From Street Fighter to Final Fantasy: Yoko Shimomura, the composer who put the classical in gaming’s classics

Alfred Hitchcock, David Attenborough, Harold Pinter, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, Hideo Kojima – these are just a few of the recipients of the Bafta fellowship, the highest honour the academy can bestow. Japanese composer Yoko Shimomura is the latest to receive the accolade; one of only 17 women and four Japanese people to have done so. She is also the first video-game composer to be recognised by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the first composer recognised at all since John Barry in 2005.

It is with good reason that the academy has honoured her. Shimomura is an icon. You’ll know her music from Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Super Mario, Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Mana, Streets of Rage and more than 70 other games she has contributed original compositions or arrangements to. Her 37-year-long career has seen her record at Abbey Road Studios, have her music played by symphonic orchestras around the world, and work in genres ranging from rock to electronica, ambient to industrial, pop to opera. And yet Shimomura seems unchanged by her success.

“Certainly, over the course of my career, there have been a number of times – a lot of times perhaps, compared to other people – where I have struggled. Enough to think maybe I want to give up.” She tells me that even as far back as her first job at Japanese developer Capcom, she thought she had maybe two or three years in her before she’d quit. She also says she applied for that job with “barely any hope of getting accepted” – with a modesty that still seems a core part of her character.

“Even though I love this job, there have been plenty of times when it was really hard for me to continue. I couldn’t sleep, and I would especially struggle as deadlines would approach.”