Due to his mother and fathers professions, Masashi Hamauzu was more than likely to grow up with music holding a special place in his heart. However, he didn’t go down the track of music composition until he started college.

He then returned to Japan with his family from Germany, and attended the University of Arts in Tokyo where he met with Shiro Hamaguchi in his 4th year of study. With him graduating from University he was looking for work, and in 1995 he was taken on by Square as a trainee. His first project was to see him compose alongside Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda and Junya Nakano on the game Front Mission: Gun Hazard.

With Square now seeing Masashi as a fully fledged composer they gave him a few solo projects to get his teeth into. SaGa Frontier 2 was one of these projects. He then joined up with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano once again to compose the Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack and like Nakano this was a big step for him.

With the Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack being a success, Masashi was given the task of composing the music for the new game in the SaGa series; Unlimited: SaGa. Although the game wasn’t widely acclaimed, the music was and it was a big hit for Masashi.

Still working for Square Enix, Masashi has recently finished the two projects he had on the go. The first to be completed was his Original Soundtrack for Musashi: Samurai Legend, which he composed alongside Junya Nakano. The second has just been released and is the Original Soundtrack to accompany the Final Fantasy VII spin-off; Dirge of Cerberus.

Masashi Hamauzu Albums on iTunes

Vital Information