Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Remember to like, share and subscribe for more stuff like this, it helps me out a ton!
I recently discovered a game on the SNES that completely and utterly charmed me. It's called Arcana (or Card Master in Japan), and it's a dungeon crawler RPG made by HAL. Something about how it plays and looks left an impression on me to the point where I couldn't put it down. So, here I am, with a little tribute to the enchantingly good soundtrack it has!
This video includes two remixes, here are the songs included in both:
Battles of Arcana:
- Conflict (Main Battle Theme)
- Decisive Battle (Boss Fight)
- Second Armageddon (Final Boss)
Dungeons of Arcana:
- Draven's Valley Pass
- Shrine for the Worship of Chaos
- Cavern of Ice
- Dark Castle Bintel
The OST for Arcana was composed by Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando. You may be able to tell that this composing style (and the original instrumentation) sounds a lot like Kirby Super Star. That's no coincidence, because they share a composer, and both are made by HAL. Arcana actually predates Kirby's Dream Land by about a month, and Kirby's first appearance is a cameo in this game's intro cinematic! Kirby Mass Attack would later reference Card Master in the minigame "Kirby Quest."
This remix heavily utilizes a lot of instruments heard in Kirby Super Star. You could argue that this makes it kind of a pointless remix, but I couldn't help it! A big part of why this game left an impression on me were the instruments and how they were used to create music of this style, especially considering they make think of Kirby first and foremost. At first I wanted to borrow a couple shared instruments for the remix, but I realized that I didn't actually have the soundfont in my folders, so then I had to play around with it a little. I hope to spread the word of this neat little game to people who have never heard of it (like me!) It's not too easy, it's not for everyone, and technically it's not that revolutionary or even that interesting. Despite all of that, it enamoured me completely and I consider that to be quite rare. I found out that there's also a romhack called "Arcana: Seal of Rimsala" which fixes a lot of the issues I had with it and modernizes the game a bit. If the footage and music seems interesting, I hope you give it a shot, because I really wanna know if others would like the game as much as I did.
Feel free to use this in your own projects with credit!
DOWNLOAD LINKS to all my songs!
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XZOH0X_4vr_qrATFvRwT85Of1gKETrj1?usp=sharing
🔵 Discord: discord.gg/pbZhzbkr6g
🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/54A1AGnklCWXILhl0FYcj9
Ask me about music commissions, or anything at all! You can find me on my Discord or waddoopmusic@gmail.com!
Remember to like, share and subscribe for more stuff like this, it helps me out a ton!
I recently discovered a game on the SNES that completely and utterly charmed me. It's called Arcana (or Card Master in Japan), and it's a dungeon crawler RPG made by HAL. Something about how it plays and looks left an impression on me to the point where I couldn't put it down. So, here I am, with a little tribute to the enchantingly good soundtrack it has!
This video includes two remixes, here are the songs included in both:
Battles of Arcana:
- Conflict (Main Battle Theme)
- Decisive Battle (Boss Fight)
- Second Armageddon (Final Boss)
Dungeons of Arcana:
- Draven's Valley Pass
- Shrine for the Worship of Chaos
- Cavern of Ice
- Dark Castle Bintel
The OST for Arcana was composed by Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando. You may be able to tell that this composing style (and the original instrumentation) sounds a lot like Kirby Super Star. That's no coincidence, because they share a composer, and both are made by HAL. Arcana actually predates Kirby's Dream Land by about a month, and Kirby's first appearance is a cameo in this game's intro cinematic! Kirby Mass Attack would later reference Card Master in the minigame "Kirby Quest."
This remix heavily utilizes a lot of instruments heard in Kirby Super Star. You could argue that this makes it kind of a pointless remix, but I couldn't help it! A big part of why this game left an impression on me were the instruments and how they were used to create music of this style, especially considering they make think of Kirby first and foremost. At first I wanted to borrow a couple shared instruments for the remix, but I realized that I didn't actually have the soundfont in my folders, so then I had to play around with it a little. I hope to spread the word of this neat little game to people who have never heard of it (like me!) It's not too easy, it's not for everyone, and technically it's not that revolutionary or even that interesting. Despite all of that, it enamoured me completely and I consider that to be quite rare. I found out that there's also a romhack called "Arcana: Seal of Rimsala" which fixes a lot of the issues I had with it and modernizes the game a bit. If the footage and music seems interesting, I hope you give it a shot, because I really wanna know if others would like the game as much as I did.
Feel free to use this in your own projects with credit!
DOWNLOAD LINKS to all my songs!
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XZOH0X_4vr_qrATFvRwT85Of1gKETrj1?usp=sharing
🔵 Discord: discord.gg/pbZhzbkr6g
🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/54A1AGnklCWXILhl0FYcj9
Ask me about music commissions, or anything at all! You can find me on my Discord or waddoopmusic@gmail.com!
