Something I find no one really mentions is why Zant's Boss Battle just being a rehash of previous bosses fits him so perfectly. It shows that he literally has no ability to do things himself, like how he never would've started the events of the game without Ganondorf. He relies on others to do what we wants.
you're so right on that. zant is a thoroughly fascinating character that can be looked at from so many perspectives, and his general powerlessness by the end is just the cherry on top. i want to add another perspective to your comment, though: while, indeed, the rehash can be seen as his incompetence, there could be another layer there. every single boss he rehashes was *his* work, a beast of his making and his precise cruelty. at the time you reach the twilight palace, ganondorf has already begun manifesting back in Hyrule. so what if.... his rehashing is actually a sign of Ganondorf's power petering out? he seems SO convinced Ganondorf will revive him, his most loyal subject, but the Big Man doesn't do that whatsoever. he's running out of things to throw at Link because Ganondorf has abandoned him, and refuses to fall back on his original magic source (which, according to Hyrule Historia, he was a prodigy at), considering he'd mocked it in front of Midna earlier. he's dug himself a hole and thinks maybe he can dig back out the other side of the planet if he just throws enough stuff at you. the final battle is a beautiful cocktail of his own ego, his denial, his desperation, his powerlessness, his lust for power, and his descent into madness. what a character! (sorry for the essay, i like this dude a lot)
It’s so perfectly reflected even in his title, The USURPER King. He didn’t really earn any of that power, it was given to him in exchange for his loyalty.
To add to this, when you get to the final phase of his fight and he's all out of tricks to copy, he doesn't fight with any semblance of skill- He's quite literally flailing about hoping it works.
@@phoenixchampion7All while fighting Link a now battle hardened warrior trained by the freaking hero of time himself with a suped up master sword Zant never stood a chance.
Just did a replay of the game. During the bit in the boss monkeys arena, I noticed that when you knock him off a totem he didn’t just hit the ground. He got stuck in the ground. His spiky helmet stabs into the ground and he struggles to break out while you run over to hit him. That’s gold. That’s on the same level as in hyrule warriors where he says “ouchie” when hit.
I really love what they did with him in HW, iirc every strong attack he has (that fills his meter) is taken directly from this fight, and when you fail them by filling up the meter too much, he gets owned in the same way too (falling off the totem, stubbing his toe when giant)
Heard this song in full for the first time today and that was the only thought going through my head. No hard moments in TP, only moments that *go* hard
Dude I love that they just cobbled all the previous motifs and distorted/chopped them up. It's also a nice touch how, as the fight advances and Zant gets more frustrated with your competence, more and more drum and bass elements are introduced, culminating in the frantic breakcore and flurry of sped-up samples that perfectly line up with his crazed demeanor in the final phase. Of course, this all might seem obvious to some, but it's the sign of a skilled artist when you can derive a message from a piece without needing to have it explained.
It's because he's like a spoiled kid that's getting his toys taken away. He could act all cool when he was a godlike being compared to everyone around him but once he's actually being challenged on equal footing he falls apart.
Gotta love how the first phase sounds so calm and composed yet so tense. And then by the end when Zant’s at the end of his rope, the music is just as manic and unhinged as he is.
0:09 Forest Temple boss room - item required: gale boomerang 1:02 Goron Mines mini-boss room - item required: iron boots 1:55 Lakebed Temple boss room - items required: Zora Armor, iron boots and clawshot 2:46 Forest Temple mini-boss room 3:25 Snowpeak Ruins bedroom - item required: ball and chain 4:10 Hyrule field south of castle town - final battle
I like how the Tribal Drumming is the baseline for the theme, Showing perhaps the simple nature of Twili Life, And then you have ominous organ music and electronic music that represents Ganon's malevolant corruption.
I think you’re spot on with the drums and organ. But I think the electric music is zants ambitions. Usually (least from what I remember of the game) techno motifs were primarily used in twilight stuff. Especially since when you do actually fight Ganondorf, his beast form (which is just twili and no zant) it heavily uses drums. While his final phase as ganondorf is HEAVILY organ.
Ganon didn't corrupt Zant. Zant was always a power-hungry lunatic. That's the reason the Twili wouldn't choose him as leader and picked Midna over him. As Midna says "They could see the lust for power in your pupils" all Ganondorf did was give him real power and a mission (although Zant hated the light worlders anyway)
During the fight it's so intense that i didn't really focus much on the music except at the hyrule castle part. But listening to this without the intense fight and the attack sounds... it's honestly just creepy, probably because it just cuts off and gets back so remixed even thought you're used to knowing the normal versions. And something which doesn't have to do with creepy - on the game box for the game there is a screenshot of the ice part of the fight and because i was small and had no idea for most of the part i thought that small Zant with his leg in his arm was some kind of shopkeeper because he was so small and didn't look like he literally tried to crush link with that leg probably just a few seconds ago.
@@eatmildew2062 Newsflash. Breakcore is not the first and only style of music to use broken up instrument sounds. It's actually one of the _worst_ genres for this specific thing because it's leaning way too hard into the broken up instruments. It has the same flavor as Nightcore. And we all know how... "Good" Nightcore sounds...
love seeing people just recently commenting on this hehe, i come back to listen to this at least once a month!! one of my favorite tracks out of a game ost ever :]
Zant has to be my favorite villain in the Zelda franchise. He gets built up as some arrogant but calculating genius only for his facade to come crashing down when you finally confront him. My theory is that the face he puts up for the vast majority of the game until his boss battle is just a facade that he puts up because he wants to be respected, seem menacing and even feared by others. His true self is the one we fight, he's a crazed psychopath with a desire for power and vengeance. But also, think about it. Zant had won at the beginning of the game. The Shadow Beasts destroyed Hyrule's army and Zelda herself had submitted to him. His only mistake was not killing Midna, if he hadn't done that, Link by himself wouldn't have been enough. At first he seems to laugh at your resistance but then he starts taking it seriously, until all the frustration boils over into his figurative mask breaking when you confront him. All that he'd done was undone by Link and Midna. That's something I can sympathize with, everything he'd accomplished until then had come crashing down no matter how hard he fought, honestly? I can't blame the guy for going crazy after all of that, especially considering his reason for vengeance as well, you can tell it's not JUST power he wants. He wants justice too.
@@SapphyrKhaos that's the charm of Musou games, characters you would never dreamt of being playable have a high chance of becoming playable on Musou spin-offs
3:25 i spent at least 40 minutes listning to this because i fought zant without the ball and chain not knowing i went to city in the sky before snowpeak and twmple of time. so i didjnt know whay i had to do because i didnt knoe a snow boss so i thought it was bombs
Fun fact, Zant is not the "main bad" like Ganondorf because he is the archetype of the "mad king". He's just corrupted by power until he's driven insane. Ganondorf by contrast is always the embodiment of evil. Plus shows Ganondorf is always in control of the situation and just uses Zant.
The more you advance in these battles the more crazy and desperate Zant becomes. Until he losts himself at Hyrule Field. I love that this is not copy-paste battles like WW.
I read all the comment and listen the song like 18 time , that's fire. This video game still one of my favorite and i can say easy that's my fav zelda video game
One of the best songs in the franchise. I thought Zant was a good change from Ganon all the time (despite him being the final anyways). The intro is nice and chilling. But the monkey and Blizzeta reprisals are THE best parts of the song. I love how the whole song is just a combination of almost every boss just like the fight.
I remember when I watched my cousin fight this boss, and he actually died a couple times trying to beat it, but he eventually got it. I then got to this part on my own file, and I got through it in one try. It's definitely a hard fight, no matter what, though. Everything you've done all leads up to this, so your knowledge really comes in handy.
its more technically complex than you'd think. to get all those different sounds off the same bongo drum you have to hit it a lot of different ways and then stay consistent for that long.
@@mtgstudios1556 hmm. It could also be sampling at different rates, like multiple parts of the bongos playing are all played at the same time Or think like how smooth mcgroove does his Acapellas Edit: or all those floppy drives making music do it
What genre is this other than dnb? Like i wanna find more music that does the same with the specific chopped distorted sound samples. It strangely reminds me of Splatoons music XD
