Today, Square Enix sadly announced that legendary video game composer Koichi Sugiyama had passed away on September 30th. Sugiyama had been with the company since its Enix days in 1985, where he created the soundtrack to the original Dragon Quest for the NES. He would go on to create a legacy by composing songs for the franchise for the next 35 years, including every mainline entry all the way up to Dragon Quest XI, and the many spinoffs, like Dragon Quest Builders, Dragon Quest Monsters, and more. Prior to his death, he was also working on tracks for the still in development Dragon Quest XII. His musical talent was important enough for Japan to honor him with an award of Person of Cultural Merit in 2020, and his composition of one of the Dragon Quest themes was featured in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Source

 

[eyeliner]

Never really liked Dragon Quest (the art style is just...eeeehhh, I've seen better), but now what are they gonna do for future games? They could reuse music from this guy's impressive library, but for new tracks they'd have to hire someone new, who will not sound the same.

Apparently, from this thread, at least, the music isn't that varied. I don't really know, because Toryama's art freaks me out as the characters are all the same, except the hairstyle.
I never got the urge to play any game because of it, despite being regarded as very good games.

Oh well, man died. Bring another one. Cheaper, preferably.

We will all die. Some of us are gonna suffer. And die with anal leakage. Wearing diapers. And farting.

 

[DuoForce]

A fantastic composer who lived a full and long life. Very happy he made all the music he did. Maybe someday we will get to hear his music in smash assuming Hero makes it in next game (since Sugiyama won't be around to stop it)

 

[Ryab]

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Today, Square Enix sadly announced that legendary video game composer Koichi Sugiyama had passed away on September 30th. Sugiyama had been with the company since its Enix days in 1985, where he created the soundtrack to the original Dragon Quest for the NES. He would go on to create a legacy by composing songs for the franchise for the next 35 years, including every mainline entry all the way up to Dragon Quest XI, and the many spinoffs, like Dragon Quest Builders, Dragon Quest Monsters, and more. Prior to his death, he was also working on tracks for the still in development Dragon Quest XII. His musical talent was important enough for Japan to honor him with an award of Person of Cultural Merit in 2020, and his composition of one of the Dragon Quest themes was featured in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Source

Now is not a time to argue about his ideologies. Now is the time to mourn his passing and praise his art.

 

[Vappy]

are you even a real sugiyama fan if you aren't celebrating the death of someone you hate

 

[Deleted member 546149]

Very sad day

 

[the_randomizer]

are you even a real sugiyama fan if you aren't celebrating the death of someone you hate

What the hell does that mean?

 

[ZipMartin]

Lucky him there's no hell. May he rot in peace

 

[LightBeam]

For the people saying to separate the man from the artist, and thats its a loss for DQ, just remember thats the DQ musics are always THE SAMES since a while ago, there was no innovation in it, so good for nostalgia, but nothing new
The guy policies on licences made it a nightmare for the different localizations of games. Basically when he made licences and contract when recording orchestral music he would refuse to extand them for different localization, and thats why you could have orchestral musics in the JP version, and MIDI for the rest of the world.
Also i read somewhere that in his original contract when DQ was made they basically chained themselves to him for the musics, they were forced to go to him for anything musical for DQ. So he could enforce his conditions on anything for music or there was no DQ to be made, they couldnt get rid of him if they wanted.
My opinion on his late work on DQ was "maximized cash grab"

While the death of someone is always sad, and he did had talent, he had a long life, and the thing that come to mind while thinking about this new and the futur of DQ is "Dobby is freeeee!"

Completely agree
His original work is really so damn good, but he wasn't a good guy and obviously the musics were always the same.
I do hope that the franchise will now get better now that he is gone, hoping it'll start with DQ XII
People should stop being that angry about people celebrating his death lmao, some say that you should separate the art from the artist, well then I praise the art and despise the artist and of course I'm glad that he is gone because literally, the franchise can only get better now. I'm just glad that we can sometimes get rid of bad people, doesn't mean I dislike his original work on the franchise. Can't blame people for saying good riddance, I'm not expecting people to mourn the death of such a guy, no matter his work. And again, doesn't mean you can't enjoy his music.
For DQ, it's clearly not a loss

 

[DannX]

I had no idea he was so old, I find it amazing that he was still working on DQ, even if his music did get repetitive, his battle tracks were so catchy, I can still hum most of them and often do so.

May he rest in peace

 

[such]

What the hell does that mean?

It means he seemed like quite the hateful man for denying something like the Nanjing Massacre, and, presumably, that you'd have to be similarly disagreeable if you enjoy his work unconditionally.

I can separate the artist from the work, but that's an astute post everyone should think on a bit before (/instead of) picking their side of the fence on the topic of Sugiyama fandom.

 

[duelistjp]

his views were definitely out there although the particual wikipedia article that has been repeatedly linked in this thread lists views that aren't entirely wrong. the outrage on the abuses of comfort women during the war has led to unfair generalizations across the entire group when the atrocities committed were against a subset and the backlash against patriotism he mentioned has contributed to there not being a nuanced discussion of the topic. just like how there was a lot of modernization of germany under the nazis that bringing up will get you arrested there. He was completely right that the movement to end nuclear power in japan without a reasonable replacement plan in place was shortsighted and bad for the country. His comments on LGBQT were pretty bad but the part about the birth rate being a concern from the perspective of the government is a valid one. declining populations are horrible for countries economic health as a whole. whether it is important enough to discourage that community is of course not even in doubt but in any consideration of the group in japan that would need to be considered as almost any public policy needs to consider its effect on birth rates there in order to consider its effect on the country as a whole as declining population is pretty much the greatest threat economically the country faces at the moment.

there were things not mentioned on wikipedia that were significantly less easy to defend i'll admit

so yeah his views were distasteful often but often not completely without merit and he was an absolute genius composer who made dq rise from mediocrity almost purely on the strength of its music and the franchise will never be the same again. some discussion of his views is relevent to this thread as a thread about his death is inherently about his life but posts celebrating his death are at least every bit as bad as what he has espoused during his life

 

[Fugelmir]

It means he seemed like quite the hateful man for denying something like the Nanjing Massacre, and, presumably, that you'd have to be similarly disagreeable if you enjoy his work unconditionally.

I can separate the artist from the work, but that's an astute post everyone should think on a bit before (/instead of) picking their side of the fence on the topic of Sugiyama fandom.

He really opened my eyes. I didn't realize the whole Nanjing Massacre thing was propaganda created on a studio in Burbank.

 

[such]

And right next door they were doing pre-production on the moon landing. That one took them a while, admittedly...

His comments on LGBQT were pretty bad but the part about the birth rate being a concern from the perspective of the government is a valid one.

I do wonder how receptive he would've been if someone told him he should start hooking up with guys for the fatherland.

There's nuance, then there's being the devil's advocate, and then there's being a dick.

 

[LightBeam]

It means he seemed like quite the hateful man for denying something like the Nanjing Massacre, and, presumably, that you'd have to be similarly disagreeable if you enjoy his work unconditionally.

I can separate the artist from the work, but that's an astute post everyone should think on a bit before (/instead of) picking their side of the fence on the topic of Sugiyama fandom.

I swear people can't just acknowledge the fact that he was a horrible human being while still being able to enjoy his music in his games.

he was an absolute genius composer who made dq rise from mediocrity almost purely on the strength of its music and the franchise will never be the same again

You can't be for real lmao
Sure, the music was a great part of the franchise, but again it didn't changed after a while and it didn't « rise from mediocrity », the DQ games in itself are hella good, you can't have such a popular game just with good music.
And sure, the franchise may never be the same anymore but he won't be such a pain in the ass.

 

[Fugelmir]

I swear people can't just acknowledge the fact that he was a horrible human being while still being able to enjoy his music in his games.

Well, I buy shit off amazon that's made in China likely under poor work conditions. They kidnapped 2 of my nations citizens for years and use Uighur muslim slaves.

I want to enjoy my life -- gotta pick battles carefully as time and resources are finite.

 

[such]

I swear people can't just acknowledge the fact that he was a horrible human being while still being able to enjoy his music in his games.

I think @duelistjp is on to something here. Sugiyama being an oldschool Japanese nationalist isn't terribly compatible with the way we're conditioned to think. To a contemporary western perspective trying to understand his position is probably akin to us trying to understand his views literally when someone put those through Google Translate for our convenience. Twice.

I don't know about him being a horrible human being, but he's definitely a dick who seems like he'd put the well-being of a person - any person, LGBTQ or else - lower than the well-being of the state on his priority list. Can't say I'm a fan of that.

But he did make some nice music in his lifetime.

 

[LightBeam]

Well, I buy shit off amazon that's made in China likely under poor work conditions. They kidnapped 2 of my nations citizens for years and use Uighur muslim slaves.

I want to enjoy my life -- gotta pick battles carefully as time and resources are finite.

I mean to me it's fine to be aware of such things and at least trying to reduce your impact on those things. I can't expect everyone to be perfect on that matter too, especially when there's little to no alternative
I mean, if people weren't replacing their phones every year and buying 10$ shirts that they don't wear, it would already be a bit better and I don't think you don't enjoy life when you refrain from buying stuff like that

I think @duelistjp is on to something here. Sugiyama being an oldschool Japanese nationalist isn't terribly compatible with the way we're conditioned to think. To a contemporary western perspective trying to understand his position is probably akin to us trying to understand his views literally when someone put those through Google Translate for our convenience. Twice.

I don't know about him being a horrible human being, but he's definitely a dick who seems like he'd put the well-being of a person - any person, LGBTQ or else - lower than the well-being of the state on his priority list. Can't say I'm a fan of that.

But he did make some nice music in his lifetime.

Yeah I felt like he was just sooo old, reading into the massacre thing, it looks like the controversy started a few decades ago, so combined with his ultra nationalist views, it's easy to see why he bought into this. Tho he really didn't wanted to adapt his views and evolve, that's a bummer but yeah, not everyone is able to do that.
Maybe « horrible human being » is a bit much. I think I used this word because I tend to exagerate a bit in french but when I translate myself in english it doesn't sound like I want it to, but yeah I guess I would say he's just a regular pos since there are a lot of people like him (without the music of course), definitely not a good guy to me so I don't see why I should mourn his death. I separate the artist from the art : the art is still there, I don't mourn the artist. Simple as that.

 

[GoldAnthro]

byebye. sympathy to incocent family and friends and that's it. All things considered he was lucky to live to 90 when most people that ARE kind and loving don't live a fraction of that.

 

[Fugelmir]

byebye. sympathy to incocent family and friends and that's it. All things considered he was lucky to live to 90 when most people that ARE kind and loving don't live a fraction of that.

All hail the king of determining who is kind and loving.

 

[Valwinz]

God bless him he accomplish more than anyone of the losers Mad at him. Keep crying