Board 8 > Favorite VGM composer? (Day 1)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm not sure how motivated I will be to continue doing this every single day, but I'm accepting composer suggestions for future days if this gets enough votes! I tried to avoid my own biases initially, so none of my very top composers are in this poll. (but I am very fond of Hamauzu)

Like other topics going on, this is a battle royale kind of thing. (loser of the poll is out, to be potentially replaced by another composer; polls keep going until the last composer standing wins)

Akira Yamaoka

HIDE-AKl

I've always struggled with this because there are very few composers whose body of works are easily tracked through multiple different games that I want to play - many of my favorite composers may only have one or two major works and a lot of my favorite game soundtracks are composed by a committee. A lot of my favorite vgm are just random flashes of genius that someone had once

Out of these, Kondo

I had to look up who Iwadare was.

Not a horrible list of choices to pick from, but obviously there are far more than 10 good options, and probably at least 10 I'd pick before any of these candidates.

Poor Iwadare isn't even the most obscure composer on this list imo (who the heck is Yousuke Yasui?)

Yuzo Koshiro of course!

David Wise.

yasuiyasuiyasuiyasuiyasuiyasui

I tried coming up with ten of the most respected and well-known composers, but aside from my own personal biases... whoops, I totally forgot about David Wise! Then again, perhaps he's in the same situation as Mitsuda and Uematsu... it might be good to wait a while on him.

There's HIroki Kikuta, too, of course, but his popularity is pretty much entirely Secret of Mana (and its sequel), a very divisive soundtrack. Of course Kikuta will be one of the options at some point.

Wow, I didn't know there are long time VGMCers who didn't know who Iwadare was. I guess azuarc never played Ace Attorney 3/4/5/6!

I really don't associate Kanno with games. Great composer, but she's done way more anime than video games. Surely has to be Koji Kondo from this for me, most of these have a few bangers and great soundtracks in their repertoire but it's hard to compete with him.

Keiichi Okabe

HasteDeux posted...

but his popularity is pretty much entirely Secret of Mana (and its sequel), a very divisive soundtrack.

divisive among WHO? who the fuck do I have to fight around here

I love Secret of Mana's soundtrack to death, but a lot of people don't like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eu_zij3Rz8

HasteDeux posted...

I guess azuarc never played Ace Attorney 3/4/5/6!

I played 3. The rest aren't on Steam. But I have no clue who does any of the music for that series.

Paratroopa1 posted...

I've always struggled with this because there are very few composers whose body of works are easily tracked through multiple different games that I want to play - many of my favorite composers may only have one or two major works and a lot of my favorite game soundtracks are composed by a committee. A lot of my favorite vgm are just random flashes of genius that someone had once

Yeah, I would probably end up just saying the person who composed my favorite individual soundtrack if I had to name someone.

I would also consider:

Grant Kirkhope
Tim Follin
Hidehiro Funauchi

I'm not sure about calling them VGM specifically but I guess Akiko Shikata. There's also Taku Iwasaki who I definitely don't think should qualify as a vgm composer but has probably done enough to be in the same qualification category as Yoko Kanno (who I also don't think should qualify).

Some other popular options that are missing: ZUN, virt, Shoji Meguro, probably a lot more.

watson

honestly it's between Yuzo Koshiro/Ryuji Sasai/Akihiko Mori/Nobuo Uematsu

interesting poll selection, but I gotta go with Noriyuki Iwadare from that list
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBMYnjWBpIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRJVzEfNtVw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p29MCpipZTI
and an arrangement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwFgYVC4TWg

I suggest Jeremy Soule and Shoji Meguro.

Yuzo Koshiro seems like a notable omission here

Also Tim Follin

Motoi Sakuraba is a legend

I appreciate all the suggestions. The ones with multiple requests, so those ones will be put on the list first, I suppose.

Two logistical matters:
1) There will be only one loser today that gets dropped, but in future polls two losers will be dropped each day. (which means two new composers per day) This is to help maintain interest in the polls.
2) If Koji Kondo and Toby Fox continue to dominate today, they will be given byes and will replaced until its time to start putting in the heavy hitters.

Austin Wintory