Takeharu Ishimoto

	General Interests:	Rock Music, Guitars, Arranging, Synthesizers
	Instruments Played:	Piano, Guitar
	Place of Residence:	Tokyo
	Joined Square Enix:	1998
	Official Web Site:	Profile at Square Enix American Web Site

Biography

This biography was written by Chris exclusively for use at Square Enix Music Online. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission, as this is a violation of copyright.

Once one of Square Enix's six upcoming resident synthesizer operators — Hidenori Iwasaki, Ryo Yamazaki, Keiji Kawamori, Hirosato Noda, and Yasuhiro Yamanaka being the others — Takeharu Ishimoto has been the first to be promoted to the role of composer. Though little is known about his background, it is known that he is a guitar fanatic, and this influences his work greatly; however, it has yet to be seen whether we will hear his mastery in a band performance or on an album. His most famous roles as a synthesizer operator are alongside Yôko Shimomura for Legend of Mana (aka Seiken Densetsu/Legend of Mana), alongside Hitoshi Sakimoto for Vagrant Story, and alongside Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano, and Masashi Hamauzu for Final Fantasy X. All three were prominent scores that had reasonably realistic synth samples. Further, by working closely with five of the most reputable and talented composers in the industry, Ishimoto has gained invaluable experience.

Outside the area of synthesizer operating, Ishimoto has had a number of fairly noteworthy roles. He created a fine remix of Hitoshi Sakimoto's "Opening Movie 'Fight Mix'" from Vagrant Story in 2000. It featured all sorts of unusual electronic elements and was one of two bonus tracks added to the end of the Vagrant Story Original Soundtrack, together with Hirosato Noda's "Dungeon Robot Mix." This is his only true arrangement available to date, though his upcoming works may change this. Beyond this, he has had several composing roles. In 2002, he composed and wrote the lyrics for the track "Spiral" for the Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection, which was spoken by Hideo Ishikawa. It was an unusual composition that featured electric guitar heavily, hosted a number of flashy piano runs, and also featured samples from Masashi Hamauzu's "Decisive Battle." He is also known to have composed on World Fantastista, a soccer simulation game released in Japan in 2002. This gave him his first major composing role to date, though the extent of its success is unknown, since the game was not released internationally.

Ishimoto was recently responsible for the synthesizer operating of Shimomura's score for Kingdom Hearts Chains of Memories, the second game of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, which was released in 2004 on the Game Boy Advance. He will also be working on the long-anticipated Kingdom Hearts II, due for release this year. It is presumed that will be alongside Shimomura, though this is not confirmed. Though any large composing role is unlikely, it is possible he may make a small composing contribution or arrange a few tracks. The recent projects likely to project him furthest into the spotlight are two Compilation of Final Fantasy VII scores. He composed the rock-based score for Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, the prequel to Final Fantasy VII, which was released for the Mobile Phone in Japan in 2005. It is due for release in North America in 2006 and we will have to wait till then to see if he has succeeded making his biggest role to date a noteworthy one. The score for Last Order: Final Fantasy VII is his latest role. Last Order is an original video animation packaged with the "Ultimate Edition" of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children that details some of the events that occur five years before the main events of the original Final Fantasy VII game.

List of Game Projects

Note: This list only includes games that the composer has actively worked on, so those games that feature reprises of the composer's work from older titles are not included.

Key: C = Composer, A = Arranger, P = Performer, S = Sound Programmer, E = Sound Effects, M = Synthesizer Operator

List of Albums

Original Scores

• All Star Pro-Wrestling II Original Soundtrack
• Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack
• Final Fantasy XI Rise of the Zilart Orignal Soundtrack
• Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack
• Legend of Mana/Seiken Densetsu Original Soundtrack
• Vagrant Story Original Soundtrack

Other Albums

• Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection