A look at Super Nintendo Soundtracks - The Music of Arcana - SNES Role-playing Game

Here’s a game hard-core role-playing (RPG) fans have to know, it’s called Arcana and it was developed by Hal Laboratories in 1992. If you don’t already have it I’d seriously consider searching eBay for this as it can be found for a very reasonable price, don’t you love that? Now before I go on and on about how great the music in this game is I’d like to say that I’m not going to go into a huge spiel on what the game is about because Wikipedia or any other video game review site can tell you that, at VG Retro we’re not about that as were just hard-core gamers telling you our thoughts on the game and what we enjoyed while playing it.

Arcana for Super Nintendo has many great qualities such as game play, store line, characters and magic but the one thing that stood out for me was the music. Arcana’s soundtrack is so beautiful in fact that in my opinion easily competes with Final Fantasy. If you want to see what I mean try visiting vgmusic.com, search for Arcana and hear the music yourself. This website has most of the tracks from the game in midi format available for free download. I’m going to break down some of the scenes from the game and talk a little about them.

Please keep in mind that these sound clips may not be exactly the same as found in the game, these are remade versions thanks to the people at vgmusic.com and the people who created them.

Title Screne

Of course we start with the title screen music which is a fairly short loop however it’s very pleasant and mysterious which I personally think adds a lot to the game.

Background Story
The music that plays during the opening sequence of the game, it tells you what has happened to the world. This music only plays at this part of the game it could play again at the end of the game I can’t honestly remember.

Battle Music
Fast, upbeat, lets you know you’ve encountered a battle can we say any more? The great thing about this game is the music is so different compared to other role-playing games.

Boss Battle Music
Much like the battle music before with several changes again just lets you know you encountered a battle.

Draven Pass
The music starts off and right away you know your in for a long journey. This track shows the excellent quality of the music in Arcana as it sets the mood well.

Forest of Doubt
I’ve always loved forest music in Super Nintendo games, yes I know it sounds weird but seriously check it out. Final Fantasy 3(6) Haunted Forest with the Ghost Train is very well done. This piece of music has to be my favorite in Arcana and it’s very well done with several instruments in of course midi. This piece I eventually intend to record with my acoustic guitar.

That’s it for now but there is many more great tracks from this game that you can either download from vgmusic.com or simply just apply the Arcana Sound Test cheat to allow you to listen to all the music in the game.

Here is the cheat code: At the title screen, hold L + R + B

That’s all for now but check back again soon as we talk about more great music.