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Terranigma was released 30 years ago today

Have you played Terranigma?

  • Yes

    Votes: 59 64.1%

  • No

    Votes: 33 35.9%
  • Total voters
    92
mèx

mèx

Member
11608698


Terranigma was released on October 20th, 1995. It was developed by the legendary studio Quintet and published by Enix. Hard to believe it's been 30 years!

This is one of the best Japanese action RPGs to grace the SNES, if not the best. You play as Ark, a boy from the underworld village of Crysta, who sets in motion the events leading to the resurrection of the surface world.

While it's an action game at its core, Terranigma contains deeply philosophical elements which make you reflect on life, creation, sacrifice and death. Imagine playing this as a kid!

This is truly a unique game, and everyone interested in Japanese action RPGs should play it. The game never came out in America, so I'm pretty sure plenty of you haven't played it yet.

Share your thoughts and memories of the game!

5d8b6e7c578ca5e3e61752b44f11eb91.gif


NAtgwwR.jpg

​
 
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mèx said:
11608698


Terranigma was released on October 20th, 1995. It was developed by the legendary studio Quintet and published by Enix. Hard to believe it's been 30 years!

This is one of the best Japanese action RPGs to grace the SNES, if not the best. You play as Ark, a boy from the underworld village of Crysta, who sets in motion the events leading to the resurrection of the surface world.

While it's an action game at its core, Terranigma contain deeply philosophical elements which make you reflect on life, creation, sacrifice and death. Imagine playing this as a kid!

This is truly a unique game, and everyone interested in Japanese action RPGs should play it. The game never came out in America, so I'm pretty sure plenty of you haven't played it yet.

Share your thoughts and memories of the game!

5d8b6e7c578ca5e3e61752b44f11eb91.gif


NAtgwwR.jpg

​
Click to expand...
A truly beautiful game. I'd go so far as to call it a masterpiece.
 
Played a bit back in the day. Never liked it, maybe I was too young. All I remember is the weird styling

Edit: Im confused with Secret of Evermore lol
 
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Loved it. I hated turn-based RPGs as a kid aside from a select few like Chrono Trigger or Mario RPG.

I always sought action RPGs and it along with the original Star Ocean, Tales of Phantasia, and both Mana games on the SNES ended up being some of my favorites. The game was strange and kind of depressing though.
 
I've tried to play it once or twice, I don't know why I struggle to get into it. I love Illusion of Gaia, basically this game's prequel.
 
mèx said:
11608698


Terranigma was released on October 20th, 1995. It was developed by the legendary studio Quintet and published by Enix. Hard to believe it's been 30 years!

This is one of the best Japanese action RPGs to grace the SNES, if not the best. You play as Ark, a boy from the underworld village of Crysta, who sets in motion the events leading to the resurrection of the surface world.

While it's an action game at its core, Terranigma contains deeply philosophical elements which make you reflect on life, creation, sacrifice and death. Imagine playing this as a kid!

This is truly a unique game, and everyone interested in Japanese action RPGs should play it. The game never came out in America, so I'm pretty sure plenty of you haven't played it yet.

Share your thoughts and memories of the game!

5d8b6e7c578ca5e3e61752b44f11eb91.gif


NAtgwwR.jpg

​
Click to expand...
First game I bought after my first McDonalds paycheck at 15 years old!
Loved Terranigma! Thanks OP for the nostalgia
 
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Shifty1897 said:
I've tried to play it once or twice, I don't know why I struggle to get into it. I love Illusion of Gaia, basically this game's prequel.
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The game has unusual and sad vibes. Illusion of Gaia starts off a lot more cheery with you being a little boy in a port town with his friends. Terranigma is simply depressing for much of the first few hours.

It's dark, it's brooding, it's lonely, and the music…

 
Actually I think I played a little of this one when a friend of mine lend it to me… Do you charge the main attack for more damage?
 
Is it the one with top down action rpg battles ? If so i remember it was very frustrating for the little boy i was :messenger_grinning_sweat:
But thanks to the cartdriges that had save states at the time, you could buy a used copy and if the previous owner played better than you you had a end game save state to have fun with, which was the case with mine. Only reason i know about the end game blue flame phoenix transformation :messenger_sunglasses:
 
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Cool game, but the second half pales in comparison with the first one and the game is very poorly balanced, being one of those where if you are one or two levels behind the curve you start dealing 1 point of damage, making some battles a total chore.

Still well worth a playthrough. Cool visuals and the music is very good.
 
My favourite SNES RPG. The ending still gets me all these years later.

It has a scene with a goat in a winter cave. It's more emotional and harder hitting than all the wanna be movies the AAA coughs out.

Legendary game.
 
ZehDon said:
My favourite SNES RPG. The ending still gets me all these years later.

It has a scene with a goat in a winter cave. It's more emotional and harder hitting than all the wanna be movies the AAA coughs out.

Legendary game.
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Man, that scene was... really, really heavy. I mean, damn.

But the ending - and the ending theme - made me tear up hard. I recommend listening to the OCRemix album. It's pretty good.

Gaiff said:
The game has unusual and sad vibes.
...
It's dark, it's brooding, it's lonely, and the music…
Click to expand...

It is. It's cut from a very different cloth. An air of sorrow and somber reflection permeates most of the game. I find it most amusing that even some of the songs that accompany your triumphs have a distinct note of distant sadness to them, such as those which play when you
recreate pieces of the earth.

It's not in the edgy sense, like everything you do is pointless, etc. It's more of the fleeting nature of life, like how you can't help but thinking of farewells even as you greet a new dawn. Considering Ark's role in the story, and its broader focus on what it is to look at humanity from afar, watching their triumphs and regrets play out as a helper and simultaneously as an outsider, the distantly wistful tone makes perfect sense. The OST captures the essence of the story like few could ever hope to do.

I still remember the villager who says he'd hoped his invention of the telephone would help bring people closer together, and yet laments it only helped people to live more disconnected lives. Brings a sad smile to my face even today.
 
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Gaiff said:
If you distinctly remember a charged attack, but there was none as my memory might be failing me, you're probably thinking of Secret of Mana.
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Nah. I've never played that one as a kid. Must be Secret of Evermore. Saw the red haired guy in the OP and got confused. I should play some SNES classics that I never finished when I got the time...
 
If square ever get round to Enid's back catalogue that isn't DQ, this should get re-released. Don't give me any of that 2D-HD shite, just the original game, maybe a new post-game dungeon. DON'T TOUCH THE GRAPHICS! One of the most beautiful games of the era.

And Illusion of Time (Gaia to you Yanks) deserves the same love.

It's my favourite game of its type.
 
I have to admit that Terranigma is the only other Quintet game that I liked. The first one being ActRaiser.

Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia / Illusion of Time never clicked for me.
 
I seem to recall this came out in PAL regions, because we weren't getting the N64 that year, and Nintendo needed something to cover us over until the N64 did come out. I was super disappointed with Nintendo at this time because we weren't getting Super Mario RPG, mainly because of what went down with Square. I had almost every RPG or action RPG released in my region, so naturally I got this game and loved it. I still have it boxed in my game shelf in pristine condition.
 
Hudo said:
I have to admit that Terranigma is the only other Quintet game that I liked. The first one being ActRaiser.

Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia / Illusion of Time never clicked for me.
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Don't forget about Brightis!
 
A good game with one major flaw: The magic system. It´s just plain bad and feels like an additional attachment that they had to implement in the last moments.
And a grind-fest when you reach the french endboss (if you´ve played it, you know which one). Good luck facing her underleveled, you´ll chip 1hp from her with every attack. Train up to a certain level and she´s easy.

Still loved the game. I just couldn´t get one village upgraded, still don´t know why.
 
Shifty1897 said:
I've tried to play it once or twice, I don't know why I struggle to get into it. I love Illusion of Gaia, basically this game's prequel.
Click to expand...
Same here. Something about the gameplay is...fiddlier? I dunno, it just isn't as smooth as Illusion. I also got hard-stuck at some boss fight on top of a castle against (i think) a ghost lady?

With that said, the game is phenomenally gorgeous, and the music and vibe is really unparalleled. In some way it feels like atmospheric predecessor to Nier. At least in the meditative and out-of-one's-depth aspects.
 
I keep getting stuck with helping the lion cub out of the canyon. As in, it seems like I can't get back to reset it if I mess it up. (Also: I'm in the States, so we never got a proper version of this, which still upsets me, as I loved the SoulBlazer series.)
 
Shifty1897 said:
It came out in Europe so there's an English translation already.
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Oh, well shit that's awesome.

Wait....well why in the hell did it never get released in America then? Why not now as a digital download?

Goddamn Square has to the dumbest fuckin publisher in the entire industry. They've got IP that are legitimately considered legendary and they do so fucking little with some of them. I'd purchase this game on Steam or Switch if I could, but I can't. It's just so odd.
 
amigastar said:
Why, what religious content was so bad?
Click to expand...

Someone can correct me please, but I believe it had to do with references to Christianity. And back then even in the mid-late 90s, I guess some American devs found that sort of thing to still be taboo and a big no-no.
 
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