WHERE ARE MY LEGEND OF MANA FANS AT!!!!!! HAPPY REMASTER RELEASE DAY EVERYONE!!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍 This game unfortunately got kind of a bad rap when it was first released because it was just so different and unlike any of the previous Mana games but gosh darn did I absolutely just love the heck out of it. It's not a traditional JRPG by any means, you do gain experience and skills, but instead of a epic unified main story there are a hundred or so little unrelated story missions and several main arcs, plus sandbox-type options like weapon crafting, monster ranching, vegetable growing, and instrument making. You progress by obtaining artifacts that you place on the map in specific places to open up new story missions, which run the gamut from endearing to pointless to downright bizarre to WTF THIS IS HEARTBREAKING I WAS NOT PREPARED 😭😭 The writing in the main story arcs and characters are some of the most deeply moving and profound I have ever encountered in a JRPG, and I have played a lot of JRPGs, so that's not a claim I make lightly. Taken together with the absolutely gorgeous art and sprite work, plus the incredible music, it's just a really beautiful, charming game, and I'm super excited to see all the new animated cutscenes and orchestrated music in the remaster!

Speaking of music, this is like, my favorite Shimomura OST ever. She composed a staggering amount of unique and interesting themes to go along with the 60+ unique settings for all of the story quests, and as a result, every single theme is fantastic, different, and yet quintessentially Shimomura. The title theme is one of my favorites and though I had recorded it ages ago before on an ipad lmao I have been wanting to redo it for years!!!

My original recording which was about 6 years ago was actually an improvised reduction of my dear friend dwpiddy's arrangement, which was scored for full orchestra and written out by hand and spiral bound at Kinko's in 2001 and after I write this I'll make a community post with a photo of that handwritten score because it's just the best and most vintage thing ever lmao. I adhered as strictly as I could to the original back then, but this time I felt like I wanted to challenge myself to do something a little different with it, so I embellished the slower part a little more with some inner voices and then the loud fast part got a rather huge overhaul hahaha, which I hope you all will not hate me for lol.

I definitely have more Legend of Mana arrangements that I've been picking at over the past few years, which I'll be focusing on more after Final Fantasy Tactics because I just love this game and OST so, so much!!!! I hope you all will give the remaster a try, as I dearly love this game and OST! It is a nontraditional JRPG experience that is quirky, adorable, beautiful and profound, and all of the ways they added to it in the updated version makes it even more so.

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