Greatest Video Game Composers: Yoko Shimomura - Article
by Taneli Palola , posted on 21 January 2016 / 9,543 Views
Hello and welcome to a new article series I will be writing for VGChartz. In these articles I will look at the career and music of some of the greatest composers to have created music for video games. Each article will cover the career of one composer at a time.
The role of music in video games is an interesting one. It can vary from being the single most important aspect of a game to a complete afterthought, but most music in video games is somewhere in between. Often music is meant to enhance and improve the rest of the game, while still keeping the attention of the player on the gameplay, characters, and story. The greatest video game composers have the ability to improve a game through masterful use of music in various different ways, and the composer we're talking about today is a prime example of that.
Yoko Shimomura is, and has been for nearly 30 years, one of the most prominent Japanese video game composers, having gotten her start in the industry in 1988 working for Capcom. She is also perhaps the most notable female composer working in the video game industry today.
Shimomura began playing piano at a very young age and even started composing her own music. She studied in the Osaka College of Music, from which she graduated in 1988. After sending samples of her work to various video game companies, Capcom eventually offered her a job and she would soon compose her first video game score for a little known game called Samurai Sword. It didn't take longer for her work to get noticed within the company, and during her five years working for Capcom she composed music for numerous high profile games such as Breath of Fire, Final Fight, and most notably Street Fighter II: World Warrior.
After composing music for nearly 20 games at Capcom, Shimomura eventually left the company and joined Square, where she composed many of her most enduring and beloved scores. Her first works at Square were the somewhat forgotten RPG Live a Live and the first game in the long-running Front Mission series. After that, she would compose the soundtrack to one of the Super Nintendo's most revered classics, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
This is where her sound truly began to develop into something unique and memorable in my opinion. Shimomura somehow managed to imbue the songs in Super Mario RPG with both her own unique touch as well as the feel of the Mario games that came before it. In composing the score she walked a tightrope between coming up with something new and respecting what was already in place, and she pulled it off beautifully. Interestingly, the soundtrack contains remixed versions of songs from both Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu, and they all fit perfectly with the game's tone and atmosphere.
After Super Mario RPG Shimomura composed the soundtracks to two PlayStation 1 classics - Parasite Eve and Legend of Mana - both of which contain some of her best work. Both soundtracks met with critical acclaim upon release and showcased Shimomura's range as a composer, with the two titles being wildly different in both style and sound. Parasite Eve had an almost industrial, uneasy feel to it, befitting the game's dark tone, while in Legend of Mana Shimomura took a much softer, more fantastical approach to the game's music.
Once the original PlayStation began to wind down and Square shifted its focus to creating games for the new console generation, Shimomura also found herself involved in the development of an incredibly weird game - 2002's Kingdom Hearts. Combining elements from Square's own Final Fantasy series with the characters and worlds from Disney's catalogue of movies, Kingdom Hearts was a project unlike any other. Shimomura was tasked with both creating original music for the game as well as arranging already existing pieces of music from both Disney's and Final Fantasy's past.
By this point Yoko Shimomura had become one of the most prolific video game composers in Japan, and her work in Kingdom Hearts only propelled her status higher. She would go on to compose the soundtracks to majority of the Kingdom Hearts games. However, in 2002 she left Square in order to become a freelancer and pursue work outside of the company. This proved to be a very good decision, as in 2003 she would make a return to the world of Super Mario, scoring the soundtrack to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, proving once again her ability to create a wide variety of music. Since then she has composed the scores to each Mario & Luigi game, including the recently-released Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
In between all of those games Shimomura also created the music for numerous smaller profile titles such as Radiant Historia and a number of games that have never been released outside of Japan. After becoming a freelance she worked for numerous different developers, including but not limited to: Atlus, Capcom, Konami, and Mistwalker. However in many ways she remains tied to the developer where she found her greatest success, Square. Even after formally leaving the company she composed numerous sountracks for Square and is often the company's go-to composer.
This is perhaps most evident in the fact that Shimomura has been contracted to compose the soundtracks to two of Square-Enix's biggest upcoming games - Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III. We have already gotten a little taste of Shimomura's work in both games through trailers, as well as in the playable Episode Duscae demo, and so far the music in both sounds very promising, with many of the songs in the demo being especially memorable.
Yoko Shimomura has slowly but surely made her way to the top of the video game world over the last 28 years. Her talent for creating diverse soundtracks filled with memorable songs is almost uncanny and hasn't diminished in the slightest over the years. She remained largely unknown to me until the early 2000's, even though I had heard her music in several games before that. It wasn't until I played the first Kingdom Hearts and looked at some of the people behind the game that I realized I had already listened to many of her songs without even realizing it.
I'm sure many of you also have fond memories of listening to Yoko Shimomura's music while playing video games, so tell us your favourite songs/soundtracks from this talented composer in the comments section below.
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On a side note. SE made a survey not too long ago about Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae. They wanted to get feedback from the audience. The music, which was composed by Yoko, got the highest score (9.3 out of 10) in the global breakdown. Her music is universally loved. One of my personal favorite.
Great article. Very informative.
This is fantastic. Thanks for taking the time to do your research and write it up!
Yoko Shimomura is THE greatest game composer.
No contest. Her musical genius is beyond comparison.
She's no doubt my favorite game composer, even above Mitsuda/Uematsu. I listen at least one of her songs almost everyday. Great article, cant wait for the next one.
One of my most favorite VGM composers. Love her music.
I highly recommend her wonderful Drammatica album:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/drammatica-the-very-best-of-yoko-shimomura-mw0001196875
Radiant Historia OST is sublime. I think Yoko is a wonderful composer and deserves more praise. Nice article.
I'm genuinely shocked that the Xenoblade Main theme isn't mentioned.
Hmmm, interesting concept - I like it! I most frequently listen to video game music while I study or write papers, since it is designed to keep you focused yet at the same time not distract you (I find Skyrim's to be the best study music). Sometimes I listen to it while I go for runs (pro tip: MGS2 main theme while on a run makes you feel like a boss). I also use it to calm myself down or as a relaxing medium while lying in bed (Calm before the Storm from FFX is my go-to for this)
"It wasn't until I played the first Kingdom Hearts and looked at some of the people behind the game that I realized I had already listened to many of her songs without even realizing it."
What a coincidence. Me, too.
Yoko is one of the GOAT's.
She's a beast. I think her and Yuzo Koshiro are true geniuses. Of course, behind Nobuo Uematsu and Koichi Sugiyama.
Mainly know her from Parasite Eve and KH. Nice music
you should check out Legend of Mana and Radiant Historia soundtracks. they're really good.
Fuck yeah, Yoko Shimomura
Yeah, but the female composer who still has the greatest video game soundtrack ever created is and will always be the great MICHIRU YAMANE - Symphony of the Night, people!!! A masterpiece!!!
And she will be composing the upcoming Bloodstained game, a spiritual successor to Castlevania.
One of my most favorite VGM composers. Love her music.
I highly recommend her wonderful Drammatica album:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/drammatica-the-very-best-of-yoko-shimomura-mw0001196875
Uh, Xenoblade?
Music is really ignored for quality of a game. many games become amazing due to their composers.
Kudos to Shimomura.
Video game music and composers have been vastly underrated here in the west. And as video games reach more and more into the mainstream, I hope the western audience sees that video games are not just a distraction or 13 to 25 year old's. My favorite composer is Yasunori Mitsuda for Chrono Trigger and Xenogears.
