Koichi Sugiyama, composer of the long-running and immensely in style Dragon Quest franchise, has handed away on the age of 90. Confirmed in a tribute put up on the official Dragon Quest website, Sugiyama died of septic shock on September 30, 2021.
Whereas Dragon Quest has solely loved roughly a decade and a half of success within the west, because of the breakout hit that was Dragon Quest 8 on the PS2, the series has remained one in every of Japan's hottest for 35 years, and Sugiyama composed the rating for all eleven video games within the mainline Dragon Quest series.
Sugiyama's musical contributions to the Dragon Quest series are recognizably whimsical. The series' major theme specifically is so iconic that it was performed in the course of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 opening ceremony amongst a number of different well-known gaming themes.
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A number of loveable songs composed by Sugiyama have appeared all throughout the series, together with the charming menu theme and the sweeping orchestra that's Dragon Quest 8's overworld theme: Marching Through the Fields.
Koichi Sugiyama's closing contribution to the Dragon Quest series can be within the upcoming Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Destiny, which is because of launch on Nintendo Swap, PS5, PS4 and PC at an as of but unannounced date.
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And whereas the idyllic, carefree melodies that fill the Dragon Quest worlds are actually among the many series' most iconic tracks, it is arduous to not bob your head to the series' quite a few battle themes. Dragon Quest 8's common battle theme, War Cry, is maybe one of many more well-known items in Sugiyama's repertoire, thanks in no small half to its energetic salvo of trumpets and marching percussion.
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Nonetheless, even a number of the series' earliest tracks sound like they had been written for an enormous orchestra to carry out, as demonstrated by Dragon Quest 3's phenomenal Preventing Spirit, carried out here by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
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A gifted man with controversial views
Sadly, Sugiyama's work has been tarnished by a number of the man's personal views on political and societal points. Whereas he was undoubtedly musically gifted, his opinions usually landed him in sizzling water.
Sugiyama infamously denied the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, during which Japanese troopers murdered lots of of hundreds of Chinese language troopers and civilians.
The man drew ire in 2018 when he co-hosted a program with anti-LGBT politician Mio Sugita, whose views embrace axing the schooling of LGBT points in faculties throughout Japan.
Such views are troublesome to abdomen for many, they usually undoubtedly take one thing away from Sugiyama's catalog of undeniably unbelievable work. Nevertheless it's arduous to think about what the Dragon Quest series would sound like with out Sugiyama's work, because it lends the series a distinctly whimsical aptitude that completely matches its cartoonish aesthetic and larger-than-life characters.
