Musical Style and Influences
Ito's music is mainly inspired by images from the game rather than outside influences; however, he never played the games themselves. The only video games that he plays are sports games; he has only seen up to the introductory movie for most of the role-playing games that he has written music for. While many of his pieces are orchestral, he enjoys working in a recording studio and enjoys composing "normal songs" as much as his orchestral works. His favorite video game music from other composers include the music from Star Fox, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Wizardry and Nobunaga's Ambition. Non-video game music that has inspired him includes Japanese popular music and soundtracks to anime works, as well as easy listening music such as Paul Mauriat or Richard Clayderman, especially string music. These influences have led him to wish to create music "that you can listen to while you relax". He also wishes to expand his compositions outside of video game music and into ballads.
Read more about this topic: Kenji Ito
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