As part of his college course, he was granted an intern position at the game development studio Wolf Team, studying under composer and musician Motoi Sakuraba, whom Mitsuda would work with together on game projects decades later.
At the cost of being used for free physical labor, Mitsuda got a first-hand view of the Japanese music world and valuable training both in and out of the classroom. Despite the school's low prestige, Mitsuda received solid instruction from his professors, most of them practicing musicians who would take Mitsuda to gigs with them to help carry and set up equipment. With encouragement from his father and sister, he moved to Tokyo and enrolled in the Junior College of Music. Īfter high school, Mitsuda decided to leave town and become independent. He started to program computer games and compose music for them, as well as take more technically oriented classes. He became interested in PCs after his father bought him one, which was a rare item at the time. After watching Railman, he decided to become a music composer. While in high school, Mitsuda rediscovered music, inspired by Vangelis' Blade Runner and Henry Mancini's The Pink Panther film scores.
For a while, he wanted to become a professional golfer. He took piano lessons beginning at the age of five, but was more interested in sports at the time and did not take music seriously, quitting by the age of six. Mitsuda was born in Tokuyama, Japan, on January 21, 1972, and was raised in the Kumage District of Yamaguchi Prefecture. While Mitsuda continues to compose for video games, he began to write music for other media in the 2010s, including for anime series, films, television specials, and independent albums. Mitsuda left Square in 1998 to work as a freelance composer and founded his own music production studio and record company, respectively Procyon Studio and Sleigh Bells, in 2001. After the game's success, he went on to compose several others for Square, including Xenogears and Chrono Cross. In 1994, after threatening to quit to Square's vice president, Hironobu Sakaguchi, he was assigned to write the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger. Upon graduation in 1992, he joined Square after seeing a magazine advertisement in an office he was visiting with his professor.ĭespite his job title as a composer, Mitsuda worked as a sound effects designer for two years. While still a student, he was granted an intern position at the game development studio Wolf Team.
Mitsuda began composing music for his own games in high school, later attending a music college in Tokyo.
He is best known for his work in video games, primarily for the Chrono, Xeno, Shadow Hearts, and Inazuma Eleven franchises, among various others. Yasunori Mitsuda ( 光田 康典, Mitsuda Yasunori, born January 21, 1972) is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer.