The Great Narratological Lunar 2 Project
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:51 am
Right, so, I'm a grad student at Kansas State University and I'm doing my work on Lunar 2. Specifically on how it breaks away from postmodern literary conventions and reflects trends of the breaking from the late '80s and early '90s in particular to what David Foster Wallace talked about. That's not necessarily important here.
I'm going to have a ton of questions to toss around (and I'll go hunting around old threads as well soon), and hopefully a number of interesting ideas to offer up.
I'm going to play through the game a number of times and work with/improve the script by ShotgunNova.
I'm considering Lunar 2 as mostly separate from Lunar 1 in the way you would split Tom Sawyer from Huck Finn.
As I fill out figurative language during the third playthrough, I'll fill stuff in here or in docs or something. Things like paragons, symbols, metaphors, if it really is a morality play like Ghaleon says (probably not quite, but it IS something. Characters like Hiro (Hero) and Leo (the White Knight) really point to something else going on. Not to mention those relief paintings in the opening that show the Blue Star was ruined by war).
I'm interested in any tips, suggestions or ideas anyone has in regard to pretty much anything. Help with continuity is much appreciated. I am really aiming at what the story is doing, so I'm not interested in what could be potentially happening in it but rather anything that can be backed up with specific examples in the game.
Do you think the localizations/translations will interfere with my understanding of the original intent? (I'm willing to just consider it another aspect of the already convoluted concept of a videogame "author").
So, tidbit 1:
Is the Blue Star actually Earth, as far as L2 is concerned? So, the floating sphere in the Blue Spire and the occasional glimpses of the large background sprite don't seem to add up to anything, but the opening cutscene seems to really really depict a frozen Earth zooming in on Lucia located in maybe the Nigeria area of Africa. It seems you can make out the Middle East, Italy and parts of Southern Europe though Madagascar is obscured. Assuming this is true, remember that the relief paintings, and maybe elsewhere, show that the Blue Star had to be abandoned due to war and bloodshed. This hardly seems like a reason to leave a planet and inhabit it's moon, particularly when the relief depicts the war as being fought with spears. So, what kind of war could ruin a planet and leave it frozen, as the Blue Star is? It looks like there was a nuclear war on Earth and Althena had to move to the moon.
Maybe everyone knew this and I'm just late to the party? Maybe I missed something and it was just Zophar? Maybe there is something from L1 that answers this question?
Tidbit 2:
What's up with the pendant? Is it like depicting an eclipse of Lunar/The Blue Star? Anyone have any ideas? I wear mine everyday and actually just picked up another from eBay. On that note, anyone ever try to restore theirs? Mine is faded something awful and the string is old and cruddy. I'd like to clean the rest of the gold off and shine it up silvery while still keeping the black enamel.
I'm going to have a ton of questions to toss around (and I'll go hunting around old threads as well soon), and hopefully a number of interesting ideas to offer up.
I'm going to play through the game a number of times and work with/improve the script by ShotgunNova.
I'm considering Lunar 2 as mostly separate from Lunar 1 in the way you would split Tom Sawyer from Huck Finn.
As I fill out figurative language during the third playthrough, I'll fill stuff in here or in docs or something. Things like paragons, symbols, metaphors, if it really is a morality play like Ghaleon says (probably not quite, but it IS something. Characters like Hiro (Hero) and Leo (the White Knight) really point to something else going on. Not to mention those relief paintings in the opening that show the Blue Star was ruined by war).
I'm interested in any tips, suggestions or ideas anyone has in regard to pretty much anything. Help with continuity is much appreciated. I am really aiming at what the story is doing, so I'm not interested in what could be potentially happening in it but rather anything that can be backed up with specific examples in the game.
Do you think the localizations/translations will interfere with my understanding of the original intent? (I'm willing to just consider it another aspect of the already convoluted concept of a videogame "author").
So, tidbit 1:
Is the Blue Star actually Earth, as far as L2 is concerned? So, the floating sphere in the Blue Spire and the occasional glimpses of the large background sprite don't seem to add up to anything, but the opening cutscene seems to really really depict a frozen Earth zooming in on Lucia located in maybe the Nigeria area of Africa. It seems you can make out the Middle East, Italy and parts of Southern Europe though Madagascar is obscured. Assuming this is true, remember that the relief paintings, and maybe elsewhere, show that the Blue Star had to be abandoned due to war and bloodshed. This hardly seems like a reason to leave a planet and inhabit it's moon, particularly when the relief depicts the war as being fought with spears. So, what kind of war could ruin a planet and leave it frozen, as the Blue Star is? It looks like there was a nuclear war on Earth and Althena had to move to the moon.
Maybe everyone knew this and I'm just late to the party? Maybe I missed something and it was just Zophar? Maybe there is something from L1 that answers this question?
Tidbit 2:
What's up with the pendant? Is it like depicting an eclipse of Lunar/The Blue Star? Anyone have any ideas? I wear mine everyday and actually just picked up another from eBay. On that note, anyone ever try to restore theirs? Mine is faded something awful and the string is old and cruddy. I'd like to clean the rest of the gold off and shine it up silvery while still keeping the black enamel.