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Your favorite video game composer?

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Electivirus

Member
Pretty self-explanatory. I figured that this would be a nice way to talk about VGM without devolving into a thread full of unlabeled youtube links that nobody actually listens to. :D

If you do post, please explain your choices, if it's not too much trouble.

Anyway, I'm personally torn between Masashi Hamauzu and Yoko Shimomura. While I enjoy Hamauzu's piano/string prowess and classical influences just a tad more, he tends to go long stretches between big scores. On the other hand, just in 2010 alone, Shimomura scored Radiant Historia, Birth By Sleep, and Last Ranker, AND contributed to Xenoblade and The 3rd Birthday, all of which had fantastic soundtracks.

dem hamauzu strings
 
Michiru Yamane
Motoi Sakuraba
Yoko Shimomura
Yasunori Mitsuda
Kenji Ito
Nobuo Uematsu
Shoji Meguro
Masaharu Iwata
Hitoshi Sakimoto
 
Akira Tsuchiya - major composer for GUST, and total command of the Ar Tonelico series. The Hymmnos albums are his gift to the world.

also, Yuzo Koshiro. PC88 4 lyf!
 
Nobuo Uematsu
Motoi Sakuraba

Both know how to rock the shit out of a battle theme/boss theme! :D


Long live these two geniuses.
 
Chris Huelsbeck, mostly for his 8/16 bit works on C64/Amiga/SNES/Mega Drive.
Didn't do much work recently but some of his solo album like Nine are fantastic too.

From Japan I like Sugiyama's Dragon Quest music ( EVO too ) and Koji Kondo works on Nintendo games.

Also whoever was the composer at the time of Sunsoft 8 bit generation.
 
Keiichi Suzuki and Shogo Sakai, mainly for Mother 2 and 3 respectively, insane creativity

Shawn Lee has only done Bully, but if he follows that up with another masterpiece on that level I'll give him first place
 
Well, not gonna make a top ten, but going with number of works + consistency(of work i liked), i'd say:
Jesper Kyd, for the Hitman and Assassin's Creed games.
Akira Yamaoka, for the numerous Silent Hills.
Amon Tobin for the inFamous(1) and Chaos Theory soundtracks.
Michael McCann could sure enter the list and Tomas Dvorak too.
Many others that i don't remember now.
 
My current all-time favourites? I love Marty O'Donnell's work on the Halo games, and I'm particularly fond of several of Jeremy Soule's compositions, especially in KotOR. Their scores are just mesmerizing.

More recently, I enjoyed Jesper Kyd's stuff in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Meguro's work in Catherine.

There's also a lot of promise for Mahito Yokota becoming my favourite composer... hopefully he delivers with Skyward Sword.

Others that I like: Koji Kondo (duh), Nobuo Uematsu (double duh), Motoi Sakuraba, Junichi Masuda, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Jack Wall.
 
Masashi Hamauzu. Not just for his awesome strings+piano combinations, but because of his command of his own harmonic progression language, and his stylistic tendencies. The man has a nice command over extended tertian harmony, and really knows what clicks for me anyways. His mix of John Adams style orchestration for his orchestral pieces and Debussy and Ravelian tendencies are just sublime. First composer I ever heard purple with. Also, he doesn't always compose for melody, and makes atmospheric pieces, which is just the best in this melody-laden present. Not all music needs one, and i'm glad not all his music has one.

Shoji Meguro. Why? Because he's cool and awesome and has a nice mix of pop, hip-hop, and jazz in his music, and does it all really well. His style is unique to him.

Also, I think I am a pretty great game composer too, but I don't work on super retail titles, just small phone games and such sadly... For now anyways.
 
Yoko Shimomura. Check a list of her composition works, most likely there's something you love and had no idea of her involvement. Shoji Meguro and Masafumi Takada tied as second place.
 
imcht.gif

Gotta love that air viola.

That's Martin O'Donnell.
 
Well, my favorite soundtrack was the one for Advent Rising, so I guess that means......
Tommy Tallarico? Wait, that can't be right. Let me look aga.... Oh No.

I've got to go and wash off my shame.
 
Fuu said:
Yoko Shimomura. Check a list of her composition works, most likely there's something you love and had no idea of her involvement. Shoji Meguro and Masafumi Takada tied as second place.
Click to expand...
I didn't know she composed Guile's Theme until only like... 4 months ago. I was very surprised.
 
Akira motherfucking Yamaoka. Just look at that bad ass.

QEPlD.jpg


Why? Well he is just such a huge part of silent hill and what made it so amazing, I never really like to listen to video game soundtracks by themselves but songs like theme of laura and especially when him and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn worked together on songs like you're not here and one more soul to call. Just love the guy and his work on shadow of the damned was great too.
 
I don't know if he's my favourite, but I listen a lot of Koichi Sugiyama's music these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBxqOadfKcw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjd1MnZx5Y

http://youtu.be/l3sG1ehxPO8

http://youtu.be/IAsQaZTEA-o

Plus he looks awesome :



That's sort of cheating though, because he's a real composer who happens to make the soundtrack of all the Dragon Quest games.

I also have to give credit to the music teams at Rockstar and Bethesda. The radios in all GTA games are awesome. And I was blown away by the soundtracks of Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
 
Yasunori Mitsuda is god. I would've trekked up to Boston to see him with VGO, but he didn't end up coming.
 
Jockel said:
Good taste right there.
Also Shinji Hosoe, his work on Ibara and 999 was amazing.
Click to expand...

I really think Ibara is his greatest work, and I must thank you for letting me know that he did 999´s OST, now I must get the game.
 
Masami Ueada:

Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3
Devil May Cry
Viewtiful Joe
Viewtiful Joe 2
Okami
Bayonetta

Keiichi Okabe & Nobuyoshi Sano

Tekken series
 
Despera said:
now why would you use this song as an example.

Learn from the jr.

Anyways, I'll go with this...

1- Koh Otani
2- Shoji Meguro
3- Nobou Uematsu & Koji Kondo
4- Yoko Shimomura
5- Masashi Hamauzu

Pretty much Japan FTW.
Click to expand...
Reach Out to the Truth is awesome!!!
 
Noriyuki Iwadare; such an amazing composer working on the likes of the Grandia, Lunar and Langrisser series and he seems like such a nice guy too, interacting with his fans for easily a decade or so

Akira Tsuchiya; a really passionate creator, puts an amazing amount of thought into his work
 
jbueno said:
I really think Ibara is his greatest work, and I must thank you for letting me know that he did 999´s OST, now I must get the game.
Click to expand...
You certainly won't regret it, it's one of those games that kept me up all night because i wanted to know how the story unfolds. Actually it's the only game that ever kept me up all night because of the story.
Edit: Sorry for Namiki-spamming, but this is pretty much his masterpiece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKGiXChcb4
So gloomy, yet so cheerful.
 
-Nobuo Uematsu
Before playing FFII/IV for the first time (also one of the first SNES games I experienced), music in games just seemed like background noise. I was floored by the range and emotion in FFIV's OST. It still amazes me today- and remains my nostalgic favorite. His music has stayed connected to me far more than any other game composer (even the great Koji Kondo).

-Aubrey Hodges
Underrated composer during the last leg of Sierra On-Line's heyday. Conquest of the Longbow, The Sierra Network/ImagiNation Network, and his grand opus- Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness.
QFG4 remains one of the few games where absolutely every piece of music matches the screen/scene perfectly. I also had the pleasure of meeting him in 1998. Wonderful guy. He also had a brief run at home consoles, composing the music for DOOM 64 (and Final Doom, I believe) and some crappy fighting game called BIO FREAKS, among a few others. I would love to see him come back into the industry in a big way.

-Akira Yamaoka
Silent Hill composer who's overall 'sound' was just brilliant to me. The sounds and music of Silent Hill became just as much a character to the game's namesake as the horrible images that inhabit it. His guitar work is also superb. Even though I'm sad to see him moving away from SH, it's great to see him get other jobs in the industry.

-Masashi Hamauzu
Excellent piano work and really creative compositions. For me he is, far and away, the best possible replacement for Uematsu on the FF series. Many times his music has been the bright spot for crappy games. I hope his career is long and eventful.
 
Without going into the ones that too obvious:

David Wise has composed the greatest platformer soundtrack in history.

I'm also a big fan of Yuka Tsujiyoko, because Fire Emblem is consistently awesome as far as music goes.
 
No contest (almost): Yoko Shimomura. From Live-A-Live to Kingdom Hearts, everything she's done has been awesome. SF2 and I believe MMX as well. I love all of her stuff and it was another reason for FFvXIII being so exciting till it was placed into the vaporware category.


I also like Jeremy Soule, but the only game I really liked his soundtrack for was Secret of Evermore. I thought he had a really unique sound using more dissonance and ambiance.

Uematsu is great and so is David Wise (a big influence of mine), but nothing tops Shimomura for me.
 
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