Naoshi Mizuta

is a Japanese video game composer and musician. He is best known for his work on the Final Fantasy franchise, most notably Final Fantasy XI, and has also composed music for games such as Street Fighter Alpha, Mega Man & Bass, and Parasite Eve II. He started his career at Capcom before moving to Square (now Square Enix) in 1998.

Biography Born in Kōchi, Japan in 1972, Mizuta's interest in music began to grow when he "was in the second or third grade". Although still interested in music, Mizuta studied law and economics at Chiba University. He composed his first song while in his last year there, and after graduating went to work for Capcom in 1994 as a composer. His first work was composing for Street Fighter Alpha in 1995 as part of a team of composers, and also worked on arranging the music for the PlayStation version later that year. During this period, Mizuta became involved in The Star Onions, a band composed of Square Enix composers for which he plays bass guitar. Other members of the band, which plays arrangements of songs from Final Fantasy XI, include Tanioka, Hidenori Iwasaki, and Tsuyoshi Sekito. The band has since released two albums, Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel and Sanctuary.

Mizuta has also worked on several other projects for Square Enix, including Blood of Bahamut and Guardian Cross. He has also worked on many other games in the Final Fantasy series, including Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy XIV, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Musical style and influences For games, Mizuta is primarily focused on creating music that fits the title and the scene at hand, without consideration for how it might sound in isolation.

Works