is a Japanese composer and game designer. His major works are Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Soukaigi, and Koudelka, for which he also acted as producer and concept designer. He has composed music for seven other games, and worked as a concept designer in addition to composer for the unreleased MMORPG Chou Bukyo Taisen. He became interested in music at an early age, but earned a degree in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Anthropology from Kansai University. He spent the next few years working first as a manga illustrator, then as a composer for anime series, before coming to work for Square in 1991.
After composing the soundtracks for his first three best-known works, he formed his own video game production company, Sacnoth, for which he was the president and CEO. After producing and composing Koudelka in 1999, he left to become a freelance composer. Since his departure he has formed his own record label, Norstrilia, through which he produces albums of his own compositions and collaborations with other artists, as well as his previous scores. His music has been performed in concerts such as the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in Cologne, Germany in September 2009, and selections of his works have been published as piano arrangements in sheet music books.
Biography
Early life
As a child, Kikuta was very interested in music, but while growing up in rural Japan had limited access to it.
Two compilation books of piano sheet music from the Mana series have been published as Seiken Densetsu Best Collection Piano Solo Sheet Music first and second editions; songs from Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana are featured in both. All songs in each book have been rewritten by Asako Niwa as beginning to intermediate level piano solos, though they are meant to sound as much like the originals as possible.
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2005
| Sakura Relaxation || ||
|-
| Nidzuma wa Sailor Fuku || ||
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2006
| Tennin-So Kitan || ||
|-
| Kaijinki || ||
|-
! scope="row" | 2007
| Concerto Gate || with Kenji Ito ||
|-
! scope="row" | 2011
| Tiara || ||
|-
| Demons' Score || "Walpurgis Night Fever" ||
|-
! scope="row" | 2013
| Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky || with various others ||
|-
! scope="row" | 2015
| Kakuriyo no Mon || with various others ||
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| 2016
| Earthlock: Festival of Magic || "Halls of Karba" ||
|-
|Pankapu||"Eternal Orbis Chronicles"||
|-
! scope="row" | 2017
| Unraveled: Tale of the Shipbreaker's Daughter || with Dale North ||
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2" |2018
| Tangledeep || with Andrew Aversa, Grant Kirkhope, and Norihiko Hibino ||
|-
| Secret of Mana Remake || with various others ||
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="3" | 2019
| YIIK: A Postmodern RPG || arrangements ||
|-
| Pixel Noir || arrangements with Kunal Majmudar ||
|-
| Indivisible|| ||
|-
|Trials of Mana
|Music supervisor
|
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| 2021
| Hunt the Night || guest composer ||
|-
|Rakugaki Kingdom||"IXTL"||
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| 2022
| Trinity Trigger || ||
|-
|Sin Chronicle ||"With the Sacred Prism"||
|-
! scope="row" | 2024
| Visions of Mana || with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Ryo Yamazaki ||
|}
References
External links
- Scarlet Moon Records profile