The most recent recordings for the Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites was done by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Relative to the other DQ titles, DQ I and II generally don't get much love. And when they do, they are grouped together because their total span of music fits on one disc. For the first time in a long time, however, Sugiyama saw fit to give Dragon Quest II its own place in the spotlight. And it was a good choice.

Though it only comes to 38 minutes of total time, this disc is an excellent one. Many people have criticized the Tokyo Metropolitan recordings for normalizing the volume and cutting the highs and lows too much. Though I acknowledge this complaint, and the validity to it, I actually found myself more impressed by this recording than any other for Dragon Quest II. Thanks to solid mixing and production, this is the cleanest performance for Dragon Quest II's music to date.

There are a lot of classic songs in Dragon Quest II, though there are also some very weak compositions (relative to Sugiyama's body of work). "Requiem," "Only Lonely Boy," "Endless World," and "My Road My Journey" all stand out as winners in my book.

If you want a complete collection of Dragon Quest Symphonic Suites, the most easily obtainable are these prints from Aniplex that have come from the Tokyo Metropolitan... and even if you collect older albums as well, I personally recommend you get this album to cover the second entry in the series.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann