During the last few years, many of us have struggled to maintain our mental health. Some turn to therapy, friends and family, exercise, and resting to help them recuperate physically and emotionally. My favorite recent instance of self care that I saw by a friend was when they parodied a famous line from Star Wars: A New Hope after a particularly heinous day. They said, “Help me Breath of the Wild. You’re my only hope.”
While some would see this just as a joke, the laid back ability that the game provides to just stroll through such a fully-realized natural world without a real purpose can make it a great game for relieving stress. Because the player is in full control, they can just take a walk and forage for hearty radishes or, if the mood strikes, they can veer off and explore some ruins. With her piece titled “Foraging Melodies”, renowned Zelda composer and remixer Rebecca E. Tripp captures the rejuvenating spirit we seek from Breath of the Wild’s iteration of Hyrule when a new calamity at work, school, or just the world in general has disrupted our peace of mind.
Rebecca E. Tripp combines multiple familiar melodies from the game together to create the soundtrack for a peaceful walk through the wilds of Hyrule. Flourishes of familiar light piano notes play, inviting us to stroll through the fields. Wind instruments also join in and repeat brief, slightly comical sounding melodies from the game, almost as if a rambunctious squirrel has decided to add some laughs to our walk by scrambling up a tree or through an acorn at a faraway Bokoblin.
Every once and a while, lower notes join the melody from another wind instrument, but the calm way that they do so implies mystery rather than danger. What is that growing beneath the tree? Is that the orange glow of a Sheikah Shrine through the branches? Either way, we know that we hold the choice to investigate or ignore. The path for our journey is our own.
In remixing the various relaxing melodies that are the soundtrack of Link foraging for supplies, it invites us to do some foraging of our own. As we listen, we can sort through the various thoughts and feelings of the day, selecting some to pick and cherish in our pack while leaving others behind. This song is an absolute necessity in my adventurer’s pouch when I need to rest and leave the rough spots of my daily journey behind.
