The very best SE composer.

[Skyblade]

Hitoshi Sakimoto: The Ivalice Alliance guy... He is kinda the underdog compared to the other composers listed here - I mean, I rarely see anyone praising FFXII's soundtrack, which IMO was incredible. Seriously, Sakimoto has a great sense of instrument colour and orchestrates his tracks masterfully.

The Ivalice Alliance music is a bit iffy to me, actually (especially XII). It is about half gorgeous, and half "meh". Some of the pieces are absolutely beautiful, and wonderful mood setters, I admit. But his music is more hit-and-miss than what we got from Yasunori Mitsuda in Chrono and Xenosaga, which is why Yasunori got my vote.

And X-2's Noriko Matsueda will not be considered by me because the main battle music in that game was terrible. No matter how good I think some of the rest of the soundtrack is, the standard fight music disqualifies his work from the running.

[Fynn]

Hitoshi Sakimoto: The Ivalice Alliance guy... He is kinda the underdog compared to the other composers listed here - I mean, I rarely see anyone praising FFXII's soundtrack, which IMO was incredible. Seriously, Sakimoto has a great sense of instrument colour and orchestrates his tracks masterfully.

The Ivalice Alliance music is a bit iffy to me, actually (especially XII). It is about half gorgeous, and half "meh". Some of the pieces are absolutely beautiful, and wonderful mood setters, I admit. But his music is more hit-and-miss than what we got from Yasunori Mitsuda in Chrono and Xenosaga, which is why Yasunori got my vote.

And X-2's Noriko Matsueda will not be considered by me because the main battle music in that game was terrible. No matter how good I think some of the rest of the soundtrack is, the standard fight music disqualifies his work from the running.

"He's" a woman

[Skyblade]

Hitoshi Sakimoto: The Ivalice Alliance guy... He is kinda the underdog compared to the other composers listed here - I mean, I rarely see anyone praising FFXII's soundtrack, which IMO was incredible. Seriously, Sakimoto has a great sense of instrument colour and orchestrates his tracks masterfully.

The Ivalice Alliance music is a bit iffy to me, actually (especially XII). It is about half gorgeous, and half "meh". Some of the pieces are absolutely beautiful, and wonderful mood setters, I admit. But his music is more hit-and-miss than what we got from Yasunori Mitsuda in Chrono and Xenosaga, which is why Yasunori got my vote.

And X-2's Noriko Matsueda will not be considered by me because the main battle music in that game was terrible. No matter how good I think some of the rest of the soundtrack is, the standard fight music disqualifies his work from the running.

"He's" a woman

Ok, you're right, but I don't think that was the important part of my post.

[Dreddz]

Uematsu has both quality and quantity on his side. He is simply unmatched.

[JKTrix]

Yoko Shimomura. As far as quantity, she is not too far behind Uematsu. according to Wiki, Uematsu has 47 video game compositions. Shimomura has 40. Her range of styles is also fantastic. It's kind of a shame that you only included her work with Kingdom Hearts in your poll--although it is great.

Shimomura's other notable VG works within the Square-Enix fold:
Legend of Mana
Super Mario RPG
Parasite Eve

Outside of Square-Enix:
Street Fighter 2 (!)
Mario & Luigi RPG Series (all 3)
Breath of Fire

What puts her above the rest for me is her range. I mean, you listen to the music in Street Fighter 2, then listen to the music in Kingdom Hearts...you probably wouldn't even think they came from the same composer unless you knew. (She also shares the first name of my overall 'favourite composer'... Wolf Kanno knows what I'm talkin about.)

Some of the other guys, Hitoshi Sakimoto in particular, you can listen to any game they do and be able to know the composer. You can almost take music out of Final Fantasy 12 and put it into Luminous Arc, or put Valkyria Chronicles into Tactics. Muramasa manages to avoid this by having a heavy Japanese style, but there are times when you can strongly feel Sakimoto's sound. Motoi Sakuraba falls victim to this too (he 'counts' as a Squenix composer--all of tri-Ace's games). I can't say it's a serious criticism, because good music is good music, but having a range of styles really bumps up my respect.

Actually, I encourage you all to check out an interview that 1UP just put online this weekend with her.
Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Parasite Eve Composer) Interview

[Dante WolfWood]

Uematsu. Hands down, he is just brilliant! not saying hes the only one but he is top notch when it comes to beautiful music.

[Blackmage]

I hate to pick favorites because I really like most of them; but really, Uematsu's still my favorite, with second being Sakimoto and third being Shimomura.

Uematsu has done the most consistently best job all-around, and has continued that outside of Square Enix (Lost Odyssey's soundtrack was incredible overall). I've enjoyed his music for the last 10+ years and generally listen to his stuff more than anything else.

Sakimoto did a good job with FFXII overall, I thought. His strength is his ability to make battle music, and it shows in both FFXII and Vagrant Story (if you haven't heard the battle themes from Vagrant Story, do so). I'm a sucker for good battle themes.

Shimomura's done excellent work with Kingdom Hearts, but yes, she does do more than just that. I totally loved Parasite Eve's music.

Although, to put in my two cents on this, as it was brought up: Ishimoto's remixes of the FF7 music are quite good in Crisis Core, and make me hunger for a remake of the game, if only to see the music get the treatment it deserves; I mainly don't like his original compositions on the battle themes in Crisis Core (the remixes were awesome, though), but the piano work on many of the pieces is quite solid and touching. Ishimoto did drop the ball on Dissidia overall, though, if you ask me (except for the FF9 battle theme mix).

[blackmage_nuke]

I think i'll have to go with Uematsu, not just for quality but for quantity too, and being able to write SO MANY brilliant songs

[Mo-Nercy]

(She also shares the first name of my overall 'favourite composer'... Wolf Kanno knows what I'm talkin about.)

Thanks for the embolden-ment. I don't think I would've picked that up otherwise. xD

I'm going to have to go with Uematsu. All of my favourite SE tracks are his. Having said that, I think Chrono Trigger had absolutely brilliant music as well. And all the praise for Yoko Shimomura here makes me want to go to play one of the games she's composed for (haven't played much of KH and none of the others).

[Jessweeee♪]

YouTube - Threads of Fate/Dewprism OST: To The Ultimate Relic

This is my favorite Junya Nakano bit :3

[Bastian]

Other: Hiroki Kikuta. (Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 3)
I love Uetmatsu, don't get me wrong. But the funkiness of Kikuta (and the fact that there is far too little Kikuta out there) makes me point out his sheer brilliance.

[P4ine]

I think I'll go with Shimomura. She's absolutely blatant when it comes to composing in c minor (All Organisation-XIII-related themes except for Roxas) and d minor (The other promise, Fate of the unknown(!!!!), Aqua's theme). Every work of her stuns me.

Of course, Uematsu is intriguing as well. He's my second choise.

[Croyles]

Did not know Junya Nakano until this awesome battletheme:
YouTube - Final Fantasy XIII - Desperate Struggle [HD]

As for voting, I can't decide. I want to say Uematsu but I feel like its the easy way out

[Sephiroth]

Nobuo is the Chuck Norris of Square music. Although I love Masashi Hamauzu's "Kimi ga iru kara" it is still Uematsu-sensei who is the best.