Secret of Mana’s Hiroki Kikuta Releases Original Song Killashandra
Secret of Mana is one of the all-time classic video games for several reasons, but a big one is the soundtrack from composer Hiroki Kikuta. His dreamy fantasy melodies were like nothing ever heard on a console video game before. The game is available on Switch as part of the Collection of Mana compilation, and sometimes I’ll load that game up just to use the music menu to listen to Kikuta’s soundtrack again.
Kikuta has become beloved enough for this one game alone that it’s produced demand for him in indie game circles, as well as the video game music remixing community. Mathew Valente, a prominent member of that community, just commissioned Kikuta to create an original piece for a new album, which is out now from Scarlet Moon Records.
“The song ‘Killashandra’ was written for Mathew Valente and his loved ones,” Kikuta explains. “The first image that was presented to me was the song ‘Whisper And Mantra’ from Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana’s Japanese name). However, as you know, ‘Whisper And Mantra’ was written to express the purity and holiness of the Seiken world in particular. As a melody to heal and cheer up the hearts of young people living today, it would be a bit too formal and stuffy. Therefore, I tried my best to create a song with a clean and beautiful atmosphere, but full of emotion, hope, love, joy, and brightness to illuminate the future.”
“I immediately loved ‘Killashandra,’ and thought it would be strange to release it as a single, so I started inviting some of our Scarlet Moon family to arrange the song on their own unique styles,” says Scarlet Moon’s Jayson Napolitano. “The result is diverse and stunning. We were able to do something really special with the music, the album art, and our digital booklet. Music is hard business these days, so we’d love to hear from fans who appreciate this kind of release. It would be amazing to do something similar with some of our other Scarlet Moon family of artists as well.”
As he said, the album doesn’t just include Kikuta’s single but other works by GENTLE LOVE and VECTORDRIVE, who have had music published through Scarlet Moon in the past. To top it all off, the album cover was created by artist Hiroo Isono, who created the artwork for Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana.
You can find Killashandra & The Five Moons for sale now through the platforms linked here.
