

The composer wasn’t inspired by the differences between the scenarios and instead simply composed music he liked it was only after completing the score that he referenced the visuals and assigned pieces to the scenarios that fitted best. Having established himself at Falcom, he went on to create two thirds of the score for the scenario-based RPG Sorcerian, one of his defining older works. He underscored the opening movie for Romancia, channelling influences from the band The Alfee, before taking a large role on the Konami-influenced score for Legacy of the Wizard.

Koshiro went on to create the music for three subsequent titles in the Dragon Slayer line.

He initially produced four compositions for 1986’s Xanadu Scenario II (part of Dragon Slayer II) alongside Takahito Abe still a beginner, he composed blindly with the intention of creating PC game music with the same drive as the arcade game music he liked at the time.

During his two years of employment at Falcom, Koshiro co-composed, sound programmed, and designed sound effects for six hit games for early Japanese computers such as the PC-8801, MSX, and X1. On reading an advertisement in a games magazine, he learned that RPG developer Nihon Falcom were recruiting composers encouraged by his mother, he sent a demo tape featuring several diverse themes – which have since published on his Early Collection 2nd CD – and was subsequently hired as a composer. Having considered becoming a game programmer and composer for several years, he received his opportunity to enter the industry at the age of 18. The composer submitted his pieces to the Microcomputer Basic Magazine under the pseudonym YK-2 and proved so popular with readers that he was described as a ’PSG God’. While this process was compositionally demanding, he also required extensive programming knowledge to compose with PSG and, later, FM synth – this turned out to be the most difficult part of the process. Koshiro soon created original PSG-generated music himself. Such experiences inspired him to record pieces directly from arcade machine speakers and reproduce them using his personal computer. Feeling endeared by their strong melodies and distinctive sound chips, these games developed Koshiro’s passion for game music. During his adolescence, he sometimes missed classes to play games such as Gradius, Space Harrier, and Tower of Druaga from the mid ’80s at arcades. Otherwise entirely self-taught, Koshiro’s use and appreciation of genres such as rock, fusion music, funk, hip-hop, and techno comes from independent listening during his adolescence though he appreciates the music of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven the most, he likes to embrace all musical styles and integrate them uniquely into his own music. Learning the piano under her from the age of three, he took violin and cello lessons with other teachers later in his childhood and studied basic composition techniques for three years under the now famous Joe Hisaishi. Born on Decemin Tokyo, Yuzo Koshiro was introduced to classical music from an early age by his mother Tomo Koshiro, a former concert pianist. Yuzo Koshiro is an influential video game composer and sound programmer, as well as the president of long-running video game developer Ancient. Ys, Streets of Rage, ActRaiser, Etrian Odyssey
