Dragon Quest VIII composer hints at holiday release

TOKYO--Kouichi Sugiyama, the composer for the Dragon Quest series, made an offhand comment yesterday that Dragon Quest VIII (called Dragon Warrior VIII in the US) will be released by the end of 2004. Square Enix has only officially announced that the PlayStation 2 role-playing game will be released in Japan sometime during winter 2004-2005.

During his 18th Dragon Quest concert, Sugiyama told the audience that the game's compositions were complete and music development will be going into the next stage. "Things are going to get busy since I'll have to begin converting the compositions into data for Dragon Quest VIII, which is going to be released during the year," he told his concert audience, which responded with a large round of applause.

GameSpot will provide more information on Dragon Quest VIII as it becomes available. The game is set for a US release sometime in 2005.