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SOJ Tekken 3 · The Electronic Turn
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Who wrote Tekken 3's music?

A self taught synthesizer kid from Namco's sound team, and the future composer of NieR.

Tekken 3 (1997 arcade, 1998 PlayStation) is where the series found its permanent sound: electronic first. Sound director Nobuyoshi Sano, credited as sanodg, scored the arcade version with Keiichi Okabe, deliberately moving away from the ambient approach of the first two games toward techno, breakbeat, house, and rock played at fighting speed.

Sano's path explains the sound. Self taught on an electone and then a KORG MS-10, guided by magazines, he joined Namco's sound team, formed the Sampling Masters unit with Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, and Takayuki Aihara, and had already helped adapt the first two Tekken scores for PlayStation, working to keep their twilight mood. On Tekken 3 he stopped preserving and started replacing. Okabe, meanwhile, wrote themes like Nina's bass driven track and Eddy's funk, years before his NieR scores made him famous.

TWO VERSIONS OF THE SCORE

Arcade and PlayStation credits differ, honestly noted
Tekken 3 Japanese PlayStation box art
The PlayStation Score · 1998
The home version carries its own credits, with Sano and Okabe at the center and further Namco sound team hands around them. Track by track album credits name sanodg and Okabe against most themes.
Tekken 3 American PlayStation box art
The American Release · 1998
The same electronic identity in the West. Tekken's club sound, strange on paper for a martial arts tournament, became the series signature from this game onward.
Strike Arranges
The habit started earlier: Sano contributed an electronic remix to Tekken 2 Strike Arranges in 1996 under the name Denji Sano, a rehearsal for the full turn Tekken 3 would take.
The Sampling Masters
Sano's electronic unit at Namco, formed with Hosoe, Saso, and Aihara to pursue exactly this kind of production. Tekken 3 is that side project winning the main stage.
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THE FIRST WORD

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