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Game music at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

KàIRóS

Member
I just had to make a Thread about this, I liked it but at the same time it was kinda cringe, I know that 90% of people watching it only thought "Wow that's some nice orchestral music" but knowing half of the music played felt bizarre and out of place for me at least.

Here's a list:
  • Dragon Quest “Main 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”
Here's the music:

 
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GrayDock

Member
Maybe it was the only way to put video-games on the openning ceremony, who knows.
Anyway it was a nice surprise.
 
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wondermega

Member
Oh cool I wanna check this out. I am happy they have Star Lite Zone (first Sonic game on Genesis) and Gradius in there. As a little anecdote, my life was kinda going off the rails many years ago (relationship ended, job ended). I left LA to visit my friend who was living in Osaka for a few days, to get away from my troubles. We were cabbing around Tokyo and got let out in some random-ish area late one evening, walking through a dank alleyway I faintly heard Star Light Zone playing from somewhere, calling out like a beacon. It turned out to be emanating from a UFO Catcher at a hole-in-the-wall pachinko parlor or something, but just at that moment it was very soothing and made me feel like I was "home," haha.
 

KàIRóS

Member
Why is it cringe? If you notice its mostly Square, Namco and Sega music. Its their heritage now.

That's what I'm still wondering myself because at the start when they played DQ I was like "Wow they are using the DQ Theme?" but then they kept playing RPG songs that I hear regularly and it got to a very weird point for me like when they started playing "Song of the ancients" from Nier Automata I remember thinking "this one is totally out of place"

But like I said in the first post maybe it's because I'm very familiarized with the music? I don't know it was bizarre but in general I liked it tbh.
 
So you're guessing the people watching thought "wow that's some nice orchestral music", and that makes it cringe? Could have been any number of copy/paste pop trash "artists" like the Super Bowl which is ACTUAL cringe:

Confused The Weeknd GIF
Lady Gaga Nfl GIF by Mashable
tumblr_nj4iyxecdY1qb6v6ro2_500.gif
 

KàIRóS

Member
So you're guessing the people watching thought "wow that's some nice orchestral music", and that makes it cringe? Could have been any number of copy/paste pop trash "artists" like the Super Bowl which is ACTUAL cringe:

Confused The Weeknd GIF
Lady Gaga Nfl GIF by Mashable
tumblr_nj4iyxecdY1qb6v6ro2_500.gif

Uhh no bro, maybe you want to read that sentence again, I said it was cringe for me and maybe like 10% of the population?

I know that 90% of people watching it only thought "Wow that's some nice orchestral music" but knowing half of the music played felt so bizarre and out of place.
 

iorek21

Member
Now that I'm thinking about it, it would be dope if suddenly everything turned red and Last Surprise/Take Over/Life Will Change began playing.

Edit: Actually, no Persona 5 in TOKYO 2020 with so many game music being played is just so wrong.

Well, there's still the closing ceremony...
 
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why they waving when nobody is there?

anyway i know video games are big in japan but the whole world will be looking and cringing.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it would be dope if suddenly everything turned red and Last Surprise/Take Over/Life Will Change began playing.

Edit: Actually, no Persona 5 in TOKYO 2020 with so many game music being played is just so wrong.

Well, there's still the closing ceremony...
if they actually played some Persona music that'd redeem this whole cringefest. i want to see them dancing to Layer Cake! otherwise what's the point of these olympics?

/s
 
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ManaByte

Member
BTW watch the video in the OP while you can. The IOC does NOT fuck around with people recording the Olympics off screen and uploading it to the internet. It'll be DMCA'd real quick.
 

McCheese

Member
Guile's theme is being saved for the events right?

right?

Opening ceremony was dull as fuck and was a really poor representation of "cool japan" and instead just felt like a country sulking about covid. We get it, it's been a shit year; but you should still of had a fun ceremony with anime, videogames, hello kitty and giant robots instead of "such suffering" "broken" bullshit any country could have done.
 
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Fbh

Member
It's cool, I don't see what's cringe about it. It's nice orchestral music.

The only cringe part is everyone waving at an empty stadium
 

Pejo

Member
Chrono Trigger OST always gets respect from me. Man, it's such a bummer that this Olympics got COVIDed, I was looking forward to this one quite a bit due to Japan embracing their culture with this kind of stuff.
 

KàIRóS

Member
Why is cringe? Because they respect their roots?

They know these games are part of their culture and aren't afraid of showing that.

Cringe for me, not them.

I'm actually wondering how many JRPG players actually watched this and thought the same as me, because I know a lot of you are finding out from this thread and are probably thinking "oh cool" while I watched it LIVE and I went from "Oh cool" to "this is weird" pretty quickly, it just felt out of place for me.

And I don't know man if they wanted to show really well known VG music don't you think they would have chosen Mario or Zelda music? it almost felt like that whole segment was sponsored by Square Enix and SEGA
 

Saber

Gold Member
Cringe for me, not them.

I'm actually wondering how many JRPG players actually watched this and thought the same as me, because I know a lot of you are finding out from this thread and are probably thinking "oh cool" while I watched it LIVE and I went from "Oh cool" to "this is weird" pretty quickly, it just felt out of place for me.

And I don't know man if they wanted to show really well known VG music don't you think they would have chosen Mario or Zelda music? it almost felt like that whole segment was sponsored by Square Enix and SEGA

If thats your whole reason, then that sounds slugish. As I said, their intention was to show how close those games are as part of their culture, pretty much like how Carnaval is to brazilians for instance.

Now about the second part, my best guess is that these guys approached Nintendo and ask if they could use their original tracks and Nintendo said "sure, but for a price". If I had to guess even more all others are pretty happy to just be part of the event, not to mention it already helps advertise the franchises.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I liked it but I understand the cringe. You're essentially listening to a character select theme and the FF victory fanfare while seeing Athlete nations being introduced. The dutch commentators did say it a few times, they said it were videogame compositions which are huge in Japan and they only mentioned Dragon Quest, which is huge in Japan.

But this being a games without any crowd at all is going to sting. Especially after the Euros which were packed.
 
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Pejo

Member
Another example of video game music being played outside of games. the clergy is about to get Meteor'd

 
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Thread already like this, can't even imagine the shitshow when this hellhole learns the reason why they played those music. :messenger_anxious:
 

NanaMiku

Member
The opening ceremony have pop culture theme. The stadium decoration is manga themed (speech balloon for the country names, paper color of manga magazine for the flooring). The music is from games (I'm so happy Ace Combat is in there, and it's fitting they chose First Flight for the song, one of the mission in Ace Combat 5 have stadium event). No representation for anime hahahaha.
 
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