Sakimoto working on FF XII: RW (DS), Shimomura working on Heroes of Mana (DS)

Just a heads-up on what two of the main Square Enix composers are working on now. The info originally came from Famitsu magazine.

Yoko Shimomura is working on Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana for DS. It's a real-time strategy RPG.

As for Hitoshi Sakimoto, it's just been revealed that he's working on the Final Fantasy XII side-story for DS, called FF XII: Revenant Wings. No surprise, considering he did FF XII's music. It's worth noting that Kenichirou Fukui (Einhander, Front Mission 5) is also composing for RW.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Just went out to drink with them last weekend ^^

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by -=SeRaPH=-

Just went out to drink with them last weekend ^^

Thanks that totally contributed to the thread.

I haven't heard of Heroes of Mana but it looks interesting. I really enjoyed Children of Mana (it's the only mana title I've played, so far) so I don't see how this will fail. It looks like everything is turn based too, which is great.

How ya doing, buddy?

I can possibly ask stuff... maybe =P

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I would've loved to see Hiroki Kikuta come back and compose music for the Seiken Densetsu games. His works on Seiken Densetsu 2 and Seiken Densetsu 3 are some of my favorite compositions out of all game music~
Oh well, though... Not sure what he's up to nowadays, anyway. Yoko Shimomura is also an excellent person for the job. I've heard a few of her compositions for another Mana game (thanks to the Best Song Contests here), though I'm not sure which one, but they were enjoyable.

As for Sakimoto, I have some lofty expectations for the Revenant Wings music. Seems like a lot of his compositions fit my tastes, and he's also very versatile. I'll be looking forward to how it turns out in comparison to FFXII's soundtrack; the new DS game looks to be much more cutesy and such compared to FFXII itself.

Nice news! Thanks for sharing, Drakken.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hitoshi Sakimoto will not be taking the lead role in Revenant Wings. That will be left to Kenichiro Fukui. Sakimoto will only be supervising and contributing a small number of pieces. I'm not sure what approach Fukui will be taking, but it could be orchestral (as in his Kiss Me Good-Bye arrangement) or electronic (as in Project Sylpheed, FM5, and Einhander). I think the latter may be more likely as it's more of an action game than an epic production.

Also worthy of note that Takeharu Ishimoto is doing It's a Wonderful World, the new RPG by the Kingdom Hearts team set in Japan. Rocker Ishimoto is a former synthesizer operator who has also composed for World Fantastista, Final Fantasy Agito XIII, and the Final Fantasy VII titles Crisis Core, Before Crisis, and the OVA Last Order. To hear a bit of his stuff, check out "Spiral" from the Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection.

It's possible that Shimomura will be returning to compose/arrange for Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories' PlayStation 2 remake. I'm not sure if the former will feature any new music and whether the latter will be more up to the synthesizer operator more than anything else (which is, thankfully, unlikely to be Ishimoto, given he has three composing projects on the go and has been officially 'upgraded').

Looking forward to Heroes of Mana. Legend of Mana is a classic score and hopefully this will be just as great.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?