Naoshi Mizuta

Naoshi Mizuta (水田 直志, Mizuta Naoshi, born January 24, 1972) is a Japanese video game composer and musician. He is best known for his work on Final Fantasy XI (with Nobuo Uematsu and Kumi Tanioka), but has also composed music for Mega Man & Bass, Street Fighter Alpha, and Parasite Eve II. He was formerly a composer for Capcom, but is currently a composer for Square Enix.

Biography

Born in Kōchi, Japan in 1972, Mizuta's interest in music began to grow when he "was in the second or third grade".^[1] One of his biggest musical influences was Ryuichi Sakamoto. Although still interested in music, Mizuta studied law and economics at Chiba University. He composed his first song while in his last year there, and after graduating went to work for Capcom in 1995 as a composer.^[1] He began his career scoring the Street Fighter series where he was involved in scoring Street Fighter Alpha in 1996 with Isao Abe, Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, and Yuko Kadota.

In 1998, while still working for Capcom, Mizuta applied to Square as a composer in response to an advertisement and was hired. His first assignment for Square was to score Parasite Eve II, for which he was the sole composer and spent a year and a half working on.^[1] The original Parasite Eve game was scored by Yoko Shimomura, and Mizuta incorporated some of the original game's tracks into the sequel. Mizuta's next role was as the main composer for the Final Fantasy XI soundtrack, which he was assisted on by Nobuo Uematsu and Kumi Tanioka. Mizuta remained with the Final Fantasy XI project for the next few years, serving as the sole composer for the game's four expansions and multiple special events. During this period, Mizuta became involved in The Star Onions, a band composed of Square Enix composers for which he plays bass guitar. Other members of the band, which plays arrangements of songs from Final Fantasy XI, include Tanioka, Hidenori Iwasaki, and Tsuyoshi Sekito. The band has released two albums as of 2011, Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel and Sanctuary.

Mizuta has also worked on several other projects for Square Enix, including Blood of Bahamut and Guardian Cross. He has also worked on many other games in the Final Fantasy series since, including Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy XIV, Seekers of Adoulin, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Discography

Composer

• Street Fighter Alpha (1995) - with Isao Abe, Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, and Yuko Takehara
• Resident Evil 2 (1998) - 1 song ("The Underground Laboratory")
• Rockman & Forte (1998) - with Toshihiko Horiyama and Akari Kaida
• Parasite Eve II (1999)
• Final Fantasy XI (2002) - with Nobuo Uematsu and Kumi Tanioka
• Tetra Master (2002)
• Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart (2003)
• Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia (2004)
• Hanjuku Hero 4 ~The 7 Heroes~ (2005) - "Reckless Blood Manipulations" & "Hidden Research"
• Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan (2006)
• Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess (2007)
• The Shochu Bar (2007)
• Blood of Bahamut (2009)
• Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (2009)
• Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders (2009)
• Final Fantasy Legends: Hikari to Yami no Senshi (2010)
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011) - with Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki
• Final Fantasy XIV (2011) - additional music with Ryo Yamazaki and Tsuyoshi Sekito
• Guardian Cross (2012)
• Demons' Score (2012) - with various others
• Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin (2013)
• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2013) - with Masayoshi Soken, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Ryo Yamazaki
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (2013) - with Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki
• Deadman's Cross (2014)
• Glorious Blades (2014)

Arranger

• Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special (2004)

References

Official website (Japanese)