Games With Unexpected Composers

Summary

• Composers play a crucial role in video games by enhancing powerful moments.
• These composers have diverse portfolios, working on unexpected games.
• Each composer mentioned has a unique style and works outside their popular titles.

Though it may not be the first thing many people think of when they play video games, composers are the blood that flows through the veins of a video game. Without music, there’s nothing to accentuate some of the most powerful moments of a game.

Music does lots of heavy lifting in a game, working hand-in-hand with everything else to complete a scene. These composers have done incredible work in some of their most beloved games, but demonstrated their immense range with their other works, too. So here are some games you would never believe were composed by the same people.

10

Michael Wandmacher

Bloodborne And Madagascar

Bloodborne was not the work of a single composer, but many. Each left their mark on various moments, from Yuka Kitamura’s Lady Maria theme, to Nobuyoshi Suzuki’s Ludwig theme. Michael Wandmacher was the hand behind multiple themes as well, such as that of Micolash, though his other works are just as frightening.

Despite having not worked on the original film at all, Wandmacher found his way into composing the soundtrack for the Madagascar game. The sequel, too. It is a far cry from where he ended up, though both center around beasts, so close enough.

9

Ramin Djawadi

System Shock 2 And The Diofield Chronicle

Ramin Djawadi is not as renowned for his video game work as he is for his film and TV efforts, though he is no slouch in any regard. Some of his earliest works in games was co-composing System Shock 2 alongside Josh Randall and Eric Brosius.

SInce then, he’s scored plenty of video games in between his work on movies and shows, though one of the most surviving entries of his would have to be Square Enix’s Diofield Chronicle. A mid-budget, under-marketed and almost entirely forgotten game remains one of Djawadi’s latest works in games outside of blockbusters.

8

Yoko Shimomura

Kingdom Hearts And Street Fighter 2

Yoko Shimomura is one of gaming’s most iconic composers, much of that coming down to her work on the Kingdom Hearts series. From Dearly Beloved to Nachtflügel, her variety within the games is diverse, though always with a piano at the forefront.

Of course, she didn’t find her beginning with Kingdom Hearts, or even Square Enix. Instead, Shimomura’s earliest days in music started with Capcom with Street Fighter 2 being one of the first works in which she was the primary composer.

7

Motoi Sakuraba

Dark Souls And Mario Golf

For many games, composers tend to become closely linked with the series they work on. Shimomura to Kingdom Hearts, Woody Jackson to Red Dead Redemption, and so on. They will have bits and pieces throughout, though they tend to become associated with their most popular works.

Not so for Motoi Sakuraba. He has worked on countless games, always as a freelancer. As such, each work he does remains incredibly distinct from the last. Case-in-point, he is the composer for the original Dark Souls trilogy, and also the entire Mario Golf series. And that is the tiniest taste of his discography.

6

Jesper Kyd

Assassin’s Creed And Hitman

Ubisoft has a massive diversity of games in its portfolio, and as such has an equally diverse range of music for each of them. Yet the games most applauded for their music is the Assassin’s CReed series. Until Assassin’s Creed 3, this was primarily the work of Jesper Kyd, most famed for the ‘Ezio’s Family’ theme.

Before that though, Kyd was one of the primary composers for the Hitman series. A very different style of music, by all accounts. Being Danish himself, IO Interactive seemed a natural fit for someone wanting to make a name for themselves in video game music.

5

Akira Yamaoka

Silent Hill And Lollipop Chainsaw

To those who haven’t touched the series, Silent Hill is dark and psychological, a dreary hellhole of nightmares made real. To fans of the series, plenty of that is also true, but you’d know it’s all backed by Akira Yamaoka’s alt rock rhythms too in a fashion that many out of the know would deem inappropriate.

With a musical style that already seemed out there for a horror game, it only makes sense he would shift gears, and becoming the sound director of Lollipop Chainsaw is a pretty dramatic change alright.

4

Daniel Licht

Dishonored And Silent Hill: Downpour

The Dishonored series is a triumph of the art form, with style, gameplay, and music all coming together as one in a beautiful mix. Its sounds are unsettling and whimsical in equal measure, pushing you forward into the depths of the Void while raising your apprehension at the same time?

And where might a style like that fit perfectly? Why in horror, of course! Replacing Akira Yamaoka for the first time since the series began, Daniel Licht became the primary composer of Silent Hill: Downpour, bringing many of the discordant tones of Dishonored to a much more small-town setting.

3

Keiichi Okabe

Nier And Tekken

In many ways, Keiichi Okabe and Yoko Taro seem inseparable. Any game that Yoko Taro creates, Okabe seems right behind him in composing. This is true for Nier, Drakengard and even his many mobile games, such as SinoAlice.

Believe it or not though, Okabe has a rather prolific career beyond the games of Yoko Taro. He was one of the primary composers of the Tekken series starting with some additional tracks in Tekken 2, becoming a major composer for the series up until Tekken 8.

2

Borislav Slavov

Baldur’s Gate 3 And Ryse: Son Of Rome

Sometimes, video game composers slip through the cracks in the grand scheme of things. We put a focus on voice actors, visuals, gameplay mechanics, all of which are equally worthy of praise, though rarely remember the names behind the music unless they’re already renowned. So in that regard, some praise should be lauded on Borislav Slavov as well.

While his work on Baldur’s Gate 3 will be iconic to many after the game’s phenomenal success, you may have already heard some of his music before. Having been previously closely associated with Crytek, he was also the composer on Crysis 2, Crysis 3, and the other game of Crytek’s that slipped through the cracks, Ryse: Son of Rome.

1

Garry Schyman

Bioshock And Forspoken

When it comes to games as adaptations of other works, they tend to be lesser than the works that inspired them, with rare exceptions. As an adaptation of Atlas Shrugged though, Bioshock far exceeds its own source material, with Gary Schyman producing a score to really capture the isolated, oppressive atmosphere of Rapture.

Gary Schyman is a prolific composer though and while Bioshock may be the highlight of his work in games, it is not his last. In that comes Forspoken, a game with some of the biggest names in media attached to it, Schyman among them as co-composer to Bear McCreary.