ELF Corporation's Dragon Knight 4 landed on PC-98 in 1994 and brought a massive step up in musical ambition from its predecessor. "Opening - take the offensive" sets an aggressive, forward-charging tone that matches the game's shift toward a more strategy-driven combat system.
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The track names read like a vocabulary list of human emotions and impulses: "selfishness," "despair," "prejudice," "inconstancy." There's something almost literary about how the composers labeled these pieces. The FM synthesis work here pushes the PC-98 hardware hard.
"divine punishment" hits with righteous fury, "raid" and "irruption" deliver the tactical battle intensity, and "close in upon the enemy" ratchets up the tension for late-game encounters. But the quieter moments land just as well.
"presence of mind" carries a meditative calm, "pitiful" aches with genuine sadness, and "indulge in idle reverie" drifts into something dreamy and introspective. "it's a monkey rhythm" is the oddball track that every RPG soundtrack needs.
The bookends tell the whole story. From the aggressive opening through thirty-plus tracks of war, emotion, and adventure, all the way to "Ending - grow light," which blooms into something warm and resolute. "Medley - baloques" stitches key themes together for anyone who wants the condensed experience.
Quirky names like "comic market" and "the Festival of the Star Vega" hint at the game's lighter side-content between the battles. A complete music file that earns the word complete.