Motoi Sakuraba FTW!

What has he done? Not familiar with the name

Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio Future, Ollie King, Sonic Rush, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and the track "Boosted" for Sega Rally 2006.

According to Mobygames he's also done music for Sega Rally 2 Championship, but I can't find any other source that backs this up.

David Bergeud, Niels Bye Nielson

Other than Nobuo Uematsu, I would have to say Yasunori Mitsuda (from the Chrono series)

Jesper Kyd

Assassins Creed. Nice

michiru yamane!she is a genius!

koji kondo is a genius too!

koichi sugayama is gifted as well!

Yoko Shimomura (Mana Series, FFV13), Yasunori Matsuda (Xenosaga, Chrono Series), Koh Ootani (Shadow of the Colossus), Jermey Soule (Harry Potter Games, Guild Wars), Jesper Kyd (Hitman Series, Assassins Creed), Yuzo Koshiro (Shenmue, Streets of Rage), Bob & Barn (Primal, Medievil Series), Chris H�lsbeck (Turrican, Apidya etc etc etc), Kei Wakakusa (Elemental Gearbolr), Nobue Uematsu (FF), Yoko Kanno (Nobunaga Series, Ragnarok Online)

Jeremy Soule, Jack Wall and Russel Shaw

Yuzo Koshiro gets my vote, hands down.

Gotta agree with pretty much every post in this thread. I especially like Michiru Yamane, Koichi Sugiyama, Yoko Shimomura... and though Hitoshi Sakimoto's motifs are a bit repetitive at times, I do enjoy some select tracks of his.

I like the guy who did the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion soundtrack too, if I have to choose someone not Japanese. xD Game music is the best~

Oh and Yasunori Mitsuda, and Motoi Sakuraba... dang, there's so many good composers out there. @_@

Motoi Sakuraba <---This man is brilliant and is so varied!!
I love his work and it's quite memorable. Awesome thread:D

2nd would be Yoko Shimomura <---She's a wonderful goodness
and I'm sure we all can agree on that:)

Graeme Norgate. (some one that's not Japanese!)
He did the music to the Goldeneye games: Goldeneye [duh!], Perfect Dark, Time Splitters, Time Splitters 2, and Time Splitters 3: Future Perfect.

Speaking of which, Time Splitters 4 has been announced!

David Wise is one of my favorites; he's responsible for the Donkey Kong Country series. I don't see him mentioned too much, so I felt like mentioning him.

Hip Tanaka, Jun Senoue and Toshiyuki Kakuta

Shogo Sakai (mother 3), Hirokazu Tanaka, and Keiichi Suzuki (Mother and EarthBound) too :)

Hajime Wakai rules (F-zero X music)

that's a good one, personally i learn towards kenji yamamoto and hironobu kageyama(behind all the dbz ost's)

Yuzo Koshiro(Shinobi 3 and Streets of Rage) and Motoi Sakuraba(Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean

When Motoi Sakuraba is on, there isn't anyone on Earth comparable to him. When he is off, though, he can be godawful.

Stephen Barton constructed some truly spectacular pieces for Call Of Duty 4 but never got a full soundtrack released, which is a travesty. He managed to make a classical rock soundtrack special, which is something I never thought possible until Call Of Duty 4's music began blasting during the heat of battle.

-

When Motoi Sakuraba is on, there isn't anyone on Earth comparable to him. When he is off, though, he can be godawful.

Stephen Barton constructed some truly spectacular pieces for Call Of Duty 4 but never got a full soundtrack released, which is a travesty. He managed to make a classical rock soundtrack special, which is something I never thought possible until Call Of Duty 4's music began blasting during the heat of battle.

You're right, I haven't seen a soundtrack to Call of Duty 4 yet. Have you got a chance to hear the music from Call of Duty: World at War. It have some good tracks so far.

-SNIP-

You're right, I haven't seen a soundtrack to Call of Duty 4 yet. Have you got a chance to hear the music from Call of Duty: World at War. It have some good tracks so far.

I don't think it's an official soundtrack but there's a Call of Duty 4 soundtrack, ripped maybe. Search the forums. Not bad.

Yoko Shimomura - Parasite Eve
Kou Otani - Shadow of the Colossus
Hajime Wakai - Pikmin!
Motoi Sakuraba - Tales of Symphonia

Chris H�lsbeck (Turrican + many other Amiga Titles) - Great german composer !

http://www.huelsbeck.com/music.html

Michiru Yamame - Castlevania Series
Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Akari Groves - Okami
Harry Gregson-Williams - Metal Gear 4 Guns Of The Patriots

Michiru Yamane (for the Castlevania series soundtracks)
Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts series, Mario RPG)
Ippo Yamada (Rockman Zero series)
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger)
Masakazu Sugimori, Akemi Kimura, Noriyuki Iwadare (Phoenix Wright series)

Takayuki Nakamura (Ehrgeiz, especially quest mode compositions)
Masashi Hamauzu (Unlimited Saga)

Kurt Harland (Legacy of Kain series)
Masami Ueda (Resident evil series, Okami)

I think David Bergeaud is one of the best, may be Stewart Copeland also, i think Ratchet and Clank series and Spyro the Dragon Series (espacially the Spyro The Dragon) , the OST are quite good.

There are too many of them and that is the best thing right now.

Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori: Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo Wars (soon^^)

yokko kanno (did music mainly for ghost in the shell series and PS2 game) but honestly I have to agree with Ruffneck there are just too many composers to list

Tobias Enhus and Christopher Lennertz

I don't know if it's already been said, but Christophe Heral (Beyond Good & Evil) is awesome. I also like Stuart Chartwood (Prince of Persia).

Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom hearts series and songs on Final fantasy Versus traiiers

Michiko Naruke (Wild ARMs series)
Tomohito Nishiura (Dark Cloud 1 & 2, Rogue Galaxy)
Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia series)

really dudes,anyone japanese ,has american composers beat by a mile!

Noriyuki Asakura (Tenchu, Rurouni Kenshin, Kamiwaza)
Yoko Kanno (Uncharted Waters, Nobunaga's Ambition, Ragnarok Online II)
Kenji Yamamoto (Dragonball serie)

Akira Yamaoka anyone???

Kenji Yamamoto - Metroid Prime 1 2 and 3 He's great at creating music that defines the emotion of an environment =)

Bj�rn Lynne "Worms 2", Chris H�lsbeck "Turrican" and Jonne Valtonen aka Purple Motion "Death Rally"

1. Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono, Xenosaga)

2. Keiki Kobayashi (Ace Combat)

3. Sound Team JDK (Ys, Brandish)

4. Michiko Naruke (Wild ARMs)

5. Norikazu Miura (Suikoden IV, V)

6. Tenpei Sato (Disgaea, La Pucelle, Soul Nomad)

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??......

DUH!!! My favorite video game score.......

Junichi Nakatsuru, Ryuichi Takada, and Keiki Kobayashi - Soul Calibur III

That soundtrack, especially disc 2, is my all time favorite, though the composers let me down on Soul Calibur IV. I found I'll say around 2 or 3 pieces that I liked out of both CDs together excluding Path of Destiny

Motoi Sakuraba

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.
You misspelled Shoji Meguro.

The guy needs more recognition. His works are some of the most epic songs I've heard, even beating Kingdom Hearts songs.

I think many of you are forgetting the AMAZING work Yoko Kanno did for Napple Tale on the Dreamcast.

As for one of the best, I would definitely have to say Junya Nakano (Threads of Fate).

I think many of you are forgetting the AMAZING work Yoko Kanno did for Napple Tale on the Dreamcast.

Never heard of this game but I did some quick research on it and I am intrigued. Thanks for bringing this game up, I'm definitely going to be playing it sometime in the future.

I'm definitely going to be playing it sometime in the future.

Orly? If you find a copy of it, fricking props to you. Good luck though. And the soundtracks are on GH if you wanna check them out.. err.. when GH comes back that is. I recommend "Skipper", "Egg", and "A Guitar's Rhythm". But most of them are amazing.

Spencer Nilson, Tommy Tallarico, and whoever did the Croc and Rayman soundtracks are amongst my favorites.

Richard Jacques (Metropolis Street Racing - Headhunter - Mass Effect - and more)

Keiki Kobayashi ([Ace combat 4 - 5 - Zero - 6 -] Soul Calibur 3)

Orly? If you find a copy of it, fricking props to you. Good luck though. And the soundtracks are on GH if you wanna check them out.. err.. when GH comes back that is. I recommend "Skipper", "Egg", and "A Guitar's Rhythm". But most of them are amazing.

I was planning on obtaining it through more legally ambiguous means.

Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Series
I do not really know that many (who composed Battlefield 2142?)

I don't want to read the whole post, but i will acknowledge the great Keiichi Suzuki, composer of Earthbound music (SNES).

Masashi Hamauzu...for a German born Japanese citizen...that's just 2/3 of the axis powers right there.

Oh yeah...

Or Masaru Shiina for his work in Tales of Legendia...along with his other alias Go Shiina.

I can't believe nobody has said anything about Tsuneo Imahori. Has anyone heard the soundtracks for Grungrave and Trigun? I prefer Grungrave myself... Imahori is an amazingly talented composer and guitarist - just look at the sheer variety of musical styles in a single soundtrack.

The highest compliment I can pay him is this: that I can truly say that his music, and his music ALONE, was the sole reason for my interest and first contact with anime, a thing which I had never heard of and that none of my friends knew about. I bet there aren't too many people who can say this.

*edit*
Video game composer, right? Well, darn. I was thinking anime. forgive my brainfart. Tsuneo Imahori still made game music, but it was of a decidedly different flavor. Not my favorite, and not as good as his other works. But I guess I'll just leave this little plug in here :)

Not sure if I've posted in this thread before, but either way, my list (for game composers) has been updated:

Howard Drossin, Dave Wise, Jun Ishikawa, Keiichi Suzuki, Hirokazu Tanaka, Yoko Shimomura, Yoshito Hirano, Yuka Tsujiyoko, Koh Ohtani, Eric Chevalier, Spencer Nilsen, Jon Holland, Shogo Sakai, Toshihiko Horiyama, Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uemastu, Yasunori Mitsuda

And many more. Note that this list isn't in any particular order after the fourth musician.

Keiki Kobyashi, Tetsukazu Nakanishi, Hiroshi Okubo, & Junichi Nakatsuru (Ace Combat Series & Soul Calibur Series) They RULE!!!!!

I just remembered of Jake Kaufman, A.K.A. Virt, who composed soundtrack for Shantae and many other games.

My personal favourites are Yasunori Mitsuda (for the Chrono series and Xenogears/Xenosaga), Michiru Yamane (Castlevania series), Miki Higashino and Keiko Fukami (for Suikoden II), Harry Gregson-Williams and Norihiko Hibino (MGS2 rocks!), and the guys responsible for the Mega Man series (too many to write), as well as those already mentioned by Bret (kudos to Ace Combat 04).

I prefer Motoi sakuraba over all others, i own nearly all his CDs even older work. (the composer from Star Ocean series, Tales series, Infinite undiscovery)

This composer does game, anime music but when he just started (before star ocean 1 and tales of phantasia debut) he made a couple of progressive rock albums which are very nice too

Hard to choose a single favorite, but here are my top five in no particular order:

Michiru Yamane (Castlevania)
Kenichiro Fukui (Einhander)
Junichi Nakatsuru (Soul Calibur IV)
Tatsuhiko Nakahara (Animamundi)
Yoko Shimomoura (Parasite Eve)

Shoji Meguro, The creator of most of the Shin Megami Tensei Soundtracks, he is amazing, especially when it comes to hard Rockin' tunes and Orchestrated music also.

Motoi Sakuraba (Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Baten Kaitos, Infinite Undiscovery) Love his classic, synth and rock style, so great melodies!

Michiko Naruke for her outstanding scores for the Wild ARMs series. Wild ARMs is what got me into both games and music.

And Yasunori Mitsuda for the amazingly beautiful Chrono Cross score.

Michael Land & Peter McConnell. The music for Lucasarts' adventure output is phenomenal, particularly the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango.

Kenichiro Fukui for einhander

Yasunori Mitsuda (The Chrono series)
Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts series, Super Mario RPG)
Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series)
Tetsuya Shibata (Devil May Cry 2, 3, 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2)

Honorable Mention goes to Hideyuki Fukasawa for his work on Street Fighter IV.

Oh, and Ryuichi Tadaka too. He helped in the Ace Combat & Soul Calibur Series too.

Joel GOLDSMITH for CoD3
Graeme REVELL for CoD2

Grant Kirkhope, Banjo-Kazooie series.

His work is amazing, and the music of the Banjo-Kazooie series is unforgettably epic.

Hideyeki Fukasawa and Jamie Christopherson.

Fukasawa has composed Street Fighter IV and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams amongst others; Christopherson specialises in huge holywood orchestrals with heavy percussion.

If you don't have the Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams OST (composed by them both together), get it, it's the best damn OST ever made.

Hideyeki Fukasawa and Jamie Christopherson.

Fukasawa has composed Street Fighter IV and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams amongst others; Christopherson specialises in huge holywood orchestrals with heavy percussion.

If you don't have the Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams OST (composed by them both together), get it, it's the best damn OST ever made.

Damn straight!! I love that OST. But I didn't know that Jamirie Christopherson worked on it. Learned something new today.

David Clynick (Perfect Dark 64)
Graeme Norgate (Timesplitters series)
Kelly Bailey (Half - Life 2)
Chris Rickwood (Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom)

ESTi (DJMAX PORTABLE Original Sound Tracks, DJMAX TECHNIKA Original Soundtrack, PangYa Portable Original Sound Track, POWER DoLLS 1 Soundtrack Resonance, The Memory of Ragnarok)

soundTeMP (Granado Espada Original Sound Track Volume 1, Ragnarok Online Original Soundtrack)

By now it's Toshikazu Tanaka (latest Metal Slug albums).

If you ask me, Iwasaki Taku seems pretty good to me

Jesper Kyd -(Hitman Soundtrack)
Matt Uelmen (Diablo 1-2)
Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor Frontline)

Akira Yamaoka makes good, creepy and atmospheric music.
Manabu Namiki - He makes very good things with bass and strings.
I think guy who write music to Donkey Kong Country Snes series have very hi potencial.
Author of the FF6 music is genius in my opinion.

I'll name a couple of composers and the game I like from, not other games.

Stewart Copeland (Spyro The Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro: Year of the Dragon)

Harry Gregson-Williams (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3, Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots)

Mutato Muzika (Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Sims 2)

Some others I'm too lazy to look up.

Koichi Sugiyama is better than Nobuo Uematsu or Koji Kondo

Harry Gregson-Williams
Matt Uelmen
Michael Giacchino

Here's a few-

Hirokazu Tanaka (Metroid, Dr. Mario, Earthbound)
Kazumi Totaka (Animal Crossing, Link's Awakening, Super Mario Land 2 and many others, and of course that hidden song that appears in almost every game he's done the music for)
Masato Nakamura (Sonic 1 and 2)
Ryoji Yoshitomi (Wario Land 4, Wario Ware Inc., I love both of these soundtracks)
Dave Wise (Donkey Kong Country series)

Yuzo Koshiro (his work in Ys was great)
Shoji Meguro
Yasunori Mitsuda
Jun Senoue

Chris H�lsbeck for sure.

David Bergeaud, Steve Jablonsky, Eric Chevailier, Bjorn Lynne and Joris de Man (Western)

Not sure about eastern.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Tilton's work, so he's at the top of my list. Some other notables for me are: Jack Wall, Michael O'Donnell, and Koji Kondo.

I hate threads like these >_<.
mmm does Ryu* count? Since he does beatmania.

I'd probably have to say

Kevin Riepl
Jon Hallur
Rom Di Prisco
Trent Reznor (his work on the original Quake was just gnarly)
Graeme Norgate
Cris Velasco

also we musn�t forget Mr Motoi Sakuraba

Toshiya Yamanaka, Tamayo Kawamoto, Masahiro Yuge (short lived but still wrote my favorite music), Shinobu Ogawa, Takaharu Umezu, Yasuhisa Watanabe, Hiroaki Yoshida, Kazuo Hanzawa, Hyakutaro Tsukumo, Manami Matsumae, most of S.S.T., and just for the record Motoi Sakuraba excluding all his boring ass symphonic songs.

Go Sato; he composed lots of soundtracks for the Raiden series, and a bit for Thunderforce 6 as well

Go Sato; he composed lots of soundtracks for the Raiden series, and a bit for Thunderforce 6 as well

Same here as well. :coolegg:

Hitoshi Sakimoto - Mainly because of his contribution to the FF series. Vagrant Story OST is very good too.

Daisuke Ishiwatari (Guilty Gear series, BlazBlue) - His symphonic metal tracks in BlazBlue and Guilty Gear 2:Overture are epic (Diva, Awakening the Chaos). His other tracks are mostly good as well (Awe of She, Love Letter From, Meet Again, Queen of Rose, etc).
Go Shiina (Tales of Legendia) - Ancient Ship, To Deliver the Feelings, Guiding Star, Sea of Rage, The Legendary Sorceror, melfes - Shining Blue, Spinning thoughts - bound hands. His music embodies a lot of the emotions found throughout the game moments.
Michiko Naruke (Wild Arms 1-3 (whole), XF, 4 (Partial)) - Western style distinctive music, has good variety.
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy 7) - I only like his FF7 tracks, the others are mediocre.

My personal favorite among these would be Daisuke Ishiwatari. Most rock and metal music found in soundtracks (not just VG soundtracks) are mediocre at best. He surpassed them all. Motoi Sakuraba has some rock elements to his music, but he can't make good use of it IMHO. "The Incarnation of Devil" is pretty repetitive. Another good point to Daisuke Ishiwatari is that some of his music are merely rearranged/remixed, but actually sounded variative and unique.

Graeme Norgate hands down

Yuzo Koshiro
Kaoru Wada

Yuzo Koshiro!

Go Shiina and Daisuke Ishiwatari. The former makes beautiful orchestral, violin-heavy works. The latter makes the best damn metal and rock I've ever heard.

Star Ocean's composers.

I figured you'd say Koichi Sugiyama.

him too.

:)















(huge dragon quest fan)

I like jdk sound team from Falcom and Shoji Meguro from Atlus.

Whos Nobuo Uematsu?

Yoko freaking Kanno and Michael Giacchino

Matt Uelmen
Frank Klepacki
Koichi Sugiyama
Yoko Shimomura
Kenji Ito
Masashi Hamauzu
Glenn Stanford
Derek Duke

meh that's enough for now.

Manabu Namiki
Hitoshi Sakimoto
Hiroshi Iuchi
Peter Hajba
Jerry Berlongieri
Jonne Valtonen

Manabu Namiki
Hitoshi Sakimoto
Hiroshi Iuchi
Peter Hajba
Jerry Berlongieri
Jonne Valtonen

I only know one of those...

Kenji Eno: D, D2 & other related releases
Matt Uelmen: Diablo, Diablo: Hellfire, Diablo II, Diablo II: LoD
Derek Duke: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King
Russell Brower: WoW: Burning Crusade & upcoming Diablo III
Frank Klepacki: music works at Westwood Studios, Universe at War
Akira Yamaoka: Silent Hill Series
Masami Ueda: Resident Evil Series
Sonic Mayhem: Quake 2 & Quake 3 Arena
Jeremy Soule: Icewind Dale & Heart of Winter, Guild Wars Series, Elder Scrolls 3 & 4
Russell Shaw: Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate Series, Fable 1 & 2
Amon Tobin: Chaos Theory, InFamous [w/ Various]
Tobias Enhus: The Matrix: Path of Neo [w/ Various]
Taro Iwashiro: Onimusha 2
Mamoru Samuragoch: Onimusha: Warlords & Genma
David Arkenstone: Lands of Lore 2 & 3 [w/ Frank Klepacki]
Peter Connelly: Tomb Raider: Last Revelation, Chronicles & Angel of Darkness [w/ Martin Iveson]
Nathan McCree: Tomb Raider & 2 [w/ Martin Iveson]
Michiru Oshima: ICO [w/ PENTAGON]
Kow Otani: Wander & the Colossus
Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori: Halo Series
Cris Velasco & Sascha Dikiciyan: Hellgate: London
Inon Zur: Icewind Dale 2, Syberia 2, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Crysis
Jason Graves: Dead Space
Michael Giacchino: Medal of Honor Series, Jurassic Park: The Lost Word
Steve Jablonsky: Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars [w/ Trevor Morris] & Kane's Wrath
James Hannigan & Timothy Wynn: Red Alert 3 & Uprising [both w/ Frank Klepacki]
Mark Knight: Dungeon Keeper 2
Jesper Kyd: Hitman Series, Assassin's Creed Series
Trent Reznor: Quake
Bobby Prince: original Doom Series

Marty O'Donnell and Michael Giacchino

Bill Brown: Command & Conquer: Generals & Zero Hour, Quake 2 [w/ Sonic Mayhem]

Motoi Sakuraba (Star Ocean, Tales)
Hidenori Shoji (F Zero GX)
Tetsuya Shibata (Devil May Cry 3)
Kento Hasegawa (Devil May Cry 3)
Norihiko Hibino (Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and 4)
Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi (Final Fantasy X-2)
Hithoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics series, Vagrant Story and XII)
Yoko Shimomura (Mario & Luigi series, Kingdom Hearts series)
Kumi Tanioka (FF: Crystal Chronicles)
Harry Gregson-Williams (Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and 4)
Jun Senoue (Sonic series)
Tomoya Ohtani (Sonic series)

Personal favourites are Motoi Sakuraba, Norihiko Hibino, Yoko Shimomura, Jun Senoue, Tomoya Ohtani and Hitoshi Sakimoto, because these are pretty much the only ones I've heard multiple Soundtracks from.

Michiru Yamane (Most notable for Castlevania Symphony of the Night & Lament Of Innocence)
Masanori Oodachi, Sotaro Tojima (Super Castlevania IV)
More Yamasan, B.B. Hasake (First Ninja Gaiden on NES)
Yoko Shimomura (Super Mario RPG Legend Of The Seven Stars)
David Wise (Donkey Kong Country Series)
Graeme Norgate (Goldeneye N64)
Grant Kirkhope (Perfect Dark N64)
Andrew Barnabas & Paul Arnold (Medievil Series)
Spencer Nilsen (Batman Returns on Sega CD & Sonic CD)
Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid Prime)
Tomohito Nishiura (Rogue Galaxy)

Jun Senoue (Sonic Series), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts series, Mario & Luigi series), Aya Tanaka (Mario Party 5), Shinobu Tanaka (Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS), Asuka Ohta (New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart Wii), Kenta Nagata (Mario Kart 64, Double Dash!!), and Hideki Abe (Puyo Pop Fever, Puyo Puyo 7).

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My favorite VG composer is Grant Kirkhope, by far. Also, I really like whoever did the music for the NES Megaman games(don't know names, since the credits use nicknames), and whoever did it for Megaman 9 and 10.

Would have to say Eric Brosius for his work on System Shock and Thief series or Chris H�lsbeck for Turrican!

Anyone mentioned Takenobu Mitsuyoshi yet? ;)

Masafumi Takada

Tenpei Sato, David Wise, Michiru Yamane.

And Kenichi Tokoi. He's my all time favorite.

Yasunori Mitsuda > Hiroki Kikuta > Miki Higashino > Matt Uelmen > Nobuo Uematsu > Yukihide Takekawa > Norikazu Miura > Michiru Yamane > Yuzo Koshiro

I don't even really like Koji Kondo.

I have couples of composers ( musically couples that would be great)

Yasunori Mitsuda and Yoko Shimomura.
Motoi Sakuraba and Miki Higashino.
Hitoshi Sakimoto and Yuki Kajiura.

In my opinion would be great if they collaborated.

My favorite ever has to be...Nobuyoshi Sano a.k.a. Sanodg!!!

Jun Ishikawa (Kirby series)

June Chiki Chikuma (Bomberman series)

Hirokazu Tanaka (I like him best for Earthbound)

Yuka Tsujiyoko (I like her best for the Paper Mario series)

Kiyoshi "K-Mu" Murai (Presuming she's a she, I know her only from Animaniacs for the Genesis, but the soundtrack was downright outstanding and had a very intelligent, if not somewhat difficult arrangment-- It's always been a favorite of mine)

Shoji Meguro (I like him best for the Persona series)

Toshihiko Horiyama (Megaman series mostly. One of the best synth rock writers for video games that I can think of. Vastly underrated, but mostly due to a lack of discography I would guess)

Inti Creates Soundteam (As a whole, they do a fantastic job at always producing very high quality soundtracks that are always well composed)

Yoko Shimomura (A guilty pleasure I would suppose. We all know how great she is without having to bother to say anything about it, really)

Akira Yamaoka is easily my favorite.

Yasunori Mitsuda would be second.

Motoi Sakuraba

-Tales Series
-Star Ocean
-Valkyrie Profile
-Golden Sun
-Various Mario Spinoffs
-Baten Kaitos
-Super smash bros brawl
and other games~

Shoji Meguro! God I wish I had heard his music sooner... (SMT series, most if not all of the games)

Shoji Meguro! God I wish I had heard his music sooner... (SMT series, most if not all of the games)

I personally don't like what he did for Persona. =D, but for the other SMT he did some interesting stuff.

My fauvorite Composers Leaving Uematsu & Kondo aside:

Hitoshi Sakimoto - An Adquired Taste, I dive into his compositions & Analyzing every bit of his work & I can safely say that he's the most Versatile VGM Composer we have today.

Akira Yamaoka - The Only Person that I know capable of Scoring any Silent Hill game, the only Person that I can say that could replace him is Trent Reznor.

Miki Higashino - A recent Discovery of myself, her Contributions to the Gradius & Salamander Shooters is one of the most interesting stuff out there, her Magnum Opus, Suikoden I & II, are one of the finest Soundtracks ever written, it has the most varied Ethnical sounds.

Yasunori Mitsuda - A celebrity among VGM Listeners, too bad his works post Chrono Cross (except for Xenosaga) are getting repetitive. But I have great times playing his songs on the guitar.

Isamu Ohira - Though his composition are only for the Gran Turismo Series, I have great times listening to his Jazz.

Yoko Shimomura - I liked her better when she didn't arrange Disney music, but her Original Compositions on KH are good, but not as good as Parasite Eve & Legend of Mana. WHY DIDN'T YOU COMPOSED ALL THE MUSIC FOR THE 3RD BIRTHDAY, THAT OST IS SUCH A DISSAPOINTMENT FOR ME.

Michiru Yamane - After you get used to the fact tha She Blatantly rips off J.S. Bach, you can have fun listening to her Compositions.

Souji Taro & Masanori Adachi - The 2 Persons that composed my fauvorite Castlevania Soundtrack for my fauvorite Castlevania Game (Super Castlevania IV), as a fanboy of Castlevania I wouldn't make this list without mentioning them. =D

Matt Uelmen - Diablo & Torchlight full stop.


Those are my Fauvorites & I consider most of them better than Uematsu or Kondo. =D

Hitoshi Sakimoto - Final Fantasy Tactics the original...my personal favorite final fantasy
Michiru Yamane - Castlevania!!

I would like to say Michael Giacchino for his work in Mercenaries (the first one)

I like Sean Murray,who recorded for Call of Duty World at War.The game has marvelous soundtrack.
Koji Kondo(LOL)
Yasunori Mitsuda,from Chrono Trigger.
David Wise,the man who composed Donkey Kong Country
Graeme Norgate,for Goldeneye,KI and Perfect Dark.

Keiki Kobayashi, Tetsukazu Nakanishi, Junichi Nakatsuru, Hiroshi Okubo - All of them did the Ace Combat 5 ost, the best soundtrack...

And Yasunori Mitsuda for Chrono Trigger/Cross

Ryo Yonemitsu for his awesome arrangements.

Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Ayaka Hirahara and Akari Groves - Okami, one of the best game soundtracks ever, period

Yeah, I just love the music too, I can't stop listening to it. Rei Kondoh did the music to Okamiden, so that is also on my favourites list.
Stewart Copeland : Spyro The Dragon, Gateway to Glimmer and Year Of the Dragon, also incredibly good!

XD all Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. are best and Yukihiro Jindo is best Arranger for me...
try to listen Ys vs Sora no Kiseki Alternative Saga album

XD all Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. are best and Yukihiro Jindo is best Arranger for me...
try to listen Ys vs Sora no Kiseki Alternative Saga album

The Oath in Felghana is his best arrangement.

Akira Yamaoka

Stuart Chatwood

Behavior

Hitoshi Sakimoto
Kou Ootani
Koichi Sugiyama

Something like that.

Akira Yamaoka - The Only Person that I know capable of Scoring any Silent Hill game, the only Person that I can say that could replace him is Trent Reznor

Hell no. I'd hate to see Reznor do Silent Hill. His music is incredibly unique and I don't think it would fit in an SH. I have noticed a lot of the music he does, doesn't really fit with the stuff it's supposed to be playing in. The Social Network soundtrack is excellent on its own, but in the movie it felt COMPLETELY out of place.

Personally, I'd like to see him do something like this, as far as games go:






A guy can always dream, right?

Mine are Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, Michiru Yamane, Jun'ichi Masuda and ZUN.

Inon Zur/Jeremy Soule
Jon Hallur (Eve Online)
Paul Ruskay(Homeworld / PC game series)

david bergeaud

Big fan of the composers of the Mass Effect games Jack Wall & Sam Hulick

Jeremy Soule

Toshiharu Yamanishi - ThunderForce 4 and 5. Some of the best music ive ever heard especially in TF4
Hiroyuki IWatsuki - You could class his music as typical video game music. To me a lot of his music encompasses all of the things that drew me to VGM in the first place.( short and catchy yet not annoying, distinctive sounds and song construction, etc) Check out The Ninja Warriors on Snes and OmegaFive on XBLA for examples.
Norio Hanzawa - This guy makes good music for action, really lively basslines. Sometimes sounds charmingly wacky with his melodies. Gunstar Heroes is one of his best ( really wasnt afraid to lay the elements on thick damn!)

The Guys at BasisScape - Tekken 6, Muramasa Demon Blade. Wonderful varied music. Plus they have some of my fave ever composers in house ( Manabu Namiki, Hitoshi Sakimoto,Kimihiro Abe)

Jeremy Soule (KOTOR, Oblivion, WH40k DoW WA, many others)
Jesper Kyd (Hitman Series, Freedom Fighters, Assassin's Creed Series, others)
Inon Zur (Crysis, Fallout 3, others)
Dan Forden (Mortal Kombat series)
Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, others)
Joris de Man (Killzone Series)

I also like Glenn Stafford. Man, Warcraft II OST is epic.

Without a doubt, Sanodg, Shinji Hosoe, Kohta Takahashi, Yu Miyake and Hiroshi Okubo. All Namco composers. All legends.

Kenji Ito and Motoi Sakuraba. I absolutely love the music of Romancing SaGa 3 and Star Ocean: The Second Story.

I like most Sega composers, like Hiroshi Miyauchi, Makito Nomiya, Naofumi Hayata, Takayuki Nakumara, David Leytze, a little bit of Howard Drossin and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Jun Senoue, and Masanori Takeuchi.

Capcom Sound Team's composers are great, too.

I like underrated composers.

hans zimmer and Michael Giacchino

Yoko shimomura (Kingdom Hearts)
Jesper Kyd (Assassins creed)
Greg Edmonson (Uncharted)

But out of those three i would definitely pick Jesper Kyd!

One person who jumps into mind...

Nobuo Uematsu!~

Course my iPod is full of game soundtracks, so there are SEVERAL others I love!

Masashi Hamauzu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Jun Nagao (Romance of the Three Kingdoms 4 OST, Orchestral version by the Hungary Symphony Orchestra I believe), Yoko Kanno, Koichi Sugiyama, Jeremy Soule, Motoi Sakuraba, Junichi Nakatsuru, Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda (tentative about adding him to this list; his output has been poor as of late), Hip Hirukazu Tanaka, Team Heroes of Might and Magic, Team Castlevania (Including Michiru Yamane), Richard Jacques, Michael Giacchino, and Matt Uelman. That's my list.

Jonne Valtonnen is the best arranger hands down.

Yuka Tsujiyoko - Paper Mario 1, and PMTTYD - Super epic

Jack Wall, Koichi Sugiyama, Masafumi Takada, Inon Zur.

Go Shiina - Tales of Legendia, possibly my favourite game OST of all time..

Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid series), David Wise, Eveline Fisher, Grant Kirkhope (Donkey Kong series), Hidenori Shoji (F-ZERO GX), Hirokazu Ando (SSB + SSBM), Hirokazu Tanaka, and more probably... practically all I listen to is video game music.

Shoji Meguro. Uematsu has NOTHING on him.
Daisuke Ishiwatari. Uematsu has NOTHING on him either.
(no flaming. this is just my opinion.)

Hmm well I won't flame but I'll politely disagree. I try not to rank composers objectively, I would rather say they specialize in different areas. ^^

Yoko Shimomura. Hands down the best. She may well have overtaken Nobuo Uematsu. This isn't to say that One Winged Angel and Dancing Mad aren't the best final battle themes to date, it's just that for the first boss in Kingdom Hearts you get Destiny's Force (10/10), then Forze del Mal (11/10) and of course Destati on the soundtrack performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. And it only got better from there: Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance had phenomenal music. It was positively virtuosic. She's also done the music for Xenoblade and several other fairly recent releases. She's a genius. Simple as that.

Yoko Shimomura. She's also done the music for Xenoblade and several other fairly recent releases.

Uh, she did more or less 15 songs for Xenoblade out of 90 (all of which were the worst ones, but that's just me)

Shoji Meguro - Nocturne, DDS, P3 and P4
Yasunori Mitsuda - CT, CC, Xenogears
Akira Yamaoka - SH series

I like other composers, but since this is a thread for best composers, I prefer to mention those who have made more than one soundtrack that I really like. And regardless of the title, my favorite is still Nobuo, above all I mentioned earlier.

I won't say who is the very best, because that's kind of impossible to do for me since they're all so good. But I will say that Yoko Shimomura arouses emotion

This is so true, Yoko's music is fantastic nd a must listen to everyone.

Christopher Lennertz

Soichi Terada is my fave. Ape Escape rocks and is my #1 game of all time.

Jeremy Soule (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) ... I like him more than Nobuo Uematsu.

Hans Zimmer (Modern Warfare 2, Inception, Crysis 2), Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori (Halo Series [Except for Halo 4 and Halo Wars]), Harry Gregson-Williams (Call of Duty 4) Michael Giacchino, Christopher Lennertz, Ramin Djawadi (Call of Duty 1, Medal of Honor Series)

My personal favorite would be Kenji Yamamoto (Super Metroid, Prime Trilogy), although some others: David Wise (DK Country games), Hajime Wakai (mainly for F-Zero X and Star Fox 64), Kenta Nagata (Mainly for Mario Kart stuff), Joris de Man (Killzone games), Kevin Riepl (Gears of War 1; Love Steve Jablonsky's work for Gears 2 and 3, but 1 is my favorite.), everyone involved with the God of War soundtracks (Still, I guess Gerard Marino does most of the 'main themes', so I guess him in particular.), Resident Evil soundtracks (particularly 5 and 6), Greg Edmonson (Uncharted games), and Harry Gregson-Williams (Metal Gear games). There are so many others, but these are the ones that always come to mind for me.

ratchet and clank: david bergeaud, michael bross,
tomb raider: Troels Brun Folmann, Colin O'Malley;
jason graves: dead space

I love Tracy Bush's Tabula Rasa soundtrack. He is known as a composer of much of the Blizzard soundtrack we know and love (Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft series).

Jun Ishikawa.

Kirby games have nice music.

ZUN is a god.

Grant Kirkhope, probably the best talent.

Michael Giacchino did some good work with the Medal of Honor series. It's how he got his start, too.

Daisuke Ishiwatari and Kota Hoshino.

Alexander Brandon

I second Alexander Brandon!

I second Alexander Brandon!
I third Alex Brandon!! xD
Love the Tyrian OST, was an absolute fantantic use for a FM soundcard!!

Masato Nakamura - (Sonic 1,2)

The all greatest staff in Sonic 3&K (drossin,jacques,brad buxter,senoue...etc)

Toshiharu Yamanishi --- Thunder Force Series (megadrive)

Yugo Kanno (Rain PS3/psn)

All KOF series (Especialy SNK Arranged albums)

Yuzo Koshiro --- So many badass sountracks in the megadrive era


Daisuke Ishiwatari --- Guilty Gear Badass rocking OST

Norio Hanzawa - Treasure.Co trademark music...awesome

Jesper Kid, Tim Folin, Tommy Tallarico...an so on

Mahito Yokota and Ryo Nagamatsu - Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2
Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato and Shota Kageyama - Pok�mon (All the main core games, from Pok�mon Red/Blue to Pok�mon X/Y)
Tsukasa Tawada - Pok�mon Colosseum/XD: Gale of Darkness/Battle Revolution
Jeff Broadbent for his work on Transformers - Dark of the Moon: The Game
The SEGA Sound - the Mario & Series
Rom Di Prisco - Guacamelee!
Richard Jacques - Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed
Miki Obata - the Pok�mon Rumble series
David Wise - Donkey Kong Countrey Returns/Tropical Freeze
Koji Kondo - A lot of the Mario games and some of the songs in the Mario Galaxy series
Sam Powell - Rampage: Total Destruction

Koichi Sugiyama - Dragon Quest Series
Yoko Shimomura - Legend of Mana
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy VI
Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Trigger
Jun Ishikawa, Dan Miyakawa - Kirby's Fun Pack
Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata & Hayato Matsuo - Ogre Battle
Kenji Ito - Romancing Saga 3
Hiroki Kikuta - Secret of Mana 1 and 2
Motoi Sakuraba - Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean
Miyoko Kobayashi, Masanori Hikichi - Terranigma
Jeremy Soule - Elder Scrolls, KotOR 1, Morrowind
Koji Kondo - Zelda and Mario
Shoji Meguro - Persona and Shin Megami Tensei
Yutaka Minobe, Tatsuyuki Maeda - Eternal Arcadia
Shinchiro Sato, Rei Kondo - Nostalgia no Kaze
Miki Higashino - Genso Suikoden 1 and 2

Mark Mothersbaugh and Josh Mancell of Mutato Muzika had some kick-ass music in the old Crash Bandicoot games. So memorable and catchy.

I also like a lot of Sega composers: Yuzo Koshiro, Masanori Takeuchi (Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders and The Ocean Hunter), Tomoyuki Kawamura, David Leytze, and Tetsuya Kawauchi (known for HotD).

Any Capcom "Q-Sound" era composer is awesome as well...

I enjoy these composers:

Kazumi Totaka - Various Nintendo games
Hajime Hirasawa - Time Twist and Star Fox
Go Sato - Seibu Kaihatsu games
Manabu Namiki - NMK, 8ing/Raizing, and Cave games
Keishi Yonao - Hydefos, Fill-in-Cafe games and Strania
Yousuke Yasui - Ginga Force, Eschatos and the first two Custom Robo games
Shinji Hosoe - Dragon Spirit, Dragon Saber, Dirt Fox, Metal Torrent, the first two Custom Robo games, Ginga Force, etc.
Ayako Saso - Rolling Thunder 2, the first two Custom Robo games, and Ginga Force.
Yasuhisa Watanabe - Metal Black, Runark, Pu-Li-Ru-La, Border Down, Void Gear, Kaiser Knuckle, Fighters Impact, etc.
Kanta Watanabe - Panzer Bandit
Soyo Oka - Some Nintendo titles released between the 80s and 90s
Hyakutaro Tsukumo - Some Technosoft games
Naoto Ishikawa - Gaia seed
Toshiya Yamanaka - Some Arsys games
Yasuhito Saito - Some Data West games
Hiroshi Kawaguchi - Power Drift
Tamayo Kawamoto - Some Capcom and Taito games, and ThunderForce VI
Takushi Hiyamuta - Some Irem and Nazca games

That's about all I can think of.

Yoko Shimomura - Kingdom Hearts series (lol there are 30 min versions of some of the songs from 2.5 - Everglow) and a couple of songs in SMB4 (Tetris theme and the MOTHER compilation).
Masashi Hamauzu - Dirge of Cerberus FFVII and XIII series
Hitoshi Sakimoto - FFXII


I'm pretty sure I'll find more

David wise, Kochi sugiyama!!

Mariko Nanba and Tomoya Ohtani - Sonic The Hedgehog

Following my old post, I'm gonna throw in the following:
Jake Kaufman - Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
David Bergeaud - Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction (mostly the Groovitron music)
Mike Peacock, Darren Radtke and Chad York - Punch Out!! for the Wii

i really like sega, sunsoft, square composers like hirofumi murasaki (shinobi 3), masayuki nagao (sonic 3 & knuckles, shinobi 3), katsuhiro hayashi (sdi, quartet, ashura) naofumi hataya (sonic cd) hidenori shoji (yakuza, f-zero gx) naoki kodaka (blaster master), takeharu ishimoto (kingdom hearts dream drop distance) i

EDIT: i also like british game composers like the follin brothers i can't believe i 4got them!

Tim Follin has to be my favourite of all time, though after him it gets a lot tougher for me to pick my next favourite.

I'm just gonna make a spoiler tag because I already know this is gonna be a really long list.
Tommy Tallarico holds a lot of value for me for a couple of his games on my Genesis/Mega Drive (Way too many to count), likewise with Grant Kirkhope, Graeme Norgate, Robin Beanland, and David Wise on my N64.
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi with Daytona USA and some of Sega Rally 2006. I never get tired of his vocals
Naofumi Hataya with The Hybrid Front, Golden Axe 2 and Sonic CD.
Yuzo Koshiro with Streets of Rage 1 & 2 (3 was weird for me) and Revenge of Shinobi.
Hideki Naganuma with Jet Set Radio (Future) and Sonic Rush.
Frank Klepacki with the Command & Conquer series and Dune II.
Hiroshi Kawaguchi with Space Harrier, Out Run, and After Burner.
Masahiko Yoshimura with Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force 1.
Motoaki Takenouchi with Jewel Master, Landstalker, and Shining Force 2.
Alberto Gonzalez with the GameBoy Turok games.
Hayato Matsuo with Master of Monsters.
Hitoshi Sakimoto with Devilish, Gauntlet IV, and Valkyria Chronicles.
HIYA! with Metal Slug 1.
Jesper Kyd with Sub-Terrania and Hitman: Blood Money.
Jun'ichi Masuda with Pok�mon (First two generations especially)
Richard Jacques with Headhunter and Sonic R.
John Baker with ToeJam & Earl 1 & 2.
Yousuke Yasui with Eschatos.

And that's all I can list without looking up who did certain soundtracks.

Top 3 favourites are Motoi Sakuraba, Koichi Sugiyama and Masashi Hamauzu. Some of my other personal favourites include Mahito Yokota, Junya Nakano, Daisuke Matsuoka, Minako Hamano, and Kazumi Totaka.

Here is a list of my favorite I typed up as thought.

David Wise
Kazumi Totaka
Soyo Oka
Hirokazu Tanaka
Michael Giacchino
Koichi Sugiyama
Michiru Yamane
Toru Minegishi
Hajime Hirasawa
Kenta Nagata
Akito Nakatsuka
Hajime Wakai
Ryo Nagamatsu
Mahito Yokota
Shinobu Tanaka
Jun Senoue
Kenichi Tokoi
Fumie Kumatani
Richard Jacques
Tim Follin
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
Masafumi Ogata
Naofumi Hataya
Spencer Nilsen

And I don't care what anybody says... Koji Kondo! :)

Jake Kaufman - Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Also for Ducktales Remastered. It easily became one of my top 5 game music soundtracks of all time.

In no particular order: Yoko Shimomura, Yoko Kanno, Yasunori Mitsuda, the guys behind the music for YS, and Koichi Sugiyama. And western artist like Jeremy Soule, Martin O'Donnell (Myth the Fallen Lords), the guys behind the music for the Witcher series and Deus Ex all deserve a shout out :)

Ryuji Sasai! The genius behind the best tracks of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, the writer of the entirety of Treasure of the Rudras' soundtrack (in my opinion the best 16-bit soundtrack out there), and the composer for Final Fantasy Legend III (with the exception of four tracks). He left the video game music industry around '96, '98, but Square Enix managed to bring him back to arrange some of his FFLIII tracks for the SaGa 3 remake on the DS.

Michiru Yamane, David Wise, Yuzo Koshiro, Yoko Shimomura, Yasunori Mitsuda, Go Sato, probably a few others not coming immediately to mind.

my fav game composer is toshiyuki sudo (personal trainer cooking,the japan-only game DS bimoji training,the sadly now-defunct EVC,nes remix,etc) his stuff is so unique & cool especially PTC i could definitely picture hearing that stuff in a french restaurant & if that's what he was going for then he succeeded! plus he's kinda under-rated when it comes to VG composers don't get me wrong i like uematsu,kondo,shimomura,& the like but sudo is probably right up there with them!


if you want to hear his stuff you can go to zophar or youtube but for simplicity's sake here's some links to the DS games he composed!


http://www.zophar.net/music/2sf/personal-trainer-cooking-%5Bshaberu-ds-oryouri-navi%5D-%5Bcooking-guide-can-t-decide-what-to-eat%5D.html<----------- (PTC)

http://www.zophar.net/music/2sf/ds-bimoji-training.html<----------- (DSBT)

Gonna throw Masashi Hamauzu out there. Very unique voice in videogaming - SaGa Frontier 2, Final Fantasy XIII, and The Legend of Legacy are each excellent. Go Ichinose and Hitomi Sato also produce some very good stuff for the Pokemon games, with an honorable mention for Morikazu Aoki and a smaller one for the not quite as distinctive Shota Kageyama.

I absolutely love Kenneth Arnold's Ultima soundtracks. They begat the standard RPG music structure before Sugiyama did - to be fair, Sugiyama somewhat expanded it and clarified it, but Arnold was there first. And it's dang good music, too: "Wanderer", "Exodus Castle", "Ultima Theme", but not a single track is bad, they're all very listenable. I am honestly amazed that they're the only videogame composition work he did. I wonder where Arnold is now...

I haven't listened to much of his work, but what I have heard indicates that Rudolf Stember is very good. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny is quite good, particularly "Blade of Destiny".

Martin Sorensen (Halo)
Disasterpeace (Fez)
Darren Korb (Bastion, Transistor)
David Wise (DKC)
Christopher Tin (Civ4)
Jake Kaufman (DuckTales Remastered, Shovel Knight)
Mike Morasky (Portal 1&2)
ETC.

Hidenori Shoji - Ryu ga Gotoku / Yakuza series
Hyd Lunch - Ryu ga Gotoku / Yakuza series
Jason Graves - Army of Two The Devil's Cartel
Chikayo Fukuda - .hack, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Asura's Wrath
Jesper Kyd - Hitman series (up to Blood Money), Assassin's Creed (up to Revelations), Darksiders II
Shoji Meguro - Maken X, Persona 3, Persona 4, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, Catherine, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Persona 5
Keiki Kobayashi - Street Fighter V

There are a lot of composers out there who qualifies as the best though, and I believe each and every person has his or her best(s).

David Wise, Bobby Prince, Mick Gordon

I honestly feel this is a subjective question. Don't get me wrong, Kondo and Uematsu are both amazing, but I personally feel they get way overhyped.
IMHO, there are tons worth mentioning (some are more well known than others, but still...)

Certain composers that really stand out to me are:

- Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Daytona USA, Shenmue)
- Yousuke Yasui (ESCHATOS, Omega Five)
- Junichi Nakatsuru (Soul Calibur, Ace Combat)
- Atsushi Kitajoh (Trauma Series, Persona)
- Hideki Okugawa (Street Fighter III, Darkstalkers)
- Yoshino Aoki (MegaMan Battle Network, Breath of Fire III)
- Naofumi Hataya (Sonic the Hedgehog, Burning Rangers, Space Channel 5)
- Fumie Kumatani (Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online, NiGHTS)
- Kohta Takahashi (Ridge Racer, Klonoa 2, Ace Combat)
- Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Ys)
- Michiru Yamane (Castlevania, TwinBee, Skullgirls)
- Alexander Brandon (Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex)
- Go Ichinose (Pokemon)
- Masafumi Takada (No More Heroes, killer7, Danganropa)
- Grant Kirkhope (Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie)
- David Wise (Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox Adventures)
- Satoshi Ise (Capcom vs SNK, Devil May Cry 2)
- Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia, Phoenix Wright)
- Daisuke Ishiwatari (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue)
- Richard Jacques (Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio)
- Kohei Tanaka (Sakura Wars, Resonance of Fate)
- Simon Viklund (PAYDAY: The Heist, Bionic Commando: Rearmed)
- Naoki Maeda (Bemani, Dance Dance Revolution)

...I could still go on and on, but I believe I've made my point, exhaustedly so. Please forgive the wall of text.

A favorite of mine is Hiroyuki Iwatsuki. He did alot of great stuff for Natsumi like the Ninja Warriors and Wild Guns. Jun Ishikawa is also sweet. His Kirby music is so fun and relaxing. Yuzo Koshiro for Streets of Rage but really Revenge of Shinobi for me!

It's probably already been said, but Graeme Norgate's soundtracks (Killer Instinct, Blast Corps, Donkey Kong Land) were top notch.

The best by far is Koichi Sugiyama. After him, Nobuo Uematsu and Yoko Shimomura.

Yoko Shimomura I enjoy immensely. I also have to give credit to the composers for FROM Software. They put out some great stuff. Especially Bloodborne.

Here's my list:

Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts series)
Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie, Yooka Laylee, etc.)
Toby Fox (Undertale)
All the composers for the Pok�mon games
David Wise (DKC trilogy)
Bobby Prince (DOOM 1 and 2)
Peter McConnell (Sly Cooper series, except the first game)
All the composers for Okami
Yuka Tsujiyoko (Paper Mario)
Kazumi Totaka (Yoshi's Story)
Stewart Copeland (Spyro PS1 trilogy)
and some more

Keiichi Okabe
Keigo Hoashi
Yutaka Minobe
Noriyuki Iwadare

Probably mentioned before...

Yasunori Mitsuda (CT, Xenogears)
Yoko Shimomura (tonnes...)
Jeremy Soule (tonnes...)
Blizzard composers (Wow)
Falcom Sound Team (zwei!)
Toby Fox (Undertale)
Yuzo Koshiro (Ys II)
Motoi Sakuraba (tonnes...)
Yasuaki Fujita (Megaman 3)
Hiroki Morishita (Fire Emblem awakening)

I'm really just putting this for my benefit since it's because of this forum that i was introduced to a lot of the tunes i've mentioned here :)

The best by far is Koichi Sugiyama. After him, Nobuo Uematsu and Yoko Shimomura.

HAHAHAHA! No.

---

Go Shiina (God Eater)
Falcom jdk (Ys, Legend of Heroes)
Yuzo Koshiro (Etrian Odyssey, Wangan Midnight)
Inon Zur (Dragon's Dogma, Fallout)
Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenoblade 2, Chrono Trigger)
Chikayo Fukuda (.hack// series)
Jeremy Soule (Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars)
Martin O'Donnell (Halo, Destiny)
Mick Gordon (DOOM, Killer Instinct)
Hidenori Shoji (F-Zero GX, Yakuza)
Hayato Asano (Nights of Azure, Atelier, Blue Reflection)

James Hannigan is the best!

Shoji Meguro or Yasunori Mitsuda are my personal favorites

* Michiru Yamane (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oquad3rnZSI) - almost every Iga-era Castlevania, Bloodlines as well
* Yasunori Mitsuda (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5tQIDMAEw) - Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Xenosaga Episode I, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Sands of Destruction (little-known NDS RPG)
* Yoko Shimomura (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Nl6S-tTkM) - Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts series, Street Fighter II
* Jesper Kyd (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmM-T2BaCF4) - Battle Chasers: Nightwear, Darksiders II, Borderlands and Assassin's Creed series
* Cris Velasco (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cibqkqdnIi4)- God of War series, Darksiders I, Prototype I
* Shoji Meguro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IORp_o7bnvM) - Persona series
* Mayasaki Soken (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9haLamILmk) - Final Fantasy XIV
* Tsuyoshi Sekito (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPkU0dF4JKo) - arranged Final Fantasy Origins/Anniversary along with Nobuo Uematsu
* Stuart Chatwood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKwbptphnVU) of The Tea Party (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvpobsKQdZc) (Canadian rock band) - Prince of Persia series
* Christopher Larkin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1unm0LS10ao) - Hollow Knight
* monomer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2GFZ1o-Djk) - The Mummy Demastered (best "chiptune-style" music I've ever heard)
* Cœur de Pirate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5b1vDgK6hg) - Child of Light (Absolutely BEAUTIFUL soundtrack)

Masafumi Takada is one of my favorite. Falcom Sound Team jdk is also a strong pick, even if it includes dozens of different composers

David Wise is the best.

Keiichi Okabe, Jesper Kyd and Inon Zur.