Overview

Koji Kondo's masterful soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the most popular out there. Though the Nintendo 64 had sub-par sound quality, his beautiful melodies and compositions still shone through. Fans of the game will always reminisce about the game's various levels, characters, and feats when they hear the tunes.

Thankfully, a few arranged albums were released using Ocarina of Time's material. One of these was Hyrule Symphony, an album featuring faithful string quartet arrangements of some favorite melodies. The other arranged album is this, the Ocarina of Time Re-Arrange. Instead of remaining completely faithful and making very conservative arrangements, the remixers and arrangers who worked on this album aren't ashamed to experiment a bit. And a bit goes a long way, though not in vain; this arranged album is top-notch and very enjoyable, especially to fans of the beloved series.

The album consists of a mix of live performance and synth usage. Some tracks combine the two, and others are strictly one or the other. The choices were well made on which tracks received what treatment, and each piece is very well arranged in the chosen style.

Body

At the forefront is "Title Theme." The title theme of Ocarina of Time wasn't only a soundtrack highlight, but one of the highlights of the entire series. The original was very soft and relaxing and featured piano and a sweet ocarina melody. This time around, it is well-arranged in a light techno style. The opening is perhaps the most effective part; the strong burst of synth is a great lead-in to the rest of the track, which later experiments with a few acoustic elements laid in with the synth.

"Lost Woods" works similarly to "Title Theme," with an emphasis on synthesized sounds. This track also makes great use of flutes (probably synthesized, but impeccable quality), which is sort of a recurring element in many of the pieces. "Epona's Song," is strictly performance based. Featuring a twangy, country style, Emiko Shiratori of "Melodies of Life" fame sings the subtle and famous melody of Link's loved horse companion. It is beautiful all things considered, and takes a few deviations from the original such as a short drum and bagpipe section. Overall, everything in the arrangement works well together to enhance the mood and beauty of the nostalgic original piece.

Similarly, "Kotake & Koume's Theme" is based on the sound of a real performance. Though it still uses synthesized sounds, they are realistic and act as real instruments would. This piece has a very mysterious and ethnic air to it that is very refreshing and different from the rest of the album. One of the best tracks on the album, "Last Battle," is largely based on ambience. After a powerful introduction, a percussive beat kicks in and the rest mostly consists of synth chord progressions with only a few, slight melodic sections. It plays out in a similar fashion to "BT 'ultimate'," from the Unlimited SaGa soundtrack, combining ambience, techno, and acoustic elements into a refined and successful package.

"Hyrule Field" is probably the most upbeat and adventurous arrangement of them all, and appropriately so. Like several others, it uses acoustic elements set to synthetic backgrounds and beats, and it uses it to great effect. Such a combination ensures both constant interest and emotional expression. Clocking in at just under six minutes, it is also the longest track on the album and therefore undergoes the most development and change. It has several contrasting sections, including one that is largely dissonant, and later places a very large emphasis and live instruments.

"Battle" and "Middle Boss Battle" are both very upbeat and tense, though they don't hold a whole lot of particularly interesting material. They are too repetitive and the drum loops are much too annoying to fully appreciate the tracks. Despite this, they are still fairly solid arrangements that don't hurt the album as a whole.

The most conservative arrangement without a doubt is "Temple of Time." It is merely the original piece with enhanced sound quality. About halfway through, a new female voice part accompanies the male voice, but it doesn't do much to help the track. Similarly conservative is "Shop," which simply keeps the same melody as the original and moves it around throughout the instrumentation. A few new additions, such as the brassy backgrounds, go mostly unnoticed.

"Zelda's Theme" and "Great Fairy Fountain" are both slow and from the heart. They both combine synthetic and acoustic to great effect, and drop the use of repetitive drum loops in favor of glassy synthesizers. They stay fairly faithful to the originals, but some new string material is a breath of fresh air into the melodies and offers a much warmer overall sound.

Summary

Despite containing a few sub-par tracks, as a whole this arranged album is top notch. None of the tracks are bad, and most are a superb experiment with the original material. Fans of the series will love the arrangements, and even if they don't, they still have Hyrule Symphony if they are looking for less 'liberal' arrangements of their favorite pieces. My only true gripe is with the lack of "Gerudo Valley," arguably one of the most popular and loved themes of the entire gaming industry. Overall, this is a fine album, one that fans will likely return to time and time again.

Overview

Arranged albums are interesting in that they take on many different chances. Sometimes their approaches in taking game music soundtracks and upgrading them to various genres (jazz, classical, new age, etc.) are very delightful and every bit as gracious as the game soundtracks themselves. There are also the kinds of albums that intend to do the original music justice, but end up becoming blasphemous, mainly because they take on too many chances. The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time Re-Arranged Album, the second arranged album of the magnificent music from Ocarina Of Time, falls into neither category.

From the beginning, I was told that the music of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time was upgraded to "dance music". I dreaded the thought of hearing one of the most impressive, but grossly underrated, Nintendo 64 soundtracks being butchered by the transition from classical to techno-dance tracks. I was doubtful, even when I finally talked myself into buying it, that it would ever be any good. Upon listening to it, I rank this album on the same level as another Nintendo 64 arranged soundtrack, Mario Kart 64 On Club Circuit, i.e. a mixture of the very good and the very bad.

Body

The very good tracks are the selling points of this rearranged album. Track 4, an attempt to turn "Lon Lon Ranch" into a pop ballad turns out very well, thanks to the excellent vocal performance of Emiko Shiratori. Lovely and jazzy, with a pedal steel guitar and keyboards backing up the vocal (with lyrics written, interestingly, by Shigeru Miyamoto, the man responsible for the creation of this wonderful game), this track is an absolute delight. I also enjoyed "Zelda's Theme", a slow, lovely track which features lovely strings, an ocarina (of course!), and synthesizers as the instruments. Best of all, the track remains faithful to the original composition, and adds a beautiful bridge, making this treatment another highlight. "Temple Of Time" is also good; although synthesized, the male choral vocals sounds every bit as mysterious and haunting as ever. It is made even better with the inclusion of a humming male chorus, accompanying female chorus, and occasional bell tolls. If you're looking for a pure, heavenly arrangement of "Temple Of Time", this is about as close as you're going to get.

The rest of the tracks made me either bounce or groan. "Lost Woods", "Middle Boss Battle", and "Hyrule Field Main Theme", although fun to listen to, suffer from occasionally wierd sound effects which really hamper any kind of enjoyment. "Title Theme" is a horrible rendition of the lovely opening song, and "Koume & Kotake's Theme" is too quirky for its own good. "Battle" is intolerable and repetitive, and the last track, my favorite battle track in the soundtrack, "Last Battle", is probably the lamest version I have heard of this furious and dazzling battle track, despite strong percussion beats and occasionally good instruments. The choral vocals on this track are not half as powerful as the ones in the original game version. Perhaps the reason why I am so judgemental on the other tracks is that I honor the music of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time very highly, and to hear it butchered in rock-techno format is probably the worst nightmare Zelda fans can ever have.

Summary

In short, The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Re-Arranged Album offers shining gems and obnoxious trash. It's not a total failure — the excellent tracks make it worth a look. However, unless you are a fan of rocking music with occasionally wierd sound effects and can manage to not groan at your favorite songs being trashed, I'd suggest sticking with the The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Original Soundtrack or even Hyrule Symphony instead. Both albums have a lot more treats to offer than this one does.