🎶 Dragon Quest (NES) - 1986
Series: Turn-based JRPG Battle Music BreakdownThis review is part of the Battle Music Breakdown series. See all games sorted by score here.
- 🎶 Dragon Quest (NES) - 1986
Article 1 of 1 in this series.
Dragon Quest, titled Dragon Warrior when initially localized to North America, is a 1986 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was originally released in Japan in May 1986 and by Nintendo in North America in August 1989. It is the first game in the Dragon Quest video game series. Dragon Quest has been ported and remade for several video game platforms, including the MSX, MSX2, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, mobile phones, and Nintendo Switch as of 2019. The player controls the hero character who is charged with saving the Kingdom of Alefgard and rescuing its princess from the evil Dragonlord. Dragon Warrior’s story became the second part in a trilogy, with several spinoff anime and manga series. — Wikipedia
Publisher: Square Enix
Release: May 27, 1986 - Nintendo Entertainment System
Composer: Koichi Sugiyama
Links: Moby Games | RPGfan | VGMdb
Audio files from Zophar’s Domain
Screenshots from Dragon Warrior (NES) Playthrough
Battle Track(s)
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This battle track is about as basic as it comes, with 2 distinct sections before a loop. For the types of fights you face in this game it’s situationally appropriate, though the overall track is fairly short.
For such an early generation NES title, it uses the APU well, though there isn’t much variety in the instrumentation.
Boss Track(s)
The first Dragon Quest soundtrack, as we all should know, only had eight songs: opening, castle, town, field, battle, dungeon, final battle, and ending. These eight themes have been expanded and built upon in every subsequent DQ title, but they are the foundation for Sugiyama’s career.
Patrick Gann, RPGFan - 2008
This game only has 2 battle tracks - the normal battle track and the final battle track. As such we’ll have to score this category with a zero.
Final Battle Track(s)
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This track doesn’t sound “epic”, but definitely feels appropriate. Again there are maybe short movements before it loops, but for what it is - it’s fine. This doesn’t seem to capture the intensity of a final battle, but it is definitely unique to the overall soundtrack so it gets credit for being a distinct track.
Suite Checks and Final Score
The soundtrack is simplistic, but appropriate to the game. I can’t really say I “enjoyed it”, but it did help set the tone and mood for the game.