Career
Sakuraba broke into the music scene as composer and keyboard player of the progressive rock band Deja Vu, which released an album, "Baroque in the Future", in 1988. The band later disbanded, and Sakuraba went on to release a solo progressive rock album, "Gikyoku Onsou", in 1990. During his work as video game composer he continued to produce heavily extended arrangements of his compositions.
Late 1989, Sakuraba began work as main composer for Wolf Team, a subsidiary of Telenet Japan. In 1994, former Wolf Team composer, director and composer Masaaki Uno, started working at Camelot Software Planning as coordinator and sound director, employing Sakuraba as composer for all Camelot games and developing games for Sony, Sega and Nintendo. In 1995, Wolf Team developed the break through game Tales of Phantasia for Namco, starting the third most successful video game series in Japan behind Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Wolf Team continued to develop games for Namco in the Tales series while keeping Sakuraba (and the other Wolf Team composer Shinji Tamura) as composer, until it morphed into the Namco Telenet joint subsidiary Namco Tales Studio in 2003. 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 of Enix, creating the Star Ocean series and, again, employing Sakuraba for all games. In 1999, long time Sakuraba sound designer and programmer Hiroya Hatsushiba, former member of Wolf Team and tri-Ace, founded tri-Crescendo while continuing to contribute sound work to tri-Ace games. In 2001, tri-Crescendo started working on Baten Kaitos together with Monolith and with financial backing of Namco, Hatsushiba as director and main programmer and Sakuraba, again, as composer. Sakuraba is regularly contracted for composing work in other media through his own TEAM Entertainment, a company founded in 1999 to promote and license the work of artists.
During July, 2003, Sakuraba held a live concert in Tokyo, Japan. He performed progressive rock interpretations of music from the PlayStation games Star Ocean: The Second Story and Valkyrie Profile.
Works
Albums
- @Midi's Summer (various)
- @Midi's Dance (various)
- @Midi's Battle (various)
- @Midi's Freedom (various)
- Vanny Knights Original Soundtrack
- Genso-maden Saiyuki Original Soundtrack Volume 1
- Genso-maden Saiyuki Original Soundtrack Volume 2
- Star Ocean EX Original Soundtrack Volume 1
- Star Ocean EX Original Soundtrack Volume 2
- Tales of Phantasia Original Soundtrack Complete Version
- Tales of Destiny Soundtrack
- Tales of Eternia Original Sountrack
- Tales of Eternia "The Animation" Original Sountrack
- Tales of Eternia Remaster Audio
- Tales of Symphonia Original Soundtrack
- Tales of Destiny II Original Sountrack
- King's Boards (various)
- Arcus II Silent Symphony
- Progressive Battle 1988 (Dčja Vu, live compilation)
- Baroque in the Future (Dčja Vu)
- Pazzo Fanfano di Musica (compilation)
- Sing!! Sega Game Music (compilation)
- FZ Series "AXIS"
- Maneuver Cepter "GRANADA"
- Zan Kagerou no Toki
- Gikyoku Onsou (solo work)
- Beyond the Beyond Original Game Soundtrack
- Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection
- Shining the Holy Ark Original Soundtrack
- Star Ocean: Second Story Arrange Album
- Force of Light
- Shining Force III Original Soundtrack
- Valkyrie Profile Arrange Album
- Valkyrie Profile Voice Mix Arrange
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children Game Music Arrange Tracks
- Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection
- Star Ocean Blue Sphere Arrange & Sound Trax
- Star Ocean The Second Story Arrange Album
- Star Ocean The Second Story Fantasy Megamix
- Star Ocean Till the End of Time Arrange Album
- Star Ocean Till the End of Time Voice Mix Arrange
- Melody of Legend: Chapter of Dream (compilation)
- Melody of Legend: Chapter of Love (compilation)
- Motoi Sakuraba Live Concert "Star Ocean & Valkyrie Profile" (CD&DVD)
Games
For Wolf Team (subsidiary of Telenet):
- Tales of Phantasia (published by Namco)
- Tales of Destiny (published by Namco)
- Tales of Eternia (published by Namco)
- Tales of Destiny 2 (published by Namco)
- Arcus Odyssey
- Arcus Spirits
- Arcus I-II-III
- Earnest Evans
- Annette Futabi
- El Viento
- Maneuver Cepter Granada
- Goh
- Zan II Spirits
- Zan III Spirits
- Zan: Yaksa Enbukyoku
- Zan Gear
- Fhey Area (Faeria)
- Sol-Feace (Sol-Deace)
- Devastator
- Final Zone Senki: AXIS
- Hiouden
- Cybernetic Empire
- many others
For Telenet:
- Ace o Nerae!
- Tenshi no Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori
- Parlor Series
For Namco Tales Studio (subsidiary of Namco and Telenet):
For Camelot Software Planning:
- Golden Sun ~Hirakereshi Fuin~ (published by Nintendo)
- Golden Sun ~Lost Ages~ (published by Nintendo)
- Shining the Holy Ark (published by Sega)
- Shining Force III: Scenario 1 (published by Sega)
- Shining Force III: Scenario 2 (published by Sega)
- Shining Force III: Scenario 3 (published by Sega)
- Beyond the Beyond (published by Sony)
- Minna no Golf (aka Hotshot Golf, Everybody's Golf) (published by Sony)
- Mario Golf N64/GB (published by Nintendo)
- Mario Tennis N64/GB (published by Nintendo)
- Mario Golf Toadstool Tour (published by Nintendo)
For tri-Ace:
- Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (published by Enix)
- Star Ocean (published by Enix)
- Star Ocean: The Second Story (published by Enix)
- Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (published by Enix)
- Valkyrie Profile (published by Enix)
For tri-Crescendo:
- Baten Kaitos (published by Namco)
Animes
- Genso Maden Saiyuki
- Star Ocean EX
- Atashinchi
- Weiß Kreuz Glühen
- Boukenyuki Plaster World
Television Dramas
- TV Asahi Weekend Drama Series
- Cyber Bi-Shoujo Teromea
- Vanny Knights
Movies
External Links
- Motoi Sakuraba Official English Website
- Motoi Sakuraba Official Website (Japanese)
