Shogo Sakai

Shogo Sakai (坂井 将吾 Sakai Shōgo) (born 23 September, 1960) is the composer of Mother 3, the unreleased Nintendo 64 version EarthBound 64, and the album Mother 3i. He has also composed music for the Super Smash Bros. franchise, including remixes of themes from the Mother games.
==Games==
Sakai has received credits for helping create the sound in the following games:
*Donald Land (1988) - Sound Creator
*Rampage (NES) (1988) - Game Sounds Arranger
*Captain Silver (NES) (1988) - Sound Creator
*Cobra Command (NES) (1988) - Sounds
*Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing (1989) - Sound
*Bad Dudes (NES) (1989) - Sounds
*Herakles no Eikō 2: Titan no Metsubō (1989) - Sound Produce, Sound
*Heavy Barrel (NES) (1990) - Sound Programmer
*Boulder Dash (NES) (1990) - Sound
*Werewolf: The Last Warrior (NES) (1990) - Sound Creators
*Metal Max (1991) - Sound Program
*Herakles no Eikō 3: Kamigami no Chinmoku (1992) - Sound Staff
*Herakles no Eikō 4: Kamigami no Okurimono (1994) - Sound
*Metal Max Returns (1995) - Sound Program (Original Staff), Rescue Raider
*Magical Drop II (1996) - Sound Design
*Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis) (1997) - Sound Director
*EarthBound 64 (unreleased) - Music
*Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) - Music (Music Composition & Arrangement; Librarian)
*Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) - Sound (Chief)
*Kirby Air Ride (2003) - Sound Composition
*Mother 3 (2006) - Music
*Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006) - Sound
*Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) - Music & Sound
*Wii no Ma (2009) - Music
*Face Pilot: Fly With Your Nintendo DSi Camera! (2010) - Sound
*Face Raiders (2011) - Sound
*Kirby Mass Attack (2011) - Music
*Kirby's Dream Collection (2012) - Sound
*Crashmo (2012) - Sound Support
*Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (2015) - Lead Music Composition
*Picross 3D: Round 2 (2015) - Sound
*Kirby Battle Royale (2017) - Sound
*Part Time UFO (2017) - Sound Designer
*Hosuu de Shoubu!! Kame Sanpo (2019) - Sound
*Part Time UFO (Switch) (2020) - Sound
*Kirby's Dream Buffet (2022) - Sound
==Music of Mother 3==
Sakai composed all the music in Mother 3. The game's Sound Player option contains 250 tracks, although there are more in the game, such as the Deserted Clayman Factory theme, that are not included, as well as unused pieces like Giygas' Theme. Mother 3 makes a greater use of leitmotifs than the first two games in the series, providing many tracks that feature variations on the main themes in the game.
===Porky's Theme===
Prior to the composition of the Love Theme, this was considered the main theme of Mother 3. Versions of it can be heard in the following tracks:
*Mysterious Flying Object
*LOG-O-TYPE
*F-F-Fire!
*Suspicious Flying Object
*Bean Bean Pork Bean
*Big Shot's Theme
*Pork Bean Outta Gas
*Right Left Light Reft
*His Highness' Theme
*Life's an Inner Turn Radius
*Isn't This Such a Utopia?!
*Blip-Blip High Score
*New Pork Bossa
*Mini Porky's Entrance
*Porky's Porkies
*Master Porky's Theme
*Absolutely Safe Capsule
*Curtain Call
*Sad Theme (unused in the game)
===Love Theme===
The Love Theme is also a recurring motif in Mother 3; sections of it can be heard in the following tracks:
*Mom's Hometown
*MOTHER 3 Love Theme
*Love Theme (Reprise)
*Name These Children
*Battle Against the Masked Man
*It's Over
*Curtain Call
*16 Melodies (also playing the Eight Melodies from both EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound)
==Other Mother-related work==
On the Japanese Melee site, Masahiro Sakurai interviewed Shogo Sakai, as he was composing music for Super Smash Bros. Melee. During his interview with him, it was revealed MOTHER 3 Chamber concert was held post-cancellation for the key members of the staff. Of the known people in attendance was Shigesato Itoi, Satoru Iwata, Koichi Sugiyama, & Hirokazu Tanaka.https://twitter.com/Shogo_Sakai/status/273573938200707072 This translation is provided by Soma of Source Gaming: Melee Music Developer Roundtable - Source Gaming, May 10th 2016
Sakurai: Someone at work said, “There’s this concert, you want to go?” And I ended up going. Well, there was also the fact that the first piece was a collection of songs from Kirby Super Deluxe. There was also a second chance meeting, while you were working. For some reason, I was listening to a demo tape of music you had made for MOTHER 3 with Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Itoi. And I thought, “Wow, Mr. Sakai is working hard, even though he has his job at Data East.” Then, somehow, you were at HAL Labs, and we were working together (laughs). But because you had some experience with orchestras you got the job, and this game was a nice opportunity for you start working with a full orchestra.
Sakai: November two years ago, we did a small MOTHER 3 chamber music concert. At the time discussions about the Kirby anime were ongoing, so I was thinking that if Kirby was going to appear on television, I might get the conductor job for that.
Small MOTHER 3 chamber music concert: after MOTHER 3 was cancelled, using a very small-scale orchestra, we performed a small live performance, inviting only the key players who were involved. It was a very secret, clandestine operation.
Sakai composed the Bein' Friends remix (called "Mother" in-game) for Super Smash Bros. Melee. He also created a remix of His Highness' Theme in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, called Porky's Theme, incorporating the LOG-O-TYPE theme, as well as a remix of the Mother 3 Love Theme, which additionally made use of the Mom's Hometown theme. The Snowman theme also received a remix, using instruments similar to that of EarthBound, played close to Mother 3's tempo.
==Trivia==
* According to Shigesato Itoi, Shogo Sakai was responsible for naming each Magypsy. https://mother3.fobby.net/interview/m3int_03.html EarthBound 64 promotional material suggests this was sometime during or before 1998.https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Mother_3/1998#May_1998
==References==
Category:People
Category: Real Life