Masaharu Iwata
| Masaharu Iwata | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 岩田 匡治 |
| Also known as | REZON |
| Born |
October 26, 1966 Tokyo, Japan |
| Genres |
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| Occupation(s) |
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| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | Basiscape |
| Associated acts | Hitoshi Sakimoto |
Masaharu Iwata (岩田 匡治 Iwata Masaharu?, born October 26, 1966) is a Japanese video game composer. After graduating from high school, where his musical projects included composing on a synthesizer and playing in a cover band, he joined Bothtec as a composer. He composed the soundtrack to several games there, beginning with 1987's Bakusou Buggy Ippatsu Yarou, and after the company was merged into Quest, he left to become a freelance composer. His most well-known projects include Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XII, though throughout his career he has composed music for over 65 games. He is one of the founding members of Basiscape, headed by fellow composer Hitoshi Sakimoto and currently one of the largest independent Japanese video game music production companies. His compositions for strategy role-playing games such as the Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics series have been described as "among the most well-recognized in the genre".
Iwata, born in Tokyo, Japan on October 26, 1966, has been interested in music since he was a child, though he terms his first attempts at "experiments with music" while at school to be poor. While in junior high school, he became interested in the Japanese electropop group, Yellow Magic Orchestra. This inspired him to buy a synthesizer, and join a cover band with some other students. Other musical influences on him during his youth were Arabesque, John Foxx, China Crisis and Bill Nelson. It was during this time that video games began to be popular, leading him to become interested in them like many of his friends. Once he graduated high school, Iwata tried to find work that combined his love of music and video games, and joined Bothtec, which while he was there became part of Quest.
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