In 2005, Square Enix announced plans for
World of Mana, a new series of titles in the
Mana franchise, whose titles would span more
video game genres than the original series.
Koichi Ishii, the creator of the
Mana series, decided even before he worked on 2002's
Final Fantasy XI about creating new
Mana games, but first wanted to create a goal for the new series, and eventually decided to make it about exploring how to add "the feeling of touch" to a game. After he saw the game
Half-Life 2 at
E3 in 2003, he felt that its
physics engine was the one he needed.
World of Mana went on to comprise four new games in addition to the remake of
Final Fantasy Adventure; Koichi Ishii served as director or producer for all of them as he had for the previous games in the series. In 2006, a
Mana installment for the
Wii was considered but did not enter development. In April 2007, a month after the release of the final game of the
World of Mana, Ishii left Square Enix to lead his own development company, named
Grezzo; no further games in the series have been announced since.
Children of Mana Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album of music from
Children of Mana, known as
Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana in Japan. The soundtrack was composed by Kenji Ito,
Masaharu Iwata, and Takayuki Aihara, and covers a range of musical styles including rock and roll, jazz, and classical orchestra. Ito served as the lead composer. The instruments themselves, however, due to the limitations of the
Nintendo DS hardware, have been described as not being "especially aesthetic or realistic". The soundtrack features 33 tracks on 2 discs and spans a duration of 1:24:13. It was published by Square Enix on May 9, 2006, on the Japanese
iTunes Store, but has not been released as a physical album. Chris Greening of Square Enix Music Online, in his review of the album, reacted positively to the score, calling it a "colourful, diverse, and rich experience overall". He called the tracks by Iwata and Aikara the "core" of the album, saying that the tracks by Ito felt "banal" and "formulaic" which he attributed to Ito being too overworked to focus on the album. RPGamer, in their review of the game, called the music "pretty nice". They noted that the music did not stand out as much as the visuals of the game, though they still "conveyed the theme", and that the "town" tracks were in their opinion weaker than the rest of the soundtrack.
Track list Dawn of Mana Seiken Densetsu 4 Original Soundtrack -Sanctuary- is a soundtrack album of music from
Dawn of Mana, known as
Seiken Densetsu 4 in Japan. The soundtrack was composed by Kenji Ito,
Tsuyoshi Sekito,
Masayoshi Soken, Hiroki Kikuta, Yoko Shimomura, and
Ryuichi Sakamoto, with many of the tracks composed by one artist arranged by another. The styles portrayed on the soundtrack cover "soft, heartwarming tunes", fast-paced "rock and roll style" tracks, and "dark and dramatic tunes", while the arranged songs that appear on the fourth disc of the soundtrack album are split between orchestral and rock and roll styles. The theme song to the game, "Dawn of Mana", was composed by
Grammy-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and was inspired by the image of the Mana tree shown at the title screen. The composition of the soundtrack was done under a great deal of time pressure; Soken has said that he composed 32 tracks in 52 days at a breakneck pace, and Sekito has said that Ito conducted the orchestral recordings while ill to make the deadline. The soundtrack features 106 tracks on 4 discs and spans a duration of 4:19:41. It was published by Square Enix on January 24, 2007, with the catalog numbers SQEX-10083~6. Dennis Rubinshteyn of RPGFan was pleased by the soundtrack, saying that the music met his high expectations for what he called the "only redeeming quality left" to the series since
Legend of Mana. Summing the album up as a "solid soundtrack with great songs and a lot of variety", he named Sekito's tracks as the least appealing on the soundtrack, causing some parts of the album as a whole to be "hit or miss". Bryan Matheny of Square Enix Music Online held the opposite opinion, calling Sekito's pieces what "made this work bearable" and saying that he "just can't get into this soundtrack", especially the first three discs, which were full of "boring and underdeveloped" tracks. Chris Greening of Square Enix Music Online's review, however, was more in line with RPGFan's, wherein he praised the "diversity" and "glorious spectrum of emotion" found in the soundtrack. He cited the synthesizer operation as a weak point as well as the order of the tracks, and singled out Sekito's tracks as "forgettable" and "repetitive".
Track list Breath of Mana Breath of Mana is a promotional album of music from
Dawn of Mana included with preorders of the game in Japan. Despite the many composers of the full soundtrack, the five songs on
Breath were all composed and arranged by Kenji Ito. Three of the songs, "Breath of MANA", "Unforgotten Memories", and "Rising Sun (piano solo ver.)", did not appear on the full soundtrack album. The songs on the disc are "gentle melodies" using orchestra and piano. The five songs cover a duration of 13:41. The disc was published by Square Enix on December 21, 2006. A review of the album by Dennis Rubinshteyn of RPGFan called it a "good showcase" of the strengths of the full album, which were in his opinion the tracks by Ito. He felt that the tracks on the single were "superb", and said that it was a shame that two of the tracks were not found on the soundtrack album.
Heroes of Mana Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album of music from
Heroes of Mana, known as
Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana in Japan. The soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimomura. The musical style of the tracks is primarily orchestral, with the addition of a strong piano and drums that sometimes verge on a more tribal rhythm. The soundtrack features 49 tracks on 2 discs and spans a duration of 2:24:28. Three of the game's tracks were released as part of
Drammatica: The Very Best Works of Yoko Shimomura, an arranged album highlighting the composer's work: "To the Heroes of Old ~Opening Theme from Heroes of Mana~", "The Way the Heart Is" (as "Tango Appassionata"), and "The Tale Told by the Wind ~Ending Theme from Heroes of Mana~". Shimomura carefully chose the songs to be included on the album based on their apparent popularity among fans and how suitable they are for orchestra. The
Heroes of Mana soundtrack was published by Square Enix on April 18, 2007, with the catalog numbers SQEX-10095~6. Denis Rubinshteyn, in his review of the album, said that while the game itself was poor, "the music is a treat". Calling the music "solid" and "enjoyable", he highlighted Shimomura's use of drums and variations on themes as particularly worthy of praise. Don Kotowski of Square Enix Music Online agreed, saying that Square Enix "made the right decision" in asking Shimomura to compose the soundtrack, as she was able to "capture the spirit of the Mana series extremely well". He singled out the "battle tracks and event themes" as the weakest tracks and "'The Tale Told by the Wind' and the final battle" as some of the best.
Track list ==20th Anniversary==