Music is relative. It effects us in such a personal way that we can't possibly hope to describe the extent of that effect to anyone. It's why we are so protective (and sometimes even snobby) about it. Your personal taste in music will always be better to you than anyone else. So it's best to probably just accept that.

Here I will weekly (heh...) choose a piece of game music that I love and share it! Then talk about it. Not too complex, but I hope it's something you'll enjoy!

Sound Test: Dragon Quest V- Ocean Voyage



I've had to scrape for ideas lately because I've been listening to podcasts more than video game music. However, I keep finding that even when I do resort to scraping for ideas, I always find one piece of music that has effected me lately. It's cool.

Anyway, Dragon Quest V!! Dragon Quest (Warrior) was the first game I ever purchased for my NES. I thought that it had passable, yet not necessarily good, music and that's how I generally have felt about the series as a whole. However, Nintendo Power released an "RPG Special" issue last month and I've vowed to read every RPG related article in it.

I came to the Dragon Quest V article and... moved on. I mean, what is there to say right? You're gonna walk around and grind levels in this very predictable RPG that causes the Japanese to shat themselves. Wrong. Feeling convicted about skipping the article, I went back to read through it. Turns out that Dragon Quest V (for the SNES) was probably the best in the series and showed a level of innovation that was rare for an RPG at that point in time.

In fact, it was so innovative that the game spans THREE generations of heroes (your father, you, and then your son). You can even choose who you want to marry in the game. Also, it included a monster recruitment system that went on to inspire the Pokemon games! After hearing all this, I was not only extremely pumped for the DS remake, I wanted to play it IMMEDIATELY. So I not-downloaded a not-translated rom of the original SNES game.

That's when it happened... After a simple (yet hauntingly emotional) prologue, the game's title displays with the Dragon Quest theme blaring in all it's glory. Then the game moves to you as a child, on a ship with your father. You wake from a dream and your father tells you to go outside and check out the ship... That's when it happens. After the title screen, there is no music. Everything is silent. Then, you go upstairs. Watch and listen closely to the video below.



Did you catch it? When I played, I walked a bit slower than this person and selected "Door" from the menu instead of hitting the "X" button. So, when I went up stairs, the melody of the flute started playing and when I exited to the bow of the ship, THAT is when the full song started. It was almost like, that's the point that you see the world of Dragon Quest V and the first time you're open to explore on your own. It was a very personal experience that's hard to explain, if you haven't played this game I would encourage you to do so. Sorry this post is so long! Enjoy the music!

PS2 Remake Version: