Yoko Shimomura

Yoko Shimomura has been composing in the video game music industry since the late 1980s. Early on, she was a recurring composer for Capcom (and was part of their in-house jazz band Alph Lyla), and then for Squaresoft, and more recently a freelance composer. More recently, she is probably best known for composing the music for the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as Mario RPG music, starting with Super Mario RPG (while at Squaresoft) and the entire Mario & Luigi series since.

Contrary to popular belief, Shimomura did not compose Mega Man 6.

Video Game Music

• The 3rd Birthday (2010, along with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Mitsuto Suzuki)
• Adventures In The Magic Kingdom (1990)
• Adventure Quiz 2: Capcom World (1990, along with Manami Matsumae, G. Morita, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, H. Takaoka and Junko Tamiya)
• Block Block (1991, along with Masaki Izutani)
• Breath of Fire I (1993, along with Minae Fujii, Yasuaki Fujita and Mari Yamaguchi)
• Buster Bros (1991, along with Tamayo Kawamoto)
• Code Name: Viper (1990, along with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi)
• F1 Dream (1989)
• Final Fantasy Versus XIII (TBA)
• Final Fight (1989, along with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi)
• Front Mission (1995, along with Noriko Matsueda)
• Gargoyle's Quest (1990)
  • Samples: OST.
• Hataraku Chocobo (2000)
• Heroes of Mana (2007)
• Kingdom Hearts (2002)
• Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (2004)
• Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
• Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2(2009)
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (2010, along with Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito)
• Kingdom Hearts coded (2009)
  • Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (2011)
• Kingdom Hearts 3D (2012, along with Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito)
• The King of Dragons (1991)
• Last Ranker (2010)
• Legend of Mana (1999): Her debut for the World of Mana series, which had previously been composed only by Kenji Ito and Hiroki Kikuta.
  • Samples: "Earth Painting", "Song of Mana" (sung by Annika Ljungberg in Gratuitous Swedish), "To the Sea" ^{[dead link]} , "The Wind Sings of a Journey".
• Little King's Story (2008, along with Yutaka Minobe)
• Little Nemo the Dream Master (1990)
  • Samples
• Live a Live (1994): Her first game for Square Soft. Breath of Fire I before was published in North America by Square Soft, but she composed that for Capcom who developed it.
• Luminous Arc 2 (2008, along with Yoshino Aoki, Akari Kaida and Shunsuke Nakamura)
• Mahjong School: The Super O Version (1990, along with Masaki Izutani)
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003): Her return to composing Mario RPG music.
  • Samples: Boss Battle ^{[dead link]} , Hoo Hoo Village.
• Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time (2005)
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (2009)
  • Samples: Fawful's Theme, Grasslands, All the Way, Okey Dokey!!, Short Break in Mushroom Town ^{[dead link]} , The Wind is Blowing at Cavi Cape.
• Mizushima Shinji No Daikoushien (1990)
• Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner (2006, along with Shinji Hosoe, Kenji Ito, Masaharu Iwata, Tsukasa Masuko, Yasunori Mitsuda, Takahiro Ogata, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Ayako Saso, Yasuyuki Suzuki)
• Parasite Eve (1998)
• Pop'n music Carnival (13) (2005, along with many others)
• Pop'n music The Movie (17) (2009, along with many others)
• The Punisher (1993 arcade game, along with Isao Abe, Toshio Kajino, Syun Nishigaki and Nobu. Oouchi)
• Radiant Historia (2010)
  • Samples: "Radiant Blue", "Mechanical Kingdom."
• Samurai Sword (1988)
• Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991, credited as Pii♪, composed along with Isao Abe)
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996): She would later return to compose the music for the Mario & Luigi RPG series.
  • Samples: "Fight Against Monsters", "Going Shopping in Ripple Town", "Grandpa and the Delightful Tadpoles" ^{[dead link]} , "Still the Road is Full of Danger".
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, along with many others)
• Tobal No. 1 (1996, along with Masashi Hamauzu, Kenji Ito, Yasuhiro Kawakami, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda, Junya Nakano and Ryuji Sasai)
• Varth: Operation Thunderstorm (1992, along with Masaki Izutani and Toshio Kajino)
• Xenoblade (2010, along with ACE+, Manami Kiyota and Yasunori Mitsuda): Composed most of the music. Yasunori Mitsuda returned only to compose the ending song, but Yoko Shimomura borrowed some of his signature style associated with past Xeno soundtracks. And, since Xenoblade is far more of a Planetary Romance than previous Xeno games, her compositions also bear Chrono Cross influence.
  • Samples: "Colony 9", "Hometown", "Main Theme", "Time to Fight!".