I have been playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order quite a bit since I first picked it up during Steam's Spring Sale and hearing this song in-game was pretty awesome on a couple of fronts. You first hear it when the game opens as the camera pans through an imperial junk/scrapping yard and then it is revealed that the music is occurring in-game while our protagonist Cal Kestis is listening to it (the last third of the song after 4:10) through whatever constitutes as earbuds in the Star Wars universe. I know I registered that this was The Hu because I've known about them since they started putting music up on YouTube and their sound is fairly distinctive. That being said, it was not until Cal fights in a gladiator-type arena where the music (the first two-thirds) plays that I really appreciated the music and had actually forgotten that it was used at the beginning of the game. I had known that The Hu had somehow been featured in this game, but before I started playing, I did not know the context.
I have some thoughts about the gladiator pit fight in general, but with "Sugaan Essena" playing in the background, it definitely elevated this set piece in the game from a potentially generic enemy rush mode to a fun, energetic, and exciting fight scene.
I appreciated that the higher-ups at EA trusted The Hu enough to keep the sound of the in-game fictional band enough like The Hu that you could tell who was playing when the music started. That there were no extra hands in the pie to change the sound so much that The Hu were no longer recognizable. There is a decent interview from EA with The Hu about their involvement, the writing of the song and then translating it to a fictional language, so I will leave the rest of that here. I only wish that there was more of the interview.
I also love that through this game, The Hu have reached a much larger audience than their music alone might have had. That someone who typically plays sci-fi adventure games might not normally consider folk metal, let alone Mongolian folk metal as a genre that they might listen to, might have a greater appreciation for their music makes me all kinds of happy.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Here I See The Fire In My Heart
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