Yasunori Mitsuda

Yasunori Mitsuda (光田 康典, Mitsuda Yasunori, born January 21, 1972) is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer known for his work in video games and other media. He is best known for his compositions for the video games Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Mario Party, Chrono Cross, Xenosaga Episode I, Soma Bringer, Shadow Hearts, Inazuma Eleven, and Soul Sacrifice.

Mitsuda began composing video game music for his own games in high school, and after graduation attended Junior College of Music in Tokyo. As part of his college course, he was granted an intern position at Wolf Team, studying under composer and musician Motoi Sakuraba, and was subsequently given special thanks in the credits of one of their games, Span of Dream, in 1990. Upon graduation in 1992, he joined Square as a composer after seeing a magazine advertisement in an office he was visiting with his professor.

Despite his job title as a composer, Mitsuda worked as a sound effects designer for two years. In 1994, after threatening to quit to Square's vice president, Hironobu Sakaguchi, he was assigned to compose the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger. After the game's success and the music's acclaim, he went on to compose several other games for Square, including Xenogears. In 1998, Mitsuda left Square to work as a freelance composer, founding his own music production studio, Procyon Studio, in 2001 as well as his own record label, Sleigh Bells. The company has since expanded to six employees, and Mitsuda continues to compose for video games, as well as for anime series and his own independent albums.