The Slavic themes in the game are brought to life by the music. The rest of the track remains orchestral, accompanied by the hurdy-gurdy and the Byzantine lyre which introduce the player to the Slavic tones of the game. The drums announce a heroic and brave introduction to Geralt, welcoming the player to the world and to the character. Then the orchestra joins in, foreshadowing in its minor tonality the turns in GeraltвЂ™s adventure. The menu is animated with the Witcher meditating next to fire as a Gusli ( Wikipedia, Gusli) intro fades in like the calm before a storm.

The game exaggerates the characters, regions and moments by planting an accompanying track or sound into the playerвЂ™s aural space as a clever way to direct the playerвЂ™s biases and reveal non-verbal and non-visual exposition.ДЇor example, the main menu theme вЂњGeralt of RiviaвЂќ ( The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Main Menu Animation) is the first track the player hears upon starting the game. Regions, instances, key characters, and storylines have their own unique soundtrack. The musical product can be heard in the various trailers released prior to the gameвЂ™s release ( The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - All Trailers). This implies that the resident composer, Marcin PrzybyЕ‚owicz, knew exactly what kind of sound TW3 was going to present to its players and why. 37, TW3WH Music with Mikolai Stroinsky) that CD Projekt Red were looking for a for a Slavic sound when they first revealed the project to hire talent. Mikolai Stroinski, one of the lead composers, said in an interview ( Ep. As a subset of the game itself, the soundtrack of the game inherits these influences and styles. However, what puts it ahead of its competitors is its influences and unique stylistic choices. The Witcher 3 is not the first game to deal with a dark fantasy setting. The soundscapes of the world are reflections of the world, intertwined with its lore and inhabitants. It exaggerates and exposes common tropes found in society while staying true to its overarching narrative. The world of The Witcher is gory, dark and melancholic. The comparison to Game of Thrones is present to contrast the rise of this sub-genre of fiction which seemed to bloom in the early nineties and to present the acceptance of the style years down the line.

The use of fantastical monsters, medieval weaponry and realist and adult themes make the innovative take on the high fantasy genre much more exciting. The world of Andrez SapkowskiвЂ™s The Witcher is essentially the spiritual precursor to that of HBOвЂ™s hit show and George R.R MartinвЂ™s franchise, Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire). To provide a solid foundation for the rest of the essay, it is important to state the thematic relevance of the gameвЂ™s sounds and soundtrack. With a game the size of TW3, there are a plethora of sound design elements to explore in-game sounds, soundtrack, voice acting and thematic enclosure to name a few. One of the most gripping and crucial elements to its Game of the Year Award success is its soundtrack, which was carefully crafted around the setting and the tone of the franchise ( Playing with the Past in the Imagined Middle Ages: Music and Soundscape in Video Games, Sounding Out! Blog). The Witcher 3 (TW3) brings players back to Andzej SapkowskiвЂ™s brutal, unforgiving, realist but high fantasy world.

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