Zelda: Twilight Princess soundtracks and the name of Midna's distress song... (lengthy post)

[Crocomire]

Hello, I'm a new user here, and one of the main reasons for me joining this forum is that I want to discuss the lack of an official proper soundtrack for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Obviously the main site focuses on video game soundtracks, so I thought I could meet knowledgeable people who know about Twilight Princess and its matter of a soundtrack on this forum. This is a fairly long read, and I appreciate anyone that takes the time to read this and help me out. But I think the web needs a topic like this, because I cannot find a good site discussing this matter, and with the help I can hopefully get from other users here, I (and others) will be able to direct people here for the truth (hopefully) in the future.

Before we go on, I should point out that there MAY be ever so slight spoilers for TP further on. I will try to refrain from this, but just in case...

Right then, I have two things that I have looked into and want to discuss:

1. The matter of whether there actually is any OFFICIAL soundtrack released by Nintendo for Twilight Princess.

2. Concerning the naming of the song played when Midna is in need of help.

Point 1 - No Official Soundtrack for Twilight Princess?

EDIT: I now understand that apparently, as Nintendo Power is an official part of Nintendo, anything they make is officially part of Nintendo. So the CDs they release titled "official" can be referred to as such material. So when it comes to there being any official soundtracks for TP, we can say yes there is one - from Nintendo Power. But remember that it doesn't contain Midna's distress track which means it doesn't have an official name until SSBB - a point I go on to establish in Point 2.

Starting with point 1, I have done a lot of research into looking at whether an official soundtrack was released by Nintendo for TP. On soundtrack sites everywhere, where you can buy OSTs including other Zelda albums (such as for OoT, MM and TWW), there are never any results for TP. There are no records of a full OST being released by Nintendo. A major thing is that there is no official review at RPG Fan's website for a TP OST either! So, that is surely more proof that there isn't a TP official soundtrack. Everywhere that offers you the ability to download the "official" soundtrack seems to have only self-proclaimed their download as official. There is absolutely no evidence that they were made and released by Nintendo. They are just audio rips from the game.

I found one "official" soundtrack here: http://www.chudahs-corner.com/soundtracks/index.php?catalog=none_122

And this was apparently released as a gift to Nintendo Power subscribers. Personally, I'm not entirely sure that everything Nintendo Power does is fully in sole connection with Nintendo Co. Ltd (the main company in Japan). Could this be considered to be an official Nintendo release? It's like how I remember getting a selection of Zelda tracks on a CD with the magazine 'Nintendo Official Magazine UK' a few years ago. It was definitely no official Nintendo company release - it just seemed slapped together by the mag themselves. And that's the same feeling I get with that TP Nintendo Power disc. It doesn't seem like an official Nintendo album to me.

I've seen what many people consider an official album for TP released by Nintendo though. I cannot find a good webpage for this soundtrack but I've uploaded the apparent front and back covers to view here:

Now, would Nintendo themselves release such a badly organised soundtrack like this? The word "official" is missing the second letter "i" for starters. There are also misspellings and such on the back cover too. "Ilia's Theme" is missing the apostrophe for one. Certain other spellings look like bad English, as if it's been written by someone who doesn't speak the language. From what I remember as well, the "End Credits" track also contains the voice effects of the characters like Midna and Link when they are talking in front of the mirror at the end of the game. Would an official track have the voice effects in there? I don't think so. Sounds like a direct game rip to me. Not to mention the whole thing looks like a very basic Photoshop job. It looks far too basic for an official Nintendo release.

I came across a huge game rip here: http://www.thehylia.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1169186127

But again, it's not official as it's a game rip.

So can I be safe in saying that the company Nintendo, of Japan, have not released an official soundtrack at all, anywhere in the world? Is it safe to say that any album claiming to be official is only self-proclaimed and they are actually game rips? The Nintendo Power album is the closest "official" thing we have if they are a part of Nintendo, but even that disc does not have the piano theme played when Midna is in need of help...

Which brings me on to point 2...

Point 2 - Midna's Lament? Midna's Desperate Hour? Midna's Desperation? Midna's... (and so on...)

The theme played when Midna is in distress is a very popular one. You can listen to it here if you're unsure which one I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUXhSvvxmN0

Now, if we look at the previous point of discussion, I think we can conclude that there has been no OFFICIAL soundtrack release for Twilight Princess. The closest we can come to calling any TP album official is the one that certain Nintendo Power subscribers got, and this disc doesn't contain the track in question here.

There are many people out there that refer to this song by many different names. I think the two most popular names are "Midna's Desperate Hour" and "Midna's Lament".

Let me get this out there before I go on - it doesn't matter what you call the song. Pretty much everybody knows which song you're talking about when you call it by the name you use, whether that be Midna's Desperate Hour, Midna's Lament, Midna's Distress, Midna's Desperation... Whatever. The point I want to make is about the song's OFFICIAL title. If you don't care about it's real name or what it is or isn't, then please refrain from getting pissed off at this. But I just want to get this discussion out there for people that do wish to understand about the song's official name.

Anyway.

The point I make about there not being any official soundtrack for TP means that all track names have been named by fans. That includes tracks played during particular scenes in the game, and definitely includes the theme played when Midna is in trouble. My take on this is that someone appropriately named the song "Midna's Desperate Hour". It's a perfectly fitting name for the song played during this part of the game. Not many would argue it's a bad choice of words. It became popular. It caught on. Soon, loads of people were calling it by this name.

But, why are there other names then? Because other people also came up with their names for this song. "Midna's Distress". "Midna's Desperation". All fitting names, but still different. All of them caught on to different people and became pretty popular. I would say the most popular name is "Midna's Desperate Hour" though.

But, is that the official title of the song?

I don't think so.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl came along, and Nintendo included a variation of this famous tune in the game. In SSBB, Nintendo titled it "Midna's Lament".

Official confirmation of the track's real name?

I think so.

Many people will argue that they are different songs so should have different names, but they are not. They are the same song, but the SSBB version is a variation. An alteration. Variations do not get brand new names in most cases. Some people argue that maybe they couldn't fit the whole name of "Midna's Desperate Hour" into the game, but that's rubbish because there are tons of much longer names than that in Brawl.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Twilight Princess are not the same game, but one game contains the name of the song, the other does not. Seeing as Nintendo has made both games and there has been no official soundtrack for Twilight Princess, the only confirmation we have for the name of this song is in SSBB and it goes by the name of "Midna's Lament".

Feel free to call the song whatever you want, but for those that want to know the official title of the song that Nintendo themselves call it - look no further than Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the title of "Midna's Lament".

Surely the name of a song in a video game made by Nintendo themselves is worth more than fan-made titles and game rips of songs from TP which has no OST at all.

~~~

Phew, finished. Please feel free to post your thoughts and opinions on these matters. I'm hopeful that people can agree with me on this one.

And please understand -- I have absolutely no intention of trying to cause arguments or anything of the sort with this message. I will gladly have civilised chats with anyone who wants to talk about this. Please keep things pleasant and friendly.

I do feel that even if hardly anyone replies to this topic, it is good to just have the topic out there for reference if anybody on the web needs to refer to something like this or is trying to prove something to someone. Or just if somebody wants to learn about these points themselves. It's just handy to have this out there.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this!

Note -- I originally posted this at the Soundroom forum of the RPG Fan website as I thought that it would be a good place to post this sort of discussion. However, I soon found out I was wrong and was directed here as this site focuses more on video game music. I should have thought about OC Remix sooner. A few moderations have been made to my original post from RPG Fan's forums.

[Bleck]

just... just download the game rip

[Crocomire]

just... just download the game rip

Haha. Oh, I have, because that's really the only way to get hold of the music from the game.

I'm not asking about obtaining an OST; the post is more about the fact that there isn't one, and I've written about it to explain to the people that are adamant that there is one, that one doesn't exist.

And that whole dilemma then also confirms that Midna's distress song's true name only came about when SSBB came along -- there was no OST with the track on, thus no official title, until Nintendo themselves named the song in Brawl.

And so many people argue that the real name is not Midna's Lament, arguing that it is Midna's Desperate Hour, or whatever else, when there's no proof for that. There is only proof for Midna's Lament.

[Gollgagh]

so what

edit: wait, why is this site issues?

[Liontamer]

Holy shit, guy. That's way too long of a post over "Midna's Lament". All you had to say was that that's the song name given in Brawl.

To answer your question about Twilight Princess soundtracks, there were two promos, basically the same thing:

http://vgmdb.net/album/4333

http://vgmdb.net/album/9315

Nintendo Power's an officially endorsed magazine, so calling those official track names sounds reasonable to me, especially since there's no other source.

You went to too much trouble debunking that digital album as unofficial, when the album art was clearly slapped together by a fan.

I'm not sure why this was in Site Issues, as it's really not our problem, so I've moved it to Help. BUT since we didn't have that source tune in our database, it'll be added soon. Thanks.

[Crocomire]

Hm, someone originally moved it from Community to Site Issues. Now it's back here.

I guess you're right that I went into too much depth really. But I think I was just trying to disprove the things I have heard people say when trying to say what they think is fact.

And I guess that if Nintendo Power is officially endorsed by Nintendo, it can be accepted as an official soundtrack. And I guess that is also the case for the Nintendo Official Magazine in the UK too. But it's just that the CD's seem so tacky and like such a basic job that they don't scream that official merchandise quality you would expect from soundtracks released outright by the company.

[DarkeSword]

I moved this to Site Issues because I felt it was a valid concern dealing with the title of a track that already has three remixes here. I thought we already had the source tune listed in the db as "Midna's Desperation," as that's the title I used in my submission email for Tattered Slippers. Guess we didn't add it.

OH WELL