Dragon Quest XI Mod Replaces All Music With a Live Orchestra

It doesn't matter where you look, odds are every "top RPG series" listicle you find online will include Dragon Quest. The franchise has won the hearts of millions over the years. Evidence of the community's dedication can be seen in a recently released PC mod, which replaces all of the music in Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age with an actual orchestra.

Simply titled the Orchestral Overhaul Mod, this PC modification replaces the synthetic strings and midi-set sounds with live orchestra recreations. the official "launch" for the mod was posted on the Steam forums by user Canzah.

"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."

Given the already orchestral nature of the original songs, you may not think it'd make that much of a difference.

Well, you'd be wrong.

The improvement in quality does tremendous things to the atmospheric feeling of the game. Don't believe us? Compare for yourself. Below are two videos. One is a longform walkthrough of the game, timestamped at 40 minutes. This is precisely when the player enters Puerto Valor. The second video is gameplay with the Orchestral Overhaul Mod in the same location.





For more information on how to install the mod for yourself, check out the Steam Forums listing.