Friday Favorites #5: Best Video Game Intros

1. Soul Blade/Edge

This intro has it all: gorgeous graphics and music, and action. The CGI character models actually look years ahead of most games of the time.

2. Silent Hill 1-3

I kind of hesitated to put these games on this list because I thought I should include games with more original intros as opposed to one’s that feature clips from the game’s cutscenes, but considering that the purpose of this post is to list intros that get you pumped for the game, I realized I had to include these. These intros succeed because they set the mood with their imagery and some of Akira Yamaoka’s best music (“She”, “Theme of Laura”, and “You’re Not Here”, respectively).

3. Tales Series

Tales intros are like pizza: even if you don’t like an individual one, it’s still pizza. Some of them take a while to grow on me.

My fav intro sequences and themes are for Abyss, Radiant Mythology, Vesperia (Bonnie Pink’s “Ring a Bell”), Graces f (BoA’s “White Wishes”), Xillia (Ayumi Hayasaki’s “progress”), and Zestiria (Superfly’s “White Light”).

4. Chrono Cross

So CC killed off pretty much the entire cast of Chrono Trigger. At least the intro and theme totally rock. It’s all about perspective. Right? …Right? 

Squaresoft during the development of Chrono Cross

5. Fire Emblem Awakening, Fates, and Heroes

It’s scary to think how close we came to not having these fantastic games. When the sales of the series began to sink, Nintendo delivered a rare ultimatum to Intelligent Systems: if the 13th FE game dud not sell well enough, the series would end. Well, over a million units sold for Awakening alone later, here we are. 

I include these games’ intros because they are fantastic and beautiful with cel-shaded CGI and the theme songs. There is a deeper reason, but that’s for their eventual LPs, at least for Awakening and Fates… 😜

6. Persona Series

Particularly the Persona 2 duology (and their PSP ports), both versions of Persona 3, Persona 4 Arena and Arena Ultimax, and Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth. Great, artistic, and intriguing animation (and downright adorable in the latter’s case) and catchy themes.

7. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (Japanese Version)

The North American version features the same images but a different theme song. It’s good… but the Japanese theme is great. 

8. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked

Less visually intensive than most of the games on this list, if not all of them, but the rocking theme song gets me pumped.

9. Rule of Rose

This obscure PS2 horror game has an incredibly creepy intro; yet, it’s theme is paradoxically gorgeous. 

10. Resident Evil Outbreak

This game’s intro shows the disastrous fight between Umbrella Corporation soldiers and the mutates scientist William Birkin. It could have just been an action scene, but Capcom (of all companies) went with an artistic approach with Birkin’s attacks on the soldiers fading into viruses attacking cells. The solemn orchestral theme helps. The sequel features the same theme, but with considerably less compelling imagery (a fly through of the game’s environments. In real-time.)

What are your favorite video game intros?