Jam of the Day: Heavenly Flight by Koichi Sugiyama (Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King)

One of the things that really sucked me into Dragon Quest VIII was the live orchestral performances recorded for the soundtrack. It wasn’t until later that I discovered the original Japanese version used sequenced music like the past games. I’m so grateful that they went the extra mile in bringing over an enhanced version for North America.

The orchestral score combined with the 1-to-1 scale world map gave Dragon Quest VIII an incredibly grandiose feeling. This melody appeared in the series before VIII, but flying through the sky with this rendition of the music in-game really left a memorable impression on me. I really hope they do an orchestral score in-game for Dragon Quest X.

Jam of the Day: Angelic Land by Koichi Sugiyama (Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest IX Hoshizora no Mamoribito)

Today I went to a Dragon Quest IX event to get my hands on some sweet downloadable maps. Because of this, I felt it an appropriate opportunity to share a track from the arrange album of Dragon Quest IX, performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

The Dragon Quest music has a very consistent feel between each game in the series. For better or worse, each new score Koichi Sugiyama works on feels like it could be put on the same album as one of the old scores without you even noticing.

Like Akira Toriyama’s unique art style, Koichi Sugiyama’s music is essential to the identity of Dragon Quest. While I don’t listen to Sugiyama’s music very often outside of the games, I have a great sense of respect for the signature sound he has. Anybody else doing music for a numbered Dragon Quest game would just be awkward just as anybody else handling the art direction instead of Toriyama would be.