Legend of Mana songs hit me hard in the nostalgia field. The art style was also impressive when the biggest rpg titles went to 3D and had more serious/darker tones. It felt magical xD
Legend of Mana is a pretty interesting game in that it has a fairly non-linear form of story telling. Every location you go, you unlock a couple of other places you can visit next, and you can place all the locations in a map to give these places slightly different properties. Also the parallel storylines all follow specific characters from a larger cast, where you can have them join your party and tag along with them to resolve their story in particular. The art in it is also quite unique in style, and all songs feel very high fantasy and adventurous. Earth Painting was a theme for an exploration area, but it's worth noting battles can occur on the map by bumping into enemies, somewhat like chrono trigger. So the tracks all have a mix of action, when it comes to exploration zones. (As a sidenote, you mentioned chrono trigger, it was ported from the snes to the ps1, in a collection alongside FF4, and also there was a sequel called chrono cross for it.)
Some nice sentiments today. It is wonderful to have such full circle moments between communities, games and their music. Yoko Shimomura is THE VGM queen, I have been blown away by her music since day 1. Earth Painting (unless I'm mistaken I had always known this one as "Coloured Earth") is one of my faves from Legend of Mana; it's a beautiful game, it's very painterly and the music is obviously beautiful too. My other favourite is Travelers Road, and that one screams Shimomura, it kind of sounds like the Tarzan world battle theme in Kingdom Hearts 1.
man legend of mana is one of my favorite sound tracks in all of gaming, if i were to say a song i would love to see reaction to, is a dream of distant days/seilehn's song, its such a powerful and emotional song.
Hoo boy, this one was exciting for me to see in my sub box. Earth Painting is one of my favourite songs of all time, not just VGM, and it might be number one for me among VGM. I can't even explain why the song means so much to me, everything about it just clicks. For the context, Legend of Mana has two types of areas; Towns and combat stages. The stages will have their own song that plays all the way throughout and you will enter and leave combat seamlessly without the track changing at all. The only time the music will change is upon starting a boss battle. Earth Painting is used in at least a couple of combat stages and The Darkness Nova is one of the (I think 3?) boss themes and is used pretty often.
It's worth mentioning that Legend of Mana's soundtrack received an complete overhaul with the game's 2021 HD remastered version, which sound really good. You definitely should compare those tracks with the original ones, as especially in the remaster version there are some live instruments used like electric guitars, which bring even more epicness to tracks like "The Darkness Nova"!
She also contributed to some tracks in NES megaman games as well as the King of Dragon arcade game that also had a SNES port. Another lesser known one is the Last Ranker that was made by Capcom for the PSP.
Legend of Mana is interesting game... For many reasons. But one of the things that makes it unique is that dungeon and battles are seamless from each other... And the music doesn't change between dungeons and battles. That latter point is very unique, because it means there's no real distinction between dungeon themes and (non-boss) battle themes. To that end, Earth Painting is a dungeon/battle theme, and The Darkness Nova is a boss theme. Don't think that either are the only ones present though. Off the top of my head I can think of 6 or 7 boss themes (one of them you've already heard- Pain the Universe), and maybe a dozen dungeon/battle themes. I don't think The Darkness Nova is even the heaviest song in this game. There's definitely one that's even harder already on the list ;) God I love this soundtrack. It's definitely my favorite of hers. I got to meet her a number of years ago and I got to tell her that I think this soundtrack is her masterpiece
More Shimomura on the channel, yay! Her work on Legend of Mana sounds a lot like some KH tracks, Radiant Historia too and even Xenoblade 1 (the first one shares similarities with Time to fight) I still love her music By the way, the new game from the series just released in 2024, Visions of Mana. I still have to play this game but it looks gorgeous and seems very promising. I feel like it didn't get enough credit though, looks like a ton of fun
It feels like she built a career playing chameleon, completely blending her sound with franchises as different as Street Fighter and Mario - and yet once you hear enough of her music her style becomes distinct enough to be immediately recognizable as her.
It's been a bit, but I believe Earth Painting is a general battle theme, while Darkness Nova is a boss theme, but not the *final* boss theme. That one is something else, and actually on my list of planned future requests. Might have to bump it up, actually! But yes, like you mentioned the first game in the series is "Final Fantasy Adventure", and the game was originally made as a spinoff of the Final Fantasy series, before evolving into more of its own DNA. There's still things like chocobos and the like about that tie the series to its roots, but the biggest iconography of the series now is the tree visible in the box art, the Tree of Mana. As for Legend of Mana, it's a JRPG but it's also so many other systems all tied together in a trenchcoat that's only barely holding together. It kinda feels like one of the last gasps of an industry trying new things and exploring what games can be before genres and concepts really got hammered down. You build your own world map by placing down zones, you can gather fruit that gets used in feeding your animal companions--or you can build robots out of gear you acquire or forge. Forging itself is an insane system that has spreadsheets and third party tools for testing and optimization, and that's only for making weapons and armor--spells have their own system where you create magical instruments. Your weapon skills evolve as you use them, and you likewise get more utility skills by using the movement tools you start with to learn fancier combinations. There's just so many systems all packed into one game, it's honestly wild.
Earth Painting actually isn't a battle theme, it's a stage theme. The game has battle music like Darkness Nova or Pain of the Universe for major bosses, but general battle doesn't interrupt the stage music. The stage itself is called Mekiv Caverns, though I think I remember it playing in other areas as well.
FYI, you've heard this side of her in the last Legend of Mana reaction you did. The Darkness Nova is a remixed version of Pain the Universe. Definitely different feels though. Legend of Mana is a fun, short game. it's incredibly charming. It's probably considered the last great Mana game (the ones after were ok, some were just BAD) until Visions of Mana came out last year.
This is somewhat frustrating. Y'all are recommending great songs and all, but I wish you would have also asked him to listen to "Pain in the Universe" from this soundtrack too. Although now that I hear it again, The Darkness Nova is just as epic.
The Legend of Mana was my first RPG ever, i owe much to this game! This game is forever in my heart! 🥰
The first video of the year and it's my darling baby Legend of Mana???
I could literally fall in love with u rn
Legend of Mana songs hit me hard in the nostalgia field. The art style was also impressive when the biggest rpg titles went to 3D and had more serious/darker tones. It felt magical xD
I had been hoping for The Darkness Nova to get requested. Such an awesome boss theme!
Legend of Mana is a pretty interesting game in that it has a fairly non-linear form of story telling. Every location you go, you unlock a couple of other places you can visit next, and you can place all the locations in a map to give these places slightly different properties. Also the parallel storylines all follow specific characters from a larger cast, where you can have them join your party and tag along with them to resolve their story in particular. The art in it is also quite unique in style, and all songs feel very high fantasy and adventurous.
Earth Painting was a theme for an exploration area, but it's worth noting battles can occur on the map by bumping into enemies, somewhat like chrono trigger. So the tracks all have a mix of action, when it comes to exploration zones.
(As a sidenote, you mentioned chrono trigger, it was ported from the snes to the ps1, in a collection alongside FF4, and also there was a sequel called chrono cross for it.)
Oooooooh Yeahhhh!!! Have been waiting for you to listen to those two ever since the first Legend of Mana video!
Some nice sentiments today. It is wonderful to have such full circle moments between communities, games and their music. Yoko Shimomura is THE VGM queen, I have been blown away by her music since day 1.
Earth Painting (unless I'm mistaken I had always known this one as "Coloured Earth") is one of my faves from Legend of Mana; it's a beautiful game, it's very painterly and the music is obviously beautiful too. My other favourite is Travelers Road, and that one screams Shimomura, it kind of sounds like the Tarzan world battle theme in Kingdom Hearts 1.
man legend of mana is one of my favorite sound tracks in all of gaming, if i were to say a song i would love to see reaction to, is a dream of distant days/seilehn's song, its such a powerful and emotional song.
This song and Hollow Bastion remind me of each other. Her music is so distinctive.
More Legend of Mana to start the year, what a nice surprise.
Hoo boy, this one was exciting for me to see in my sub box. Earth Painting is one of my favourite songs of all time, not just VGM, and it might be number one for me among VGM. I can't even explain why the song means so much to me, everything about it just clicks. For the context, Legend of Mana has two types of areas; Towns and combat stages. The stages will have their own song that plays all the way throughout and you will enter and leave combat seamlessly without the track changing at all. The only time the music will change is upon starting a boss battle. Earth Painting is used in at least a couple of combat stages and The Darkness Nova is one of the (I think 3?) boss themes and is used pretty often.
Legend of Mana was one of my first RPGs alongside Legend of Legaia and FFIX. My GOSH the nostalgia right now.
It's worth mentioning that Legend of Mana's soundtrack received an complete overhaul with the game's 2021 HD remastered version, which sound really good. You definitely should compare those tracks with the original ones, as especially in the remaster version there are some live instruments used like electric guitars, which bring even more epicness to tracks like "The Darkness Nova"!
She also contributed to some tracks in NES megaman games as well as the King of Dragon arcade game that also had a SNES port. Another lesser known one is the Last Ranker that was made by Capcom for the PSP.
I love Legend of Mana and Secret of Mana. Both of them have such good soundtracks. If you liked Darkness Nova then I recommend Irwin On Reflection.
Legend of Mana is interesting game... For many reasons. But one of the things that makes it unique is that dungeon and battles are seamless from each other... And the music doesn't change between dungeons and battles. That latter point is very unique, because it means there's no real distinction between dungeon themes and (non-boss) battle themes. To that end, Earth Painting is a dungeon/battle theme, and The Darkness Nova is a boss theme. Don't think that either are the only ones present though. Off the top of my head I can think of 6 or 7 boss themes (one of them you've already heard- Pain the Universe), and maybe a dozen dungeon/battle themes.
I don't think The Darkness Nova is even the heaviest song in this game. There's definitely one that's even harder already on the list ;)
God I love this soundtrack. It's definitely my favorite of hers. I got to meet her a number of years ago and I got to tell her that I think this soundtrack is her masterpiece
More Shimomura on the channel, yay!
Her work on Legend of Mana sounds a lot like some KH tracks, Radiant Historia too and even Xenoblade 1 (the first one shares similarities with Time to fight)
I still love her music
By the way, the new game from the series just released in 2024, Visions of Mana. I still have to play this game but it looks gorgeous and seems very promising. I feel like it didn't get enough credit though, looks like a ton of fun
It feels like she built a career playing chameleon, completely blending her sound with franchises as different as Street Fighter and Mario - and yet once you hear enough of her music her style becomes distinct enough to be immediately recognizable as her.
Legend-ary.
I'll see myself out.
It's been a bit, but I believe Earth Painting is a general battle theme, while Darkness Nova is a boss theme, but not the *final* boss theme. That one is something else, and actually on my list of planned future requests. Might have to bump it up, actually! But yes, like you mentioned the first game in the series is "Final Fantasy Adventure", and the game was originally made as a spinoff of the Final Fantasy series, before evolving into more of its own DNA. There's still things like chocobos and the like about that tie the series to its roots, but the biggest iconography of the series now is the tree visible in the box art, the Tree of Mana.
As for Legend of Mana, it's a JRPG but it's also so many other systems all tied together in a trenchcoat that's only barely holding together. It kinda feels like one of the last gasps of an industry trying new things and exploring what games can be before genres and concepts really got hammered down. You build your own world map by placing down zones, you can gather fruit that gets used in feeding your animal companions--or you can build robots out of gear you acquire or forge. Forging itself is an insane system that has spreadsheets and third party tools for testing and optimization, and that's only for making weapons and armor--spells have their own system where you create magical instruments. Your weapon skills evolve as you use them, and you likewise get more utility skills by using the movement tools you start with to learn fancier combinations. There's just so many systems all packed into one game, it's honestly wild.
Earth Painting actually isn't a battle theme, it's a stage theme. The game has battle music like Darkness Nova or Pain of the Universe for major bosses, but general battle doesn't interrupt the stage music. The stage itself is called Mekiv Caverns, though I think I remember it playing in other areas as well.
Great game and song.
FYI, you've heard this side of her in the last Legend of Mana reaction you did. The Darkness Nova is a remixed version of Pain the Universe. Definitely different feels though.
Legend of Mana is a fun, short game. it's incredibly charming. It's probably considered the last great Mana game (the ones after were ok, some were just BAD) until Visions of Mana came out last year.
Yooo finally 🤘🤘
For another lesser known game that features Yoko Shimomura, I recommend The Last Ranker.
Goated ost
This is somewhat frustrating. Y'all are recommending great songs and all, but I wish you would have also asked him to listen to "Pain in the Universe" from this soundtrack too. Although now that I hear it again, The Darkness Nova is just as epic.