As we enter the closing act of 2022, everyone is busy working out which title was their game of the year. Instead of getting into that, I’d rather ask what game has the best opening theme?
The answer? It’s Dragon’s Dogma. Of course it is!
Performed by rock duo Koshi Inaba and Takahiro “Tak” Matsumoto, more commonly known as B’z, the song Into Free was the complete opposite of what RPG fans expected. Well, most of it was. The intro sounded like it was going full-on Elder Scrolls, then out of nowhere, AC/DC-style guitars started bleeding to life as Inaba’se harmonic vocals cut through the noise. It’s totally unexpected and, somehow, fits perfectly in both the RPG genre and for whatever the hell Dragon’s Dogma is.
Also, you’ve been pronouncing B’z wrong. It’s “Be-zoo,” not “Bees.” the more you know!
All this leads us to the video at the top of the page, which is just pure perfection. Inaba proves his rockstar status and he laps up the crowd’s excitement, while Tak plays complex notes in the most nonchalant way possible. Complex solos? Yeah, I can do them, who can’t? It’s genuinely brilliant.
As fate would have it, Capcom deemed Into Free to be too powerful and replaced it in the Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen expansion, presumably for our own safety. It’s impossible not to bop to. Thankfully, there is a mod that brings the iconic song back to its rightful place (I know what I’ll be installing on my Steam Deck later).
