Yoko Shimomura (下村 陽子, Shimomura Yōko, born October 19, 1967) is a Japanese composer and pianist primarily known for her work in video games such as the Kingdom Hearts series. She graduated from the Osaka College of Music in 1988 and began working in the video game industry by joining Capcom the same year. She wrote music for several games there, including Final Fight, Street Fighter II, and The King of Dragons.
Shimomura left Capcom and joined Square (now Square Enix) in 1993, with her first project there being Live A Live. She would later become better known for writing the music for Kingdom Hearts, which was her last game at Square before leaving to become a freelancer in 2002. She founded a music production company, Midiplex, the following year. Despite leaving Square Enix, she has continued to work with them in later Kingdom Hearts entries and other games such as The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy XV.
Other well-known games Shimomura has worked on include Super Mario RPG, the Mario & Luigi series, Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, Radiant Historia, and Xenoblade Chronicles. Her works have gained a great deal of popularity and have been performed in multiple video game music concerts. Music from several of her games have been published as arranged albums and piano scores. She is also a member of the music label Brave Wave Productions.
YokoShimomura (下村 陽子, ShimomuraYōko, born October 19, 1967) is a Japanese composer and pianist primarily known for her work in video games such as the...
The music of the Kingdom Hearts video game series was composed by YokoShimomura with orchestral music arranged by Kaoru Wada. The original soundtracks...
placing on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart. Drammatica: The Very Best of YokoShimomura reached position 179, as did SQ Chips. SQ Chips 2 reached position 102...
long-time series composer, YokoShimomura, and features additional contributions from Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito. Shimomura felt pressure over working...
acclaim to its vibrant and colorful hand-drawn graphics and soundtrack by YokoShimomura, but were critical of the lack of a clear main storyline, stating that...
were handled by different manga artists. The music was composed by YokoShimomura as her first large-scale project after joining Square. Reception of...
and Yoshihiko Maekawa, produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, and scored by YokoShimomura. Super Mario RPG's story focuses on Mario and his friends as they seek...
were to return to his world, his look would revert. Series composer YokoShimomura returns to score the game.[better source needed] Japanese: キングダム ハーツIV...
of in-game music was composed by YokoShimomura. This is ultimately the only game in the series on which Shimomura worked, as she left the company for...
live rendition for Pope Francis by a circus. Other musicians such as YokoShimomura and Jack Black have also performed their own interpretations. Various...
collaborators known for their work in video games, such as Nobuo Uematsu, YokoShimomura, Chris Hülsbeck, and Yuzo Koshiro. Merregnon: Heart of Ice, which features...
mainline entry in the Final Fantasy series, was composed primarily by YokoShimomura. Having previously worked on the Kingdom Hearts series, among various...
The story was written by Masato Kato, and the music was composed by YokoShimomura. The game was not a commercial success, selling around 180,000 copies...
the score for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, along with composers YokoShimomura and Grant Kirkhope. “The three talents were tactically deployed across...
Japanese fashion house Roen. The soundtrack was composed primarily by YokoShimomura, while both real-time and CGI cutscenes were directed by Takeshi Nozue...
editing the new opening movie for the game. As with coded and 358/2 Days, YokoShimomura, the series' main composer, composed the most prominent themes, while...
produced by A-1 Pictures. The music for both versions was composed by YokoShimomura, with theme songs performed by Haruka Shimotsuki. Reception and sales...
last time, Mitsuda did not compose for the game. Instead, composers YokoShimomura, Akari Kaida, Yoshino Aoki, and Shunsuke Tsuchiya wrote the soundtrack...
based on the novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena, was composed by YokoShimomura, and was one of her early popular successes. The music for its 1999...
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