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I believe Age of Calamity is a very good game, and it made the wait between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. One thing in particular that stood out to me was its soundtrack, adapting Breath of the Wild’s notoriously subdued music into grand, sweeping pieces to orchestrate the battles. If this is the level of music the Dynasty Warriors games normally have, I may have to look into it more. By coincidence, not two songs in my Omori Medley used the same instruments (Violin and Violins sound very different in musescore so to me it counts), and I like the idea of that because it encourages smarter, more diverse, and more creative instrument choices, so I did that for this medley and probably all future medleys. These are my three favorite songs from the OST (I would have included the Battle of Kakariko Village if I could find sheet music for it) and I love how they turned out.
All tracks were composed by Yumi Tanioka, Reo Utanari, Ryotaro Yagi, and Haruki Yamada
Song 1: The Champion Revali
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LoBq5dOyH4
Score used for reference: https://musescore.com/user/37430174/scores/6598916
Primary key: F minor, D minor
Instruments: Ocarina, Pan Flute, Harmonica, Bandoneon, Classical Guitar (Nylon String Guitar), Acoustic Bass, Drumset
Revali may be a jackass but he has the best theme of the four champions. There are four references within the instrument choice, some that were there originally and some I put in: Ocarina (Hero of Time), Pan Flute (Dragon Roost Island), Classical Guitar (Rito Village Theme), and Bandoneon (Kass). This piece is like a study of two core music concepts 6 8 time and the natural minor. The whole piece is rhythmically based on the 3,3,2,2,2 clave from Dragon Roost Island and explores that from every angle. It also very rarely strays from the lowered 7th of the natural minor. Just like with Bready Steady Go I tried changing the 7ths to the other variant with similarly grizzly results. It sounded gross, slimy, and evil. The lowered 7th and 6th of the natural minor adds melancholy, and because of that this song is as sad as it is powerful.
Song 2: Blades of the Yiga
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZOLmgamks
Score used for reference: https://musescore.com/user/8920281/scores/6604319
Primary key: E minor
Instruments: Piccolo, Flute, Bb Trumpet, Trombone, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Piano, Electric Guitar (Overdrive Guitar), Violins, Cellos, Concert Toms, Bongos, Claves, Chinese Cymbal
The Yiga Clan has never been threatening; without Sooga there would be zero cool Yiga in Hyrule’s history, so this theme is so much stronger than this band of morons deserves. It stays mostly in E Aeolian, occasionally dipping into E Phrygian for some extra menace. Otherwise, it’s difficult to pin down because it uses so much chromaticism. Both this song and the third in this medley are formatted as laying out the groundwork, then repeating the whole song with more added on top, and it throws a lot at the listener the second time.
Song 3: Searching the Lost Woods
Original: https://youtu.be/DUj9kmCP8lI
Score used for reference: https://musescore.com/user/8920281/scores/6546098
Primary key: G minor
Instruments: Oboe, Bassoon, Horn in F, Marimba, Harp, Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass, Acoustic Guitar (Steel String Guitar), Concert Bass Drum, Concert Snare Drum, Cymbal, Cabasa
This is my favorite song from Age of Calamity’s soundtrack. The fact that they took the simple riff that plays in the Lost Woods from Breath of the Wild and extrapolated it into something so beautiful is amazing. That riff (played by a Marimba in my arrangement) uses mostly 2nds, 3rds, and 5ths to lay out a G minor add4 chord and the composition seems to favor moving and harmonizing in fourths, which is not a particularly strong nor consonant interval. So many things here aren’t standard: phrases are irregular in length, instruments come in at odd times, and things rarely sound like they’re going anywhere in particular. It would seem like a random barrage of eighth notes until the second half when the melody comes in and everything clicks. Suddenly it’s all put into context. Searching the Lost Woods is a gorgeous song and I love it.