ReMix:Final Fantasy XII "Final Fantasy Forest Medley" 6:38

Mesmerizing!! RebeccaETripp makes her OC ReMix debut with a completely transporting orchestral/new age medley, arranging forest themes from five different Final Fantasy games & taking you on a unified trip to other woods in other worlds. She writes:

"This is an original orchestral arrangement of five different forest themes from the Final Fantasy series. Here is a list of the tracks included in this medley:

"Eruyt Village" (FF12)
"Phantom Forest/Mystic Forest" (FF6)
"Evil Forest/Awakened Forest/Stirring of the Forest" (FF9)
"Legend of a Deep Forest/Forest of Moore" (FF5)
"Chasing the Black Caped Man" (FF7)

This song is my pride and joy. I've remixed almost every forest theme from every game I've ever played, some of them more than once, but there are few that I feel really captured the essence of some of the gorgeous video game forest environments out there. Some of my favorite video game forests are the Phantom Forest from FF6 (the theme from this is in my medley), the Shadow Forest and Gaia's Navel from Chrono Cross, the Moore Forest from FF5 (also in this track, even though I just did an "As I Feel, You Feel" remix the other day), the Macalania Forest from FF10, the Lost Woods from Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past, Guardia Forest from Chrono Trigger, the Forest of Illusion from Super Mario World, Faron Woods from Twilight Princess, the Ancient Forest from FF7 (that song also made its way into this remix), the Salikawood, Feywood and other forests in FF12 (Eruyt Village is actually the basis of this orchestral cover) and many many more. Uncharted, Elder Scrolls, Donkey Kong, Far Cry and GoldenEye had some great forest levels worth mentioning as well! Anyway, my favorite video game forest of all time is the Evil Forest from FF9. That theme song is also in this track. As with all my remixes and covers, I used samples of real instruments to create the sound, and I composed the entire thing from scratch."

Very cool concept/theme for a medley; because forest themes often share certain melodic & rhythmic similarities, there's perhaps more of a coherent flow than if the medley were simply comprised of pieces from a single game's OST. Seems that way to me, at least! Rebecca's done a good job combining arrangements of these works into a larger structure that, while it might briefly meander a bit at times, ultimately pulls off the overall, ambitious task with grace and style. Larry articulated this point nicely:

"The piece essentially has one relaxed gear, but there were a lot of subtle dynamic changes throughout, with regular theme switches and interplays, as well as never-ending instrument additions and subtractions that kept the texture constantly evolving. The structure can definitely sound meandering or aimless, even if you're actively listening. Having done my best to break down the usage of the source tunes, I understand there's actually more direction than might be apparent from the first listen. The constant subtle shifting of what was in play was pulled off in a surprisingly effective way."

Jivemaster adds:

"Very nice calming mix with a lot of seamless transitions between the sources. The instrumentation is very humanised and of a fairly high quality, with some nice clear mixing. Volume levels of each element feel pretty solid, and there is nice use of stereo space."

Ditto that on the stereo field; very immersive, exaggerated separation on the elements makes it seem like you're "among" the parts rather than observing them - not unlike being surrounded by noises in a forest. Great debut mix from Rebecca that has both grand scope & intimate ambiance; these are woods you'll enjoy getting lost in.