We are living in a golden age where video game music concerts for games that deserve it are plentiful and common, from Final Fantasy’s Distant Worlds series to Sonic Symphony concerts overseas, to even Sega and Atlus’ Persona music tours. In this specific case, the awesome musical works of Elden Ring from composers Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa, Tai Tomisawa, Yuka Kitamura, and Yoshimi Kudo are getting the spotlight via the Elden Ring Symphonic Adventure concert to (presumably) herald the existence of the game’s DLC Shadow of the Erdtree.

Making its debut this January in Paris, France, the 2024 concerts are also being conducted in many other territories, with Singapore being one of them (on the weekend of 28 and 29 June) and taking place at the venerable Esplanade Singapore in one of its concert halls. This means I don’t have to spend an extraordinary amount for a flight ticket West of Malaysia.

What I heard and experienced on the 29 June showing was an amazing 2-and-a-half-hour orchestral rendition of the game’s amazing music, performed expertly by the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra with maestro work from Thanapol Setabrahmana.

Songs To Slay/Get Slayed By

The symphony starts with the game’s intro (ie: the lore plus the first mention of the Dung Eater), then cuts to the Elden Ring main theme that everybody knows. The next few moments continued the strong start with The First Step background music, followed by the boss themes in their intended order: Margit, Godrick the Grafted, Red Wolf, Rennala, Starscourge Radahn, Rykard, Godfrey’s Shade, and Morgott the Omen King. We get the ambience music and area themes in-between, but these are short and are just leading up to the boss themes, as they should.

While there wasn’t any banter or small talk from the maestro, the symphonic team just went straight to business in the first and second half of the entire orchestra. The other half past the 20-minute intermission started big with the optional bosses themes: These include the “mandatory to access the DLC” Mohg to everybody’s favourite base game uber-boss Malenia, where the gameplay footage and cinematic-style edits that accompanied the orchestra performance made all the fights look easy. Here’s the order: Mohg, Regal Ancestor Spirit, Astel of the Void, Malenia, and Dragonlord Placidusax.

This is then followed up with the major bosses: Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, Beast Clergyman, Maliketh the Black Blade, the real Godfrey + Hoarath Lough, Radagon of the Golden Order, and the Elden Beast. Each of these are masterfully done, though Godskin Duo’s theme sounded a tad different than what I remembered. Still, the last two boss themes are just done well and I’m already elated.

My favourite tropes with video game music are (i) when they used a slightly remixed main theme from the intro in a climactic fight and (ii) a slow-and-dramatic tune to offset the gravitas of the final fight’s second phase. The orchestra group did a bang-up job in capturing the essence of these two tracks in Elden Ring.

The concert is then capped off with themes from not one, but all three endings of the game: the regular version, the Frenzied Flame ending, and the Ranni ending. On the surface, it does sound like the concert is going through all the checkboxes needed for a game orchestra for a renowned series. The fact that the game’s music is already an orchestral soundtrack may feel like the arrangements are just a matter of following the music sheet.

However, hearing it live for yourself just adds more to not just the grand scale given the venue’s amazing acoustics and clarity, not to mention the energy in the room I’m in. Fans of the game, be it those who finished the game or at least got by some of it, laugh and cheer at the screen’s playthroughs that include a short appearance from funny-person Patches and the Tarnished taking a shot at a downed Rykard after his boss battle. The crowd respectfully clap their hands after each theme, and then gave out a thunderous applause at the show’s end once the main theme blared for the third time to signify its end.

And you have a good number of them cosplaying minimally as From Software characters (below); they’re not fully decked-out but still have a headpiece or so to make themselves stand out.

All in all, it’s a grand time if you love the music of From Software’s latest Soulslike game. I’ve seen Video Games Live, I’ve seen MagFEST performances, and I’ve been to Distant Worlds, so going into a From Software music ensemble is considered new territory for me. I’m glad to witness the early workings of this debut concert, and hope there’s more popping up from Bandai Namco/From Software’s side. You can check out when they’ll be hosting more of these intimate shows here on the official website. 

Elden Ring Symphonic Adventure concert invite was sent over by Bandai Namco. We foot our own bill for travel/hotel stay.