Cover №03 · Video Game · Apr 2026
Song of Storms
Koji Kondo · Ocarina of Time — figured out, slowly.
YouTube · The cover
How I heard this
I grew up playing Song of Storms on an N64 controller, and it took me thirty years to notice that the ostinato isn’t decorative — it’s load-bearing.
The whole tune is one looping i–♭VII–♭VI figure refusing to resolve, which is exactly why the storm feels eternal. Kondo did what a lot of film composers can’t: he committed to not going anywhere. I play the melody a little rubato and let the bass figure do the pushing.
The progression, in prose
The loop is i – ♭VII – ♭VI – V in D minor, with the V (A major) as the only tonal surprise — it's the lightning flash. Everything else sits in the natural-minor drift. I play it rubato and let the bass figure push against the melody's insistence.