Dragon Quest XI, the newest entry into the legendary JRPG series which pretty much invented the genre, is finally available on PC since earlier this month. Gamers in the West had to wait a long time to get their hands on the massive RPG while in Japan DQXI has been available for over a year already. The long waiting time has a pretty good reason however, as the Japanese version entirely forgoes any voice-over for all the dialogue. For the international release, Square Enix decided to take their time and make the already traditional JRPG more accessible by including an English voice-over.
Fans sure appreciate getting extra features for having to wait in return, but that doesn’t mean they are fully satisfied, especially on PC where modding opens up the possibilities of customizing and enhancing the already great game.
Thus, today we are receiving a great new mod for Dragon Quest XI which should get the attention of all players. The Dragon Quest XI Orchestral Overhaul Mod aims to improve the rich experience of DQXI by way of replacing the synthesized music at hand with a grand orchestral score, befitting of a classical hero’s adventure. You can have a look at what a difference the auditory mod can have in a video the modders have posted on Youtube here.
It’s pretty great stuff, really and after learning this feat far exceeds replacing music files in a folder via copy-paste, the appreciation for the dedicated modders and the astonishingly short time-frame they managed to achieve it will increase tenfold. The team used a pre-recorded orchestral score composed by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, but getting it to work in-game required lots of work.
A so-called injector was coded that monitors the game’s executable, and once music is needed, injects the orchestral tracks, nominalizes the volume levels and controls loops. Then there are the many cutscenes in video form which had to be re-encoded.
All in all, a valiant effort all Dragon Quest XI players should at least take a look at. Just be aware that the mod weighs in at a respectable 8GB, mainly thanks to the videos. Head on over to the official guide for the Orchestral Overhaul Mod over at the game’s Steam Community page where the modders also detailed how to set up the mod.
