A silly fun little project I've been working on for the past few months while I've been replaying Dragon Age Inquisition with my 1st timeline Inquisitor.
It always bothers me when video games get an official soundtrack release and it turns out to be somewhat lackluster. In DAI's case, the official soundtrack was missing some of the best pieces, while other tracks had been re-mastered in a strange way (adding extra instruments, removing instruments, and incurring many more victims of the loudness war).
So, I extracted some audio files from the game using Frosty Tools, and set about trying to rebuild a proper score tracklist. My goal was to aim for something that more closely adheres to the music that is actually heard in the game, using my own gameplay clips as reference for what plays when and in what order. With perhaps a bit of creative freedom for fun and whimsy.
Tracks assembled and edited in Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio. Tags edited with MP3Tag.
Now including scores for The Descent and Trespasser DLCs as well. Might do a "misc" album later on for the few tracks that didn't make the cut.
[Apparel] Scavenger's Weapons, Journeyman Satchels, Powerpack Coat, Black Cat, Shabby Top Hat, Dented Iron Boots, Ruthless Claws, Copper Steampunk Goggles
[VIDEO DESCRIPTION] The scene is a dusty, foggy desert location as the Fallout 4 Main Theme plays. A shadowed figure approaches and the fog clears to reveal a long-necked dragon yellow dragon with green accents. He's wearing apparel that appears scavenged and a shabby brown top hat. On top of his head stands a black cat who is wearing an identical top hat. A talk module that reads JAKE and Talk appears and then disappears. The BEAN and Talk module then appears next to the cat. The cat is selected and the following green text appears on the screen: Another settlement needs our help. I'll mark it on your map. Above the pair the following words appear: Scarred Wasteland, Talk to the dragons at Quarantine Zone #128. After a moment all of the overlaid text fades off screen. The talk modules appear and disappear in rapid succession as the video fades to black.
I found out only yesterday that Inon Zur has removed most of his work, including the Starfield OST, from iTunes and, therefore, Apple Music :(
I’d rather buy it, preferably a physical copy, but it only seems available to buy digitally through Amazon or Steam. Has anyone else bought it that way? Have you been able to transfer it to your iTunes library without issues?
I love listening to it as I write, and I miss it 😢
I will say Fallout 4 wasn't a good game - however - Inon Zur is a fantastic composer, and elevates the atmosphere into one that saves the game from being a complete mess.
The Dragon Age Vibes™️ I am getting from every game are just so... fundamentally different from each other, it's amazing. I don't know shit about music, BUTT!
DA:O ist just giving of this Dark Fantasy Vibe, like you and the people in your camp are the only people left in this world. I have these strong feelings of loneliness when playing this game and the fact that Ferelden itself is just this typical medival fantasy-europe with low population density is not helping. They have their lords sitting in their freezing castles and their uncharted territory in the south, populated by clans who don't follow the crown and just... live there, I guess.
Ferelden is just this fantasy-pseudo-Britain and they love wardogs and bland stew and have bad weather and it's cold and every foreigner and their mother disses Ferelden for it's love for dogs and it's plainness. Which makes me defend this country even more! Also they defeated the evil frenchmen with an old witch being a dragon!!!1!
The plot is just this typical "you are the chosen one to save the world!" And that's ok! It fits the theme!
Also the whole entchanted feeling I am getting from the old ruins of long lost civilisations combined with the music is STRONG in this game.
Anyway MUSIC is a very good point! The music in DA:O is just... amazing. Inon Zur gave it such a specific vibe (from epic and gloomy to the nice clarinette elven-theme) and I love it.
Dragon Age 2 on the other hand... Boy. First I thought it was just similar to DA:O (same composer) BUTT!!! I was wrong! After playing DA2 again I think it might have similar tunes and style, but the vibe is different.
DA2 is more... homey(??), the scale of the world is smaler. You're not anymore a hobo living in the ferelden countryside. You're a ferelden refugee living in the Thedas-Version of You Can't Have Shit In Detroit Gomorrah. Kirkwall is an actual big city, there are actual people there and the feeling of isolation isn't as strong as is was in DA:O. The apocalyptic danger is over, the world was already saved and you are NOT the chosen one.
I love, love, LOVE that you have an actual family. You have your mum, your sibling and a ton of friends from different backgrounds who live their own lives! You are not forced to chill in the same camp every night, they actually have own goals in live! The plot develops over 7 years which always gave me the feeling that these friendships I build actually solidified over a long time.
And the music... The thing with Kirkwall is: it's not Ferelden. It's not this medival-esque city. It in fact has a forging industry. It's almost like I took a step from the 1400s to the industrial revolution during the 1800s.
And the music OH GOD, THE KIRKWALL THEME! It's sooo unsettling because I can't really place it anywhere in my brain! It's nothing I ever heard before with these string instruments (sorry, I'm bad at recognizing instruments) and I think it's supposed to be all towering and mighty and gloomy, uwu I'm a big city of the Free Marches!
But no. All this Theme makes me feel is... Kirkwall. This music is just this sleezy, dirty, dangerous, criminal-ridden fugly city and nothing else. It makes me feel kinda hopeless, like you're never gonna make it in this horrible, gloomy place but that's ok. That's Kirkwall, I'm supposed to hate this place.
And the Qunari... Omg. The theme for the Qunari/Arishok has something so foreign, fresh and NEW! The wind and string instruments in their theme give them an foreign (almost oriental-ish(??)) vibe, like they're from a far away place (they are. DUH!). And also the Kirkwall-Theme itself is NO typical pseudo-medival-europe-theme. It's something completly different, something of it's own.
I don't care how much hate DA2 got, I love it! Just the vibes are... chefskiss.
...
Trever Morris also did a good job in DAI.
I LOVE THE LOST ELVE THEME AND THE THEDAS LOVE THEME! THE LOVE THEME IS BEST OF ALL LOVE-THEMES, FIGHT ME!
So I was standing around inside Din'an Hanin for a little too long and ended up noticing something I'd never picked up on before.
If you listen closely to the wind in the Tomb Of The Emerald Knight, you can just barely hear the music from Nature Of The Beast, echoing in the background, layered into the soundscape design.
I wasn't sure at first, but that deep creaking/groaning noise is so distinct. Like, I'm not imagining it yeah? anyway i love that there's always more to discover in these games :)
Inon Zur - Syberia: The World Before Original Game Soundtrack | Decca Records US | 2022 | Brown Translucent with Black Smoke + Blue & Light Blue Marble