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Favourite game music composers?

L

Lakitu

st5fu
Who are your faves? My faves being obviously:

Norihiko Hibino (ZoE 1/2, MGS 2/3)
Harry Gregson Williams (MGS 2/3)
Martin O'Donnell (Halo 1/2)

and a definite fave of mine is Masami Ueda (Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2) but that reminds me, whats the guy working on now?
 
koji kondo and his sound team [zelda, mario etc]
kenji yamamoto [metroid prime series]
yuzo koshiro [super shinobi, actraizers, streets of rage]
rob hubbard [monty on the run, thing on a spring & other c64 themes]
 
Hibino and Williams (MGS)
Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill)
NoriyukiIwadare (Lunar)
Yasunori Matsuda (Xenogears)
Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest)
Yoko Shimamura (Parasite Eve)
Hideaki Kobayashi and Fumie Kumatani (PSO)
 
Go Shiina (Mr Driller series, Tales of Legendia)
Masaya Matsuura (Um Jammer Lammy, Parappa)
Shinji Hosoe (Megaman Network Transmission, Technic Beat, tons more)
Kazumi Totaka (Animal Crossing, Yoshi's Story)
Mutsuhiko Izumi (TMNT arcade & Turtles in Time, Guitar Freaks series)
Yuriko Keino (Dig Dug, Pac-Mania)
Aihara Takayuki (Point Blank)
Hip Tanaka (Dr Mario, Metroid, Kid Icarus)
Naosuke Arai & Tomomi Ohtani (Herzog Zwei, Thunder Force 2/3)

And "Namco Jazzy of Quattro" - I don't know if this is a guy, a team, or what, but he/she/they did the Outfoxies OST, which rules.
 
Y'know what would make this thread better?

If we all supplied a sample of our favorite composer(s) music with our post. If that seems ridiculous, we should at least post what the composer is most famous for.

If you've gone and picked a relative unknown, tell us how you came to discover them and why you like them.

It just seems to me that a big list of names is kind of useless.
 
Yoko Shimomura (Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts) - Legend of Mana may be my favorite soundtrack ever
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy)
Whoever did the Mega Man 2 soundtrack.
 
The guy who did Yoshi's islands music.
The guy who did Zelda's music.
The guy who did Donkey Kong County's music.
The guy who did Metroid prime's music.

Hmm, all nintendo :/ Anyways, i dont know the names :D
 
I wouldn't say this is all of them, but some of my favorites...

Masashi Hamauzu (Unlimited SaGa, Musashi II)
Hitoshi Sakimoto (Gradius V, Dragon Quarter) and with Masaharu Iwata (Baroque, FFT, Stella Deus)
Motoi Sakuraba (Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Baten Kaitos)
Jesper Kyd (Hitman, Freedom Fighters)
Hibino and Williams (MGS, ZOE for Hibino)
Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill, Contra SS)
Yasunori Matsuda (Xenogears, Xenosaga)
Hideaki Kobayashi and Fumie Kumatani (PSO)
Martin O'Donnell (Halo, Myth, Riven)
Michiru Yamane (SotN, OZ)
Michiko Naruke (Wild Arms...seriously)
Richard Jacques (Headhunter, MSR)
Spencer Nilsen (the SegaCD man)
 
- Koji Kondo (obviously... mostly for the original Super Mario and Zelda-tunes)
- Hip Tanaka (the first Metroid has one of the most interesting, haunting and inventive soundtracks ever)
- Yasunori Mitsuda (for Chrono Trigger)
- Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy!)
- Yoshio Sakamoto(?) (Super Metroid, Metroid Prime 1&2... utterly fantastic)
- David Wise(?) (the guy who made the soundtrack for Jet Force Gemini... is he the one who scored the Donkey Kong Country-games too? I probably mix together two separate composers here)
- Tim Follin (Solstice (NES), and Equinox and Spiderman & X-Men (SNES)... the music in these games is good enough to buy the games for)
 
- Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia series)
- Motoi Sakuraba (Shining the Holy Ark, Star Ocean 3 etc)
- Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage series)
- Yutaka Minobe & Takayuki Maeda (Skies of Arcadia)
- Yuki Kajiura (Xenosaga Ep.2, Blood the Last Vampire, Double Cast)
- Whoever in Technosoft who did the Thunder Force series' music.
 
Koji Kondo and his team (Nintendo games)
Dave Wise (rare games)
Yuki Iwai (megaman X)
Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Yoko Shimomura, Tetsuya Nishimura (street fighter 2)
 
Chris Hülsbeck [Giana Sister!!!, R-Type!!!]
Nobuo Uematsu [Ahem...]
Yozo Koshiro [Palace Of Destruction from Ys is one of the best VGM-tunes ever]
Koji Kondo [Ahem...]
 
thomaser said:
David Wise(?) (the guy who made the soundtrack for Jet Force Gemini... is he the one who scored the Donkey Kong Country-games too? I probably mix together two separate composers here)
Click to expand...

Indeed you are. Jet Force Gemini was by Robin Beanland.


Here's mine:

- David Wise (Rare NES games, DKC, DKR, SFA, Battletoads)
- Koji Kondo (Mario, Zelda...)
- Kenji Yamamoto (Super Metroid, Metroid Prime)
- Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasies)
 
Koji Kondo (for nostalgic reasons)
Yasonuri Mitsuda (Chrono)
Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid)
Michiru Yamane (Castlevania)
Motoi Sakuruba (Baten Kaitos, Tales Series)
Jeremy Soule (Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights)
Mark Morgan (Planescape Torment, No One Lives Forever)
Steve Henifin (Blood Omen, Eternal Darkness, MGS: Twin Snakes)
David Wise/Robin Beanland (DKC, JFG, Conker)
 
Some of my favorites:

Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Actraiser, Revenge of Shinobi)
Nobuo Uematsu (FF)
Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Soukaigi)
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears)
Hitoshi Sakamoto (FFT, BOFV, Radiant Silvergun, Gradius V)
Ryo Yonemitsu (Ys)
Kenji Yamamoto (Super Metroid, Metroid Prime)
Yoko Shimomura (Live A Live, Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve)
Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest)
Whoever did the music for Gradius III, Life Force, Contra series
 
Team that did music for Ace Combat IV - The entire Namco music team is fucking awesome
God of War music team.
Marty o'Donnel - Halo
The guy who is doing music for Shadow of the Collosus
The guy who is doing music for Final Fantasy XII He also did the music for Final Fantasy Tactics and that was totally awesome!
Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Xenogears Cried Awesome music
Nobuo Uematsu - For Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, X
Teams that made music for MGS 1, 2, and 3
The music guy at Epic is also really good Unreal Tournament has some really memorable tunes
Jesper Kyd for Hitman series and Freedom Fighters
 
all the ones already mentioned plus these:

-whoever did the songs for Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando (still looking for a soundtrack of this)
-Yoko Kanno (well, she did make the Ragnarok Online 2 and Cowboy Bebop (PS2) soundtracks)
-Whoever does the Shin Megami Tensei series
-Whoever does the Megaman X series (especially x8)
-Junya Nakano (Threads of Fate/Dewprism and FFX)
 
My biggest favorite is Kenji Yamamoto for his Metroid and Detective Club Sountracks.

Others I like:

Hip Tanaka (Metroid, Kid Icarus)
Robert Holmes (Gabriel Knight)
Michael Land (Monkey Island)
Yuzo Koshiro (Ys, SoR, Actraiser)
Tim Follin
Koji Kondo

And whoever composed for NiGHTS.
 
Inon Zur - Champions of Norrath, Chamion: Return to Arms
Richard Jacques - Metropolis Street Racer
Wave Master - various
 
Jeremy Soule (Icewind Dale, Morrowind, Total Annihilation, Etc...)
Jesper Kyd (Hitman series, Freedom Fighters, MDK 2)
Inon Zur (Icewind Dale 2, DoW Winter Assault, CoN)
Michael Giachinno (Call of Duty, Mercenaries)
 
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross, Xenogears)
Rob Hubbard (Countless C64 tunes that still sound good today)
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasies)
 
Anyone who doesn't say Uematsu is a loser and needs new taste.

Wondering, who did the music for "Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins" for GB? For such a tiny machine, whoever that was got some killer tunes out of it.
 
Anyone who doesn't say Uematsu is a loser and needs new taste.
Click to expand...
Why? Like Koji Kondo, he's done some great work in the past...

Which is the problem, they haven't done anything particularly interesting or inspired for years now. At this point in time, I wouldn't consider either of them a "favorite" just as someone may no longer consider themselves fans of an artist from 10 years ago.

Some of their work is timeless, though...but that might relegate them to a slightly different category for me.
 
Koji Kondo - Nintendo
Nobuo Uematsu - FF's etc
Robert Prince - Doom
Jesper Kyd - Hitman
Steve Henefin - Eternal Darkness, Twin Snakes
Yuzo Koshiro - Actraiser
Marshall Parker - Shadowrun
 
TaQ

stoic1.jpg


beatmania IIDX stuff, much of it winds up in DDR (Holic, stoic, DXY!, etc.).

Jespyr Kid is also way up there. I'm sure eight more will pop into my head after I post.
 
Koji Kondo is mathematically the best. Prove this by getting on a bus and doing the underwater theme from Mario Bros. Someone else will remember it, and every nuance of it.

He's also much more original. Uematsu is obviously talented, but most of his pieces sound either derivative, or familiar. Kondo's are unique. Nothing else really sounds like that.
 
dark10x said:
Why? Like Koji Kondo, he's done some great work in the past...

Which is the problem, they haven't done anything particularly interesting or inspired for years now. At this point in time, I wouldn't consider either of them a "favorite" just as someone may no longer consider themselves fans of an artist from 10 years ago.

Some of their work is timeless, though...but that might relegate them to a slightly different category for me.
Click to expand...
I think Uematsu is semi-retired; he hasn't done a full soundtrack since FF9 in 1999. But up until then, he was pretty goddamn untouchable.

Videogame music wasn't able to acheive "timelessness" before this man. FF1 was when videogames truly made the leap from having 5-second little "intro" tune here and there to having a richly composed soundtrack that captured the player's imagination. The only games whose soundtracks are as memorable are the NES Mario games, and IMO those are memorable simply because of their unprecedented, and never-repeated popularity, not because the compositions were particularly apropos.

I wouldn't worry about it; Uematsu seems to be making everyone's list, anyway.
 
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