Sansara Naga (FC)
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- For other games in the series, see Sansara Naga.
Sansara Naga is a Japanese role-playing game developed by Advance Communication Company and published by Victor, the same team who had also ported the first three Ys games to the Famicom. The player takes on the role of a protagonist which they name and can select whether they are male or female. The main character steals an egg from a village thinking it's a dragon egg. The protagonist hears about the Dragoons and wishes to become one, despite being a young kid. Along the way, they are guided by Ala Singh. The protagonist obtains a dragon's egg from a merchant which eventually hatches. The protagonist must then travel to Rtaa Sathya to slay the Chaos Dragon.
The game plays like a standard RPG similar to both Dragon Warrior and Pokemon. Your character does not have the ability to level up, and you must feed your dragon enemies that you killed in combat. However, if you feed your dragon a poisonous enemy, it can cause them to get sick, so you have to be careful. The only real way to "level up" is to upgrade your equipment, which itself is interesting, as there is a suit of armor the player can acquire later in the game that both prevents enemies from hitting you, but also prevents you from hitting enemies.
The game was designed by a professional team of people, each having notable names in the anime industry in Japan. The game was directed by Mamoru Oshii, written by Kazunori Ito, with character designs by Tamakichi Sakura (of Super Mario Adventures fame), and features a soundtrack by Kenji Kawai. Development was outsourced to Advance Communication, known in the west for developing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NES). However, unlike that game, and more similar to the way they handled the Ys trilogy on Famicom, Sansara Naga turned out to be a solid and unique RPG, though some criticized the game for not allowing the player to level up, as it allows certain enemies to easily be able to kill you.
Sansara Naga received a sequel on the Super Famicom, Sansara Naga 2 (SFC), and was ported to the Game Boy Advance along with its sequel as Sansara Naga 1x2 (GBA). Though the game was never released outside of Japan, the game was fully translated into English, as well as given a limited physical release.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
Sansara Naga features a soundtrack by Kenji Kawai, surprising, as he usually works in more professional areas of music such as television and film. Sansara Naga has one of the largest soundtracks in an NES game, consisting of forty-one songs. It might lose to Last Armageddon (FC) (also by the same developer). It is interesting to note that this game features forty-one songs while its Super Famicom sequel features only sixteen. The styles of music vary from classical to rock pieces. There are also a few ambient songs as well. Another unique thing about the game's soundtrack is some of the songs have modulated time signatures. For example, the track Sentou is in 5/4, and Ame no Sougen is in 13/8.
The sound effects also fit the game as well. On the overworld, whenever the player gets into combat, one of several sound effects will play. Some of these sound effects were either taken from and/or reused in other games by the same developer.
After almost 30 years after the game's release, an official soundtrack CD was released in Japan in 2017, and the song titles and track ordering come from the romanizations of the Japanese titles from that CD, as the CD does not contain English titles. (Due to the guidelines at VGMPF, because there are no official English titles from the soundtrack, the Japanese titles are displayed.)
Though the game credits four people for music, the soundtrack CD, and even the back of the instruction manual only credit Kenji Kawai, so it is most likely the other three audio developers, Osamu Kasai and Masaaki Harada (lead in-house audio staff for ACC) were only responsible for arrangements and/or sound effects, as Kenji had no programming experience. It is also one of three games to credit Shinji Nakayama. The three sound designers also worked on Ys II (FC), which was released at around the same time as Sansara Naga. It can also be supported that the other three sound members credited were only responsible for arrangements, as ACC is credited for the game's programming (and is one of the few games to credit the developer). Because Nakayama was credited in only three games, all by ACC and Victor, it's hard to tell which company he worked for, and it's suspected, but unconfirmed, that he served only as an audio producer or director. However, adding to the confusion is that Sansara Naga 1x2 (GBA) credits both Kawai and Kasai for the game's music.
Though the CD contains only forty songs, there is a jingle in the game's sound code that is not included in the soundtrack CD, and has been listed as Unknown. Please contact us if you know where in the game it plays. Interestingly, the track Zenmetsu is a sound effect, but because it is included in the official soundtrack, it is recorded here.
The Super Famicom version contains arrangements of the following songs; Ame no Sougen, Opening Logo, and Ending.
The composers wrote the music in the Sound Routine sound driver in 6502 assembly. Because the game uses the second version of the driver, the music is tuned approximately a ¼ step sharp. Sansara Naga 1x2 (GBA) would later reuse this game's soundtrack, featuring arrangements by Tsukasa Tawada.
Recording
Credits
- Ripper: MrNorbert1994
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits
- おんがく (Music): Kenji Kawai credited as かわい けんじ (Kawai Kenji)
- おんがく (Music): Osamu Kasai credited as かさい おさむ (Kasai Osamu)
- おんがく (Music): Masaaki Harada credited as はらだ まさあき (Harada Masaaki)
- おんがく (Music): Shinji Nakayama credited as なかやま しんじ (Nakayama Shinji)
- Manual Credits
- 音楽 (Music): Kenji Kawai credited as 川井憲次 (Kawai Kenji)
- プログラミング (Programming): Advance Communication Company credited as ACC
The in-game credits can be viewed after completion of the game. The developer roles and names are in Japanese hiragana. As it is standard in Japan, the Japanese credits list their surname first and their given name second.
The back of the game's instruction manual also has credits, and only lists Kenji Kawai, written in Japanese kanji. Interestingly, it also credits the developer, Advance Communication Company for programming, and is one of the few games to do so. The credit is listed above, as it strongly suggests the other three sound designers did not compose any original music, and most likely only served as arrangers and/or sound designers. This can also be supported by the soundtrack CD crediting only Kawai for the music.
Albums
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Game Rip
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Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The recording was made in NSFPlay Synthesia Mod.
Audio Devices
The game uses the 2A03 of the NES, and uses the second version of ACC's Sound Routine driver.
Releases
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Links
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/579576-sansara-naga - GameFAQs.
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| Notable Songs | Opening Logo • Ame no Sougen • Ending |
| Notable Personnel | Kenji Kawai • Osamu Kasai • Masaaki Harada • Shinji Nakayama • Michiharu Hasuya • Hikoshi Hashimoto • Tsukasa Tawada |
| Notable Companies | Advance Communication Comapny • Groove Box Japan • JVCKenwood Victor Entertainment |
- Nintendo Entertainment System Games
- Games Released In 1990
- Games Developed By Advance Communication Company
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- Games
- Sansara Naga (FC)
- Games By Kenji Kawai
- Games By Osamu Kasai
- Games By Masaaki Harada
- Games By Shinji Nakayama
- Games By Advance Communication Company
- Games With Albums
- Games That Use NSF
- Games Released In Japan
- Games Published By JVCKenwood Victor Entertainment
- Needed Song Descriptions
