Topic: Favorite Video Game Composers Who Aren't Named Koji or Nobuo

There's a reason Koji and Nobuo are the two biggest names in the industry, but who do you think is the best besides these two? My favorite composer is...tough to decide, because I listen to a lot of video game music, but I really like Kumi Tanioka (FFXI, Crystal Chronicles, Chocobo's Dungeon) and Grant Kirkhope (Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, DK64)

Totaka Kazumi
If you don't know him, look him up, his involvement has lead to awesome things.

Yoko Shimomura, who else?
Also Yasunori Mitsuda, Yuzo Koshiro, Mari Yamaguchi (Super Ghouls'n Ghosts), Koichi Sugiyama, and those two composers for Terranigma. Oh, and Jun Ishikawa with Hirokazu Ando.

Jun Ishikawa, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Hirokazu Ando are all great choices. Of course there's always Dave Wise and Eveline Fischer, and Toru Minegishi

Of course, David Wise. Where would we be without his music in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy?

He composed that?! Then he's my favorite game composer who's not Koji or Nobuo. I've had the Jungle Theme from DKC 1 stuck in my head for weeks.

Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Koichi Sugiyama, Yoko Shimomura, Jeremy Soule, Jun Ishikawa, Yuzo Koshiro, Yasunori Shiono, Kenji Yamamoto, Kohei Tanaka...

Those are the several that jump immediately to mind.

I've never played Secret of Evermore yet, but I have listened to some of Jeremy Soule's music from it, and he is truly gifted.

EDIT: I also forgot Raphael Gesqua (of Mr. Nutz) as well as Noel Langley [trumpet], Terl Bryant [drums and percussion], and Stevie Levine [Stevie Levine] from Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. I really need to get to grips with an NTSC copy of the game.

Give me Motoi Sakuraba any day of the week. He's composed the music for two of my favorite RPG series ever, and I don't think either of them would be as memorable without, say, Saturos' Battle Theme or Fighting of the Spirit.

imho, he's the best at composing epic battle themes, and those are always the ones that get stuck in my head.

Motoi Sakuraba. He did Baten Kaitos, some of the Tales games, and Golden Sun

Yasunori Shiono, who did the Lufia soundtracks is one of my all-time favorites. And add Daniel Baranowsky to that. He's doing the Super Meat Boy soundtrack and what I heard was fantastic!

Michael Jackson! He composed for Moonwalker and technically Sonic 3 so he counts!

The Follin Brothers, who worked on Plok! (there might be something on Youtube) - I've hear they're quite prolific.

Also, the team who worked on the Parodius Series, which includes Kazuhiko Uehara, and Keroppi Inoue. Those games had big teams.

Someone's mentioned Hitoshi Sakimoto and David Wise, but there's also Graeme Norgate (Blast Corps) and Grant Kirkhope (Goldeneye along with Norgate)

@VGP
I've heard of Russell Shaw, but never heard any of his stuff. That's great, it sounds kind of like John Williams' "Schindler's Workforce" From Schindler's List

Masato Nakamura. He made the original Sonic soundtrack. What else do you need?

Hidenori Shoji did the music for the F-Zero GX