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The Timbre of Timber

Hey, a musical list. I don't make these often. After subjecting the endlessly patient and to all manner of VGM jams on the Giant Bomb plug.dj room (found here), I've come to the realization that the best inspiration for atmospheric and memorable music tracks tend to be forested settings, if not a gigantic tree in particular. I've collated a bunch of VGM that play during forest levels - ranging from dark and foreboding to breezy and light - to highlight this phenomenon. It is by no means a complete collection, and I'm sure I'm missing some better ones out there. Comment away if you have one to add.

If you ask me, there's nothing more gangsta than listening to songs about trees.

List items

  • Starting with a classic: Secret of Mana's main theme is an ode to the Mana Tree, which the opening cinematic slowly reveals as this music swells up upon loading the game. So many JRPGs seem to have a gigantic tree at the middle of everything. Anyway, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQChkLQV8_c

  • Perhaps the game's most memorable tune, the Forest Maze (or Geno's Theme as it's sometimes called, since the taciturn puppet man joins up around that part of the game) is a jazzy theme that evokes mischief, Alice in Wonderland-esque confusion and ever-enduring memories of faffing around a forest getting lost for hours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkailb3xcTI

  • Legaia 2 isn't a stand-out game by any metric by which one might consider a RPG to be successful. The story's generic, the characters seem awkward and stiff, the Fighter-like combo-based battle system's a little out-there and besides a weirdly in-depth cooking mini-game there's not a whole lot else that's memorable about it. In spite of all this, its Lost Forest track is still one of the most beautiful pieces of JRPG music I've ever heard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xy9Q-BLp48

  • Plok's Creepy Forest theme is one that initially seems as on-the-nose spooky as the game's bright and cartoonish presentation would suggest, but then it suddenly goes all ELO at about the minute mark. It's just another piece of inexplicable brilliance from the Follins brothers. If a tree Follins in the woods and no-one's around to hear it, does it still sound awesome? (Yes.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzELBO_3HzE

  • Seems a little unfair to include Chrono Trigger. I mean, the whole game has excellent music. I've been listening to it again as I watch Two Best Friends power through it (seems to be a spate of Chrono Trigger LPs around lately) and the music that plays in the forested areas of 600AD are every bit as excellent as the rest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r1iesThvYg

  • Anyone who is a long time fan of the Donkey Kong Country series knows about their sublime atmospheric tracks by former resident Rare composer David Wise. Forest Interlude manages to be almost as blissfully laid-back as the second game's most prolific track Stickerbrush Symphony. Check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Mp8uMammw (keep in mind this music comes from a game where a monkey wearing a cap rescues an ape with a tie).

  • Xenoblade's whole OST is sickeningly good. Each area has two sides to it: A day and a night, which means two separate but complementary tracks for each, with the latter generally being slower and more peaceful. Here's what Makna Forest sounds like when the sun goes down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf6_eCNEZVs It's kind of gross how good it is, right?

  • I'm going to double up an entry here because of how closely both games are linked, specifically these two tracks in particular: Phantom Forest from FF6 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8TV1PqZvw ) and Forested Temple from FF7 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V63FTqDevmA ). Both are otherworldly themes that honor the long-dead and both feature some of their respective games' most heartbreaking and story-crucial scenes.

  • Talking of creepy forest themes, Zelda nonpareil Ocarina of Time really emphasizes the tunic-wetting terror of the grown up Link's "Dark World" with the music of its first dungeon, the Forest Temple. Really hammers home how bad things have gotten with Ganondorf running the show. Kokiri Forest was a place of innocence and carefree charm before, but it's a place of madness and chaos now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb88VsHVDbw

  • Another mostly overlooked JRPG, another spectacular theme. This isn't so much set in a forest as over one, as various students of Al-Revis climb to the peak of lofty treetops in search of ever more rare ingredients for their alchemy classes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGDy0rOFOBA

  • Finishing this list off with a Castlevania classic. It's not common to see forests and Castlevania games together, since a grand majority of them don't leave the castle in question. Super Castlevania IV's Forest of Monsters is happy to inform you that things aren't any less dangerous outside the walls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJH9E2x87EY
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