-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Koichi Sugiyama, composer of Dragon Quest, has passed away (SEE STAFF POST)
- Thread starter Hayama Akito
- Start date
I'd say childish behavior is claiming you know what other people here have went through and basing your judgment of them in complete nonsense.
Anyway, looking forward to the eventual trump death thread. I imagine lots of 400-something post accounts from 2017 will come out of the woodwork to wag fingers and say "ackchyually you're morally not any better for mocking his death", then feel like they've dropped the philosophical world's collective wisdom with their post.
Dragon Quest 8 overworld theme is one of the most beautiful and best out there. I loved the man's work but he had some fucked up views. Wish he wasn't such an asshole in life. Oh well.
Incredible post.
One of my friends died recently (he lost control of his car in the rain), and your anecdote about your family makes me think about what his family is enduring as they try to make sense of his loss. It hurts to lose a friend, but I can only imagine how it feels for your dad to lose a son, or for you to lose a brother, all those years ago. My condolences.
I'm a big believer that our loved ones are more than flesh and blood, that their essence or "will" transcends all of that, and is conveniently portable -- internalized, in your heart.
I'm also the spiritual sort -- I like to think there's some higher benevolent force at work in the universe, a force of love and mercy -- but I think that anyone can internalize love, no matter their worldview or inclination.
You just remember that at the end of the day, your brother's love was at its core unchanging. His will is for you and your family to be happy. That's his essence, his true form -- always alive, in you and yours.
And, back to the topic at hand, if you reclaimed Sugiyama's music in a way that gave you that strength -- that's good. Your experiences make that music your own.
Sugiyama may have tried to weaponize his fortune against vulnerable groups, but everyone is free to reappropriate his works as a source of strength instead -- including the people he oppressed.
And frankly, I think that outcome is a more poetic form of justice than any ill someone could wish on him in the hereafter.
It's funny how the people who act like they are morally above everyone else can never say anything against this.
everyone in this thread is so childish and wrong it's disgusting… it's clear that he's not resting in peace. that mf is in HELL and it's GREAT!!!
Nicely said, and thanks for taking the time to write all of that out. Being a big DQ fan has -- from the musical side of things -- been frustrating to say the least, for the reasons that have been cited many times. As someone who is statistically past the halfway point in my own life, I think about this stuff a lot... what we leave behind, what we'll look back on, what impact we've had on others, what we feel we should have done or done more of, etc. I hate what Sugiyama has done to tarnish/damage this series, the marginalized, and our enjoyment of playing these games, but I do look forward to seeing where DQ will go now that it is hopefully free of these shackles. It makes me even more excited about DQ12 if the OST's creation hasn't been initiated.
I lost a friend in the last year to Covid. I have lost family members over the years. I am 49. None of these people did anything to bring abject misery to many many people. We aren't talking a few people here. He denied the Rape of Nanking, he denied all the atrocities during WWII, he used his money to spread his misery.
He has gone out of his way to belittle the LBGT+ community again using his money to actively do so. Many of the things he has done would get him arrested for hate crimes in other countries.
So no, I think it is a perfectly natural reaction to actively celebrate the death of such a hateful piece of shit. I find response like yours more childish as it means we are all emotionless and should mourn bigots.
I've lost several that I've been close to, including my father who passed at a much younger age than 90. Sugiyama can get fucked, regardless of whatever headass imaginary concept of adulthood you think is to suddenly show respect to someone despicable just because they're dead.
For all the reasons already listed here, I will not mourn him. His music legacy doesn't trump his vile actions.
I just played the first Dragon Quest about two months ago now on my Famicom and it held up surprisingly well. It was cool to hear the music on original hardware and get that special feeling kids in the 80s in Japan must have felt. 90 is a good long life. It also means the man was well into his 50s when he composed the score for Dragon Quest. That's pretty late to add something that impactful to your career! Never too late I guess.
A lot of early industry legends are getting up there in age. I don't look forward to the eventual threads for people like Miyamoto, Kondo, Tezuka, and the like. It must have been an exciting time to be working right at the beginnings of a brand new medium. I may have only just played my first Dragon Quest game; but rest in peace, Sugiyama.
A lot of early industry legends are getting up there in age. I don't look forward to the eventual threads for people like Miyamoto, Kondo, Tezuka, and the like. It must have been an exciting time to be working right at the beginnings of a brand new medium. I may have only just played my first Dragon Quest game; but rest in peace, Sugiyama.
DQ lives and breathes nostalgia, so they'll have to defer to his estate to keep using the music they will inevitably want.
I have lost two of my grandparents and also witnessed the loss of my grand grandma when i was 12. It was a horrifying experience.
And Sugiyama can fuck off to the sun. I will celebrate his death. One less hateful old bigot in this world is always better. Especially as a Chinese trans women (who actually had the experience of working with Square Enix I might want to add, seeing I no longer work in the game industry I feel safe to say). He probably thinks I'm cheaper than dirt.
There's really no sense in attempting revisionist history like I've seen from some people in the thread, the man made some great music despite being an absolutely vile shithead.
Like you said, one can only hope his successor brings back the magic of the older games. Or hell surpasses them even.
Or if he needs a flashlight to see with his head so far up his rectum?
Lost my father a few years ago to cancer and I will gladly dance on the grave of bigots.
I wouldn't hold your breath, I bet they keep the music largely the same. It's iconic.
The "he was bad but his music was great" makes the first half of the statement seems disingenuous.
The talk of Sugiyama's war crime denial prompted me to do some research on said war crimes. Jesus Christ, I was not prepared for some of that shit. Disgusting.
Yeah, he's full-on garbage. It's why I couldn't really mess with DQ after I found out, even though I thought VIII was great I never ended up buying another.
Separating the man from the creation.
As creator, RIP. Great OSTs, with some inspirational tones all across the world.
As the man... Well, I wish the most sincere condolences to the family.
As creator, RIP. Great OSTs, with some inspirational tones all across the world.
As the man... Well, I wish the most sincere condolences to the family.
Say I'm thread whining or whatever but the OP and title are really lacking any context on what kind of human being he was.
The impact of his Dragon Quest music will be felt for a long time. The "past" overworld music from DQ7 remains my favorite track in the franchise.
The "fun" part of japan and its war crimes is that it gained immunity from prosecution for sharing its torture-driven data to the US.
Kohei Tanaka is a great composer. He has also worked on beloved games like the Sakura Wars series, Alundra, Gravity Rush, and Resonance of Fate (he scored the cutscenes while Sakuraba did the battle music).
Aside from the Overture, it feels like this is the best opportunity we have to actually get someone new. The question is who: Yoko Shimomura has come up a bunch of times here, but Square rarely share composes between IPs.
shimomura's a free agent and she's done stuff for a whole lot of different square IPs. she headlines KH, but was also behind the main motifs in XV and has done work on the mana series over the years and that's just for square
i don't think it'll be her, but there's really nothing stopping her on square's side
Great idea! Why don't you lead by example and not post in this tread?
I don't think there is that much disdain for him outside of places like Era in the west, tbh.
This is the only website where I ever really heard anything about his political views.
