Yuzo Koshiro

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Yuzo Koshiro (古代祐三, Koshiro Yūzō^?, [[1]]born December 12, 1967 in Hino, Tokyo) is a Japanese video game music composer considered to be one of the "faces of video game music". He got his start with Nihon Falcom, composing music for Ys I and II on the PC88, and Dragon Slayer. A little later he composed the music for popular Mega Drive titles like The Revenge of Shinobi (with his name appearing on the title screen), Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage) and The Story of Thor, along with Enix's hits ActRaiser and ActRaiser 2 on the Super Nintendo. His latest work includes music for the acclaimed games Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Besides writing music, he runs Ancient Corp., developer of the games Vatlva and Car Battler Joe.

Yuzo Koshiro is one of the pioneers in releasing his own game soundtracks. The live orchestral version of ActRaiser was one of the industry's first of its kind. A live performance of this music could be heard in 2004 at the second Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany and in 2005 at the first Chamber Music Game Concert in Leipzig, Germany. Yuzo Koshiro is participating on PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, a symphonic world-tour featuring video game music. He attended the concert on May 27 2006 in Chicago. On August 23 2006, his music from The Revenge of Shinobi was performed at the fourth Symphonic Game Concert in Leipzig, Germany, in an arrangement done by himself and will be performed again in two concerts in Stockholm, Sweden in 2007 as a part of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony. Recently it has been announced that Yuzo Koshiro will DJ selections of his most famous works including the Wangan Midnight- and Streets of Rage series in Singapore June 2007 at PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.

[edit] Game List

Xanadu Scenario II - PC-88 , PC-98
Ys - PC-88 , PC-98
Ys II - PC-88 , PC-98
Romancia - PC-88
Legacy of the Wizard / Dragon Slayer IV - Nintendo Entertainment System / Family Computer
Sorcerian - PC-88 , PC-98
Algarna - Sharp X1
Bosconian - Sharp X68000
The Scheme - PC-88
Misty Blue - PC-88
Crack Down - Arcade
The Stickman is Back - Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis (Unreleased)
The Revenge of Shinobi / The Super Shinobi - Mega Drive/Genesis
Thrice (Slice) - Sharp X68000
Streets of Rage / Bare Knuckle - Mega Drive/Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System
ActRaiser - Super Nintendo Entertainment System / Super Famicom
ActRaiser 2 - SNES/SFC
Super Adventure Island - SNES/SFC
Streets of Rage 2 / Bare Knuckle II - Mega Drive/Genesis
Slap Fight - Mega Drive (Japan only)
Miracle Casino Paradise - SFC (Japan only)
Shinobi / The GG Shinobi - Game Gear
Shinobi II: The Silent Fury / The GG Shinobi II - Game Gear
Batman Returns - Game Gear, Master System
Streets of Rage 3 / Bare Knuckle III - Mega Drive/Genesis, with Motohiro Kawashima
Beyond Oasis / The Story of Thor - Mega Drive/Genesis
Eye of the Beholder - Sega Mega CD / Sega CD
Zork I - Sega Saturn / PlayStation
The Legend of Oasis / The Story of Thor 2 - Sega Saturn
Vatlva - Sega Saturn
Culdcept - Sega Saturn
Shenmue - Sega Dreamcast
Wangan Midnight - Arcade, PlayStation 2
Car Battler Joe - Game Boy Advance
Island of Kaiju - Nintendo GameCube
Wangan Midnight: Maximum Tune - Arcade
Wangan Midnight: Maximum Tune 2 - Arcade
Namco X Capcom - PlayStation 2
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (USA) / Dancing Stage Max (PAL) / Dance Dance Revolution STR!KE (JPN) - PlayStation 2 (provided the song "You Gotta Move It" with vocals by Julie Rugaard)
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Nintendo DS (collaborated with Michiru Yamane)
Etrian Odyssey - Nintendo DS
Lost Regnum - PlayStation Portable

Other projects include Merregnon 2, Ten Plants, the Street Fighter II Tribute Album and music for FM Sound Module Maniax and Pink Sweets. A sample video of his works in Pink Sweets can be found [2]

[edit] Trivia

His sister Ayano Koshiro has designed characters and graphics for several games Yuzo has worked on, including the Streets of Rage (Bare Knuckle) series, Ys and ActRaiser.