Terranigma - Mystery of Light and Dark

Throughout our time in Intro to DMA, we have discussed a few different Creation stories, or at least pieces of art that can be interpreted as a Creation story, it has reminded me of an action RPG I finally played all the way through in the summer before attending Huntington University known as Terranigma. The music played throughout the game is fantastic, the emotions it evokes preceding it. The references in the game are not all biblical, and in fact most of them are not biblical but rather remind me of Hinduism. The game has heavy themes relating to cycles such as the Hindu samsara, a cycle of eternal birth, life, and death.

 The game follows a young man named Ark in the village of Crysta, in what is later known as the "Underworld", a world within Earth. Terranigma's intro cutscene describes the cycle of Light and Dark that Earth goes through based on the two polar entities that live in the world's essence, Light Gaia and Dark Gaia. Each entity tries to gain control of the whole of the world through various means. Ark, must travel out of Crysta, which used to not have an exit to begin restoring, or resurrection the "Overworld" after opening "Pandora's Box." Upon resurrecting the land of the "Overworld", he must abandon his home of Crysta to travel up to the "Overworld."

There, he is to resurrect all forms of life, plants, animals, and eventually the human race. He experiences the beauty of the world he is returning to life as opposed to the crystalline wasteland that is the "Underworld." In his travels, he finds that the two worlds mirror one another, each carrying a mirror of every person, namely through meeting the mirror of his childhood friend, Elle, who ironically bore the same name. The game draws heavily on the beauty of creation, resurrection, and reincarnation. Terranigma is a beautiful classic known as one of the Super Nintendo RPGs. It is to this day one of my favorites.