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Favorite Video Game Composers

Aelic7

The Young Drifter
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Title is pretty straightforward. Who are your favorite composers for video games? Mine are Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy, The Last Story), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross), Harry Gregson-Williams (Metal Gear Solid) and Austin Wintory (Journey, Horn). These aren't in any particular order.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
Nobuo Uematsu
Yoko Shimomura
Koji Kondo
Jeremy Soule

Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, and Guild Wars; all respectively.
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Location
'Murica
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy, The Last Story)

Brilliant composer, he should really return to the FF series, he puts a lot of heart into his music. His latest work on The Last Story was excellent.

Koji Kondo (Mario and Zelda)

Obvious.

Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Mario & Luigi)

The things this woman does with a violin and piano is godly. She has a definite recognizable style, but she hits a range of musical genres.

Shinji Hosoe (Zero Escape)

A lesser known Visual Novel composer, but he sets the mood perfectly. Here are a few examples of his music:

[video=youtube;WjNi14fKSow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjNi14fKSow[/video]
[video=youtube;d_BLhvyZA2I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_BLhvyZA2I[/video]
[video=youtube;gFJ1r6_4mW4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFJ1r6_4mW4[/video]

Motoi Sakuraba (Tales, Star Ocean, Kid Icarus Uprising)

Think of any rockin' battle theme with hardcore guitars/drums, and it was probably done by this guy.

[video=youtube;jG0RVQlfVM8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG0RVQlfVM8[/video]

Junichi Masuda (Pokémon)

The guy has been the composer and director of the Pokémon series since the beginning. His music is amaaaaaazzzing.
 

LittleGumball

Slammin' Salmon
Joined
Feb 25, 2013
Location
upstream
Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo. Hands down.

I could literally listen to their music forever.

Gah. How could I have forgotten?!

Whoever the guy is that does Halo music is also really boss.
 
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CynicalSquid

Swag Master General
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Location
The End
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Apache Helicopter
Koji Kondo. That man composed the soundtrack of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and they are my favorite video game soundtracks. I can listen to them all day. Grant Kirkhope is pretty good too.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Koji Kondo (Zelda, Mario), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy, except the ones that are ****), Kow Otani (Shadow of the Colossus), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Jun Senoue (Sonic), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), Jim Guthrie (Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery), Kinuyo Yamashita (Castlevania), Sotaro Tojima (Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, MGS4), Michiru Yamane (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), David Wise (Donkey Kong Country 2, collaborated for other DKC games), Kenji Yamamoto (Super Metroid, Metroid Prime), and Grant Kirkhope (an eff ton of Rareware games).

There are probably others I can't think of right now, but that's still a lot so whatever. :I
 

Ganondork

goo
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Jesper Kyd (Assassin's Creed I-Revelations, Hitman series, Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2) is easily my favorite. He really captures atmospheres very well. His use of Gaelic chanting in Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood was brilliant. His addition of that alongside Turkish influences in Revelations was breathtakingly beautiful. What he did with the series was create even the smallest songs and turn them into surprisingly beautiful tracks.

Next up is Lorne Balfe (Assassin's Creed: Revelations and III). This guy's specialty is creating captivating great main themes, then creating variations of it to fit various moods. It creates a feeling of familiarity, despite the situation being new, as well as seeing how a beautiful score can be tweaked. Unfortunately, he falters with less important tracks.

Hans Zimmer (Assassin's Creed: Revelations, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Man of Steel). Now this guy is just an overall great composer. He's able to capture the dark tones of Batman and Superman, and create emotion through his music.

Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda series) I can really appreciate his skill as a composer, and he has a fantastic variety, rather than honing in on a single tone.
 

Curmudgeon

default setting: sarcastic prick
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Gender
grumpy
I'll pile on the Kondo and Uematsu love. They fueled many a daydream of this lonely little kid.

* Glenn Stafford - All of the Warcraft and Starcraft music going back to 1994. Warcraft II tracks are still in my iTunes playlists.
* Hiroshige Tonomura - Duck Tales (NES) - The Moon stands as one of the iconic melodies of its generation
* Yoko Shimomura - More for Street Fighter II than her later work
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
some big staples of the industry of course in the likes of Uematsu, Mitsuda, Yoko Shimumora, Harry Greg Williams, and Koji Kondo
adding on to these favorites for me would also be Yuki Kajiura for Xenosaga III alone [and a big plus for madoka magica]
 

Quin

Disaster Master
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Location
Netherlands
Besides obvious mentions like Koji kondo and the like, Magnus Pålsson (SoulEye)
His work in VVVVVV is among my favorite video game soundtracks and his other stuff is awesome too.
 

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