The Music of Dragon Age

I honestly don't remember a single one.

I think natural sounding music is all well and good, but I don't have any particularly vivid memories of walking through the wilderness and being awed by the sounds of nature and the like. I think a good comparison for that kind of approach is actually the upcoming Zelda game, where even in the trailers I'm blown away by just how much ambient noise is occurring. You can hear bugs, wind, grass moving in said wind, creeks and streams gently trickling across rocks, the leaves swaying, birds chirping, etc. It's a very serene and peaceful experience, while still having some light piano music to accompany the scene. 

That being said, I'm listening to Inquisition's OST right now, and I'm really baffled by how none of these sound familiar. 

It just seems a shame because what I do remember was pretty good, but the only thing I remember is a few versions of the same song. 

the music when you defeat the finale boss, journey to skyhold, trespasser, the descent, bard's songs, the inquisition marches, calling the inquisition, sealing the breach, orlais theme. this soundtrack is great, no idea what you talking about =D

I find it a bit boring and standard, even the main theme. Need to bring back the pipes they had for origins.

I liked the tavern songs, they actually sounded like tavern songs for once. And some of them, like 'Enchanter' or 'Sera was never' are really catchy. Plus the girl singing has a good voice - she sounds natural, but can carry the tune.
I'm still cringing when I remember that awful scene, where Leliana sung that 'Dalish' song in the camp ... with a whole orchestra and choir... in a camp... in the middle of nowhere ... .
At least with 'The Dawn will come' they kept the instruments to a minimum and kept the voices of the people actually singing in the foreground.

I suppose I agree to an extent - the main game of Inquisition in particular doesn't have many truly memorable pieces. Off the top of my head right now, I only remember the main theme, and the ambient theme that plays in Emerald Graves. Mind you, it's been 6 months since I last touched the game. However I do love the bard songs, and the soundtracks for Descent and Trespasser are absolutely amazing.

I listened to the Orlais theme last night and I was having trouble remembering ever hearing it in the game itself. I assume it probably played when you went into the city, but honestly that's just my best guess. 

A lot of the tracks do sound really generic though, and even the ones that I listened to last night were difficult to hum after I woke up today. Orlais Theme was particularly guilty of this, I found. I don't imagine even the most seasoned Dragon Age players would recognize it if I tried to hum it to them. 

fylimar

I do appreciate the callback to Origins, and it's not like the tavern music isn't good in Inquisition, but I don't really recall ever listening to it in any great detail. I would say the reason was that it only plays in the tavern, and I don't like halting my gameplay to stop and listen to the music. I mean, I do sometimes, but if it would've played more music while I was exploring I would've appreciated that, tbh.

Not all that strange. I'm the same way, I just didn't hear anything that really made me want to stop, if that makes sense. 

Inquisition was the first game in the series to have memorable music, in my opinion. The music that plays during the Battle of Haven and the Corypheus reveal in particular still play in my head to this day. I also loved the music in Trespasser.

By comparison, the only music I remember from DAO is the main menu music, and that's only with great effort on my part. I remember no music from DA2 whatsoever, despite it being my favorite in the series.

All three games occasionally had memorable music. From DA2 I particularly remember Fenris and Qunari themes. DA:I had the great main theme and various important moments were well served by soundtrack: introduction of Corypheus, Skyhold, certain main quests... Trespasser in particular had great music. Solas theme for the goddamn win.

I recently listened to Trevor Morris, the composer for DA:I, saying how he was asked to do his own thing and break free of previous games' soundtrack (meaning Inon Zur sound). While it was certainly true of the base game soundtrack, which had a distinct epic feel, I find it interesting how he returned to the more mellow and atmospheric sound while scoring the DLCs.

That said, BioWare stumbled in ambient music and since you spend the vast majority of time roaming around the maps or in Skyhold, it essentially means that 80% of the game is more or less mute. What little ambient music there was was rather unremarkable. I suppose they didn't want the music to overpower the imagery and the feel of exploration, but I can't help but think that it was the wrong choice.

Someone upthread also mentioned that the sound design in general was kinda weak and I agree. Being in Val Royeaux offered very little ambient city noise except random bystanders uttering a line or two. Wilderness sounds were also subdued. The only time I really felt the whole audiovisual experience was fleeing Haven catacombs and then struggling through the snow alone. The wind was blowing right in my face and the sounds of weather, deep snow, and my Inqi shivering were quite detailed.

I want to be immersed in my environment. For example, when I'm at a blacksmith, I don't want only an occasional thud of metal against metal, I want to hear the intense crackling of heat, the sudden loud whooshing of water vapor as weapons and armor are being cooled. When someone is writing a letter, I want to experience the slight clink of quill against the ink bottle and the rustling of paper underneath it. There's a lot that can be done to help players get immersed in the world from the audio angle and I feel BioWare isn't doing the best job.