar to the "New Location" sound. It often plays in the shrines if you need an example!

[LinkRammer]

It's crazy how the item pick up sound from breath of the wild has the same melody as tears of the Kingdom's main theme!

[futur_sunds]

I love that they redid most of the sound design in TOTK. Those super small details add up to helping TotK feel like a new game and not just a BOTW mod

[escargoat]

4:14 Finally! I've been internally screaming about this since 2017. The same technique is applied to the pitch of the glassy footsteps in challenge rooms.

[pepsicorp-se]

Another good example of the sounds being pitched with the background music is Super Mario Maker! In the editor mode, placing any block/item/etc has a tonal sound that sings along with the soundtrack. It's a lot less subtle, but definitely really fun.

[skeptale]

I just feel bad for the intern who had to program in the powerline arpeggios for every chord change in every single song in Mario Odyssey.

[emodateplus]

This is definitely why musician can make really great sound designers for sound effects!

[joelo]

I’m not involved in any way shape or (wave)form in anything audio, but makes me appreciate those who do so much more after watching this!

[DerYoshed]

2:56 I replayed this part 5 times, i can't, for the life of me, hear a difference :( gud vid tho!

[surfthewaveform]

Great video as always. Maybe Nintendo is so tonal because that’s where they started most NES sfx were basically melodies played super fast. Now it’s identifiably Nintendo and I’m all here for it, it adds charm to their games.
Also I’m currently remaking some sounds from animal crossing and it’s the same story in terms of tonality, the equip tool sound is just a super fast rising melody but always stays in key to the chord/music below it.

[rynabuns]

As someone with perfect pitch it's always stood out to me how much more musical and fun and exciting Nintendo's and many retro games' sound effects are! Something that's becoming rarer as many studios strive to be more "realistic" over the years :(

[jacobweeks]

This was a super interesting video, and explains why the sounds of Zelda are so appealing. The breakdown of the item pickup sound was especially cool to hear.