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Yoko Shimomura is a Japanese composer for the Kingdom Hearts series and other games. She has been described as "the most famous female video game music composer in the world." She has worked in the video game music industry since graduating from Osaka College of Music in 1988. From then until 1993, she worked for Capcom, where she composed wholly or in part the scores for 17 games, including Final Fight and Street Fighter II. She has composed most of the songs in each Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack.
From 1993 to 2002, Shimomura worked for Squaresoft (now Square Enix), where she composed for a further eight games, including the popular Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts games. Since then she has worked as a freelance composer, writing for over a dozen different titles. Her works have gained a great deal of popularity, and have been performed in multiple video game music concerts, including one, Sinfonia Drammatica, that was focused half on her "greatest hits" album, Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura, and half on the music of a previous concert. Music from several of her games has been published as arranged albums and as piano scores.
Musical style and influences
Shimomura lists Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Maurice Ravel as some of her influences on her personal website. She has also stated that she has enjoyed "lounge-style jazz" for a long time. Despite these influences and her classical training, the diverse musical styles that she has used throughout her career and sometimes in the same soundtrack include "rock, electronica, oriental, ambient, industrial, pop, symphonic, operatic, chiptune, and more". She draws inspiration for her songs from things in her life that move her emotionally, which she describes as "a beautiful picture, scenery, tasting something delicious, scents that bring back memories, happy and sad things... Anything that moves my emotion gives me inspiration". Shimomura has also stated that she comes up with most of her songs when she is doing something that is "not part of [her] daily routine, like travelling." Although her influences are mostly classical, she has said that in her opinion her "style has changed dramatically over the years, though the passion for music stays the same." Shimomura has said that she believes that an important part of "the creative process behind music" is to "convey a subtle message, something that comes from your imagination and sticks with the listener, without being overly specific about what it means", rather than only writing simple themes with obvious messages. Her favorite track that she has ever composed is Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts.
Music composed by Yoko Shimomura
Video games Composition
Samurai Sword (Famicom Disk System) (1988)
F1 Dream (PC Engine) (1989)
Final Fight (1989) – with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (uncredited)
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom (1990)
Mizushima Shinji no Daikoushien (1990)
Code Name: Viper (1990) – with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (uncredited)
Gargoyle's Quest (1990) (uncredited)
Adventure Quiz 2: Capcom World (1990) – with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Manami Matsumae, Junko Tamiya, H. Takaoka, and G. Morita (uncredited)
Little Nemo: The Dream Master (1990)
Mahjong School: The Super O Version (1990) – with Masaki Izutani (uncredited)
Buster Bros. (PC Engine) (1991) – with Tamayo Kawamoto
The King of Dragons (1991)
Street Fighter II (1991) – with Isao Abe (credited as Pii♪)
Block Block (1991) – with Masaki Izutani
Varth: Operation Thunderstorm (1992) – with Masaki Izutani and Toshio Kajino
The Punisher (1993) – with Isao Abe, Toshio Kajino, Syun Nishigaki and Nobu. Oouchi
Breath of Fire (1993) – with Yasuaki Fujita, Minae Fujii, and Mari Yamaguchi
Live A Live (1994)
Front Mission (1995) – with Noriko Matsueda
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)
Tobal No. 1 (1996) – with many others
Parasite Eve (1998)
Legend of Mana (1999)
Hataraku Chocobo (2000)
Kingdom Hearts (2002)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004)
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (2005)
Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
Pop'n Music Carnival (13) (2005) – with many others
Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner (2006) – with Shinji Hosoe, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Ito, Masaharu Iwata, Tsukasa Masuko, Yasuyuki Suzuki, Ayako Saso, and Takahiro Ogata
Heroes of Mana (2007)
Luminous Arc 2 (2008) – with Akari Kaida, Yoshino Aoki, and Shunsuke Nakamura
Little King's Story (2008) – with Yutaka Minobe
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (2009)
Kingdom Hearts coded (2009)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (2009)
Pop'n Music The Movie (17) (2009) – with many others
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (2010) – with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Takeharu Ishimoto
Last Ranker (2010)
Xenoblade (2010) – with ACE+, Manami Kiyota, and Yasunori Mitsuda
The 3rd Birthday (2010) – with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Mitsuto Suzuki
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (2010)
Radiant Historia (2010)[18]
Final Fantasy Versus XIII (TBA)
Arrangement
Sweet Home (1989) – original score by Junko Tamiya
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) – with many others
Other works Parasite Eve Remixes (1998)
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Premium Arrange (2004) – with many others
Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange (2004) – with many others
Best Student Council (2005)
Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange (2006) – with many others
Murmur (2007) – original album with lyrics and vocals by Chata
Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura (2008)
Kingdom Hearts Piano Collections (2009)
Mushihimesama Double Arrange Album (2009)