Game:

Terranigma (1995)

Category:

Vlog

Duration: 1:11:41

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I try to get to the heart of the enigma of the earth. The ironic part is that there are video games that execute heady ecological themes far better, like Even the Ocean, which I reference in the video. But it’s Terranigma that captured my imagination first. Features spoilers for Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, and Soul Blazer.

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MackerelPhones

I use footage from:
Actraiser (1990)
Ys: The Vanished Omens (1988)
Ys I & II Chronicles (2017)
Terranigma (1995)
Illusion of Time (1995) (i.e. the European Illusion of Gaia)
Soul Blazer (1992)
Planet Laika (1999)
Actraiser 2 (1993)
Even the Ocean (2016)
SimEarth: The Living Planet (1990)
Lichenia (2019)

ActRaiser 2 (Complete Playthrough)
Synn
https://youtu.be/QUYqedPAXWY

Pictures:
Hamites.jpg
Neale Monks
CC BY-SA 3.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamites.jpg

Miyazaki photograph
https://www.mobygames.com/developer/shots/developerId,19700/developerShotId,41509/

Hashimoto photograph
https://www.mobygames.com/developer/shots/developerId,25595/developerShotId,41510/

Tenchi Souzou manga photograph from this eBay listing
hit-japan
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TENCHI-SOUZOU-Manga-Comic-Complete-Set-1-2-MAMIKO-YASAKA-Japan-Book-EX-/362234187153

Still from Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Emaciated Siddhartha Fasting
Akuppa John Wigham
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emaciated_Siddhartha_Fasting_Gautama_Buddha.jpg
CC BY 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Photograph of the Zbruch idol
Silar
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:O98_Idol_von_Sbrutsch_mit_Darstellung_von_Unterwelt,_Erde_und_des_Himmels,_zirka_10._Jh._n._Chr..JPG
CC BY-SA 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Cover of Dialectic of Enlightenment
https://www.sup.org/img/covers/large/pid_1103.jpg

Barkhor in Lhasa (Tibet) 2007
Dieter Schuh
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barkhor_in_Lhasa_(Tibet)_2007_Dieter_Schuh.JPG
CC BY-SA 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Still from My Sassy Girl (2001)

Photo of ship on the dried Aral Sea
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aralship2.jpg

Terranigma illustrations
https://fantasyanime.com/legacy/terran_art.htm

Soul Blazer illustrations
http://playingwithsuperpower.com/soul-blazer-review-snes/

The Slave Ship (1840)
J. M. W. Turner
This haunting painting is inspired by the Zong massacre. Sorry the edges got cropped out.

Reading:

Quintet interviews
http://shmuplations.com/terranigma/

Simon Kuznets, “Modern Economic Growth” in The American Economic Review Vol. 63, No. 3, 1973, pages 247-258.
It can be read for free at this address: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1971/kuznets/lecture/

Akwesasne Notes, Basic Call to Consciousness, 1978.
The titular essay of this marvelous book can be read online for free: https://ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/BasicCtC.html

Julie Livingston, Self-Devouring Growth, 2019.
An article she wrote on the same topic: https://africasacountry.com/2019/09/self-devouring-growth

Karl Marx, Capital, Chapter Thirty-One
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1995.

Franke Wilmer, “Development Can Have Many Meanings: Indigenous Peoples and the Discourse of Modernization” in The Indigenous Voice in World Politics, 1993.
http://sk.sagepub.com/books/the-indigenous-voice-in-world-politics/n2.xml

The music is from the soundtrack of Terranigma. In addition, I use “Shrine of the Master,” “Dr. Leo’s Paintings,” and “Dr. Leo’s Lab” from Soul Blazer, “Sacred Warrior” from Actraiser 2, and “Dark Space” from Illusion of Gaia.

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