Exclusive Twitter Interview with Makoto Tomozawa

One of our readers, OKeijiDragon, conducted an interview with composer Makoto Tomozawa via Twitter last year.  The interview was posted on DASH Republic (now defunct), and later his Tumblr account. The interview wasn’t getting much attention, so he was kind enough to send it to us. You can check out some highlights from the now re-edited and expanded interview below.

Arron/OKeijiDragon: Did you do the music for Tron ni Kobun (The Misadventures of Tron Bonne) in 1999 at all?

Makoto Tomozawa: No, it was my colleague’s work.

Arron: I see. That would be Mr. Toshihiko Horiyama, right?

Tomozawa: Yes, we joined that company at same year.

Arron: I see. When was that? What was your first project at Capcom?

Tomozawa: I joined that company in 1993. And officially, my first work was The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie (known in NTSC and PAL territories as Disney’s Magical Quest 2 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.)

Arron: Was that the first game you worked on at all? How were you absorbed to the Mega Man X project?

Tomozawa: My very first work was [the SNES version] Aladdin’s ending, the music box tune.

Arron: Aladdin for SNES? Neat. That was a game Shinki Mikami worked on as well, correct?

Tomozawa: Yes, that was my first project with Mr. Mikami.

Arron: OK. So what did you work on before BioHazard (editor’s note: Resident Evil is known as BioHazard in Japan)?

Tomozawa: I think Mega Man 7.

Arron: Ah yes, that game with Forte in it. Which tracks did you compose for that game? My favorites are the Wily Stage themes. Turtle’s Realm, especially. =)

Tomozawa: On [Mega Man] 7, I composed [the Opening Stage theme], Boss Battle, Weapon Get, Bass/Forte’s theme, Wily [Stage] 1 and [Wily Stage 2]. Staff Roll music.

Arron: Rockman DASH was originally named “Rockman Neo.” When was the first time you heard of the project?

Tomozawa: Sorry, but I can’t recall. Some projects progress concurrently, so I cannot specify time.

Arron: I understand. When Rockman DASH was being made, what sort of vision did the development team had for Rockman in 3D polygon graphics?

Tomozawa: Well, I’m not graphic designer so I don’t know about graphics.

Arron: Not really what I meant, but no matter. (editor’s note: I was on to something, but I guess I… slipped?)

Arron: How did you [feel] making music on a 3D Rockman game compared to the 2D Rockman work you had done on SNES?

Tomozawa: I thought that Mega Man Legends was not the title of Mega Man series (editor’s note: Figuratively speaking, he means), so I didn’t compare them.

Arron: I see. So in that case, it was a whole new Mega Man to you?

Tomozawa: Yes. At first, I tried to compose the main theme of [MegaMan] Volnutt, but I was not able to compose [it] well because he was too featureless.

Arron: That is very interesting to me Mr. Tomozawa, because DASH1 went through a lot of audio and visual changes in its development.

Quite the interesting interview. I personally enjoyed that he included Resident Evil and didn’t just talk about Mega Man Legends. If you want to read the whole interview. OKeijiDragon has posted it on his Tumblr, which you can find here.