Unlike the last grand console adventure in the Dragon Quest series, the music in Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age is entirely synthesized. Some Dragon Quest enthusiasts were disappointed by this perceived step backwards, especially since Dragon Quest 8 on PS2 had a lushly orchestrated soundtrack. If you're among the disappointed, never fear: a mod has been released that lets you replace all the music in DQ11 with pre-existing orchestral versions of the songs.
"The goal of this mod is to provide the proper auditory experience that is deserving of this masterpiece of a game by applying all available orchestral variants of the songs present in the game, as composed by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra," reads the official description.
It's the work of four modders who adapted the work from pre-existing Symphonic Suites. It wasn't enough to simply plug those audio files into the game: loop points needed to be created, variations in volume needed to be smoothed out, and FMV sequences needed to altered. Plus more work besides, which is why the mod has been in development since the game launched on PC.
"This was an extremely time consuming and passion-driven project for everyone involved with it," wrote one of the modders. "Our team appreciates your love for the Dragon Quest games and all the words of support we received since the announcement of this mod. The team REFUSES and will NOT accept any form of donation for this project, everyone on the team loves these games as much as you and believe that this is the absolute best way to experience one of the best entries in the series."
You can find a tutorial on how to install the mod on Dragon Quest 11's Steam community.
