Yoko Shimomura
下村 陽子
Shimomura at the 2024Game Developers Choice Awards
Born	(1967-10-19)October 19, 1967 (age 58) Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Alma mater	Osaka College of Music
Occupations	Composer pianist
Years active	1988–present
Employers	Capcom (1988–1993) Square (1993–2002)
Awards	BAFTA Fellowship (2025)
Musical career
Genres	Video game electronic symphonic
Instrument	Piano
Labels	Brave Wave Productions
Website	Midiplex.com
Musical artist

Yoko Shimomura (Japanese:下村 陽子,Hepburn:Shimomura Yōko; born October 19, 1967) is a Japanese composer andpianist primarily known for her work invideo games. She graduated from theOsaka College of Music in 1988 and began working in thevideo game industry by joiningCapcom the same year. Shimomura wrote music for several games there, includingFinal Fight,Street Fighter II, andThe King of Dragons.

Shimomura left Capcom and joinedSquare (nowSquare Enix) in 1993, with her first project there beingLive A Live. There she would compose the music for games such asSuper Mario RPG,Legend of Mana, andParasite Eve. Shimomura would later become better known for writing the music for theKingdom Hearts series. She left Square to become afreelancer in 2002, continuing to work with them on later games such asThe 3rd Birthday andFinal Fantasy XV.

Other well-known games Shimomura has worked on include theMario & Luigi series,Radiant Historia, andXenoblade Chronicles. Her works have been performed in multiple video game music concerts, with her music also published as arranged albums and piano scores. Shimomura is a member of the music labelBrave Wave Productions. She received theBAFTA Fellowship award in 2025.

Shimomura was born on October 19, 1967, inHyōgo Prefecture, Japan.^[1][2] She developed an interest for music at a young age, and started taking piano lessons "at the age of four or five".^[3] She began composing her own music by playing the piano randomly and pretending to compose, eventually coming up with her own pieces, the first of which she says she still remembers how to play.^[3] Shimomura attendedOsaka College of Music, and graduated as a piano major in 1988.

Upon graduation, Shimomura intended to become a piano instructor and was extended a job offer to become a piano teacher at a music store, but as she had been an avid gamer for many years she decided to send some samples of her work to various video game companies that were recruiting at the university.^[4]Capcom invited her in for an audition and interview, and she was offered a job there. Her family and instructors were dismayed with her change in focus, as video game music was not well respected, and "they had paid [her] tuition for an expensive music school and couldn't understand why [she] would accept such a job", but Shimomura accepted the job at Capcom anyway.^[3][4]

While working for Capcom, Shimomura contributed to the soundtracks of over 16 games, including the successfulStreet Fighter II, which she composed all but three pieces for.^[a] The first soundtrack she worked on at the company was forSamurai Sword in 1988.Final Fight, in 1989, was her first work to receive a separate soundtrack album release, on an album of music from several Capcom games.^[5] The first soundtrack album to exclusively feature her work came a year later for the soundtrack toStreet Fighter II.^[6] While she began her tenure at Capcom working on games forvideo game consoles, by 1990 she had moved to thearcade game division.^[1][4] She was a member of the company's in-house bandAlph Lyla, which played various Capcom game music, including pieces written by Shimomura. She performed live with the group on a few occasions, including playing piano during Alph Lyla's appearance at the 1992Game Music Festival.

In 1993, Shimomura left Capcom to join another game company,Square. She stated that the move was done because she was interested in writing "classical-style" music for fantasyrole-playing games. While working for Capcom, she was in the arcade department and was unable to transfer to the console department to work on their role-playing video game seriesBreath of Fire, although she did contribute one track to thefirst game in the series.^[4] Her first project at Square was the score for therole-playing video gameLive A Live in 1994. While she was working on the score toSuper Mario RPG the following year, she was asked to joinNoriko Matsueda on the music to the futuristic role-playing gameFront Mission. Although she was overworked doing both scores and it was not the genre that she was interested in, she found herself unable to refuse after her first attempt to do so unexpectedly happened in the presence of the president of Square, Tetsuo Mizuno.^[4] These games were followed byTobal No. 1, the last score she worked on with another composer for a decade.^[1]

Over the next few years, she composed the soundtrack to several games, includingParasite Eve andLegend of Mana. Of all her compositions, Shimomura considers the soundtrack toLegend of Mana the one that best expresses herself and the soundtrack remains Shimomura's personal favourite.^[7][3]Parasite Eve on thePlayStation had the first soundtrack by Shimomura that included a vocal song, as it was the first game she had written for running on a console system that had the sound capability for one.^[4] In 2002 she wrote the score forKingdom Hearts, which she has said is the most "special" soundtrack to her, as well as a turning point in her career; she named the soundtracks toStreet Fighter II andSuper Mario RPG as the other two significant points in her life as a composer.^[8]

Kingdom Hearts was wildly successful, shipping more than four million copies worldwide;^[9] Shimomura's music was frequently cited as one of the highlights of the game, and the title track has been ranked as the fourth-best role-playing game title track of all time.^[10][11] The soundtrack has led to two albums of piano arrangements.^[8]Kingdom Hearts was the last soundtrack that she worked on at Square. After the release ofKingdom Hearts in 2002, Shimomura left Square formaternity leave, and began work as a freelancer in 2003.^[12] She has built on the work she did while at Square; since leaving she has composed or is composing music for elevenKingdom Hearts games andNintendo'sMario & Luigi series. She has also worked on many other projects, such asHeroes of Mana and various arranged albums.^[1] In February 2014, Shimomura played piano at a retrospective 25th anniversary concert at Tokyo FM Hall.^[13] She performed songs from games such asKingdom Hearts,Live a Live, andStreet Fighter II. During theBeware the Forest's Mushrooms performance fromSuper Mario RPG, Shimomura was joined onstage by fellow composerYasunori Mitsuda, who played theIrish bouzouki.^[13] She most recently composed and produced the majority of the score forFinal Fantasy XV, which she began writing for in 2006, a decade before the game was released.^[14] She is also a member of the music labelBrave Wave Productions.^[15]

Shimomura has been cited as one of the most well-known video game music composers.^[7][8] Shimomura's best works compilation album, titledDrammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura, was released in March 2008. The album contains compositions fromKingdom Hearts and many other games she worked on in full orchestration, with Shimomura stating that she chose music that was popular among fans and well-suited for orchestration, but had never been performed by an orchestra before.^[71] In a 2008 interview withMusic4Games regarding the project, Shimomura commented that with the sheet music generated for the project, she would be interested in pursuing a live performance ofDrammatica for fans if the opportunity arose.^[71] In March 2009, that wish was realized when it was announced thatArnie Roth would conduct theRoyal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the concert Sinfonia Drammatica in theStockholm Concert Hall, which would combine music from the album with performances ofChris Hülsbeck's Symphonic Shades concert. The concert took place in August 2009.^[83] In March 2007, Shimomura released her first non-video game album,Murmur, an album of vocal songs sung byChata.^[8]

Shimomura's music forKingdom Hearts made up one fourth of the music of the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in September 2009, which were produced by the creators of theSymphonic Game Music Concert series and conducted byArnie Roth.^[84]Legend of Mana's title theme was also performed by the AustralianEminence Symphony Orchestra for its classical gaming music concertA Night in Fantasia 2007.^[85]

Music from the original soundtrack ofLegend of Mana was arranged for the piano and published by DOREMI Music Publishing. Two compilation books of music from the series have also been published asSeiken Densetsu Best Collection Piano Solo Sheet Music first and second editions, with the second including Shimomura's tracks fromLegend of Mana. All songs in each book have been rewritten by Asako Niwa as beginning to intermediate level piano solos, though they are meant to sound as much like the originals as possible.^[86] Additionally, piano sheet music fromKingdom Hearts andKingdom Hearts II has been published as music books by Yamaha Music Media.^[87]

Shimomura's first dedicated concert performance outside Japan was held at the Salle Cortot in Paris in November 2015.^[88] Later that same month, she performed at the El Plaza Condesa in Mexico City.^[89] In September 2016, some of her music forFinal Fantasy XV was performed by theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra atAbbey Road Studios inLondon, as well as inBoston, with Shimomura herself performing on piano.^[90][14] Shimomura composed for the concert workMerregnon: Land of Silence.^[91] Her work was performed by theRoyal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and filmed at theStockholm Concert Hall in 2021, with more performances in other locations starting in 2022.^[92][93]

Shimomura was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the2024 Game Developers Choice Awards and theBAFTA Fellowship award in 2025.^[94][95]

Shimomura listsLudwig van Beethoven,Frédéric Chopin, andMaurice Ravel as some of her influences on her personal website.^[1] She has also stated that she has enjoyed "lounge-style jazz" for a long time.^[4] Despite these influences and her classical training, the diverse musical styles that she has used throughout her career and sometimes in the same soundtrack include "rock,electronica,oriental,ambient,industrial, pop, symphonic, operatic,chiptune, and more".^[7][3] She draws inspiration for her songs from things in her life that move her emotionally, which she describes as "a beautiful picture, scenery, tasting something delicious, scents that bring back memories, happy and sad things... Anything that moves my emotion gives me inspiration".^[3] Shimomura has also stated that she comes up with most of her songs when she is doing something that is "not part of [her] daily routine, like traveling."^[3] Although her influences are mostly classical, she has said that in her opinion her "style has changed dramatically over the years, though the passion for music stays the same."^[4] Shimomura has said that she believes that an important part of "the creative process behind music" is to "convey a subtle message, something that comes from your imagination and sticks with the listener, without being overly specific about what it means", rather than only writing simple themes with obvious messages.^[4] She stated her favorite composition was "Dearly Beloved" fromKingdom Hearts.^[8]

Wikiquote has quotations related toYoko Shimomura.

• Official website(in Japanese)
• Brave Wave profile
• Yoko Shimomura discography atDiscogs
• Yoko Shimomura atIMDb

• 1967 births
• 20th-century Japanese composers
• 20th-century Japanese women composers
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• BAFTA fellows
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• Japanese film score composers
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• Japanese women musicians
• Japanese women pianists
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• Musicians from Hyōgo Prefecture
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• Square Enix people

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