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Favorite Video Game Composer?


Sub Zero
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Who's your favorite video game composer? 

It's split between Jack Wall and Martin O'Donnell

Jack Wall (Mass Effect) Martin O'Donnell (Halo) 

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Honestly I cannot decide for one.. each have their own style and I like them.

David Wise is really consistent for me (Donkey Kong Country 1-3)

Kenji Ito (SaGa) is one of my favorites and Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu in General and now Indivisible) is also nice. Yoko Shimomura(Legend of Mana) is nice as well, Motoi Sakuraba (Golden Sun, Tri-Ace Games, Tales of) and JDK Band for Ys. 

Edited by Stroud
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Shoji Meguro really nailed the Persona 3, 4, and 5 soundtracks with his diverse genres of popular music including jazz and hip hop.

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Well, I do like some of the ones mentioned already, like Jack Wall (whose work in Mass Effect owes due credit to Blade Runner for inspiration) and Jeremy Soule...

I'd also like to give thanks to Yuka Tsujiyoko for making the soundtracks for making the tracks for FE Genealogy and Thracia.  Thracia's first map theme and Genealogy's Chapter 6 theme are just so uplifting (the latter working particularly well as a catharsis), and the battle with Alvis was made all the more awesome with his battle theme.

Inon Zurr (I think that's how you spell his name) made some of my favorite theme music in Fallout games (I mostly think of Fallout 3's main theme, though 4's and NV's are also good), and Mark Morgan made all the amazingly eerie ambiance for the classic Fallout games, so they're also favorites of mine.

And I'd say I really like Grant Kirkhope's music.  I specifically played Donkey Kong 64, and one of the main elements I remember from that mixed bag was all the music I liked.  And also the fact that the guy making the music is also the dude that did all those grunts for Donkey Kong.

 

I know this might be cheating a bit because I mostly know him for his work outside of games, but Serj Tankian (lead singer of System of a Down) technically counts because he made the soundtrack for an indie game, so I'll list him as well, lmao.

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Tim Folin - A real heck of an underdog... Of his game's the one of most interest will be Equinox and the C64 version of Bionic Commando . My personal favorite of his is Future Tactics: The Uprising... my single favorite OST of any game. It's better in action than as an ost since it  mixes somewhat unsettling player phase music with the enemy phase alien music.. which is uniquely almost always a Rock inspired track but with 1960s movie camp (eg slide whistle) blended in. He made the second best Gauntlet soundtrack with the "progressive rock" of Gauntlet .Eqinox is great. while it will always live Solstice's shadow as a game, soundwise it's a huge cut above. Rock N Roll racing... well I can only dream it was on the Genesis or on Arcade instead of SNES, but it's nevertheless fun. God tier C64/Amiga composer, probably the best Western SNES composer outside of Rareware, and decent on later consoles, although I guess outside of personal bias most people will only see Starsky and Hutch, Contradiction, and Future Tactics as "eclectic" first rather than being good in their own right (and the gameplay of either is definitely not going to do it). Also as a bonus - The great John Carpenter, wrote an epic soundtrack for a remake of one of Tim Folin's games (Sentinel Returns). The original The Sentinel sadly only has title music and sound effects. 

Second place is closer than anyone else I like.... Michael Giacchino - mostly for Meal of Honor stuff and things like Secret Weapons Over Normandy. He might not count as a proper video game composer as he's definitely a movie and tv guy first (and his success pushes him increasingly to only licensenced video game soundtracks) but I love it and I always have a distinct impression that his soundtracks that AREN"T from movies SHOULD BE... something that I don't think about with other VGM, including the ones that I like more than his work.

Honorable Mentions - Jeremy Soule - Total Annihilation is so good to me that I half can't believe it's video game music.  kind of don't put him as a favorite since as he moved more toward fantasy themed games the big-swell structure of the music just lost interest for me.. // Jespyr Kid - a well known superstar composer... I got into him through MDK2 - probably the thing keeping me from rating him as m favorite composer is listening to the soundtracks for the majority of his game's online rather than playing them myself. // Tim Wright - lots of amazing Amiga stuff …. And the Wipeout soundtracks would do anyone proud. My main problem is nowadays if I want "club" music from a video game I have Forza Horizon. God bless. My personal favorite OST from him is actually PS1's Colony Wars. // David Wise and Grant Kirkhope from Rareware. Also Robin Beanland from Rareware who everyone forgets about while gushing over DKC and Banjo.  I don't favorite Rareware composers because it makes me get introspective about Mario... 3 and 64 would put up a serious fight with anything if they weren't Already ingrained in everyone's heads.  // Koji Kondo … SMB 3, Starfox, and Yoshi's Island... Depending on mood, he can temporarily be my favorite composer. The only real mark against him is that their is no way to make sense of individual composing credit for most Nintendo games after the Gamecube era because of the sheer volume of composers involved.

 

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18 hours ago, know_naim said:

First one I thought of: Yuzo Koshiro. He still does FM synth soundtracks for the Etrian Odyssey series and I love it. 

Yuzo Koshiro for a possible first place, for me. Though I'm of the opinion that every live version of his FM tracks are the superior versions.

Michiru Yamane, also as first place depending on the day. Castlevania wouldn't be the same without her. Although the others still have stellar soundtracks.

 

I suppose the rest would be honorable mentions. Too many to mention, from too many series.

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  • 2 months later...

While I also love Yuzo Koshiro's work, I always thought Mieko Ishikawa outdid him with her soundtrack for Ys III. The best version of which can be found on the PC-Engine version of the game.

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Revo sticks out for sure. They made one of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time in Bravely Default. They even made a concert with it. Definitely go watch it if you can find it. It's worth it.
Yuzo Koshiro is of course the legend that made the excellent soundtrack for 7th Dragon III and most Etrian Odyssey games.
And I want to throw Hayato Asano into the mix for the greatness that is the Nights of Azure soundtrack.

Edited by DragonFlames
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