Recently, this soundtrack just arrived in the mail for me.  I have taken a listen to it, and I must say that I was quite pleased.  Koichi Sugiyama only does five tracks (four of which are recycled from other games), but the remaining score is by Kimitake Matsumae.  The compositions themselves are of the classical style you'd expect from DRAGON QUEST, although I do have to confess that, perhaps due to the fact that this game is an "on the rails" type of game, the music sounds more bolder and "epic."  But it's quite good, and it pleases me to know that Wii soundtracks are finally trickling out.  I should also mention that the synth quality on the soundtrack is very good.  It's not super-crisp quality, but it's definitely on par.  There aren't a lot of tracks on this album that scream "classic" to me, but I'm certain that fans of the music from this series will devour it.

-Jon T.

It's definitely a solid soundtrack, I was pretty impressed myself.  My guess is Koichi is probably done composing, but I'm happy if this is his replacement.   Take a listens to the music from Area 52 (UN Squadron is the US title), it's amazing. Maybe we'll see some different arrange albums instead of the generic Symphonic Suite, Brass *, String *, Piano * stuff.  Let's see a rock arrange, or even a shooter style trance album!

My guess is Koichi is probably done composing, but I'm happy if this is his replacement.

Or he could be busy writing DQ9...

Yeah, don't know if you guys read all the press release stuff on IGN about Dragon Quest IX, but Sugiyama was quoted as saying he'd compose Dragon Quest until the day he dies.  I think that means we can expect to see him on the core series... until he dies. 

That comment really increased my admiration for him.  What a guy!

Of course, considering how many copies a DQ game, no matter WHAT the spinoff, sells, it's quite likely that part of that reason is monetary.

Just sayin.

-Joshua

Not to split hairs, but it's his wife who composes this game.

With regard to Sugiyama being not a main composer, according to an interview, he had to let someone take over the job since it was too hard for him to beat this game, while he usually scores a game after beating it by himself. It sounds funny yet reasonable, given his age and this is an action game.

Cedille, that is so awesome.  I can't believe he plays through the DQ games.  They're pretty hard as is.  Anyway, I wish every composer would play through the game before scoring it.  That is absolutely amazing.

Oh I didin't know that, that's awesome and reasussring.

He actually played through all 100+ hours of DQ7? Ambitious man...

Very interesting and amusing claims about Sugiyama 

It's an int'resting notion, but it sounds like shim-sham to me. Anyone who's in charge of providing music for a game will always have easy access to cheats, should they get stuck.
Composers are in a binding contract with their respective companies and something as trivial as 'I'm no good at action games' could only affect the choice of musician in a country as eccentric as Japan, so then again maybe I'm totally wrong here.
I guess when you have your own record label that you can have cameos from whoever you're good friends with and trust to do at least a decent job.

On a different note, it looks like Toriyama is a fan of Ayami Kojima (that heroine on the cover looks just like Maria R. circa 1997)