Hirofumi Matsuoka (松岡博文) born on December 8, 1968 was a composer and arranger that was employed at Falcom from 1992 to 2001. He passed away on October 20, 2015.
He joined Falcom in 1992 at the same time as Naoki Kaneda, Masaru Nakajima and Takahiro Tsunashima; he mainly worked on ports during his first years by participating in almost all the games produced by the SEGA-Falcom joint venture, such as helping with the Mega CD version of Popful Mail and the sound for The Legend of Heroes I and II for the Mega Drive. He took over the leadership position from Ishikawa and became the new leader of Sound Team jdk, starting from 1997 until 2001.
During the Windows era, Matsuoka worked in the planning/production departament of the company, acted as a receptionist for Sound Team jdk, and was in charge of the maintaining the Falcom MIDI Page that was hosted on Falcom's website during the late-90s. He also had a deep knowledge of MIDI sound sources, planned the production (sometimes arranged) of Standard MIDI Files, was the planner of the MIDI Collection series of arrange albums, and played a key factor in facilitating the sound team's transition from FM to MIDI. Even when the WAVE format became the new standard during the Windows era (starting with Brandish 4), he still pushed to include MIDI files in the games.
Matsuoka left Falcom in 2001, and continued his activities as a freelance composer under the name of Hiroshi Matsumoto. He also formed the music units RABSARIS and fermata, and released a few doujin albums on his own.
He passed away on October 20, 2015, due to gastric cancer, at the age of 46.
Works in the series[]
| Game | Matsuoka Role(s) |
|---|---|
| Ys Eternal | Arranger |
| Ys II Eternal | Arranger |
| Ys I & II Complete | Arranger |