In 2009, Shibata left Capcom and began his own music studio, known as Unique Note, with colleague Yoshino Aoki.
[2][4] With a high interest in starting a career in the musical field, Shibata began applying for jobs in composition after college.
[4] Among other titles, Shibata, alongside Mitsuhiko Takano and frequent collaborator Masato Kouda, created the score for the first game in Capcom's successful Monster Hunter series.
Notably, Shibata composed music for the second, third, and fourth installments in Capcom's highly regarded Devil May Cry series.
[1] Shibata's role in the soundtrack production of 2006's Dead Rising involved bringing in licensed music alongside Capcom's in-house compositions.
For Resident Evil 5, he organized recordings by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, and did the same for Monster Hunter Tri with the FILMharmonic Orchestra in Prague.
[4] Torn between his responsibilities as a manager and his desire to compose music more freely, he was reluctant to leave the game developer because he had many ongoing projects at the time.
By college, he began listening to the jazz stylings of Oscar Peterson, Makoto Ozone, Chick Corea, and Baptiste Trotignon.