Board 8 > Jesse Ranks Video Game Intros - The Rankings

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Great_Paul
09/26/20 3:00:49 PM
#101:


Yeah Travis is one of my favourite VG characters. He's not quite as egotistical throughout the game as he is in the intro.

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Jesse_Custer
09/26/20 3:05:06 PM
#102:


One of the challenges with a topic like this is having to gauge a game very quickly without having actually played it. And thats probably tougher to do with a video game, which is mostly an interactive experience, than a TV show or movie. So this may be one of those instances where Im really underselling how much I would get out of actually playing the game.
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Jesse_Custer
09/26/20 3:36:06 PM
#103:


101. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Raetsel_Lapin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYZKokEqjE

Unlike Mortal Kombat, Ive long been a fan of this fighting series, but this intro didnt work for me for a few reasons. First we get the completely unnecessary moment in the taxi, which plays more like a scene from a sitcom than the intro to a fighting game. I would say they were going for comic relief, but it doesnt fit the tone of the rest of the intro.

Perhaps if I was a wrestling fan, what comes next would have appealed to me more, depicting a rowdy crowd cheering for battle. Regardless, I dont feel the setting is well suited to the Tekken franchise, which seems more at home with battles in the streets than in a sold out arena (with the obvious exception of King, who I didnt even see in this intro unless I missed him).

Another complaint I had was the intro didnt do a very good job showing off a range of characters, spending far too long on showing how OP Angel is at the expense of actual combat. Id say Tekken isnt supposed to be all about wrestling, but its especially not supposed to be Dragon Ball Z.

I will, however, say the intro looked great. No complaints whatsoever on the visuals.
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RyoCaliente
09/26/20 4:46:26 PM
#104:


Also, going back to the FF X-2 opening, I cannot agree with your statement on the FF X intro. I think that one is really bad and gives someone playing very little insight on what is going on. It almost feels like it was used just for the dialogue.

Don't get me wrong; I love the cutscene in the game when it plays, but as an intro, it's never done it for me.

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Jesse_Custer
09/26/20 5:18:16 PM
#105:


RyoCaliente posted...
Also, going back to the FF X-2 opening, I cannot agree with your statement on the FF X intro. I think that one is really bad and gives someone playing very little insight on what is going on. It almost feels like it was used just for the dialogue.

Don't get me wrong; I love the cutscene in the game when it plays, but as an intro, it's never done it for me.

Granted, I might be biased on that one by the rest of the game. But even thinking back to the very first time I played, before I understood the significance of that moment, it struck me as this powerful sense of camaraderie with each of the characters weapons left aside as they sit together. Its something we dont see often in games, that the characters are not defined by how they fight, but their bonds to each other. And even without knowing what its about, theres this sense of unspoken grief and hope all at once. To me, its the perfect example of an intro that conveys a strong sense of story, even without letting you know the plot.
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Cyrlous
09/26/20 5:22:23 PM
#106:


Hm, some good picks here.
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NFUN
09/26/20 5:32:19 PM
#107:


apparently jesse plays very few jrpgs

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Jesse_Custer
09/26/20 5:40:46 PM
#108:


NFUN posted...
apparently jesse plays very few jrpgs

Probably the genre Ive played more of than any other. If youre referring to me saying its unusual to see that kind of camaraderie between the characters, theres an attempt to do that in virtually every JRPG, but it rarely feels that genuine. At least to me.
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Johnbobb
09/26/20 6:37:29 PM
#109:


in regards to Travis, he definitely isn't supposed to be the "relatable gamer turned assassin," he's the "huge fucking dork turned assassin"

He is kind of that Ryan Reynolds character archetype to an extent, but it's usually more tongue-in-cheek about it, with pretty much every character in the game calling him out for it

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Johnbobb
09/26/20 6:41:36 PM
#110:


Also TTT2 is the first intro I think is ranked way too low; one of the things that makes the TTT games so cool is that they're non-canon, so they can go as ridiculous as they want, which capitalizes here in True Ogre bursting through the ring in the middle of a match, which as a long-time fan of the series was simultaneously thrilling and hilariously absurd

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Jesse_Custer
09/26/20 6:59:48 PM
#111:


Johnbobb posted...
Also TTT2 is the first intro I think is ranked way too low; one of the things that makes the TTT games so cool is that they're non-canon, so they can go as ridiculous as they want, which capitalizes here in True Ogre bursting through the ring in the middle of a match, which as a long-time fan of the series was simultaneously thrilling and hilariously absurd

Thats fair. The funny thing about the Tekken franchise is its at times incredibly grounded with characters that have no special abilities and employ actual fighting styles, while at other times completely over the top. And its more the characters like Lei Wulong that have always attracted me to the franchise. But youre right that characters like True Ogre are just as much inherently Tekken.
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PIayer_0
09/26/20 8:34:52 PM
#112:


I liked MK Armageddon better, but can't disagree on the visuals

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Jesse_Custer
09/26/20 9:55:30 PM
#113:


100. Ys Seven - ninkendo
https://youtu.be/U-LsQq9y5jM

Like many intros still to come on this list, this one just depicts a bunch of characters I dont know without having played the game, which gives me no reason to care about them.

If the worst I could say about this intro is I found it boring, it would make the next tier. But it just barely misses the cut thanks to the lazy animation. The opening 15 seconds actually looks pretty good, but too much of the intro is just still shots of characters who seem frozen like theyre part of the background. Even when the characters are supposed to be in battle, theyre just stills being moved around the screen, rather than moving in a lifelike manner. And as if to make the intro more exciting, sometimes the perspective abruptly shakes, while nothing much is even happening on screen.

The music is the best thing about the intro. I wouldnt say I love the song, but its energetic and pleasant. But its not enough to give this intro some much-needed life.
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NFUN
09/26/20 10:01:03 PM
#114:


rip innocent primeval breaker

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PIayer_0
09/27/20 1:02:04 AM
#115:


That earth blast at 1:10 was so much better than the other scenes

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pyresword
09/27/20 2:18:41 AM
#116:


Possibly hot take: Falcom is not good at intros/OP's. The animation is generally bland and a lot of times the songs aren't great either despite them having relatively good music outside of that. Ys Seven is probably one of the better ones of theirs I've seen mostly because the song is quite good, and I don't even really disagree with the writeup or the ranking.

Think the only Falcom intros I'd really say I liked are Ao no Kiseki and Legend of Heroes IV, though I definitely haven't seen all of them admittedly.
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UF8
09/27/20 1:10:13 PM
#117:


they peaked in this department 3 decades ago (again mostly dependent on the audio) so not the worst take really
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Jesse_Custer
09/27/20 2:21:15 PM
#118:


Now we come to what will be the most boring part of the rankings, Farming Simulator Tier. These are intros I neither disliked nor liked, they were just there, and Ive probably already forgotten them since doing the write-ups, which will be on the shorter side. So to speed through this section, I might post a couple at a time.

99. Sonic CD - hombad46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYW7-hNXZlM

As those who have read my TV intros ranking topic know, I am not a Sonic fan. So I confess, its tough (but probably not impossible) to win me over with anything involving the franchise. And this intro isnt doing anything to change my mind.

If theres one thing everyone already knows about Sonic, its that he runs really really fast. Thats his thing. So devoting an entire intro solely to showing him running fast and periodically spinning quickly as a ball isnt remotely interesting. Of course, youve got to show him running because thats what he does, but theres got to be something more than that to give me a reason to care.

The only other thing I can say about this intro is I wasnt crazy about the cheesy theme song and repetitive lyrics, which probably contributed to my feeling like this intro was five times longer than it actually was. But Ill give it this, its a lot more tolerable than the theme song to Sonic X.

98. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - -hotdogturtle--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCw20tDNXhw

I actually preferred the visual style of the Sonic CD intro to the graphics for this intro, but at least this one isnt just a minute and a half of Sonic running around. Thats not to say I found this interesting either. We get a quick glimpse of a few other characters, without any insight into their personalities. And theres only a slight hint of a story involving the confrontation of Sonic and Shadow.

Also, the music is, to be tactful, not good. Im not even going to waste my time discussing it beyond that.
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Jesse_Custer
09/27/20 11:55:30 PM
#119:


97. Tales of Vesperia - pyresword
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiQh0DrCSF0

A recurring theme Im going to mention over and over in this tier is intros like this that look good, but dont stand out as unique or have any discernible story to someone who isnt familiar with the game, let alone the series.

This one has some high quality animation and the song is decent, but I was ready for it to be over by about the one minute mark. None of the characters jumped out to me as memorable, nothing particularly interesting ever happens, and Im not sure why this sequence was even needed. It kind of felt to me like a series of clips from a TV show thrown together by someone on YouTube, who dubbed in a song that doesnt mesh well with the visuals. The song was actually pretty good, but it just felt like it didnt belong.

And I dont have much more to say beyond that. Im sure this works much better if you go in knowing the characters.

96. Tales of the Abyss - Raka_Putra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxs9nIvh1p0

And we have another Tales intro that did nothing for me. I wasnt consciously trying to tie these together (or the two Sonic intros before it), but I felt virtually the same about this one as the preceding intro.

The theme song was forgettable, the character designs were generic and forgettable, and the story was virtually nonexistent. The animation was pretty good overall, but nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly not enough to hold my interest on its own.

The one thing that jumped out to me as kind of unique is the way this intro at times goes for a cutesy appearance, but then turns surprisingly violent out of nowhere (such as the guy slicing the snake creature with a sword or the arrow poking through a bunch of monsters). So it seemed to me like the intro wasnt entirely sure what tone it was going for.
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Mac Arrowny
09/28/20 10:36:08 AM
#120:


woo nominated the best Tales OP (waiting for it to go down in the next post now...)
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Murphiroth
10/01/20 12:49:30 PM
#121:


Expecting at least one of mine to drop in this tier.
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Zigzagoon
10/01/20 12:52:39 PM
#122:


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Jesse_Custer
10/01/20 10:37:47 PM
#123:


Havent been feeling that good lately, so I let this go awhile (Im usually much better about posting regular write-ups). But Im going to try to keep this going.

95. God of War Ascension - Johnbobb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbMZc_clZU4

Generally, Im not a fan of using narration to tell a story, although there are some exceptions later on this list that do it very well. In my view, this intro is not one of them. The narrator speaks with little emotion, detached from the events she is discussing, as if she is bored by the script. Actually she oddly reminds me of Judy Denchs narration for the Spaceship Earth ride at EPCOT. That probably doesnt mean anything to most readers, but both narrations are delivered in a similar school teacher manner, which feels far more well suited to a ride at Disney World than a God of War game. But hey, this is all subjective, and thats just how the narration struck me.

Voice acting aside, I wasnt too enthralled by the script either, which often tries too hard to go for a literary tone. We get lines like neither titan nor god, mortal nor shade, the furies were bound to no one for they were the guardians of honor. Good writing can take a complex subject matter and make it seem simple, even with some literary embellishments here and there. But this script seems unwilling to just get to the point, determined to present a sense of serious legitimacy.

The backing music was actually pretty good when I paid closer attention to it on a second viewing. But it gets so lost under the droning narration that its easy to miss.
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Jesse_Custer
10/02/20 9:00:49 AM
#124:


94. The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki - ninkendo
https://youtu.be/eCFars0Xyxg

I was actually kind of digging this one during the opening 20 to 30 seconds with the moody piano and distorted vocals, but starting at about 0:30, it lost me by turning into a generic theme song with lazily presented (mostly still) images of characters without any memorable designs. Given the dramatically different tone at the start, it felt like they were trying to grab the viewers interest with something intriguing initially, as if the creators knew they had to compensate for the rest of the intro being so conventional.

Also, maybe its because Ive spent too much time on this board, but that character pose at around 1:20 felt like it was ripped out of a Phoenix Wright game. And the only reason I even mention that is because I have so little to say about this intro otherwise and needed to fill space in the write-up. Okay, next.

93. Suikoden 3 - DomaDragoon
https://youtu.be/fA_gDnwcdZ8

This intro had a promising start with dreamy vocals accompanying someone riding a horse through the clouds and an aesthetic landscape. But it went nowhere, with around three minutes of random clips. Rather than using the visuals to tell a story, the intro relies on text interludes with vague messages like the story never ends and love never dies, which could apply to countless other games just as easily.

The tribal theme song was easily the strongest aspect of the intro, but it didnt seem particularly well connected to the settings or characters depicted in the visuals. And the animation was nothing special and thoroughly average.

Not much more to say about this one really.
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Mac Arrowny
10/02/20 10:08:43 AM
#125:


Suikoden 3 good song
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pjbasis
10/02/20 11:59:07 AM
#126:


I feel that I strongly disagree that a good intro needs to sell you the story at all.

I think the point of a good intro, particularly pre-title screen anyway, is to sell you the tone and aesthetic. That said...none of mine have dropped yet so maybe we still agree on the ones I posted anyway!

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Jesse_Custer
10/02/20 2:30:08 PM
#127:


pjbasis posted...
I feel that I strongly disagree that a good intro needs to sell you the story at all.

I think the point of a good intro, particularly pre-title screen anyway, is to sell you the tone and aesthetic. That said...none of mine have dropped yet so maybe we still agree on the ones I posted anyway!

My feeling is without any sense of the story, what reason is there to care about the characters or whats going on? This doesnt have to mean a full description of the plot, but at least some idea what motivates a character or what their world is like.

This is less of an issue if theres a unique and interesting tone, but for some of the recent intros, theres nothing about the tone to set them apart from many others.
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pjbasis
10/02/20 2:41:42 PM
#128:


People can easily care about characters without story because of their design and personality. Or just plenty of games just don't have much emphasis on story.

I take no issue with you making your list your own way or anything though.


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Moonroof
10/02/20 2:49:43 PM
#129:


Wow. Was expecting S3 to be a top ten contender. Must say o disagree with your assessment.
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BetrayedTangy
10/02/20 3:11:23 PM
#130:


I think the issue with most anime esque intros is they gain more meaning as you play the game. Persona 3 dropping early kind of confused me at first, but I can definitely see how a first time viewing can be confusing. I imagine that's also the case with a lot of these more recent elims.

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Jesse_Custer
10/02/20 3:31:59 PM
#131:


BetrayedTangy posted...
I think the issue with most anime esque intros is they gain more meaning as you play the game. Persona 3 dropping early kind of confused me at first, but I can definitely see how a first time viewing can be confusing. I imagine that's also the case with a lot of these more recent elims.

This is it exactly. For many of these, I know next to nothing about the game, or at times even the series. I couldnt even identify any of the characters in some of these without looking them up. So while the intros probably are conveying a sense of story and meaning to those who are far more familiar, they have little meaning to me.

Thats not to say Im only going to give high rankings to stuff Im familiar with. In fact, six of the intros to make the top 10 I had never even seen before this topic. But they have to make sense to someone whos never played the game before.
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Great_Paul
10/02/20 3:37:24 PM
#132:


I've never played any Persona game and the P3 intro didn't do much for me either. I can definitely understand how it would probably be easier to appreciate after playing the game.

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BetrayedTangy
10/07/20 1:07:29 PM
#133:


Bump

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Hbthebattle
10/10/20 12:48:41 AM
#134:


Blimp

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Congrats to azuarc for winning the GotD Guru!
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pjbasis
10/12/20 5:47:34 PM
#135:


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Jesse_Custer
10/12/20 5:51:25 PM
#136:


Yeah, I should get back to this at some point. Ive kind of been going through some stuff lately.
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Great_Paul
10/17/20 3:23:24 AM
#137:


No rush! Take care of whats more important first. (Also bump)

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Murphiroth
10/21/20 1:04:00 PM
#138:


Great_Paul posted...
No rush! Take care of whats more important first. (Also bump)

This
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MetalmindStats
10/25/20 6:38:42 PM
#139:


Murphiroth posted...
This

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Great_Paul
11/03/20 2:13:06 PM
#140:


Keeping it alive

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MetalmindStats
11/11/20 5:04:24 PM
#141:


Great_Paul posted...
Keeping it alive

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NFUN
11/18/20 5:02:59 PM
#142:


what could pawsibly go wrong

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NFUN
11/24/20 2:55:51 PM
#143:


aoi toki egaku kiseki tadori

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.
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NFUN
11/30/20 12:54:54 PM
#144:


kotae sagasu onaji sora miagenagara

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lordjers
11/30/20 1:42:45 PM
#145:


This topic was just the intro.

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Jesse_Custer
11/30/20 10:45:09 PM
#146:


lordjers posted...
This topic was just the intro.

Not to rain on your joke, but there were over 25 write-ups after the intro.

Anyway, its doubtful Im going to finish this project at this point. It was a combination of issues, including a lot of not so good stuff going on lately, and this project admittedly wasnt the most entertaining diversion for me to spend my time on. I enjoyed the project before this, TV Openings. This one, not so much. But I could perhaps post the top 10 or 20 write-ups if people would like.
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Zigzagoon
11/30/20 10:59:24 PM
#147:


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NFUN
11/30/20 11:26:53 PM
#148:


mune ni himeta omoi afuredashi

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lordjers
11/30/20 11:43:28 PM
#149:


Jesse_Custer posted...
Not to rain on your joke, but there were over 25 write-ups after the intro.

One of those long cinematics? Take its time intro credits?

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Shonen_Bat
11/30/20 11:46:53 PM
#150:


That sucks, but it happens. Would be interested in seeing the top writeups if you're down for it.

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