Madness? This is Mana!

We’re starting off the week with a bang this Monday at Seikens, because Heroes of Mana will be hitting the western world in just over 3 weeks time. To celebrate this, I’m proud to (finally) open up the Heroes of Mana section for Seikens. Right now only a few of the pages are available, as there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes here, but rest assured that more will come as it is developed.

And because it’s Monday, how better to add to this celebration than to make available to you a piece of music from the game?

Heroes of Mana – Setup

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But if you thought that was all, you’re sorely mistaken, I’m afraid. Sheexy has started work on another new feature for Seikens, in his never-ending quest to take the site to new levels of greatness (and awesomeness). I’ll let him explain:

The Merchandise section is a new feature here at Seikens, in it you can explore the various Seiken Densetsu related goodies that have been released. I’ve got summaries, images and ratings to help you decide what you should buy or for you to read through when you’re bored.

The section is going to be in the works for the next couple of weeks. So far I’ve got Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and (keeping in line with Kassidy’s update) Heroes of Mana completed and I figure I can knock out a game each week, so there will be a new update coming probably every Friday.

So there you have it, folks. Further proof that we never rest here at Seikens (honest, guv, you should have seen it!).

Today’s Mana Music Monday update also includes an update to the soundtrack section. The lyrics to “Song of Mana” can now be found at the bottom of the Legend of Mana Soundtrack Page. There you will find both the original Swedish lyrics and the translated English ones.

The Song of Mana
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This is a pretty cool song, it’s the only song in the series with lyrics. The song is sung by some Swedish lady named Annika and the music and lyrics are done by Yoko Shimomura. I really like the lyrics, they’re pretty neat, but they don’t have much to do with the game…

Interesting fact: Deques always thought this song was in Japanese. Deques lives in Sweden.
Interesting fact: I started learning a little bit of Swedish so I could translate this song. I also learned a little bit of Swedish so I could annoy Deques.

Rush, Rush, Rush!
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Alrighty, I rush, rush, rushed to make sure that we were early with todays Mana Music Monday. While I was away in Japan the update kept being late, haha. So anyways, today we’ve got “Rush, Rush, Rush” from Dawn of Mana up for download. I have no idea where the music is used though, I haven’t had a chance to even touch Dawn of Mana yet… I’ve been rush, rush, rushing too much to get unpacked and settled back in now that I’m back home. I’ve also been trying to rush, rush, rush to get some of my new ideas ready for the site.

This song is pretty fun, it’s really upbeat and it reminds me of outerspace?

So anyways, I’m gonna go rush, rush, rush some more or something, expect some new stuff soon, soon, soon!

Just pretend it’s still Monday, and then you’ll get a lovely surprise when the week ends a day early…

Anyway, for this week’s Triple M, here’s the first track from Takayuki Hattori’s arranged album Seiken Densetsu – Omoi wa Shirabe ni Nosete, which takes several of the themes from Final Fantasy Adventure and orchestrates them. This track in particular includes Rising Sun, Fighting Arena and Endless Battlefield, and personally it is probably my favourite version of Rising Sun.

Enjoy, my friends, and put your thoughts to the music.

Takayuki Hattori – Determination

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Well well well… I leave the site to go to Japan and what happens? Kassidy and Deques start breaking stuff eh? I had big shoes to fill I guess.

Alrighty, straight from Japan I’ve got a little update for y’all, and this time it is all about us.
The about page got a super overhaul, check, check it out. You can read all about Kass, Dekky and me, see what is going on with the site, and see our pictures. I look particularly goofy in mine, so be sure to check it out and give me a hard time about it.

I’ve gotta go do Japanese stuff or something probably, see y’all around!

Also, here is a little bit late Mana Music Monday. The last one was pretty big, so y’all get a small one this time around.
Flight Bound for the Unknown — Secret of Mana
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This one is a pretty good choice for now because at the moment a friend and I are just randomly running around Japan, flight bound for the unknown. Basically our host parents kicked us out and now we are hostel hopping.

It’s still Monday in some parts of the world, which means it’s that time of the week again, and we have another special. Thanks to Wai recently enabling polls, and Sheexy coming up with a stunning idea all the way from Japan, we will be holding a special poll this week to decide what the Most Annoying Track in Seiken Densetsu is. Granted, you have a few to choose from only, but you can always comment here with further suggestions.

Anyway, you can listen to the track below, and vote over on the right hand side of your screen. Your choices are:

– Rising Sun (Kenji Ito’s intro song that has been used in 4 Mana games without any significant change)
– Happenings of a Moonlit Night (Kikuta’s take on the Dwarven underground scene)
– Closed Garden (Choose your SD3 savegame quick, before it burns into your mind)
– Pastoral (Egg hunting never sounded so good in LoM)
– Longing (How long can the Children of Mana last in the village?)
– Tenacity (Stop staring at your Heroes of Mana Encyclopedia!)

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Team power!

To all of those who were waiting for Mana Music Monday this week, I do apologize. Must be a summer cold.

But I do have something for you I think you’ll like. The track is Female Turbulence from Disc 2 of the Seiken Densetsu 3 soundtrack.

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And if that wasn’t enough, we also have a remix of this track now available in the Remixes section called Lisolation, courtesy of ReactorZer0, so you can go check that out now too!

That was worth the wait, surely. 😉

We’re back with Mana Music Monday, bringing you more samples from those soundtracks that brought the game to life, and this week we’re looking at a comparison between a track from Final Fantasy Adventure that was remade for the later Sword of Mana.

The track in question is one of my personal favourites: In Search of the Holy Sword, a track I always felt should have been included among those arranged for the Let the Thoughts Ride on Knowledge album.

Final Fantasy Adventure version

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Sword of Mana version

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Sheexy here, braving the harsh conditions of dial-up internet access to bring you this week’s Mana Music Monday update.
I spent like 20 minutes uploading this song, so you better enjoy this thing!

Legend of Mana – Calmly Traveling

Edit by Wai: For those who are lazy to download this week’s music download, here is a player where you can stream the song.
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This nice little number is used in the Duma Desert and the Midnas Ruins. Don’t forget that if you ever need to know where a track is found in the game you can head over to the Soundtrack section and figure it out!

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I’m afraid that I let the ball drop on Mana Music Monday, for which I apologize. However, to make up for it, and in conjunction with Wai’s news this week announcing the launch of Heroes of Mana on 14th of August and his coverage on the launch of Dawn of Mana today, we have not one but two tracks to celebrate the continuing expansion of the World of Mana (let’s take advantage of them while we can, guys!), while remembering those golden years passed sat hacking away at Rabites.

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