Guild Wars 2

Does anybody else find the musical atmosphere in Rata Sum to be a bit lacking? It only seems to play generic music tracks that you hear in several other zones and doesn’t really have its own unique theme song (like you hear when you first enter Divinity’s Reach or Hoelbrak).

I’d always thought “Snaff’s Workshop” would be a perfect fit as Rata Sum’s main track, and it is a shame this brilliant piece isn’t being utilized. I’ve even seen this track labelled as Rata Sum’s theme previously, and I was disappointed to find out it didn’t play at all when I first visited the city.

I should also mention that the Grove seems to have the same issues. It doesn’t seem to have its own unique theme and plays only a bunch of unrelated tracks that don’t really match the setting of the city.

For reference, this was labelled as the Grove’s theme but never actually plays in the city. Imagine how much a track like this would add to the feeling of walking around the city. As with Rata Sum, please consider adding unique music tracks to these capital cities.

This is totally true! When you enter Divinity, the first playing song is always its theme and thats very fine. Actually when Im entering that city, I know I will hear that song and Im “ready” for that great song. Sadly I cant say that about Grove and Rata.

I’m glad someone agrees . The best part is that these tracks already exist and only need to be hooked up to play in those respective cities. No need to compose new music or anything like that.

I’ve always wondered that too. There’s some great tracks in the soundtrack that simply aren’t used, and Rata Sum and the Grove are a great example. Especially the Grove one is stunningly beautiful and fits the place very well; it was even used in a Grove preview video a year before launch.
I’d definitely like it very much if they “fixed” this, or should I say, applied these tracks to their respective cities
They did something like this with Lion’s Arch once, so I’m sure they can do it again!

Indeed. Another thing I’ve noticed about the Grove is that the music seems to play quite randomly and rather jarringly instead of enhancing the atmosphere of the city. Some areas are completely silent and never play any music, whereas others seem to trigger specific tracks when you walk in. This really disrupts the atmosphere for me since the music would start and then stop suddenly as you walk, not to mention some of the current tracks (like the generic exploration music with loud horns) do not fit the Grove’s peaceful and serene setting.

I agree that Metrica and The Grove seem to lack their own distinctive themes, and that should be remedied. However, the tracks you linked would not be good choices at all. The first one is the Asura racial theme. Each of the races has their own racial theme, distinct from their city themes, that plays during character creation. Maybe it’d be good to hear those put into the rest of the game in certain spots, but making it double as their city theme would be just as inconsistent as it is now.

And the second track you listed is not actually titled The Grove. That’s a fan title from before the real title was known. That track is called The Tengu Wall, and it shows in the way it sounds. I personally suspect it’ll be used as the Tengu racial theme (or possibly city theme – but not both) whenever they become playable. It currently doesn’t ever play ingame, but that makes sense, because there’s currently virtually nothing Tengu related ingame.