The best thing aboutThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis its emptiness.
In practice, there’s as much to do here as in any Assassin’s Creed or Elder Scrolls.
Guide and perhaps, comment upon.
Sometimes the piano feels like it’s trying to play you, in multiple senses.
It’s not a collection of short slices triggered and reshuffled by player behaviour, as inUntitled Goose Game.
Its worlds are at once sealed away and unlocked, mystified and demystified by their soundtracks.
Take Breath of the Wild’s Lost Woods theme.
The area feels endless because it sounds endless, without quite becoming repetitive.
The piano music of Hyrule’s wider landscape is less insistent, but in its way, similarly manipulative.
It thrills and disarms with lingering, unreadable silences.
It nudges and invites, leaving a phrase open for you to complete in some fashion.
It breaks from the monolithic scores of older Zeldas, but its still an imposing presence.
On the one hand, Pink Floyd, Oasis and The Doors.
The outcome, either way, is that I feel delighted.
