Overview

There are two unusual things about the soundtrack to Brownie Brown and Square Enix's DS RPG Children of Mana. The composers chosen for the project were unexpected. SaGa, Mana, and Culdcept veteran Kenji Ito led the score, affirming his dedication to the series after a return with Sword of Mana. He was joined by two prolific composers he otherwise had few professional relations with: Basiscape's Masaharu Iwata of the Ogre series and Baroque and Studio Carnaval's Takayuki Aihara of the Street Fighter EX and Drakengard series. Though the composers worked separately to create around ten items each, they focused on using synthesized orchestral instruments; the result was a score with a rich and full timbre, but not all the samples used are especially aesthetic or realistic, thanks to the notoriously limited DS hardware. While all the composers concerned were experienced, they lacked the same fanbase as their respective contemporaries Nobuo Uematsu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, and Shinji Hosoe. This contributed to the soundtrack being released digitally through Square Enix's iTunes service rather than as a true album. Thoughts on legal digital downloads vary person to person, but did the music deserve a true release as well? Read on and find out.

Body

Kenji Ito is responsible for the most important pieces in the score and usually offers a very familiar sound. A classic example of Ito on auto-pilot is the opening theme, "Breath of Mana". After a piano-based introduction, it develops into a powerful orchestral section that eventually leads to a triumphant conclusion; the orchestration is simple, the chord progressions are predictable, and the cinematic underscoring is unrefined, though the atmosphere and melodies of the piece provide some redemption and enjoyment on a stand-alone level. The title screen's "Rising Sun" is a straightforward but effective arrangement of Ito's beautiful main theme for the franchise, while "Tale of the Distant Sun" reflects the series' spiritual undertones during the opening narrative and acts as a precursor to Dawn of Mana's "Mana's Tale". The main town and overworld themes, "Longing" and "Beyond the Blue Sky", are almost ballad-like, offering beautiful flute melodies supported by calming acoustic guitar arpeggios and a low-key bass and drum kit; the extent of their similarity is concealed in the game due to the individuality and depth each of the melodies offered. Ito also offers a few pieces that work well in the game but are weak on a stand-alone basis; the boss appearance "The Blocking Menace" is an unpleasant mixture of string crisis motifs and dissonant suspended chords, while the level complete music "Triumphant Return" seems intent on encouraging the gamer to go on through simply bugging them to skip the screen. Later in the score, Ito offers bold and motivating melodies with functional accompaniment with "Challenge" and "Grasslands of Eternity" before plunging into a sequence of final battle themes to be discussed later.

Masaharu Iwata's nine contributions to the soundtrack add colour and depth to the release. Though the character select screen's "The Ensemble of Children" is brief, Iwata provides a playful character through employing whimsical woodwind phrasing above relatively static string harmonies in a way inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. With "Creeping Pulsation", he introduces darkness and mystery to the story with an ingenious hotchpotch of offbeat tuned percussion arpeggios, deep 'cello notes, an idiosyncratic electronic motif, and some diminished harp arpeggios; despite all being repetitive individually, the amalgamation of these elements ensures the theme sustains interest even before 0:45's entrance of a melody. The boss battle theme "Evil Beast" demonstrates a delightful old-school rock influence while sounding fitting with the rest of the score thanks to impressive implementation. Iwata is also given the responsibility of composing the first four level themes. "Tower of the Flickering Prayer" continues gaming's tradition of great initial level themes, transitioning from its humble percussive body into a rocking development to inspire the climb. "Peaceful Underground Lake" and "Storm of the Red Sand" further embody the concept of a youthful RPG adventure while offering microscopic features fitting for their respective terrains. The Ice Citadel level is accompanied by "Frozen Majesty", a sublimely beautiful theme where Iwata makes exactly the right choices of chord progressions, melodic development, and instrumentation to affect listeners. Similarly, "Singing Voice of Light" is as deep and emotional as its synaesthetic title suggests.

Takayuki Aihara provides some of the most exciting contributions on the soundtrack. "Emergency" punctuates high speed brass chords, jazz-tinged runs, and fluid melodic references into a piece of crisis music full of individuality and dynamism, while "Monster of the Forest" is a delightful rock-influenced forest theme peppered by some novelty synth and a delightful second section. "The Wind Sings Loudly" is a confident march into the unknown; strident melodic leaps characteristic of youthful defiance to compete against the darker elements present. Aihara perfectly reflects on friendship among youths with the somewhat bittersweet "Together with Comrade-in Arms". The antagonist's portrayal "King of Chaos" initially takes a similar but less derivative approach to "The Blocking Menace", but soon develops into one of the most emotional pieces of the score with its fluid transitions into wonderfully crafted sections for contemplation and motivation. Aihara provides a touching penultimate level theme with the fragile, spiritual, and classically-oriented "The Ruined Ground". And this bears "Rut of the Crystal", the accompaniment to the final dungeon at Cosmic Rift. With the combination of foreboding organ lines, spiritual synth vocal melodies, and poignant wind interludes, the theme reflects on the setting and emotions of the late stage in game while using the instrumentation in an artistic rather than clichéd; way. Following Masaharu Iwata's tense event theme "The Shaking Earth", Aihara departs the soundtrack with "The Sky's Lamentation" and "Trial", rather similar to "King of Chaos" and "Emergency" but with plenty of unique touches.

The album concludes with two final battle themes and two ending themes all written by Kenji Ito. "The Thunder Emperor's Aloofness" is a very typical orchestral battle theme from him dominated by commanding brass and string melodies and supported by lots of percussion and other superficial pomp. "Infant of Mana" is somewhat better. Its bold choral, orchestral, and organ introduction grabs attention and the subsequent Baroque-style organ solo is engaging despite its amateurish writing. However, the culmination of the theme isn't special or long enough despite its huge preparation and it thus feels like a fundamentally unbalanced work. The ending themes are entirely functional. "The Desire Not Forgotten" is mostly another arrangement of "Rising Sun" and it differs very little to the opening version except for a slower tempo and a lacking of drama. "The Beginning of a New Legend" relies on "Tales of the Distant Sun" as its melodic source material. It is a sentimental reflection theme opening with harp arpeggios and a music box melody before becoming . After five minutes of playtime, it is capped off by two phrases of the "Rising Sun" motif that everyone obviously wanted to hear. These bland ending themes emphasise Ito's limitations as a composer and the lack of original thematic material on what he probably regarded as a filler project not needing a unique personality.

Summary

Once Children of Mana's digital score is unwrapped, its clear that its contents are very well manufactured. The score initially seems like 'another plain Ito score', his sometimes banal musicianship demonstrated in his formulaic introductin and ending pieces, the reuse of the same formula for both town and overworld theme, and the generic attempts to create villain and victory music. This score reflects that overworked composers should not lead multi-composer efforts as thematic starvation and lack of individuality result. However, it also has a wonderful core thanks to talented veterans Masaharu Iwata and Takayuki Aihara. Indeed, the score soon becomes a colourful, diverse, and rich experience overall despite its lazy packaging. If paying for digital music is something you're willing to do, I'd recommend purchasing this score if you're a game music fan with some tolerance or affinity for Kenji Ito.