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Happy 50th birthday to Yoko Shimomura - What are your favorite tracks/works from her?

F

Funkybee12

Member
Xenoblade main theme is one of my all time favorites.
Funny fact it just started playing on my ipod as i opened the thread ❤️
 
I

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Your asking me to choose? Lol, there's no way i could pick, there are too many songs i like from her
 
T

Trago

Member
ffdgh said:
Forest Maze from Mario:RPG since no one else brought it up.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
N

Neku89

Member
I mean, I was like "Yes Shimomura is a goddess, her work on the Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy and Mario&Luigi sagas are top-notch". Then I entered the thread...

YnHG3gu.gif


Guile's Theme? Parasite Eve? This lady is simply the best around.

The most amazing thing is that even someone like me (who understands fuck all about music) can definitely recognise her touch. For example, I didn't know that she remixed Pokémon BW's Route 10 theme for SSB4 (until now)... and yet when I first heard the song I immediately thought "with these violins this could perfectly fit in Birth By Sleep".
 
L

Lunaray

Member
preta said:
Legend of Mana is still my favorite work of hers, and I think definitely the most underappreciated. I'd easily call it one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time.

Nostalgic Song
Faraway Dreaming Days ~Siren's Song~
Port City Polpota
The Wind Sings, For the Journey
Magic City Geo
The Darkness Nova (seriously one of her best battle themes ever)
The Two Predictions ~Lucemia~
Irwin on Reflection
For the Granted Bonds
Those Who Wait Before Destiny
Ruined Sparkling City
...of the Tear-Colored Radiance (my favorite song in the game)
Sanctuary of Mana
Song of Mana
Click to expand...

This. Legend of Mana's OST is very underappreciated.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
It's amazing how she created the iconic Street Fighter themes yet even those are overshadowed by her more modern work.

Frankly i think her SMRPG work is one of the most perfectly scored OSTs, the style is so delightfully beep-bloopy, really fitting of Mario's first RPG.

Her work on the Mario & Luigi series as well as Kingdom Hearts is supreme, i reme,mber when the Toy Story world got showcased my hype only went through the roof when "Working together" started playing.

Also i gotta mention the boss themes from Dream Team and Paper Jam which are amazingly structured mimicking the structure of a climatic battle not unlike movies.
 
M

MrSaturn99

Member
SMRPG and the original Kingdom Hearts/Birth By Sleep are probably her best works, although my absolute favorite thing by her is the Magicant/Eight Melodies arrangement from Smash 4. Seriously cried the first time I listened to it.

Like several of you, I was also shocked to learn she did Street Fighter II. Maybe because it's so unlike her JRPG work? lol

Actually, I happen to be playing a game scored by her right now (Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story). There's quite a number of tracks I love from that, but I've always been spellbound by how eerie this particular song is for a Mario game. Can't wait to hear some familiar songs again in the SS remake when I get around to it this Christmas!
 
H

hamauzu kaito

Member
I saw her post earlier and smiled. Her haircut looks amazing! She has had a wonderful career and she is still going strong! I'm sure she can only be proud of her work but I'm sure there is a reverent nostalgia too. I love that she is always working as an arranger too, she is truly an intelligent musician and composer not just an emotional one!
 
C

Crayolan

Member
I knew Xenoblade had multiple composers, but I didn't realize she was among them. Which songs did she do? Xenoblade is probably my favorite soundtrack of last gen.
 
M

MrSaturn99

Member
Crayolan said:
I knew Xenoblade had multiple composers, but I didn't realize she was among them. Which songs did she do? Xenoblade is probably my favorite soundtrack of last gen.
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You can find the song credits here, but off the top of my head, she did the title theme, the battle theme, the daytime themes for Colony 9, and Shulk and Fiora.
 
R

RenegadeXV8

Banned
Legend of Mana easily has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time.

Pretty sad the game was underappreciated and underrated simply because it didn't adhere to traditional JRPG genre standards at the time. I feel like the game would have been far better received today.
 
SoulUnison

SoulUnison

Banned
Seik said:
I think the Cleigne Battle Theme is some of her finest work.

If something was good in FFXV, it was the music, thanks to her.
Click to expand...

I honestly think "Up For the Challenge" might be the greatest battle theme in the entire Final Fantasy series, and I've been playing them all since VI.

It syncs up with the flow of XV's combat just perfectly, and the only mark against it isn't even against the track itself, but how it's only used in a couple areas that are far too easy to out-level the enemies of so that it becomes impossible to have a satisfying length of battle with the song playing because you end up just one-shotting everything that's present in the area.
 
C

Crayolan

Member
MrSaturn99 said:
You can find the song credits here, but off the top of my head, she did the title theme, the battle theme, the daytime themes for Colony 9, and Shulk and Fiora.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Looks like her role was relatively small compared to ACE+ and Manami Kiyota.

Though she did Unfinished Battle and that song is one of the best in the game.
 
Bakkus

Bakkus

Member
One of the best composers around even taking in to account that a lot of her works have a very similar melodramatic feel to it lately. Couldn't believe she created Guile's theme when I first heard about it.
 
S

Socivol

Member
Apocalyptis Noctis is my favorite song of hers. It's just such a good song I love everything about it. It's actually my favorite FF track period.
 
T

Thoraxes

Member
One track i'm pretty sure I could listen to forever is definitely Scherzo di Notte (I linked the 2.5 version). I just absolutely think it's such a great little piece with one of the more attractive ostinati she's done across almost all her works. The polyrhythmic aspect of it is just so freaking catchy, and in general i'm a massive fan of all rhythmic counterpoint, so this track really hits the spot for me.

And a fun fact, I first got interested in composition by dictating lots of music I heard from both anime and games. Kingdom Hearts II was among some of the first stuff I ever wrote out, and arranged when I was much younger.
 
D

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Yoko Shimomura is a living legend. Some of my favorite tracks from her are Hometown Domina theme from Legend of Mana, Roxas's Theme, Dearly Beloved from KH series, Xenoblade's opening theme, Somnus, among others. What a great composer. I would love to meet her personally some day.
 
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