The Blue Star, is it*spoilers for EB*

[Apophis san]

Earth? I mean on the epilogue ending for EB, you can sort of see what looks like Africa.

[DevNall]

I don't think there's a definitive yes/no for that one.

[GhaleonOne]

I noticed that the last time I played it too. If you watch it in the intro and ending, you can definately make out Africa, and when it zooms in in the intro to the Blue Spire, it's in what looks like Africa. Considering this, and the comments by scenario designers, I think there's something to it.

[Kizyr]

The scenario designers really like to keep things ambiguous on that subject. Almost everyone's theorized about that at some point--a lot based on the same evidence you cited--but it's set to remain as something that could swing either way.

As for me, my money's on it being Earth. KF

[Shiva Indis]

One staff member who was in the excellent habit of making her process available is Akari Funato (whom I've ended up mentioning in at least half my posts here). While she's kind of just a lucky fan (an aspiring artist who joined the Lunar staff after playing and loving Lunar TSS), she did work on the remakes, mostly on storyboard/art continuity. She tends to label the Blue Star as 'Earth' on her layout sketches, but in her finished products, mum's still the word.

There are many interesting questions that concern the relationship between Lunar and the Blue Star. Does the destruction of the Blue Star will occur in our future? This seems like the most likely assumption, but it's just an assumption. Millenia in the double digits must've passed between the colonizing of Lunar and the events Lunar: Eternal Blue. What are the chances that we would still be able to recognize continents if the Blue Star was seismically active?

Perhaps the Blue Star is "colder than the coldest heart" all the way down to the core. Only magic is going to solve that problem.

[Apophis san]

If that is Earth, my interpretation of it is that it takes place in the distant past. During the times of Atlantis, Lemuria, etc....

[Kizyr]

There are many interesting questions that concern the relationship between Lunar and the Blue Star. Does the destruction of the Blue Star will occur in our future? This seems like the most likely assumption, but it's just an assumption. Millenia in the double digits must've passed between the colonizing of Lunar and the events Lunar: Eternal Blue. What are the chances that we would still be able to recognize continents if the Blue Star was seismically active?

We definitely would. Check out a map of the Earth around 1 million years ago and the same continents are quite visible. About 100-200 million is when things start changing, so going forward several thousand years is nothing in geological terms.

I'm still about it ocurring in the far future. The only way mankind's evil intentions could result in wiping out an entire planet is when there's sufficient technology to do that. KF

[Alunissage]

I just figure it's a parallel universe, not our literal earth. I don't find magic and goddesses plausible here. Maybe some parallel civilizations, like the Assyrians (Lucia's tower) and Greeks/Romans (Goddess Tower), but not in our timeline. My one bit of quasi-fanfic pretty much goes with that idea, though I had forgotten it until this discussion. As for it being called Earth, it's like how many peoples' names are something like "the people" in whatever their native language is; the inhabitants of alternate earth would call their homeland Earth. They certainly wouldn't call it the Blue Star (or Planet if you want to use that translation) because they wouldn't see it as such any more than the place looks blue when I look out the window, except when on water. It wouldn't reflect light to them, so it wouldn't be a star. Lunar, on the other hand, would have a name assigned from the viewpoint of Earth, and when they went there they'd have a name for it already. Later generations would remember the name there (Lunar, I mean) but those who didn't grow up on Earth would describe it as they saw it, i.e., the Blue Star.

[ilovemyguitar]

There are many interesting questions that concern the relationship between Lunar and the Blue Star. Does the destruction of the Blue Star will occur in our future? This seems like the most likely assumption, but it's just an assumption. Millenia in the double digits must've passed between the colonizing of Lunar and the events Lunar: Eternal Blue. What are the chances that we would still be able to recognize continents if the Blue Star was seismically active?

We definitely would. Check out a map of the Earth around 1 million years ago and the same continents are quite visible. About 100-200 million is when things start changing, so going forward several thousand years is nothing in geological terms.

I'm still about it ocurring in the far future. The only way mankind's evil intentions could result in wiping out an entire planet is when there's sufficient technology to do that. KF

Here's a crazy thought. What if the Lunar games take place during Earth's Ice Age?

[Kizyr]

Here's a crazy thought. What if the Lunar games take place during Earth's Ice Age?

Definitely a crazy thought, considering that we see the Blue Star is practically covered in ice and devoid of all life when Lucia is on it. There was still abundant life during Earth's last ice age, but larger icecaps and lower sea levels. KF

[Angelalex242]

I considered the devastation closer to that that might be caused by a 'nuclear winter'. Which could well destroy all life, and kick up enough clouds to block enough sunlight to freeze the ground solid like that.

All that requires is Althena's light affecting Earth like far too many nuclear warheads dropped at once.

[Alunissage]

That seems to be a consensus; it's certainly what I've considered it (in essence), and I read a bit of a fanfic a year or two ago which called it that. There wasn't any explanation for how it got that way until EBC, though.

[Lunar Eclipse]

*Spoilers for Eternal Blue and Grandia II in this post*

I just figure it's a parallel universe, not our literal earth. I don't find magic and goddesses plausible here.

[spoiler]Well, given GameArts' story in Grandia II, I don't see any reason to think gods and goddesses would be an impossibility in our world. Who's to say that Althena, Zophar, and whatever other gods and goddesses exist didn't create their own power and ascend to a higher form of being? In fact, if you think about it, the plots of Eternal Blue and Grandia II are extremely similar from the perspective of the deities. Althena, like Granas, rules over light and ushered in an age of wonders in which the dreams of man became reality (i.e. Lunar, magic, etc.). Zophar, like Valmar, is a wicked god, intent on devouring light and unmaking the work of the deity of goodness and purity. The two met in a cataclysmic battle that resulted in the dark lord being sealed away, but only temporarily. Ages later, churches dedicated the powers of light, perpetuated by corrupt power structures (the false Goddess Althena and Pope Zera Innocentius), are proven to be false when their associations with the dark gods are revealed. Granas' Cathedral, like Pentagulia, is crushed, and in the end, only the power of humanity (not the power of the gods of light) prevails. Maybe I'm just twisting it to meet my point, but anyway, I think it's possible that the gods and goddesses of Lunar are likewise a result of superior technology.[/spoiler]

[Alunissage]

Haven't played Grandia 2, but read it anyway. That's pretty much how I think of Althena, etc. -- not 'divine' in the way most monotheistic religions see their deity, but a higher form which is sufficiently above humans to be considered godlike from the humans' point of view. Hence why all Lucia's spells have high-tech names like Atomic Burn and Plasma Rain while the humans have simple elemental magic. Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, as Arthur Clarke more or less put it. However, I still don't see that as being this world, in the way that MKR (the game, which is all I know) is explicitly related to this world, Tokyo Tower and all.

[Lunar Eclipse]

I agree that there's no clear correlation, but there's nothing that denies it either. The lack of recognizable structures can easily be blamed on the destruction caused by Zophar, and Lucia's Tower could easily have been created as an afterthought, much as the Fortress of Althena must have been constructed post-sealing. I love that you pointed out the Atomic Burn/Plasma Rain thing, though.

[phyco126]

Well, if I'm not mistaken, in SSSC you could make out part of Africa and the Middle East... but I could be wrong. Actually, here:

This is from EBC



The rest are from SSSC

[Lunar Eclipse]

Even the Iberian Peninsula and Italy are clearly in there, not to mention Madagascar.

[GhaleonOne]

Yeah, I think you've got a pretty good case. I only noticed it in the EBC intro. Never thought of checking in the Boat Scene.

[Lunar Eclipse]

Of course, I've seen games where they've used images of Earth on planets which are stated as not being Earth before. In the intro to Phantasy Star Online, for instance, the planet is mapped with an image of Earth near the Horn of Africa during the explosion scene.

[That Other Person]

Well, I assume this was doen on purpose in Lunar.