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Yoko Shimomura was born in Hyogo prefecture, Japan. Her parents enrolled her in piano lessons when she was five years old. She took quickly to the instrument, and she often pretended to be composing her own music by playing the piano randomly.
After high school, she enrolled as a piano major in Osaka Music University . Upon graduation, Shimomura intended to become a piano instructor. She had been a video gamer for many years, though, so on a lark, she sent some samples of her work to various video game companies. Squaresoft 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 (video-game music was still not mainstream in Japan at the time), but Shimomura accepted the job at Square.
Shimomura's first project with Square was the score for the role-playing game (RPG) Live A Live in 1994. After this, she was paired with more experienced composers for a time. For example, she teamed with Noriko Matsueda on the strategy/RPG Front MissionFront Mission is a series of turn-based tactical strategy video games produced by Squaresoft, now Square Enix. The series was created by Toshiro Tsuchida. It began in 1995 with the release of the first game. Front Mission's main draw is the use of giant m in 19951995 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). It has a Golden number of 1, and was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995- 2005): http://www. org/culture/indigenous . Events January events Ja. In 1996, she along with Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu, composed Square's very last Nintendo-produced game until 2003, Super Mario RPG.
In 19981998 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Ocean''. Events January January 1998 A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting, she went solo once again for the soundtrack to the RPG Parasite EveParasite Eve is the name of a Japanese novel by Hideaki Sena, first published in Kadokawa Horror Bunko, which has been adapted into a 1997 film and a 1998 video game; to Westerners, the game, a survival horror role-playing game from Squaresoft, is probabl. One of her most major works was achieved in 1999For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album 1999 is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the UN. Events Kosovo War Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy Y2K prep with Legend of Mana, a follow up to the beloved Secret of Mana series. The score to Legend of Mana showed a high range of breadth and depth to her music, and though the game met with polarized sentiments, the music can be regarded as classic.
Shimomura’s most notable recent score is for Kingdom HeartsKingdom Hearts is a RPG that was released in fall of 2002, which is notable for being the result of a collaboration between the video game manufacturer and producer Squaresoft and The Walt Disney Company. Overview Kingdom Hearts begins on a lush tropical ( 20022002 is a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). 2002 was the first palindromic year since 1991 and the last until 2112. 2002 was also designated: International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains National Science Year in the United Kingdom), the joint Square/ Disney venture that features Disney characters in an action/RPG environment. Shimomura rejected the project initially, skeptical that such a combination could ever work. However, she eventually relented, and her work for the game (which became a best-seller) is often cited as her finest to date.
In a very suprising matter in 2003 to both Square, Nintendo, and fans (if not the game industry), she composed Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (a sequel to Super Mario RPG, and unoffically, Paper Mario) for Game Boy Advance. However she wasn't the only employee from Square Enix involved in the game.
She remains an avid gamer to this day, only now, she plays more often to get a feel for the games she is composing the soundtracks for than for her own pleasure.