The music of The I of the Dragon

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The history about the music to The I of the Dragon (=TIotD) is quite interesting and maybe not as straightforward as one might think. When I first started to look into all of this, I was kind of aware the game had multiple different soundtrack versions. However, I was not prepared to find out TIotD actually has at least five (!) different soundtracks that were created over the years - and that without having received any remasters or remakes that could boost this count. While I am still missing a lot of information, mostly related to the motivation of the parties involved, here is a chronological overview of my findings:

1. Akella

The I of the Dragon was developed by Primal Software located in Moscow, where Uri Galdstyan and Vadim Kruglov composed the soundtrack. With the help of publisher Akella the game then was first released on 2002-12-11 in Russia. The music itself is mostly MIDI and overall calm - some might say a bit minimalistic.

2. Zuxxez

In 2003 the German studio Zuxxez secured the rights to a European, African, and South American release of TIotD. With the recent success of KnightShift and its opulent fantasy soundtrack, Zuxxez likely decided to give TIotD a similar treatment and produce a new soundtrack for their release of TIotD. The composers for this release are Gerd Hoffmann and Joachim Schäfer, who did a fine job once again. The game, with its second version of the soundtrack, was then released on 2004-03-10 with the help of Koch Media and their publishing branch Deep Silver. Most people will likely associate this version of the soundtrack with TIotD.

3. Strategy First

Sometime between 2003 and 2004, the studio Strategy First got the rights to a North American release of TIotD. For some reason I could not sort out, Strategy First also decided to not use the original soundtrack from Primal Software. With the rights to the second soundtrack laying at Zuxxez, Strategy First probably had no other choice than to produce the third version of the soundtrack. The music for this release is again a fantasy soundtrack, but less opulent and more ambient with some MIDI elements. The game then released in North America on 2004-11-02. Sadly, the composer for this soundtrack version is unknown.

4. International / Steam

In 2011 Zuxxez changed its name (back) to TopWare Interactive after previously having acquired the bankrupt TopWare CD Service AG in 2001. TopWare should still have the rights to the Zuxxez version of the soundtrack, but surprisingly, they released a new fourth version of the soundtrack in 2013 as an album on digital platforms. The first recorded release was on GamersGate on 2013-02-16, with Amazon Music and iTunes following on 2013-09-20. The music in both releases is the same, but they have different covers, track orders, and track names. Funnily enough, the track names for the Amazon Music/iTunes/Qobuz version of the soundtrack are completely scrambled and do not represent what they describe.

Credits for this fourth version of the soundtrack can nowhere be found, but luckily the GamersGate release comes to our rescue. The metadata of the mp3 files lists Sebastian Dierkes as artist. This information can be corroborated, as Sebastian Dierkes' homepage contained a picture of the TIotD box art in a discography section. In what capacity Sebastian Dierkes worked on the music I cannot say, but according to the metadata it should have been somewhere in 2012. The music this time around is more orchestral than the Zuxxez version and even goes a bit into film score territory.

1.5 years later, on 2015-03-06, TopWare released TIotD on Steam to an international audience. This release of the game used the fourth version of the soundtrack and still does up to this day. I am not sure if TopWare released a version of the game with the fourth soundtrack before the Steam release or if that was the first time the music appeared in-game. To me it feels a bit weird to release a soundtrack with music that is not in the game (yet), so I think I must be missing something.

5. Remix 2024 / GOG

On 2020-07-15 TIotD received a GOG.com release. In contrast to the approach with Steam, TopWare decided to use the Zuxxez version of the soundtrack in the GOG release - probably because that is the version most gamers in Europe grew up with. The story would have ended here if not for the fact that the GOG version of the game received an unexpected update on 2024-06-12. The update only fixes some bugs and allows higher resolutions - and replaces the entire in-game soundtrack. Not with the Steam version of the soundtrack but with a completely new fifth version going even a bit in the direction of rock orchestra. This time Goran Bastinac is credited as the composer and Raidor as artist.

On the same day of the update, the new music was also released as a separate DLC on GOG and Steam, called the 'Extended Soundtrack'. Interestingly, this album release has about twice as many tracks as there are in-game, with the first 18 tracks being the new music pieces of the fifth soundtrack version. The last 19 tracks are identical to the physical bonus CD of the Zuxxez soundtrack version, which is a really nice addition for fans. However, this is nowhere communicated, and therefore Gerd Hoffmann and Joachim Schäfer are not credited as composers for those last tracks even though they should be.


And that is it. For anyone curious I also compiled a comparison of the different releases and their tracklists in this Google Spreadsheet. Maybe we will get a sixth version of the soundtrack in the future, that would be nice, but five is already plenty and sounds like a record to me :).