Born on 20 jannuary 1972 in Tokuyama, Japan
Living currently in: Tokyo, Japon
Studies : he got his degree inthe Junior College of Music
Admission in Square : 1992 (left it in 1998)
Main works : Chrono (Trigger, Cross), Xenogears...
Favourite Drinks : wine
Favourite Dishes : italians and japanese
Musical Preferences: Celtic, Asian, Jazz, Classical music ...
Instruments played : Piano,guitar, bouzouki
Web site: Procyon StudioWhen he was young Yasunori wasn't interested in music and was more attracted to sports like sprint and swimming, he even wanted to become a professional golfer. During High School, Mitsuda started appreciating the music from film scores like the works of Henry Mancini and Bladerunner.
Once he finished high school, he moved to Tokyo and enrolled in many music courses, at lower level, since he couldn't register at more specialized schools. There he received solid instructions and had the opportunity to attend many musical manifestations with his professors.
During his second year in Junior College of Music, Yasunori attended classes as a trainee working in a Japanese game company with one of his professors. Yasunori Mitsuda read about an announcement of Squaresoft, offering jobs in its sound department. He hesitated before finally responding, and sending three music works on which he was supposed to be evaluated . Two weeks later, the company still didnt give any response, which forced him to call Square and see if he was accepted or not. The only answer he got was: "Acoording to Mr. Uematsu, it takes more than 3 tracks to judge your capacity, and he would like you to write and send more."
Once it was done, Yasunori was invited to attend an employment interview. The main jury was: Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa), Minoru Akao (sound programmer) and Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana)
Square : "Have you already played Final Fantasy ?"
Mitsuda : "No,Sir ."
Square : "never ? What games did you play then ?"
Mitsuda : "I already played one of your old games on PC."
Square : "Do you think you could work with us till your departure ?"
Mitsuda : "No, Sir.I think it's simply a step"
Square : "..."
Yasunori Mitsuda admitted himself that he regrets saying that during his interview. Despite the disasterous meeting he was still admitted to work in Square on April 1992...
Although he was taken as a composer, he was simply assigned to work on audio programming. He was working alongside with Koichi Sugiyama one of the greatest japanese musicians on Hanjuku Hero for SNES. The pressure was obviously very strong on young Yasunori. But after that, he soon realized he wanted to compose! And instead of complaining to Sir Uematsu, he went directly to see the manager of Square, Hironobu Sakaguchi threatening him of leaving the company if he doesn't compose. After several days, Sakaguchi assigned him as sole composer for Square's future big project Chrono Trigger.
This is how Mitsuda's career in composing game music started, and led him to become well known allover the world. His work with Square continued with Front Mission : Gun Hazard (assisted by Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano and Masashi Hamauzu) on SNES and Radical Dreamers on StellaView in 1996, Tobal No. 1 on 1997 (with Ryuji Sasai, Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano, Kenji Ito, Yôko Shimomura, Yasuhiro Kawakami and Noriko Matsueda) , which was followed by one of Yasunori's greatest works Xenogears in 1998.
On Jully 1998, Yasunori decided to quit Squaresoft and start working in freelance. Howeever, the company calls him back in 1999 to work one of the new episodes of Chrono, the Cross, in which he demonstrated once again his impressive talent and unique exotic style.
In 2002, he composed, with Hitoshi Sakimoto and Michiru Oshima, on the original soundtrack of Legaia Duel Saga, where he played a music style that was similar to Chrono Cross. During the same year, his most impressive work was created: it's the very controversed OST of Xenosaga Episode 1, where 11 tracks were performed by the very famous London's philharmonic Orchestra !
In September 2002, he worked on a Taiwanese PC game, untiteled The Seventh Seal. The music he scored was released on an album arrangement: Sailing to the World ! Afterwards on December 2002, he was producer of Breath of Fire V's OST, that was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto...
His most recent album "The Colours of Light" was released on August 2009, is a compilation album regrouping the best voice pieces he composed .
Yasunori Mitsuda was endowed with an incredible talent that made him one of the most famous game composers.
