It's In Restraint That Elden Ring's Score Truly Shines
Elden Ring is not a game known for its subtlety. By almost any measurable metric, FromSoftware’s magnum opus is as bold, big, beautiful, brash and bombastic as any game ever released. The Lands Between are an interweaving web of plateaus, deserts, coasts, dungeons, cities, castles, and alcoves. The weapons are larger than life, allowing our Tarnished to wield power beyond the realms of possibility. NPCs are varied, diverse, funny, tragic, annoying, and downright bizarre. Bosses are Herculean in size and difficult, making each encounter exhilarating and memorable. Simply put, the game is enormous in scope and breathtaking in execution.
But, there is one artistic endeavor that Elden Ring does pull in the reins on–its music.
That’s not to say that the music is too subtle to be noticed. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of this. The music accompanying the game’s most epic moments is equally as epic with blasting crescendos, booming bass drums, and sweeping strings. The score, once again helmed by FromSoftware’s epic sound team behind most of the previous Souls games, was composed in tandem with every aspect of the game design to ensure each moment is perfectly cradled with terrific music. But, that beautiful, rousing score isn’t underpinning everything our Tarnished is doing in The Lands Between. More often than not, our adventures in this world are met with little to no music.
With most JRPGs, regardless of mechanics, settings, or themes, the score ensures that the moment-to-moment action is as intense and forward-thrusting as possible. Persona 5, for example, is a game built around countless encounters being played out to awesome acid-jazz inspired songs like “Last Surprise.” Even games inspired by the Souls series, like the recently released Strangers Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins, cannot help but underpin exploration with somber violas only to cast them aside for driving, chopping string sections as soon as the action starts again. Every beat has to be nestled under a warm blanket of music. No matter the scale of the foe, there must be some incredible music to tell us that this fight is worth it.
Now, let’s examine the score of Stormveil Castle from Elden Ring. The music remains the same throughout the whole area as you explore an intimidating mass of cathedrals, rooftops, and elevators. It sits quietly and discreetly behind everything you’re doing, and it never varies beyond the same few notes reverberating with the same timbre. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to find smithing stones, talking with Rogier, battling banished knights or even dealing with mini-bosses like the Grafted Scion. The music persists. The same few notes. The same instrumental choices. The same intensity.
The score of Stormveil Castle creates this haunting atmosphere with the resonance of the singular violin playing these same few notes that seem to drift on forever. This isn’t a damp, quick sound. Every microtonal harmony one expects from the gentle push and pull of a bowstring is allowed space to breathe and mature in the area surrounding you. There’s even a horror in the calmness of the music throughout Stormveil. No matter how flustered I get, no matter how many enemies there are, no matter how many explosions or gouts of blood or sickening thuds I and my adversaries produce, this singular stringed instrument will persist.
That is, until, after hours of exploration, you find yourself face to face with Godrick the Grafted. Once our dragon-loving, body-modding friend is done explaining to us all the delightful ways we’re about to die, that persistent cadence from the strings is finally resolved, and all hell breaks loose. A smack of a bass drum. A shrill portamento from a whole string section sitting in the upper echelons of the instrument’s range. A booming choral section adding pomp and circumstance to the affair. The rest of the string and percussion section then set forth with a waltz rhythm that accentuates the mental, emotional, and physical dance our Tarnished is about to partake with this monstrosity.
As the battle continues, and Godrick starts to show us the full range of his powers, the very subtle oom-cha-cha waltz rhythmic cadence is flattened into a much more direct ¾ rhythm. Layers and layers of instrumental sound. Melody, harmony, high attack brassy trumpets on top of warm strings alongside woody percussion brings Elden Ring’s music in step with the rest of the game’s lofty ambitions. At this moment, and only in this moment, does the music allow itself to be free of inhibitions, to truly let loose and explore complexity and drama befitting of the in-game action. As soon as Godrick is felled, the music drifts away. Like a warm spring breeze, it carries itself gently into the recesses of our minds and the modest, lonely violin returns.
This understanding of when to push and pull tonally–when to drive forwards and when to sit back–is what makes Elden Ring’s score so impressive. FromSoftware fully understands how important music is across every aspect of the game. The isolation of solo exploration is accentuated by music that doesn’t offer comfort or support, instead leaving players with a foreboding sense of dread. Nevertheless, when the action crescendos, the music is right there behind it to make you feel like a hero.
Elden Ring is a masterclass in game design, but musically, Elden Ring displays its powers in a completely different way to the rest of the game. In a game that luxuriates in its grandeur, it's the score’s restraint that allows it to shine.
MICHAEL LEOPOLD WEBER
Michael is a freelance journalist currently living in West Japan. Though he has a degree in music from The University Of London, he still often plays out of time (shouting "it's close enough for jazz" whilst it happens). When he isn't obsessing over II-V-I's, Michael can be found digesting a whole range of video games from farming sims to FPSs. He also loves tea a little bit too much.