Also, music update will happen tomorrow because I got so wrapped up in exams I forgot today was Monday.

Today’s Mana Music Monday update takes us to the Remix page once again because I don’t have any of my music on me right now. But also I figured I’d bring one of my favorite remixes ever up to the main page.

Big Giant Circles does an amazing job of working “Mission” and “Fight 2″ together and keeps them weaving in and out of one another through the entire track for a really dramatic effect. Every time I hear this it takes me off guard by how awesome it is, this is an easy track to get lost in. But don’t take my word for it, have a listen yourself:

Begin the End of the Beginning - Big Giant Circles

If you really like this track you can download it here or visit the
OCRemix Page.

With the help of a friend I’ve translated the two games that can be played with them.

Being that there are only 22 cards (24 if you have the special shiny cards), it doesn’t seem like you could have much fun playing around with them, but I tried the games out and they’re kind of fun. They’re perfect for if you’ve got some SD3 loving friends and you need a way to solve a dispute or something.

The first game is a simple War style game which can last anywhere from five minutes to… well I had to quit playing a few times because it seemed like it was never going to end.
The second game is like Uno, but kinda weird. Its games tend to last under seven minutes every time.

The rules to the game and some other information about the cards in general can be found on the Seiken Densetsu 3 Cards page. The page also contains a link to the Gallery where you can find most of the cards. Eventually I’ll get around to making some better scans of them and put up some easy to print versions, but until then this will have to do.

Also, Seiken Densetsu 3 isn’t the only Seiken Densetsu game to have a card game associated with it. In 1999 Square released the 150 card Legend of Mana Card Duel game. I wrote a little bit about it last year in this news post. Eventually I hope to get this game translated and all the cards scanned as well, but I only have maybe 2/3 of all the cards and I haven’t seen any more for sale in years and years. If you have some Legend of Mana Card Duel cards please contact me because I’d love to figure out what the ones I am missing are.

Both Deques and Kassidy are out right now, but that doesn’t mean the site is going to be completely quiet. I’ll be heading up the MMM updates for a while and I’ll be trying to get some new scans and updates together.

Which is probably high ranking in the non-appropriate ways to lead up to good news such that we bring you today, but hey, this is me writing here, what did you expect?

So without further ado, and ceasing all mindless babbling that you’re accustomed to from myself, I hope you will all join me in congratulating our very own Deques (aka Wai Wong) on his recent marriage! The rest of the team wish him and his newly wed wife all the happiness in the world in their new life together.

And seeing as this happens to be Monday, it’s time for some fitting music, from the hands of our resident musical maestro Destiny. A remix from Deques’ favourite game in the series, Seiken Densetsu 3, based on the track Delicate Affection, this is called This Heart (and is available on our Remixes page, so you can download it there and listen to it again and again).

Yeah, soothing and mellow. You need it to keep from going m-m-m-m-m-m-m-mad, sir!

Edit: Fixed lack of musical goodness. PEBCAK.

Griffin Hands

The first time I saw a Griffin Hand was in Secret of Mana. And it killed me.
The second time I saw a Griffin Hand it also killed me.
Then I got killed by a Needlion.

What I’m trying to say here is don’t underestimate the Pureland like I did when I was little, the place is hardcore.

Once I finally managed to last more than a few seconds in the place I started wondering why there were just Griffin Hands running around, and I questioned whether or not I’d find some Griffin Heads or Griffin Wings or something else that made no sense running around, but I ended up beating the place and I never saw head nor tail… nor hand of them again.
This really confused me because up until this point the enemies had made at least some sense. Blobs are blobs, Tomato Men are little creepy dudes, Ninjas are Ninjas and Shapeshifters are usually a Beast Zombie or something. There of course is the Fierce Face family that consist only of a head, but a head grimacing and spitting at you makes more sense than a hand that tackles you to death.

Quite a while later I figured out Final Fantasy Adventure wasn’t actually a Final Fantasy game, and that it was the first in the Seiken Densetsu series, so I picked it up and gave it a play through. Once again I found the Griffin Hands, and wondered what they were thinking when they made them up.

Years later I managed to pick up copies of the Japanese guides for Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana, and I’ve gotten the back stories on these weird monsters figured out, they go something like this:

Final Fantasy Adventure -

Griffin Hands were created by Wizards using the foot of an Eagle. They will stomp and claw you.

Ok, that’s not really all that interesting of a story… they must have realized that because Secret of Mana tells a different story:

Secret of Mana -

Long ago a Griffin had its front leg cut off by a man who was drunk off of sake. Since then its front leg has held a grudge against mankind. If it stomps you, you are sure to die.

Wow. That’s a pretty hilarious story if you ask me. What gets even more interesting is the story behind the Griffin Helm mentions that Griffins are now extinct.

So one drunk guy managed to lop off the hands of every Griffin the the world I guess. Pretty amazing. And just who might that man be? The guides don’t say, but seeing that the first place you meet Jema is in a bar… kind of makes you wonder… (not really, I’m just bored)

Tune in next time for Weird Mana when we discuss the evil organization of The Black Knighthood.

And this brings me back to rant mode, I’m afraid. You see, one of my really big gripes with Rising Sun, what appears to be the official Mana theme in Ito’s eyes, is that every game I hear it in, it sounds exactly the same. Alright, the instrumentation may change slightly, but it doesn’t change. I can’t listen to each instance of it and say “yes, that’s the same song, but it has its own personality to itself!” because, let’s face it, it just doesn’t have any new distinguishing features.

Angel’s Fear, on the other hand… every instance has unique qualities to it that adapt it perfectly to the scenario it is being used in. And here’s part of the proof of this fact.

Coincidentally, I wanted to post the theme from this game as part of Triple M before I heard of this. Love it when a plan come together.

I love this theme, it truly is one of the greatest themes in videogaming history. And rightly so, it’s soothing, takes emotions to new heights, and encompasses all that the series stands for in one simple melody. Kikuta-san rocks! What really strikes me as bizarre is that I have seen people list this in Top 10’s, but below, wha tI consider to be at least, rather poor excuses for themes such as the Crystal Theme from Final Fantasy. It should be higher up!

I guess I should just be happy it gets on a list at all, considering how overshadowed the series is. Ah well.

Also I feel that THIS should be the main theme for the series, not Rising Sun!

I’ll stop ranting now. Enjoy the music!

For this week’s Mana Music Monday (on Monday, egads!) I’ve chosen Neverending, which takes the theme An End from Secret of Mana (just after you defeat Dark Lich, in case you didn’t know) and does all sorts of funky stuff with it.

In case you’re wondering what on earth has happened to my expression for this post, my brain has been given very little rest between night shifts, and I am extremely tired. That and I have just tried myself to cover a track from Seiken Densetsu on the guitar using a very curious arrangement style, and the juxtaposing tempos have done quite the number on my senses.

We’ve got another track from Pandora’s Vox this week, and this time it’s a remix of Secret of the Hot Sand. I chose this one because Kassidy told me it is good and I should listen to it sometime. So now everyone is going to listen to it with me.
Ready? Here we go!