> Olympic Athletes Parade of Nations Featured Nothing But Video Game Tracks
Michael McWhertor, Polygon:
Athletes from Greece walked through the eerily empty stadium to Dragon Quest’s “Overture: Roto’s Theme” followed immediately by Final Fantasy’s “Victory Fanfare.” Square Enix role-playing games were well represented at the Olympic opening ceremony, with selections from the SaGa, Chrono, Kingdom Hearts, and Nier series. Even Gradius and Soulcalibur made an appearance! (Suspiciously absent, however, was anything related to Nintendo or Pokémon, but at least Sonic the Hedgehog music was there.) Here’s the full list of video game music played at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics:
- Dragon Quest “Roto’s Theme”
Final Fantasy “Victory Fanfare”
Tales of series “Sorey’s Theme – The Shepherd”
Monster Hunter series “Proof of a Hero”
Kingdom Hearts “Olympus Coliseum”
Chrono Trigger “Frog’s Theme”
Ace Combat “First Flight”
Tales of series “Royal Capital Majestic Grandeur”
Monster Hunter “Wind of Departure”
Chrono Trigger “Robo’s Theme”
Sonic the Hedgehog “Star Light Zone”
Pro Evolution Soccer “eFootball Walk-on Theme”
Final Fantasy “Main Theme”
Phantasy Star Universe “Guardians”
Kingdom Hearts “Hero’s Fanfare”
Gradius “01 Act I-1”
Nier “Song of the Ancients”
SaGa series “The Minstrel’s Refrain: SaGa Series Medley 2016”
Soulcalibur “The Brave New Stage of History”
Usually these things revolve around a country’s history and culture. More modern parts of those things tend to get left out so it was really nice to see Japan embrace the modern parts of it’s culture. After all, in modern times at least, the two biggest cultural things to come out of Japan are video games and anime. Its a shame there were no Nintendo tracks though. Some of their music is probably the most iconic in gaming and holds a historical significance in putting video games on the proverbial map. Still, it was awesome enough to hear these tracks, especially Final Fantasy and SoulCalibur. But I would’ve lost my shit if I heard The Legend of Zelda. > ▋