Being a stalwart figure in the industry of video game music, it was only natural that Yôko Shimomura would have developed an interest in music from an early age. This was developed upon as she grew up, and eventually culminated in her attending the University of Osaka to study music. After graduating, she didn’t really know what to do apart from become a teacher, but she sent out a few demos of compositions to video game music companies on the off chance that something might come from it, and something did.

In 1988 Shimomura was hired by Capcom and she was given a compositional role almost straight away on the title Samurai Sword. A few other projects followed, including Final Fight and in 1991 she joined Capcom’s sound team Alph Lyra who were working on Street Fighter II at the time. The music from Street Fighter II is arguably some of the most well known among the video game music community and I’m sure Capcom hoped that she would continue to help produce music of a similar calibre for them. This wasn’t to be though, and after completing the music for The King of Dragons in 1994, she left Capcom and joined Square.

After joining Square, she was given the role of composer on numerous projects including Live a Live and Parasite Eve, but it wasn’t really until 2002 that she had a shot at composing the music for a mainstream Square game. Kingdom Hearts was this game, and many feel that she did a great job with the music for the game. However, in 2003 she left Square to become a freelance composer.

In her first year as a freelance artist, she did a lot of work on arranged albums, including a Street Fighter Tribute album, while composing some music for the new Kingdom Hearts game; Chains of Memories. Since then, she has composed the music for Kingdom Hearts II and is currently involved in the creation of the soundtrack for Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner.

Vital Information

Popular Sheet Music by Yoko Shimomura