Yoko Shimomura
Yoko Shimomura (Japanese: 下村 陽子, Hepburn: Shimomura Yōko; born October 19, 1967) is a Japanese composer and pianist known for her work in video games. She graduated from the Osaka College of Music in 1988 and began working at the video game studio Capcom the same year. Shimomura wrote music for several games there, including Final Fight, Street Fighter II, and The King of Dragons. She left Capcom and joined Square (now Square Enix) in 1993, with her first project there being Live A Live. There she would compose the music for games such as Super Mario RPG, Legend of Mana, and Parasite Eve. Shimomura received the BAFTA Fellowship award in 2025.
Shimomura would later become better known for writing the music for the Kingdom Hearts series. She left Square to become a freelancer in 2002, continuing to work with them on later games such as The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy XV. Other well-known games she worked on include the Mario & Luigi series, Radiant Historia, and Xenoblade 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 label Brave Wave Productions.
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