Makoto Tomozawa: Exclusive Interview w/ Former Capcom Music Composer (Mega Man, Resident Evil (1996) + RE1.5)

(Originally published at the now-defunct DASH Republic in March 2012. Re-edited and expanded for Tumblr in 2013. Finalized for January 2016 on The Game Informant.)

Makoto "V. Tomozo" Tomozawa adjusts
audio equipment during the production of
Street Fighter IV, circa January 2010.

Under the pseudonym V. Tomozo, as it was Capcom's policy to obscure talents' names back then, Makoto Tomozawa became well-known for composing music for several of the more popular early titles in the Mega Man franchise, including Mega Man X and Mega Man 7 for Super Nintendo (while also supposedly lending a hand in Dr. Wily's Revenge for Game Boy). He would later be best known for his work in the two main Mega Man Legends entries years later.

He continued to be credited under the pseudonym until Resident Evil in 1996, when 3D polygonal games were becoming the norm and the talent it took being more valued and recognized. Tomozawa would work briefly on the first draft of Resident Evil 2 (Resident Evil 1.5) right until it was scrapped. As soon as that game entered redevelopment in 1997, Tomozawa would be reassigned to compose music for Mega Man Legends, the first major 3D Mega Man game for PlayStation.

His other work consisted of titles from other well-known Capcom properties, including the Dino Crisis series on PlayStation. Tomozawa returned to the Resident Evil franchise one last time as a co-composer for the remake in 2002. One year later, after the release of P. N. 03, he left the company to join the Dimps Corporation and work on the highly-celebrated Street Fighter IV. In 2010 he would reunite with the Blue Bomber in Mega Man 10, composing Strike Man's stage theme.

Around the time of the Mega Man Legends 3 cancellation catastrophe in summer of 2011, I had a chat with Makoto Tomozawa on Twitter. Being the huge fan of the Legends series and some of the Resident Evil games in particular, I wanted the opportunity to speak with him about his past years at Capcom. He gladly accepted and over a period of months, he and I replied back and forth in an on-and-off manner to the point where he unfortunately dropped out on the middle of Legends 1 portion of our chat.

But from what I did gather, he didn't hesitate to admit that the Mega Man Legends projects were among the higher points of his time at Capcom.

Arron - OKeijiDragon: Hello, are you Makoto Tomozawa (友澤　眞) who worked at Capcom Co. Ltd (カプコン)?

Makoto Tomozawa: Yes, I once worked at Capcom, but I retired from the company.

Arron: Oh hello, Mr. Tomozawa! Pleased to finally meet you. I am a big fan of your work in Mega Man Legends. =)

Tomozawa: Thank you very much!!! It was one of my favorite works.

You can catch how the interview unfolded by clicking the jump!

Why don't you sit down and watch some early prototype footage of Super Mario RPG at 60FPS?

This may have been online already, but my new VHS rip is better. Its in 60FPS. =D



So, Super Mario RPG. I rented this game from a local BlockBuster Video store (remember that retailer?) when I was eight years old. I didn't have a concept of RPGs and that style of gameplay at the time so I just mashed the A button all the damn time. But man that soundtrack, I could never forget the boss battle and town themes.

After that, I never touched this game again until seven years later. I later got the game as a Christmas gift from my dad and I've yet to part with it since. At that time, it was an especially rare SNES game and copies of the game were scarce and expensive even at local mom 'n pop game stores. Its a miracle he found the game at all, I was ecstatic unwrapping that game.. 

Anyways, as with previous remastered videos, what existed before as a low-ASSolution of pixels is now remastered -- from the famous V-Jump Festival '95 Video, a tape that contains footage of other Japanese games of the time including Resident Evil, with I'll be posting more game clips from and eventually the entire tape online in the future -- as an 1080p60 HD quality trailer.

I want to give special thanks to GlitterBerri, for granting me permission to use her 2010 translation, and PixelButtz, for QA-ing the video (I thought something was seriously wrong with the rendering of this video. @_@;). OK, next up its Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast at 60FPS.