Growing up the ‘Soul Blazer series’ (as it’s frequently referred to) were some of my most favorite games. The thing is, I didn’t know it was a trilogy. I played Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia religiously but never realized there was a third in the series entitled Terranigma. This wasn’t for my lack of looking; while this game was released in Japan and Europe it never saw release in North America. It wasn’t until the internet became a thing at my hyouse that I learned of Terranigma. It was high up on my list, but I wanted to play it legimitately which is difficult because it’s a PAL region cartridge. Fast forward to now and only minutes ago the credits of the game concluded. I finally was able to experience Terranigma, and it’s every bit as amazing as I expected it to be.
In Terranigma you play as a young troublemaker named Ark. Our protagonist lives peacefully with his friend Elle in a village called Crysta in what is known as the dark world; it’s basically the underside of planet Earth. One day Ark, being the rebellious youth that he is, smashes a forbidden door with a pot, opens pandora’s box, and all of the residents of Crysta become frozen in time. He’s met by a flying monster named Yomi, and instructed by the elder of the village to resurrect the light world by completing challenges in five towers in this underworld. Upon doing so Ark restores continents on the surface, and travels to this world with the intention of reviving animals and people. He is essentially rebuilding the world, but not all is at it seems as he eventually discovers.
While less character driven that Illusion of Gaia the story here is interesting for a number of reasons. Ark doesn’t have a lot of input into the plot, and only towards the end does he even become important. While there is an overarching story the scenario here is divided into a series of vignettes. Once you travel to the light world (which is actually the real Earth both geographically and culturally) each town seems to have its own self contained story, and you’ll grow attached to many of the characters.
This works very well and more than makes up for the lack of character in our protagonist. Some of the ‘real-life’ character and inventions stuff is a bit odd however. Things like Ark getting an airplane to fly, or meeting Christopher Columbus are pretty cheesy. The overarching story isn’t as focused as Illusion of Gaia or Soul Blazer, but it is interesting enough and contains many twists that legitimately surprised me. Like the previous games from Quintet there’s a large focus on the spirituality of reincarnation. It makes the story and lore much more deep than in your typical RPG.
Terranigma plays very much like your typical action role playing game of its time. Gameplay is strictly two dimensional, the action is viewed from a semi-overhead perspective, and all combat is done in real-time. What sets it apart from its contemporaries however is that it focuses a bit more on traditional genre elements than most others. There’s a world map (two actually) which you view from the old familiar zoomed out perspective complete with vehicles (a ship and airplane specifically).The towns all, for the most part, have Inns and weapon/armor/item shops. They’re more interactive than in the previous games in the trilogy.
Ark can get hit with status effects such as poison or paralysis with special consumable items used to heal these ailments. It feels very much like you’re playing a traditional Final Fantasy game at times instead of an entry in the Quintet trilogy. Terranigma just hits more of the typical bullet points than the others. While I’m never a fan of status elements the focus on more traditional role playing elements was actually welcome. The combat system is far more versatile than your run of the mill action RPG.
As I mentioned earlier everything takes place in real-time meaning you must actively dodge and attack enemies. Ark’s weapon of choice are spears (or pikes) but these offer very little range meaning you have to get up close and personal to inflict damage. On top of your standard attack you can jump and strike (which results in Ark performing a nifty looking flip), you can lunge into your foe, or do a slide attack.The latter of these is more powerful and offers Ark limited protection, but you don’t always have room. You also can collect (via Magirocks which are traded in at magic shops) several spells with a variety of offensive effects, and one that even returns you to the beginning of the dungeon.
This game offers a fair challenge with some really tough normal foes that only get easier as you gain experience and level Ark up.The game’s strongest suit however is in its dungeon designs. While the first few are pretty simple labyrinths Terranigma eventually introduces new concepts and puzzle types. By the end I found myself running in circles trying to figure out what to do. These puzzles and mazes are never overly vague, nor are they particularly unfair (plenty of clues are strewn about in the more intricate areas) but sometimes you will need to stop and think which is never a bad thing.The enemy patterns in these dungeons are a step above those in your typical action role playing game with random patterns and many that feature multiple attacks. This makes them predictable which kept me on my toes.
The boss encounters are another areas in which Terranigma stands out from the crowd. These are each unique from each other and feature (some) screen filling foes with crazy patterns and interesting attacks. The developers and designers went all out and made for some of the best encounters in the genre. Terranigma is one of the best looking role playing games on the Super Nintendo. The game uses quite a few computer generated images during the storytelling sequences which is something I’m not used to with games of this era, and they all look really nice particularly in the revival of the Earth sequences. Terranigma makes heavy use of the classic mode 7 graphics techniques for things like the world map, and the scrolling ceiling on the underworld is one of the nicest effects I’ve seen on the system.
The sprite work is, at times, very intricate with some great looking scenery and characters. Each dungeon looks distinct and some feature really cool effects such as the line of sight on soldiers in the few stealth based areas. Some underground areas feature really nice lighting in specific areas which is quite pleasant. The only thing I don’t like is that many of the town areas are almost copy and paste templates of one another. They just don’t look different enough from one another, but that’s a small issue overall.
The soundtrack is typical fare for the time and maybe it’s because I don’t have nostalgia for it but I found Terranigma’s music to be a little ordinary to be honest. The dungeon themes are the high point and with their high tempo and heavy drums tend to have a lot of character, but towns melodies and the world map themes are really boring. Some, such as the ruined town or a few of the dungeon tracks, are more memorable and hit more of the notes I want in an RPG soundtrack. I dig it, but it isn’t one of my favorites.
Personally I prefer the other two games in the trilogy (that’s probably just nostalgia talking) but Terranigma is a worthwhile sequel. It does almost everything right from an intriguing story full of crazy twists to compelling dungeon designs, great graphics, and even a unique interface. Few games have drawn me in quite like this one where I couldn’t help but keep playing just to see where I would be going next. The world map being based on the real world is very interesting and once it finally opened up to me (after acquiring the airplane) I had a sense of wonder while exploring to see the developers’ take on real world locales. The bittersweet ending even manages to bring a tear to my eye. Terranigma is one of the best role playing games of all time, and it’s such a crying shame it was never released in North America.
