A lot of twilight princess’s soundtrack sounds synthetic because the twilight realm and its inhabitants are supposed to feel unnatural and other worldly. This theme perfectly captures Zant because he is always presented as such a dark and threatening force in your way the entire game. However when you encounter him here you see how twisted he really is as over the course of the fight his mental state devolves. He becomes more frantic and unpredictable as you slash away at his health and he completely loses the imposing nature for a chaotic one like a child throwing a tantrum. That’s why the changes in the song are so bizarre to reflect his fragile sanity. When he starts to lose it drives him mad.I love your content and had to watch this immediately since zelda is my favourite gaming franchise!
I mean, the fact that he's going through multiple different arenas with link during the battle and has the themes that played there incorporated makes this even more chaotic. So a combination of his fragile sanity and a chaotic environment is captured by this frantic theme gloriously.
That doesn't really excuse the Hyrule Field themes also sounding loud and old though.... or the rest of the game for that matter. The night theme literally uses the same choir midi as Malon from 1997.
@@Convicted_Melon I don't know where you get the loud thing, but Twilight Princess's soundtrack is almost 6 hours long, try to add 6 hours of non midi music in a small 1.5GB Gamecube disc. And choosing Malon's voice is deliberate.
@@saricubra2867 Deliberate to serve what exactly? Sounding distractingly bad? Was Midna's lament cutting out literally every time you encounter an enemy also deliberate? also, Melee's OST is about the same length, maybe even longer, and features much better sound samples and half the OST is even fully orchestrated. It came out in 2001.
I loved watching Atlus's confused face throughout the song, it was priceless 🤣 but man, Zant's fight and music is one of my favorite things within the Zelda games. It's so memorable and unique and the song really shows Zant's insanity. A++ song
1) In the game Zant is a mindless and crazy usurpator that killed many or transformed them into beast-slaves. The bossfight is a mixture of all of the bosses before him and their OSTs. 2) Some amazing OST to react to: -submerged castle (Pikmin 2) -twin princes or Aldrich (Dark Souls 3) -"apetitan" (attack on Titan) [it supports one of the best, most epic, heroic and saddest scenes in the entire series]
Zant was a rather strange villain from a very dark, unsettling realm. When fighting him, he mimics the bosses you faced earlier in the game. It only fits for his theme to mirror these facts. To this day, I do not know why Twilight Princess was as unpopular as it was (admittingly the first dungeon was pretty bad IMO; there was a lot of climbing and Link climbed *VERY* slow in this game). If you loved Ocarina of Time, check out the "Sacred Grove theme" from Twilight Princess (the "GilvaSunner" upload if you choose to). You should recognize a little... something in that song. The area in of itself and what/who you find in there is a bit bittersweet if you ever do a playthrough. Other than that, maybe shake things up a bit with Red Dead Redemption 2's "May I Stand Unshaken" or the crowd's favorite "American Venom". Just be careful of spoilers of that game if you ever want to play it, it's very story driven and I'd hate for someone to *not* go into the game blind.
As far as I recall, Twilight Princess was VERY popular back during the time it released. And if you combine sales copies across multiple systems, it's apparently the 2nd best selling Zelda title behind Breath of the Wild. It wasn't really until the mid-2010s that the general consensus started to shift a bit and people would become more critical of it. Just personally speaking here, but I love Twilight Princess. It has some of my favorite dungeons, story beats, and atmospheric touches in the franchise. I understand why some fans may take issue with it (I agree with folks that the pacing may be too slow), however I can't help but miss a lot of the things that Twilight Princess was trying to achieve, in regards to the feelings it attempts to convey and the elements of Dark Fantasy it provided throughout. While I don't want to see something exactly like it again (I think that would take some of the specialness away from TP) it'd be nice to see some similar ideas to it return, perhaps in the sequel to Breath of the Wild. Fingers crossed.
@@LupinticDream I like that they actually managed to make the game have some dark tension. The Arbiter's Grounds is probably my second favorite dungeon in the series. I hope they go more into this vein in future games because they really outdid themselves with that one.
It was really popular at release. And there's a lot of people who want it on switch. It's the second highest selling Zelda game (botw being higher). Personally, it's my favorite zelda title.
You should react to the actual boss fight. You would be able to make some sense of the story behind the character shown through the song, from a calm collected evil mastermind to a crazy lunatic throwing anything and everything he can at you.
You should listen to Twilight Symphony's interpretation of this track. Its incredible. Its generally a well done orchestral interpretation and I think it realizes the track's full potential.
Mann, hearing the soundtrack makes me remember how fun that boss fight was XD Switching through countless zones, fighting Zant at areas of the previous bosses, using the items you gathered from each boss fight over the game, it was amazinggggg Also, if u ever have the time, totally recommend twilight princess!
Since Mass Effect: Legendary edition just came out, I’d love to see Atlus listen to some music from the trilogy, such as Suicide Mission from ME2 or Leaving Earth from ME3.
Dude I can't believe you took this so nonchalantly, if I hadn't heard this like 15 years ago my brain would've melted For some reason 7:14 cracks me up more than any other part lmao And real talk, who knows what the hell those samples actually are... Like, I know the game, and I know the tracks that they come from, but I have absolutely no clue what they're supposed to be
I can't believe that this of all things was your first zelda track. Of all the tracks in the entire series, THIS was chosen for the first breakdown??? What an introduction 😆
@@AtlasBenighted i think you better try the zelda track "gerudo valley" from oot or maybe "midna's lament" if you want in twilight princess, those are like 0.1% of the best zelda track i get in mind
Its a strange piece because each new section is representative of each of the boss battles you fight throughout the game - he makes you fight him in synthetic versions of the boss arenas before losing his cool and fighting you outside hyrule castle
Idk, Midna's Lament is beautiful, but from a compositional perspective it's very simple, I don't think there's tat much to go into from that side of things especially without the emotional connection to Midna that gave that track and that whole section as much impact as it had. I think if he's gonna react to something else from TP then it'd be a location. Twilight would be awesome for him to dissect, I'd love to hear him do a breakdown of a semi-atonal track like that. City in the Sky would be awesome too.
YESSSS I was hoping a Zelda reaction since it's my favourite franchise and you even did one of Twilight Princess, my favourite game! Edit: Also, this ost makes more sense while hearing during the fight. I love it because even tho it seems strange it fits the battle perfectly.
Zant IS strange, that's the point xD Very ehm Erratic, I'd say. I especially like the one you hear during his final stage and the first boss stage (ze monkey arena).
I think they purposely made this theme sound unstable because the Zant himself is portrayed as insane and unstable. As for the frequent changes in the song, there isn't really a main theme to the battle because the gimmick of this fight is that you are being teleported to the arenas of other boss battles in the game, and each part of the song represents a different boss you've fought before. For the final fast sounding part, in this part of the battle, Zant completely loses it because he keeps losing to you, going into a rage of fast sword swipes and a lot of teleportation. Like I said, this theme is supposed to represent Zant's insanity, which is why it sounds like it does.
i know this is unrelated but since you reacted to berserk songs i have to let you know the creator of berserk died with his work unfinished, R.I.P Kentaro miura.
@@WilliamGeesdorf Miyazaki is going to be sad after this, fortunately it's more than likely that he finished the script, and his assistants learned to mimic his style, they can keep the torch lit and continue his legacy, he actually died two weeks ago from what i've seen, but they decided to keep it private for awhile for the family to mourn in peace, so that's good too, altough what's sad is that his death was far from painless. Like guts said "He died doing what he loved" "That's all that matters"
This boss fight and theme are probably one of the most memorable boss fights in video games for me. Seeing Zant throw everything he has at you from previous boss battles, only to realize it isnt working and quickly being driven to insanity is so well made. The song perfectly encapsulates his chaotic nature and madness.
to explain the soundtrack a bit: Zant is an Usurper King to the Twili (the inhabitants of the realm of twilight), he himself was fairly weak, physically and mentally - he was a power hungry wimp, he tried to assassinate the actual Ruler of the Twili but failed after that failure he got approached by the essence of Ganon (the big bad evil of the Zelda franchise), which basically offered him absolute power - Zant accepted immediately with that power he cursed the actual Ruler, transformed the Twili into aggressive beasts, and started a coordinated attack on the World of Light he won in the game you fight against the shadow and cleans the realm until you start a counter attack on the Realm of Twilight and finally you start fighting Zant in his own Throne-Room as I said before - Zant is fairly weak himself, so he just uses Ganon's power to copy the previous bosses of the game - he teleports you to the different boss arenas (the transitions between the melodies) and forces you to adapt on the point, use all items you collected, and remember the previous boss-strats but Zant does not fully grasp what made these bosses so dangerous so he just fails consistently to copy them (oh? boss was big and dropped themselves on the player? - try to copy that! - the actual danger was the positioning of the boss, not the size - etc.) so you defeat Zant over and over, he tries more and more, but he loses it he loses his grip on the borrowed power, he loses his grasp on his sanity the music reflects that with the glitches that slowly creep up upon the listener, some start with the actual boss theme that Zant tries to copy, but after the first couple notes the theme fades out (-> Zant's failing to understand) in the final stage Zant just teleports you to an empty field, no tricks, no bosses to copy he lost his sanity entirely, and just blindly attacks with furious rage - in this stage all themes just try to play simultaneously, no structure, just chaos - as is the fight, as Zant does not know how to use weapons or fight in any capacity overall this is the best fight in the Zelda Franchise to me, you need to use all you have learned and collected in your adventure to best this foe, all accompanied by a song that perfectly reflects the combat situation Zant is one of my fav Zelda villains because of it... I think the soundtrack has more impact with the actual boss fight on screen, maybe worth a revisit at some point :)
I don't believe it, the legend of zelda twilight princess is one of my childhood games that I loved the most, I'm really glad you made a reaction. Thanks you ATLAS.
This type of music works best in the context of fighting the boss. It fits perfectly with the boss you fight, but listening outside the game seems a little strange at first.
ATLAS, the song may sound a bit weird to u but that’s cause each of the different parts of this song we’re going along with what was going on in the game 😎
I love this soundtrack so much. The deal with how weird it is is this: Zant is a wild and frankly insane character, and during his boss battle, he mimics previous boss fights. The music reflects that by taking their motifs and just absolutely destroys them, warps them allllllmost beyond recognition, but not quite.
I love how _wet_ those drums sound in this song. It's like halfway between an actual drum beat and the sound of clicking your tongue or an unvoiced "P" sound. So "slappy" and loose-feeling, perfectly complimenting the song's flightiness and refusal to stick to a motif for more than thirty seconds
Next do Ghirahim battle theme! There are three versions. Maybe you can spot the differences? Ghirahim battle theme 1, 2 and final. Also from the Legend of Zelda.
Since you found Zant's theme... "interesting", I'll be patiently waiting for you to react to Last Battle from Chrono Trigger. Such unfettered insanity! (Something to keep in mind though: this is an SNES game and as such its music was made in full MIDI format)
At the beginning you mention diminished chords. I always thought the chords were played in reverse in several places. Kept in the same progression but reversed to make them sound alien. I’ve had no confirmation of this but it’s just what it’s sounded like to me.
This bossfight is essentially a gauntlet of past bosses, so it plays low-quality snippets of past boss themes in the background throughout, hence the constant changing themes of the music
Underrated Zelda game. I don't remember most of the songs, but the dark tone added to the game makes them very unique and distinguished from the franchise. Also, react to the song Malicious Fingers, from Star Ocean Till the end of time. Underrated game too, very cool songs
I'm still getting used to Atlas ASMR microphone XD. Anyways, this Zelda game was weird for me, it feels like the Sonic Unleashed of Zelda. But i gotta say, Zant's theme is one of those themes that feel "incomplete" without gameplay. Great breakdown as always Atlas!
As for the 'sounds dated' effect of the soundtrack: I once got my hands on a folder of the ripped audio from Wind Waker (the first Gamecube LoZ) and noticed that the music audio is basically split down into its basic components (which all sound more or less synthesized - I vividly remember the choir sounds of Wind Waker) and gets mixed together at run-time. Nothing fully preorchestrated. I don't know if that saved disc space (since the GC discs were very small) or if that enabled more dynamic changes in the audio or all of the above, but that might explain the particular sound of the GC LoZ soundtracks.
The most important part of this track is something you can't get without listening to the rest of the soundtrack. Zant's battle theme implements elements from every boss fight you've done up to that point as his fights transports you to each of the areas you fought these bosses
Using midi for Zelda at this point was a choice I am pretty sure. There were other gamecube games with more realistic soundtrack. They did make a orchestrated soundtrack for the 2011 wii game, Skyward Sword, but I personally prefer the traditional midi soundtracks. Also, listening to this track without context will sound really weird. This track is from the Zant bossfight, which has multiple different parts, and the instrument changes happen whenever you move to the next part, and the phases themselves represent previous fights from the game
The reason it sounds like an N64 soundtrack is because the samples used in the musical callbacks are intentionally low-fi. So whenever the song calls back to a previous boss, it sounds like it's coming out of an old speaker, to give it a sort of old-timey vibe. If you listen to the original songs which it's referencing, you'll hear much more clear samples.
If only he played twilight princess he would see that each change in the song is just a remix of previous boss fights but his reaction makes it soo good
This theme honestly encapsulates the insanity of Zant perfectly in my opinion. Especially at 7:40 when he stops mimicking other boss fights and just decends into complete madness flailing wildly at you with two swords. Creeped the hell out when I was little.
Ahh Childhood memories. I remember Zanto being one of the harder Bosses in the Game. But that was long before i startet playing all this soulslike games.
I'm not sure if anyone else wants this, but I'd suggest a reaction to a touhou song, there are excellent tracks there, with my personal suggestion being voyage 1969, it's an awesome soundtrack in general
There’s a video called “Blizzeta Battle - Second Half” and you should consider reacting to it if you haven’t already heard it! Imo one of the best tracks in all of Zelda
This is one of my favorite boss fights because of how chaotic and confusing it was. It took me a bit to figure out how to beat it. Even tho it’s a good soundtrack, the instrumental version from the twilight symphony sounds better
Hmmmm. I think you should react to "Angel of Doom", composer Shiro Sagisu from "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (not) Alone" anime. Incredible for me, and this track especially well complements what's happening on screen
The console had the hardware, the way I see it that the use of a more "minimalist" use of instruments it's a stylistic choice. On the other hand, this track specifically, the in-context thematic is supposed to feel alien, so the synthetic ost is the best choice.. Many of the notes are intentionally left with heavy attack and no decay to depict the feel of trespassing into danger. These 2 sections (6:17 AND 6:56 ) are good examples.
you should react to bleach osts, if you haven't already. Edit: the songs i recommend checking out are: treachery, Fade to black BO3 , On the precipice of defeat, La Distancia Para Un Duelo, Clavar la Espada, Pleasure of combat...and many more i just can't name all of them.
Yeah, the GameCube definitely can have better sound/music than the N64, (check out the Super Smash Bros Melee soundtrack) I don't know why they chose to use MIDI for this game. Seems like a waste, IMO.
I have a question; what would you think about reviewing the differences in original tracks and and remixes/covers? I have a curiosity of what you would think of a certain tune over a span of 3 different versions; the original, an OCRemix version, (OCRemix is a community of video game music remixers) and an official latest version. It would be a different format for sure and possibly a longer video, but I feel it would be interesting. You may have done this before though, I'll have to check your library of videos.
please listen to me, there is this anime named KAZE GA TSYOKU FUITERU or RUN WITH THE WIND in english, it is not a famous anime it talks about running, i think it is the anime with the best ost evere
The problem with this breakdown was that, they asked you to analyze this battle theme without first listening to all the boss battle themes (from the same game) referenced in this track. About the sound quality... yeah, it's kinda a Nintendo thing they had at the time, they were in a "we don't need great graphics/sound to make a good game" phase (still are, their consoles' specs are always lower than their competition's), but the gamecube had good soundtracks, listen to something from Tales of Symphonia or Baten Kaitos.
Can you react to monster hunter world or rise ost ? There are some bangers : Safi jiva theme world Raging brachydios theme world Chameleos theme rise Fatalis theme world You already did kulve taroth and it was q diamond badge !
Zant is... interesting, to say the least. Throughout Twilight Princess he's spoken of and presented as this otherworldly, cold, calculated, ruthless and untouchable tyrant. But when you finally confront him in the second-to-last stretch of the game? Zant starts to realize that his whole bit might just be falling apart, and even as he's talking before the fight he starts losing it and displaying these freaky contortions, eerie inhuman sounds and weird frantic mini-tantrums. And he progressively gets angrier and angrier through the fight that follows, with his voice getting higher and more shrill with every phase and his various fighting methods slowly making less and less sense. By the last phase where he stops going through the old boss arenas and fights you blade-to-blade in front of Hyrule Castle? Zant _completely flips his cookies!_ He just goes totally off the wall with wild slashes, lunges that look more akin to a child's stomping tantrum, and coming at you with crazy hurricane-spins that will knock you clean off your feet if they connect, all the while teleporting at complete random and doing so more as he takes damage. It's just a spastic, chaotic display of freakish nonsense and I love it. The music definitely suits it to a tee, too.
So for this, they basically took all the other boss themes blended them together, messed up some notes and then threw some filter on it and called it a day... Zant is build up as this incredibly threatening villain throughout the game but then you find out that hes really just the second fiddle to the actual main villain... so when you face him hes just this bumbeling bafoon whos been given way to much power for everyones good. Btw all the Twilight Princess songs have superior version from the HD remaster that released on WiiU that version has fully orchestral sound.
Chaos is the only way to describe it. It's hilarious. The reason it's so all over the place is because the boss fight itself plays like that. The battleground and gameplay shifts to take on the styles of every single other boss fight prior to this. The song changes so much because the fight also changes to copy the layout of atleast 8 other fights
I'm loving this game so much!! I still didn't hear all the OST in the game, but i think Midnas lament and the first orchestra piece themes are really beautiful✨
i feel like its impossible to appreciate this song fully without knowing the context of it being a medley of distorted previous boss songs, which is also what the actual fight is it constantly teleports you in different arenas with different moveset
There are like 8 or so phases in this battle and there is a specific part the plays every time the phase and music changes. Additionally most of this track besides the parts that stay the same though out are distorted and/or compressed versions of other themes
The GameCube had the most cutting edge hardware of the generation, Twilight Princess just happens to use this type of distortion on purpose for pieces related to the twilight realm.
Could you listen to the risk of rain 2 ost. The two songs that I think you should listen are your gonna need a bigger ukelele. This song is the final boss music. And con latitude (I can't remember the full name. This song is the final stages theme.
