The “Dragon Quest Monsters” titles, being side-story games, didn’t get a real orchestra. Instead, they get the next best thing: a synthesized orchestra!
Tracks 1 through 15 are the arranged tracks, and 16 through 32 are the OST tracks (the additional tracks here are 17 and 32, having not been arranged on the first section). About 60% of the compositions are original, and the other 40% (six tracks per section) are the “field” themes from the first six Dragon Quest installments.
Now, this may come as a surprise to some, but I really enjoyed the OSt tracks. Coming from a GameBoy Color title (which has the same sound capabilities as the original GameBoy), only 3 synth tracks are available at any given time, which forces a composer to limit what they’re putting into the game. These limitations made some of these songs surprisingly beautiful, especially the six “field” themes from previous DQ titles.
The final battle and end credits music also struck me as being well-written pieces. In fact, the final battle music here is, in my opinion, superior to many other battle themes Sugiyama has written over the years.
This soundtrack comes highly recommended, if you can find it. There are a lot of obscure Dragon Quest albums out there, but this OST/synth arrange for a special little GBC game makes me extremely happy every time I listen to it.
