Reflections in Crystal: My life through a lens of Final Fantasy

The land rots. The seas turn stagnant. The wind ceases to blow and the fires fade. The four crystals of the elements have turned dark and the world stands on the brink of collapse. The great sage Lukahn tells a prophecy of the Warriors of Light, four individuals who will come and save the world by bringing light back to the crystals. Years later, four youths appear in the Kingdom of Corneria, each carrying a shard of crystal in their hands. Believed to be the prophesised Warriors of Light, the four youths set out on their destined path to save the world…   Have you ever been completely, utterly, and hopelessly lost? Ever taken a wrong turn on a city street or down a country lane and ended up somewhere completely the opposite of your destination? What do you do in those situations? Do you stop and ask for directions, or immediately turn your phone on and hope St. Google can point you in the right direction? More importantly, how does being in that situation make you feel? Worrie...

In 1987, the very first Final Fantasy was released in Japan. By some startling coincidence, I was also born in the same year. This wasn’t the only thing to have happened in 1987, of course. For instance, President Reagan and President Gorbachev met in Washington to mark the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Bon Jovi unleashed Livin’ On A Prayer on an unsuspecting world audience. A great storm swept over the UK after an infamous gaffe on the weather report initially reported it as a ‘false alarm’. By all accounts from what I’ve read and seen, 1987 was a banger year. Not that I would know. I was only a babe. I had no idea what a Cold War was, nor did I have enough hair to whip back and forth to Bon Jovi. And I certainly don’t remember any storm blowing down our house. By that same notion, I had absolutely no idea about Final Fantasy or even what it was. Heck, the whole of Europe wouldn’t even know what it was until 10 years later! But it was there, existing in the world at t...