Guild Wars 2

Hello there, my fellow misters and ladies.

Soo, long story short: Today, I did auric basin event and for whatever reason, I actually turn on the in game music… While doing the event… And then, this soundtrack started…

I was totally taken away by it. And this coming from someone that also greatly likes other OST from this game (“battle with the tamini” is another OST I really love). Great hands up too the person that have been able too come up with this stuff.

Am I the only one around here that actually likes this stuff? Or am I alone here…?

Thank you for taking the time too actually read this

Yes, I love it too- (Kormir voice over) You are not alone on that.
You can feel the emotions in the music, the call to save the city!
I say- very, very good job on the part of the developers.

Most of the music since launch has been exceptional in my book and some HoT ones have elevated to being exceptional.

Battle for Tarir is one as is one of the lighter Auric/Tarir ones. Rata Novus is perhaps the best of all of them, but the sound studio are generally doing a really great job.

My only criticism was a lack of new music for Bloodstone Fen. It just reused Verdant Brink which isn’t the most exciting.

if I’m not mistaken, Lena Chappelle composed all of AB’s music (and a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff in GW2). sadly though, she left back on August 13th.

I love almost all of the HoT Soundtrack, especially the combat themes. I love the way the strings in Attack on Tarir emphasize the fight’s…. cyclic? nature, with the constant back+forth running of delivering the lane’s payload (Glider bombs, Auric Bombs, Mushroom spores, or Herbicide). The light, bouncy nature of the song also underpins how silly the fight is, with the esoteric weapons used against the Octovine (Itself a silly-named threat), all while trying to avoid giant roly-poly lizards or getting flopped on by frogs.

The combat music is also great, and each one seems to emphasize a different aspect of HoT’s enhanced combat flow.

I’m probably the only fan of HoT soundtrack who wasn’t all that fond of how the “Battle in Tarir” track was used in HoT (first when we flee from Faolain and later in the Octovine battle). To me the tune sounds a bit too jaunty and lighthearted for such dramatic moments, and I would’ve wanted to hear something a bit darker (in the style of “Mouth of Mordremoth”) to signify the dread of those moments in Auric Basin as we’re fighting for not only the safety of Glint’s egg but for Tarir and the Exalted as carriers of Glint’s legacy. With that said, however, I do like the style of Lena Chappelle’s track and how the instruments are used throughout it; the ending of the track when the battle concludes in particular is quite pretty.

Compared to that, though, Chappelle’s actual track for Tarir, the Forgotten City with its mysterious beginning which leads to a jubilant latter half is stunning in its beauty. It reminds me of the equally pretty Evergreen track from Terranigma and also has a bit of a Chrono Trigger vibe to it in its underlying melody and chords, so Chappelle was influenced by quality music from the time of the 16-bit RPGs.

Randulf.7614:

My only criticism was a lack of new music for Bloodstone Fen. It just reused Verdant Brink which isn’t the most exciting.

In that case you needn’t worry. Although Bloodstone Fen featured music from Verdant Brink, it also introduced two new pieces specific to the map: Bloodstone Fen and Bloodstone Maw (which may or may not end up being the actual titles for the tracks, but we’ll have to wait for Maclaine Diemer to upload the Season 3 tracks to ANet’s Soundcloud with official titles before we know for sure). My only criticism is that we hear the “Mordrem” track occasionally in Bloodstone Fen, which feels weird thematically because we don’t encounter any mordrem enemies there unlike in the four HoT maps.

What’s particularly interesting is that Diemer continues musical storytelling and development of leitmotifs (music themes) even in this season similar to how Mordremoth’s Theme and Scarlet’s Theme were developed back in Season 1 and how Mordy’s theme carried over to S2 and HoT which also introduced us to the evolved four-note Tyrian motif that played a prominent role in HoT tracks. What we have now is Diemer solidifying what appears to be a leitmotif for the White Mantle which was first introduced in various tracks in the Forsaken Thicket raid (you can hear the White Mantle theme clearly e.g. at 0:38 in Keep Siege) and how it’s reprised in Season 3 e.g. at 0:36 in Bloodstone Fen albeit as a shadow of its former self due to the Mantle suffering a blow from the catastrophe that befell the Fen.

All in all Season 3’s off to a good start music-wise: we’ve got not only the two aforementioned tracks for Bloodstone Fen but also a lovely, quirky piece that plays in the revived Rata Novus in the story instance about the research, the reused “Matthias Gabrel” fight theme from Salvation Pass for the final boss of Episode 1, as well as an intriguing new track for the Chaos Isles Fractal. I look forward to finding out what other musical goodies Diemer and Stan LePard (now that Lena Chappelle is no longer working at ANet) will conjure for the upcoming episodes.

Jorvych.3064:

if I’m not mistaken, Lena Chappelle composed all of AB’s music (and a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff in GW2). sadly though, she left back on August 13th.

Chappelle’s output for HoT was definitely her biggest compared to past releases she was involved in, and she was responsible for most (but not all) of the Auric Basin tracks as well as the final battle tracks for the “Hearts and Minds” story instance. You can find the rundown of which composer composed which tracks at GW2Wiki’s Soundtrack page under the Heart of Thorns section. I was actually surprised how the “Glint’s Legacy” track from Auric Basin was composed by Diemer because it’s stylistically very similar to Chappelle’s mannerisms.