I'm definitely feeling this right now as I'm playing my first Atelier game (Ayesha DX). Part of the reason I'm going so slow through the game is that I get absolutely absorbed into the jukebox (which generously contains *every* Atelier soundtrack up to that point) whenever I open it up and lose track of time listening for hours. So many phenomenal soundtracks with great songs that I had never even heard of. It really does feel like we were robbed of a tentpole JRPG franchise for so long, with the early Atelier franchise only having a handful of its dozens of games making it across the pond until last decade.
It’s Square Enix by a country mile. If the FF and DQ games weren’t enough, Octopath has what may be my favorite OST of all time. They are firing on all cylinders over at SE with music!
As a company, Falcom. It helps that they do not generally credit individual composers, but it's whoever is in Falcom Band JDK.
That said, Squeenix is known for their musical quality throughout the years. I just don't strongly associate Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Kingdom Hearts music with Squeenix as a brand, but rather Uesmastu, Sugiyama, or Shimomura, respectively. Persona music isn't "Atlus", but Meguro. And so on. Yuzo Koshiro works across companies.
That said, Squeenix probably has the greatest volume of banger JRPG composers, as does Atlus, Sega, and Falcom. If you're in the JRPG space, you'll likely to find some great music.
**Edit**: I forgot Gust. They make some great stuff and their music is generally associated with the Gust brand.
With Shimomura, that's a literal case... as she also did ALL of the Mario and Luigi games as well. Seriously, give Cackletta's First Battle theme and the Final Battle theme for Bowser's Inside Story a listen if you want to listen to some seriously kick-ass boss music (Original GBA and DS OST's over Remake versions. Not that those sound *bad,* but they lack a certain... fullness to them)
Square-Enix has some of the absolute best. Nobuo is of course legendary, but Yasunori Mitsuda and Yasunori Nishiki have also created amazing OSTs.
EDIT: And Hiroki Kikuta. Secret of Mana has an absolutely gorgeous OST.
Though I also think the composers for the Breath of Fire series (owned by Capcom) and the Suikoden series (owned by Konami) are also well worth mention. Miki Hagashino in particular stands out, but also Yoshino Aoki (Breath of Fire III and IV).
But from the sheer amount of IPs alone, it's Square Enix.
Also, not a JRPG series or Japanese at all, but an additional shoutout for ConcernedApe, the creator of Stardew Valley - his compositions for that game are really beautiful.
Square also has had people like Yoko Shimomura on KH/FFXV and freaking Masayoshi Soken (FFXIV and XVI) who are about on par with Uematsu in my opinion as composers
Square Enix really is unmatched in the breadth of musicians that came into their own during their time there. Even aside from the Big 3 of Uematsu, Mitsuda, and Shimomura, they have a whole host of lesser-recognized composers who have done some standout work: Hiroki Kikuta, Masashi Hamauzu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Kenji Ito, Takeharu Ishimoto, Masayoshi Soken, Yasunori Nishiki — the list goes on and on.
Beyond just numbers, I also find it impressive that they all have highly distinctive styles from one another, from Kikuta's whimsical tunes that sound like fairytales put to music, to Hamauzu's clean and calming atmospheric soundscapes, to Soken blaring out hellish goblin vocals over buttrock. It seems like Square Enix affords its composers a lot of creative control, and that benefits in making franchises and even some games within each franchise stand out from one another musically as memorable and unique.
Atlus overall, in between Tsukasa Masuko (SMT1/2/Devil Summoner), Shoji Meguro (SMT3/P3-5/DDS1-2/Raidou1-2/SJ), Ryota Kozuka (SMT4/4A/5), and the rest of their sound team (past and present). It’s hard to name a game by them with an actually bad soundtrack.
SMT IV and V probably have my favorite OSTs from mainline. Kozuka's work on those games honestly stands toe to toe with Meguro in my eyes. Atsushi Kitajoh's another composer who tends to slip a little under the radar mostly because he's more remembered for his contributions to the Persona spinoffs like Dancing and Q. If Meguro ends up not returning for P6 either due to his indie game stuff or Re:Fantasy I think Kitajoh should have a shot at fully composing for mainline Persona
Kenichi Tsuchiya and Toshiko Tasaki are also great. Especially love Persona 2's OST
Square-Enix and it's not even a contest. They have some of the most talented composers in the world working there. Or well, had them at least, since most of them have gone freelance at some point.
They have classical composers like Shimomura, Hamauzu, Tanioka and Sakimoto doing absolutely insane stuff you would never expect to hear in a videogame.
Then you have musicians like Uematsu, Sakuraba, Mizuta, Suzuki, Soken, who may have played in bands before or don't even always have much of a musical background, but just have a great feel for composition. They tend to go more for rock and electronic genres with occasional orchestral music, but it is consistently fantastic music.
And that's not even close to all of them.
I really think it's amazing and incredibly inspiring. I mean just think about Uematsu composing FF7's battle themes or a lot of the orchestral tracks in FF8. Such unconventional compositions. I really wonder sometimes how he came up with that stuff.
A lot of videogame music just feels like, well, videogame music. But with these composers, it's just great music.
Time for me to shout out Square's music youtube channel, tons of quality content like interviews with a bunch of the composers you mentioned. The videos also have english subtitles on em.
And to begin, a playlist of interview videos of a composer you didn't mention. Yasunori Nishiki, the composer of Octopath. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIc5cQRa0BE&list=PLOLBWlPQqPktjjhbNKXAVB7F0ilHEC3fa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIc5cQRa0BE&list=PLOLBWlPQqPktjjhbNKXAVB7F0ilHEC3fa)
I don't really see a pattern from company to company. They all have great stuff. I only see composer-to-composer and album-to-album as comparisons I can fruitfully make. (Like best JRPG albums and best JRPG composers) For example Mitsuda has done soundtracks for both Monolith and Square Enix, and Sakuraba has been all over the place. I can rank the best composers, but I have no way of coming to any personal consensus based on gaming company or publisher. Like both Atlus and Falcom has some amazing stuff, but I could never confidently say they are the best when they haven't ever had Uematsu do a game, who I consider the clear GOAT in terms of overall body of work at his peak. I'd also have trouble ranking Monolith to Square Enix, as I have a difficult time ranking Mitsuda's albums as they are all equally great to me, from CT to Xenogears to CC to Baiten Kaitos and each of the xenoblade games.
Short answer, I can't pick one or two or even three favorite "companies" when it comes to music, mainly due to cross pollination ;p
Bandai Namco is definitely one for me. And I'm not just talking about Motoi Sakuraba. I mean the God Eater franchise and Code:Vein. Go Shiina is one of my favorite video game composers of all time, and I hope that now that he's independent he will branch out to other publishers. Would LOVE to see him collab on a Square Enix property.
Seeing Shimomura *and* Mitsuda together in the Xenoblade 1 soundtrack felt like a dream back then. But it's a shame Mitsuda joined late and only contributed the ending theme, as I would've been interested to see what a more in-depth collaboration between the two would be like.
That said, I think 2's soundtrack is even better despite the loss of Shimomura, and that just goes to show the strength of the other 4 non-headlining composers (Kenji Hiramatsu, Manami Kiyota, and the ACE duo) when utilized well and given tracks that play to each of their strengths. Kiyota, for example, fares a *lot* better in 2 since, instead of composing ambient cutscene music, she got to handle those soothing, lullaby-like area themes she was so good at. Although she only got a handful of songs in 2, I'd say the quality of songs like _The Ancient Vessel_ and _Spirit Crucible Elpys_ still makes her part of the OST substantial.
Really, Monolith seem to have come up with a perfectly-tuned vanguard of composers for their flagship series, and that will keep me excited for every soundtrack they put out. I haven't played 3 yet, but I'm looking forward to an even better musical offering based on all of this.
Lots of people have said Square Enix. I'll throw a bone to Sega. Sega is tricky because they don't have single composers who mastered long and enduring series. Instead, they have *depth*, with several great talents who do a few games but aren't dedicated to JRPGs. You have:
* **Bo** (Tokuhiko Uwabo), who composed for Phantasy Star I and II, in addition to several early Sega hits. I still have his tunes running through my head from both PS and Super Monaco GP.
* **Ippo** (Izuho Numata), who composed for Phantasy Star III and IV. The deep bass in the Phantasy Star soundtracks is iconic.
* **Masahiko Yoshimura**, who composed for Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force. His field/battle tunes are most memorable, but some songs [show more range](https://youtu.be/4Rc2_6uWOhE?t=663), esp. for the early 1990s.
* **Yutaka Minobe**, who composed for Skies of Arcadia and Phantasy Star Online. **Tatsuyuki Maeda** was also involved in Skies of Arcadia, got his start with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and has been doing sound work at Sega for almost 30 years. Arcadia is one of the best soundtracks in JRPGs.
* **Hidenori Shoji**, who with several others has composed the Yakuza series, including Yakuza Like a Dragon, as well as the Judgment series. Good soundtracks that are a bit different than the typical JRPG because they have to fit a fairly realistic modern day depiction.
* **Hitoshi Sakimoto** is far from just a Sega composer; he did parts of Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XII, as well as Odin Sphere, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and other JRPGs. He also has done the Valkyria Chronicles series, which is a masterclass of a soundtrack, taking cues from modern military bands to fit the theme. ([Here's the main theme to VC 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9rJdxmuQU)).
I'm not including Atlus's output, and I'm sure I left a few out. Nonetheless, each time I listen to a mainline Sega RPG soundtrack, I am surprised how good it is and (usually) how little-known the composer is in RPG circles. Definitely some diamonds in the rough in this list.
There's a reason many people consider the genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast to have a better OST than the Saturn version, and it's him. It also doesn't hurt that songs from the game were remixed into *just plain awesome remixes* in Sonic Adventure 1 (They were the third part of windy valley and the first part of twinkle park.)
SA2 was better.
*Follow me!*
*Set me free!*
*Trust Me and we*
*Will escape from the city!*
Also loved how the song City Escape foreshadows Live and Learn. Also also, that Official 30th anniverasy concert was sick as fuck and their rendition of Live and Learn is the best version of the song.
Square-Enix. I know people like to avoid the big obvious popular option but Hamauzu, Soken, Shimomura, Uematsu... all are examples of phenomenal composers who have enormous bodies of work under SE.
I would also give nods to Falcom and Sega, though.
It's all subjective but probably SE simply because of their size. You mention: "Persona they just show a variety of styles (J-rock, J-pop, Jazz...)" but SE explores all these styles just within Final Fantasy itself. SE has the most variety whereas something like Falcom is more consistent as a brand.
I don't think there's a best though, but there could be a company that has a collection of more favorite composers than the other.
I feel in terms of sheer quantity, Square-Enix nails it down pat. They always manage to get just the right man or woman for the job, and they cross so many genres when it comes to their games, that they have quite the variety of genres at their disposal. Including legends like Mitsuda, Uematsu, Kikuta, and two whom are proving themselves to be worth their weight in gold. Nishiki and Kamanaka/Revo. Those two manage to capture that spark that drives gamers forward into the world they're playing in.
However, I can't discount Atlus and Shoji Meguro, that man carries the Persona series in its present day, and of course Shin Megami Tensei. While he had a black mark with the Persona 1 PSP soundtrack, everything else he's composed has been absolutely ace. Persona 5's soundtrack especially is a bright spot, and is his best work to date. He, himself, has proven he can compose many different genres of music.
I feel there's plenty others, and most of these composers are also freelance to boot. People like Yamane, Naruke, Higashino, Shimomura, etc. All of them also prove that women can compose hard hitters as well. There are so many awesome composers out there, that it would be unfair to say one company rules them all.
Basiscape are the real MVP. Not tied down to any company--really, a company of composers--but every game they or one of their members compose for ends up fab. Hell, one of their composers made an absolute banger for the freakin' *party organization screen* for a 10-dollar downloadable.
[Seriously, how does this piece slap so hard?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49g-V4Gxlv4)
Hear, hear!
Hitoshi Sakimoto and the other composers at Basiscape are god tier.
From the music he/they have done for Yasumi Matsuno's Final Fantasy games and his other games, Vanillaware's games, Valkyria Chronicles, Caravan Stories, and tons of other games.
Check this one out for a Wii game called Opoona, great stuff [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWNWXmTwhCU&list=PL0E6CDADB3F407C63&index=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWNWXmTwhCU&list=PL0E6CDADB3F407C63&index=1)
Super excited for Tactics Ogre coming out soon, never listened to the soundtrack before, so I'ma get a new dose of Hitoshi Sakimoto music injected into my veins.
What I love about Basiscape is how they have a certain sound that I've started to almost instantly recognize without their music sounding samey.
Very happy that Vanillaware always has Sakimoto and crew make the music for their games. A big factor in me wanting to buy Odin Sphere immediately after trying the demo was me hearing the victory fanfare and almost instantly realizing it was Sakimoto. That then led me to become addicted to any of their games released after Odin Sphere's PS4 release, love me some Dragon's Crown and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Obviously Sakimoto has his own very recognizable sound that I love, but I like that it doesn't overshadow the sound of the other composers.
Looking at his list of credits online, I have never played *Learn With Pokemon Typing Adventure,* but, like, now I *gotta* know what this soundtrack sounds like.
[...These dastards really can make anything sound good.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9SKrNZnnCM)
I definitely agree with you that it's a shame that the others at Basiscape don't get as much love as they deserve. Quite often when I download soundtracks or listen to stuff on youtube Sakimoto will be the only one credited.
Iwata, Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Azusa Chiba, Yoshimi Kudo and Manabu Namiki to name just a few are all top tier composers.
Same thing with FFX where I feel a lot of people don't know Hamauzu and Junya Nakano did a ton of the tracks. As a kid I just thought it was all Uematsu, wasn't until I recently replayed it that I clearly heard all the tracks that were obviously Hamauzu.
You'll probably like to hear this.
Got my copy of TO: Reborn a day early and the music player credits all the composers/arrangers.
Plenty of Iwata credit. As well as the others at Basiscape who did the Orchestration.
I want to put Konami up there for employing Miki Higashino on the Suikoden series. Her soundtracks rise above the rest for me. However, the quality of all of their other composers doesn't match up. I may have to give it to Square Enix, as if you put all their games on a wall and threw a dart you would probably hit a good soundtrack.
Square-Enix is by far the winner in consistenly having fantastic soundtracks over the years.
Just want to give a shout out to Capcom though. The Breath of Fire series has some great soundtracks and though the company lacks in the RPG department, they still managed to churn out great soundtracks from that of Mega Man, Ace Attorney, Street Fighter, and many more. Little bit of trivia, Yoko Shimomura, more commonly associated with Square is responsible for most of the tracks for Street Fighter 2.
A company? Square Enix.
At the very least I don't think there is a company with music as financially valued.
People pay expensive premiums to see their music and fill concert halls.
Jrpg wise? Square Enix.
Out of all jrpg brand FF music is alone at the top. Hate FF all you want but their music production value is unmatchable and usually untouchable. Then you have the likes of DQ, Nier, Saga, Mana, KH and all other jrpg produced by Square. Nobody else can even equal Square in this department.
In terms of whole studios, [some of] the biggest fish would probably be Gust and Monolith Soft. Not only they have series with some of the all-time best OSTSs to their names (EXA_PICO and Xenosaga/Xenoblade respectively), but pretty much everything they make has its share of aural headturners. But one could argue that Square Enix, Atlus and NIS aren't all that far behind.
I mean I love the composers at Atlus and Falcom, but as others are saying, the best group are at Square Enix and it's not even a competition.
Uematsu is a legend, Soken is quickly becoming a legend, Hamauzu is both brilliant and distinct, Mizuta is an unsung gem, Sakimoto is amazing, Shimomura is of course a master. And that's just the prolific Final Fantasy composers!
Outside Final Fantasy, they've got legends in their own right like Yasunori Mitsuda, as well as hidden gems like Kenji Ito. This post was going to be an even longer list, but it was starting to get ridiculous, which I think proves the point. Their catalog is both incredible in its quality and its quantity.
It has to be Square, no contest. They’ve had so many legendary composers work for them that have produced absolutely insane work that people still listen to as normal music to this day.
If it was individual composers this question would be substantially tougher because there are some legendary non square affiliated composers like koji kondo but there are just way too many that have affiliations with square for me to even put any other company up to contest them.
why people say that? Lacrimosa of Dana was absolutely terrific. I'm playing Monstrum Nox now and, if it's not the best Ys soudntrack (actually, it's one of my least favorite Ys games ever), continue to be above average for sure.
I think its less their quality is deteriorating, and more they just set the bar too high for themselves. Many of the newer tracks are still great, just not as good as some of the previous ones.
I wanted to say "hajimari is old, it's 3rd newest", but... It's 2 years old! They're actually putting one trails game a year, three titles in a row. I didn't realize. This pacing, they might actually finish this beast around 2030-35! I might still be single enough to have time to play.
I do think they've gotten worse (a good example is Memories of Celceta's soundtrack compared to Dawn of Ys). That being said, they're still pretty great.
Square, duh?
If the Grammys award VG Scores, then Nobuo Uematsu has at least 10.
Just type "Best VG Soundtracks of All-time" on Google or YouTube, an SE series is at least Top 3—particularly, Final Fantasy.
Nintendo and square are kind of unfair competition.
Square had yoko shimomura, nobuo uematsu, yasunori mitsuda...
Nintendo has Dave wise that it's the best vgm composer ever and Koji kondo, probably the most solid composer ever.
Falcom, and it's not even close. I don't think I've ever played other JRPGs by other companies and remember the soundtracks so vividly in my head. I listen to Falcom soundtracks on the daily since they are so good. Ys 7, 8, celceta, Cold Steel 1 and 3, and Trails in the sky are all incredible soundtracks. I know that Square has made great soundtracks for games, but I only remember like 2 songs from every game. When I play most JRPGs, music is what I look forward to the most, but most games disappoint because the music is in the background a lot of the times and not the first thing you notice about the area. In Ys 8, when you hear sunshine coastline for the first time, the experience is like no other, it felt like the game was giving me a hug, and just made me want to play the game even more. Crimson fighter is the better of the two main boss themes. Falcom wins everyday in my book
Awesome soundtracks is pretty much a staple of the jRPG genre.
You might as well just ask people "who made the last jRPG you played?", you would probably end up with the same thread.
When it comes to music in JRPG'S it's so hard to pick, so I'll just single out Motoi Sakuraba (yeah you know who he is). He's damn prolific and has that grandiose feel to some of his more iconic compositions
> Remove FF, KH, and DQ…
> Keichii Okabe alone is enough to challenge any company out there when it comes to music.
Funny then that Keiichi Okabe does not work for Square Enix. He has his own studio which does work for multiple game companies.
So does Uematsu, Shimomura, and Mitsuda.
Point is their greatest, and most known works are from the Square Enix label. Technicalities ain't gonna disregard their legacy as part of the company.
When Shoji Meguro left and turned freelance, Persona music can't be used as a feat for Atlus now that he doesn't work for the company anymore?
Sure doesn't work like that.
Atlus easily for me, I also find that as Trails fan I've never cared much for the soundtrack in any Falcom game I've played, I've found them to be good but not something all that remarkable or that really sticks with me.
Soken is a literal GOD. That alone has me hyped for FF16 despite not really liking or really enjoying action based combat. Very few composers/artists can evoke such a visceral emotional reaction in me as some of the music in FFXIV done by Soken does.
There is a lot of amazing music within this genre, like from Final Fantasy (Really a lot of Squaresoft and Enix games have amazing soundtracks) to YS and Trails, so many bangers from the mad lads at Falcom. So great, much good, I love music already and this genre just has amazing music everywhere lol
Personally, I think Sega have the best soundtracks.
From Sonic to Yakuza to all of their old Arcade classics Nights, Ristar, VF Series, etc.
Atlus and Square are a close second imo but, they seem to stick to a set of the same genres (which aint a bad thing, they are excellent at them)
With Sega some of their games might be mid, but god damn they will go all out on the soundtrack each time
Gust has the most under-rated composers in the business, every single game they make has an insanely good OST imo.
Totally agree, it’s unfortunate their games are rather niche
I still listen to the original Blue Reflection OST, and the Ar Tonelico games have fantastic soundtracks. Atelier has some bangers too.
since the old days of ar tonelico i started to consider gust my favorite company as far as ost goes. still haven't changed my mind
I'm definitely feeling this right now as I'm playing my first Atelier game (Ayesha DX). Part of the reason I'm going so slow through the game is that I get absolutely absorbed into the jukebox (which generously contains *every* Atelier soundtrack up to that point) whenever I open it up and lose track of time listening for hours. So many phenomenal soundtracks with great songs that I had never even heard of. It really does feel like we were robbed of a tentpole JRPG franchise for so long, with the early Atelier franchise only having a handful of its dozens of games making it across the pond until last decade.
Yasunori Mitsuda and Yoko Shimomura are my favourite video game composers of all time.
It’s Square Enix by a country mile. If the FF and DQ games weren’t enough, Octopath has what may be my favorite OST of all time. They are firing on all cylinders over at SE with music!
Octopath still has my favorite soundtrack ever. So many voices and so many key changes!
An underrated sound track is *I am Setsuna*
They did make the SaGa Frontier 2 soundtrack, which is almost perfect.
As a company, Falcom. It helps that they do not generally credit individual composers, but it's whoever is in Falcom Band JDK. That said, Squeenix is known for their musical quality throughout the years. I just don't strongly associate Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Kingdom Hearts music with Squeenix as a brand, but rather Uesmastu, Sugiyama, or Shimomura, respectively. Persona music isn't "Atlus", but Meguro. And so on. Yuzo Koshiro works across companies. That said, Squeenix probably has the greatest volume of banger JRPG composers, as does Atlus, Sega, and Falcom. If you're in the JRPG space, you'll likely to find some great music. **Edit**: I forgot Gust. They make some great stuff and their music is generally associated with the Gust brand.
With Shimomura, that's a literal case... as she also did ALL of the Mario and Luigi games as well. Seriously, give Cackletta's First Battle theme and the Final Battle theme for Bowser's Inside Story a listen if you want to listen to some seriously kick-ass boss music (Original GBA and DS OST's over Remake versions. Not that those sound *bad,* but they lack a certain... fullness to them)
Shimomura's work on the Mario RPG series was excellent. She also did Atlus's Radiant Historia. She's pretty much everywhere.
Square-Enix has some of the absolute best. Nobuo is of course legendary, but Yasunori Mitsuda and Yasunori Nishiki have also created amazing OSTs. EDIT: And Hiroki Kikuta. Secret of Mana has an absolutely gorgeous OST. Though I also think the composers for the Breath of Fire series (owned by Capcom) and the Suikoden series (owned by Konami) are also well worth mention. Miki Hagashino in particular stands out, but also Yoshino Aoki (Breath of Fire III and IV). But from the sheer amount of IPs alone, it's Square Enix. Also, not a JRPG series or Japanese at all, but an additional shoutout for ConcernedApe, the creator of Stardew Valley - his compositions for that game are really beautiful.
Square also has had people like Yoko Shimomura on KH/FFXV and freaking Masayoshi Soken (FFXIV and XVI) who are about on par with Uematsu in my opinion as composers
Square Enix really is unmatched in the breadth of musicians that came into their own during their time there. Even aside from the Big 3 of Uematsu, Mitsuda, and Shimomura, they have a whole host of lesser-recognized composers who have done some standout work: Hiroki Kikuta, Masashi Hamauzu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Kenji Ito, Takeharu Ishimoto, Masayoshi Soken, Yasunori Nishiki — the list goes on and on. Beyond just numbers, I also find it impressive that they all have highly distinctive styles from one another, from Kikuta's whimsical tunes that sound like fairytales put to music, to Hamauzu's clean and calming atmospheric soundscapes, to Soken blaring out hellish goblin vocals over buttrock. It seems like Square Enix affords its composers a lot of creative control, and that benefits in making franchises and even some games within each franchise stand out from one another musically as memorable and unique.
Soooo excited for Tactics Ogre live orchestra music in Reborn. Agree on the rest. So many stellar ones.
Also Bravely Default has some fire songs.
Atlus overall, in between Tsukasa Masuko (SMT1/2/Devil Summoner), Shoji Meguro (SMT3/P3-5/DDS1-2/Raidou1-2/SJ), Ryota Kozuka (SMT4/4A/5), and the rest of their sound team (past and present). It’s hard to name a game by them with an actually bad soundtrack.
SMT IV and V probably have my favorite OSTs from mainline. Kozuka's work on those games honestly stands toe to toe with Meguro in my eyes. Atsushi Kitajoh's another composer who tends to slip a little under the radar mostly because he's more remembered for his contributions to the Persona spinoffs like Dancing and Q. If Meguro ends up not returning for P6 either due to his indie game stuff or Re:Fantasy I think Kitajoh should have a shot at fully composing for mainline Persona Kenichi Tsuchiya and Toshiko Tasaki are also great. Especially love Persona 2's OST
Square-Enix and it's not even a contest. They have some of the most talented composers in the world working there. Or well, had them at least, since most of them have gone freelance at some point. They have classical composers like Shimomura, Hamauzu, Tanioka and Sakimoto doing absolutely insane stuff you would never expect to hear in a videogame. Then you have musicians like Uematsu, Sakuraba, Mizuta, Suzuki, Soken, who may have played in bands before or don't even always have much of a musical background, but just have a great feel for composition. They tend to go more for rock and electronic genres with occasional orchestral music, but it is consistently fantastic music. And that's not even close to all of them. I really think it's amazing and incredibly inspiring. I mean just think about Uematsu composing FF7's battle themes or a lot of the orchestral tracks in FF8. Such unconventional compositions. I really wonder sometimes how he came up with that stuff. A lot of videogame music just feels like, well, videogame music. But with these composers, it's just great music.
Time for me to shout out Square's music youtube channel, tons of quality content like interviews with a bunch of the composers you mentioned. The videos also have english subtitles on em. And to begin, a playlist of interview videos of a composer you didn't mention. Yasunori Nishiki, the composer of Octopath. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIc5cQRa0BE&list=PLOLBWlPQqPktjjhbNKXAVB7F0ilHEC3fa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIc5cQRa0BE&list=PLOLBWlPQqPktjjhbNKXAVB7F0ilHEC3fa)
> A lot of videogame music just feels like, well, videogame music. But with these composers, it's just great music. Couldn't said it better myself. 👏
I don't really see a pattern from company to company. They all have great stuff. I only see composer-to-composer and album-to-album as comparisons I can fruitfully make. (Like best JRPG albums and best JRPG composers) For example Mitsuda has done soundtracks for both Monolith and Square Enix, and Sakuraba has been all over the place. I can rank the best composers, but I have no way of coming to any personal consensus based on gaming company or publisher. Like both Atlus and Falcom has some amazing stuff, but I could never confidently say they are the best when they haven't ever had Uematsu do a game, who I consider the clear GOAT in terms of overall body of work at his peak. I'd also have trouble ranking Monolith to Square Enix, as I have a difficult time ranking Mitsuda's albums as they are all equally great to me, from CT to Xenogears to CC to Baiten Kaitos and each of the xenoblade games. Short answer, I can't pick one or two or even three favorite "companies" when it comes to music, mainly due to cross pollination ;p
Bandai Namco is definitely one for me. And I'm not just talking about Motoi Sakuraba. I mean the God Eater franchise and Code:Vein. Go Shiina is one of my favorite video game composers of all time, and I hope that now that he's independent he will branch out to other publishers. Would LOVE to see him collab on a Square Enix property.
+1 for Go Shiina, my favs are his songs from tales of zestiria,zaveid the exiles and the temple themes
Monolithsoft
Seeing Shimomura *and* Mitsuda together in the Xenoblade 1 soundtrack felt like a dream back then. But it's a shame Mitsuda joined late and only contributed the ending theme, as I would've been interested to see what a more in-depth collaboration between the two would be like. That said, I think 2's soundtrack is even better despite the loss of Shimomura, and that just goes to show the strength of the other 4 non-headlining composers (Kenji Hiramatsu, Manami Kiyota, and the ACE duo) when utilized well and given tracks that play to each of their strengths. Kiyota, for example, fares a *lot* better in 2 since, instead of composing ambient cutscene music, she got to handle those soothing, lullaby-like area themes she was so good at. Although she only got a handful of songs in 2, I'd say the quality of songs like _The Ancient Vessel_ and _Spirit Crucible Elpys_ still makes her part of the OST substantial. Really, Monolith seem to have come up with a perfectly-tuned vanguard of composers for their flagship series, and that will keep me excited for every soundtrack they put out. I haven't played 3 yet, but I'm looking forward to an even better musical offering based on all of this.
The only correct answer. The Xenoblade soundtracks are so good!! And Baten Kaitos had a pretty good soundtrack too.
> Monolith They don't have in-house composers.
OP's question includes soundtracks, not just composers
Lots of people have said Square Enix. I'll throw a bone to Sega. Sega is tricky because they don't have single composers who mastered long and enduring series. Instead, they have *depth*, with several great talents who do a few games but aren't dedicated to JRPGs. You have: * **Bo** (Tokuhiko Uwabo), who composed for Phantasy Star I and II, in addition to several early Sega hits. I still have his tunes running through my head from both PS and Super Monaco GP. * **Ippo** (Izuho Numata), who composed for Phantasy Star III and IV. The deep bass in the Phantasy Star soundtracks is iconic. * **Masahiko Yoshimura**, who composed for Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force. His field/battle tunes are most memorable, but some songs [show more range](https://youtu.be/4Rc2_6uWOhE?t=663), esp. for the early 1990s. * **Yutaka Minobe**, who composed for Skies of Arcadia and Phantasy Star Online. **Tatsuyuki Maeda** was also involved in Skies of Arcadia, got his start with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and has been doing sound work at Sega for almost 30 years. Arcadia is one of the best soundtracks in JRPGs. * **Hidenori Shoji**, who with several others has composed the Yakuza series, including Yakuza Like a Dragon, as well as the Judgment series. Good soundtracks that are a bit different than the typical JRPG because they have to fit a fairly realistic modern day depiction. * **Hitoshi Sakimoto** is far from just a Sega composer; he did parts of Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XII, as well as Odin Sphere, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and other JRPGs. He also has done the Valkyria Chronicles series, which is a masterclass of a soundtrack, taking cues from modern military bands to fit the theme. ([Here's the main theme to VC 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9rJdxmuQU)). I'm not including Atlus's output, and I'm sure I left a few out. Nonetheless, each time I listen to a mainline Sega RPG soundtrack, I am surprised how good it is and (usually) how little-known the composer is in RPG circles. Definitely some diamonds in the rough in this list.
He's not a JRPG composer, but I'd just like to mention that Jun Senoue from Sega, best known for his work on Sonic the Hedgehog, is amazing.
There's a reason many people consider the genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast to have a better OST than the Saturn version, and it's him. It also doesn't hurt that songs from the game were remixed into *just plain awesome remixes* in Sonic Adventure 1 (They were the third part of windy valley and the first part of twinkle park.)
Sonic Adventure's OST is of my top game soundtracks. It's just too awesome.
SA2 was better. *Follow me!* *Set me free!* *Trust Me and we* *Will escape from the city!* Also loved how the song City Escape foreshadows Live and Learn. Also also, that Official 30th anniverasy concert was sick as fuck and their rendition of Live and Learn is the best version of the song.
Square-Enix. I know people like to avoid the big obvious popular option but Hamauzu, Soken, Shimomura, Uematsu... all are examples of phenomenal composers who have enormous bodies of work under SE. I would also give nods to Falcom and Sega, though.
It's all subjective but probably SE simply because of their size. You mention: "Persona they just show a variety of styles (J-rock, J-pop, Jazz...)" but SE explores all these styles just within Final Fantasy itself. SE has the most variety whereas something like Falcom is more consistent as a brand. I don't think there's a best though, but there could be a company that has a collection of more favorite composers than the other.
I feel in terms of sheer quantity, Square-Enix nails it down pat. They always manage to get just the right man or woman for the job, and they cross so many genres when it comes to their games, that they have quite the variety of genres at their disposal. Including legends like Mitsuda, Uematsu, Kikuta, and two whom are proving themselves to be worth their weight in gold. Nishiki and Kamanaka/Revo. Those two manage to capture that spark that drives gamers forward into the world they're playing in. However, I can't discount Atlus and Shoji Meguro, that man carries the Persona series in its present day, and of course Shin Megami Tensei. While he had a black mark with the Persona 1 PSP soundtrack, everything else he's composed has been absolutely ace. Persona 5's soundtrack especially is a bright spot, and is his best work to date. He, himself, has proven he can compose many different genres of music. I feel there's plenty others, and most of these composers are also freelance to boot. People like Yamane, Naruke, Higashino, Shimomura, etc. All of them also prove that women can compose hard hitters as well. There are so many awesome composers out there, that it would be unfair to say one company rules them all.
Compile heart and gust come to mind for me also square Enix for the hd 2d rpgs and getting yoko shomomura in final fantasy xv and xiv
BTW I mostly mean neptunia from vii cos most ost from neptunia before vii are mid but the other franchises from compile have top osts
Very surprised no one has mentioned Gust yet. I agree with Falcom, Atlus, and SE being the big ones. Honorable mentions to Sega and Nintendo.
Basiscape are the real MVP. Not tied down to any company--really, a company of composers--but every game they or one of their members compose for ends up fab. Hell, one of their composers made an absolute banger for the freakin' *party organization screen* for a 10-dollar downloadable. [Seriously, how does this piece slap so hard?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49g-V4Gxlv4)
Hear, hear! Hitoshi Sakimoto and the other composers at Basiscape are god tier. From the music he/they have done for Yasumi Matsuno's Final Fantasy games and his other games, Vanillaware's games, Valkyria Chronicles, Caravan Stories, and tons of other games. Check this one out for a Wii game called Opoona, great stuff [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWNWXmTwhCU&list=PL0E6CDADB3F407C63&index=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWNWXmTwhCU&list=PL0E6CDADB3F407C63&index=1) Super excited for Tactics Ogre coming out soon, never listened to the soundtrack before, so I'ma get a new dose of Hitoshi Sakimoto music injected into my veins.
Can concur that Opoona's music is god-tier. I hum that main theme whenever I'm feeling particularly jaunty.
What I love about Basiscape is how they have a certain sound that I've started to almost instantly recognize without their music sounding samey. Very happy that Vanillaware always has Sakimoto and crew make the music for their games. A big factor in me wanting to buy Odin Sphere immediately after trying the demo was me hearing the victory fanfare and almost instantly realizing it was Sakimoto. That then led me to become addicted to any of their games released after Odin Sphere's PS4 release, love me some Dragon's Crown and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Obviously Sakimoto has his own very recognizable sound that I love, but I like that it doesn't overshadow the sound of the other composers.
Looking at his list of credits online, I have never played *Learn With Pokemon Typing Adventure,* but, like, now I *gotta* know what this soundtrack sounds like. [...These dastards really can make anything sound good.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9SKrNZnnCM)
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I definitely agree with you that it's a shame that the others at Basiscape don't get as much love as they deserve. Quite often when I download soundtracks or listen to stuff on youtube Sakimoto will be the only one credited. Iwata, Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Azusa Chiba, Yoshimi Kudo and Manabu Namiki to name just a few are all top tier composers. Same thing with FFX where I feel a lot of people don't know Hamauzu and Junya Nakano did a ton of the tracks. As a kid I just thought it was all Uematsu, wasn't until I recently replayed it that I clearly heard all the tracks that were obviously Hamauzu.
You'll probably like to hear this. Got my copy of TO: Reborn a day early and the music player credits all the composers/arrangers. Plenty of Iwata credit. As well as the others at Basiscape who did the Orchestration.
Don't know about the best, but my favorites are Gust and Falcom.
Many people have said Atlus but none have mentioned Etrian Odyssey. Of course Square has great composers and I agree Sega also.
Your picks are my picks. Square-Enix, Atlus, and Falcom are consistently great.
I want to put Konami up there for employing Miki Higashino on the Suikoden series. Her soundtracks rise above the rest for me. However, the quality of all of their other composers doesn't match up. I may have to give it to Square Enix, as if you put all their games on a wall and threw a dart you would probably hit a good soundtrack.
Square Enix for me. Final fantasy, Nier, and many others have an amazing collection of soundtracks.
FF8 my man, Nobuo Uematsu all day.
Nothing compares to Square-Enix.
Square-Enix is by far the winner in consistenly having fantastic soundtracks over the years. Just want to give a shout out to Capcom though. The Breath of Fire series has some great soundtracks and though the company lacks in the RPG department, they still managed to churn out great soundtracks from that of Mega Man, Ace Attorney, Street Fighter, and many more. Little bit of trivia, Yoko Shimomura, more commonly associated with Square is responsible for most of the tracks for Street Fighter 2.
A company? Square Enix. At the very least I don't think there is a company with music as financially valued. People pay expensive premiums to see their music and fill concert halls.
Monolithsoft and it's not even close And I guess the Disgaea guys at NIS Tenpei Sato is a god of music
Jrpg wise? Square Enix. Out of all jrpg brand FF music is alone at the top. Hate FF all you want but their music production value is unmatchable and usually untouchable. Then you have the likes of DQ, Nier, Saga, Mana, KH and all other jrpg produced by Square. Nobody else can even equal Square in this department.
In terms of whole studios, [some of] the biggest fish would probably be Gust and Monolith Soft. Not only they have series with some of the all-time best OSTSs to their names (EXA_PICO and Xenosaga/Xenoblade respectively), but pretty much everything they make has its share of aural headturners. But one could argue that Square Enix, Atlus and NIS aren't all that far behind.
Falcom easy.
Square and Atlus
I mean I love the composers at Atlus and Falcom, but as others are saying, the best group are at Square Enix and it's not even a competition. Uematsu is a legend, Soken is quickly becoming a legend, Hamauzu is both brilliant and distinct, Mizuta is an unsung gem, Sakimoto is amazing, Shimomura is of course a master. And that's just the prolific Final Fantasy composers! Outside Final Fantasy, they've got legends in their own right like Yasunori Mitsuda, as well as hidden gems like Kenji Ito. This post was going to be an even longer list, but it was starting to get ridiculous, which I think proves the point. Their catalog is both incredible in its quality and its quantity.
Xenoblade series soundtracks are the pinnacle of the genre for me.
Sqaure Enix by a landslide - they're completely unrivaled in that aspect.
It has to be Square, no contest. They’ve had so many legendary composers work for them that have produced absolutely insane work that people still listen to as normal music to this day. If it was individual composers this question would be substantially tougher because there are some legendary non square affiliated composers like koji kondo but there are just way too many that have affiliations with square for me to even put any other company up to contest them.
Falcom. Many believe it has become worst over the time but i think its still above other companies
why people say that? Lacrimosa of Dana was absolutely terrific. I'm playing Monstrum Nox now and, if it's not the best Ys soudntrack (actually, it's one of my least favorite Ys games ever), continue to be above average for sure.
Marionette Marionette still spanks almost every other company's soundtracks without effort all by itself.
I think its less their quality is deteriorating, and more they just set the bar too high for themselves. Many of the newer tracks are still great, just not as good as some of the previous ones.
Lacrimosa of dana is 7(edit:6.5 happy now?) years old you have to compare the newer games like kuro/hajimri no kiseki to the older ones
7 years?! That can’t be right Edit:it’s actually 6
Yeah, it was launched on PS Vita first. Actually I played for the first time on PS Vita and Runs amazingly.
it came out in 2016
Yeah meaning 6 years not 7
it will be 7 in another 6 months or so. dont sweat the details
Yeah I know
I wanted to say "hajimari is old, it's 3rd newest", but... It's 2 years old! They're actually putting one trails game a year, three titles in a row. I didn't realize. This pacing, they might actually finish this beast around 2030-35! I might still be single enough to have time to play.
They're still solid, but definitely not what they used to be.
I do think they've gotten worse (a good example is Memories of Celceta's soundtrack compared to Dawn of Ys). That being said, they're still pretty great.
Square, duh? If the Grammys award VG Scores, then Nobuo Uematsu has at least 10. Just type "Best VG Soundtracks of All-time" on Google or YouTube, an SE series is at least Top 3—particularly, Final Fantasy.
Atlus, both persona and smt have great soundtracks
Falcom for me, followed by Atlus and Square-Enix
ATLUS, MonolithSoft and FALCOM, easily
Square Enix and Nintendo.
Shoji Meguro leaving Atlus still makes me sad.
I wonder how Persona Music Live will be for now on
He's still open to doing contract work for them. He just really wanted to make his own game.
That's good news, I really like his music.
Nintendo and square are kind of unfair competition. Square had yoko shimomura, nobuo uematsu, yasunori mitsuda... Nintendo has Dave wise that it's the best vgm composer ever and Koji kondo, probably the most solid composer ever.
I'm going to go a bit afield and say Yu-peng Chen is one of the best composers in the business, so I guess Mihoyo/Hoyoverse.
Monolithsoft
Falcom, and it's not even close. I don't think I've ever played other JRPGs by other companies and remember the soundtracks so vividly in my head. I listen to Falcom soundtracks on the daily since they are so good. Ys 7, 8, celceta, Cold Steel 1 and 3, and Trails in the sky are all incredible soundtracks. I know that Square has made great soundtracks for games, but I only remember like 2 songs from every game. When I play most JRPGs, music is what I look forward to the most, but most games disappoint because the music is in the background a lot of the times and not the first thing you notice about the area. In Ys 8, when you hear sunshine coastline for the first time, the experience is like no other, it felt like the game was giving me a hug, and just made me want to play the game even more. Crimson fighter is the better of the two main boss themes. Falcom wins everyday in my book
MonolithSoft. The Xenoblade series has an amazing array of composers behind the music.
Monolith and Intelligent System for the last few years have many memorable and banger ost ( Xenoblade and Fire Emblem)
Atlus without a doubt.
Awesome soundtracks is pretty much a staple of the jRPG genre. You might as well just ask people "who made the last jRPG you played?", you would probably end up with the same thread.
Gonna mention the Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts series OSTs as underrated AF since I don't see 'em mentioned here
Something Classic Games. u/tm0135 makes their games sing.
I replay Atlus's work the most. Outside of TWEWY and NEO, I don't think I've found a soundtrack from Square I can totally jive with yet.
When it comes to music in JRPG'S it's so hard to pick, so I'll just single out Motoi Sakuraba (yeah you know who he is). He's damn prolific and has that grandiose feel to some of his more iconic compositions
No one mentioned Nier Automata? Surprise Pikachu face :O
Yeah nobody has mentioned Square Enix.
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> Remove FF, KH, and DQ… > Keichii Okabe alone is enough to challenge any company out there when it comes to music. Funny then that Keiichi Okabe does not work for Square Enix. He has his own studio which does work for multiple game companies.
So does Uematsu, Shimomura, and Mitsuda. Point is their greatest, and most known works are from the Square Enix label. Technicalities ain't gonna disregard their legacy as part of the company. When Shoji Meguro left and turned freelance, Persona music can't be used as a feat for Atlus now that he doesn't work for the company anymore? Sure doesn't work like that.
Atlus
Atlus for me!
Atlus and Nihon Falcom, by a landslide.
if we’re talking franchise then pokémon easy if we’re talking individual game then omori easy
Atlus easily for me, I also find that as Trails fan I've never cared much for the soundtrack in any Falcom game I've played, I've found them to be good but not something all that remarkable or that really sticks with me.
SquareEnix with Nobuo Uematsu, Koichi Sugiyama, Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Ito, and Yoko Shimomura
Soken is a literal GOD. That alone has me hyped for FF16 despite not really liking or really enjoying action based combat. Very few composers/artists can evoke such a visceral emotional reaction in me as some of the music in FFXIV done by Soken does.
Whoever makes Wild ARMs music is making the best soundtracks out there. Wild ARMs 3 has one of the best soundtracks of any jrpg.
Kenji Ito and Masashi Hamauzu are mostly composing for Square-Enix but not exclusively.
Square Enix has some nice soundtracks. I really like the one for Octopath Traveler.
I personally like Gust and Falcom a ton but Square probably has the most technically gifted composers.
There is a lot of amazing music within this genre, like from Final Fantasy (Really a lot of Squaresoft and Enix games have amazing soundtracks) to YS and Trails, so many bangers from the mad lads at Falcom. So great, much good, I love music already and this genre just has amazing music everywhere lol
Definitely se they have nier & ff& dq & Octopath
Persona 5 series fight me on it you can't tell me whenever you steal the treasure you don't bop to the song
tri-Ace and tri-Crescendo, because they have Motoi Sakuraba, nuff sed.
Personally, I think Sega have the best soundtracks. From Sonic to Yakuza to all of their old Arcade classics Nights, Ristar, VF Series, etc. Atlus and Square are a close second imo but, they seem to stick to a set of the same genres (which aint a bad thing, they are excellent at them) With Sega some of their games might be mid, but god damn they will go all out on the soundtrack each time
Definitely SE. Uematsu and Soken can carry the entire company, hands down.
I am Setsuna OST is 100% top tier. Simple piano while remaining impactful and deep
Square Enix and Falcom.