Kenji Itō

, also known by the nickname Itoken (イトケン), is a Japanese video game music composer. He is best known for his work on Final Fantasy Adventure and the SaGa series. In 2001 he left Square Co. to become a freelance artist, but has since continued to collaborate with the company. [cite web
url=http://www.ito.cocoebiz.com/
title=Kenji Ito's Offical English Website
publisher=Cocoebiz.com
accessdate=2008-08-06
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History

Born 5 July 1968 in Tokyo, Ito became interested in music at the age of 4. By the time he began composing at the age of 10, he had learned to play alto saxophone, clarinet, and piano. During March 1990, Ito began working at Square.

His first project was a co-effort between himself and Nobuo Uematsu for the Game Boy title, Final Fantasy Legend II (SaGa 2). Shortly after in 1991, he composed the complete soundtrack for Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu), another Game Boy title. Beginning in 1992, Ito would have the Super Nintendo's 8 channel sound chip to rely on as he began composing music for the SaGa trilogy. This includes all of the music for Romancing SaGa 1, 2, and 3, as well as SaGa Frontier (a PlayStation title).

1997 marks the beginning of several smaller contributions to video game music made by Ito. Two tracks were contributed to Tobal No. 1, as well as the opening and closing themes of "Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon". An original vocal track along with some arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu's older works were made by Ito in 1999 for "Chocobo Racing". He left Square in 2001 to become a freelance composer. Shortly after, he composed his magnum opus for the dreamcast title, "Culdcept II", along with various other works for "Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange" and "Shadow Hearts II".

In 2002, Ito announced that he'd received work from Square again, updating his compositions for Final Fantasy Adventure for its remake on the Game Boy Advance, "Sword of Mana". Ito's recent works with Square Enix include the latest SaGa title, "Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song-, and "Hanjuku Hero 4 ~The 7 Heroes~., as well as "" and "Seiken Densetsu 4".

In 2005, Ito made another small contribution to Konami's rhythm-game series pop'n music with a composition entitled "バトル XIII" (Battle XIII) which appeared on pop'n music 13 CARNIVAL. A long version of the song was also recorded for the pop'n music 13 CARNIVAL original soundtrack.

Ito was selected to join a long list of video-game composers to contribute music to "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" in 2007. He composed three tracks in the game, which include "Space Armada" theme from the Star Fox series, "Attack" from the Fire Emblem series, and the Title Screen from Kid Icarus.

Video game soundtracks

* (1990) "Final Fantasy Legend II" (aka SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu)"
* (1991) "Final Fantasy Adventure" (aka Seiken Densetsu)
* (1992) "Romancing SaGa"
* (1993) "Romancing SaGa 2"
* (1995) "Romancing SaGa 3"
* (1997) "SaGa Frontier"
* (1997) "Tobal No. 1"
* (1999) "Chocobo Racing"
* (1999) "Chocobo's Dungeon 2"
* (1999) ""
* (2001) "Wild Card"
* (2001) "Culdcept II"
* (2003) "Sword of Mana" (aka Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu)
* (2004) "Shadow Hearts II"
* (2005) "
* (2005) "Hanjuku Hero 4 ~The 7 Heroes~
* (2006) "Children of Mana"
* (2006) "Dawn of Mana"
* (2008) "Super Smash Bros. Brawl"
* (2008) "Culdcept Saga"

External links

* [http://home.att.ne.jp/apple/fom/ Field of Melodies (KENJI ITO website)] (official site)
* [http://www.cocoebiz.com/ito/index.php Kenji Ito's official English website]
* [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/ito/ Comprehensive Kenji Ito Profile at Square Enix Music Online]
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/78/kenji-ito/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/music/music05.html "Star Fox: Space Armada"] at [http://www.smashbros.com/ Smash Bros. Dojo!!]

References