We all have cynical days: days when every single game looks bland and you resist the urge to push yourself away from your desk in disgust and shout "If I don't see something something cool in the next ten minutes, I'm done with gaming!".

One of the best parts about doing a weekly mixtape is hearing suggestions from readers on which composer to cover next (PS: keep 'em coming). Out of all the suggestions, nobody has been more requested than Yoko Shimomura. So this week on the Kotaku Mix Tape, we celebrate one of gaming's most moving composers.

Are you like me? Do you get a little misty eyed when you hear Schala's theme? A swell of nostalgia when the violin from Chrono Cross swells? Well boy howdy, this is the mixtape for you!


Yasunori Mitsuda's music set the tone for so much of gaming in my youth: Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Chrono Cross. His music is so…