Style: video game music
Primary Emotions/Themes: One of the definitive soundtracks not just on the SNES, but in all of video games
Thoughts: I'm going to try to keep this short, but truly this entry deserves a full essay to it's importance. The Legend of Zelda is one of the most important game franchises in the history of gaming, and Link to the Past may very well be the finest game in that series. Outside of the gameplay elements, the music in this game created the foundation for many of the ongoing themes found in every single game hereafter.
For this though I want to try and just focus in on the music. Link to the Past took the musical themes found in the first two games and expanded on them with the SNES' improved sound chip. The songs are more involved, the instruments more grand, the compositions more dynamic... everything is bigger and better. It's a showcase on what the system could do.
I really love how whimsical yet entirely serious the soundtrack sounds at nearly all points. With the main Zelda theme on the overworld being the central focus of the game it makes sense that this is the triumphant anthem that it is. For a lot of the worlds sub areas we get similar instruments used, but with different arrangements, it's a cool feature that I never really noticed the first time playing the game.
I'm going to have to stop myself here, I feel like I could go on forever for this one. This is one of the very few soundtracks I had been missing from my collection that I desperately wanted. Now that it's in my collection I can finally say that I have every essential Zelda album.
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