Terranigma--The Review
For those of who remember back to the SNES days, you might remember a game called Soul Blazer; a game about running around, killing monsters, and resurecting people, animals, mermaids, tiny people, and furniture. You might also remember Soul Blazer's overhyped sequel Illusion of Gaia; a game about running around, killing monsters, gaining abilities you'll only need to use in one or two places, and subjecting players to all this drivel about being a good person. In Enix's third shot at all this, they somehow found a medium between the killing and the preaching.
Terranigma is the third game in in the Soul Blazer series, and was released everywhere but the US. This game follows the travels of a spikey-haired, spear-wielding, young lad named Ark. Ark has a task that differs from the typical RPG hero. You see, Ark opened a forbidden box and was given a task by his village elder to resurrect the surface world. Yes, Ark comes from the underworld (which looks rather awesome in my opinion.) You follow Ark first ressurect the five major continents (Europe and Asia are considered one continent.) This is accomplished by climbing five towers and slaying a ton of ball-like monsters known as Hubbals. After clearing out all the towers and restoring the continents, Ark gets sent to the surface to restore life on the world.
In this second chapter of the game Ark gets to resurrect four life forms, plants, birds, animals, and humans. For some reason, this is my favorite part of the game. Once resurrected, Ark can just chill out with the animals, talk with the animals, help lions on their initiation test, and so on. You'd better get your fill of this part because once humans are back in the picture, you won't be able to talk to the lower life forms...which is kinda sad in a way.
In the third chapter of the game, the longest of the game's four chapters, Ark must now help humans reach their full technological potential and awaken some guy named Beruga. Ark gets to travel all across the world helping people lead better lives, and experiencing takes on actual historic events. You get to help ignite the French Revolution, then save Columbus to travel to an already settled America, then exerience Mardi Gras in Brazil, fly the first airplane, and so on. Once you make it to US soil, you'll soon see a rarity in Japanese RPGs--African American sprites. It's nice to see diversity. Also, Ark isn't alone in this portion. Meihou, an old man with precognition, Meilin, Meihou's granddaughter who can create illusions, Fyda, the world's only female knight, Royd, a mercenary, and Perel, a skateboard enthusiast, will all assist Ark at various points in his journey...especially the last chapter. I'd go into the last chapter, but that would be too spoiler intensive. All I can say about the end of the game is that it's bittersweet.
Enough about the plot. The game could have a great story, but have terrible gameplay. Terranigma is not one of those cases. With the exception of the occasional cheap moment and hitbox issue, the game is pretty responsive and easy to handle. You have a various spear moves that are triggered by jumping, dashing, jumping and dashing, and button mashing. All are easy to do and if you use the right move on an enemy, you can kill them MUCH faster than with some simple thrusts. The bosses are intuitive and can require some fancy footwork to dodge projectiles such as homing masks and bird poo. Once you get to chapter three, you can also do some item trading to improve the quality of life in the major towns, or you don't have to do some item trading and leave the towns in the dark ages. It's a nice touch to grow the world as you see fit. As a whole, Terranigma is a game that's worth playing if you can get a hold of it in some way shape or form. It's got a great story, a great battle system, and a likeable spikey-haired 16-24 year-old with a can do attitude.
Screenshots with quirky commentary:
This underworld is freakin' awesome.
Ark: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
The first step in Brnzing your pike is...
This man supports communism. The game prefers that you do not vote for him.
To restore the world, or hang out with the fish-babes. That is the question. Easy answer though.
Careful, there could be cubes here.
Maybe I shouldn't have released Dr. Beruga.
Develop the world properly and you can eat at this McDonalds knockoff.
Remember kids, if you can ride a skateboard as cool as Perel does, you can bypass laser defense systems too!
Ark, Fyda, and Royd get to witness the best scene in the game. What makes it so good? Play to find out.