 | 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 make something different, original, and inspired. Medleys of pieces have always been a staple of arrangements—maybe not so much now, but common in remixes 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 odyssey introduction, the ambience of tweeting birds and beautiful electric keyboards take over, and off you 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-tone bleeps, pinging cash registers, flicked tables, ringing telephones, outside ambience, animal noises… they all lend a hand in creating a unique world to house the music. As for the actual sound, it is very much of its mid-1990s time. It sounds dated in places, but it never feels 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 criticism 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, in 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 it’s 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.
