Against the COVID-19 pandemic that shook 2020, and after being postponed for an entire year, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics began today with its opening ceremonies. While the event remained fairly traditional in style compared to the way Mario helped former Prime Minister Abe promote the games back in 2016, there was still a presence of Japan's pop culture impact. How they paid tribute was with video game music welcoming the athletes into the games during the Parade of Nations.
The opening ceremonies for the Olympics are one of the parts that fans tune into every year, as the country hosting celebrates itself and other countries in the way it sees fit. London's 2012 opening ceremony saw a surprise appearance by Mr. Bean as England celebrated its own history in entertainment. Japan took an approach that honored their cultural history instead, but it still gave a nod to its hand in a global phenomenon by letting video game soundtracks play.
The Parade of Nations began with "Edrick's Theme" from Dragon Quest making its way through the stadium, re-orchestrated and arranged just for the opening ceremonies. Once that was done, if fans didn't recognize that song, they certainly would with the next one, as the full version of Final Fantasy's famous "Victory Fanfare" was next. The list of all the songs played is found below.
- Dragon Quest - "Edrick's Theme"
- Final Fantasy - "Victory Fanfare"
- Tales of Zestiria - "Sorey's Theme - The Shepherd"
- Monster Hunter - "Proof of a Hero"
- Kingdom Hearts - "Olympus Coliseum"
- Chrono Trigger - "Frog's Theme"
- Ace Combat - "First Flight"
- Tales of Graces - "Royal Capital Majestic Grandeur"
- Monster Hunter - "Setting Off Breeze"
- Chrono Trigger - "Robo's Theme"
- Sonic the Hedgehog - "Star Light Zone"
- Winning Eleven - "eFootball Walk On Theme"
- Final Fantasy - "Main Theme"
- Phantasy Star Universe - "Guardians"
- Kingdom Hearts - "Hero's Fanfare"
- Gradius - "01 ACT 1-1"
- NeiR - "Song of the Ancients"
- SaGa Series - "SaGa Series Medley 2016"
- Soul Caliber - "The Brave New Stage of History"
If fans missed the tribute to their favorite titles, as the athletes walked in the songs were played on loop up to three times. As of this writing, there's no official upload of the ceremony for viewers to watch, but some players took videos of their favorite songs playing loud and clear as country names are called out. The tracklist has a grand spectrum of titles on it from many different generations of gaming, such as Gradius to NeiR, with the latter recently expanding via the release of NeiR Replicant.
While some songs are more questionable, as Sonic, Tales of, and several other IPs are paid tribute, there is a strong theme of heroes and their unity to be felt in the songs chosen for the ceremony. Many of the songs used come from fan-favorite titles, although curiously after Mario's appearance in Rio, he and any Nintendo properties are absent from the ceremonies entirely.
The biggest tie to all of these songs beyond their medium is they are games made by Japanese developers and companies, which was surely done to honor their history and place in Japan's culture. As the Tokyo 2020 Olympics serve to unite the world under sportsmanship, the opening ceremony brought gamers together as they rejoiced at the sound of their favorite songs.