Skip to content
Curated playlist

Japanese video game composers

  • Kentarō HanedaKentarō Haneda taught at a Tokyo music college and also scored console games. He was best known for the Wizardry ports.
  • Mitsuto SuzukiMitsuto Suzuki, a Japanese composer born in 1973, once filled 60 minute tapes with video game music that he recorded himself. He built those tapes with multitrack recording, long before anyone paid him to write a note. Today his…
  • Naoshi MizutaNaoshi Mizuta studied law and economics before writing game music. He later scored Final Fantasy XI for over ten years.
  • Masashi HamauzuMasashi Hamauzu left Square Enix on the 19th of January, 2010. He started MONOMUSIK, a studio with no other composers.
  • Tappi IwaseMetal Gear Solid 4 dropped Tappi Iwase's main theme after a plagiarism claim.
  • Yuji YoshinoYuji Yoshino is a Japanese composer whose name turns up in the credits of video games, an anime and a visual novel. One of his best-known game credits is .hack//Legend of the Twilight, a project built around a digital world. Yoshino is not…
  • Junya NakanoJunya Nakano said Nobuo Uematsu hadn't influenced his work. He co-composed Final Fantasy X alongside him anyway.
  • Masaharu IwataGame composer Masaharu Iwata sometimes appeared in credits as REZON, a name from a childhood TV hero's car.
  • Hitoshi SakimotoHitoshi Sakimoto was paid to write video game music at 16. He also wrote the program that played it.
  • Kumi TaniokaKumi Tanioka built the Crystal Chronicles sound from the recorder, crumhorn and lute.
  • Yoko ShimomuraYoko Shimomura turned down a music store job to write video game music. Her family and instructors were dismayed.
  • Akira YamaokaAkira Yamaoka is the Japanese composer and sound designer behind the music of almost every Silent Hill game. When Konami went looking for someone to score the first one, he put himself forward. His reason was blunt. He believed he was the…
  • Rika MuranakaHideo Kojima refused to hear English lyrics in Metal Gear Solid. Composer Rika Muranaka faced that rule for years.
  • Joe HisaishiJoe Hisaishi took his stage name from Quincy Jones. "Joe" came directly from "Jones," a private homage.
  • Nobuo UematsuNobuo Uematsu never took a formal piano lesson. A Square employee offered him game work at his music rental shop.
  • Masayoshi SokenComposer Masayoshi Soken hid his chemotherapy from nearly everyone on the Final Fantasy XIV team in 2020.

Queue