Ghibli Hills/Video Games

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Examples of Ghibli Hills in Video Games include:

Final Fantasy XI has the forest of Ronfaure as San d'Oria's easiest outside area. However, it also has the barren wasteland of Gustaberg and the savanna of Sarutabaruta for Bastok and Windurst, respectively. As San d'Oria is in some ways the most typical RPG setting, the Ronfaure = Ghibli Hills scenario still works.
Final Fantasy XII features Tchita Uplands and Cerobi Steppe, which are relatively untamed despite being just outside the bustling imperial capital of Archades and the port of Balfonheim, and also full of relatively high-level monsters.
Justified in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, where humans are literally incapable of developing outside of a set boundary due to miasma.
Both Cyrodiil and Morrowind in the Elder Scrolls series feature large tracts of unspoiled wilderness between cities and towns. While some areas veer more towards Arcadia, most of the countryside remains wild and untamed.
- The wilderness areas of Cryodiil in Oblivion are, however, actually patrolled by the Imperial Legion, so it's not entirely untamed wilderness.
  - Inverted in Paradise, where believers of Mythic Dawn go to when they die. While it looks like something from Ghibli Hills, it's anything but.
- And Morrowind is a sort of reverse of the above—while there aren't a whole lot of guards (or "people") in certain areas of the game world, some areas themselves aren't too pleasant, either, ranging from ashstorm-covered deserts to areas of hardened (and not-so-hardened, for the very misfortunate) volcanic lava.
- The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Skyrim do a good job of depicting Tamriel like this.
Mulgore and Nagrand in World of Warcraft (although Nagrand is considerably weirder than most examples of this trope).
- Don't forget the Emerald Dream, which is the physical representation of what the entire world would have been like had the sentient races never existed.
- Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills, Borean Tundra and Sholazar Basin in Northrend could also fit. The two former and two latter adjacent zones are on either side of the continent and have been left mostly untouched, separated by Icecrown to the north and Dragonblight in the south.
- The Dragonshrine areas of the Dragonblight are special cases. They are small pockets of areas sacred to the different Dragonflights and under their protection from the wasteland that covers most of the Dragonblight.
  - The Emerald Dragonshrine is protected by Alystros and Ysera of the Green Dragonflight and remains a pristine eden-like garden.
  - The Ruby Dragonshrine was under the protection of Dahlia Suntouch. Her murder has left the Ruby Dragonshire open to assault by the Scourge, although it is still strongly defended by the Ruby Dragonflight and still retains much of its sylvan environment.
  - The Bronze Dragonshrine is under serious assault by the Infinite Dragonflight. It's uncertain if the desert-like environment is its natural state or a result of the constant attacks.
  - The Obsidian Dragonshrine is a charred and smouldering cave, which is probably just fine with the Black Dragonflight, although it has been invaded by members of the Cult of the Damned who are using it as a base for raising undead dragons.
  - The Azure Dragonshrine has been entirely ~~corrupted~~ repurposed by Malygos and the Blue Dragonflight and used as a focus for Malygos' plans to siphon the magic from Azeroth.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas featured expansive rural and unpopulated areas in stark contrast to the series' dense urban mainstay (though it has that too).
This turns out to be the true form of the Midnight Channel in Persona 4.
Both Fable games have landscapes like this in between cities, except in places that are near places of evil, such as Wraithmarsh and Darkwood.
The First Town in The Witcher is a subversion of this. The village of Murky Waters appears later than half-way through the game. Though ominously named, it's the most peaceful place in the game, filled with beautiful rolling hills, pleasant people who actually respect and appreciate witchers, and light, optional action. Of course, like everywhere else, Geralt leaves it in ruins.
Backyard Football 2006 has a forest stage, uninhabited by humans, that is right next to the city.
Pokémon, quite frequently. Consider, for example, the Ilex Forest which is just a stone's throw from the metropolis Goldenrod City. Generation III in particular takes this trope and turns it Up to Eleven.
Gensokyo, the setting of Touhou, is this.
The popular MMORPG Mabinogi. Every. Single. Place. In. The. World. It's a shame, even, that some of the more well-designed areas serve little purpose, some fans wander them just to see what's there.

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