Music

Famicom / NES - 1986–1990

The Famicom Era

The Famicom scores - Dragon Quest I through IV - were composed for the Ricoh 2A03 chip: two pulse-wave channels, one triangle, one noise, one DPCM. Within those constraints Sugiyama produced some of his most celebrated work.

SNES / Super Famicom - 1992–1995

The Super Famicom Era

The SNES SPC700 chip offered sample-based instruments and much richer polyphony. Dragon Quest V and VI sound noticeably closer to the orchestral recordings - though Sugiyama still maintained a separate NHK Symphony Suite for each title.

Symphonic Suite - NHK & London Philharmonic

Orchestral Recordings

The Symphonic Suite series represents the music as Sugiyama conceived it - the full orchestral statement rather than the chip-music arrangement. The NHK Symphony recordings (1986–1996) and London Philharmonic re-recordings (2001–2019) are the primary musical text of the Dragon Quest franchise.