Mitsuda Appreciation Thread

[Lord J Esq]

And now... An event millions of years in the making! A Compendium exclusive!

Mitsuda's tracks from the Explosion of Comet ISON Documentary

Mitsuda's full range is on display here, from spacey new-agey stuff to deep, emotional tracks that tug at the listener's heartstrings -- always Mitsuda's greatest strength IMO.

And here's a Wikipedia article on this heavily studied comet to read while you listen.

Thanks to DarioEMeloD for discovering this awesome album!

I am listening to this while I tour the Compendium on one of my once-every-couple-years check-ins, and this is too good! Perfect Compendium-browsing themes!

I remember Comet ISON, too! I lived at an observatory at the time and we were actually a little bit disappointed by its poor performance, compared to its potential, but it was still pretty rad.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

on one of my once-every-couple-years check-ins

...you could make it once every few months... or weeks...

[Lord J Esq]

I was thinking about that! I retired from the Compendium to have more time to myself to work on my creative projects, but I ended up going too far in the other direction and not maintaining enough social contacts! =/

No guarantees, but I might try hanging around a bit and seeing what happens. With any luck the Compendium is due for a retro cool fad soon, with other old-timers checking back in too.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

It would definitely be nice! I was a lurker for years until a year or so after Prophet's Guile, and I feel like you were already sort of fading out by the time I finally became active. Read a lot of your stuff, though!

I've also started nudging MrBekkler, Thought, and FaustWolf to get back on here -- we have sort of kept in contact IRL although it's fallen off the past year or two. They may not be "old timers" in the same sense you are, but they were three I got close to back in the 2008-ish era.

As for your creative goals, that's awesome that you were able to make a career out of it and pursue the Springtime of Youth! I've one of the ones who sort of fell into the corporate money trap. We're about the same age and I'm definitely in that soul-searching state of mind. "What makes me happy? Does a career really have to be defined by my creative pursuits? How can I leverage my creative interests into a financially viable channel?" That sort of thing, hahaha...

[Lord J Esq]

Yeah, I definitely have some thoughts on some of your posts in other threads. Let me see if I can't cook up a response right now...

[Redline57]

Just noticed this, but last night I was replaying Secret of Mana and beat it. Mitsuda did the sound effects for this game it listed in the credits, didn't know that. I admit I replayed it for the circular menu and the sound effects, now I know why.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

It's funny, I was reading some biographical information on Mitsuda last night, actually.

Homeboy was hired at Square thinking he could compose, but ended up being on sound effects design and didn't make much money. He finally got fed up and went to the then-VP and threatened to quit if they didn't let him start composing, so they gave him Chrono Trigger -- but they said that they wouldn't pay him a composer salary until *after* he wrote the soundtrack and proved he had the chops for it.

Turns out he did, and the soundtrack was epic.

Sort of makes sense he left around 2000 to start his own studio (even if he does still occasionally go back and do freelance composing for SquareEnix).

He's also much younger than I expected. I thought he'd be more around Nobuo Uematsu's age. Mitsuda was like 23/24 when he wrote the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger!

[CptOvaltine]

The man is a legend, and total inspiration.  Let's not forget about the soundtrack to Xenosaga...such a fantastic score!