Topic: General JRPG Thread

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I've written seven of these "essays", where I analyse video game music from games I love. I wrote this fourth, but Dragon Quest XI's being discussed. If you liked it please critique it, it'll improve my writing both in a personal and professional context.

Dragon Quest is the quintessential fantasy role-playing game series. It's also regarded as the FIRST fantasy role-playing game series. But healthy dosings of repetition and copyright stranglehold has established its reputation as the most generic fantasy role-playing game series I have ever played. It made its debut in May of 1986 for the Famicom (NES in the West) and featured the work of two big names in Japan at the time. The first was character designer Akira Toriyama, who created the Dragon Ball manga series. The second was Koichi Sugiyama, who was commissioned to compose music for the game after he sent a letter to Enix Corporation, criticising their work. Flash forward ten games and thirty-three years later, both Toriyama and Sugiyama (who recently turned eighty-nine) had slapped their names onto Square Enix's latest Dragon Quest game; Echoes of an Elusive Age.

When I got Dragon Quest XI for Christmas last year, I started the game and marvelled at the gorgeous CGI trailer, with the classic Overture theme (the main theme of the series) performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. After that, I watched the CGI opening movie to start my game, but something was amiss. The music sounded terrible! But when I picked up the game, I had done some research and had found out that the Switch version contained many new features not found on PS4 or PC. The most prominent feature, and the one that still appals me to this day, is the inclusion of an orchestrated soundtrack. This feature puzzled me at first, because most games of the eighth generation that I had played, contained music that was recorded with real performers. But not Dragon Quest, as I had started playing the game with the original, MIDI soundtrack composed personally by Koichi Sugiyama, which sounded like it came from a video game thirty years ago. It was painful to my ears, and I spent a few minutes looking up how to switch to the orchestral soundtrack, and when I managed to do that, my ears let out a sigh of relief. There and then, I continued with the orchestral recordings until I eventually beat the game.

But that was not the only time Square Enix had allowed this to happen. Super Smash Bros., Ultimate, a game revered for its sheer amount of fighters, received four Dragon Quest heroes as paid DLC. The game came with a few songs from the four different games, and though there were orchestrated renditions of the songs available (the Hero trailer contained such a piece), Smash players were stuck with the MIDI renditions available by default in the game. But this wasn't the first time Square Enix had done that in Smash. Another fan-favourite franchise had gotten the Smash treatment, but Square only offered up two tracks from the 1997 game; Final Fantasy VII. Other fighters in the DLC pass, such as Joker from Persona 5, Banjo-Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie, and Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury, had received scores of tracks, including various remixes of iconic tracks. But Square didn't do this, and as a result, the words HOES MAD appeared in the comments section so often that if Famous Dex got a dollar for every time it had been said, he could buy the rights to those games and make some better songs.

Another concern that I have with Dragon Quest XI's soundtrack is its blatant homages to its previous entries. I counted all of the songs in the official soundtrack from previous games and came to the conclusion that 37 songs out of the 75 available were from previous games. Over half of the songs in this game were taken from other games, for nostalgia points. But that is not to say that they were poor choices. Some songs from prior games are simply that good to justify playing them in another game. The sea theme is mesmerising to the core, even more so with an orchestra. Despite the diverse world of Dragon Quest XI, only one overworld theme from Dragon Quest 8 covers the entirety of it. But this song is extremely serene, and it's orchestral renditions make this song one of my favourite overworld songs of all time. Ironically, a song from another game became my favourite song in this one. But what the music from prior games accomplishes so well, is to capture those tender moments in the game, like, for example, when one of the main characters dies. That music cannot capture the 'adventure' part of Dragon Quest as much as it captures the 'camaraderie' part of it.

But the sparse amount of original songs that are actually good can be counted on one hand. And even then, multiple songs share the exact same melody, just with different backing tracks and tempos. For example, four songs of differing lengths share the same motif and are played on some sort of flute, or a harp. The three original village themes have the exact same core melody, tempo and instrumental choice, just with one different backing track for each one, and they have different 'pacing'.

But I haven't mentioned the two worst offenders yet, starting with the battle theme. It tries so hard to be different from normal fighting music but it falls flat on its face. It seems to mimic a sixties spy cartoon theme song, with the tempo, and the way the trumpets slope down the notes. But, it's just bland and feels empty. Just like the regular overworld theme. The overworld theme from Dragon Quest 8 is, frankly, a godsend. Because players get to swap that song in and replace this monstrosity. First, it's unbelievably short for an overworld theme, clocking in at 1:06 for a loop of the song. If this was for one specific area, this would be fine. But this plays in every single region of the world, and that world is gargantuan, trust me. In Xenoblade Chronicles, each area had a different theme. Each of them were so long it was virtually impossible to find them repetitive. Each piece had some energy, some fervour. But not this theme. The only direction from the conductor seemed to be 'loud', and there's no time to decrease the intensity and relax. And it suffers from it.

To conclude this post, Dragon Quest XI, from a musical perspective, is a half-finished work. Half of it is an original (but mediocre) album and the other half is a 'Best of Koichi Sugiyama' compilation. While the music from previous games can sometimes earn its spot in the game, the same cannot be said about the original music; the tracks feel lacklustre when compared to the existing ones. Sugiyama's choice to create this hybrid soundtrack has significantly crippled it musically. The existing tracks that are good are unforgettable. But the rest are more than unforgettable.