Secret of Mana Soundtrack, Hiroki Kikuta, 1993
It is no exaggeration to say that for many players, Secret of Mana remains one of the most fondly remembered experiences of the 16-bit era. Much of that, of course, comes down to the game’s innate quality. Square’s experiment in merging action-adventure and RPG elements was a resounding success, charming millions with its vibrant fantasy world and gameplay that was accessible without ever becoming shallow. But timing mattered as well. In 1993, SNES RPG releases in the US were still the exception rather than the rule, and for the German market Secret of Mana may well have been the first localised SNES RPG at all. As a result, many players encountered for the first time the engrossing storytelling and vivid worlds that the best RPGs can offer through Secret of Mana.
Even rarer still were actual soundtrack albums released outside Japan. Secret of Mana was one of the very few SNES scores to receive a US release, preceding Donkey Kong Country by a year. Again, for many listeners this would have been their first encounter with game music outside the game itself.
Square’s confidence in giving this soundtrack a US release proved entirely justified. As thousands of listeners discovered, Hiroki Kikuta’s Secret of Mana soundtrack is one of the masterpieces not only of the 16-bit era, but of game music as a whole. According to Kikuta, it was the result of many long months of exhausting work. He spent more than two years on the score, leaving the office only twice a month. Granted unusual freedom on his debut game score, he devoted most of that time to refining the sounds he could coax out of the SNES. In the process, he employed tricks such as creating a three-dimensional effect by doubling an instrument across two tracks and applying vibrato to only one side of the stereo field.
All that effort spent polishing the instrument samples clearly paid off. There is enormous warmth and vibrancy here, coupled with a genuine sense of spaciousness. This combination gives the score an inviting, enveloping quality that suits its musical material perfectly. The Secret of Mana soundtrack is truly a masterclass in world-building, creating a fantastical realm unlike almost any other heard in RPGs of the era.
Kikuta largely avoids the bombast in which many SNES RPGs indulge, so often drawing on late-Romantic orchestral models. It is striking, for instance, how rarely he uses brass on Secret of Mana. His orchestral palette is lighter and brighter, favouring mallet and wooden percussion, harp, acoustic guitar, and solo woodwinds. It is a creative and highly flexible instrumental array that produces a more intimate sound than many comparable RPG scores. At the same time, this emphasis on smaller ensembles does not create the sort of self-consciously low-key atmosphere found in another solo-instrument-heavy RPG score like Secret of Evermore. Secret of Mana, by contrast, retains an enrapturing lushness throughout.
What also distinguishes the soundtrack is Kikuta’s astonishing imagination in the melodies and harmonies he employs. His themes modulate far more often than those in a typical game score. They are in constant motion, evoking a wide-open and mesmerising fantasy world without any need to thicken the texture or raise the dynamic level. In fact, Kikuta’s lyrical melodies feel like living, breathing entities: a perfect expression of the nature mysticism saturating both the game’s narrative and its music.
Kikuta adds still more originality to Secret of Mana’s overall sound by freely combining orchestral colours with pop, jazz, and progressive rock elements. At times he even incorporates material drawn from Javanese music, as in “Ceremony” and “The Oracle”. What emerges is a style that accomplishes a very rare balancing act. On the Secret of Mana soundtrack, Kikuta manages to establish a new musical vocabulary for a 16-bit game while keeping the results of his experimentation remarkably accessible.
Ultimately, this is what has made the Secret of Mana soundtrack so beloved: the singular atmosphere it evokes. A profound sense of quiet, awestruck wonder and spiritual union with nature runs through the score from the moment the game opens with a whale cry. Kikuta’s music matches the game’s visual world at every turn, painting Secret of Mana’s setting as wondrous, occasionally threatening, but much more often bright and optimistic. A cue like “Still of the Night” takes the soundtrack’s wispy, star-gazing tendencies to an extreme. Its sparse instrumentation and minimal material make the music’s striving towards the sublime unusually explicit.
But there is another side to Secret of Mana, one that might initially seem the opposite of its otherworldly inclinations. Far from being perpetually hushed and reverential, the score is full of quirky vitality. There is the dwarven percussion jam of “It Happened Late One Evening”, or “The Little Sprite” with its infectious, buoyant rhythms. Secret of Mana’s basic mode may be one of contemplating nature’s wonders, but Kikuta is too perceptive to treat that solely as passive marvel. For him, it also means participating in the sheer liveliness and joy animating the world and its creatures.
In the end, the score’s mysticism and its charming eccentricity are simply two sides of the same coin. It is the organic earthiness of “A Curious Happening”’s oddball whimsy that grounds the soundtrack’s more drifting moods, and offers yet another way of expressing its embrace of nature. An entire unique universe is evoked and sustained in the Secret of Mana soundtrack, and that is why listeners have kept returning to it for decades.
Tristan Blanchard says
No game has left a mark so deep on me than Secret of Mana, while playing it for such a little time. I discovered this masterpiece when I was nine, spending the night at a friend’s house, then didn’t have access to it for years. The tunes I listened to this evening would settle in my head, until I became obsessed with them. This is especially true when it comes to “Into the Thick of it”.
“Enjoying the freedom that Square gave Kikuta on his debut game score, he spent the majority of those two years tweaking the sounds he could squeeze out of the SNES. In the process, he used tricks like achieving a three-dimensional sound by playing an instrument on two tracks and giving only one side of the stereo field vibrato.”
That is exactly how I felt about it also ! Every time I am listening to this soundtrack, I am wondering how it was possible to process that kind of sound on the SNES. I don’t recall any other game sounding so clear and enchanting during the 16-bit era.
When I decided to create my ultimate playlist “video games memories”, back in 2010 or 2011, “Into the Thick of it” was the very first song I added. I remember it as the trigger of my love for video game music.
Thank you for this review, very informative and instructive. I feel even more nostalgic about that particular day when I played Secret of Mana, as if it was possible ^^
I think this is the last game I played with a soundtrack reviewed on your site. I saw more articles on another one (http://www.vgmonline.net/), do you still write there too ?
Simon Elchlepp says
Thanks again for sharing such a great story Tristan! I think we might actually have had a similar experience with Secret of Mana. I played it when I was 11 or so – arguably not just for one evening (I think I completed the game with a friend), but then didn’t listen to it again for maybe 20 years or so. One day I stumbled upon “Into the Thick of It” and after not having spent a thought on the game for a couple of decades, it all came back to me at once – down to the forest location where the music plays, the cute enemies with their arrows that you are fighting, even the fog transparency effects wavering over the scenery. Music has an absolutely amazing capacity to lodge itself in our brains and create powerful memories – and it’s fantastic that Hiroki Kikuta managed to tap into this.
That’s an interesting point regarding the soundtrack’s sound quality – yes, it is one of those rare SNES that don’t like one. Donkey Kong Country 2 (or at least the non-orchestral parts) are another example of a 16-bit score that transcends its technical roots and limitations – “Stickerbush Symphony” isn’t readily identifiable as SNES music, but simply sounds like fantastic electronic music.
I must admit I’m not writing at VGMOnline anymore and the reviews of mine that are up on that site are mostly Western game scores from the early 2010s, so they might not be what you are looking for. I hope to be able to return to 1990s game music again soon!
Tristan Blanchard says
I’m glad you think this is a great story ^^
I guess it was just a regular evening at a friend’s house for a french kid like me at this time. But the Secret of Mana Soundtrack made it so special. Same goes for your story, apparently ^^
It’s not even about the game, a great one by the way ; the music is responsible for the whole nostalgia i’m addicted to today (sorry, it’s all about the nostalgia for me :P). Over the years, I tried playing a lot of old games from my childhood to bring back the feelings, but I figured only listening to the soundtracks works even better. As you said, the music creates the best memories, better than the games themselves. Which is kinda weird when you think about it.
It’s a shame I didn’t play Donkey Kong Country 2. The SNES never made its way home, back then (the Megadrive did, though). The soundtrack is indeed regarded as one of the best of all time on a lot of reviews ^^
About VGMOnline, I thought I saw your name on some articles like HoMM IV or Command & Conquer. Good thing I was wrong, there is a chance to see those soundtracks reviews here one day, then
Simon Elchlepp says
Our brains work in strange ways when they create memories!
Good point about HoMM IV and Command & Conquer reviews on VGMOnline. I did cover a few Western game scores from the 1990s on that website – the Might and Magic franchise being one of them. I’ve already reviewed all the great Might and Magic scores for The Greatest Game Music – however, Command & Conquer is still on my to-do list. Glad to hear you are interested in it and I’ll do my best to get around to reviewing the franchise soon 🙂
Tristan Blanchard says
Oh well, this is excellent news. Can’t wait to read that ^^
LastFootnote says
I’d be interested in reading your opinions on the remastered soundtrack for the Secret of Mana HD version a few years back. Man they took some liberties with it, I tell you what. “Together Always” is barely recognizable as music, let alone as the original track; the melody seems to have been erased entirely. That’s probably the worst offender, though there are a few other stinkers. “A Curious Tale” seems to have a new call-and-response thing going on, but the response half sounds like it’s in the basement next door. You can barely make it out.
It’s not all bad though. There are plenty of great updates to tracks and a few really weird—but not necessarily bad—choices. The new “Monarch on the Shore” is bizarre.
Simon Elchlepp says
Thanks for sharing your view on the remastered Secret of Mana soundtrack. I must admit I haven’t given the album a listen – most of what I’ve heard about it was in line with what you’ve mentioned: a mix of unsuccessful arrangements, some bizarre artistic choices, and a few upgrades that get it right. It didn’t sound very enticing and I’m glad your comment confirms that I probably didn’t miss out on too much 🙂
I find the whole situation around Secret of Mana arrange albums fascinating, in that neither of them is particularly satisfying. There’s Kikuta’s one-track arrange album from the early 1990s, the half-hearted 2012 synth upgrade album and then the strange HD remaster from 2018. I almost wonder whether it’s best to leave this idiosyncratic work alone and just enjoy its quirky genius in the original SNES version.
Marco Wettstein says
Secret of mana‘s soundtrack will forever be one of my favorites. And some of its tracks are my most beloved pieces of musics of all time.
In particular „the wind never ceases“ is for me one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Its so fitting how it is both never resting and always in motion like the wind and climbs higher and higher, like you climb up that mountain in the game.
Another track that is missing in the list here is the short „mystic invasion“ which highlights the mentioned jazz and prog rock influence. Listen to it, and then check out „Looking Glass“ by „Alan Holdsworth“ to hear the inspiration for mystic invasion
Simon Elchlepp says
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment, really appreciate it! Same for me – Secret of Mana was the first (Action-)RPG I ever played and when I returned to the soundtrack for the first time after I had finished the game, 15 years later, I recognised the beautiful melodies and textures straight away. It’s music that definitely leaves its mark.
That’s a beautiful description of the “The Wind Never Ceases”! Yes, it’s got a fascinating string melody that keeps evolving and evolving, rising and falling, hitting some quite surprising harmonies on the way – another good example why this soundtrack is so special.
Thanks also for pointing out the inspiration behind “Mystic Invasion”. I do love prog and jazz rock, so I really enjoyed Alan Holdsworth’s song. I felt that “Mystic Invasion” didn’t develop much during its short run time – comparing it to Holdworth’s version, Kikuta’s cue was missing the skittish drums that kept the jazz rock track so interesting. Again though, it’s another example of just how creative Kikuta was – few 16-bit composers would have drawn upon jazz rock for their works.
Karl Bonner says
The music of SoM is very nature-beckoning and may have served as a precursor to my eventual spiritual path as a Pagan Druid. “Into the Thick of It” is a classic ‘springtime-in-the-valley’ anthem that cleverly uses the same Dorian modal progression as Miles Davis’ jazz classic “So What,” to convey its mystic wonder. Ditto for Eternal Recurrence, Still of the Night and The Wind Never Ceases. All of these incorporate the Dorian sound in a similarly reverent mood.
And I agree with the above description of TWNC: it captures the mood of precariously high mountain peaks and dangerous enemies, so perfectly.
One of my favorites is What The Forest Taught Me (in C Mixolydian). It perfectly captures the mood of a carefree spring or summer day in the woods. Originally used for the Upper Lands of the Mana World, I’ve also come to associate it with the forested Upper Lands of far northern California! (Think the Mount Shasta area.)
Simon Elchlepp says
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this marvelous soundtrack – that’s a beautiful description of the music. Makes we wonder now what the equivalent soundtrack for the seasons of autumn and winter would sound like 🙂 This is the kind of intricate, innovative score that really warrants the kind of analysis you’ve applied, underpinned by music theory. As I must confess that music theory isn’t my forte, I’m always glad when knowledgeable readers chime in!
Zimini says
Thank you for your website.
The soundtrack for this game contains some truly remarkable pieces that I’m convinced will be rediscovered in the future.
There’s no doubt about it.
Some tracks will remain forever. Eternal Recurrence, for example, or Prophecy.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to criticize the current state of the music industry. We’ve forgotten how equally important music is to a visual experience.