Motoi Sakuraba

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

Anime / television / film

Studio albums

References

Notes

References

1. (June 22, 2012). "From Dark Souls to Valkyrie Profile: The Motoi Sakuraba Mixtape".
2. "Composer Analysis: Motoi Sakuraba Composer Analysis: Motoi Sakuraba".
3. "Motoi Sakuraba Web Site 〜motion〜".
4. (January 20, 2013). "Motoi Sakuraba Profile". Video Game Music Online.
5. "Motoi sakuraba Web Site".
6. (December 15, 2011). "Motoi Sakuraba Interview: Diverse New Projects". Video Game Music Online.
7. "Sound Byte: Meet the Composer of Dark Souls".
8. "Musicians who worked on new arrangements for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U versions".
9. "Motoi Sakuraba Live Concert Star Ocean & Valkyrie Profile (Video 2003) - IMDb".
10. (August 2012). "Motoi Sakuraba Live 2006 -Valkyrie Profile-".
11. "Tales of Festivle 2015 Cast".
12. (December 20, 2016). "Dark Souls to Be Featured in Bandai Namco's Orchestral Concert in Europe".
13. Lada, Jenni. (June 15, 2020). "Hear Leon, Lloyd, Zelos, Luke, Yuri, Sorey, and Mikleo Sing the New Tales of Festival Song".
14. (October 18, 2016). "Star Ocean: Anamnesis has four-player multiplayer battles".
15. (June 13, 2018). "Compile Heart announces Varnir of the Dragon Star for PS4".
16. (December 6, 2018). "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Final Week Covers Yoshi, Bayonetta, And Roy".
17. link. (February 15, 2019)
18. Romano, Sal. (August 31, 2020). "Higurashi When They Cry Mei launches September 3 in Japan".
19. (December 18, 2020). "Crossover Between Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space and the Tales of Series Starts Today".
20. (April 22, 2021). "How Tales of Arise Reboots the Classic RPG Series".
21. Romano, Sal. (March 9, 2022). "Square Enix announces action RPG Valkyrie Elysium for PS5, PS4, and PC".
22. (October 27, 2021). "Star Ocean: The Divine Force is coming in 2022".
23. (March 28, 2022). "One Piece Odyssey JRPG Announced".
24. "Rearranged Star Ocean The Second Story R Soundtrack Includes New Songs".
25. (July 24, 2020). "Suikoden's creators are crowdfunding a spiritual successor".
26. Romano, Sal. (April 10, 2025). "SacriFire launches in Q1 2026 for PC, later in 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch".
27. Joshua, Orpheus. (September 19, 2025). "Fallen Fates Kickstarter Campaign Now Live — New Action RPG From Astral Ascent Devs Features Ben Starr & Motoi Sakuraba".