Fortree City – Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald

About game/music

This is “Fortree City” from “Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald” developed by Game Freak, released by The Pokémon Company.
This is composed by Morikazu Aoki.
He also composed “Abandoned ship”, for example.

This song is played in Fortree City, a city where houses are built on trees.
It’s also the city where the sixth gym is located.
It’s my personal favorite town, with its unexplored landscape.

Analyzing

bar 12~13:

  • iv in major key (other Tabs include this)
    • one of the so-called “subdominant minor chord”, which include b6th in the scale.
    • It’s nostalgic or romantic.
    • Typically used following IV.
    • It’s borrowed mostly from parallel minor, but also from Mixolydian b6 (in this case, ivM7)
    • Other examples are the following songs.
      • Candy Constellation – Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
      • Badges – Pikmin Bloom
      • National Park – Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver
      • Cobalt Coastlands 1 – Pokémon Legends: Arceus
      • Marine Tube – Pokémon Black2/White2
      • Shopping in Wakeport – Mario & Luigi: Dream Team