Music of the Shadow Hearts series

The music of the Shadow Hearts role-playing video game series, developed by Japanese game company Sacnoth (later Nautilus), was primarily composed by Yoshitaka Hirota. Hirota collaborated on the original game with Masaharu Iwata, Yasunori Mitsuda and Ryo Fukuda. For its sequel Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Mitsuda returned and was joined by Kenji Ito and Tomoko Kobayashi. The final game From the New World saw Fukuda and Kobayashi return with newcomer Hirotomi Imoto. The Shadow Hearts series originated in the 1999 role-playing game Koudelka, the music of which was composed by company founder Hiroki Kikuta. Each game has received a soundtrack album, with Hirota also producing an arrange album of Shadow Hearts music.

Hirota's work on the Shadow Hearts series was directly influenced by his work as a sound designer. The first game's music encompassed a wide range of music genres, with Hirota not wanting it to sound like something from a movie. He also sought to emulate his Gothic-style sound design of Koudelka. The score for Covenant increased the dynamic and emotional elements while retaining the original game's musical style. For From the New World, the team incorporated ethnic elements to represent its setting in the Americas. The recurring theme "Icaro" was initially designed to represent the lead characters of Shadow Hearts, and went on to recur in arranged forms in its two sequels. Reception of the music has generally been positive.