Music / Yoko Shimomura

Yoko Shimomura (born October 19, 1967) has been composing in the video game music industry since the late 1980s. Early on, she was a recurring composer for Capcom (and was part of their in-house jazz band Alph Lyla), and then for Squaresoft, and later on as a freelance composer. She is probably best known for composing the music for the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as the music for the Super Mario Bros. RPG games, starting with Super Mario RPG (while at Squaresoft) and the entire Mario & Luigi series since.

Contrary to popular belief, Shimomura did not compose Mega Man 6. The soundtrack for that game was composed by Yuko Takehara instead.

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Video Game Music

• The 3rd Birthday (2010, along with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Mitsuto Suzuki)
• Adventures In The Magic Kingdom (1990)
• Adventure Quiz 2: Capcom World (1990, along with Manami Matsumae, G. Morita, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, H. Takaoka and Junko Tamiya)
• Black Knight and White Devil (2017, with Shota Kageyama)
• Block Block (1991, along with Masaki Izutani)
• Breath of Fire (1993, along with Minae Fujii, Yasuaki Fujita and Mari Yamaguchi)
• Buster Bros (1991, along with Tamayo Kawamoto)
• CHUNITHM (2015, along with various others. Only composed the track "Tango Rouge")
• Code Name: Viper (1990, along with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi)
• F1 Dream (1989)
• Final Fantasy XV (2016)
• Final Fight (1989, along with Yoshihiro Sakaguchi)
• Front Mission (1995, along with Noriko Matsueda)
• Gargoyle's Quest (1990)
  • Samples: OST.
• Hataraku Chocobo (2000)
• Heroes of Mana (2007)
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kingdom Hearts (2002)
  • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004)
  • Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (2009)
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010, along with Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito)
  • Kingdom Hearts coded (2009)
    • Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (2011)
  • Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (2012, along with Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito)
  • Kingdom Hearts III (2019, along with Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito)
• The King of Dragons (1991)
• Last Ranker (2010)
• Legend of Mana (1999): Her debut for the World of Mana series, which had previously been composed only by Kenji Ito and Hiroki Kikuta.
  • Samples: "Earth Painting", "Song of Mana" (sung by Annika Ljungberg in Gratuitous Swedish), "To the Sea", "The Wind Sings of a Journey".
• Little King's Story (2008, along with Yutaka Minobe)
• Little Nemo: The Dream Master (1990)
  • Samples
• Live A Live (1994): Her first game for SquareSoft. Breath of Fire before was published in North America by Square Soft, but she composed that for Capcom who developed it. She returned to rearrange the soundtrack for the HD-2D remake.
• Luminous Arc 2 (2008, along with Yoshino Aoki, Akari Kaida and Shunsuke Tsuchiya)
• Mahjong School: The Super O Version (1990, along with Masaki Izutani)
• Mario & Luigi:
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003): Her return to composing Mario RPG music.
    • Samples: Preparing for Travelling, Come On!, Come On, Again!, Hoohoo Village, Fawful, Cackletta, Oho Oasis.
  • Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (2005)
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (2009)
    • Samples: Fawful's Theme, Grasslands, All the Way, Okey Dokey!!, Short Break in Mushroom Town, The Wind is Blowing at Cavi Cape.
  • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (2013)
    • Samples: Your Dream Adventure!, Victory in the Dream World, Break at Pi'illo Castle, The Law of Pajamaja, The Final Antasma Battle, Sacred Somnom Woods.
  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (2016)
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (2022, along with Grant Kirkhope and Gareth Coker)
• Mizushima Shinji No Daikoushien (1990)
• Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner (2006, along with Shinji Hosoe, Kenji Ito, Masaharu Iwata, Tsukasa Masuko, Yasunori Mitsuda, Takahiro Ogata, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Ayako Saso, Yasuyuki Suzuki)
• Mushihime Sama (2004/2006; Double Arrange Album soundtrack, again along with Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso and even Kota Hoshino)
• Parasite Eve (1998)
• pop'n music Carnival (13) (2005, along with many others)
• pop'n music The Movie (17) (2009, along with many others)
• The Punisher (Capcom) (1993, along with Isao Abe, Toshio Kajino, Syun Nishigaki and Nobu. Oouchi)
• Radiant Historia (2010)
  • Samples: "Radiant Blue", "Mechanical Kingdom."
• Samurai Sword (1988)
• Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991): Credited as Pii♪. She composed the near-entirety of the soundtrack, the exceptions being Sagat's theme and the Round Start and New Challenger jingles, which were composed by Isao Abe
• Streets of Rage 4 (2020, along with Olivier Deriviere, Yuzo Koshiro, Motohiro Kawashima and various other guest composers. Only composed the track "Shiva.")
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996): She would later return to compose the music for the Mario & Luigi RPG series.
  • Samples: "Fight Against Monsters", "Going Shopping in Ripple Town", "Grandpa and the Delightful Tadpoles", "Still the Road is Full of Danger".
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, along with various others): Rearranged one track each from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Kirby's Dream Land and Tetris.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014, along with various others): Rearranged one track each from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Street Fighter II, Earthbound Beginnings and Pokémon Black and White.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018, along with various others): Rearranged one track each from Street Fighter II, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Fatal Fury 2, Banjo-Kazooie, Minecraft Legacy Console Edition, Final Fantasy VII and Tekken 7.
• Tobal No. 1 (1996, along with Masashi Hamauzu, Kenji Ito, Yasuhiro Kawakami, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda, Junya Nakano and Ryuji Sasai)
• Varth: Operation Thunderstorm (1992, along with Masaki Izutani and Toshio Kajino)
• Xenoblade Chronicles (2010, along with ACE+, Manami Kiyota and Yasunori Mitsuda): She wrote a tenth of the 91 track soundtrack, including the now classic Main Theme, which is considered one of the best works in her entire career. Yasunori Mitsuda returned only to compose the ending song, but Shimomura borrowed some of his signature style associated with past Xeno soundtracks. And, since Xenoblade is far more of a Planetary Romance than previous Xeno games, her compositions also bear Chrono Cross influence.
  • Samples: "Main Theme", "Prologue B", "Colony 9", "Hometown", "Time to Fight!" and "Unfinished Battle".

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