Awesome RPG Intros

It wasn’t so long ago that RPGs were sim­ple affairs involv­ing a few different-colored pix­els with a sword roam­ing over an end­lessly sim­i­lar land­scape fight­ing other different-colored pix­els to mind-numbingly repet­i­tive music (I’m look­ing at you, Dragon Warrior).

But over the years, as game con­soles have evolved, so too has the game­play and the immer­sive expe­ri­ence we’ve come to expect from RPGs.  With plots and char­ac­ters that com­pletely suck us in as we jour­ney along­side our hero, RPGs have been ele­vated to the level of sto­ry­telling art.  And one of the best ways RPGs plunge us into these vast worlds of might and magic is through the game’s open­ing sequence.

Here are a few of my favorites from sys­tems past and present:

Lunar Sil­ver Star Story Com­plete

Plat­form: Playsta­tion
Year: 1998

A re-make of the orig­i­nal Lunar (Sega CD), Sil­ver Star Story’s open­ing fea­tures a great orig­i­nal song that intro­duces our hero, Alex, and his love inter­est Luna, while giv­ing us a glimpse of all the party char­ac­ters we’ll meet along the way in our quest to become a Drag­on­mas­ter and defeat the evil Ghaleon.

Lunar 2: Eter­nal Blue

Plat­form: Sega CD
Year: 1995

Okay, so I may be a lit­tle biased putting both Lunar games on my list, but this open­ing for the orig­i­nal Lunar 2: Eter­nal Blue was pretty impres­sive for its time, con­sid­er­ing the depth of its sto­ry­telling and the Sega CD’s lim­i­ta­tions.  A lengthy intro­duc­tion that com­bines both story and cred­its, we see Lucia’s awak­en­ing on the Blue Star one thou­sand years after the first game’s events to her omi­nous pre­mo­ni­tion for the world of Lunar.  Beau­ti­ful music and atmos­pheric visu­als, Lunar 2 remains my favorite RPG of all time.

Wild Arms

Plat­form: Playsta­tion
Year: 1996

The Wild Arms open­ing intro­duces Rudy, Jack, and Cecelia, three unlikely heroes whose des­tinies inter­twine to take up ARMs and save the land of Fil­gaia.  A beau­ti­ful intro to an amaz­ing game.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Plat­form: PC, Xbox 360
Year: 1996

Emporer Uriel Sep­tim speaks his dying words with a lit­tle help from Patrick Stew­art.  Does it get much more epic than this? A fit­ting intro for one of the most epic RPGs ever made.

The Leg­end of Zelda: Twi­light Princess

Plat­form: Wii
Year: 2006

An under­stated but effec­tive intro that sets the mood for the entire game, the open­ing for Twi­light Princess harkens back to The Oca­rina of Time with Link rid­ing his faith­ful Epona through the twilight-shrouded land­scape of Hyrule.