Hitoshi Sakimoto
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Hitoshi Sakimoto is a Japanese video game composer and arranger. He is best known for scoring the games Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, though he has composed soundtracks for over 70 games and arranged music for more than 40 others. He began playing music and video games in elementary school, and began composing video game music for money by the time he was 16. Sakimoto's professional career began a few years later in 1988 when he started composing music professionally as a freelancer, as well as programming sound drivers for games. Five years and 40 games later, he achieved his first mainstream success with the score to Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. Four years and another 40 games later in 1997, he joined Square (now Square Enix) and composed his first international success, the score to Final Fantasy Tactics.
In 2002 he resigned from Square to form his own music company, Basiscape, through which he continues to compose music for Square Enix games such as Final Fantasy XII. Basiscape has expanded since its founding to 10 composers, and is currently the largest independent video game music production company. In addition to video game soundtracks, over the years Sakimoto has also worked on projects such as anime series and vocal albums. His music has been played at numerous music concerts by groups such as the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, and his work on Final Fantasy XII was arranged for the piano and published as a book of sheet music.
Contents
Music Development
Game Boy
Hitoshi programmed the sound driver that CUBE used.
Game Boy Advance
Hitoshi used Nintendo's MP2K sound driver.
Game Gear
Hitoshi programmed his own sound engine and wrote the music in Z80 assembly.
Genesis
Hitoshi programmed his own sound engine called Terpsichorean.
NDS
Hitoshi used Nintendo's Nitro Composer sound driver.
NES
For Daisenryaku, Hitoshi didn't actually work on the game, but his music from Revolter (PC98) was arranged by Masaharu Iwata and his sound engine.
SNES
On Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, Hitoshi used Quest's version of Nintendo's Kankichi-kun sound driver, which was likely programmed by Toshiaki Imai.
For Panic Bomber W and Dragon Quest VI, Sakimoto used another Kankichi-kun variant, this time one that he adapted himself with assistance from Tsukasa Tawada.
For Super Back to the Future II, Hitoshi used Opus's sound driver.
Gameography
Aliases
Hitoshi is best known for his alias YMOH.S. The letters H and S refer to his initials, and the YMO refers to the Yellow Magic Orchestra, one of his favorite bands.
Picture Gallery
Circa 2004. Unknown source.
Hitoshi's Facebook.
Circa 2010. Unknown source.
Unknown source.
Hitoshi with Yasunori Mitsuda. Unknown source.
Links
- facebook.com/HitoshiSakimoto - Facebook.
- jp.linkedin.com/pub/hitoshi-sakimoto/35/757/940 - LinkedIn.
- twitter.com/HitoshiSakimoto - Twitter.
- basiscape.com/arts_sakimoto.html - Official Gameography.
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/300.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).
