is a Japanese
video game composer,
arranger, and musician who has been employed at
Square Enix
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...
since 1995. As a composer, he is best known for scoring ''
Brave Fencer Musashi'' (1998), ''
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children'' (2005) and ''
The Last Remnant'' (2008). He also plays the guitar in the rock bands
The Black Mages and The Star Onions; both groups arrange and perform compositions from the ''
Final Fantasy
is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...
'' series.
Biography
Tsuyoshi Sekito was born in
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
, Japan. His career as a video game composer began at the end of the 1980s when he joined
Konami
, commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...
's sound team. The first game he scored was ''
Space Manbow'' in 1989. The following year, he created the music for ''
SD Snatcher'' and ''
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' along with several other composers. He was subsequently assigned to score the sports titles ''Double Dribble: 5-on-5'' (1991) and ''Soccer Superstars'' (1995) and the cartoon adaptations ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers'' (1991) and ''
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure'' (1993), often as the leading composer. In 1994, he created the soundtrack to the
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...
''
Lethal Enforcers II: Gunfighters'' with Yuichi Sakakura. He left Konami in 1995 to join the Osaka branch of
Square
In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
.
After joining Square, Sekito did not compose any games until 1998; his first assignment for the company was to create the music for ''
Brave Fencer Musashi''. In 1999, he assisted in scoring the soundtrack to ''
Chocobo's Dungeon 2'' by creating 12 pieces. His fellow composers were
Kumi Tanioka and
Kenji Ito. The following year, he composed music for the Japan-only ''
All Star Pro-Wrestling'' along with
Kenichiro Fukui and Tanioka. Sekito went solo for the game's sequel, ''
All Star Pro-Wrestling II'' (2001), and was joined by Fukui again for the third and final installment, ''
All Star Pro-Wrestling III'' (2003).
In 2002, after Sekito and Fukui's collaboration on ''All Star Pro-Wrestling'', they decided to
arrange some of the pieces in the ''
Final Fantasy
is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...
'' series, composed by
Nobuo Uematsu. The two presented their arrangements to Uematsu who enjoyed their work. Although hesitant at first, Uematsu agreed to join Sekito and Fukui in forming the rock band
The Black Mages; Sekito served as the group's guitarist. In 2003,
Keiji Kawamori, Arata Hanyuda, and Michio Okamiya also joined the band.
The Black Mages have released three studio albums, and have appeared at several concerts to promote their albums.
To create the music for ''
The Last Remnant'', Sekito utilized his guitar collection for different tracks and used different guitar sounds and techniques including detuning and delay effects on the album.
Sekito did not use an orchestra for the game's music, but chose particular instruments and players to make the music an assortment of the best for each part.
In ''
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance'', Sekito felt unrestricted while composing music for the
Nintendo 3DS, saying that he was able to create songs that would make a game player feel that were in a large world even on a small device due to the game console's 3D graphics.
For the game ''
Final Fantasy Explorers'', Sekito had to begin composing music with very few visual effects finished, and thus composed a wide variety of music to fit however it turned out.
Musical style and influences
Sekito cites
heavy metal bands
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...
and
Dream Theater and film score composer
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...
as musical influences.
Works
Video games
Films
Other works
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekito, Tsuyoshi
1963 births
Japanese composers
Japanese hard rock musicians
Japanese male composers
Japanese music arrangers
Japanese rock guitarists
Japanese video game composers
Konami people
Living people
Musicians from Osaka Prefecture
Progressive metal guitarists
Square Enix people