Hajime Wakai rules (F-zero X music)

David Wise, Phiilipe Vachey, St�phane Bellanger, and Christophe Heral are my favorites. Oh, and Go Shiina.

Tobias enhus

I'll have to go with Koh Ohtani, Rei Kondoh, and Shoji Meguro, they are definitely excellent.

Yoko Kanno did a few game soundtracks, so she gets a spot in here. As does Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono series, Xenogears/Xenosaga series). Jeremy Soule, Masashi Hamauzu, too. What do people in here think of Hitoshi Sakimoto?

Dan Forden,Noriyuki Asakura,Yoshitaka Hirota,Yuzo Koshiro and Daisuke Ishiwatari.

A few of mine would be Jun Senoue, Richard Jacques, and Tommy Tallarico.

Kou Otani- Shadow of the Colossus

Yoko Shimomura- Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2

Hirokazu Ando- Fountain of Dreams theme

Yoko Kanno did a few game soundtracks, so she gets a spot in here. As does Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono series, Xenogears/Xenosaga series). Jeremy Soule, Masashi Hamauzu, too. What do people in here think of Hitoshi Sakimoto?

I'm very impressed with how Hitoshi Sakimoto took on FFXII, especially following the legacy of Uematsu. I was also surprised to learn that he worked on Ogre Battle which is one of my favorite SNES games.

Kou Otani- Shadow of the Colossus

Yoko Shimomura- Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2

Hirokazu Ando- Fountain of Dreams theme


No... Ando just arranged the Fountain of Dreams theme (which is in all reality called Gourmet Race, from Kirby Super Star). Jun Ishikawa composed.

A few of mine would be Jun Senoue, Richard Jacques, and Tommy Tallarico.

Tallarico does great music and he's got a laundry list of previous works. Funny thing is, out of that huge list, I only remember the Metroid Prime games, and I never find myself humming that music. Besides, I've seen his shows and the guy really annoys me. I think it's that he just doesn't stop talking in that hurried, pushy tone of his.

Here's what's on my list:

Michiru Yamane - Castlevania, for almost all of the games in the last 2 or 3 generations as far as I know. She's done such a great job with all of her music, I'd like to see her used for another game.

Harry Gregson-Williams - He's done a lot of work for the MGS series, which half of what's so memorable about that IS the music. While he hasn't been in game music for too long, what he has worked on has been outstanding and he's eclipsed a lot of composers.

Keiki Kobayashi- Composer for the last 2 or 3 AceCombat games and possibly for the first 3. He's done a great job of creating emotional, dramatic music that really tells the story of each game while also keeping the player's heart pulsing as he or she dogfights.

James Michael Dooley - While I really know his work on the last 2 SOCOM games, those last two games had far better music. I also have to say that the theme music from SOCOM 3 is incredibly catchy.

Yoko Shimomura - KH 1 + 2
Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Ayaka Hirahara and Akari Groves - Okami, one of the best game soundtracks ever, period
Makoto Tomozawa - Mega Man Legends
Eriko Imura - Klonoa 1 + 2
Kou Otani - Shadow of The Colossus
and of course Kondo and Uematsu-san

Masashi Hamazau - SaGa Frontier II, UNLIMITED SaGa, Dirge of Cerberus, Musashiden II-Blade Master. He's my favourite composer of RPG soundtracks.

Konami Kukeiha Club - No disrespect to Michiru Yamane, but I still prefer the Castlevania music these guys came up with over what she's brought. Don't forget all the arranged Perfect Selection albums they've done.

Yasunori Mitsuda - Loved him for Chrono Trigger, hated him for Chrono Cross. It's a tie.

Manabu Namiki & Hyakutaro Tsukumo - I can't decide which of these two composers does a better job in making music for shoot 'em ups.

Kazunaka Yamane - Responsible for the music from Double Dragon, but I don't think he's done anything else since.

Tim & Geoff Follin. 'Nuff said.

I'll add in Hiroyuki Iwatsuki as well.

Yasunori Mitsuda, Motoi Sakuraba, and Daisuke Ishiwatari are win.

The Suikoden soundtracks are also very well done.

Tomohito Nishiura (dark cloud)

Norihiko Hibino (zone of enders, metal gear solid)

Junya Nakano (another mind)

Nathan McCree (tomb raider)

Kimitaka Matsumae (jade cocoon)

there's loads more. shame most of them just do one game and that's it :(

Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross Xenogears, Xenosaga eps1

Hitoshi Sakimoto - Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics

Daisuke Ishiwatari - Guilty Gear

Hideyuki Fukasawa - Chaos Legion and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

Michiru Yamane - Castlevania SOTN > to present. Suikoden V

Aside from Koji...

David Wise, Yoko Shimomura, Motoi Sakuraba, Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando, Hajime Wakai and Kenta Nagata.

There's also Koichi Sugiyama who worked on the excelent music of the Dragon Quest series. Nobuo Uematsu has also admitted to being inspired by him.

I am going to agree with all of you just how can you forget Hiroki Kikuta. I am currently looking for all Yoko Kanno. Man, she is a great composer.

Yoko Shimomura
Hiroki Kikuta
Kenji Ito
Noriyuki Iwadare
Motoi Sakuraba
Go Shiina

Yoko Shimomura's pre-KH stuff is great. The Legend of Mana soundtrack is easily better than anything I've ever heard from Uematsu, plus she worked on Street Fighter II right?

Also, the folks who worked on SNK's fighters in the '90s up until the first closure are far and away the most talented people to ever work on a video game soundtrack. Given that they had to do multiple games a year for a good 7 or 8 years and the quality of their work was as consistently good as it was, I'd actually rank them higher than Uematsu and whoever else.

Toshikazu Tanaka's a pretty underrated guy, too. The MI soundtracks are sort of lacking but the Rage of the Dragons and Matrimelee ones are utterly fantastic.

JESPER KYD FTW!!

Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross, plus i just found out he's working on super smash bros brawl!

check out the roster for brawls musician line up:

http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/music/music01.html

Daiki Kasho and Yuzo Koshiro.

for me its akira yamaoka, hands down

i love all the silent hill soundtracks, but 2 is definitely the standout and one of the top game soundtracks ive ever heard, as well as one of my favourite all around albums in general. it has such a variety of styles, but is still able to maintain an incredible atmosphere. yamaoka's high note and one of the greatest things to ever happen to video game music in my opinion

Yuzo Koshiro,Hideki Okugawa,Hiroyuki Iwatsuki and Hidenori Shoji.

for me it's Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo

Tobias Enhus

Troels Brun Folmann

Nathan McCree

Junichi Nakatsuru and Yoshihito Yano. Have you ever heard the soundtrack to Soul Calibur II (http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/605)? It's really great, epic, adventurous music. The second song should hook you and then it's smooth sailing from there. :love:

The ones who influence my own music the most are Akira Yamaoka, Hitoshi Sakimoto, and Manabu Namiki.

All of these guys have been previously mentioned.
However, I'm gonna ignore all of Sakimoto's RPG works, and mention Soukyuugurentai and Gradius V. Really, Soukyuugerentai's a whole different animal... a truly strange creature. But man, I love its soundtrack. If you guys haven't heard it, it's up for download on the GH site at : http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/4744

As for Manabu Namiki, I love his shmup music, kinda dislike the other stuff he's done. And Akira Yamaoka? While I love his sound work (and production work, non-music related) on Silent Hill, I find myself thinking about his iFuturist album and his Bemani works a lot.

So, yeah, for the eccentrist who's into weird electronic music, with very little of it RPG-related, those are my picks.

Let's see...

Yuzo Koshiro - (Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, classic Sega stuff)

Kenji Yamamato - (EVERY DBZ game, also had some works on Metroid Prime)

David Wise - (Plenty of Rare stuff including DKC 1-3 and Battletoads)

Yasunori Mitsuda - (Xenogears/Xenosaga, does a lot of work with Squaresoft/Square-Enix)

Hideki Okugawa & Yuki Iwai - (Worked on virtually EVERY Capcom fighting game. Starting with Street Fighter of course)

Michiru Oshima - (Composed the soundtrack for one of my favorite PS1 RPGs of ALL TIME; Legend of Legaia)

Yuka Tsujiyoko - (Does a lot of the more current Fire Emblem games)

Tetsuya Shibata & Kento Hasegawa (The Devil May Cry series)

Stuart Chatwood (Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, had IMO the best soundtrack of the three)

Daisuke Ishiwatari (EVERYTHING Guilty Gear!!)

Christopher Lennertz - Medal of Honor series
Michael Giacchino - Medal of Honor series
Stan LePard - Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge
Steve Burke - Kameo: Elements of Power
Chance Thomas - King Kong, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, LOTR series
Inon Zur - SOCOM II, Men of Valor
Chris Tilton - Black, Mercenaries
Joel Goldsmith - Call of Duty 3

Motoi Sakuraba and Jeremy Soule (Neverwinter Nights, KotoR, Morrowind, Oblivion, Prey, Secret of Evermore, Guild Wars, Dungeon Siege, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance are just some of the highlights :))

Michiru Yamane, Yoko Kanno, Yasunori Mitsuda, Masashi Hamauzu and Motoi Sakuraba (well, I loved him for GS tracks)

Motoi Sakuraba with the baten kaitos series
Yuka Tsujiyoko fire emblem series
Cellar or rats group: Scratches
Jeremy Soule: Guild wars
Shoji Meguro: Trauma center
Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani, Hideaki Kobayashi: PSOCR III
there are so many others... The guild wars one was very well done

Easy!

Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Mega Man, Final Fight, Street Fighter)
Manami Matsumae (Mega Man, Area 88, Mercs, some other Capcom games)
Motoaki Furukawa (Lethal Enforcers [Sega CD version])
Tappi Iwase (Lethal Enforcers [Sega CD version])
Michiru Yamane (Detana!! TwinBee, Rocket Knight Adventures)
Toshihiko Horiyama (Mega Man X4)
Toshio Kajino (Final Fight Guy)
Setsuo Yamamoto
Junko Tamiya (Bionic Commando, Strider)

just a few I know off the top of my head

Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears...)
Harry Gregson Williams (Metal Gear Solid 2-3)
Miki Higashino (Suikoden I-II-IV-V, Gradius III, Vandal Heart...)
Michiru Yamane (Suikoden III-IV-V, Castlevania SOTN... )
Hiroki Kikuta (Seiken Densetsu 2-3)
Noriyuki Iwadare (Lunar SSS and EB, Grandia 1-2-3...)

koji kondo , yasunori mitsuda

koji kondo , yasunori mitsuda

Didn't the thread starter say OTHER than Koji Kondo and Nobu?

Masashi Hamazau

Meguro Masashi, Akira Yamaoka , Motoi Sakuraba

-Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor, Call of Duty ...)
-Tom Salta (Graw, Graw 2 ... )
-Steve Burke (Kameo ... )
-Harry Gregson-Williams and Norihiko Hibino ( Metal Gear Solid )
-Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross ...)
-Behavior (Splinter Cell Double Agent)

Yuzo Koshiro from Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2. Best techno/trance music.

Michiru Yamane (Castlevania)
Motoi Sakuraba (Valkyrie, Tales of...)
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross)
Hiroyuki Iwatsuki (NES, Natsume, Mitsume ga tooru, gundam wing: endless duel, choujin sentai jetman!!!)

Giacchino and Tilton are the best !
But I was impressed too by Hannigan's Potter (can't wait to listen to Soule's ones). Chance Thomas too (King Kong, Lord of the Rings) is very good. And I love Jack Wall's Mysts and Lennertz's Medal of Honor.

keiichi okabe- practically everything in the ps2 version of tekken tag tournament and some of tekken 3 along with some in all the other tekken games

nobuyoshi sano- practically everything in the tekken 3 remixed soundtrack, plus the hidden characters song from the arcade soundtrack

whomever in the namco sound team responsible for the arranged soundtrack of tekken 2, and most of the music in the ending sequences of the same game, and whom i haven't mentioned in the group since i've owned most tekken games and enjoyed a lot of the music

whomever in the sonic team responsible for the sonic advance soundtrack and the sonic the hedghog soundtrack for ps3 and xbox 360

hideki naganuma- for a few tracks on the sonic rush soundtrack, cuz i don't know if there were more composers in that game, plus he worked on both jet set radio games, but i only heard his music from sonic rush, i had a psone and ps2 at the time of both jet set radio games

jun chiki chikuma- the bomberman hero soundtrack

some of the artists featured in need for speed high stakes, all they have for artist if you download the soundtrack on galbaldia hotel is electronic arts, but I know they had individual artists featured in the sound test

the people behind the megaman soundtracks

hip tanaka- the man behind the original song for brinstar for the original metroid game, and probably some other nice tracks in that game

takayuki iwai- did the ending song for street fighter alpha 3-"daybreak"

everyone else responsible for the street fighter soundtracks

the people behind the main menu music in gran turismo 4

yu miyake- does the score for the stories in tekken 4, 5, and DR, plus did some tracks in tekken tag, and tekken 3; most notably the staff roll of tekken 3

the people behind the streets of rage 2 soundtrack

the people behind the ridge racer soundtracks, i heard namco has had the same team of 8 people working on every ridge racer soundtrack

the people behind the super smash bros. melee soundtrack, no it wasn't just one guy

the people behind the pokemon gold & silver soundtrack, no it wasn't just one guy; heck, the people behind all pokemon soundtracks

i think that pretty much covers it, because everything else memorable was just licensed pop music, or underground american, but trying to be pop.

Totally Jun Senoue, he is the best, especially Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes & Shadow The Hedgehog

Jeremy Soule.. for Oblivion, Morrowind, Guild Wars (+ Nightfall, + Factions), Warhammer, Prey, Supreme Commander, Dunegeon Siege 1 + 2, Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars KotoR 1 +2, Secret of Evermore aaaand.. final fantasy 6 Terras theme (remix) ^^ hes the best..

Definitely Motoi Sakuraba for me. Especially when he played keyboard. Dear lord, complete nerdgasm. Sure, he has his trashy filler OSTs he works on (Mainly the Tales series), but he has already admitted that he doesn't really try on those ones. But when he tries, you can tell. Valkyrie Profile 2 being the recent highlight.

Other great composers:

Hiroki Kikuta
Masashi Hamauzu
Tsuyoshi Sekito

Five random composers:

Jeremy Soule - (Company of Heroes)
Motoi Sakuraba - (Mario Golf Series)
Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim - PC)
Kazuo Sawa - (Nekketsu Kunio-kun Series)
Michael Giacchino - (Medal of Honor Series)

YOKO SHIMOMURA -Kingdom Hearts

Aside from the music gods Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu, these are my tops... ^^;

Arata Iiyoshi - Pok�mon Mystery Dungeon / Beatmania II DX

Taro Bando - F-Zero series / Maro Kart series

Hajime Wakai - Pikmin series / Star Fox series / F-Zero series

Kenji Yamamoto - Super Metroid / Metroid Prime series

Masato Kouda - Monster Hunter / Devil May Cry

Minako Hamano - Metroid Fusion

Shogo Sakai - Super Smash Bros. Melee / MOTHER3

Toru Minegishi - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom Hearts series

Yuka Tsujiyoko - Fire Emblem series

Marty O'Donnel - Halo Series

My favorites:

Yoshito Hirano & Yuka Tsujiyoko - Paper Mario: TTYD soundtrack
Dave Wise - Donkey Kong Country 2 soundtrack
Keichii Suzuki - Earthbound/Mother 2 soundtrack
Howard Drossin - Sonic & Knuckles
Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Cross soundtrack
Shogo Sakai - Mother 3 soundtrack
(Whoever did Super Paper Mario's soundtrack)

And many more, but those are the ones that come to mind at the moment... And honestly, I simply don't know the names of all of the composers I absolutely adore. :(

Jeremy Soule's work on Elder Scrolls was spectacular.

Jeremy Soule's work on Elder Scrolls was spectacular.

Yes, yes it was. I can't say it better than that.

iki ethycs anyday

I have to say Jesper Kyd, being a fan of the Hitman games. His music is probably the best music I've heard in a game, all epic sounding stuff. No other game comes close to matching his brilliant composing. Hitman 2 Silent Assassin is his best work, IMO, followed by Hitman Blood Money 2nd, Contracts 3rd and Codename 47 4th.

Jesper's official website (http://www.jesperkyd.com/)

Michael Giacchino for his Medal of Honor work is also worth mentioning, his work is equally as stunning.

Akira Yamaoka, Frank Klepacki, Kazumi Todaka and Masaya Matsuura

Michael Hoenig. (BG1&2)
So underrated it's criminal.

Inon Zur is also excellent - Prince of Persia & Icewind Dale 2

Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, Super Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Kenta Nagata - Mario Kart 64
Masato Nakamura - Sonic 1 and 2
Grant Kirkhope - Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie
Jun Senoue - Sonic Adventure 1 and 2

As for me:

- The guy who did the PS1 Spyro games (forgot his name, sorry...)
- Hirokazu Ando, for certain HAL games, especially Kirby's Adventure
- Junichi Masuda, for the Pokemon games, especially Red/Blue

(and also Koji Kondo but not Hirokazu Andu, sorry... haven't played enough Final Fantasy. Though I'm loving the soundtrack in Final Fantasy 8 right now)

EDIT: I found out that Stewart Copeland did the Spyro games.

Yasunori Mitsuda (chrono cross)
Kenji Yamamoto (metroid)
Miki Higashino (Suikoden II)

Michiru Yamane (Most Castlevania games since Symphony of the Night)
Hitoshi Sakimoto (Vagrant Story, FF Tactics, Final Fantasy XII...)
Jamie Christopherson (the only work I've heard of him is the Dawn of Dreams OST, which is awesome)
Kow Otani (Shadow of the Colossus)

There's plenty more of other composers of course, but I can't list them all here.

Every composer for the beatmania IIDX series except Napakick.
Hands down.

Motoi Sakuraba (Shinnin and others)
Yuzo Koshiro (streets of Rage and others)
Michiru Yamane (Castlevania)
Masami Ueda (Resident evil series)

definitely the ones i love besides nobuo Uematsu

Im suprised that you guys have not yet suggested Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill games) much. He is a master of expressing sadness, terror and suspense through music and sound effects.

Yoshino Aoki - Breath Of Fire IV
Konami Kukeiha Club - Castlevania
Harry Gregson Williams - Metal Gear Solid
Mark Griskey - Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic 2
Miki Higashino - Suikoden
Hitoshi Sakimoto/Masaharu Iwata - Final Fantasy Tactics
Motoi Sakuraba - Star Ocean, Tales Of Phantasia and Valkyrie Profile ---> Favourite
Hiroshi Tamwari - Vandal Hearts, Azure Dreams, Suikoden. ---> Favourite
Shinji Tamura - Tales Of...
Yoshitaka Hirota - Shadow Hearts series --> Favourite

Well there are alot more...But these are amongst the best imo.

Definitely Motoi Sakuraba for me. Especially when he played keyboard. Dear lord, complete nerdgasm. Sure, he has his trashy filler OSTs he works on (Mainly the Tales series), but he has already admitted that he doesn't really try on those ones. But when he tries, you can tell. Valkyrie Profile 2 being the recent highlight.
Total agreement. I actually didn't know what a total gem his stuff was until I played Eternal Sonata recently, and then wondered, "Who's the composer for this? He's AWESOME!" Then I found out he did the Tales series (which I haven't played, but still have heard the music for and love). So I've got to say that he's one of my favorites.

My two other favorites have also been mentioned: Yasunori Mitsuda, and Yoko Shimomura.

Tom Salta his work on GRAW 1+2 is excellent
Hideki Naganuma i love his fresh n funky style
Yuzo Koshiro - need i say more the mans a genius
Richard Jacques - always been a fan of his work from the early days of Sonic 3D and shinobi X to the euro remixes on Outrun 2.

Michiru Yamane - Castlevania Need I say more?
Jun Ishikawa - Kirby. There has been some amazing Music Scores for these games.
Koichi Sugiyama - Dragon Quest which has put out some of the best Musical Peices of all times as far as video games go.

Noriyuki Iwadare, Motoi Sakuraba, Michiko Naruke and Yasunori Shiono.

Hi... My fave game music composers are:
- Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Xenosaga Ep.I),
- Shoji Meguro (from SMT. Listen to his work titled Heartful Cry (OST of SMT:P3 FES), i like it very much, I hope you all feel the same)
- Motoi Sakuraba (Tales of...., Star Ocean ....)

^^ I'm a newbie btw... ^^ Nice to meet you all in this forum. ^^

- Motoi Sakuraba (Tales of...., Star Ocean ....)

Forgot to mention his work on Valkyrie Profile 2, best work Square has delivered in quite a while now.

Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Cross/Xenogears
Yuki Kajiura - .Hack
Motoi Sakuraba - Tales series, Star Ocean series, Valkyrie Profile

Manfred Linzner

Tommy Tallarico, Yuzo Koshiro & Howard Drossin

hard to choose but Hitoshi Sakimoto,Yoko shimumora.Kenji ito,Hip tanaka and yasunori mitsuda

Koichi Sugiyama
Yasunori Mitsuda
Kow Otani (For his amazing work on SotC... I have not heard his other works yet)

Go Shiina. Fantastic composition and execution and carries out a fammiliar theme throughout songs very well. I'm also a big fan of Yoko Shimomura's Legend of Mana work.

edit: AND YES, KOICHI SUGIYAMA. Sucks at battle themes, but his other work is just..so, so good, I can't even begin to describe eloquently.

Miki Higashino definitely stands out for her work in the Suikoden series (except 3, which was lost without her :( ) She has made some of the best battle/war themes I have ever heard, and her town themes are always amazing, and usually a town theme isn't one of a soundtrack's standouts.

Noriyuki Iwadare for his work in the Grandia series... I've only heard the first one in full, but I loved every minute of it... He does great battle music, and his town themes always give you a great feel for the area.

Yuki Kajiura is hands-down, my favorite VG composer ever. Her work is absolutely amazing. She has the most dramatic and driven battle themes I have ever heard, and Hepatica #1 and #3 from Xenosaga III nearly brought me to tears the first time I heard them. Her work in the .hack/sign anime is equally amazing.

David Wise, Phiilipe Vachey, St�phane Bellanger, and Christophe Heral are my favorites. Oh, and Go Shiina.

OMG! How could I forget David Wise?


Yasunori Mitsuda, Motoi Sakuraba, and Daisuke Ishiwatari are win.

The Suikoden soundtracks are also very well done.

Of Course. I can't forget Motoi Sakuraba.


Aside from Koji...

David Wise, Yoko Shimomura, Motoi Sakuraba, Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando, Hajime Wakai and Kenta Nagata.

Hirokazu Ando? Man, what great music he has done.

Kenta Nagata, definetly can't forget him. I always hum to the title screen song in Mario Kart 64.


Aside from the music gods Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu, these are my tops... ^^;

Arata Iiyoshi - Pok�mon Mystery Dungeon / Beatmania II DX

Taro Bando - F-Zero series / Maro Kart series

Hajime Wakai - Pikmin series / Star Fox series / F-Zero series

Kenji Yamamoto - Super Metroid / Metroid Prime series

Masato Kouda - Monster Hunter / Devil May Cry

Minako Hamano - Metroid Fusion

Shogo Sakai - Super Smash Bros. Melee / MOTHER3

Toru Minegishi - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom Hearts series

Yuka Tsujiyoko - Fire Emblem series

Marty O'Donnel - Halo Series

Taro Bando has done some great Mario Kart music.


Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
Kenta Nagata - Mario Kart 64
Masato Nakamura - Sonic 1 and 2
Grant Kirkhope - Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie
Jun Senoue - Sonic Adventure 1 and 2

Masato Nakamura, oh man I always hum to the theme of Green Hill Zone all day long.

Grant Kirkhope did some great music. Not only he did Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie, but he also did Donkey Kong 64 too.


As for me:

- The guy who did the PS1 Spyro games (forgot his name, sorry...)
- Hirokazu Ando, for certain HAL games, especially Kirby's Adventure
- Junichi Masuda, for the Pokemon games, especially Red/Blue

(and also Koji Kondo but not Hirokazu Andu, sorry... haven't played enough Final Fantasy. Though I'm loving the soundtrack in Final Fantasy 8 right now)

EDIT: I found out that Stewart Copeland did the Spyro games.

Stewart Copeland. How could I forget him? I always listen to that song on the stage Wizard Peak.


Tommy Tallarico, Yuzo Koshiro & Howard Drossin

And Howard Drossin I can't forget the music from Sonic 3 & Knuckles with Jun Senoue and also Sonic Spinball.

But I forgot to mension, and also nobody said just yet, Richard Jacques.

Stephane Picq (Dune for the Amiga/PC/Sega CD)

For me it would be Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), Kou Otani (Shadow of the Colossus), Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid) and Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts).

Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill

Akira is a very very talented music composer whose music expresses tragedy, sorrow, tension, and fear almost perfectly. No, forget I said that - I meant PERFECTLY. You won't find music quite like Akira's unless you get lucky. He is an amazing music composer for sure.

Why can't we pick Nobuo Uematsu, hes the only composer I've recognized enough in the credits of games to actually remember?

Oh well, I guess I will have to say Ogeretsu Kun, Manami Matsumae and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi in that case. I looked these names up online and I think they should be the names of the people who did the music for Megaman 2. I really enjoyed those songs the most out of any of the Megaman games. And it's the only game I remember any memorable music from.

Motoi Sakuraba

Masashi Hamauzu is awesome! He made music for Saga frontier 2, the SaGa games(unlimited, romancing, etc.), and some of the songs for final fantasy X. Not even Nobuo can compare to him!

Jesper Kyd and Shusaku Uchiyama.

Daiki Kasho and Yuzo Koshiro.

yeah!!! theyre my favrite also!:-D

Masato Nakmura, Yoko Shimomura, Jun Senoue, toshikazu Tanaka, Takayuki Ishikawa, Naoki Maeda, Akira Yamaoka, and Daisuke Ishiwatari to name a few.

Hyakutarou Tsukumo
Toshiharu Yamanishi
Tomomi Ootani
Namihei
A'
Michiru Yamane
Hisayoshi Ogura
Yasuhisa Watanabe
Kenji Yamamoto
Haruhiko Kuroiwa
Tamayo Kawamoto
Takeshi Miura

I like David Wise, Eveline Fischer, and Grant Kirkhope (mostly Rareware composers). Their work always puts a smile on my face.

She actually is anime music composer... Yuki Kajiura, the tracks she make are just so great...

Yasunori Mitsuda.

Chrono Trigger Original Sound Version
+
Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack
+
Sailing to the World

= <3

Hideki Naganuma (SEGA) - Guy is a genius, music I can listen to repeatedly and still love it

Yutaka Minobe and Tatsuyuki Maeda (SEGA) - For skies of Arcadia's soundtrack, which was brilliance.

Hideaki Kobayashi & Fumie Kumatani (SEGA) - Responsible ofr many brilliant PSO and PSU soundtracks.

Jeremy Soule - A recent favourite for his orchestral soundtracks which have done wonders for the Guild Wars series.

The people who did Ar Tonelico, Atelier series, and Mana-Khemia.

Ken Nakagawa, Daisuke Achiwa, Akira Tsuchiya, Takashige Inagaki, Haruka Shimotsuki, Akiko Shikata, Toshiharu Yamanishi, Masayuki Kobayashi, Miyoko Kobayashi

Yes, Haruka and Akiko are also composers.

Yuki Kajiura. Definitely. Xenosaga II Movie Soundtrack is one of my favorite cds EVER.

umm.. [Kinya Sawaguchi - Daisuke Ishiwatari - Tetsuya Shibata - Michihiko Sichi - Yasuhiro Misawa - Mike Reagan - Akihiko Matsumoto]

But noone can beat Nobuo Uematsu and Masami Ueda!!! hehe!

Norihiko Hibino.

his music is jazzy and classical too.

Anyone from Zuntata, of course. But what about some more European composers such as Chris Huelsbeck or the late Richard Joseph?

Also, let's not forget the Commodore C64 heroes, Rob Hubbard and Maniacs of Noise. For those unfamiliar with C64 SID music, try the downloads at Skytopia C64 page:

http://www.skytopia.com/games/c64/c64.html

You're in for a treat :D

Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Kenji Yamamoto!

Yoshino Aoki, Yasunori Mitsuda

zzzz

Tobias enhus



+1 ! I agree entirely!

Hmm... Ysunori Mitsuda did a great work with Chrono Trigger score and it is probably the best OST I've heard. Then Jeremy Soule, who has created Knights of the Old Republic OST and Morrowind Main Theme. Also the one who created music for original Halo (don't know the name, sorry) did awesome job too.

Yasunori Mitsuda - Loved him for Chrono Trigger, hated him for Chrono Cross. It's a tie.

huh?:confused: i loved his work for Chrono Cross...:eye:

most of my choices have already been named.

I'm surprised there's not more love for Hideki Naganuma and Deavid Soul. Hideki does some amazing work (listen to the majority of the tracks in Jet Set Radio) and Deavid can put out some great beats as well.

Some others of note that I think are awesome:
Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia II soundtrack was epic)
The Yutaka Minobe & Takayuki Maeda team. (Skies of Arcadia music... also epic.)
Graeme Norgate (Time Splitters Series, did some work on GoldenEye64 soundtrack)

Yasunori Mitsuda (chrono trigger music for the win)

Tatsuo Yokoyama, for his incredible work on Mario Party 7.

Akira Yamaoka

Wow all these pages and not one mention of Ryo Yonemitsu the guy who composed the sound tracks for Ys I, II, III and IV for the turbo duo. Probably some of the best music ever made for a video game. Guess thats what you get for making music for a system that wasn't that popular in North America.

Motoi Sakuraba For me.
There so much strengh in is music, even in "sad" musics.
There are a lot of very good compositors I like a lot but I have a preference for him.
Michiko Naruke, Yasunori Mitsuda, Miki Higashino, Tomohito Nishiura, Yoshitaka Hirota...

Motoi Sakuraba For me.
There so much strengh in is music, even in "sad" musics.

Damn right. Motoi Sakuraba is my VGM hero. Lord of the VGM age, in my opinion ^^ Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean (The Second Story), Golden Sun...good grief.

::Applaud:: *gg*

I support Hamauzu. So underrated in this thread.

Yasunori Mitsuda the guy that made the chrono trigger music,

Hideki Naganuma, the guy that made sonic rush, jet grind radio music.

Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, Fumie Kumatani. these peopel that made NIGHTS music. ^_^

Junya Nakano (His work in FFX, Dewprism, Another Mind)

Yasuhisa Watanabe (Not very well known, but incredible music. Check out Border Down and Senko no Ronde)

Masashi Hamauzu (Musashiden II, Dirge, etc.)

Shoji Meguro (SMT, duh)

Akira Yamaoka (SH, duh)

Koichi Sugiyama (DQ, duh)

Yasunori Mitsuda (Common response, but yeah)

Tim Follin (For the music on Ecco: Defender of the Future)

Artists who did music for the Ridge Racer series

Artists who did music for the online game TalesWeaver

Artists who did music for Breath of Fire series (Particularly 3, 4 and 5)

Masaya Matsuura (Parappa music, the game for ps2 has really good music, I wish I could get instrumentals without the funny vocals.
Guru ant and the onion sensei have really good songs, look 'em up on YouTube)

Tamayo Kawamoto

motoi sakuraba

Damn right. Motoi Sakuraba is my VGM hero. Lord of the VGM age, in my opinion ^^ Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean (The Second Story), Golden Sun...good grief.

Don't forget the "Tales" and "Baten Kaitos" series! The use of electric guitar on some of the battle tracks is really awesome! :D

I've recently fallen in love with the Crisis Core OST, though I haven't played the game myself. Takeharu Ishimoto is definitely on my list of great composers, as well as Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenogears-Xenosaga/Legaia 2), Michiru Oshima (Legend of Legaia), Masaharu Iwata & Hitoshi Sakimoto (FF Tactics/XII). Also the many MOTHER composers have all been quite good, Keiichi Suzuki, Hirozaku Tanaka (MOTHER 1+2), Shogo Sakai, Taeko Onuki (MOTHER 3).

Edit: Oh yeah I forgot about Russel Shaw who composed the Fable Soundtrack.

I just remembered another one of my favorite video game composers! Michiru Yamane! Her work on the Castlevania series is fantastic! Especially the music for Lament of Innocence...

I have a hard time with names but I am still a sucked for the MGS music. I don't know if these guys are artists or what but I like the music from Oblivion, Tenchu Z and Just Cause. Really "powerful".

Yuka Tsujiyoko...and Jesper Kyd is awesome too. and whoever did the soundtrack to the metroid games (it's not Koji Kondo)

I like most of the Japanese composers already mentioned.

In the west I don't feel there are many good ones...Apart from Jeremy Soule, James Hannigan, Richard Jacques, Michael Giacchino and Gary Schyman. These guys can really write music but don't always get the best games to work on. A lot of the others seem a bit overrated to me.

I'll Do it in order for my best video game composer

1. Yuzo Koshiro
2.Mega Man Who ever did the composing to mega man music they r the best if i kne w who did it ill put them #1 on my list
3.Michiru Yamane
4.Nobuo Uematsu

Who ever got a problem with my fav. reply me back

I'd say my favourite composer is Michiru Yamane for her work on the Castlevania series (despite popular opinion, I don't really think that the SotN OST was so brilliant - it had some great tracks, but some were not so great - I much preferred her work on other games including PoR, Bloodlines, LoI, CoD). Also, Noriyuki Iwadare has done great work on Grandia and Grandia 2 (looking forward to his contribution to Smash Bros Brawl). Tomoko Sasaki did a great soundtrack for Ristar on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, which I adore.

Noriyuki Iwadare has done great work on Grandia and Grandia 2

Haha, I never liked Iwadare's music at all, maybe a handful of songs from each OST and that's it. You said SoTN wasn't that good but you like Iwadare, I don't understand this...but to each his own.

His work on Grandia III was pretty atrocious, but I guess that's why you didn't mention it. That "Baccla" theme is the worst song I have heard in a while.

Haha, I never liked Iwadare's music at all, maybe a handful of songs from each OST and that's it. You said SoTN wasn't that good but you like Iwadare, I don't understand this...but to each his own.

His work on Grandia III was pretty atrocious, but I guess that's why you didn't mention it. That "Baccla" theme is the worst song I have heard in a while.

Mmm, well I think Iwadare reached his peak for Grandia. I loved most tracks in the soundtrack for Grandia (so much so I bought the sheet music book with the OST arranged for piano, after searching the 'Net for so long I decided I may as well buy it), most of the tracks for Grandia 2 (I loved the vocal tracks "A Deus" and "Cancao do Povo"), then it spiralled rapidly downhill to result in the poor (or even abismal) soundtracks for Grandia Xtreme and Grandia 3.That's why, on second thought, his involvement with Brawl isn't so exciting (unless it signifies a Grandia character being involved) and Michiru Yamane would be better. Her work has remained consistant - with a superb OST on her first Castlevania involvement (Castlevania Bloodlines) and some superb soundtracks following that. SotN's OST was great, but as I said I think some tracks let it down a bit. Bloodlines has a better OST in my opinion.

I really dig Matt Uelmen's score for Diablo II.

What I've heard from God of War is awesome (Cris Velasco)

Also of course Jeremy Soule is an incredible game composer.

definatly akira yamaoka, hitoshi sakimoto (ff tactics!!), stewart copeland, and whoever did the soundtrack to the ratchet and clank games.

Akemi Kimura - Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright)
Ken Nakagawa & Daisuke Achiwa - Atelier Iris series/Ar Tonelico
Tenpei Satao - Makai Senki Disgaea
Yuki Kujiura - Xenosaga II/III

No.1 - Miki Higashino!!!
Then Shinji Hosoe,Ayako Saso,Takayuki Aihara,
Nobuyoshi Sano,Keiichi Okabe
and MANY others..........

Yuzo Koshiro
there so may other but Yuzo
is unbelieve.

At the top of the list, these four:

Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Radical Dreamers, Chrono Cross)

Miki Higashino (Suikoden, Suikoden II, Contra III)

Yoko Shimomura (Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Street Fighter II, Breath of Fire, Live A Live, Front Mission, Super Mario RPG, Legend of Mana)

Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series)

Then all of these guys, too:

Jeremy Soule (Secret of Evermore, Morrowind, Harry Potter games)

Masashi Hamauzu (Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Final Fantasy X)

Masaharu Iwata (Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics)

Hitoshi Sakimoto (Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics)

Cris Velasco (God of War)

Junya Nakano (Final Fantasy X, Threads of Fate, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)

Yoshino Aoki (Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV)

Akari Kaida (Breath of Fire III, Okami, Resident Evil)

Miki Higashino composed music for TMNT Tournament Fighters for Sega Genesis,too.At least,I think...

It's possible. For each person, I only mentioned the soundtracks that I a) knew the composers had done, b) had listened to, and c) had liked.

I was totally devastated to not find someone posting Grant Kirkhope (who did classic soundtracks like Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie) right on the first pages, but fortunatly there was one later on, thank god!

Please don't ignore this guy and his great work! There are also great non-asian composers out there, you know...

I think that Harry Gregson Williams was great doing the Metal Gear Solid series.

Good taste there, arthurgolden.

Hirokazu Ando and Masashi Hamauzu for me. :)

Motoi Sakuraba (mister BIG ORCHESTRA guy)
then
Yasunori Mitsuda

Motoi Sakuraba;
Michiru Yamane;
Miki Higashino (Suikoden 1st & 2nd);
Michael Giacchino (Donald Duck in Maui Mallard);

And the rock band who song 6 tracks from COMIX ZONE, if anyone knows who they are, thank you.

HARRY GREGSON MOTHERFUCKING WILLIAMS.

nuff said.

Thanks!

Motoi Sakuraba, although the Star Ocean 3 soundtrack wasn't that great; I liked Moon Base and Spiral Tower though.

Motoi Sakuraba, although the Star Ocean 3 soundtrack wasn't that great; I liked Moon Base and Spiral Tower though.

Aww. I thought Star Ocean 3 was fine. I liked "The Desolate Smell of Earth," "Reflected Moon," "Virtual Image," and "The Dawn of Wisdom." It had plenty of forgettable tracks, but my standards are so low for new VG music these days that if I come away with four that I liked, I'm happy.

You mean your standards are high, not low.

Also, a lot of you mention the same two artists...I honestly don't see what is so great about Motoi Sakuraba, VPII had OKAY music to me, and Tales of the Abyss was bleh--but I think he/she admitted to not trying on that OST (which is a pretty fucked up thing to do, and I liked that game)

I would rate Yasunori Mitsuda over Motoi.

I agree with you. Valkyrie Profile is just okay. Tales of the Abyss I don't know.

But Yasunori Mitsuda? He is one of the greatest VG music composers. In a completely different league than Motoi. In my mind, Mitsuda is second only to Uematsu.

I'll Do it in order for my best video game composer

1. Yuzo Koshiro
2.Mega Man Who ever did the composing to mega man music they r the best if i kne w who did it ill put them #1 on my list
3.Michiru Yamane
4.Nobuo Uematsu

Who ever got a problem with my fav. reply me back

i know a few

Mega Man 1: Manami Matsumae & Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Yuukichan's Papa)
Mega Man 2: Manami Matsumae (Manami Ietel), Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Yuukichan's Papa), & Ogeretsu Kun
Mega Man 3: Yasuaki Fujita (Bun Bun)
Mega Man 4: Yasuaki Fujita (Bun Bun) & Minae Fujii (Ojalin)
Mega Man 5: Mari Yamaguchi
Mega Man 6: Yuko Kadota

Mega Man X: Setsuo Yamamoto, Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takehara, & Toshihiko Horiyama
Mega Man X2: Yuki Iwai

that's about half, but i hope it somewhat helps

hmm no Nobuo?

in no order:
Bun Bun (love MM3)
Yoko Shimomura (love SMRPG)
David Wise (love DKC2)

I agree with you. Valkyrie Profile is just okay. Tales of the Abyss I don't know.

But Yasunori Mitsuda? He is one of the greatest VG music composers. In a completely different league than Motoi. In my mind, Mitsuda is second only to Uematsu.

Agreed, Yasunori is pretty amazing and versatile. Valkyrie Profile II wasn't bad by any means, it just wasn't exceptional to me. Still solid, though. One of my favorite songs from it was "Under the All-Powerful Divine"--I enjoyed that song.

...and I personally think Uematsu's work after FFX is pretty bland, he definitely shined more in the PSX era because his style works really well with less-capable sound hardware (to me). It's just that his songs tend to sound midi still.


Also, not many people know about Tim Follin, he composed the music for Ecco: Defender of the Future for Dreamcast. Never played the game, but the music is really ambient and chill. One of my favorite songs on that OST is "Hanging Water", check it out if you haven't heard it yet.


There's not enough love for Yasuhisa Watanabe!

Yuzo Koshiro
Graeme Norgate (Rare's Wise, Kirkhope and Fischer got mentioned, why no love for Norgate?)
George Alistair Sanger, a.k.a. The Fat Man
Hiroshi Iuchi (Ikaruga)
Marty O'Donnel
Frank Klepacki (this thread had to reach 3 pages before he receives a single mention...)
Jonathan Coulton!

I also say Harry Gregson-Williams.

Michiru Yamane, Kenji Ito, Yasunori Mitsuda and Motoi Sakuraba are the best !
When you hear some of those compositions, you really believe you're travelling cross other worlds !

David Franco (Drawn To Life)
Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts Series)
Everyone who ever worked on Classic and Legends Mega Man
Hajami Wakai (Pikmin Series)
Kazumi Totaka (Pikmin Series, Animal Crossing)
St�phane Bellanger (Rayman)
Koh Ohtani (Shadow of the Colossus)
Hirokazu Ando and Jun Ishikazwa (Kirby tracks from Super Smash Bros Melee)
Guy Whitmore (Shivers)
Michiru Yamane (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)

Yuki Iwai - Mega Man X1-X2
Akemi Kimura - Mega Man X6
Koji Kondo - LAWL DONT TELL ME YOU DONT KNOW >:O
Graeme Norgate - Goldeneye , Perfect Dark , most Donkey Kong games , Upcoming Haze and Timesplitters
And I dont remember the name of the guy that made Metal Gear AC!D 1&2 along with Zone of The enders soundtrack.

Jason Hayes - Diablo 2, WoW
Yuki Kajiura - Xenosaga III

:D

Has Ryuichi Sakamato composed music for any games?:) I'd love to get that if so.

Has Ryuichi Sakamato composed music for any games?:) I'd love to get that if so.

L.O.L. - Lack of Love for the Dreamcast

You can listen to samples here: http://www.emusic.com/album/Ryuichi-Sakamoto-L-O-L-Lack-of-Love-MP3-Download/10902213.html

lol, well, I love Koji Kondo... so I have to say him, but also...

Taniguchi Hirofumi, David Wise, Kumi Tanioka, Jun Senoue, Kenichi Nishimaki, Yuka Tsujiyoko, Hajime Wakai, Kazumi Totaka, Go Ichinose, Junichi Masuda, Yoko Shimomura, Ichiro Shimakura, Motoi Sakuraba, Nakajima Dai, and well, there are others, I've just listed most of the ones who have done game music I like. XD;; *shrug*

Yasunori Mitsuda is my favorite by far. Chrono Cross, Xenogears - Cried, and Xenosaga Episode 1 are about all I listen to.

Really klike Kenji Yamamoto's stuff

Well, he's been listed upwards of seven times already, but I'd like to remind you how awesome Koh Otani is. I listen to the first segment of the credits (Epilogue "Those Who Remain") from SotC at least every other day.

I also can't forget Yasunori Mitsuda for his awesome work with Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross, and also Yoko Shimomura. I was taken aback by how excellent her music in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was, even though she had a fairly brilliant history in video game music. Of course, that's my own experience, and not mentioning even greater games.

Koh Otani, oh yes, isn't he just great. Forgot to mention Koji Kondo and Kazumi Totaka, although there's no need to point that out, the guys speak for themselves. :P

And Naoshi Mizuta is also pretty cool.

Keiki Kobayashi known from the Ace Combat series

Yuka Tsujiyoko -fire emblem series

Koichi Sugiyama. His work on the Dragon Quest series is incredible.

Not sure if anybody has mentioned Troels Folmann

He's a relative newcomer, but his scores to the recent tomb raider games have been really good. He also keeps an interesting blog: http://www.troelsfolmann.com/blog/

Motoi Sakuraba, I see that name all time in most of my games so I'm guessing he's good.

I forgot about Go Ichinose! I cant forget my love of Pokemon! Also, it seems like no one is mentioning that Shimomura also did the music in Mario & Luigi games.

Didn't I just mention her in that context?

Didn't I just mention her in that context?

I must have missed your post. Most of the ones that mention her just mention Kingdom Hearts or Super Mario RPG.

I think everyone should go download the soundtrack for the 2001 french film Le fabuleux destin d'amelie poulin
there are some stinkers on there. but they're comical stinkers. AND if you've seen the film. pretty much the best soundtrack ever.
OH and see the movie. gawdamn masterpiece.
OH and Yoko Kanno is my current love interest.
THAT IS ALL

I'm very impressed with how Hitoshi Sakimoto took on FFXII, especially following the legacy of Uematsu. I was also surprised to learn that he worked on Ogre Battle which is one of my favorite SNES games.

agreed agreed. And though some people may get "angry" at me for this. I think Sakimoto encapsulated the feeling of FF12 with his music better than Uematsu ever could have. JUST 12 though. Nobuo has done some amazing work, I must say. There is clearly a reason he is put on that pedistal.

kenji yamoto and kozumi totaka FTW!!

Grant Kirkhope
Hideaki Kobayashi
Kenji Yamamoto
Motoi Sakuraba

Akira Yamaoka rules!!! XD

Michiko Naruke, Masato Kouda, Kazuya Taniguchi !!! (Wild Arms Serie)

Manfred Linzner

I would say Manfred Linzner reminds me of early Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Yoko Shimomura (Legend of Mana only, not Kingdom Hearts), Kenji Ito (Seiken Densetsu and Children of Mana), Toshiro Masuda (Naruto), and Michiru Yamane (Rocket Knight Adventures & Castlevania)

My favorites besides Nobou Uematsu has got to be Jeremy Soule(Guild Wars and The Elder Scrolls games) and of course Yasunori Mitsuda. Chrono Trigger's soundtrack is awesome!

My hands down favorite: The underappreciated Hiroki Kikuta for Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and most spectaculary, Soukaigi. Find it. Download it. Get it. Soukaigi.

Yasunori Mitsuda is great with a great body of work. Through him I found Yoshitaka Hirota of Shadow Hearts acclaim. Hirota seems like a fusion of Mitsuda and Kikuta, while still maintaining his identity. Very exciting.

I never got on the Uematsu train. Some stuff is good but most (to me) is blahnd.

Jeremy Soule is holdin' it down for the west.

Yoko Shimomura is very good, but as someone said before, was at her best during Legend of Mana, IMHO.

Yoshito Hirano he did all of the new fire emblem game soundtracks.

Hideyuki Fukusawa is an upcoming composer to be reckon with. Loved his stuff from PS2 Chaos Legion after I heard his first anime OST Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. Currently looking for his PS2 Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams OST. His style resembles stuff from the Devil May Cry series I would say.

Masashi Hamauzu works from the PSX Saga Frontier 2 and PS2 Unlimited Saga is something not to be trifled with either. You wouldn't believe how amazing he makes these subpar games feel (though I actually happen to be in the small minority who loves SF2 extremely). His collaboration/influence in some of the tracks in FFX were great too like Macalania Forest, Thunder Plains and Besaid Island though I don't think I was too impressed with the rest. His latest solo work was FF7: Dirge of Cerberus, and I think it was pretty grand too though I don't have much of an impression on his FF7:DoC works because I haven't played the game and haven't listened to it much yet.

Yasunori Mitsuda is very gifted when it comes to his diverse, multi-cultural stlye influences (though I vividly remember this particularly bad guitar piece in Chrono Cross for some strange reason). In terms of the number of styles I seen him able to use effectively, I suppose they're on the same scale as Yoko Kanno, known famously for some of her works in like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (don't forget her stuff for Sousei no Aquarion either). I really love his town themes and how culturally enriching they are especially Home Arni Village from Chrono Cross. It's been quite some time since I listened to his most recent works (specifically, Shadow Hearts), which I should garner a look I suppose if and when I remember to.

As for some composers like Yoko Shimomura and Motoi Sakuraba, they've been a hit and miss for me lately. Shimomura's Kingdom Heart series' OSTs didn't feel highly original since most of those pieces I recall were already timeless Disney classics (can't say the same for the Little Mermaid song ideas wherever they came from). Perhaps she'll demonstrate her hidden skills she kept locked away since Legend of Mana (It seems me and a few others also miss those times?). As for Sakuraba, his OSTs really have been a hit and miss for me, and I can't understand why. It's like I can have no middle ground with the man and I have no idea why I either completely hate one of his tracks and love yet another entirely. Sort of the same feeling I had when first listening to Shoji Memuro from Persona 3. I think Memuro's older Shin Megami Tensei OSTs were better though I can't say for sure absolutely what I think until I hear everything.

After hearing Assassin's creed..i say Jesper Kyd

Jeremy Soule and Michael Giacchino.

Besides Uematsu and Kondo, I especially like:
- Motoi Sakuraba for the brilliant music of the Tales and Baten Kaitos series
- Tsukasa Tawada for the console Pok�mon games
- Jeremy Soule for Oblivion and Unreal II (although I don't know what part of the soundtrack he composed)
- Grant Kirkhope for Perfect Dark
- Mahito Yokota for Super Mario Galaxy, which is IMO the best VGM to date.
- Kenji Yamamoto for the Metroid series
- Yoko Shimomura for the Mario RPGs
- Yuzo Koshiro for his orchestral performances

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos, who composed the music for the original Unreal and Unreal Tournament.

My favorites are, in no particular order:

David Bergeaud (Ratchet and Clank series) - With the exception of Deadlocked and, to a lesser extent, Size Matters, the soundtracks for these games have been excellent, particularlly Up Your Arsenal. His mixture of instrumental synths and electronica is extremely unique and really makes him stand out among all videogame composers, both Western and Eastern.

Hitoshi Sakimoto (FFTactics, FFXII) - There is remarkable thematic depth and flow in his works that I feel is lacking among other videogame composers. FFXII, in particular, was a breath of fresh air after years of Uematsu because it felt much more like a cohesive accompaniment to the world of Ivalice and the themes of the main story than a compilation of character-themes, battle-themes, and event-themes like previous FF soundtracks.

Motoi Sakuraba (Star Ocean series, Eternal Sonata) - Sakuraba is the god of battle music, and his town and field music is none too shabby either. His music single-handedly saved Eternal Sonata from being a complete disappointment, and believe me when I say that the game is worth suffering though just for the soundtrack.

Ueda Masami, Yamaguchi Hiroshi, Kondoh Rei (Okami) - One of my favorite games of all time with quite possibly my favorite soundtrack, period. I'll admit that I haven't heard anything else from these composers, but this one soundtrack easily stands up to all the others I've mentioned, and I'm confident that any collaboration by these three in the future would be just as awesome.

Koichi Sugiyama - Dragon Quest Series and spin offs cept swords
Kenji Ito - SaGa Series and some FF games

Yoko Shimomura (with the Legend of Mana soundtrack). End of story. :)
I really, really adore that soundtrack.

Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu

I'll have to go with Jeremy Soules and Frank Klepacki! My favourite composers of all time! =)

Jeremy Soule: Morrowind, Oblivion, Guild Wars, Giants:Citizen Kabuto, and i think he did Mass Effects music too.

Hajime Wakai rules (F-zero X music)


I'm gunna have to go with Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger/Cross).

Motoi Sakuraba

Masaru Shiina (Tales of Legendia)

Hitoshi Sakamoto (FF Tactics)

Paul Ruskay - Homeworld 1-2 Turok(2008)
Kelly Bailey - Half life series
Mooze - Warfare
Jeehun Hwang - Apocalypse and alot others
Jesper Kyd - Assassins Creed
Hudson Soft Sound Team - Bomberman 64
Mutato Muzika - Crash Bandicoot 1-3
Hideki Okugawa,Marika Suzuki - Dead Rising
Tetsuya Shibata - Devil May Cry 1-4
Chris Vrenna, Clint Walsh - Doom 3
Tommy Tallarico - Multiple OST's
mike miller - Original Earthworm Jim composer
Kenichiro Fukui - Einh�nder
Robin Beanland, Graeme Norgate - Killer Instinct (Snes)
Jack Wall and Sam Hulick - Mass Effect
Harry Gregson Williams - Metal Gear Ost's and the rock movie score
Ellen Meijers-Gabriel - Oddworld Abe�s Exoddus & Abe's Oddysee
Eric Nunamaker, Dave Rushton - Oddworld Adventures 2
Tsutomu Fuzawa - Oddworld - Munch's Oddysee
Michael Bross - Oddworld - Stranger's Wrath Original Soundtrack
Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill series
Spencer Nilsen, David Young - Sonic CD
Neil Voss - Tetrisphere - The New Tetris
Gustaf Grefberg - The Darkness
Rik Schaffer and Womb Music - Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines
Bjorn Lynne - The Worms Series
ZREO Team - Orchestrated versions of Zelda series Music

There are so many more in my list Game music has really changed my life I love it with every note and it will never die I have over 60 gigs of music and it keeps on racking up just cant stop listening if you have trouble finding any of the music i named msg me and ill be happy to give it to you

Paul Ruskay - Homeworld 1-2 Turok(2008)
Kelly Bailey - Half life series
Mooze - Warfare
Jeehun Hwang - Apocalypse and alot others
Jesper Kyd - Assassins Creed
Hudson Soft Sound Team - Bomberman 64
Mutato Muzika - Crash Bandicoot 1-3
Hideki Okugawa,Marika Suzuki - Dead Rising
Tetsuya Shibata - Devil May Cry 1-4
Chris Vrenna, Clint Walsh - Doom 3
Tommy Tallarico - Multiple OST's
mike miller - Original Earthworm Jim composer
Kenichiro Fukui - Einh�nder
Robin Beanland, Graeme Norgate - Killer Instinct (Snes)
Jack Wall and Sam Hulick - Mass Effect
Harry Gregson Williams - Metal Gear Ost's and the rock movie score
Ellen Meijers-Gabriel - Oddworld Abe�s Exoddus & Abe's Oddysee
Eric Nunamaker, Dave Rushton - Oddworld Adventures 2
Tsutomu Fuzawa - Oddworld - Munch's Oddysee
Michael Bross - Oddworld - Stranger's Wrath Original Soundtrack
Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill series
Spencer Nilsen, David Young - Sonic CD
Neil Voss - Tetrisphere - The New Tetris
Gustaf Grefberg - The Darkness
Rik Schaffer and Womb Music - Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines
Bjorn Lynne - The Worms Series
ZREO Team - Orchestrated versions of Zelda series Music

There are so many more in my list Game music has really changed my life I love it with every note and it will never die I have over 60 gigs of music and it keeps on racking up just cant stop listening if you have trouble finding any of the music i named msg me and ill be happy to give it to you

60 gigs! :O That's nuts. But yeah, game music really is the best, if you ask me. It's unlike anything else this world's got to offer.

I think I've posted here already, but anyway.......

1. Graeme Norgate (The TimeSplitters series, and some parts of GoldenEye N64). My line for him is: Graeme Norgate is God. Obey him or else.
2. Akira Satou (Raiden / Raiden II tracks, can sometimes be repetitive, but his spark created many remixes and tributes which were also awesome, not to mention inspiration for me on my game creating)
3. Jeremy Soule (He was responsible for the Music in Total Annihilation, which was very fitting for the game. Great stuff.)

Inon Zur - Crysis
Jeremy Soule - Supreme Commander
Frank Kelpacki - Red Alert 2/Yuri's Revenge, Universe at war
Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom Hearts II
SSB X Sound Team - Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Paul Linford - Need For Speed Most Wanted Original Score
Trevor Morris - Need For Speed Carbon Original Score
Martin O' Donnell - Halo Series
Tadashi Ikegami, Shogo Sakai, Takuto Kitsuta, Hirokazu Ando - Super Smash Brothers Melee

Motoi Sakuraba :D

Yasunori Mitsuda

he did most of the chrono trigger soundtrack an that IMO is one of the best VG soundtracks of all time

Yoko Kanno did a few game soundtracks, so she gets a spot in here. As does Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono series, Xenogears/Xenosaga series). Jeremy Soule, Masashi Hamauzu, too. What do people in here think of Hitoshi Sakimoto?

Yeah its True Yoko and Yasunori are great , but Yuki Kajiura Took over for the Xenosaga Series too. Yuki's Music is very awesome in my Opinion! ^-^;

Yoko shimumora.- Kingdom Hearts
Taro or Taku Iwashiro- Onimusha 2 and did one of the Kenshin Movies
Daisuke Ishiwatari - Guilty Gear
Michiru Yamane - Castlevania (who doesn't like her??)
Yuki Kujiura - not sure what games she's composed but i love her piano solos and the work she did in Gundam Seed Destiny
Harry Gregson Williams - Metal Gear Solid (Love this guy)
Hideyuki Fukusawa - Onimusha Dawn of Dreams

Why do i get the feeling that I'm leaving people out??......

I believe you leave out Akira Yamaoka, Masami Ueda, Motoi Sakuraba, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata...

Motoi Sakurabai- Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean are great examples for his/her awesomeness....

The fact no one said anything about zun makes this thread fail for me =_=

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ii3cpo42R0U&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ky-q4APgrHA&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rAuAmaZy71w&feature=related

Come on people T_T
Motoi Sakuraba is pretty awesome though

Michiko Naruke - Wild Arms soundtracks are great
Yasunori Mitsuda - I loved the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, and I wish I had a Wii to hear the music from Brawl.

Yasunori Mitsuda - from xenogears soundtrack...... the best soundtrack games i have ever heard........ BRAVO Yasunori Mitsuda........

Tsukasa Saitoh from the armored core series, Akira Yamoaka from Silent Hill, Henry Gregson Williams [or Harry] metal Gear

Hitoshi Sakimoto!!! (Radiant Silvergun, Vagrant Story, FFT - 'nuff said)

DJ Amuro.

Sakuraba is one of the biggest. I think the best with Kondo and Uematsu.

About the unknowed: Nazo Nazo Suzuki. Dynamite Headdy Music ROCKS

See yaa

I'm going to have to go with Yasunori Mitsuda at this point.

I was bored so I decided to add up the votes for the best video game composer. For people who listed a million different ones for their favorite, I just used their first listed choice. Here are the voted best video game composers and all the ones who got more than three votes. Mitsuda and Sakuraba left the others in the dust. I know Uematsu would be up there too if it was allowed and maybe Koji Kondo.

Yasunori Mitsuda 19
Motoi Sakuraba 17
Yoko Shimomura 8
Akira Yamaoka 7
Michiru Yamane 7
Yuzo Koshiro 7
Jeremy Soule 7
Masashi Hamazau 4
Koichi Sugiyama 4
Jesper Kyd 4
David Wise 3
Koh Ohtani 3
Jun Senoue 3
Miki Higashino 3
Harry Gregson Williams 3

Already been mentioned, but I'm a big fan of Daisuke Ishiwatari and Jeremy Soule and his wife. : )

Don't know if any1 said about this one before...


Masato Nakamura (and his soundtracks for Sonic 1 and 2)
sonic 3 sucked without him

Gustaf Grefberg all the way man :)

Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenogears, Chrono series),
Yoko Shimomura (Super Mario RPG & Superstar Saga, Front Mission, Street Fighter 2),
Hitoshi Sakimoto (Ogre Battle 64, Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story).

Gustaf Grefberg all the way man :)

I freaking agree, he has the best style of composing there is!! Shame he is severely underrated.:-(

Sorry, but I just can't name one. There are so many great composers.

My quick list of favorites.

Yasunori Mitsuda
Yuzo Koshiro
Hitoshi Sakimoto ( Final Fantasy Tactics/ Vagrant Story/ Gradius V/ Radiant Silvergun)
Grant Kirkhope (Perfect Dark)
David Wise (He does the music for many RARE games)

harry gregson williams

and hideo kojima

Definitely Akira Yamaoka for too many reasons... OR Noriyuki Asakura of Tenchu fame.

Yoko Shimomura or Yasunori Mitsuda or Yuji Toriyuma... So many more but these are my favorites besides the two I can't name...

Jeremy Soule, Hans Zimmer

Yasunori Mitsuda and Motoi Sakuraba deserve the top spots with Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu for sure...

But I'm surprised no one listed Noriyuki Iwadare of Grandia fame. I love Grandia music.

David Wise is also awesome!

Someone I also love from the Nintendo gang is Kazumi Totaka. He's done games like Mario Paint, Animal Crossing, Wave Race, Wii Sports, Pikmin 2... He also loves to hide his special song in games he composes the music for. It's like he's leaving his mark hidden in those games. http://nindb.classicgaming.gamespy.com/totaka.shtml

Chris H�lsbeck (spelled Huelsbeck in some games)


Tim & Geoff Follin. 'Nuff said.

Good stuff.

Manfred Linzner - Iridion, his arranged soundtrack rocks so much!
Frank Klepacki - C&C, [random praise].
Graeme Norgate - TimeSplitters, weird but good. GoldenEye is pretty good too.
Grant Kirkhope - Banjo series, even weirder but still good.
Kenji Yamamoto - Metroid Prime, on it's own the soundtrack isn't that good, but it fits so perfectly with the game.
Eveline Fischer - Donkey Kong Country 1 & 3, she's better than David Wise I think.
Kinuyo Yamashita - Castlevania 1, best 8-bit soundtrack out there.
Mahito Yokota - Super Mario Galaxy, he is in the shadow of Koji Kondo, but still really good.
Ambassadors Of Funk, not really video game composers, but their Compact Disco remix of the Mario tunes are some real fun.

And of course all the Castlevania composers and a lot of the SSBB team.

I'd have to go with Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter II), Harry Gregson-Williams and Stephen Barton (Call of Duty 4), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series), Tom Salta (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2), and Masami Ueda (Resident Evil 2).

I'd have to go with Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter II), Harry Gregson-Williams and Samuel Barton (Call of Duty 4), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series), Tom Salta (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2), and Masami Ueda (Resident Evil 2).

I didn't know that there was another person who worked Call of Duty 4.

martin o` donnel
(halo Series)

Wow, it took 10 pages (unless I read too fast) for Marty O'Donnel to be mentioned? Good job, IHatechocobo. I don't know what the rest of you think, but he's certainly done a lot with the Halo series. I'm not a huge fan of the games themselves (I prefer their storyline, along with the many books), but the music is absolutely amazing. And the main theme is instantly recognizable. His soundtracks, although not super deep, are still a work of art.

Kevin Riepl did an excellent job with Unreal Tournament 2004. I have a couple of his songs from that game, and they're really cool too.

michiru yamane is amazing!,david bergeaud is a genius!

Tim & Geoff Follin. 'Nuff said.

Very much agree with you there, Tim Follin's work on Ecco the dolphin: Defender of the Future was absolutely awesome! :) Have any of you ever heard his unused song for that game? I found it on his website. Listen to this: The Tick (http://www.bobspaddedcell.com/Tim/mp3s/The%20Tick.mp3)

Website: http://www.timfollin.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Pretty awesome music if you ask me. :)

i think japanese composers have american composers beat in video games
at least,anyway!

yasunori mitsuda, no questions asked.

besides kondo and uematsu, he is the only other i truly know.

Motoi Sakuraba.

Jesper Kyd (Hitman series, Assassin's Creed)
Stephane Picq (Lost Eden)
Kouhei Tanaka (Alundra)
Reijiro Koroku (Kessen)

just wondering, does great game composers only come from Japan (ie: the japanese) & U.S (ie: Americans, ie: harry gregson williams, etc) , and not from ANY other country, for example: Korea , CHINA, India ?

anybody knows why is this?..

just wondering, does great game composers only come from Japan (ie: the japanese) & U.S (ie: Americans, ie: harry gregson williams, etc) , and not from ANY other country, for example: Korea , CHINA, India ?

anybody knows why is this?..

The US and Japan are currently the most dominant countries in the video game industry. They are prolific and command large budgets to boot (including things related to production values such as music). Europe, however, is keeping up in the video game industry. Ubisoft, which is headquartered in France, is one that most people are familiar with. I'm quite sure there are some good video game composers outside the US and Japan, but the games that they are associated with have not recieved as much exposure worldwide, thus don't enjoy the recognition they may deserve.

One of the composers,I named on the topic, Stephane Picq, is French. He no longer composes music for video games though.

David Wise FTW! Diddy Kong Racing's musical genious has yet to be matched. : )

Martin O' Donnell(Halo 1,2,3)

Yasunori Mitsuda is by far the most skilled, melodic, varied, and awe-inspiring. One can feel the love he puts into each note. I can't put any composer near his level but Youko Kanno.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Yoshitaka Hirota, the composer for Shadow hearts and Shadow Hearts 2. Very original and creative.

just wondering, does great game composers only come from Japan (ie: the japanese) & U.S (ie: Americans, ie: harry gregson williams, etc) , and not from ANY other country, for example: Korea , CHINA, India ?

anybody knows why is this?..

Harry Gregson-Williams is british.

And responding to your question: because only 1st world contries can have creative people actually make a living out of art(this includes music composition).

my personal favorite is Hotoshi Sakimoto. He has done an excellent job on final fantasy XII's and Final Fantasy Tactics' (including advance 2) soundtracks

Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill 0,1,2,3,4)

Hitoshi Sakimoto.
Incredible composer, one of the few that has a sound which you can't find anywhere else.

Kelly Bailey (Half-Life 1+2), Alexander Brandon (Deus Ex), Eric Chevalier (Rayman 2), and Autopilot (Descent 3)

Hideki Naganuma is my all-time favorite.

Hideki Naganuma is my all-time favorite.

What has he done? Not familiar with the name