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I'll guess that there was some other thread for this already, but if there was, this'll be closed anyway, so meh.

Well, assuming it doesn't get closed for that reason, I'll pick:

-Koichi Sugiyama
-Motoi Sakuraba
-Nobuo Uematsu

But that's just me.

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There are a ton of threads involving game music, but none dealing specifically about composers. Or at least I couldn't find one in my brief search.

Anyhow my three favorites are Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and Michiru Yamane. Sakuraba and Sugiyama are also very nice.

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YEAHHHH! Yasunori Mitsuda is awesome! The chrono cross OST is my favorite CD set ever!

Seriously though, I think he's got a stronger breadth of creativity and variety than Nobuo, and he's got a bit of a flair for the offbeat, as well as some classic dramatic pieces.

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Oh sure, I don't have to get kicked in the junk to activate it, but I like it anyway. -- Thief commenting on the difference between Throw and Blue Magic.

I'll be honest, I don't really know FFT's composer's name, but him/them are definitely my favorite(s). However, Nobuo will always have a place in my heart

Of course you gotta give it up for Yasunori, and Nobou, but I think we're all forgetting Koji Kondo.

I almost wanna say I like Kondo more than Uematsu...

Zelda FTW.

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It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
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Quote (Kane @ 1st May 2006 21:59)

I'll be honest, I don't really know FFT's composer's name, but him/them are definitely my favorite(s).  However, Nobuo will always have a place in my heart

I think that's Hitoshi Sakimoto. He did Tactics, Tactics Advance, Vagrant Story, FF XII, and a bunch of old Ogre Battle games. I also remember one of my friends at school telling me that he did the music to one of the Gradius games, which is kinda strange but still awesome.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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Quote (laszlow @ 1st May 2006 19:03)

Quote (Kane @ 1st May 2006 21:59)

I'll be honest, I don't really know FFT's composer's name, but him/them are definitely my favorite(s).  However, Nobuo will always have a place in my heart

I think that's Hitoshi Sakimoto. He did Tactics, Tactics Advance, Vagrant Story, FF XII, and a bunch of old Ogre Battle games. I also remember one of my friends at school telling me that he did the music to one of the Gradius games, which is kinda strange but still awesome.

Well, he's one brilliant man then. All good games with good music. Gradius eh........that's odd....

Gradius is a Konami series, but then again, there's nothing saying that composers can't move from one company to another.

My top names are the following (followed by why I praise them)

Nobuo Uematsu: several Final Fantasy games
Michiru Yamane: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Hitoshi Sakimoto: Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Yoko Shimomura: Super Mario RPG, Kingdom Hearts

Runners up include the following:
Koji Kondo (Mario and Zelda series)
Sotaro Tojima (Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon)
Capcom Sound Team (Mega Man series--seriously, who writes this stuff?)
Konami Kukeiha Club (or at least, whoever wrote the first several Castlevania soundtracks)
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono series)
Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano (for Metroid series soundtracks since Super Metroid)
Junichi Masuda, Go Inchinose (for Pokémon GSC)
Dave Wise (or maybe "Robin Beanland, Eveline Fischer, and Dave Wise", at least for DKC2) (for the Donkey Kong Country series)

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

The three big ones are Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and Koji Kondo. The former two were members of the Dream Team, and the Mario and Zelda themes are simply classics. -CSM

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I guess I should add the peppy, enthusiastic group of artists responsible for creating the soundtracks to the katamari damacy games, but it's not exactly "composition"

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Oh sure, I don't have to get kicked in the junk to activate it, but I like it anyway. -- Thief commenting on the difference between Throw and Blue Magic.

Quote (MogMaster @ 1st May 2006 21:00)

Of course you gotta give it up for Yasunori, and Nobou, but I think we're all forgetting Koji Kondo.

I almost wanna say I like Kondo more than Uematsu...

Zelda FTW.

Amen brother. Koji is the best.

Nobou and Mitsuda are giveaways, as well. I'm also a fan of Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamono. I like Hitoshi Sakimoto from what I've played of FFT and FFTA. And Yoko Shimomura has made a few good songs too.

Lastly, finally an american composer, I like Harry Gregson-Williams for his MGS work.

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

Harry Gregson-Williams for MGS2 and 3.
Jeremy Soule for Dawn of War and Total Annihalation.
And of course, Frank Klepacki for the C&C games. If FF games just had one song like Hell March...

It seems I'd put Bill Brown on there too for Rainbow Six, but... He stole Frank Klepacki's job with Generals!!!

Edit

Still, he did an okay job at NEC&CM for a game that was NEC&C. So, pop him on.

Oh, and he's american lol.

But other than that, that's it.

This post has been edited by Del S on 6th June 2006 18:37

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"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
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Akira Yamaoka is definitely my favourite. I love all of the Silent Hill music. It sets the mood appropriately, it's nice and gritty, and it's not omnipresent...though I guess that has more to do with game design than Yamaoka.

Nobuo Uematsu used to be my favourite, but then Final Fantasy X came out. "To Zanarkand" is a great piece, but the rest of the music in that game feels like he stopped trying.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

Hitoshi Sakimoto, Nobuo Uematsu, and the composer of Diablo are number 1 in my book.

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I'd have to say that Nobuo Uematsu (FF series) is my favorite followed followed by Koji Kondo (Zelda and Mario Bros. series). They've both created very memorable tunes. When I think of Mr. Uematsu, the FF prelude and when I think of Koji Kondo, the Zelda 1 dungeon theme are the ones that come to my mind. Great classic video game music is what they've left to all of us.

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Nobuo Uematsu used to be my favourite, but then Final Fantasy X came out. "To Zanarkand" is a great piece, but the rest of the music in that game feels like he stopped trying.

That's funny to me because alot of the FFX soundtrack had music contributed by other artists, and not Uematsu. So I do agree he's not so hot anymore.

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^FFX was designed around voice acting (which just happened to be crappy), so there's a reason for good, memorable music taking a backseat. I wish they didn't do the voiceovers and instead gave more prevalent character themes composed by Nobuo. I don't know why he got backups. I'd only accept Yanosori Mitsuda as the backup. The few good tracks were "To Zanarkand," "Otherworld," "Spira Unplugged," and "Blitzball Gamblers." -CSM

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for me they are: Nobuo Uematsu and Jun Senoue (Sonic series), Jun is also an awesome guitarist on Crush 40.

Quote (Crazyswordsman @ 3rd May 2006 13:16)

^FFX was designed around voice acting (which just happened to be crappy), so there's a reason for good, memorable music taking a backseat. I wish they didn't do the voiceovers and instead gave more prevalent character themes composed by Nobuo. I don't know why he got backups. I'd only accept Yanosori Mitsuda as the backup. The few good tracks were "To Zanarkand," "Otherworld," "Spira Unplugged," and "Blitzball Gamblers." -CSM

Well, I didn't think it was bad (quite the opposite), but I thought that Uematsu must be tired or something to get so many people to help him. Meh. It never really bothered me anyway.

So that's who does the Zelda music! Then I gotta add this Kondo guy to my list then...

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I'll try to revive the topic
Well i dont really know compser names...but i do know Nobuo FF all the waaay

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Nobuo Uematsu think of all the games and soundtracks wow. hes awesome. lot of respect for the man.

plus hes Japanese lol

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plus hes Japanese lol

I seriously hope a person's nationality isn't a factor you consider when evaluating a composer--unless her/his music is distinctly "national" in flavor, which I don't think Uematsu's is.

Quote (Zeromus X)

That's funny to me because alot of the FFX soundtrack had music contributed by other artists, and not Uematsu. So I do agree he's not so hot anymore.

His "not [being] so hot anymore" is something I've also heard. From what I know, the FFX, FFTA, and maybe other soundtracks were composed with "main theme by Nobuo Uematsu". I know that Sakimoto did FFTA, but I don't know who else did FFX, but it wasn't much of Uematsu's work anyway.

Maybe he's currently elevated to that status of "senior composer" who "watches over things".

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 6th June 2006 08:55)

Maybe he's currently elevated to that status of "senior composer" who "watches over things".

He's not even technically with Square-Enix anymore. Nobuo has his own company, called SmilePlease, through which he gets contracted to work on game scores and can also set up appearances and Black Mages concerts and whatnot. He's still doing some music work for Mist Walker and Square-Enix, though, inlcuding the main theme to FF XII, among other things already mentioned.

Quote (Suzan Tenshi)

plus hes Japanese lol

I'm with GMH on this one. What the hell?

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Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought too, though he isn't with them anymore.

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I have two categories for this one.

Game music is really peculiar. One of the reasons I like it is because it evokes that feeling of nostalgia. But anyways, on to the composers.

Stand-Alone
In my opinion, Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy Series) wins the title for this category. His music could work fine the way it is, and I could bet that if it was just released as is, without being part of a game, it would still sell well.

With Game
This one's a bit tougher. I've noticed that most of the other composers besides Uematsu compose to the game, that is, they tailor the music to the game's universe. Sometimes this is ok on its own, as is the case of the Chono Cross OST, but most of the time these pieces can only work once you've played the game. Anyways, my favorites in this category are Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono, Xeno Series), Motoi Sakuraba (Star Ocean Series), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts Series), and Miki Higashino (Suikoden Series).

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Music is a mysterious thing... Sometimes, it makes people remember things that they do not expect. Many thoughts, feelings, memories... things almost forgotten... Regardless of whether the listener desires to remember them or not...

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Since I noticed that this topic already existed, I thought I'd go ahead and contribute to it rather than make a new one.

To me, it seems like Nobuo Uematsu's role in Square Enix has diminished almost entirely besides composing the Prelude/Main Theme. Much like how Yoshitaka Amano contributing the logo for the Final Fantasy game making it seem obligatory for these two to contribute to the game. Nobuo Uematsu's music can still be heard at Mistwalker, though, where he composed the music for both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, which is a big plus for gamers.

Nobuo Uematsu is one of my favorite composers. Junya Nakano contributed to Final Fantasy X and has redone some of Uematsu's older music for the remake of Final Fantasy IV on DS (and possibly Final Fantasy III if I'm not mistaken).

Here are some of my other favorites:

-Koichi Sugiyama from the Dragon Quest series is probably my favorite composer.

-Yasunori Mitsuda from both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross (at the moment it escapes me what other game soundtracks he's composed) is definitely up there, as well.

-Yoko Shimomura, who composed music from both Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts, is an excellent composer.

-Motoi Sakuraba has an incredibly vast amount of soundtracks he's composed, from Square Enix's Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean, to Nintendo's Golden Sun and the soundtrack for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

-Hitoshi Sakimoto worked on the Final Fantasy Tactics music and later became the main composer for Final Fantasy XII. His music sometimes sounds more grandiose than Uematsu's.

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"You underestimate the strength of a Jedi's mind, Brejik. A mistake you won't live to regret, " -Bastila Shan(Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

The only game composer i actually know of is Nobuo Uematsu because i saw it like maybe a thousand times in ending credits. But yeah, other than that nobody i guess.

Yasunori Mitsuda - for the Chrono series.
Michael Land - for the Monkey Island series.

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I actually don't know about anybody other than Nobuo Uematsu. I want to find out more about some others. Game composers are underestimated I think.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (Del S @ 2nd May 2006 17:19)

And of course, Frank Klepacki for the C&C games. If FF games just had one song like Hell March...

Man... Hell March. Where I come from people just nod their heads at each other with a slight grin and say "tune" to sounds like that.

I used to think Uematsu was the father of all good game music but the Lost Odyssey tracks are so bad that it knocks him cleanly off the top. Mitsuda is so consistent, satisfying and uplifting that he takes my top spot. Masato Nakamura, or whoever was responsible for the first two sonic games, deserves praise. Really catchy little melodies.

Edit: No wait a second! Alexander Brandon, Dan Gardopée, Michiel van den Bos and Reeves Gabrels, who all apparently composed the Deus Ex soundtrack are my favourites. Even if it's just one game, the music is by far the best I've heard. A blend of new-age deep bass, sombre melodies and somewhat cheesy electronic sounds that fit perfectly with the aesthetics of the world. Notable ones are the Liberty Island, DuClaire Chateau, Hong Kong, MJ12 Labs and Return to New York. I have no idea how Return to New York manages to capture "you're going back to a place you were safe in before but now it's hostile, keep your guard up" so vividly!

I'm going to have to link them now - Deus Ex Official Soundtrack

This post has been edited by sweetdude on 1st April 2008 17:22

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