Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. What the heck? Where did this soundtrack come from, and furthermore, who would ever want it? Allow me to answer your questions.
When Hanjuku Hero 4 -The 7 Heroes- was released in Japan, there was a “Limited Edition” release (no surprises there) that came with a two-disc soundtrack and an insert manual giving all the detailed credits to the “Hanjuku Mages”, a pseudo-Black-Mages band that would excel at making parody themes of old Final Fantasy (and SaGa) tunes.
The two disc set starts with a new (updated lyrics) version of the “Fight! Hanjuku Hero” first found on Hanjuku Hero VS. 3D. This song is a humorous classic, and it’s still good. The next nine tracks are songs that have appeared in other Hanjuku Hero games, and are “classic” tunes that don’t really change much. Silly and simple synth is the key in these songs. Personally, I don’t like them. The “Hondara Egg” song is the original version that gets arranged many times on this soundtrack: the song itself is only 30 seconds long, but the different versions are (again) fun and silly. Silliness is the key to this entire soundtrack.
Disc 1, track 11 makes a musical reference to the Romancing SaGa opening theme, and is the first really “respectable” song musically on the album. Good work, Kenji Ito!
Some classic FF tunes you’ll hear rearranged include Matoya’s Cave, Mist Dungeon, Crystal Cave, and OtherWorld. Among these, my favorite arrangement is the “Xylophone Mist Dungeon.” Ai Yamashita does a great job adding a whole new section to the song, while retaining the original parts of the song and making the song less mysterious and more bouncy. I found the OtherWorld arrangement (“We Are the World”) to be absolutely hilarious. For those of you that don’t know, “yon” means the number four in Japanese. That’s about all you need to know for that joke song. Another joke song is the Gaia Symphonia, taking some classic Beethoven work and adding some silly lyrics about Hanjuku Hero. Yeah, it’s silly. Silly silly silly. That’s all this soundtrack is, really.
Most of the new and original songs are pretty boring: I sampled Mizuta’s “Hidden Research” to give you an idea of what these songs are like. I liked “4 Rice Rivers”, but this was an exception and not a rule. As a rule, I didn’t like most of the other songs.
So, among these 43 tracks you’ll find a few interesting arrangements to classic FF tunes, some funny vocal tracks, and then otherwise a very mediocre score. There’s a reason why this album didn’t get an official print. Don’t worry about hunting it down: just enjoy the samples and the knowledge with which I have now provided you.
