Kentaro Haneda passed way on Saturday of liver cancer.  Sad day for music fans, I really enjoyed his works.

Pianist Kentaro Haneda dies of cancer at 58

So that's why his website wasn't updated for a year now.

Bummer, he didn't even get to retire.

Man, that sucks. He's responsible for what I still consider to be the best Suikoden Arranged album, so it's sad to see him pass away.

Yeah, that's all I know of his work too, and it is great.  Looking at his discography on Wikipedia doesn't really show me anything else I recognize (other than he's a Beatles fan).

He did some of the earlier classical-style Falcom arrangements: Symphony Ys, Symphony Sorcerian, and that version of First Steps Toward Wars on FSB '89. He also composed the music for some of the Wizardry games.

Sad, indeed. Not familiar with too much of his work outside the Wizardry OGC pieces, but those were quite solid.

On another note, are there any other deceased VGM composers? Haneda, Akihiko Mori, Masanori Adachi...I was thinking a tribute might be nice.

Wow. I was just over the last three weeks listening to ALL of Haneda's Wizardry albums (there are 5 or 6 of them). They're really something special. This is a sad day.

Thank you for reporting this. I will take note of it @ RPGFan in the near future.

Ramza

bump.

http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2007/1187.html

I don't mean to use this as a tool to promote the site I work for. Just want to get Haneda's albums some more attention. Here are reviews (with audio samples) to all of Haneda's "Wizardry" albums. It is difficult to find good info on some of these albums, so I'm happy to see them available to English readers now.

Ramza