Though you can get the London Philharmonic recording of Dragon Quest I and II on the same disc, the option also exists to purchase Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite, with the Super Famicom OST tracks, as a separate disc from Sony Records.

If you like Super Famicom synth, that's an excellent reason to pick up this album. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the Music Effect Collection (track 18) on this disc. Classic noises, but 16-bit subdued instead of 8-bit grainy.

The OST has one minor difference from the Symphonic Suite layout: the track "People" is broken into two tracks, with the "Interlude" music coming first. The traditional way to present this music is to put the two melodies in one track, as is the case with the Symphonic Suite recording.

The album is short, and is a hard find. So it's good for collectors, but as for enjoyment of the actual music, either the SPE print of Dragon Quest I+II or the Tokyo Metropolitan print of DQI Symphonic Suite would provide greater enjoyment for the average listener.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann