So, what's the general consensus on Takeharu Ishimoto?

This guy basically just came out of nowhere. Not just out of nowhere, but earlier than expected. I'm talking about that single Vagrant Story opening arrange from the soundtrack. I heard his music before he became known and before I even knew what his name was. Actually, obviously I knew, but I naturally quickly forgot his name because I didn't think it would be worth remembering.

He first engraved his name into the public seven years later with, of course, Subarashiki Kono Sekai (What a Wonderful World/The World Ends With You) in 2007. The music is modern and hip, and suitable for the game it is heard on. Most people had nothing particularly bad to say about his compositions.

Then in the same year and the next, and in quick succession, Square Enix gave him their main titles: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, FFVII: Before Crisis and Dissidia: FF. Feedback seemed to be quite mixed and in the case of Dissidia, perhaps even leaning towards negative. His music for these games is grungy and raw-sounding rock, which for the first two games, is decidedly appropriate. However, some people were not entirely impressed by his arranges of classic Final Fantasy tunes in Dissidia. For these particular works, some people might even go as far as to describe it as "shit".

Finally in 2011, we come to the still-yet-to-be-announced-in-Western-countries-even-though-it-has-been-more-than-6-months Final Fantasy Type-0. His rock flair is still here but he has also incorporated the use of orchestras. I would say his music has finally matured here.

I would say that his first stand-out track was in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. It was the first track to really grab my attention and made me loop it 50 times in order to analyse the song's intricacies. That track was "The Price of Freedom". I haven't played the game yet but when I listen to this song, I imagine someone being forced to fight his best friend, even though he doesn't want to. Just like Rockman, who doesn't really want to fight but feels it is his duty to do so. Some people might call this "emo" behaviour but eh. Emotional situations call for emotional songs.

The second stand-out track was in Final Fantasy Type-0 and usually goes by the name "We Have Arrived/Come". Like Final Fantasy VII and IX, this can be considered Type-0's main theme which carries over across the soundtrack. This track also happens to be what I think, is the best Square Enix orchestral song since FFVII's "One-Winged Angel", FFVIII's "Liberi Fatali", and FFXI's Opening Theme. I also haven't played the game yet nor watched anything related to it, but I do know that the theme of the game or one of the themes is war. Therefore, during the first minute or two. I can imagine an army marching towards battle. During the halfway point of the song, both sides does last minute preparations and after a tense stare, meets head-on. As we reach the climax of the song three quarters in, so does the battle itself. As one side gains momentum and is in the process of overcoming the enemy, the song also seems to take on a very slightly more positive and hopeful tone. In the dying seconds of the song, victory is achieved despite the losses for both sides (remembering that the song is hopeful, but not too hopeful), and finally the "Suzaku Flag" is planted. Actually, I'm going to check the FMV where the song is played now.

Anyway, my point is that Square Enix is doing themselves a great disservice (and Ishimoto) if they don't play this song in one of their future concerts.

So what do those two stand-out songs have in common? They seem to be background songs for a serious and emotional situation and they feel me with all sorts of feelings. And that is a direction I think Takeharu Ishimoto should continue to take. He should be composing music for epic-scale games with mature themes. Not the fake mature as in games like Call of Duty or some other random FPS where the war setting is just an excuse to shoot people in the head, but proper mature as in games like FF:Type-0 where the horrors of war are actually examined. Again, I haven't played the game so this is just mere conjecture and I might be completely wrong, but I'd be surprised if I was proven wrong regardless.

As for the Dissidia series, I wouldn't say that there is anything objectively bad about his arranges but when I think of really effective rock arranges, I think of S.S.H., I think of Daisuke Ishiwatari's heavy rock arrange of Contra's stage 1 theme (in Contra: Hard Corps), and I think of the 20th Anniversary Rockman Rock Arranges and the "We Are Rock-Men!" album. And probably others I'm forgetting. They're not just straight heavy rock adaptations,

Type-0 is his magnum opus so far but if tracks like "The Price of Freedom" and "We Have Arrived/Come" are of any indication, then he has potential for something even greater.

Have you seen Takeharu Ishimoto's Official Square Enix Page? Here's the link: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/ishimoto/.

I found the link while browsing Square Enix Music's website: http://soundtrack.jp.square-enix.com/.

You can see a picture of him holding a guitar. That explains his preference for rock music. His discography is impressive, too.

I haven't but always cool to see musicians in their natural habitat (him appearing in his videos).

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Ishimoto announced yesterday that he has left Square Enix: https://twitter.com/ishimoto_music/s...18610464571392

Next year he will start working as a freelancer.

I didn't know about this.

Thanks for sharing the link.

I've started to pick up on a few tracks from various major "Takeharu Ishimoto composed" games having artist credit that is a little misleading or incorrect. Crisis Core, as an example, seems fairly well-tagged. But FF Type-0, Dissidia, and the TWEWY games have needed extensive external research to discover that many of the tracks were actually arranged by Ishimoto's bandmates, his frequent arranging collaborators (Ken-P & Rieko Mikoshiba), or were bought from library music packs.

As an example, "The Earth Under Our Feet" (FFType-0) is an Uematsu composition and almost assuredly arranged by Ken-P. "Hustle and Bustle" (Neo:TWEWY) is 1-for-1 an exact copy of the demo track from Ueberschall's Synth Phunk construction kit pack. A shut-down game (that doesn't seem to be listed on VGMdb) with a track called "EXODUS" from Rampage Land Rankers was touted with "music by Ishimoto" during the marketing, but the structure of the track, the moving harmonies & changing grooves, and the solos make it clear to me that his bandmates from The BONEZ / Pay money To my Pain were likely primarily responsible for the composition and Ishimoto likely was responsible for producing and mixing the track. There are more examples, but I hope the point is clear.

This isn't a criticism of any of the amazing efforts of you cataloguing folks on VGMdb--but for any interested parties trying to identify if some track in some game was actually arranged by Ishimoto...just be aware that his bigger projects (more often than not) seem to involve many other orchestrators and assistant arrangers who are sometimes uncredited, even currently, on VGMdb. I realize the purpose of the site is more for logging what's reported on official websites and album cases, but true accuracy with Ishimoto's contributions to a soundtrack is, unfortunately, a little more difficult.

These games with initial notes that read "Music Composed, Arranged & Produced by Takeharu Ishimoto except [xyz]" make me feel crazy because the exceptions seem to outnumber his actual arrangements & contributions! I can't tell you how often I see folks praising Ishimoto for Dissidia's orchestral "God on Fire" or "The Beginning of the End" from Type-0 using VGMdb as a source when he did very little, if anything, for these celebrated tracks. I don't own many of these soundtracks, nor have the ability to find reputable sources for the true credits for the arrangers and performers myself, or I'd otherwise fix the issues. That...and Ishimoto games seem slightly more lax than others in crediting their actual performers and arrangers. This is just meant to be a general warning for folks who are cataloguing or researching Ishimoto game music.

I was aware that in NEO TWEWY the track "act the fool" was taken from a pre-paid pack/sample library from WildeWestMusic - "Everythings better", but I thought it was a one off thing. Any chance you could share or breakdown some of your efforts for those who'd like to read them?