OK, I know, I’m making this far too much of a habit, but I have been working on stuff, I promise. Anyway, as proof of that very thing, you will find another Doujin album added to our Soundtracks section, entitled Sanctuary of Mana, by project-Delta. An excellent up-beat arrange album that not only revisits the tracks from Seiken Densetsu 2/3 instrumentally, but adds lyrics to them from the hand of Saori, as well as some short Drama lines to some of the tracks.

Not only do we have short samples of every track available for you to listen to on the doujin page, as well as a description of each track (there’s only 4 so it didn’t take that long), but as part of Triple MMM we bring you the whole first track for your acoustic delight. Fear’s Night starts with a rhythm section that evolves into a xylophone and violin rendition of the latter part of Premonition from SD2 and builds up to an upbeat arrangement of Angel’s Fear, with lyrics.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

OK, I’m late with this again, I’m sorry. Yesterday was… well, it just was. Today is another day and I have the energy to deal with trying to do something. I’ve had my tea today, so I’ve manage to NOT delete any posts involuntarily, and bring to you instead a new Mana Music clip for Mana Music… Tuesday.

The track in question this week is one that I once used as a starting point to write a song about 8 years ago, and still remains one of the strongest tracks in the Seiken Densetsu saga soundtrack to this date.  The track is from the third instalment of the original series, and is composed by Hiroki Kikuta: Delicate Affection. Enjoy.

[MEDIA=133]

Way back when we added a new remix to our Secret of Mana Remixes section and plonked an article on frontpage to celebrate this fact. However, numpty here (me) got the link to it wrong, and consecuently you wouldn’t have been able to get to it. This has now been rectified, after the author of the remix (Darkesword) dropped a comment on said article. So please, go check it out!

Thicket - Darkesword
OC Remix Page. Tracks remixed: Angel’s Fear, Into the Thick of it

Duran, don’t even say it… I know exactly what you’re thinking.

I’m sorry, I totally fat-fingered the managing of the media files this week, and as a consequence I mistakenly removed the last MMM post as well as the last MMM file. And this is, again, why I should not be allowed near a computer when I’m way too tired to do anything sensibly.

Sorry Sheexy. And apologies to Liontamer too. We really appreciated your comment, thank you!

Moving onward and upward, I’ve been gnawing my way through the Star Wars novel “Darth Bane - Path of Destruction”, so I feel that this week a suitably dark piece should be in order. Enter “Dark Palace” by Tsuyoshi Sekito, from the Seiken Densetsu 4 (Dawn of Mana) soundtrack.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Nick spotted Square’s Press Release for their E3 line-up. You can find full details over on the press article itself, with descriptions of the games and features incorporated within. On the remake scene, Chrono Trigger which we have reported on previously, Dragon Quest IV and FF4 going 3D, and a couple of Star Ocean games being given a new breath of life, as well as, of course, new titles.

Here’s the full list (TAITO releases included):

• The Last Remnant (XBOX360 and PS3)
• Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes (iPod)
• Chrono Trigger (DS)
• Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
• Final Fantasy IV (DS)
• Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)
• Star Ocea: Second Evolution (PSP)
• Infinite Undiscovery (XBOX360)
• Star Ocean: Last Hope (XBOBX360)
• TAITO - EXIT DS (DS)
• TAITO - The Legend of Kage 2 (DS)

Surprisingly, barely any FF there. Unsurprisingly, no Mana. Thanks again to Nick for linking us up to this.

One of the members in the forum got contact with Hiroki Kikuta, the composer of Secret of Mana music. Kikuta-san said that he is hoping a remake of any of the older games in the series. If this mail conversation is true or not it can be questionable. I hope its not the latter one

Hi Nick

I am very glad to have a fan mail from you. St. Louis. It is a Jazz town,
isn’t it !
I can not tell you any good news about remaking Seiken Densetsu series, but
I hope it too.
Play a music and have a good time!

Hiroki Kikuta

Thanks Nick

Nick just pointed out a rumour/announcement of Chrono Trigger being re-released for the Nintendo DS, and it looks like it may well be true! They have a Countdown Site up.

While this is not Mana news, at least it shows some hope of old loved games being given a new life (that AREN’T Final Fantasy… not saying that they shouldn’t do FF, but just share the love a bit…).

Thanks again to Nick for bringing this to our attention!

Secret of the Spram - JAXX, Kassie! and Mustin
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

This is one of my personal favorite Seiken Densetsu remixes. Remixing the Secret of Mana track “Eight Ringing Bells” seems to be pretty popular, lots of remixes are out there for this track. This remix is really epic sounding, and man do I love strings.

If you like this track or you want to find more just head over to the Remixes page and you can find this track and others from various Seiken Densetsu games for your downloading pleasure. If you’re feeling adventurous and looking for remixes from other games be sure to check out OverClocked Remix for an awesome selection of music.

The Return of Mana project, an attempt to create a 3D game based in the World of Mana using the engine from Half Life 2, spent quite some time on hold for one reason or another. Toward the end of March this year they announced that they have started looking for new members to further develop the project. So if you’re interested, head on over to their webpage and see if there is anything that you can contribute to advancing the game.

Begs the questions as to why there was ever a point even hoping for anything different.
No Mana, no surprise.

Still, at least there’s some Dragon Quest in there, Duran. Other than that, predictable as ever. Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. I found it funny that on one site they were moaning that those two and Mana were the only series getting any attention. Which yes, we’ve had a few Mana titles recently, but were they worth it?

Please note that this list was obtained from a third-party fan site, NOT from official Square sources directly, so it is plausible that this list is inaccurate or does not represent the final line-up (or could even be a load of rabite fodder), so take with a pinch of salt.

• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children 2 (Bluray) – Confirmed
• Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) – Confirmed
• Final Fantasy XIII Versus (PS3) – Confirmed
• Final Fantasy Nebulla (DS) – Rumoured
• Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (PSP) – Confirmed
• Kingdom Hearts 358/5 Days (DS) – Confirmed
• Kingdom Hearts (PS3) – Rumoured
• Star Ocean V (PS3, Xbox360) - Confirmed
• Dragon Quest IV (DS) – Confirmed
• Dragon Quest V (DS) – Confirmed
• Dragon Quest VI (DS) - Confirmed
• The Last Remnant (Xbox360) – Confirmed
• Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox360) – Confirmed

Source