How skillful is Yasunori Mitsuda?

Originally Posted by eriol

Now I see Mitsuda in clearer view. Maybe it's wrong to compare him with classical trained composers such as Sugiyama, Hamauzu, and Shimomura. He's more savvy as synthesizer and composing simple music with ornament from the syntesizer itself. One of Hamauzu's weakness is his lack of making memorable tunes, he's a brilliant arranger, but not really impressive when making themes. But look at Mitsuda, his chrono trigger compositions have become legend now.

I'd probably put Shimomura more in the category you're describing Mitsuda as...Her music generally relies on strong themetic material as well (thinking Mario RPG, Street Fighter 2 and Legend of Mana here) and would probably be tricky to orchestrate convincingly, since it's generally pretty simple. Street Fighter 2 for example, lends itself far better to straight-up rock/synth arrangements that focus on enhancing the main melody. Likewise, I thought the Chrono Trigger: Brink of Time album thoroughly bombed because the solos and questionable sections littered throughout the album did everything in their power to undermine anything I liked about the originals, to the point where they seemed like more of an afterthought.

I generally agree on Hamauzu, althought it'd be quite hard to forget the Saga Frontier 2 main theme after listening through the soundtrack...

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

I bet Mitsuda could write a hell of a film score, if he wanted to.

One could argue he already did one, considering how many cut-scenes Xenosaga has.

Jam it back in, in the dark.