Categories: Switch

How The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sound effects were made

Nintendo has updated their Japanese Legend of Zelda blog with an insight of how sound effects were made for the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The article has been translated into English for your reading.

Hello, this is Hikino, who was in charge of sound effects and audio for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

To completely immerse players in the world of Hyrule, every sound effect was carefully crafted one by one. Let me show you how the sounds of Link’s footsteps and equipment were made.

Firstly, we cooperated with Sound Racer, a sound effects studio which recorded over 10,000 different types of sounds.

To create the normal sound of footsteps, we mixed various types of sands. As for the sound of equipment, we looked for combinations of different materials and figure out ways to use them. We faced many hardships, as blocks of ice will melt or break whenever we walked on them, and the studio was filled with a grassy odor as we continuously stepped on grass.

By the way, you may not have noticed in the photo, but the sound of Link’s footsteps were made by a woman.

Depending on the type of Link’s action and equipment, the recorded sounds were individually separated. Parts of the recording had their volume adjusted to make a certain sound stand out.

For example, let’s take a look at the sound of footsteps. Perhaps you may not be aware of it while playing, but listen from time to time again and you will realize the difference between walking on grass and snow.

We made various sound effects which are similar in principle to the footsteps.