Greatest Video Game Composers: Hitoshi Sakimoto - Article
by Taneli Palola , posted on 26 August 2016 / 17,530 ViewsIn general, the best video game composers of all time have established their own unique and personal styles of music over the course of lengthy careers and as a result do not necessarily share many traits in common with other composers. Most of them also have very distinctive styles that are easily identified by simply listening to a new track.
However, if there's one thing almost all of them share in common then it's versatility. No matter how unique or varied their styles may be, each of the composers I've covered in this article series so far can work with and create a multitude of different types of music, and can do so seemingly effortlessly. The composer I'm going to talk about today - Hitoshi Sakimoto - can easily be listed among them.
Sakimoto became interested in music at an early age and actually taught himself to play when he was at elementary school. His passion for music kept growing, and by the time he was 16 he was already composing his own music. While his original dream was to become a video game programmer, he instead found himself creating music for a game called Revolter in 1988, together with his friend, Masaharu Iwata, who went on to become an accomplished composer in his own right. Sakimoto was just 19 years old at the time.
Despite the success and recognition he gained from his music on that game, Sakimoto still planned on becoming a programmer. His friends, however, encouraged him to continue composing music for video games, and this prompted him to change his plans and become a freelance composer. Soon, both his work as a composer and programmer of his own sound drivers for video games began to gain him notable recognition within the industry.
Over the next several years Sakimoto composed music for a variety of different games, most of which were smaller profile titles designed by several different Japanese developers. He often collaborated with Masaharu Iwata on composing these soundtracks, which included games like Bubble Ghost in 1990 and Devilish and Verytex in 1991, in addition to numerous other titles between 1990 and 1992.
However, he would find his first real mainstream success in Japan with the release of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen in 1993. The game's soundtrack turned out to be the key to greater recognition not only for Sakimoto but also for two other composers - Iwata and Hayato Matsuo. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen's success in Japan would land him increasingly high profile jobs in the coming years.
In 1994 he worked on several different titles, the most notable of which were Sword Maniac for the SNES and an arcade game called Kingdom Grand Prix. Sword Maniac, which was later released in the west under the title X-Kaliber 2097, although the soundtrack was completely redone by an American techno music group called Psykosonic.
Sakimoto found his next big success in 1995, when he once again collaborated with the team that had made Ogre Battle. As with that game he again worked with Iwata and Matsuo to compose the music to Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together on the Super Famicom. The game's director was Yasumi Matsuno, who would soon go on to find even greater fame with one of the biggest Japanese video game franchises of all time, and he would bring Sakimoto with him.
In 1996 Sakimoto composed music for several different games, includingTreasure Hunter G, Chip-Chan Kick, and Terra Driver, which was one of his somewhat rare solo compositions. As you'll continue to see over the course of this article, in general Sakimoto tends to largely work with at least one other composer on almost all of his soundtracks.
The following year he created what many still consider to be his best work when he composed the soundtrack to Final Fantasy Tactics. This was yet another collaboration between him and Masaharu Iwata, with Sakimoto composing around two-thirds of the game's soundtrack. It saw Sakimoto's orchestral sound reach all new heights, and features some of the greatest pieces of video game music ever created. It is a testament to Sakimoto and Iwata's talents that in a series that boasts so much wonderful music, their work on this particular game still stands tall as some of the series' best.
1998 saw him compose music for two scrolling shooters – Armed Police Batrider for arcades, and one of the era's most beloved entries in the genre, Radiant Silvergun. The latter featured another solo score by Sakimoto. Radiant Silvergun's music is instantly recognisable as Sakimoto's to anyone who has played games like Final Fantasy Tactics, as he once again employs a strong orchestral sound that is unmistakeably his own.
By this point Sakimoto had become one of the most respected composers working in the industry, and his talents were in constant high demand. In 1999 he would continue to cement his status as one of the greats when he once again teamed up with Masaharu Iwata and Hayato Matsuo to compose the soundtrack to the next installment in the Ogre Battle series – Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber.
2000 was yet another important year for Sakimoto, as he composed what is still seen as one of his most important works when he created the soundtrack to Vagrant Story, a game set in the same universe as Final Fantasy Tactics. This also saw him work with the game's director, Yasumi Matsuno, for the 4th time in seven years.
Sakimoto kept busy throughout the following year, composing music for games like Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, and Tekken Advance. In 2002 he created another excellent solo soundtrack for Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, and composed part of the soundtrack to a fairly little known title called Perfect Prince.
That same year he decided to resign from Square and become a freelance composer, setting up his own company called Basiscape, which provides music and sound services by employing its own composers for companies to hire. Despite becoming a freelancer, Sakimoto retained close ties with many of the people and companies he had worked with in the past, and this means that he has, for example, continued to work with Square on multiple occasions.
In fact, his first work as a freelancer for Square happened almost immediately, in 2003, when Sakimoto worked as the main composer on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. This particular game also featured additional music from three other composers, including Nobuo Uematsu, who composed the game's main theme. Overall, it is yet another excellent score from Sakimoto, and he was able to continue developing and improving his style despite the technical limitations of the Game Boy Advance.
Over the next two years he would compose music for a variety of different games and developers, including but not limited to, Gradius V for Konami, Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity for Atlus, and Mushihimesama for Cave. Sakimoto had by this point established himself as one of the premier video game composers in Japan, and his talents were in high demand as evidenced by the fact that he routinely worked for several different developers at the same time.
Sakimoto's career reached new heights in 2006 when Square Enix hired him to compose music for the next installment in its flagship franchise - Final Fantasy XII. It was a tall order as he would be following in the footsteps of Nobuo Uematsu, who had up until that point been the series' main composer. Sakimoto once again created a soundtrack with a very personally distinctive sound, especially to those who were familiar with his work on Final Fantasy Tactics.
He was able to bring his own style and tone to the long-running series, and the music in FF XII is in my opinion worthy of the beloved franchise. While it is not quite among my favourite Final Fantasy soundtracks, it is still an overall wonderful score filled with great music. He also composed music for a handful of other games in 2006, including Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner, Fantasy Earth Zero, and Digimon World Data Squad.
As his fame as a composer grew, so did the number of projects he was attached to every year. In 2007 Sakimoto provided at least some music to nine different games, and although none were solo compositions it does paint a clear picture of just how highly regarded he had become by that point. Among these games were several standout titles such as GrimGrimoire, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Odin Sphere, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
Sakimoto's work on these games is excellent across the board, featuring some of his best work to date. Indeed, every single one of these soundtracks is well worth listening to.
2008 wasn't quite as busy for Sakimoto, although he nonetheless worked on a number of mostly smaller profile titles, many of which were never actually released in the west. However, he did compose the soundtrack to one of the previous generation's most beloved cult hits – Valkyria Chronicles.
Valkyria Chronicles featured Sakimoto's first solo composition in four years, and is in my opinion one of his best works. He continued to explore and improve his versatility with every new score he composed, staying true to his signature style, but still adding new elements to his music on almost every single new soundtrack.
2009 provided several excellent examples of this, as he crafted music for a variety of different titles featuring many different styles of music. Of them, the most notable were Tekken 6, for which he provided three songs, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, for which took a lot of influence from traditional Japanese music, and Lord of Vermilion II, for which he composed all but the opening theme.
In 2010 he followed up on his score for Valkyria Chronicles with the score to its sequel on the PSP. His only other notable work that year was reworking the soundtrack for Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together for the PSP with Masaharu Iwata and Hayato Matsuo. The reworked soundtrack is excellent, and successfully updates the sound of the original while staying as close as possible to the original compositions.
2011 was another slower year for Sakimoto. Valkyria Chronicles III was his most notable work that year, with his only other score being for a little known game called Rikishi: Legend of Paper Wrestling. Unlike the previous games in the series, Valkyria Chronicles III was never released outside of Japan, likely due to the PSP becoming increasingly irrelevant in the west.
Over the next two years he continued to compose music for smaller, niche titles, most of which never left much of a lasting impact after release. Among these were games like The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave and Crimson Shroud. By far his most notable work during this period was the somewhat controversial Dragon's Crown, which attracted a lot of attention due to its exaggerated character designs.
In recent years Sakimoto has continued to focus on creating music for decidedly smaller profile games, working on releases such as Age of Ishtaria and Terra Battle in 2014, and The World End Eclipse and Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey in 2015. The most recent release featuring Sakimoto's music is Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, an HD remake of the original PS2 classic.
Over his near 30 year career as a video game composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto has made a name for himself as one of the absolute best in his field. During that time he has provided music for some of the most revered video games of all time and seen his music being performed live numerous times in concerts around the world.
He is also already set to provide the soundtrack for Yasumi Matsuno's next game, which is called Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, bringing the number of collaborations between the two up to nine, following on from games like Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XII. As such, fans of Sakimoto should have something great to look forward to in the future.
Sakimoto is an example of a composer who is able to constantly evolve over time, bringing new facets to his music to keep things fresh even after such a long career, while still retaining his own personal style intact through it all. His ability to create excellent soundtracks year after year is amazing, and he is on his way to becoming one of the all time greats.
What are your favourite soundtracks or songs by Sakimoto? Let others know in the comments section. As always, thanks for reading.
Sources:
- VGMOnline.net
- VGMDb.net
- Sakimoto.jp
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Final Fantasy XII's soundtrack is so underrated
I didn't know him but that's actually a lot of games where I really liked the Ost
Love Vagrant Story
Such an amazing composer. Much of my game library sports his work - FF Tactics, Valkyria Chronicles, of which I bought the HD version this year, FFXIi, Dragon's Crown. I just got another of his games, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir. FFT and VC are my favorites. I wish I had gone to meet him at Distant Worlds in Pittsburgh last year, as I did for Uematsu in Omaha in 2013 (he signed the front cover of my FFIX). I would have asked him to autograph my FF Tactics manual.
Vagrant Story's music is masterful. The Phantom Pain is one of gaming's greatest compositions.