Masanori Hikichi (#58)

[dissident93]

Masayuki Nagao told me something interesting...

That Hikichi and Miyoko Takaoka/Kobayashi DID apparently write music for Sonic 3. This explains why CUBE was credited. Would be nice to contact them and ask if they remember what they wrote..

[CHz]

Ah ha, so Miyoko Kobayashi's Japanese Wikipedia article claiming she wrote music for Sonic 3 was legit after all. I've suspected some cases of composers updating their own articles like that, so it seems that they're not as strict about that as they are on the English Wikipedia. Interesting that Masanori Hikichi wrote some tunes too.

Someone was talking last year about possibly contacting Kobayashi, but if he ever did, he never posted the results here.

[dissident93]

Yup. After realizing she worked with Hikichi alot around that time period, it kinda hit me in that he may have had something to do with Sonic 3 as well. I still wonder what OPUS did, however..

[KAI]

Quintet staff interview translation.

[_if]

Thanks for all that translating. Some nice nuggets of info there beyond Hikichi.

[datwerg]

Hello! I'm new here, please treat me well. 🙇‍♂️

Currently I am undergoing correspondence with Mr. Hikichi through Twitter DMs regarding his work on Sonic 3 (& Knuckles). I'm not quite done talking to him but so far he's told me that he was responsible for the Act 2 Boss theme and that he might've done Marble Garden (this may be incorrect) and Mushroom Hill.

I will update this thread again once I've spoken with him a bit more.

[fusoxide]

Great! I'm glad there's been more progress with researching the mess that is Sonic 3 & Knuckles' composer breakdown. By the way, could you perhaps share screenshots? It's always useful to have definitive proof of what someone said.

About Marble Garden: Takaoka has claimed to have composed that one, but tbh it's still up in the air to me, as she claimed working on music for bonus stages but then denied doing the ones that were actually used in-game. I tried @'ing her to double check MG but she didn't respond. I suppose it's not impossible that Hikichi could've written it, though.

I wonder if it could be worth contacting Kashima again - his confirmation of special stage was nearly 23 years ago and he mentioned working on other tracks too. Based on SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 10th Anniversary, he might have done Angel Island and Sky Sanctuary if we know that Sawada and Drossin didn't make those, but I'm not certain because you can't rule out that Sega simply didn't credit everyone.

[datwerg]

By the way, could you perhaps share screenshots? It's always useful to have definitive proof of what someone said.

Sure.


Edit: These titles come from Sazpaimon's music playlist for the Sonic 3 prototype (the compositions of which I firmly believe are entirely by the Japanese staff), which I linked to Mr. Hikichi in my initial message. I've already followed up his message telling him about the situation with Marble Garden and Takaoka. Mr. Hikichi and Takaoka seem to speak to each other on Twitter a lot.

[datwerg]

Well, after telling me that he didn't remember any other members from CUBE participating (on Sonic 3), I decided to thank him and break off communications for now. He seems like a busy guy so I didn't want to bother him too much.

In case anyone else braver than me wants to bug him (not that I necessarily encourage it), his DMs are open. (fwiw, I messaged him in Japanese and got a response.)

As for the situation with Marble Garden, I wonder if it's something like Takaoka composed it and Hikichi arranged it for MD, but I didn't get that far.

(I sure hope this forum isn't too strict about double posts.)

[fusoxide]

Originally Posted by datwerg

As for the situation with Marble Garden, I wonder if it's something like Takaoka composed it and Hikichi arranged it for MD, but I didn't get that far.

Hard to say. Not sure if CUBE simply sent off MIDIs to Sega and have them port them, or if they got to directly work with SMPS here. As for arrangement in terms of polishing up or even putting a new twist on it, that's also plausible I guess. It's also possible that both Hikichi and Takaoka composed potential tracks for Marble Garden, and that only Hikichi's track made the cut.

[Morris1110]

It seems, regardless of whether it was Takaoka or Hikichi, Marble Garden is at least definitely a CUBE composition. I'd say the same for Mushroom Hill, though we only have mentioned that song, as far as I know.

Regarding "Major Boss", or "Boss 2" based on Sonic Origins' museum track titles, Hikichi seems very confident about that song being his. Seems fair to say he did indeed write that one.

[fusoxide]

That would sound about right. It's possible that while he isn't sure if he composed it, he at least recognizes it, since Hikichi and Takaoka worked closely at CUBE.

As mentioned in the Sonic 3 product thread I created lately, what's interesting though is that Setsumaru also said that Sky Sanctuary was composed by someone outside of Sega. Which makes me think there are even more subcontractors involved we don't know about.