Wavelink Zeal

Note: This biography was written exclusively for Square Enix Music Online by Chris and is under copyright.

Wavelink Zeal is a team of two composers, Takayuki Iwai and Yuki Iwai, which was formed in 2001 after the composers quit Capcom. One of the few married couples to work on game music, Yuki Iwai's maiden name was Satomura Sato. The pair met while working as members of the Capcom Sound Team, where they worked together, became friends, and married soon after leaving. Though each largely contributed to different projects at Capcom, they came together on at least one occasion with Street Fighter Zero 3. Though their styles are considerably different, by working together, they complement each other's works by adding to the overall diversity of the musical experience.

While at Capcom, they worked on a large number of games for the company, specialising in the field of arcade games. Yuki Iwai is also known for working on Pocket Fighter, Street Fighter III New Generation, Rockman X, Rockman X2, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and Project Justice. Takayuki Iwai has contributed to the scores for the Vampire Savior games, War-Zard, Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors, X-Men - Children of the Atom, Armored Warriors, and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom. Many of these games were regarded as classics and received original score releases.

One of their best known works as Wavelink Zeal is the for Irem's shooter R-Type Final, released in August 2003. Mostly filled with electronic ambient music, its soundtrack was concluded with a medley by Takayuki Aihara. Their only Square Enix work to be released to date is the score for Musashi Samurai Legend, which was unveiled in Spring 2005. The score saw the duo work with two of Square Enix's most famous and long-standing composers, Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano, producing five tracks between them. Takayuki's "Boss Battle II" and "Rockstar Recital" are both energetic guitar-led themes, while Yuki's three tracks were more diverse, having ambient and ethnic roots and more acoustic emphasis.

List of Relevant Game Projects

List of Covered Albums