The 17 Best RPG Opening Songs

Here you go! The 17 Best RPG Opening Songs of all time (in my opinion, of course). These are those songs that are so good that you might feel like starting a new game just to hear them. Why 17? Because I started with 10 and just kept adding songs. 🙂

I’ve probably accidentally overlooked your favorite song, so please forgive me for that.

In no particular order…

-Dragon Quarter-

-SMT: Nocturne –

-Persona 3-

-Persona 4-

-FFT-

-FF8-

-FF10-

-Chrono Trigger-

-Final Fantasy VI-

-Tales of Vesperia-

-Secret of Mana-

-Wild Arms-

-Half-Minute Hero-

-DDS 1-

-DDS 2-

-Lunar: EB-

-Grandia-

15 Responses

  1. What about Suikoden III. Clearly a top 10 . Agree with Evan FF6 possibly #1. I don’t think Tales of Vesperia should be on this list. Maybe Tales of Destiny 2, tales of eternia (the real opening, not that crap on youtube) or even Tales of Abyss, even if song is a little long, but actually Tales of Xillia has one of the better oepnings I have seen in a long time!!!! check it out as it just came out in Japan last week! (Plus there seems to be 2 opening!!!)

    Cool list and thanks!

  3. I remember Legend of Dragoon’s main theme: wonderful. Others two great RPG with a terrific sound track are Ar Tonelico (Akiko Shikata) and Drakengard (that it has many quotations from Stravinskij). I even like Jeremy Soule’s Reign of Septims from “The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion”.

  4. Right. Playstations, not Playstation 🙂 Wasn’t actually familiar with the crossplatform editions, I mostly know them from Sony’s machines. (And I’ve only played FFVI, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana on the SNES).

    Haven’t actually played Borderlands (heard it’s closer to Diablo than Elder Scrolls), but that OP is excellent! Specifically because of the Cage the Elephant song, it’s a favorite; I didn’t know they used it in the game…

  5. Chrono Trigger might be my favorite RPG ever but nothing really compares to that FF6 intro. The entire way it was done so cinematically and the awesome music was so amazing at the time. Even now it still gives me chills when I play it.

  7. Heh. All Japanese RPGs for the Playstation (and some SNES), if I’m not mistaken? Some really great music there (huge fan of FFT and FFX themes).

    But in the interest of balance (and in honor of CSTW’s release on the PC) let me agree with Tropxe and share an amazing opening theme, near and dear to my heart, that’s from a Western PCRPG – possibly the greatest Western CRPG:

    Planescape: Torment Main Theme/Menu Music

    And for bonus points, a fabulously haunting intro cutscene with a great song, too:

    War. War never changes…

  8. It was a lot of fun, and often very moving, to listen to all those songs again. It shows that while JRPGs may usually be more linear than WRPGs, the music and presentation really is far and away the best – and those elements can really get you into the world and story a lot better than being able to steal bread and get chased by guards. Some WRPGs would deserve to have their music in the list, like the Planescape: Torment OST, but typically they just shit out the same old generic orchestral crap. Nobuo Uematsu could push a piano down a flight of stairs and it’d be better music than most WRPG stuff.

  9. @Epyx – The post was also about “RPG Opening Songs.” There are not a lot of computer RPG’s with opening cinematic cut-scenes, especially fashioned to resemble a music video. Many have opening movies, but none that I have come across present it in the manner Japanese RPGs do.

  10. Secret of Mana really did have an AMAZING soundtrack for its time, didn’t it?

    …but where’s the love for Ogre Battle? >.>

  11. I prefer the Japanese Intro music for Digital Devil Saga rather then the american version.

  12. Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger are definitely two of my favourites! Great list.

  13. Tweeted as much but should be a few CRPG games in here as well 🙂 And before anyone starts I love JRPGs as well. For example, Chrono Crosses’ “Dreams of the Shore Near Another World” but for CRPGs:

    Oblivion/Morrowind/Baldur’s Gate/Icewind Dale all have strong orchestral scores. Even though Ultima IX sucked the donkey sack it had a great soundtrack as did the earlier Ultimas. Some more Diablo/Diablo 2 /sigh

    However, I like a lot from the list above. Again my only beef (and a friendly one) is the use of RPG which to me is both CRPG and JRPG. So using a list that says RPG but then only including JRPGs is a bit one sided 🙂

    But again…this is all in friendly banter, the picks were great!

  14. Great list! I’d add the openings for FFVII, Xenosaga II, Xenogears, Chrono Cross (Time’s scar or the loop screen), Legend of Mana, Namco X Capcom and oooh so many more!

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