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Yôko Shimomura
BiographyThis biography was written by Totz 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. Yôko Shimomura was born in the Hyogo prefecture, on October 19, 1967. Having an interest in music from a young age, she started to take piano lessons at four, and soon began to compose pieces (or, as she says, "playing notes randomly and pretending to be composing"). After continuing her musical education, she ended up going to the Osaka University of Music, where she graduated. It was time to find a job. She was all set to become a piano teacher, but, after sending a few demos to some video game companies who were recruiting students at the time, she became employed there. Her friends and family were literally horrified, especially because video game music wasn't as popular then as it is now. The company that gave Shimomura a chance was Capcom, and, in 1988, she composed the soundtrack of an adventure game for the Famicom Disc System, called Samurai Sword. Then, in 1990, she composed the score for Nemo, an Arcade game. Following this, she quickly joined the ranks of Capcom's famous sound team, Alph Lyra, where she worked on a number of scores, including composing for Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Turbo alongside Isao Abe, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, and Tetsuya Nishimura. Unfortunately for Capcom, she composed her last game for the company in 1994: The King of Dragons, a beat ‘em-up set in a fantasy medieval age. Although the exact details of her Capcom years are vague, these were very productive times for her that established a firm list of game projects. She continues to be widely recognised for her contributions to the Street Fighter series today. After leaving Capcom, Shimomura went straight to Square. Her first project there was Live A Live, an RPG released on the Super Nintendo. The Original Sound Version released for the game was upbeat and engaging, but somewhat unrecognised due to the game's obscurity. In 1995, she was paired up with Noriko Matsueda, who had just joined Square, to compose the score for Front Mission. The soundtrack, highly acclaimed for its diversity and quality, would be the first of numerous militaristic Front Mission scores to be produced over the next decade. Her last Super Nintendo project was the light-hearted score for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, where she arranged both Koji Kondo's and Nobuo Uematsu's works. After composing two tracks for Tobal No. 1, her first PlayStation soundtrack, in 1997 alongside many of Square's resident composers, she composed one of her greatest soundtracks to date two years later: Parasite Eve, Square's cinematic horror action-RPG. What Shimomura tried to do was to give the album an inorganic feel, something that would be unique. And, by using electronic elements together with regular instruments, she pulled it off perfectly. However, this is not Shimomura's personal favourite album. That title goes to the Legend of Mana Original Soundtrack, released in 1999. It is the complete opposite of her previous work, portraying a magical world, with all kinds of whimsical creatures. Following this, Shimomura composed a track for the score of the PlayStation game Chocobo Stallion in 1999 and composed the score for the Japan-only game Harutaku Chocobo in 2000 on the WonderSwan. Neither of these scores were released in the form of an Original Soundtrack, unfortunately. The only album released featuring her in the three years since Legend of Mana was Potion: Relaxin' With Final Fantasy. Here, she arranged Final Fantasy V's "Dear Friends," a bonus track on the CD. In 2002, Shimomura got another big break, having been called to compose for Kingdom Hearts, an RPG that combined the world of Square and Disney. Not only did she compose original tracks, but she also arranged a few of Disney's movie themes and Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween." At the end of the year, the Kingdom Hearts -Additional Tracks- Final Mix album was released, with two new tracks, "Another Side" and "Disappeared," and two arrangements, Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" and Uematsu's "One Winged Angel." Soon after, the unthinkable happens: Shimomura created a track for the Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection, entitled "Get Happy!," which was sung by Marika Matsumoto, the voice of Rikku from Final Fantasy X. At the very start of 2003, she left Square to become a freelancer. Her first project as a freelancer was the soundtrack for Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a hilarious RPG for the Game Boy Advance, which had a similar style to the 1996 hit Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. At the end of 2003, she also took part in the Street Fighter II Tribute Album, with several famous composers, such as Yasunori Mitsuda, Shinji Hosoe, Koji Hayama, and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, reviving her role in a series she had not worked on for nearly ten years, the following year participating in collaborative arranged albums for Dark Chronicle and Phantasy Star Online I & II, too. She also continued her involvement in the game soundtrack for the Game Boy Advance game Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. Unfortunately, most of the tracks are simply rehashes of the original Kingdom Hearts' tracks, with very few original tracks, a couple of wonderful exceptions aside, though her next major game project changed that. Speculation mounted about who exactly would compose the Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack for many months, with Shimomura's most notable works in 2004 and 2005 being the animes Dandoh! and Gokujo Seitokai, the only game work being Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time at the end of the year. Fortunately, she did create the long-awaited score, finally released at the end of January 2006, and it seems likely to be a success. Featuring both arrangements of old pieces and a number of notable new contributions, this score will please her many fans, no doubt, even if there is a considerable difference in synth. On the same date, the Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange was released, featuring one arrangement from her, and some light-hearted vocal themes are present on the pop'n music 13 Carnival AC CS pop'n music 11 Original Soundtrack related to her. Always one to collaborate, she will soon feature alongside many popular artists in the score for the Sony PSP's Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner as well. List of Game ProjectsNote: 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 AlbumsOriginal Scores
Arranged Albums
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