The best audio tracks of video games from Yoko Shimomura

Summary

• Yoko Shimomura revolutionized the gaming industry with its beautiful soundtracks and won her prestigious BAFTA Award.

• The best works of Shimomury include Parasite Eva, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's inner story and the whole Kingdom Hearts franchise.

• Her diverse series as a composer is depicted in iconic works like Street Fighter 2, Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy 15.

The video game industry is full of countless talented musicians who have created some of the best audio accompaniment ever made, and Yoko Shimomura He is one of them. Since the late 80s. This legendary Japanese composer has revolutionized this industry with its beautiful compositions. No wonder she won the BAFTA Award for her prestigious career.

Shimomura, which is not known, was responsible for some of the most famous and influential music compositions in all games, which leaves one big question: What was her best audio accompaniment of video games so far? Of course, music is always a team effort and, together with other talented composers, has made many soundtracks. However, this list only takes into account video games in which Yoko Shimomura is credited as the only composer.

8

Parasite Eva

Dark horror game with ghostly, atmospheric Ost

Parasite EvaThe adaptation/continuation of the same novel Hideaki hay is RPG from Squaresoft since 1998. This title has always excelled from the usual repertoire of society, because its atmosphere and playing a third person looks and feel like a horror game. Square chose anyone other than Yoko Shimomura to create background music for this scary adventure.

Parasite Eva He is one of Shimomury's most prominent works. She does not feel as whimsical or cheerful as her usual soundtracks, and instead, there is a greater focus on creating a dark and tense atmosphere, with an occasional fast track for action segments. The best songs in this collection include “Out of Phase” and “Wheel of Fortune”. Unfortunately, Shimomura did not return to the composition of music Parasite Eva 2.

7

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's inner story

A bouncing, catchy Ost for a colored RPG

Yoko Shimomura was the only composer of all posts in Mario & Luigi RPG series (with the only exception is 2024 Brethren) And she did a great job with all their soundtrants. But most of the fans agree that music in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's inner story She's the best job so far.

This is another crazy, colorful RPG in which Mario Brothers plays, so it makes sense that most of his background music fits perfectly vibrations. “They're pretty hard,” “Should we be careful?” And “fawful” are some of the most interesting on the soundtrack. The biggest standout of this game, however, is “in the final”, the theme of the epic final boss. Shimomura has directed its experience in working in RPG for more than ten years and it worked very well.

6

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Cordial, melancholic Ost for Nintendo DS

Yoko Shimomura is best known for her contributions to the legendary Kingdom Hearts Franchise, where she composed the whole soundtrack. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, The action RPG, who tells the tragic story of Roxas, is attributed to her as the only composer and did a spectacular work with him.

Half of this soundtrack consists of songs from others Kingdom Hearts Games, but successfully scored them in the DS sound lettering. But this melancholic story is, of course, also filled to the brim with new original songs that increase all its emotional moments, such as “dusk” and “Musique Pour la Tristess de Xion”. The last theme of the boss “Vector to Heaven” is one of the best songs Shimomura has ever created. With the help of the orchestra she was able to remix most of these songs Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD RemixAnd they all sound even more beautiful.

5

Street Fighter 2

One of the most legendary combat games ever created

Street Fighter 2 Forever the revolution has revolutionized the fighting genre. Interestingly, many fans do not realize that the composer of the game was Yoko Shimomura, who worked in Capcom until she went to Squaresoft a few years later. This means that this legendary composer is responsible for some of the most famous music that has ever been created for a combat video game.

Street Fighter 2 He is known for two things: his list of iconic players from different parts of the world and its rapid combat system. Shimomura perfectly mediated these two features with a catchy soundtrack, which contains many individual topics representing the relevant cultures of their characters. Ryu, Ken, Chun, Guili and many other owned Yoko Shimomura.

4

Super Mario RPG: Legend of Seven Stars

One of the most prominent Ost in the franchise Mario

Yoko Shimomura was most likely chosen for composition of music for Mario & Luigi series because she was also responsible for the soundtrack Super Mario RPG: Legend of Seven Starsthe very first RPG in Mario franchise. After all, it was a common business between Squaresoft and Nintendo, so it was perfect. Yet it was a monumental task because it had to re -go any classic Mario and Final Fantasy Tuning to other composers (Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uhematsu).

Soundtrack Super Mario RPG It is known for its extensive collection of original songs. This game has a very specific sound that at that time was not like anything else in this industry. One of his most memorable songs is. Fortunately, Shimomura returned to compose music for remake 2024 Super Mario RPGwhich includes the possibility to choose between new arrangements and original music from the 1996 edition.

3

Final Fantasy 15

One of the most ambitious Shimomury projects

Through work for SquareSoft and Square Enix so long, Yoko Shimomura took twenty -eight years before music was created for A Final Fantasy The game because she was the main composer of the year 2016 Final Fantasy 15. This made great sense because this project was originally directed by one of its most common collaborators, Tetsuya nomura, and it shared a lot of similarities with Kingdom Hearts.

This action RPG in the open world has evolved for about ten years, so it has obviously become one of its most ambitious projects. With the help of a full -fledged orchestra, Shimomura created a beautiful high -quality soundtrack that made Noctis's journey all the more unforgettable, exciting and tragic. The game represented a number of excellent songs that correspond to every particular situation such as “Apocalypse Noctis”, “Valse di Fantastica”, “somnus” and many others. It is a pity that she did not make more music Final Fantasy titles because FF15'Ost is one of the most incredible works of her career.

2

Kingdom Hearts

Strengthened it as one of the best composers in the field

At the beginning of 2000, Squaresoft and Disney joined Kingdom HeartsBizarre but innovative action RPG, which contained levels based on classic animated films. As a composer was selected Yoko Shimomura who had to be a high task because she had to capture the essence of both Final Fantasy and Disney.

Needless to say, she did a fantastic work with this soundtrack. The topic of the “dear beloved” game is so beautiful and iconic that it is enough to place it in the “video game of the compositional hall of fame”. Yet it was just the beginning because Kingdom Hearts It is full of incredible original music. Music in the background of the world is always catchy, while combat music makes every meeting exciting. While the original iterations of the PS2 of these songs were already great, it reworked them with an orchestra for Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD RemixWhere they sounded even better.

1

Kingdom Hearts 2

Excellent sequel with one of the best video games ever made

Two years after the release Kingdom HeartsSquare and Disney running Kingdom Hearts 2And Yoko Shimomura was re -selected as the composer of the game. Everything about this game was bigger and better than its predecessor: fight, bosses, story. So his soundtrack had to be on the same level. Shimomura not only disappointed, but also ended with one of the best soundtracks of her career.

Music Kingdom Hearts 2 He is very diverse. It is characterized by beautiful and tragic themes of character, such as “roxas”, as well as catchy and light background music for all its Disney worlds, such as “Day in Agrabah”. But of course the main peaks of this game are her many battles. They combine smoothly with the intensity of any situation with high emotional betting to help increase the unforgettable struggle of the boss. As always, Yoko Shimomura made an orchestral rearrangement of all these songs when Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix was released in 2014.