Seiken Densetsu: Secret of Mana +

	Album Title: Seiken Densetsu: Secret of Mana +
	Record Label: NTT Publishing
	Catalog No.: N30D-021 (1st Edition); NTCP-5031 (2nd Edition)
	Release Date: October 29, 1993 (1st Edition); October 1, 2004 (2nd Edition)
	Purchase: Buy at CDJapan

OVerview

Sometimes people break the mould and something different, original, sand inspired. Medleys of pieces have always been a staple of arrangements, maybe not so much now, but in remixes and arrangements a while ago. However, an arrangement that still divides people over ten years later as much as it probably did back then must be given credit for breaking the mould. Hiroki Kikuta, an extraordinary talent severely underrated and underused in today’s game music world, gave us Secret of Mana +, a single arrangement of his Seiken Densetsu soundtracks that is 50 minutes long!

Body

After an almost space oddyssey introduction, the ambience of tweeting birds and beautiful electric keyboards take over and off you will go on a journey. The arrangements of various pieces throughout this trip are both beautiful and original. There is real thought into how each piece transitions into the next one and they are all smooth and brilliantly executed.

The originality comes from some excellent use of various household objects around us. Phone key tones bleeps, pinging cash regesters, flicked tables, ringing telephones, outside ambience, animal noises… it all lends a hand to create a unique world to have the music housed in. As for the actual sound, it is very much of its mid 1990’s time. It sounds dated in places but to no extent is it ever really horribly dated. It just helps its unique tone.

I won’t spoil how arrangements are done but they are very true to the originals of the soundtrack, and I think the main critisism of “but you can’t fast forward to your favourite arrangement” is very much missing the whole point of the CD. You have to experience it as a whole piece to appreciate your favourite parts more.

Summary

Sure, on hindsight it would have been nice to keep everything seamless and just insert places to start off on a CD, but this is an artist CD. It won’t appeal to everyone and its easy to see why, but when an artist goes the whole hog on an idea, it’s refreshing to see there is no compromise. A daring thing to do in a commercial age.

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