Dragon Quest Composer Koichi Sugiyama Has Passed Away

If I made a list of my top ten videogame soundtracks of all time, half of them would be by Koichi Sugiyama. Rest in peace, Maestro!

Some great memories and emotions thanks to him.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cU1OxBdlFdE

Irrelevant of the guys personal stances, I loved the Dragon Quest music. RIP.

Condolences to his family and colleagues. Can't say I'm a fan of his for obvious reasons but it'll be interesting to see where DQ soundtracks go from here. I hear his protégé is very talented though

I'm torn because I did not like the man at all due to his homophobic, and nationalist tendencies, but at the same time his music was amazing. I hope he is resting in peace, and that the things haunting him in his head are no more.

He was a great but difficult composer, and Dragon Quest will suffer in the music department, but will probably find a sense of moving on in a different direction without him.

Please forgive me if this offended any
one that is reading this, but this is my take. He lived a controversial life, and it's hard for some to separate that from his brilliant work.

This is probably going to be a common theme with all the comment sections regarding Sugiyama's death: I strongly disagree with a lot of his... opinions, but his compositions have been stuck in my head ever since the original Dragon Warrior on NES. May he rest in peace and condolences to his loved ones.

I prefer to separate the work from the opinions of the creator. While I don't agree on any of his stances he is no doubt in my mind a great composer and gave Dragon Quest a big part of its identity.

I feel very sad when I see ignorant people who cannot distinguish between Koichi's views and his work. They make sentences like I'm sorry if I'm not shedding tears here. It is very frustrating that people like this live instead of those who add something to people's lives.

It'll be GREAT to see if any of the above hate speech directed towards this composer is moderated, like on other threads. We will see, I suppose.

It takes a true coward to use the death of another to push agenda.

He was a great composer, and I'll be singing his songs to my grave, for sure. Dragon Warrior II is my favorite RPG of all time, and I'm pleased to hear Sugiyama's music from that game any time of day.

I'll be thinking my quiet thank you, as I listen peacefully. I implore others to do the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENQ6mUPB2sE&ab_channel=GBelair

@LillianC14 I'm queer, trans, and also equally annoyed with this guy, but I'm still going to mourn his death. Death is death. There is no coming back as far as we know.

Gonna separate the art from the artist here and say that his music will be missed.

A great composer and a sketchy human. Rest in peace.

i stand by my hope that the orchestral music has less of a death-grip on it in the coming years, otherwise see HarvestGoddess' post for a better written version of my comment earlier
@BloodNinja ...what agenda is being pushed, exactly? i think it's rather normal to acknowledge someone's peaks and nadirs when they pass, and judging by the consensus so far of "his music was good, but he wasn't the best guy," that's not controversial to say

@BloodNinja There's a difference between hate-speech and people respecting his death while giving their opinion on the man as he was in life.

Usually comments are deleted when people are just being d***s, unless I'm unaware of some new trend which started happening on this website.

What I'm reading above is people acknowledging his talent and putting their feelings towards the person's political stance aside in order to mourn the loss of said person and talent, nothing more. If you're seeing more than I am then I'm lost. You seemed to have gained severe passive aggression towards members of this site and the writers, and I'm really confused why you are still present. You mentioned the other day that you work, so clearly you have things to take care of, why spend your time just fueling arguments and informing everybody of your passionate negativity? It's just odd.

I don't think I've seen a completely positive comment from you in something like a year. This applies to articles on new games, Nintendo Directs, any sort of new hardware and now apparently even a death of a famous composer. Like, dude, I don't know if you can see that making a petty drama on an article about a person's death is a very low and disrespectful thing to do.

@Varkster If you think it's okay for others to call strangers homophobes in the wake of their death, then may your ears become cabbages and your tongue a sausage. A little forgiveness never killed anybody.

And in response to your hastily made edit, pay closer attention, or pay none at all.

on a tangential note, did anyone else know he did the music for Ideon? I've seen some people today say they only knew him from that, which is shocking

@BloodNinja I proof-read my comments and add more onto them if I think there is more that needs to be said.

Yes, you starting drama on an article about a composer's death is immature and should be embarrassing, not to me, but to you. If I were you, I'd take a deep breath, step back and look at what you're trying to instigate on a topic which has no business to be involved with your bs agenda of writing attacks on every single topic on this website.

If this was the first time you were throwing shade at people I wouldn't have even noticed or budged, but this is a constantly happening thing which becomes hard not to notice and I imagine a lot of people on this website feel the same way, whether they tell you or not.

There are times when it's just best to relax and take your fingers away from the keyboard instead of trying to prove a point. You don't see me going to funerals of a person who died from smoking screaming "I told all you idiots that smoking is bad for your lungs".

He was a real genius, a proper master.

I remember the shock that it was to my ears when I launched Dragon Quest VIII on my PS2, back then (we had the version with orchestral music). It was just phenomenal.

The Dragon Quest theme is so emblematic. It just screams at you the word "Adventure !". Pure magic.

Thanks for everything you gave us, Mister Sugiyama.

His music is an integral factor in the enjoyment I take from playing Dragon Quest.

Regardless of how he lived, no one should have to die of septic shock/sepsis/septicemia. It is a rather painful way to go.

And I should know: I lost both of my grandfathers (both WWII U.S. Army veterans, albeit in the European theater) to sepsis, one of them who died three years before I was even born, the other on the mend from a routine surgery in June 2001.

And I say that as a trans person myself. I would never wish harm or death on anyone, even if they would rather see me dead simply because I exist.

I am glad he is no longer suffering, and my heart goes out to those who loved him, both his family and friends, and for those who loved him for his work.

@Damo the show itself is pretty alright, but the movie's a real killer!

The man was instrumental in shaping the identity of Dragon Quest and the JRPG. Unfortunately I’m not going to overlook the kind of person he was underneath, nor should anyone, but I’m looking forward to seeing how his monumental musical legacy is carried on.

@Damo Death is a person's ultimate release. We can pin labels to them all we want, but it no longer serves any purpose. The person is gone, and the only thing left for us to do is ponder the remainder of our own existences, while remembering or forgetting memories we may have of the deceased. It's highly strange that someone can post that Sugiyama was a homophobe, hide behind their rainbow flag, and when I call them out on their language it gets put back on me. Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. Ban me or delete my posts over it, but I know who I am and I know what I'm about, and I'm glad I called the person out. If anyone is fanning the flames, it's the people tossing around all the 'phobe words, needlessly.