Doublehex
06-04-2011, 03:15 PM
THE WITCHER 2: ASSASSINS OF KINGS ENHANCED EDITION EXPANDED SOUNDTRACK
Running Time: 3"43'23
Extracted from .FSB and .USM files and converted .WAV to .MP3 with -V0 320 quality.
https://mega.nz/#!qVhxiKST!3UWyA5mlX2oD7iLo6WFHC4Ujlh2bdwepoc2_qpcNepc
About the Music:
If one was to use a single word to describe the keen differences between “The Witcher” and its sequel, “Assassins of Kings”, the word would be bigger. The amp has been pumped up in just about every way. The budget has been increased – from “The Witcher’s” mere 10 million to 25 million for “Assassins”, to the epic scale. The music has also grown up as well. The composers, featuring the return of Adam Skorupa and Krzysytof Wierzynkiewicz replacing Pawel Blaszczak, had written a large grandiose score. The scales are bigger now and the music reflects that. “Assassins” abandons the folklorish tone of the original with a much more epic score, while holding onto that grim tone that was so prevalent in “Witcher”.
It is debatable on if the second score is inferior to the first. After all, the folklore-ish texture that made the first so unique and interesting is hidden here amongst all of the chorus, strong strings and pounding drums. The sequel is heading in the direction of the Lord of the Rings, although even then it is not by much.
One advantage that the sequel holds over the original is the narrative cohesion. There are some motifs hidden throughout the score. The most prominent, and easiest to recognize by its long, foreboding chorus, is the “sorceresses” theme. First heard in the Solar that King Foltest’s children is held in, whose rescue is the goal of the Prologue, it is heard mostly whenever some act of magic is occurring. It is not much, but it is the step in the right direction.
Overall, “Assassins of Kings” is a still in the category of “good, maybe great, but not excellent”, just like its predecessor. It may have motifs and some measure of the narrative cohesion that its predecessor so sorely lacked, but it has sacrificed originality in the process.
About the Rip:
I would say that “Assassins of Kings” rip was a little bit harder than mine for the first game. The main reason is that none of the battles have a specific name (it’s all battle_#, with some variation) and more than a fair amount of the cinematics were embedded in .usm archive files. I had to use a mixture of VGM Toolbox and PES Sound File Converter in order to get an .mp3 out of them.
Then again, this rip is shorter by about an hour. So more technical work, but less arranging and renaming of files. I had also just finished my second play through of the game when I started work on the rip, so with approximately 60 hours of exposure to the music I was able to do some very educated guesswork to satisfactory results.
Running Time: 3"43'23
Extracted from .FSB and .USM files and converted .WAV to .MP3 with -V0 320 quality.
https://mega.nz/#!qVhxiKST!3UWyA5mlX2oD7iLo6WFHC4Ujlh2bdwepoc2_qpcNepc
About the Music:
If one was to use a single word to describe the keen differences between “The Witcher” and its sequel, “Assassins of Kings”, the word would be bigger. The amp has been pumped up in just about every way. The budget has been increased – from “The Witcher’s” mere 10 million to 25 million for “Assassins”, to the epic scale. The music has also grown up as well. The composers, featuring the return of Adam Skorupa and Krzysytof Wierzynkiewicz replacing Pawel Blaszczak, had written a large grandiose score. The scales are bigger now and the music reflects that. “Assassins” abandons the folklorish tone of the original with a much more epic score, while holding onto that grim tone that was so prevalent in “Witcher”.
It is debatable on if the second score is inferior to the first. After all, the folklore-ish texture that made the first so unique and interesting is hidden here amongst all of the chorus, strong strings and pounding drums. The sequel is heading in the direction of the Lord of the Rings, although even then it is not by much.
One advantage that the sequel holds over the original is the narrative cohesion. There are some motifs hidden throughout the score. The most prominent, and easiest to recognize by its long, foreboding chorus, is the “sorceresses” theme. First heard in the Solar that King Foltest’s children is held in, whose rescue is the goal of the Prologue, it is heard mostly whenever some act of magic is occurring. It is not much, but it is the step in the right direction.
Overall, “Assassins of Kings” is a still in the category of “good, maybe great, but not excellent”, just like its predecessor. It may have motifs and some measure of the narrative cohesion that its predecessor so sorely lacked, but it has sacrificed originality in the process.
About the Rip:
I would say that “Assassins of Kings” rip was a little bit harder than mine for the first game. The main reason is that none of the battles have a specific name (it’s all battle_#, with some variation) and more than a fair amount of the cinematics were embedded in .usm archive files. I had to use a mixture of VGM Toolbox and PES Sound File Converter in order to get an .mp3 out of them.
Then again, this rip is shorter by about an hour. So more technical work, but less arranging and renaming of files. I had also just finished my second play through of the game when I started work on the rip, so with approximately 60 hours of exposure to the music I was able to do some very educated guesswork to satisfactory results.