Few countries have made a bigger contribution to the video game industry than Japan. The country has given the world some of the biggest and most popular gaming franchises of all time, including Super Mario, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy. With that in mind, it's little wonder that the country was so keen to celebrate its achievements in the field during the opening ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Considering the country's former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, dressed up as Super Mario at the closing ceremony in Rio five years ago, few will have been surprised to hear video game music being played throughout the parade at the opening ceremony for the games. There was no Mario this time around, however, with the orchestra instead playing pieces from numerous big JRPG franchises, with one or two surprises thrown in there as well.
19 Dragon Quest - Overture (Roto's Theme)
The Overture first appeared in the original Dragon Quest and has appeared in each of the series' mainline installments since. It was composed by Koichi Sugiyama, the man responsible for many of the most popular Dragon Quest tracks of all time, and is sometimes refered to as the Dragon Quest March or Erdrick’s Theme in the west.
18 Final Fantasy - Victory Fanfare
One of several Nobuo Uematsu tracks to appear at the ceremony, different versions of the victory fanfare have appeared throughout the Final Fantasy series. It's shown up in every mainline title in one form or another, but it's perhaps the version in Final Fantasy VII that is most recognizable due to the game's immense popularity with both modern and retro gamers.
17 Tales Of Zestiria - Sorey's Theme (The Shepherd)
Motoi Sakuraba has provided music for a number of big gaming franchises, but is perhaps best known for his work on the Tales series. There are a few different versions of Sorey's Theme, but the organizers opted for the Shepherd version, which many players consider to be one of the better tracks in Tales of Zestiria.
16 Monster Hunter - Proof Of A Hero
Proof of a Hero has featured as the main theme in several Monster Hunter games and was most recently used in Monster Hunter: Rise. The track was originally composed by Kouda Masato, but has been tweaked and rearranged numerous times since making its debut in the series' first entry back in 2004.
15 Kingdom Hearts - Olympus Coliseum
The Olympus Coliseum seems like a natural choice for an Olympic ceremony song, given that it draws much of its inspiration from Ancient Greece. Yoko Shimomura composed the track for the first Kingdom Hearts game almost a decade ago, and it, like the coliseum itself, has gone on to feature in numerous other Kingdom Hearts titles.
14 Chrono Trigger - Frog's Theme
When it comes to JRPG soundtracks, they don't come much better than Chrono Trigger. It's full of recognizable tracks, but none more so than the excellent Frog's Theme. Yasunori Mitsuda's piece was played several times throughout the parade, with slight variations made for each rendition.
13 Ace Combat - First Flight
Though certainly not a bad track, First Flight was a somewhat surprising choice given the dirth of excellent tracks that organizers had to choose from. Keiki Kobayashi composed the piece for Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, which first released in 2004 for the PlayStation.
12 Tales Of Graces - Royal Capital (Majestic Grandeur)
Another song from the Tales series, Royal Capital was also composed by Motoi Sakuraba and was used prominently throughout Tales of Graces. Due to the game being one of the lesser known titles in the franchise, it's not quite as recognizable as some of the other pieces that were used in the parade, but it is every bit as good as the composer's other work for the series.
11 Monster Hunter - The Wind Of Departure
The Wind of Departure served as the main theme for Monster Hunter 4 on the Nintendo 3DS and was composed by Marika Suzuki. As well as the Monster Hunter series, Suzuki has composed tracks for several other big Capcom franchises, including Mega Man, Dead Rising and Lost Planet.
10 Chrono Trigger - Robo's Theme
Another one from the excellent Chrono Trigger soundtrack, the iconic beats of Robo's Theme showed up about half an hour into the parade. Though the great Nobuo Uematsu also served as a composer for the game, Robo's Theme, like Frog's Theme before it, is the work of Yasunori Mitsuda. In fact, Mitsuda composed most of the best songs on the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, and would later go on to become the series composer for the Xeno series.
9 Sonic The Hedgehog - Starlight Zone
Mario may not have made it into the opening ceremony, but his former rival Sonic popped up around the one hour mark. Starlight Zone was composed by former session musician Masato Nakamura and featured in the original release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis. In the three decades since then, Nakamura has focussed mainly on composing music for television commercials and movies rather than video games.
8 Winning Eleven - eFootball Walk-On Theme
Winning Eleven is the Japanese name for the Pro Evolution Soccer series, which itself will soon be known simply as eFootball. Like First Flight, many will have seen the decision to include the Walk On theme as being a bit of a strange one, but considering the sporting connections, it kind of makes sense.
7 Final Fantasy - Main Theme (Prelude)
Nobuo Uematsu once said that if he is to be remembered only for one piece of music, he would like it to be Prelude. It's easy to see why. The hauntingly beautiful track has featured in every Final Fantasy game in one form or another and might just be one of the most recognizable pieces of music in all of gaming. With that in mind, it was always likely to appear at some point during the ceremony.
6 Phantasy Star Universe - Guardians
The Phantasy Star series has never been all that popular in the west, but still has a pretty big fanbase in its native, Japan. Guardians first showed up in the 2006 release of Phantasy Star Universe and was composed by a team headed up by the great Hideaki Kobayashi, who has provided music for numerous Phantasy Star titles as well as several games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
5 Kingdom Hearts - Hero's Fanfare
Hero's Fanfare is another of Yoko Shimomura's excellent contributions to the Kingdom Hearts franchise and has been used in many of its entries. It's perhaps not as recognizable as some of the other great video game fanafares from the likes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but it's still an excellent piece that will evoke fond memories in many who played the original game.
4 Gradius - 01 ACT I-1
It was nice to see Japan agknowledging its contributions to arcade gaming rather than just the home console era, although some will perhaps wonder why Gradius was chosen over something like Pac-Man. The music from Act I-1 is far from bad, but not too many people will have recognized it.
3 NieR - Song of the Ancients
There have been some excellent tracks in the NieR games over the years and so it was almost a given that at least one of them would be played at some point once the video game theme became clear. Organizers ended up choosing the Song of the Ancients; a track featuring lyrics written in an entirely fictional language by vocalist Emiko Evans and composed and arranged by Keiichi Okabe.
2 SaGa Series - The Minstrel's Refrain (2016 Medley)
Though Nobuo Uematsu is best known for his compositions for the Final Fantasy series, he's worked on numerous other games and series over the years as well. One of those is the SaGa franchise, which actually started life as a Final Fantasy spin-off. The Minstrel's Refrain is one of the more memorable tracks from the series, with the version used during the parade inspired by a 2016 orchestral arrangement.
1 SoulCalibur - The Brave New Stage Of History
The Brave New Stage of History was composed by Junichi Nakatsuru and serves as the main theme for SoulCalibur VI. It's a wonderful piece that screams adventure, making it not only the perfect tone-setter for the game itself, but also the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.