A Tiny Detail about the Sound Design in Eastward

A few weeks ago, I posted the tweet above, and I feel like a fool.

The iconic puzzle-solving sound cue in The Legend of Zelda games that we all know and love has eight notes, not six! Those notes are: G - Gb - Eb - A - Ab- E - Ab - C.

Developed by Pixpil and published by Chucklefish, Eastward is an action adventure game set in a beautifully-detailed post-apocalyptic world. The breathtaking pixel art is reminiscent of SNES classics like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. But, as I expressed in my tweet above, there's something else about Eastward that's really been scratching that nostalgic itch for me.

Like Zelda games, there's a particular sound cue in Eastward that plays whenever you use a bomb to blast away a cracked wall, or whenever you solve some other simple puzzle. The sound cue in Eastward is, in fact, only six notes. If my ear is correct, they are: Bb - G - C- Eb- G- Ab. The first time I heard this cue in the game, I had to put my Switch down because I was immediately transported to one of my past play throughs of Ocarina of Time. Even thinking of it now as I write this, it puts a smile on my face. Oftentimes, it's the tiny details like this in a game's design that leave the biggest impression on me.

I can't imagine I'm the only the one that's made this correlation, but I haven't tried to find out for myself if this is in fact some sort of subtle, beautiful homage to Zelda. Something about letting the mystery be, at least for now, is more appealing to me. Whether Pixpil is nodding to Zelda with this sound cue or not, it'll forever be a detail about Eastward that warms my heart.