Legend of Zelda ~Majora's Mask~ Original Soundtrack

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the second game in the legendary Zelda adventure/RPG series to be released on the Nintendo 64. The first N64 Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, had a fabulous and highly under-appreciated musical score. I'm proud to say that The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Original Soundtrack is a more than worthy follow-up to that masterpiece.

The first thing you'll notice upon listening to this soundtrack, or playing the game, is that Majora's Mask shares a lot of music with Ocarina of Time. Mainly these are the less important tracks like the playful "Mini Game", "House", with its innocent string plucking, and the Carnival-like "Shooting Gallery", among others. There are even a few songs from Zelda games prior to Ocarina of Time. "Drum Practice Music" is "Cave" from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. And "Piano Practice Music" and "Bass Practice Music" are the "Game Over" and "Underworld" themes respectively, both from The Legend of Zelda on NES! You will also notice that Majora's Mask has an even darker, more serious tone than that of Ocarina of Time. A lot of the songs throughout the soundtrack are more ominous and in a lower key. The Clocktown theme starts out on a positive note, but doesn't necessarily end that way! Take "Clocktown: Day 1" for instance; it is a beautiful town theme with nice and varied percussion sounds and a very catchy melody. "Clocktown: Day 2" is slightly more hurried and has less instrumentation, but once you hear "Clocktown: Day 3", with its eerie string work and frantic pace, you know that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong!!

My absolute favorite pieces of music from the Ocarina of Time soundtrack were the dungeon themes. The dungeon themes here aren't as elaborate as those found in the previous game, but they're great all the same. I absolutely love "Woodfall Temple" with its funky drum and bongo beats and strong bass line. "Snowhead Temple" isn't very musical at all except for a few piano notes and guitar plucking here and there. It sounds really cold, and I like that sound effect that sounds like someone pulled the plug on a huge piece of machinery! The "Great Bay Temple" track reminds me of the musical "Stomp", where the musicians would use all types of trash can lids, pipes, pots, and pans to create music - it's just a bit more aquatic-sounding! I think the last dungeon's themes (yes, themes!) are simply genius. "Rockvale Temple (Outside)" is a very soothing piece with its catchy ocarina melody, a nice beat, and very moody male chorus. Now on the flipside - literally (!) - we have "Rockvale Temple (Inside)". The male chorus in now changed to a female chorus (or maybe a boy's choir?), the beat is reversed, and the instrumentation overall is different, yet the melody remains the same. I like the addition of that "flickering" sound that travels between the left and right channels, as it makes the song sound more mystical and surreal. You wouldn't think these two songs would actually be dungeon themes upon first listening to them, but they're extremely effective. Very well done!

Now, I'd like to talk about the battle themes! I find "Battle" to be very interesting. It begins very low and subtle, unlike traditional battle themes, and doesn't really pick up until around the :27 second mark, before it crescendos into a full blown epic battle track. I like this, because it makes it so that only the worthy enemies get the epic portion of the song. "Middle Boss Battle" is my personal favorite among Toru Minegishi's three stellar contributions to the soundtrack. I like the 'call and response' trumpet melody and the low-key piano rhythm, and the drumbeat is excellent. I like how the song ends with a timpani roll and clashing symbols. Nice work. "Boss Battle" seems to be perfectly suited for the Goht (Masked Mechanical Monster) battle, as it seems like a chase theme as much as a boss theme. If you listen closely, the drums even follow the pattern of a galloping horse! I like how the trumpet crescendos in this one midway through, and at the very end.

There is so much to like about this soundtrack, it's kind of overwhelming. I know I've been talking about how dark the soundtrack is, but that's not to say that there aren't any light-hearted and even heart-string tugging pieces present on the album. For instance, there's the "Song of Healing", of which I can't decided which of its variations is the best. Of course we have the ocarina version of the song, but more importantly we have the very beautiful and stirring "Clock Tower", the zany "Mask House Theme" (another song with brilliant percussion), and finally, the riveting "[Song of Healing] Demo" - the song that has given me the inspiration to learn how to play the piano. Similar types of pieces include the very beautiful and celestial "Astral Observatory" and the moving "Theme of Giant" (along with its variations), among many others. Also, notice how the Zora Band's (the Indigo-go's) song starts off as just a "Bass & Guitar Session". Then Evan adds the hook in "Evan's Piano Solo", and the entire band performs the song in "Zora Band". Finally, we're treated to the finished song in its entirety during the "Staff Roll". I thought it was very cool how the song was conceived and becomes more and more complete as the soundtrack goes on (and the band rehearses!).

Other noteworthy pieces include the "Pirate's Fortress", which is just... epic. "Last End" gave me the feeling of overwhelming sadness and hopelessness, yet it is still very beautiful - in a melancholic kind of way. If the world as we know it were coming to an end, this is the song we'd probably hear during the last six hours! Then there's "Ikana's Ancient Castle" which is beyond epic, with its slow cadence, blasting brass, moody chorus, pounding bass drum, and shrieking string sounds toward its end. "Majora's Theme" is nothing short of genius, in all of its renditions. I love that "clanking" sound (which I've dubbed the 'Majora sound'! If you've heard the song then you know what I'm talking about!). "Majora's Mask Moon" uses the same rhythm as "Theme of Chase" but it uses the synth indigenous to "Majora's Theme". Also, the four 'area' tracks: "Marsh Land", "Snow Mountain", "Great Bay Coast", and "Ikana Valley" all sound as if they begin (and end) with the "Majora's Theme" motif, just with a couple of notes omitted in the beginning.

Speaking of "Majora's Theme", the Final Boss themes are all variations of this theme as well. "Majora's Mask Battle" is a synth orchestra's performance of the theme. It is lovely, though it still manages to be quite ominous and evil. I love the strings in this one! "Majora's Reincarnation Battle" is, well, extremely weird. But it's also the best of the final boss themes in my opinion. I won't even attempt to explain it; you just have to hear it for yourself! I *love* the way it ends!

I don't know how I've gotten so far neglecting to mention that the "Main Theme of The Legend of Zelda" (or simply "the Overworld Theme" to everyone else) is back as "Termina Field". I knew Koji Kondo would include it after the backlash he received from not including a complete version of this theme in the previous game! Listen for it a few times throughout the soundtrack, including during the brilliant "Staff Roll", which is the second-best Zelda ending theme in my opinion (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past still has the best Zelda ending theme!).

The sound quality is really good as far as I'm concerned. The same synth used in Ocarina of Time is used here for Majora's Mask. The samples aren't really any better, but the sound library has been expanded as there are more instrument samples here.

As mentioned earlier, I thought the Zelda 5 OST was truly a remarkable work. But I think its soundtrack release was pitiful, with it being only one disc and all. Well, the Majora's Mask OST is a two-CD set, but it still could've been a lot better. I don't know why the staff tried to cram 112 tracks onto two 60-minute CDs. Why not two 70 to 75-minute CDs? Or even better, let *every* track play through twice (except for ocarina songs and fanfares of course), and add a third disc! While a definite improvement over the Zelda 5 OST, I still won't be satisfied until I get every song *twice* and no songs are cut short ("Snowhead Temple" is missing just over a minute of music).

And that is about all I have to say about The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Original Soundtrack. I wish a lot more of the songs were looped, but I'll live! It certainly is a classic and worthy of a purchase. No game (with the exception of Final Fantasy Tactics) had me itching to buy its soundtrack so badly. And I'm very excited about the fact that the Zelda series is moving to disc format (via Gamecube). This is obviously a great thing for the composer, Koji Kondo, as now his Zelda scores will be able to flourish without being held by memory and sound limitations. But anyway, if you're a Zelda/Kondo fan, you should already have this soundtrack. If for some reason you're not, I still feel that you'll find very much to enjoy here.

The soundtrack to "The Legend Of Zelda: Mask Of Mujula" ("Mask of Majora" in the U.S.) stands alone as a remarkable, spectacular achievement, second only in comparison (in my opinion, that is) to its predecessor Ocarina of Time. It also follows the same formula as Ocarina of Time, in that it takes classic Zelda themes and upgrades them, while introducing a couple of new songs. The result is a soundtrack that should satisfy Zelda fans, and if it doesn't, then what will?

First things first, this soundtrack is a two-CD set. And no wonder! This soundtrack has arguably the largest amount of songs ever present in a Nintendo 64 game - 112 to be exact. (That's 30 more songs than Ocarina of Time! And you thought a cartridge-based system couldn't handle this amount of songs, eh?) This will probably mean that all the songs are played twice, right? Well, actually, only a few are. But I was still impressed that Mask of Mujula managed to get such a treatment, and I hope to see Nintendo's future soundtracks chart this course.

Okay, now it's time to talk about the music. As mentioned earlier, themes that were composed for previous Zelda games return. Actually, a large majority of these returning themes are the ones from Ocarina of Time, including the catchy "Windmill Hut", the merry-go-round-like "Shooting Gallery", the Bach-like "Kepora Gebora's Theme", the Western "Lon Lon Ranch", the primitive "Goron City", the beautiful "Zora's Domain", and several others. (Yes, even some of the Ocarina songs from Ocarina of Time return, as well as the fanfares). Interesting come-backs are the "Horse Race" music and the "Goal" fanfare. In addition to having the actual two pieces played in their original forms, there are extra versions of them, with the fanfare upgraded (?) for performance on primitive instruments ?Ethe same ones used for "Goron City". But there are also some songs that have been used in other previous Zelda games, such as the harp-ascending Fairy music, Princess Zelda's lovely theme, and, much to my surprise, a few songs from the original The Legend of Zelda, which include the dungeon and ending themes. These tracks are hinted, briefly, on tracks 27 and 28 on the second disc. And I thought I also heard the "Cave" music from "The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past" on track 26 of that disc as well. But best of all, the classic Zelda Overworld theme, used in just about every Zelda game released (except Ocarina of Time, which used only the first couple of notes), is back. Yippee! (And if you don't believe me, check out track 34 on disc one. It's there and it sounds great.)

New themes are created as well. The "Clock Town" music is a very Scottish dance-like piece which, after the first two-thirds, has an ominous chord as if to say that doomsday is coming. The theme for Mujula is wacky yet sinister, with an Arabian-music-like attitude. There is also a majestic, mysterious slow song for the Giants, a primitive jig for the Deku Seeds, and a lot more great songs that I could go into detail about, but I don't wanna spoil the experience for you!

As with Ocarina of Time, the dungeon songs are not meant for listening experience quality, but rather are atmospheric and meant to set the tone of the dungeon. The "Woodfall Temple" song, in particular, consists of beating drums with all sorts of jungle animal sounds (including what sounds like Indian war whoops) going in the background. In addition, "Cave" sounds similar to "Dodongo's Cavern" from Ocarina of Time, as it is an atmospheric sounding piece with little or no melodies at all. The other four dungeon songs are a little more musical than this, yet they still have an ambient feeling.

The battle themes almost sound like rearranged reinditions of those in Ocarina of Time, but they are more melodic (sort of) and less noisy. If you listen closely to the "Battle", "Middle Boss Battle", and "Boss Battle" tracks, you might hear some similarities to the original ones in Ocarina of Time, but they are transposed to a different key. (Incidentally, these tracks are composed by newcomer Toru Minegishi, even though the majority are done once again by Nintendo veteran Koji Kondo.) The last battle tracks aren't as awesome as the one in Ocarina of Time, but they are still very good.

And yes, folks, there are some choral tracks, which range from haunting and beautiful ("Clock Tower" and "Theme of Giant") to dark and scary ("Ikana Valley"). Even though the singers aren't authentic, they still sound great considering that they're synthesized (a characteristic of Ocarina of Time).

The whole soundtrack sounds darker than what we have come to expect from Zelda. Not only are some of the environment pieces scary (such as "Marsh Land" and "Ikana Valley"), but the whole soundtrack seems to carry this feeling throughout a large majority of the music. I guess Nintendo intended to have the game be a little scarier than most Zelda games. If that's what they tried to do, then Kondo has succeeded in making us feel it with this soundtrack.

The soundtrack is a little bit off-beat, too. For example, there is a slow, jazz number with a synthesized voice (similar to the one in "Lon Lon Ranch") on at least one track, and a song that sounds like it could come from a Western movie. There's even one track on disc two that is, as its title mentions, a Frog's song (!). In addition, there are plenty of Arab-sounding songs scattered here and there, as well as a few Scottish pieces (like the ones I mentioned earlier). This is definitely not your typical Zelda soundtrack, but then again, neither was Ocarina of Time (which was more of a cinematic, interactive experience than the traditional epic game score).

The very, very last track is not a typical piece you'd expect for a grand finale. This six-minute long track begins with a jazz band swing, then it goes into a celebrational, primitive, lively melody which includes shades of the Overworld theme, before it finally gets to a more appropriate sound. Then the chorus comes in, along with the synthesized orchestra, to do an absolutely gorgeous interlude. After a somewhat scary follow-up, the song ends with a very lovely, hair-tingling chord with the chorus and the strings - a very nice touch. But then, just when you think the song is over, it teases us with a whistle-sound reindition of "Saria's Song" from Ocarina of Time. (This surprise ending makes us only want more. In fact, after listening to that track, I literally listened to the whole thing again! But then, I guess if a soundtrack makes you feel that way, it is a sure sign that this is a classic.)

Now lets talk about how the synthesis sounds. As with Zelda Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64, the instruments sound more synthesized than realistic. In other words, the quality is somewhat limited in comparison to the more advanced sound systems on CD-based systems. (Nintendo 64 soundtracks have been unfavorably reviewed because of this, as I'm sure you all know.) Even the choral voices, as mentioned before, aren't authentic, just more synthesis. However, the chorus and instruments still sound quite good in spite of these drawbacks.

The atmospheric sounds featured on some of the tracks, however, sound authentic and spectacular. They really make players feel that they're a part of the world that the game's protagonist (in this case, Link) is going through. This is a characteristic that Ocarina of Time shared.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Mask of Mujula Original Soundtrack is a pleasant surprise, and a satisfying follow-up to Ocarina of Time. I won't say it's better than Ocarina of Time because I thought that soundtrack was good as well, and I don't like to put great soundtracks down in favor of others. So, I'll just say that it's every bit as good as Ocarina of Time and be done with it. As of this writing, I have not played the game yet, but I am now looking forward to it since I gave this soundtrack a spin. Whether or not you're a fan of the Zelda games, I definitely have one last piece of advice - go buy this soundtrack.