Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Composer Wataru Hokoyama On Winning Awards, Writing Video Game Music, And More

Wataru Hokoyama is a composer and arranger of scores for television, film, and videogames for over ten decades. Thanks to the music he created for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, alongside his mentor of six years, Mark Mothersbaugh, he’s now an official American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers awards winner. 

That’s because Hokoyama has received the Video Game Score of the Year award for Rift Apart by way of the 2022 ASCAP Screen Music Awards. Of course, Mothersbaugh helped create the score as well, but he’s not with ASCAP, so the award, on paper, goes to Hokoyama alone. Interview with Game Informer, though, the composer, who also has credits on Thor: Ragnarok, Resident Evil 5, Knack, Halo Wars 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary, and more, said winning this award wouldn’t have been possible without Mothersbaugh. That’s because Mothersbaugh is the reason Hokoyama got the opportunity to score Rift Apart in the first place. 

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Composer Wataru Hokoyama

“We worked on it for about a year and a half, but I want to mention something that’s super important before I talk about anything else [and that] is that this project, actually, originally came to me by my mentor, Mark Mothersbaugh,” says Hokoyama. “I have been working with Mark for the last several years – at least six – and he’s been my mentor so when Sony offered [Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart]Mark brought me aboard as a cowriter. This is a tremendous honor and kind gesture. To share the credit and work alongside me, he brought me aboard as a cowriter. It was an incredible honor. I just want to show my appreciation for Mark.”

Hokoyama and Mothersbaugh worked together on 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, but obviously, they had the score finished before then. In 2016, just after they had finished Ragnarok’s production, Mothersbaugh said that the Rift Away opportunity came along. In Hokoyama’s heart, today’s award goes to both of them. 

“I’m glad I’m getting all these awards and attention now, compared to 10 years ago, because I’m more mature, I don’t get ungrounded or jump off the chair or get a big head or the wrong idea about myself,” Hokoyama says. “I feel very calm and just this sense of, ‘wow, so grateful that the world actually sees this as a special soundtrack that we’ve worked on for so long.’ I just feel calmly grateful.” 

Hokoyama expressed gratitude to Sony throughout the interview. According to Hokoyama, Mothersbaugh and all the other members of the music staff were given complete creative freedom so that they could create the best Rift Apart soundtrack possible. 

“The team at Sony is really awesome,” Hokoyama says. “They’re super easy to work with and very, very collaborative and creative. We were supported at all levels. I think it made the whole creative team really fun, and it allowed us to kind of do wilder things.” 

Hokoyama states that the creative freedom was maintained throughout the process. even as pressure and hype around Rift ApartIt was the PlayStation 5’s first exclusive first-party title, and it has been growing in popularity ever since. Hokoyama said that it was less pressure than pressure to compose a score for such an important title. 

“I knew the name Ratchet & Clank because I used to play it, and I was so into it,” he says. “When I heard the name, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ Of course, I did feel the pressure, but we were all excited. Rather than pressure, it was like, ‘Oh my god, we get to do this big title.’ They just basically said, ‘Hey, I want you guys to be very creative and any idea that comes to your mind, we’d love to hear it.’ That allowed us to extend our creativity and I really believe that it was a whole team effort…that led to this score.”

Ratchet & Clank is one of PlayStation’s longest-running franchises, and when asked how the score of Rift Apart played into that legacy, Hokoyama explained that because the last new entry in the franchise was 2013’s Into The Nexus (since 2016’s Ratchet & Clank was essentially a remake with an existing score written for it), he and Mothersbaugh were able to create a new sound for the series. They were encouraged by Sony to make something completely new. He said that they wanted to hear the results of their efforts. 

As a result, Hokoyama and Mothersbaugh didn’t have to find ways to include old themes – everything created was new. However, the duo was aware of the legacy behind Ratchet & Clank, and the history fans draw on when playing the games, so they made sure to honor the previous sounds of the series, too. 

Rift Apart’s premise, in which Ratchet and Rivet are given the task of fighting across multiple dimensions to stop Emperor Nefarious gave Mothersbaugh and Hokoyama plenty of room to express themselves creatively. Rivet was a great musical tool that gave them new possibilities. Mothersbaugh needed her own music and a defining theme. On the other hand, because both Ratchet and Rivet jump from dimension to dimension throughout the game, the protagonists always visit a new planet – and a new world means a new track. 

“It’s sort of like a multiverse of one world,” says Hokoyama. “So we kept that in mind, and we would use a lot of electronic music to create the feel of Rivet’s worlds versus the original Ratchet world. I think that helped us sort of, not divide, but create dimensions.”

Hokoyama said that Sony guided the musicians by keying them in to what the next planet was like. This allowed them to write about its mission and aesthetic. 

“When we looked at the big map…we saw all the planets of this world and the first impression was, ‘Oh my god, that’s a lot.’ At the same time, Sony’s idea [with the game]The idea was for different features to exist on different planets. However, this multiverse must remain coherent at all times. While there was energy cohesion, the sounds and colors had to differ. We kept this in mind while we worked. We had a lot more freedom than we thought to explore new writing and tools. We used different types of instrumentation, sometimes orchestra heavy or electronic heavy, to create the feel of each planet.” 

One example of the collaboration between Hokoyama’s creativity and Sony’s freedom can be found in Y’Ardolis, the game’s pirate-themed level in the back half of the game. In talking about pirate music, and the way audiences can hear a song and go, “that sounds pirate-y,” he said originally, they went too heavy on the pirate-ness of the planet’s score, with Sony suggesting it could be toned down. That’s where more of its electronic sound came through – they are space pirates, after all. It’s also how instruments like broken accordions get used. These pirates likely don’t have a fully-operational accordion, so why would the music feature one? The score needed to reflect the world, and that’s why the planet’s score contains broken accordion noises. 

Hokoyama speaks more generally about music for video games. He says that each game presents a unique challenge when it comes to composing music. A player may be able to cover a large area within a matter of minutes. One player may take twenty minutes to complete a task, while another might need 20. However, both players should be equally affected by the score when it is right. Hokoyama’s composition needed to be able to handle both types of players. 

“The biggest difference [between games and movies or TV] would be placing the gameplay,” he says. “The players listen to our music so much longer than they would in a scene for a movie. You only see…and hear…it once [in a movie] but for video games, sometimes they stay in there for hours, so we have that in mind.”

Something that’s easy to listen to and get into without even thinking is key, according to Hokoyama. On that same note, players are going to be listening to this music longer than they would the score in a TV series or movie, so it needs to be fun and enjoyable enough that they don’t mind listening to it for so long. 

Hokoyama is the winner of the Video Game Score of the Year award for the 2022 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards, itself a part of the overall 2022 ASCAP Screen Music Awards, which is a special honor because it’s an award decided on by fellow ASCAP members. Hokoyama has been chosen as the winner by industry colleagues. Austin Wintory was nominated for Aliens: Fireteam Eleven, Wilbert Rode II for Call of Duty: Mobile Season 5: In Deep Water. Lena Raine won Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Tom Salta received Deathloop. Pedrom Bromfman received Far Cry 6. 

Here is the complete list of ASCAP category nominees, which includes Television Score of the year and Film Score of the year. For more, read Game Informer’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart review to find out why we gave it a 9 out of 10. 

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