Lufia Series Returns, and so Does its Music!

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Back in 1993, a simple RPG titled Lufia (Estpolis in Japan) came out for the SNES.  It was succeeded in 1995 by a game that some people considered one of the greatest RPGs of the 16-bit era: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals.  This game featured traditional RPG elements fused with ingenious puzzle-based dungeons that broke serious new ground, yet was always overshadowed by the likes of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy.  The game had with it a very captivating score by the hand of a man named Yasunori Shiono, an equally underrated composer who has roots at Wolf Team and has been the main composer of the Lufia series. This very emotional score to Lufia II still holds the greatest “love” and “ending” themes I’ve ever heard in a game.

Following an average showing on the Game Boy Color and a straight-up terrible showing on the Game Boy Advance, the Lufia series is now finally making its return to the gaming world done right.  The original creators at Never-Land have regrouped and are remaking Lufia II for the Nintendo DS.  So what does this mean for the music?  Well according to an interview with the director in Famitsu, the music will “be brought over from the original two games [meaning Lufia I and II on SNES], with changes in sound quality but no changes in melody.”  Hrm.  Sounds like they may be simply porting the sound data into a sound palette for the DS.  There is still no word whether Shiono will be officially involved, but we at least know that we will be getting plenty of arrangements from his already fantastic, original music.

Starting with a pack-in for the Japanese release, the special edition of the game will include a “Hadou Disc” (Hadou meaning “wave,” which is the special skill system in the game, and coincidentally the same meaning from Ryu and Ken’s “Hadou-ken!) which will contain 3 drama tracks and 5 fully arranged tracks: “Opening Theme,” “Battle#2,” “Sky theme,” “For The Savior of those on Earth,” and “Final Battle.”  There’s no telling whether the bonus disc will be included outside of Japan or if the game will be be released overseas, so fans should consider securing their import, which is set to release on February 25, 2010.  The Estpolis page ^[2] on Square-Enix of Japan’s site currently has arranged music playing the background, which may very well be a hint as to how the arranged tracks will sound, so check that out if you haven’t yet.  Also, there is the full, 2-disc official soundtrack which will be released on March 3, 2010 in Japan.  Upgrade or not, I’ll be looking forward to hearing Shiono’s melodies once again.

Are you looking forward to the new Lufia soundtrack?  What do you think about Yasunori Shiono’s music?