A Cool Thing in the Breath of the Wild Soundtrack

Here’s the Reddit thread where this started. The short version is: /u/Takfloyd pointed out that, when you first enter a Divine Beast (and up until you activate one of its terminals), for example Vah Medoh, the music includes Morse code, beeping an SOS.

Then /u/TonesBalones and /u/Dragonaichu point out that, while there’s definitely an SOS in the left channel, the right channel plays different Morse: . . – . – – . .

So what does that mean?

First off: Whenever one is looking for a hidden message in an obscure part of a video game, there is a danger that one is wasting one’s time and acting like a crazy person. It is wise to approach such hypotheses with a certain measure of skepticism—but to cling to that skepticism blindly is to inhabit a world without magic, to live a life without Easter eggs.

It’s clear to anyone who takes out their left earbud that there’s a repeating sequence of beeps. The skeptical interpretation would be that the sequence is random and the composer did not encode anything, but anyone who studies the Breath of the Wild soundtrack knows that Manaka Kataoka is basically a huge nerd who saw every composition as an opportunity to include some bit of cleverness. The coolest example is the music at the ruined Temple of Time, which interprets the Song of Time so slowly and disjointedly that it sounds more like Zelda’s Lullabye.

So it’s not a sure thing, but it’s not a totally crazy idea to think that Kataoka intended for the other series of beeps in the Divine Beasts to mean something. The problem is, you can’t really tell where the letter divisions in this string are. Listen:

That’s not how you transmit Morse code! You’re supposed to have a dash-length pause between letters. The pauses here are basically the same, as you can see in this spectogram:

If you zoom in really close in Audacity, you can see that some of the pauses are slightly longer, but we’re talking about a difference of about 70 milliseconds. Probably not significant. But just by looking closely at this spectogram you can also see that /u/TonesBalones and /u/Dragonaichu got one thing wrong: The final signal is a dash, not a dot. So we really need a translation of . . – . – – . -, not that that makes things any easier.

There are seven places in an eight-tone sequence where you could insert letter breaks. That means there are 2^7 possible divisions of this sequence. However, not all of them are valid Morse code: Morse letters are only up to 4 signals long; the digits are 5 signals, and some of the prosigns are longer. So some of the 128 interpretations are invalid. The divisions that do make Morse sense are as follows:

FQ
FGT
FMA
FMET
FTK
FTNT
FTTA
FTTET
UPT
UWA
UWET
UAK
UANT
UATA
UATET
UEQ
UEGT
UEMA
UEMET
UETK
UETNT
UETTA
UETTET
I<KN>T
IYA
IYET
IKK
IKNT
IKTA
IKTET
INQ
INGT
INMA
INMET
INTK
INTNT
INTTA
INTTET
ITPT
ITWA
ITWET
ITAK
ITANT
ITATA
ITATET
ITEQ
ITEGT
ITEMA
ITEMET
ITETK
ITETNT
ITETTA
ITETTET
E<AA>K
E<AA>NT
E<AA>TA
E<AA>TET
ERQ
ERGT
ERMA
ERMET
ERTK
ERTNT
ERTTA
ERTTET
EAPT
EAWA
EAWET
EAAK
EAANT
EAATA
EAATET
EAEQ
EAEGT
EAEMA
EAEMET
EAETK
EAETNT
EAETTA
EAETTET
EE<KN>T
EEYA
EEYET
EEKK
EEKNT
EEKTA
EEKTET
EENQ
EENGT
EENMA
EENMET
EENTK
EENTNT
EENTTA
EENTTET
EETPT
EETWA
EETWET
EETAK
EETANT
EETATA
EETATET
EETEQ
EETEGT
EETEMA
EETEMET
EETETK
EETETNT
EETETTA
EETETTET

(<AA> and <KN> are those prosign thingies.) None of these look like cool Easter eggs to me, but maybe I’m not seeing it. Maybe you should go back and look through them again for me.

However, there are some other possible interpretations of the signal. Wabun is a Japanese version of Morse, and I think Kataoka would be as likely to use Wabun as Morse for these purposes. The problem is, Wabun has more characters to encode, so there are a lot more possible interpretations for this string. The other problem is, I don’t know Japanese.

But if you know Japanese, and you want to see whether the signal translates to anything, you shouldn’t have to go through the trouble of parsing every possible letter-division of the signal, so I’ve done that for you. Here they are. I do know enough about Japanese to know that some of these “words” are phonotactically or orthographically impossible, especially those that start out with a dakuten, but I’ve included them here anyway. Lines with a ### are technically not valid Wabun; the “###” indicates a string that doesn’t encode anything. So you can ignore those lines.

###mu 
###i 
###hemu 
miwa 
mitamu 
mimui 
mimuhemu 
chine 
chirimu 
chiyoi 
chiyohemu 
chimuwa 
chimutamu 
chimumui 
chimumuhemu 
uu 
utsumu 
uyai 
uyahemu 
uiwa 
uitamu 
uimui 
uimuhemu 
uhene 
uherimu 
uheyoi 
uheyohemu 
uhemuwa 
uhemutamu 
uhemumui 
uhemumuhemu
゛### 
゛rumu 
゛kei 
゛kehemu 
゛wawa 
゛watamu 
゛wamui 
゛wamuhemu 
゛tane 
゛tarimu 
゛tayoi 
゛tayohemu 
゛tamuwa 
゛tamutamu 
゛tamumui 
゛tamumuhemu
゛muu 
゛mutsumu 
゛muyai 
゛muyahemu 
゛muiwa 
゛muitamu 
゛muimui 
゛muimuhemu
゛muhene 
゛muherimu 
゛muheyoi 
゛muheyohemu
゛muhemuwa 
゛muhemutamu
゛muhemumui
゛muhemumuhemu
he### 
he###mu 
hetei 
hetehemu 
herowa 
herotamu 
heromui 
heromuhemu 
henane 
henarimu 
henayoi 
henayohemu 
henamuwa 
henamutamu 
henamumui 
henamumuhemu
heii 
heitsumu 
heiyai 
heiyahemu 
heiiwa 
heiitamu 
heiimui 
heiimuhemu
heihene 
heiherimu 
heiheyoi 
heiheyohemu
heihemuwa 
heihemutamu
heihemumui
heihemumuhemu
hehe### 
heherumu 
hehekei 
hehekehemu 
hehewawa 
hehewatamu 
hehewamui 
hehewamuhemu 
hehetane 
hehetarimu 
hehetayoi 
hehetayohemu 
hehetamuwa 
hehetamutamu 
hehetamumui 
hehetamumuhemu 
hehemuu 
hehemutsumu 
hehemuyai 
hehemuyahemu 
hehemuiwa 
hehemuitamu 
hehemuimui 
hehemuimuhemu 
hehemuhene 
hehemuherimu 
hehemuheyoi 
hehemuheyohemu 
hehemuhemuwa 
hehemuhemutamu 
hehemuhemumui 
hehemuhemumuhemu

If the right-channel beeping in the Divine Beasts means anything, it’s probably a message that appears in one of the lists above. I can’t find it. Maybe it’s not there! But maybe I’m just not clever enough to see it. But maybe it’s not there. Belief or disbelief rests with you.