is a Japanese composer and keyboardist. Sakuraba is known for his numerous contributions in video games, including the Tales, Star Ocean, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Golden Sun, and Dark Souls series, as well as several other anime series, television dramas, and progressive rock albums.
Career Sakuraba was born on August 5, 1965, in Akita Prefecture, Japan. While attending Meiji University, Sakuraba began to take music composition seriously and formed the progressive rock band "Clashed Ice" in 1984, consisting of him on keyboards and Genta Kudo on drums and vocals. After the duo had graduated the following year, they were noticed by music producer Shingo Ueno, and ending up signing with Made in Japan Records. The band had then added bassist Tetsuya Nagatsuma, and was renamed as "Deja Vu". In 1988, the band would release their only studio album, Baroque in the Future, composed by Sakuraba. Although the band disbanded in 1989, Sakuraba would later go on to release another solo album, Gikyokuonsou, in 1991.
In late 1989, Sakuraba began working as a composer for Wolf Team, joining Masaaki Uno and Yasunori Shiono. The professional friendships formed here in Sakuraba's early years have resulted in a great demand for his composing and arranging abilities. In 1994, former Wolf Team director and composer Masaaki Uno started working at Camelot Software Planning as a coordinator and sound director, developing games for Sony, Sega and Nintendo. Sakuraba has been called upon as a composer for many Camelot games, including all of the games in the Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Golden Sun series.
In 1995, Wolf Team developed the breakthrough game Tales of Phantasia for Namco. This and other early games in the Tales series primarily featured Sakuraba and fellow Wolf Team co-worker Shinji Tamura as composers. Also in 1995, former Wolf Team director and producer Jun Asanuma, as well as Tales of Phantasia writer and programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda, founded tri-Ace with financial backing from Enix. The Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile games have been their main franchises. Sakuraba has been the composer for nearly all of their games.
In 1999, long time Sakuraba sound designer and programmer Hiroya Hatsushiba, a former member of Wolf Team and tri-Ace, founded tri-Crescendo. While initially continuing to contribute sound work to tri-Ace games, tri-Crescendo began game development in 2001. Together with Monolith Soft, tri-Crescendo started working on Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean; Namco provided the financial backing. Hatsushiba, as director and main programmer of the project, again called upon Sakuraba's composing services. This has extended to the sequel, Baten Kaitos Origins, and Eternal Sonata. The remnants of Wolf Team later morphed into the Namco Telenet joint subsidiary Namco Tales Studio in 2003.
In 2007, Sakuraba was selected to join a long list of video game composers to arrange music for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He chose to arrange the famous "Menu Theme" from the game's predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee. He also arranged "Gourmet Race" from Kirby Super Star, "Jungle Level Ver.2" from Donkey Kong Country, "Mario Tennis / Mario Golf" from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis, "Victory Road" from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the "Airship Theme" from Super Mario Bros. 3, the "Battlefield Theme", "Final Destination", and "Battle Scene / Final Boss (Golden Sun)" from Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
Sakuraba then continued to write music for games in franchises he has worked with before, including Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Mario Tennis Open, Mario Golf: World Tour, and many Tales series games, including Hearts, Graces, Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria, and Berseria. He has also contributed to other well known games such as the Dark Souls series, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Phantasy Star Nova. In 2014, he was selected to provide musical arrangements for Brawl's successor, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. For this title, Sakuraba arranged "Theme from Area 6 / Missile Slipstream" from Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Command, "Battle! (Team Flare)" from Pokémon X and Y, and "The valedictory elegy" from Baten Kaitos Origins.
In addition, Sakuraba has continued to write for non-gaming and anime projects, including solo albums such as "Forest of Glass", "What's Up?", and "Passage", as well as performing on several arrange albums. In the 2020s, he composed for games such as One Piece Odyssey and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.
Live performances During July 2003, Sakuraba held a live concert in Tokyo, Japan. He performed progressive rock interpretations of his music from games Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere and Valkyrie Profile. His bandmates for this concert were bassist Atsushi Hasegawa (a member of the band Gerard) and drummer Toshihiko Nakamura. As noted, this concert was released on DVD and CD. At the same time as they were rehearsing for the concert, Hasegawa and Nakamura assisted in recording new material for the Director's Cut of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
The following year, the trio performed another concert. The venue was smaller, but included music from Baten Kaitos and a couple of new, non-game-related pieces. This concert was not officially recorded and released, however. However, in 2006, a new concert was given in celebration of tri-Ace's Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria.
In September 2011, Sakuraba and his band joined up with the Earthbound Papas in Kawasaki, led by former Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu, to perform at Fantasy Rock Fest 2011. The event featured game music performances, along with new progressive rock pieces from both bands. The first six tracks that Sakuraba and his band played were sold at the event as a preview CD for his then-upcoming solo album After all..., which was released by Strange Days Records on October 19, 2011.
In June 2015, Sakuraba performed at the Tales of Festival at the Yokohama Arena, being the first time he performed tracks from the Tales series at a live event. A selection of Sakuraba's music from the Dark Souls and Tales series was performed live at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris in February 2017. The event, known as "Orchestral Memories", featured a guest appearance by Sakuraba. The 2020 Tales of Festival featured an original song by him called "Endless Journey", dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the series.
Works Note: this list is not comprehensive and consists mostly of notable works. Video games + List of video games scoredYearTitleRole(s) 1989 Arcus II: Silent Symphony Music with Masaaki Uno and Yasunori Shiono 1990 Granada Music with Masaaki Uno Zan: Yasha Enbukyoku Music Final Zone Music with Masaaki Uno Sol-Feace Music1991 Arcus Odyssey Music El Viento Music Earnest Evans Music 1992 Sol-Deace Music Earnest Evans Music; Sega Genesis version1993 Anett Futatabi Music 1994 Hiōden: Mamono-tachi tono Chikai Music with Hiroya Hatsushiba and Shinji Tamura Tenshi no Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori Music with Shinji Tamura1995 Beyond the Beyond Music Tales of Phantasia Music with Shinji Tamura and Ryota Furuya1996 Star Ocean Music Shining the Holy Ark Music1997Everybody's Golf Music Shining Force III Music Tales of Destiny Music with Shinji Tamura 1998Star Ocean: The Second Story Music 1999 Mario Golf Music Mario Golf GB Music Valkyrie Profile Music 2000 Mario Tennis Music Mario Tennis GB Music Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon Music with Shinji Tamura and Toshiki Aida Tales of Eternia Music with Shinji Tamura 2001 Mobile Golf Music Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Music Golden Sun Music2002 Golden Sun: The Lost Age Music Tales of Destiny 2 Music with Shinji Tamura 2003 Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Music Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour Music Tales of Symphonia Music with Shinji Tamura and Takeshi Arai Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean Music 2004 Tales of Tactics Music Mario Golf: Advance Tour Music Mario Power Tennis Music Tales of Rebirth Music with Shinji Tamura2005 Tales of Breaker Music Mario Tennis: Power Tour Music Tales of Commons Music Tales of the Abyss Music with Shinji Tamura 2006 Baten Kaitos Origins Music Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Music Tales of Eternia Online Music Tales of Wahrheit Music Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria Music Tales of the Tempest Music Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology Music with Takuya Yasuda and Go Shiina 2007 Eternal Sonata Music Drone Tactics Music We Love Golf! Music Star Ocean: First Departure Music 2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Arrangements Tales of the World: Material Dungeon Music The Idolmaster Live For You!"Contradiction" Star Ocean: Second Evolution Music Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Music with Shinji Tamura Tales of Vesperia Music with Shinji Tamura Infinite Undiscovery Music Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume Music Otomedius G Arranged two tracks Tales of Hearts Music with Shinji Tamura and Hiroshi Tamura 2009 Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 Music with several others Star Ocean: The Last Hope Music Half-Minute Hero Music with several others Tales of VS.Music with several others Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Music Tales of Graces Music with Shinji Tamura 2010 Resonance of Fate Music with Kohei Tanaka Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X Music with Shinji Tamura Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Music Tales of Graces f Music with Shinji Tamura 2011 Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 Music with several others Otomedius ExcellentMusic with several others Half-Minute Hero: The Second ComingMusic with several others Tales of Xillia Music Dark Souls Music 2012 Beyond the Labyrinth Music Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave Music with Go Shiina Kid Icarus: Uprising Music with several others Mario Tennis Open Music Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Main theme Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss Music Bravely Default Keyboards Tales of Xillia 2 Music2013 Tales of Hearts R Music with Kazuhiro Nakamura Valhalla Knights 3 Music Tales of Symphonia Chronicles Music with Shinji Tamura and Takeshi Arai 2014 Dark Souls II Music with Yuka Kitamura Mario Golf: World Tour Music Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Arrangements Phantasy Star Nova Music 2015 Tales of Zestiria Music with Go Shiina Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Music with Yuka Kitamura Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash Music Exist Archive Music 2016 Dark Souls III Music with Yuka Kitamura, Tsukasa Saitoh, and Nobuyoshi Suzuki Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Music Valkyrie Anatomia Music Tales of Berseria Music Star Ocean: Anamnesis Music2017 Mario Sports Superstars Music2018 Mario Tennis Aces Music Dragon Star Varnir Main theme and battle music Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom Music with several others Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Arrangements2019 Fantasy Earth Zero Eight tracks 2020 Higurashi When They Cry Mei Battle music Another Eden Music with Shinji Tamura 2021 Mario Golf: Super Rush Music Tales of Arise Music2022 Valkyrie Elysium Music Star Ocean: The Divine Force Music 2023 One Piece Odyssey Music Star Ocean: The Second Story R Arrangements 2024 Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Music with Michiko Naruke 2025 Absolum "The Cosmic Beast" 2026 Mario Tennis Fever Music SacriFire Music with G4F Records TBA Fallen Fates Music
Anime / television / film + List of anime, television shows, and films scoredYearTitleRole(s) 2000 Gensomaden Saiyuki Music 2001 Star Ocean EX Music Saiyuki: Requiem Music 2002 Atashin'chi Music Weiß Kreuz Glühen Music 2003 Pluster World Music 2008 Tales of the Abyss Music 2014 Tales of Zestiria: Dawn of the Shepherd Music with Go Shiina 2016 Tales of Zestiria the X Music with Go Shiina
Studio albums + List of studio albumsYearAlbum 1991 Gikyokuonsou 2008 Forest of Glass 2011 After All... 2013 What's Up? Passage
References
Notes
External links
Scarlet Moon Records profile