Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild: The Beautiful Music (and Design) of Kass
First off, Kass is playing a concertina, not an accordion.
I know this sentence, tonally speaking, amounts to the obnoxious cultural cartoon of the neckbeard incel saying, “Umm, actually…,” but it is important to clarify this detail because despite my inability to play a musical instrument, or read sheet-music, or tell you the difference between a soprano and an alto, I’ve spent a lot of my life around people who do possess this knowledge and it’s helped me understand that not every saxophone is the same, and likewise a piccolo and a flute are not the same thing. Also did you know that tubas are horns? Man…life really is a journey. Unless you’re a fan of Weird Al (like I am(Word Crimes is better than the original(I will die on that hill))) my reader may not know that there even is a difference between a concertina and an accordion, and that one is smaller and hand-held while the other is larger, has keys, and requires straps around the shoulders.
A small addendum is immediately needed here.
When I started writing this paragraph I didn’t realize that the Zelda fandom wiki-websites available to the public were writing that Kass’s instrument was an accordion. They have more cultural capital than I do (and honestly ever will), but I still wasn’t convinced. I own a concertina and, apart from its octagonal shape, it bears a striking resemblance to Kass’s instrument. I needed a definitive answer so I went to the ultimate source of factual information on the internet: Reddit. I found a post that makes a compelling argument as to why Kass is playing a concertina and I feel comfortable standing firm in my original position.
Integrity is important, especially when it comes to minute details in videogames.
I suppose though until Manaka Kataoka and Yasuaki Iwata, the music team for Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, come forward and finally answer this question the debate continues.
I admit this musical conundrum (or hissy-fit depending on your perspective) is distracting me from getting to the real point that, the first time I saw Kass for the first time in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild I didn’t actually see him first, I heard him first. When I did finally see Kass he was standing on a rock in a bog playing his concertina and swaying gently to the rhythm of his now iconic melody.
When I finally got close enough to stand next to him, I knew immediately what I knew the first time I saw The Merchant in Resident Evil 4, and Judy Alvarez in Cyberpunk 2077: I was about to become absolutely, intellectually, and emotionally obsessed with this character.
And I’m not even a furry!
Explain that internet.
Cover image provided by The Cover Project
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released for the Nintendo Switch console and the Wii U on 3 March 2017 and quickly became a cultural event. Breath of the Wild was an instant hit with both critics and players (with a few exceptions of people who didn’t appreciate the weapon-breaking system) and has continued to score accolades for being, simply put, one of the greatest videogames ever made. Breath of the Wild was, at the time of its release, the latest addition to the fantasy, action, adventure franchise, taking place in the land of Hyrule 200 years after a cataclysmic event referred to as the Calamity. Naturally, because this is a Legend of Zelda game the Calamity is Ganon, hence the name Calamity-Ganon. This monster is represented as a purple-black miasma (often assuming the shape of a pig) that has taken control of the various robot guardians around Hyrule, and is also spilling a cancerous ooze that has attracted monsters all while Princess Zelda has been fighting for two centuries to keep Ganon’s power under control. Link meanwhile has been in a state of suspended animation recovering from a loss in the battle against Calamity Ganon centuries ago. He wakes up after being called by Princess Zelda in his fugue state, leaves the cavern where his sleeping-pod is stationed, and steps out onto a hill where the player observes Hyrule Castle in the distance shrouded in the cancerous miasma, and an even greater landscape stretching out in every direction. The opening sequence is, simply put, spellbinding, even almost a decade after the game’s original release.
Breath of the Wild expanded the open-world concept of Legend of Zelda videogames because, while most the previous games had been open world, there was always a Metroidvania limitation. This is to say, certain parts of the map would only be accessible if players followed the main storyline and acquired items to bypass obstacles. Now Link could go anywhere he wanted, and he could even climb mountains.
Unless it rained, but I’ll explore that particular misery in another essay.
This freedom of exploration meant that players could immediately go and try to fight Calamity Ganon without progressing through the main storyline at all (which of course has provided plenty of speedrunners endless joy), but it also meant that players could just explore Hyrule discovering towns, ruins, buildings, enemies, and even non-playable characters(npcs) at their leisure. This created a curiosity to just walk (and run) around Hyrule seeing what could be found, while piecing together what had happened to the kingdom while Link was asleep for 200 years.
And naturally it was during this exploration that I stumbled across Kass.
I was slightly disingenuous when I said that the first time I saw Kass he was in a bog. It was actually my sister who saw him while I was watching her play the game. She’d gotten Breath of the Wild, and a Nintendo Switch, before me and had been playing it for some time, but even she was surprised when we spotted Kass. He’s an incredible sight, regardless of where players might find him.
Standing somewhere in the range of seven or eight feet tall, Kass is a Rito, a race of humanoid sentient birds that Link will encounter when he follows the main storyline to save Hyrule from Gannon. While most of the Rito tend to be slim in build and often resemble vibrant sparrows or finches, Kass is clearly designed to resemble a Blue Macaw parrot. He wears a white scarf around his neck, two bright red feather’s on his head, and light leather armor.
He is also, as the English poet and scholar John Donne would have said, “A pretty thicc boi.”
And, of course, Kass is always playing his concertina.
Though, again I must interrupt this essay because while looking at his physical appearance on the Legend of Zelda Fan Wiki page I noted a jpeg of his concertina and it was labeled a bandoneon. I immediately googled this word and discovered that this is a large concertina that is, according to its wikipedia article, popular in the region of Uruguay and Argentina. Given the fact Kass is obviously modeled on a Blue Macaw which are native to South America I consider the concertina argument officially proven and will therefore no longer entertain any argument that Kass plays an accordion.
Victory is mine.
Back to the essay.
Kass exists on a design level to provide players side-quests. Scattered throughout Hyrule are shrines that themselves are often small puzzle-solving mini-games that reward players with magical orbs that can be used to increase Link’s health-points(hp) and/or his stamina gauge. There are 120 shrines in Hyrule, and while many of them are simply out in the open, others require players to explore and discover them. Some shrines will not appear until the player has triggered a side-quest that is used to expand the narrative of Breath of the Wild, and this is where Kass comes into play.
He introduces himself to Link and explains that he was a student of the former court poet for the Royal Family of Hyrule before the Calamity. Apparently before the man died he told Kass of a series of ancient songs that would reveal important secrets to the hero of legend who would ultimately defeat Ganon. Players later find out that Kass left his wife and daughters behind in Rito village to complete this quest, and should players find all of the shrines he will return to the village and remain there.
Having played more than a few videogames in my life, I’m familiar enough with the design-interface of side-quests. The typical structure goes: players approach an npc, the npc provides players with a brief story before stating a desire and/or need, and then the player is assigned the task of retrieving an object or providing some service to this npc. Since most side-quests are about building the narrative depth of a videogame as well as expanding its aesthetic, a good side-quest should engage the player and draw them deeper into the experience.
I can say with full conviction Kass did just that.
And even more.
But he also failed miserably because I didn’t want to complete his side quests after finishing the first one. I’ll discuss this failure later, but first I want to look at least one of his quests to see how it works aesthetically and narratively.
Each of Kass’s side-quests involves Link performing some action to get a Shrine to appear. In the instance of the bog,the quest is titled Master of the Wind and will reveal the Shai Yota Shrine. Kass will be standing near the edge of the bog where there are several islands jutting up from the water, a few rocks that appear to be sources of strong winds, and several breakable stone walls. If Link approaches Kass he’ll greet Link with his usual jovial tone and smile that, quite honestly, makes my heart melt because it’s so genuine. After this he’ll ask Link if he would like to hear a song about this place, and I mean what kind of monster doesn’t want to hear Kass sing a song? The melody will change and the camera will pan over to these islands while Kass delivers the following verse:
“He breaks the rocks that serve to bind, Above the tempestuous bay. On wings of cloth and wood entwined, He lands on the altar to open the way.”
Once the verse is done Kass will resume his original song and the game will trigger the start of the quest. Each of Kass’s side quests are built upon some riddle with the understanding that players will have to find a solution by either locating a nearby object, performing some action in relation to the objects nearby, or else they will situate Link’s avatar on a particular spot at just the right moment.
Master of the Wind involves breaking the stone walls to connect the various wind streams that are being blocked, and then using Link’s paraglider (“on wings of cloth”) Link will be able to glide along the currents of the wind to the platform. However, Link will need to make sure all the walls are broken, and players do have to make sure the arc of Link’s glide will send him directly to the platform. I note for the official record while doing this quest I often undershot the arc, landing literally an inch away from the base of the platform and had to start over. Eventually though I managed to land on the platform and the Shai Yota shrine pushed up from the muck.
Seven of the eight side-quests Kass will offer the player will play out in this fashion, and while the eighth quest will result in Link acquiring treasure rather than access to a shrine, it still follows the same structure.
These quests are superbly entertaining, and not just because I like riddles and puzzles. Kass’s side-quests are fun because they are each unique in terms of the way they challenge me to maneuver Link’s avatar about the nearby space, as well as to simply explore the surrounding territory. Rather than isolate Link in a confined space, Kass’s quests are often large open spaces. For example in the quest The Crowned Beast Kass is playing his concertina in a wide open meadow and his riddle posits that Link has to deliver a King wearing a Crown of Bone to the pedestal. The sheer emptiness of the meadow at first is daunting, but if players explore the nearby pond or the patch of trees they will eventually find deer grazing, and one of them is a buck. Link can kill deer in Breath of the Wild for food, but he can also, if he manages to sneak up on them, hop on their back and ride them as he would a horse. The fun challenge becomes simply getting up to the deer in order to do this in the first place, and this will involve altering Link’s outfit, removing his weapons and gear, and maybe even crafting potions and food that will increase his ability to sneak.
Or, sometimes, I could just charge the buck and see if I get lucky.
The point is getting to this conclusion is about exploring the immediate area and then thinking creatively about solving the riddle. Kass’s side-quests demonstrate a concern for design, but even more than that it encourages imagination and creativity, something that often gets put aside when side-quests are created or introduced.
Plenty of videogames I’ve played have, in the last decade, begun to fill their videogames with side-quests and often these are hit-or-miss successes. I’ve written a lot recently about playing Cyberpunk 2077, and I enjoyed the game immensely, however it is important to note that that game suffers from the fact that many of the gigs, side-quests, and other side activities lack a narrative and/or aesthetic depth. The NCPD mission where players can effectively assassinate criminals has the narrative depth of cotton candy, and while some gigs do a wonderful job of creating the larger narrative of night city, several of them appear and end before I understand why they were there in the first place. Likewise, and I know this is an easy target, but Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is just as guilty of this practice. The game is packed full of side-quests that sometimes give a greater context to the culture of Tamriel and its people, but often it’s a vapid exercise of sending the player to one corner of the map to retrieve some object and/or kill time.
Whether it’s standing (mostly)naked on a platform during a Blood moon, shooting an arrow towards the top of a tower, dropping a dragon’s scale into a pond at the foot of a statue, shooting an arrow between two gaps in stones in a field, or managing to get lighting to strike a boulder, Kass’s missions are about familiarizing the player with control mechanics, encouraging creative problem solving, and furthering the plot that Link is the hero of legend capable of defeating Calamity Ganon. Kass’s missions are wonderful, and a perfect example of how a side-quest should strengthen the larger game it’s a part of.
But, it’s about here that I need to discuss their failure.
Just about every video on Youtube that involves someone playing Kass’s theme on their concertina or accordion will have a comment section that is brimming with personal anecdotes. Most of these boil down to the same sentiment: discovering Kass in Breath of the Wild was an emotional experience.
I read hundreds of comments by players on Youtube, Reddit, and even chats in Quora all expressing how they had randomly encountered this tall blue bird playing his instrument and how they found themselves stopping whatever they were doing to just remain stationary listening to the song being played. Some players confessed that they would purposefully not do any of Kass’s side-quests because they knew, once they completed the shrine, that Kass would be gone. Some players told personal narratives of parents, siblings, or spouses who weren’t playing the game but who would stop what they were doing to enter the room and just listen to the music, some would even recognise the character’s name just from the music themselves. Just about all of these personal narratives expressed a deep emotional attachment to Kass, and how his presence impacted both the way they played the game, and also how they remembered playing Breath of the Wild.
On my original run of Breath of the Wild I had such a moment. It was afternoon (in-game(and out of game)) and I was wandering through the fields of Hyrule. Specifically it was the meadow where The Crowned Beast quest takes place. I was looking for Koroks because I am still trying to acquire all 900 of the little twerps, but as soon as I heard the music I dropped this goal and approached Kass and began to just listen. Deer were grazing in the field, the tall grass was blowing gently in the wind, far away I heard the rush of a waterfall, and I just watched Kass play. At some point the wind kicked up and as I rotated the camera I saw the blue dragon Naydra approaching the space of sky over the meadow. In the space of just a few moments I was standing in a field, listening to Kass’s song while a dragon floated overhead, and I watched the sunset. Outside of the game it was also sunset, my dogs and cats were resting on their pillows nearby, and I was…alive.
I wrote in a shorter essay about Breath of the Wild how the game managed to create such a beautiful moment of mindfulness, but I can say that this sequence was far more powerful to me emotionally. I felt in this moment truly happy to be alive, to be playing a beautiful videogame.
I suffer from clinical depression, so moments of happiness are, not difficult to come by, but precious when they truly arrive. Kass was solely responsible for that moment, and his music took me to that place.
Kass’s side quests are, when looking at the commentary of players, a failure, but not because they are weak structurally rather because he means so much to the community. His song and presence established itself in the emotional core of the players of Breath of the Wild, so much so that the thought of losing him caused many players to leave his quests unfinished. And honestly I dreaded writing this essay because I knew it would mean playing the game to get images to include which would remove him from the various regions he occupies.
Kass does not permanently disappear if the player succeeds in completing all eight of the quests. In fact if they do he will return to Rito village and will continue playing his concertina. And if players complete another side-quest his daughters will actually sing along with him while he plays. It’s…painfully sweet, not gonna lie. He’ll also have one more song to play for Link, and I’ll leave the details of that moment out of this essay so my reader can experience that moment for themselves
It made me cry dude.
Like, a lot.
Writing about Kass critically is difficult for me because there is so much emotion and nostalgia connected to him. I have regularly listened to his song for literal hours while writing or cleaning around my house, and whenever I’ve played Breath of the Wild I have purposefully abandoned original goals just to stand next to him and listen to him play. But in spite of this emotion, I recognise that his character is brilliant and well structured as a design.
Yes he's a cute humanoid-parrot who plays a concertina, but he’s also a character brimming with soul who manages to give players opportunities for exploration and play with the mechanics. Kass let’s players play and encourages play for the purpose of moving forward in the narrative. Every encounter is expertly crafted to help players recognise patterns in their surroundings and work towards accomplishing goals which is, when taking a step back, always at the core of any Legend of Zelda videogame. And finally, helping Link find these shrines will help make Link stronger for when he eventually faces Calamity Ganon.
Side-Quests in videogames can be more than empty filler, and Kass is a wonderful example of that. More than just one more npc in a massive open world, Kass is person with passion who driven by his own motivations and serves a reminder to makers and players of videogames that while plenty of side activities can be a wonderful way to kill time, great videogames remind you why you were playing a game in the first place.
I don’t want to just spend time playing a videogame, I want to play and be present in the experience itself.
There’s always another Korok to track down, there’s another Yiga Clan member waiting on the side of the road, and there’s a mountain to try and scale before the rain starts, and I’ll get to them eventually. But for the present moment, I’m in a meadow listening to Kass play while the sun sets, watching a dragon float by, and just being happy to be alive.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
9.15.2025
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