The Dragon Quest composer, Koichi Sugiyama, was responsible for over a staggering 500 tracks featured in the series and h
Koichi Sugiyama’s influence on video games was of immense nature, as he was responsible for composing music in every Square Enix Dragon Quest title to date. A track titled “Chosen Fate no Haze” for the 12th title was his last project.
As the official Dragon Quest blog reports, Sugiyama died on September 30, of septic shock. He leaves behind a massive legacy and unfillable shoes, as his soundtracks were iconic and coincided with the series as well as the Akira Toriyama visuals.
Sugiyama added a unique view on composing music for video games and anime considering he was classically trained at a young age, which led to him becoming an inspiration to many other composers following in his footsteps. Sugiyama’s signature styling is inspired by the Baroque era of music.
His initial interaction to become the composer for Square Enix’s series was due to a letter of condemnation of their shogi simulators for PC, in which Square responded with shock that a celebrity of his calibre wrote, and was impressed by the vast knowledge Sugiyama had for video games, as explained in an interview from Forbes.
Along with legendary artist Akira Toriyama, and designer Yuji Horii, Sugiyama was one of the three founding members of the Dragon Quest series. His other works include music inclusions in Return of Ultraman, a Godzilla film, and all the animated series adaptations of Dragon Quest.
However, Sugiyama held controversial views on many political topics. He was a well known Nanjing Massacre denialist, who saw ire from the public. In 2007, the Washington Post published a paid advertisement titled “The Facts” which included his name in the signatories in opposition of the United States asking for an apology for Japan’s use of ‘comfort women.’ In 2015, on a Japanese Culture show titled Hi Izuru Kuni Yori, Sugiyama claimed there was no need for teaching about LGBTQ+ in their school system due to the lack of children born in regards, while also dismissing the suicide rates in the country.
The family of Sugiyama requested that no fans send any gifts, and his funeral was attended by only close relatives. A farewell party will be held at a later date.
