Genshin Impact OST — Behind the Scenes with the Artists

This article contains AI-generated translation.

 Published

原创音乐团队HOYO-MiX与伦敦爱乐乐团联袂合作，讲述《原神》游戏音乐设计与风格设想。
Musicians and staff of HOYO-MiX and the London Philharmonic Orchestra discuss creating and understanding the music for *Genshin Impact*.

## Video

### How would you sum up the music in *Genshin Impact*?

蔡近翰：我们的游戏是一款开放世界游戏。我们希望带给大家在不同城市之间切换的一种不同风格的感觉，所以我们选择了用传统的管弦乐作为基底，之后加入世界音乐的元素，让它听起来会有不同的风情。
Jinhan Cai, Music Director: Our game is an open-world game. We hope to bring a different feeling to players when switching between different cities, so we chose to use traditional orchestral music as the foundation and incorporated elements of world music to give it a distinctive flavor.

陈致逸：音乐也需要有一个非常确定的音乐语言去匹配《原神》这款游戏。当我确定好这个《原神》主题以后，我就开始进行变奏，主要是管弦乐加一些世界音乐（元素）。比如说我会用爱尔兰哨笛，会用木吉他，可能还会用一些弹拨乐器，听上去非常的中世纪的（风格）。音乐非常重要，当玩家走到游戏这个世界，音乐给他的第一印象其实就是这个世界的感觉。所以我在创作的时候碰到的困难是，我如何要保持一个整体的统一性。
Chen Zhiyi, Composer and Music Producer: Music also needs a very definite musical language to match the game *Genshin Impact*. Once I have determined the theme for *Genshin Impact*, I start to make variations, primarily using orchestral music with some elements of world music. For example, I may use Irish tin whistle, acoustic guitar, and possibly some plucked instruments, creating a distinct medieval style. Music is incredibly important, as it provides players with their first impression of the game world, capturing its essence. Therefore, one challenge I encountered in the composition process was how to maintain overall coherence and unity.

Robert Ziegler：对于我和整个管弦乐团来说，这次是个很新鲜的体验。因为电影中可能会出现很多音乐，但在游戏中音乐会贯穿始终。这是因为游戏音乐会在不同的关卡和游戏进程上用一个相同的主题。宇鹏（陈致逸）为此创作了大量的音乐。但这种感觉非常有趣，制作电影音乐时你通常能看到电影画面，而在制作游戏音乐时，你在玩到游戏之前都是看不到画面的。
Robert Ziegler, Conductor: This is something new for orchestras and for me because in a film there may be a lot of music, but in a video game the music can go on forever because you have the same thing on many different levels. So there's lots of music and Yupeng has written a great deal of music for this. But it's very interesting, because with the film you can usually see the film, but with a video game or computer game, you can't see it till you play it.

Nick Wollage：这次配乐让我印象最深的是宇鹏（陈致逸）在创作一些非常难的音乐时展现出来的功力。当你置身事外、注意力稍稍分散的时候，听起来会像是很简单的音乐，但实际上一点也不简单。乐手们在演奏这些曲目的时候发挥了他们很高的水准，是因为这绝对是一场现象级的演奏。难度真的很大，我们还有一些时间上的压力。他们真的是使出了浑身解数，才带来了一场非常精彩的演奏（AIR Studios录音室内的交流）。
Nick Wollage, Mix Engineer: The thing that struck me most about this score in particular is Yupeng's facility for incorporating some incredibly difficult writing. When you take a step back and de-focus slightly, it sounds incredibly simple but it really isn't. The musicians on this score have really risen to the occasion because it's absolutely phenomenal playing. It's very difficult and we were under a bit of a time pressure. They really pulled out all the stops and it was really quite amazing actually.

Philippe Honore：我是Philippe Honore，我与伦敦爱乐乐团一起参与这次游戏音乐的录制。我觉得音乐写得非常好，非常适合游戏，就像好的电影音乐一样，非常有气氛。战斗音乐都非常让人热血，还有非常好听优美的旋律。我很高兴参与了这个计划。
Philippe Honoré, Guest Concertmaster: I'm Philippe Honoré. I'm guesting here with the LPO to do these recording sessions for this video game. I think it's really well written, it's really effective. It's like good film music, very atmospheric. All the battle scenes are very exciting. There are also some really really nice tunes, beautiful tunes. It's been a pleasure to work on it.

Graham Wood：我们非常喜欢宇鹏（陈致逸）的音乐。他的音乐非常好听，而且囊括了许多不同的风格。我想音乐在游戏里一定非常合适。
Graham Wood, Manager, London Philharmonic Orchestra: So we've really enjoyed hearing Yupeng's music. It sounds fantastic and covers such a wide variety of different styles. I'm sure it will be very effective in the game.

### Match Music to Gameplay

陈致逸：因为我为《原神》这款游戏写了一个旋律主题。很多配乐，很多背景，很多场景，很多城的音乐都是由这个主题音乐变奏得来的。《原神》这个游戏它是有个时间系统的，所以它有白天、夜晚还有黄昏。场景的设计当中这三段音乐随机播放的时候，它的调性是统一的，它的情绪是统一的。除了主题音乐以外，我特别喜欢战斗的音乐。战斗音乐我最喜欢的可能是风(魔)龙BOSS战斗的音乐。那个场景的战斗音乐，我除了克制以外，我还尝试加入了一些很新颖的元素，比如说有女生的哼鸣，有一种很悲情的感觉，要征服这只龙，要去净化它。还有整个风龙场景的（其他）背景音乐我也特别喜欢，它能够代表我一种风格，有点艺术气息，有些小调，有一点点忧郁的感觉，但是非常的沉稳，沉静下来会觉得那是一种气场。音乐它是一种语言，它像一个咒语一样，像魔法一样，会让玩家觉得被打动了（情绪），被感染了，让他希望在这个（游戏）世界里再多待一会。好的游戏音乐它就应该要做到这一点。
Chen Zhiyi, Composer and Music Producer: Because I wrote a melodic theme for *Genshin Impact*, many compositions, backgrounds, scenes, and city music are derived from this thematic music. *Genshin Impact* has a time system, so it has daytime, nighttime, and dusk. When these three pieces of music are randomly played during scene transitions, their tonality and emotions are consistent. Besides the main theme music, I particularly enjoy the battle music. My favorite might be the music for the Stormterror boss battle. In that scene, besides showing restraint, I also tried to incorporate some innovative elements, such as female vocalizations, to create a poignant feeling. Conquering and purifying the dragon requires that. I also have a special fondness for the background music in the entire Stormterror scene. It represents a certain style with artistic flair, some minor keys, and a hint of melancholy, but it exudes a profound and serene atmosphere. Music is a language, like an incantation, like magic. It can move and inspire players emotionally, making them wish to stay a little longer in this game world. Good game music should achieve this.