Junya Nakano - Biography

Biography

Junya Nakano was born in Kyoto, Japan. His parents introduced him to music when he was three years old, offering him lessons in the electronic organ through the Yamaha Music Foundation; they also encouraged him to join some brass bands. After playing the 1979 arcade game Lunar Rescue, he developed an interest in video games and subsequently began to enjoy chiptune music. By frequently listening to the radio, he started composing MIDI music using the NEC PC-9801 in 1985. In 1987, he attended a vocational school to study composition and arrangement in hopes of entering the gaming industry. After graduation, he joined the Kobe branch of Konami in 1991, where he contributed music to eight arcade games with several collaborators over a three-year period. Deciding he wanted to create more original music and have a chance to receive individual recognition, Nakano left Konami after completing the score for Golfing Greats 2 in 1994.

Nakano joined Square (now Square Enix) in 1995. He created four pieces for the 1996 video game Front Mission: Gun Hazard, which featured composers Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Masashi Hamauzu. His first solo project came about with Satellaview's Treasure Conflix the same year. In 1996, Nakano joined several of Square's composers to create the soundtrack for the fighting game Tobal No. 1; he contributed three compositions. Hamauzu and Nakano became friends after working on Front Mission: Gun Hazard and Tobal No. 1, and they have later collaborated on several titles. In 1997, Nakano served as synthesizer programmer for the score to Front Mission: Alternative. Nakano composed the soundtrack for the Japan-only adventure game Another Mind, which he was given a deadline of two months to complete. His subsequent score to the 1999 title Threads of Fate (known as "Dewprism" in Japan) gave him worldwide recognition.

Since scoring Threads of Fate, Nakano has collaborated with several composers on major projects instead of being the sole composer. In 2001, Nakano and Hamauzu were chosen to assist Uematsu in the production of the score for the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy X, based on their ability to create music that was different from Uematsu's style; Nakano created 20 pieces. One of his tracks from the game, "Guadosalam", was arranged for the piano and featured in the album Piano Collections Final Fantasy X (2002). Following Final Fantasy X, Nakano co-composed the soundtracks to Asmik Ace Entertainment's flight simulators Lethal Skies Elite Pilot: Team SW (2001, known as "Lethal Skies" in Europe) and SideWinder V (2003). As a member of Uematsu's short-lived subsidiary Square Sounds, Nakano was allowed to score these non-Square games since members of Square Sounds could be licensed to create music for other companies if not busy on other projects.

Back at Square Enix, he created the music for Musashi: Samurai Legend with Hamauzu and the duo Wavelink Zeal (Takayuki and Yuki Iwai) in 2004. In 2006, Nakano created seven tracks for the Xbox 360 game Project Sylpheed, which also featured several other composers. Later the same year, he arranged four pieces from the Mana series for Dawn of Mana (known as "Seiken Densetsu 4" in Japan). He was also selected to arrange half of Final Fantasy IV's Nintendo DS remake under the supervision of Uematsu, and composed the soundtrack to its 2008 sequel, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. On December 31, 2009, Nakano confirmed that he had left Square Enix and joined his former mentor and collaborator Yuji Takenouchi's VGM Sound Creator's Alliance.