Before going off to study at the University of Kobe, Kumi Tanioka had already started learning about her future trade by taking lessons in both composition and piano playing. However, never did she think that she would end up working for Square, especially on the Final Fantasy games that she enjoyed playing.

In 1998 though, her wildest dreams came true and her application to work for Square was accepted. Her first job for Square was to work alongside Yasuhiro Kawakami, Tsuyoshi Sekito and Kenji Ito on the Chocobo Dungeons 2 Original Soundtrack and she was given the largest amount of work out of the 4. Chocobos were also the theme of her next compositional project as well, which would be a a dice based game on the Playstation.

Slightly getting away from Chocobos though, her next task would be a major one and this task was to work alongside Nobuo Uematsu and Naoshi Mizuta on the Original Soundtrack for eagerly anticipated Final Fantasy XI. Many people were very impressed with the work that Kumi did on the soundtrack, with Gustaberg being one of her principle creations. So Square Enix gave her a solo project to work on; Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

With the game being a spin-off from the main series, the music would be denoted as such as well. However, she certainly showed her composing range with the Original Soundtrack for this game and although some might view it as unorthodox, it was certainly impressive given the style of the game.

Kumi Tanioka Albums on iTunes

Vital Information