The best classic game music and more
Surprised I hven't seen it posted here it yet. Bear with me, I've been drinking heavily.
Sugiyama-san passed aWay on the 30th of September, about a week ago.
It's difficult foR me to feel sad though. At 90 years of age, he lived a full life, rife with achievement. We should all feel blessed to have had The fortune of living in a world where his influence spread far and wide across the game music continuum (And through othEr avenues of Japanese music, I'm sure).
I was wondering how long he would last. 90 years is a really good run. I remember back in the early-mid 2000s, I was attempting to acquire the majority of the DQ Symphonic Suites. Probably the classiest VGM of all. Heck, I even owned Hanjuku Hero SFC OSV at one point when I was absolutely determined to own every single Squaresoft OSV/OST from FF1 to Front Mission 4.
RIP Sugiyama-san, thanks for the music and the memories. And say hi to Dio, Lemmy, Jon Lord, Tommy Bolin, EVH, Philthy Animal and "Fast" Eddie if you come across them. All legends in their own right as well.
Sugiyama might have been a truly controversial man in terms of his views, but his music still left a huge impact on videogame music, for better or worse. His melodies for Dragon Quest are the heart and soul of that franchise, so to speak. It will be difficult to imagine who will take his place or even live up to his legacy. Either way, though, the man's work will be missed.
Rest in peace. What a legend. And it was actually this site that introduced me to his music and Dragon Quest.
I will miss his music. As a fan since the nes day I was gobsmacked to learn in 2000 that there were orchestral recordings and spent a fair chunk of my first pay check ordering them from Japan. His music inspired me to write fantasy as a hobby. I remember showing Dragon Warrior III to my grandfather, raving about the music as it was like nothing else I had ever heard. That Christmas my grandfather made a mixed tape of Handel's Water Music on on one side and Tchaikovsky and Borodin on the other side. I still have the tape even after all these years.
I never managed to get to Japan or one of his Dragon Quest concerts. I hope they will continue. I also read somewhere that he finished his score to Dragon Quest 12 so we will have that to look forward to. As for the future of the series I really don't know who they would get to replace him. None of my old favourites would really fit and I know nothing about Japan's classical music scene.
May he rest in piece and may his music continue to inspire.
Dragon Quest Symphonic Suite Live Best was one of the first few orchestral game music albums I heard, and despite having almost no familiarity with the original music I was blown away. Even as late as Dragon Quest IX, Sugiyama was still composing great music for the series. I never saw him conduct but he did speak on stage at one of the Dragon Quest orchestral concerts I went to. (Qui-Gon Joe, I believe it was the Dragon Quest III concert we went to.)
There's no getting around the fact that some of the social and political beliefs he was deliberately outspoken about have left a glaring red asterisk on his legacy. As for the musical future of the Dragon Quest series, with Dragon Quest XII on the way we should know fairly soon whether it's the last all-Sugiyama soundtrack or whether a new composer will already contribute.
For any orchestral game music fans who haven't heard the series' music, especially those open to a classical bent to orchestral adventure, I highly recommend checking it out. Here's the listing of Dragon Quest soundtracks reviewed here (DQVI Symphonic Suite is the only favorite of mine I've yet to review myself, but the reader reviews for it are spot on) as well as a discussion thread where we talked about the various symphonic suites for the series.