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Best Intro in a game

Oh Christ, too many to name. I'll second, third, fourth, tenth all the Final Fantasies; CGI or sprites, it doesn't matter. FFX , FFVII, and yes, FFVIII (beautiful) stand out. Onimusha 3, though I never played the game, the intro was fantastic. Diablo 2 comes to mind. Chrono Trigger! God, Square really did great fucking sprite intros back in the day! Chrono Chross! Splinter Cell! Super Metroid! Alice! The first Panzer Dragoon! I'll agree with everyone on all these accounts.

My absolute favorite would have to be both intros to FFVI (the new CGI one and the classic scrolling one). The theme is fantastic in the original sprite one and just from a few bars of midi music, you just FEEL a long, long epic story about to begin. It reminds me a LOT of the opening crawl of Star Wars, only with scrolling shots of the world. The "new" CGI one was perfect for nostalgic reasons: Terra/Tina looking up as the first snow flakes fall; her slow, escorted march to her Magitech armor; Celes in chains, looking up as Locke walks into the room; Celes in her opera dress overlooking her suicide jump, her dress slowly fades away and we see her in battle costume; the opera scene; Shadow killing ghosts on the ghost train (a quick shot of Relm that many didn't see); Celes with Locke's bandanna; Setzer going "Gambit" on the machines chasing his airship. Just. Fucking. Classic.
 
Not really an intro I guess, but when Fei in Xenogears first encounters Weltall and I.D partially awakens. Very memorable
 
Devil May Cry 1

"Time to go to work, boys!"

Some others (that were already mentioned):
Soul Edge intro (extremely impressive for its time)
Wild Arms 1 intro (lovely anime)
FF8 intro (badass CG, shame about the rest of the game)
FF10 intro (I thought running across the bridge while fighting Sinspawns was really cool, put you right into the action... shame then the next part of the game goes by soooo slooooowly)
 
MGS2 (movie-like awesomeness)
MGS3 (first thing that came to my mind was 'woah, PS2 and Kojima still got it')
Day of the Tentacle (I don't know exactly why, maybe because it was one of the first speech-included games I played)
GT3 (friend's jaws dropping at graphics sight - priceless)

I'm now really interested in the Onimusha 3 intro, as I haven't yet played it. Will check it out in the PC version I suppose.
 
Well, the way it came about, MGS3 no doubt. I went fuckin nuts when it came up. That was just the coolest stylistic touch to a game. And right after it, it just kicks into high gear. Incredible.
 
FFX-2
Vagrant Story
FFVIII

Not sure about it being intro, and also to kill the too much Squareness, but I always like letting the title screen run on PSOIII
 
I like the Dungeon Keeper intro. And the music made the Thief 2 intro pretty spiffy.

I also remember liking the Stonekeep intro, but it was so long ago that I don't remember the intro itself.
 
We all forgot
zerowing.gif
 
For the time, Final Fantasy VII. Also Wild Arms - don't care what the intro was actually like, that music is sufficiently godly to push it into the ranks of greatest intros purely by virtue of its audio goodness.
 
Just to spite all the FFVIII people, I am going to pick the FFVII one. I remember being so awe-inspired by it. It really foreshadowed the game pretty well too. The view of Midgard was so magical, yet bleak at the same time.

Chrono Chross and MGS2 come in very close though.
 
clearacell said:
Zelda: Wind Waker's painting/legend intro and music is just unmatched by anything else I've seen.
Click to expand...

Oh, wow, I completely forgot about this. The painting is sliding by with soft music, looking sort of LttP-ish and suddenly we see Link in painting form and the Zelda theme starts off with a very classical minstrel feel...just great. Nice.
 
Its a very close race between MGS2 and FF8. I say MGS2 gets the nod because its far more superior from a visual point of view. I don't just mean graphics. Both intros are basically a montage of cutscenes throughout the game, however MGS2 has much better transitions, and more attention to detail (like all the dna helix effects and credits). FF8 is a close second though.

Honorable Mention: Nuclear Strike. Gets the award for coolest live action FMV cutscenes in a game while still retaining the cheese factor. It was like Michael Bay or Tony Scott directed the cutscenes in that game. :lol
 
Super Metriod, Beyond Good and Evil, and I think First "mana" title. They all remembered they were actually games and surprised you by having intense early moments of gameplay while telling the story.
 
I just watched the FF8 and Soul Edge intros again, and they are amazing. But I'd like to add a game that's hardly mentioned when people talk about best intros: the Saturn version of Suikoden. It has the same music but completely new visuals, with simple but clean renders and lots of animation. Is there somewhere I can host a 24 meg .avi? Not to mention the Suikogaiden 2 intro that's completely animated (with mostly Suikoden 2 characters) and quite as good as Suikoden 3's.
 
For a handheld, you could do a lot worse than DJ Max Portable's (PSP) intro movie. It's as good as most anime out there on the market, lots of fan service, and all for a music/rhythm game of all things.

Speaking of music/rhythm game intros, I was immediately won over by Parappa the Rapper's cool intro... Jet Baby, Phat Donut, etc. Good stuff.
 
h1nch said:
Its a very close race between MGS2 and FF8. I say MGS2 gets the nod because its far more superior from a visual point of view. I don't just mean graphics. Both intros are basically a montage of cutscenes throughout the game, however MGS2 has much better transitions, and more attention to detail (like all the dna helix effects and credits). FF8 is a close second though.

Honorable Mention: Nuclear Strike. Gets the award for coolest live action FMV cutscenes in a game while still retaining the cheese factor. It was like Michael Bay or Tony Scott directed the cutscenes in that game. :lol
Click to expand...

Yeah, Metal Gear Solid 2's Kyle Cooper is awesome with his title sequences, this guy does do it professionally for movies and it clearly shows.
 
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