So Takkar seems like yet another sleepy town with the usual types of people. What's with the two sets of twins in the village though?
Ooooh! I hadn't noticed that! You're right, though, several twins in this town. I only noticed the two that owned the Bodacious Babes Inn (or whatever it was called). Good catch.
There's a lot of duality symbolism in LUNAR like with Lunar the planet/world/moon you have the Blue Star which accompanies it. Love is a strong storybook point to the game, with a boy/& girl. They've mentioned twins in the past before like Laticia and Alicia the twin Dragonmaster sisters. Female Dragonmasters? The Goddess Althena and Lucia seems to be a bit of a focal point in Eternal Blue Complete, we can't forget about that.
Good reading on the thematic elements of the game. I never even thought about it that deeply, but there's definitely a lot of symbolism in this game involving duality and twins, and like you said, ultimately paralleling the nature of Althena and Lucia. Nice!
Personal notes: So I realized as I was playing the game that this style of a RPG is really the kind I most gravitate towards, I'll try to use all the adjectives: classic, traditional, 90s(?), turnbased, linear. These, really, are the type of JRPGs I enjoy to play and love the most. They seemed to just be released in droves when I was a kid/teenager. It made me feel like maybe I should look into or concentrate on the much older games, instead of always looking forward to buying the new-style jRPGs they have now. I definitely have more fun playing an old favorite and re-learning all the things I love about it, and using an adult brain to analyze things even deeper. Sometimes I feel people look at me weird when I keep track of how many times I re-played a game (*for some reason people don't count repetition in statistics*). I certainly count how many times I've completely worked over and worn-out any old thing I love. Maybe I'm trying to see if I can break it?
I love jRPGs and love the old-school ones like you, but I admit that I do like to change it up and sometimes need to change it up to more action-RPG hybrids (the Elder Scrolls series is a definite favorite). There's definitely a nostalgia factor for me; it's not just about the music style and sound samples or the pixel graphics, nor the similarity in gameplay, but I think the writing and speed of the stories has a certain era-specific tone. It's hard to articulate. That era from like 1992 to maybe 1999 has a certain certain sameness to how the games *feel* even if they are very, very different. They're like a comfort food!
I also replay the same games, but those are mostly my personal favorites: games from the Mana series, the Chrono games, the SNES and PSX era of Final Fantasy, Terranigma, and of course, LUNAR. Generally I have to really love a game to replay it, but if I do love it, I normally replay them at least once every four or five years.
I actually had suggested that I’m up for a second round with another game, but you choose this time (if you want)! I was kinda thinking/interested about doing this with a Chrono game.
Definitely! I think a Chrono Trigger play-through would be fun, or even one of the ROM hacks. I played Chrono Cross when the remaster came out, so I need a little bit more before I pick it or Radical Dreamers, but it's been a few years since I've played through Trigger. I'm down!
...Jean ... I think it’s interesting she’s running from her past and decided to become a common dancer. Imagine all the crazy stories a lowly gas station attendant or accountant or something has to tell? I myself find common ground with blue collar workers as I think they’re the backbone of America/society in general and they’re just people’s people.
Her story is definitely a bit of a trope, but I do like her longing to use her athleticism and skills for good (like dancing). A humble, non-assuming career choice, and like you, I'm all about the mundane and blue collar workforce. We've chatted in Discord DMs before about how I have a little farm now, and I love it. If I could become a farmer full-time and keep the bills paid without accumulating both debt and risk, I would. I see so much value in the often-unsung career paths, and I like the stories capturing people in the mundane having moments of epic delivery (however that may look).
Alex from LUNAR was a great example of this; a simple boy in a small town who wanted to be Dragonmaster but that thought wasn't really something he took too seriously. Had it not been for the events with Luna, he probably would have returned from Meribia and settled down in Burg and lived simply. Even as he becomes a hero, he has simple roots and never strays too far from them.
There's actually a lot of other thoughts you've had this week that I haven't been able to respond to. I had the flu or something like it pretty bad and have been out of commission most of the week, and then I was trying to work while in a feverish fugue because of some project commitments. My thoughts have been all over the place, so my apologies for that.
I'm diving into the game but can only play for a few minutes. My son has his first basketball game pretty early in the AM, and seeing that it's nearly midnight here, I'll need to hit the hay. I'll double post with specific game thoughts.
