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  #1  
Old May 28, 2009, 04:06 AM
Cedille Cedille is offline
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A-am I only the one who hasn't ever heard of this before? She got pregnant and left Square at the end of 2002 because of it (but more surprising is despite such she has become a more active composer since then).

Last edited by Cedille; May 28, 2009 at 09:52 AM.
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  #2  
Old May 28, 2009, 05:40 AM
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I'm not sure culturally how Japan handles things like Maternity Leave for working mothers, but maybe there wasn't much of an option. Or like most new moms, they WANT to be there full time with their newborn, making quitting the job an obvious default decision.

It is a good thing she's been able to do freelancing and more music gigs afterwards though. It might have actually helped boost her career even.
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Old May 28, 2009, 09:08 AM
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Never heard about this either, most interesting! But it certainly seems like she made the best choice for her and her baby since she would have so much more freedom and flexibility working freelance, and after building a great name for herself during the 32-bit era it was also a realistic possibility =)
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  #4  
Old Dec 23, 2010, 10:29 PM
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I recall reading something about secret collaborations with capcom back in the day and how Yoko had a lot of uncredited work, there is one song in Cadillacs Kyouryuu-Shinseiki/Cadillacs and Dinosaurs that has a Yoko Shimomura feeling to it called Swamp Forest(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGZO3R3hS-E) Anyone think it might be possible she was responsible for this song?
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Old Dec 26, 2010, 07:19 PM
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It does sound like her. It reminds me a lot of Live A Live, specifically "Kiss of Jealousy" & "Wait for Truth".

Regarding her credit for Code Name: Viper, I always felt like her piece was "Area 3" (track 3 in the nsf). Doesn't *particularly* standout to me as a Shimomura track, but it seems like the odd one out. I'm fairly certain the rest was handled by Junko Tamiya and it doesn't sound like her style.
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  #6  
Old Nov 27, 2011, 06:28 AM
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I just changed her portrait to a IMHO better (and also newer) one. She looked like an old hag in the previous one...
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Old Nov 27, 2011, 10:51 AM
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let's hope she doesn't ever read that
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  #8  
Old Nov 27, 2011, 11:27 AM
LiquidAcid LiquidAcid is offline
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Haha, don't get me wrong. I think she's a very beautiful lady. Met here at the Symphonic Fantasies concert, so I can say that without any doubt.

I just feel that the previous picture was not the most flattering one. People just look so much better when they smile, especially her!!
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  #9  
Old Jun 13, 2013, 09:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarukameiKasumo View Post
I recall reading something about secret collaborations with capcom back in the day and how Yoko had a lot of uncredited work, there is one song in Cadillacs Kyouryuu-Shinseiki/Cadillacs and Dinosaurs that has a Yoko Shimomura feeling to it called Swamp Forest(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGZO3R3hS-E) Anyone think it might be possible she was responsible for this song?
huh, that does sound like her style...

Quote:
Originally Posted by strugglepoo View Post
It does sound like her. It reminds me a lot of Live A Live, specifically "Kiss of Jealousy" & "Wait for Truth".

Regarding her credit for Code Name: Viper, I always felt like her piece was "Area 3" (track 3 in the nsf). Doesn't *particularly* standout to me as a Shimomura track, but it seems like the odd one out. I'm fairly certain the rest was handled by Junko Tamiya and it doesn't sound like her style.
might be old news but Yoko did every song for that game except for Stage 1 (Tamiya)

Last edited by dissident93; Jun 13, 2013 at 09:29 PM.
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  #10  
Old Jun 14, 2013, 06:12 PM
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Really? That's crazy talk! Source? I swear, all of the tracks have vast similarities to Bionic Commando, Street Fighter 2010 & Little Nemo tracks.
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  #11  
Old Jun 14, 2013, 06:21 PM
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"Manami Matsumae, said that Junko only composed the first stage's music. Harumi Fujita verified Yoko Shimomura did the music for the rest of the game"

my friend contacted them both.
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  #12  
Old Jun 14, 2013, 07:15 PM
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Huh. Weird, since in her works list Shimomura used the same ※ sign on that game that she uses to mark games to which she only made a small contribution.
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Old Jun 15, 2013, 04:16 PM
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huh, did not know that. apparently she doesn't remember all of her earlier career contributions though. she contributed single songs to many games back in her capcom days, maybe she gets them mixed up or something. (Final Fight, Breath of Fire, Mega Man 5*, Mahjong School, Gargoyle's Quest, Adventure Quiz: Capcom World 2, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs*)

*maybe
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  #14  
Old Sep 17, 2013, 01:39 PM
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Been forever since i've been here. But some interesting things showing up as of late. I'm going to have to check this game's music out.

As for the other stuff, i didn't know she had anything to do with final fight, i thought it was comfirmed youki chan did all the music. As for C&D that swamp forest stage has an Isao Abe beat to it as well as his usual style of instrument blending, but melodically it sounds hardly anything like him and bears an uncanny resemblance to Yoko's work in Live A Live. It could just be a coincidence(on either person's side) or it's possible they had a collaboration going on here, as said before on her secret collaborations going on at capcom.
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  #15  
Old Sep 17, 2013, 01:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarukameiKasumo View Post
i didn't know she had anything to do with final fight, i thought it was comfirmed youki chan did all the music.
Yoshihiro Sakaguchi is the only person credited in the game, but Shimomura says she made a small contribution. I don't believe anyone has figured out what she did for it yet, but it's probably minimal. Maybe just a single song.

Also, Yasuaki Fujita made a secret contribution to Final Fight too. He blogged about it, and strugglepoo mailed him to confirm that he wrote the theme for the first half of arcade stage 4 ("BGM 9" on this album).
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  #16  
Old Sep 17, 2013, 05:18 PM
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Oh wow! Really? That's awesome. My guess as to what Yoko made was Stage 4-2, due to the SF2 Character Select-like bassline. Another guess is the Abagail/Boss theme, due to the complex SF2-esque bassline, which is a strength of yoko i seem to notice.

As for Yasuaki, wow! Well that does make sense here, it does have that Bun Bun sound about it considering it has that Mega Man 3 sound. I can also notice some of Solar Man.

Last edited by HarukameiKasumo; Sep 17, 2013 at 07:52 PM.
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  #17  
Old Feb 18, 2014, 09:24 AM
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As first mentioned in this thread: http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6746

I am still looking for the Yoko Shimomura-composed vocal single:「荊の道」
Short sample available here: http://rmix.net/music/03_music_01.html

This song may appear in a (rare) future album or may be available (or already is available) as an official free download or paid download. If you know where I can find the full song, please post in this thread or PM me. Even if you are reading this 5 or 10 years from now, let me know.

Back in 2011, the full song was available, for a short period, as a promotional free download or to be more precise, stream (and therefore download, same thing). If you somehow still have a copy of this, let me know.
Japanese Internet users commenting on the news of the promotional free download: http://ceron.jp/url/www.rmix.net/mus...3_music_s.html

The song appearing on an album is not an impossible event. There is a precedent: http://vgmdb.net/album/27643 M2.18 Yoko Shimomura [~R:MIX Stage from "MAOU TENSYOU": Main Theme / ~R:MIX舞台 「魔王転生 MAOUTENSYOU」より メインテーマ~]
This album contains a rare Shimomura song from the same relatively unknown Japanese-exclusive source (i.e. MAOUTENSYOU from the R:MIX organisation).

Bounty: I will pay you $5USD to your PayPal account if you can find this music file (proper full version, preferably the untouched original .swf) and send it to me, provided that at the time of the song-transferal, the song was not available on any album or any official paid download link. In general, this means the file is from your hard drive or someone else's. Furthermore, the $5 bounty also applies if you can lead me to, if for some reason I somehow missed/overlooked it, an official free download (has the author's i.e. Shimomura's, or those whom it may concern's permission), provided that this free download was available prior to the 19th of February, 2014. "Mere" information leading to the album (past or future), official paid download (past or future), or official free download (future) would of course be appreciated, I just can't pay ya.

Last edited by layzee; Feb 18, 2014 at 10:42 AM.
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  #18  
Old Jun 4, 2014, 12:54 PM
ntwrk506 ntwrk506 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CHz View Post
Huh. Weird, since in her works list Shimomura used the same ※ sign on that game that she uses to mark games to which she only made a small contribution.
Right, she seems to specifically indicate that she didn't do a lot on Code Name: Viper. And Tamiya says in that new interview that she thinks Fujita did the rest of the soundtrack. And yet, according to the person who asked Fujita about it, Shimomura did the bulk of the soundtrack. So, someone is not remembering this correctly. It seems conclusive that Tamiya only did the one track (the first level), because that's the one consistent bit of information between everyone. But as for the rest of the tracks, based on style, I would say it was Harumi Fujita, because it kind of sounds like Strider (NES) (which she did). Okay, here's what I think happened. Tamiya did one track, Shimomura did one or two tracks, and Fujita did the rest. Tamiya seems to think Fujita did most of the music, and Shimomura states that she didn't do much. Here's where the discrepancy comes in: I think the person who asked Fujita about it might have misinterpreted what she said or maybe Fujita misinterpreted what he/she asked. Fujita must have meant to say that Tamiya did the first level and that Shimomura did a little bit of contribution as well, but that the bulk was her own -or maybe didn't explain the last part and just implied that the rest was hers, assuming that the person asking already knew.

Last edited by ntwrk506; Jun 4, 2014 at 12:59 PM.
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  #19  
Old Jun 4, 2014, 03:17 PM
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Actually, listening to Code Name: Viper's soundtrack some more, it just doesn't make sense that Tamiya only did one track for the game. The ending music sounds just like the ending music to Little Nemo, especially the very end before it loops over. Area 7 and 8 sounds just like something out of Street Fighter 2010. The door bomb jingle sounds just like Gun.Smoke. There's just no way Tamiya didn't do those tracks. I think that she actually just might be remembering incorrectly about what she did. I wonder if in that interview they played each track for her or played her any of the music at all.

This reminds me of when Yasuaki Fujita said he did all the main map pieces to Breath of Fire, when it's so obviously Mari Yamaguchi's style. Again, in that case, I think Fujita is just remembering incorrectly. I mean, we're all probably a lot more connected to this music than the composers at this point in time. They made this music about 25 years ago and probably don't cherish it as much as we do. I also don't think they care as much as we do about who composed what, so, I sort of think our educated guesses are somewhat more accurate in certain cases...
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Old Jun 4, 2014, 03:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ntwrk506 View Post
This reminds me of when Yasuaki Fujita said he did all the main map pieces to Breath of Fire, when it's so obviously Mari Yamaguchi's style. Again, in that case, I think Fujita is just remembering incorrectly. I mean, we're all probably a lot more connected to this music than the composers at this point in time. They made this music about 25 years ago and probably don't cherish it as much as we do. I also don't think they care as much as we do about who composed what, so, I sort of think our educated guesses are somewhat more accurate in certain cases...
I believe Fujita. The first world map and other two are indeed different in style, and my breakdown (though it ultimately ended up being wrong) mostly lines up with Fujita having done the majority of the soundtrack. As I listened more and more, I became further convinced it was mostly a single composer doing most of the work; the problem is that I decided Yamaguchi to be that composer because her work elsewhere lined up.

As a composer, I wouldn't forget about something I wrote. Maybe if it was a close collaboration type situation (such as McCartney-Lennon), but in cases like these where composers really didn't edit each other's work, it's unlikely they would just forget.
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Old Jun 4, 2014, 04:04 PM
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I'm a composer as well, and there are definitely pieces I composed 20 years ago that one, I don't remember how to play or even hum, and two, if you played them for me, there is a small chance I might not recognize them. I mean, I'm pretty sure I would recognize if I composed something, but some of those pieces are just not very important to me anymore. So my point is, perhaps, some of these video game music composers didn't really care about the 45 second long works they created for platforms that wouldn't be as widely consumed (so they thought) as they might have been had they been featured in films and TV shows and pop music. They had no idea that some of us would care so much about this music 20-30 years later. Perhaps some of these composers were just churning out tracks, and while I think these tracks are genius, maybe they weren't that proud of them and didn't think too much about it after they were made. Especially since video game music was such a relatively early stage, and maybe not legitimately recognized as it is today (although Koichi Sugiyama's works and doings might be the counter argument to that point). So what I'm saying is, these composers just may not have been that invested in what they were doing back then, and so I think it's not out of the realm of possibility that they don't remember all the stuff they composed 25 years ago.
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Old Jun 4, 2014, 04:09 PM
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I was just thinking about it some more and I realized that there is actually a chorale I wrote in college, and if you played it for me, I would totally not recognize it.
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Old Jun 4, 2014, 04:27 PM
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It is definitely possible that Harumi's words were misinterpreted, or that she misremembered, but she seems to have very good memory when asked about old Capcom works. I believe Harumi did work on the game in some way (SFX, programming, etc), so maybe that's where the confusion began.

also I agree with what ntwrk506 said, but that pertains more to the American composers than the European and Japanese. The Euro scene had (and still has the Demo scene I think), and all the Amiga composers will gladly talk about and share their old works, while the Japanese have a lot of doujin chiptune artists, and many of the composers from the 80's and 90's still work in the industry to this day. none of them expected to be asked about their works 25 years later though, lol

But the American composers? they all mostly seem to be embarrassed by it and won't speak of it (save for Tommy Tallarico for some reason)
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 04:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ntwrk506 View Post
Actually, listening to Code Name: Viper's soundtrack some more, it just doesn't make sense that Tamiya only did one track for the game. The ending music sounds just like the ending music to Little Nemo, especially the very end before it loops over. Area 7 and 8 sounds just like something out of Street Fighter 2010. The door bomb jingle sounds just like Gun.Smoke. There's just no way Tamiya didn't do those tracks. I think that she actually just might be remembering incorrectly about what she did. I wonder if in that interview they played each track for her or played her any of the music at all.
Yeah, that's what I was saying earlier. Definitely agree about Area 7/8, Ending & Fanfare. No way those aren't Tamiya's.
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Old Sep 11, 2014, 06:50 PM
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Well, i just gave some more listen to the Final Fight soundtrack and i think i found 3 good candidates for her work. Abigail's Theme, Restroom Theme, and Intro Theme.

I am pretty certain Abigail's theme is her's due to its many similarities with the SF2 soundtrack, as i have stated previously.

And then there's the theme in the toilets, which shares some similarities to the character select theme from SF2, and one thing that leads me closer to the possibility that it might actually be her is by listening to the style of chords in the lead melody, it's not the usual follow up type of chords most composers use, it kind of does its own thing and matches up well but does go off. Still not enough as it is not a style totally limited to one person, but it does provide a heavier consideration for me. The only other composer i can think of that kind of uses this style is yuko, but she couldn't have been around at this point otherwise she would have credits from pre-1993, which is where it starts for her, and it isn't entirely the same as yoko's. But anyway, the points which still leave questions for me is the beat style is very simplistic and unlike her, unless it's a dance style track, which this obviously isn't. Same applies to the bass, which is usually very busy in her songs. But this is all speculation, again, not saying they never go there, just they often don't so i can only say what is apparent to me.

The intro is a new one. I started listening to it, breaking it down via nebula jukebox, and i realized it had a lot of SF2-like elements. The backing brass is very much yoko style, and then i started listening to SF2 music and realized it shared several melodic and beat similarities. It also kind of has that live a live sound that made me wonder if she had a minimal part in C&D.

Again, all just speculation, but if this is true, then she had 3 contributions to the game. One i am sure of, but still consider the possible no, one i question, and one i now consider.
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  #26  
Old Sep 12, 2014, 01:21 AM
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She definitely did Abigail's Theme, but the other two IDK. The intro song reminds me more of Street Fighter 1 than 2, but the lead melody does remind me some of her work in Nemo.

Last edited by dissident93; Sep 12, 2014 at 01:24 AM.
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  #27  
Old Sep 19, 2014, 09:00 AM
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Can anybody confirm if she worked on Chocobo Stallion for the PS1? She seems to be widely credited with the game's music, but her site doesn't list it and it doesn't seem a staff roll from the game has been uploaded anywhere. I think somebody misread Hataraku Chocobo or something.

Last edited by dissident93; Sep 19, 2014 at 09:02 AM.
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  #28  
Old Sep 19, 2014, 12:44 PM
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Chocobo Stallion doesn't seem to have a staff roll in the ending, and among the unreadable credits in the digital booklet there is nothing resembling Shimomura's kanji name.
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Old Sep 19, 2014, 04:00 PM
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The manual has credits, but they don't list any sound people. I asked the guy who scanned them, and he says that's everything that's in the booklet.
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Old Sep 20, 2014, 03:08 AM
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Eh, the digital manual in the video lists far more people than are on that mobygames page (the credits seem to only cover page 33, there are 24 more people on page 32).
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