Final Fantasy

To the Lighthouse

Memory wouldn’t work anymore:
too much war, or school, or new names

Taking up space where our laughter
used to hide-and-seek each other.

And the lighthouse? It remains
beside the ruins of the old house

Three FFXIV Poems

My cousin calls The Gold
Saucer the in-game casino,
and I think back to the backseat, en route
to Vegas, sandwiched between
her and her brother, my shoulders aching.

High Scores: Hymn of the Fayth

It’s the only song the Spirans get, and they are obsessed with it. By limiting the diegetic music in Spira to a single song while making the game’s non-diegetic music rich and varied, Uematsu succeeded in conveying the bleak monotony of Spiran life while still evoking a complexity of emotions in the player.

High Scores: Terra’s Theme

That “Terra’s Theme” disappears from the game in the World of Ruin (the game’s second half) does not diminish the importance of her character. In fact, by examining how “Terra’s Theme” and its leitmotifs dominate the World of Balance (the game’s first half) but localize in the WoR, we can see how Terra’s story is, in fact, the story of FFVI. To cast Terra as less than the protagonist is to miss the game’s central themes, narratively and musically.

You Cannot Save Here

My favorite apocalypse
happens halfway through
as in, everything comes down
and you’ve got to keep going