Terranigma and I; Childhood Love
I was head over heels in love with my Super Nintendo when I was a kid. It was randomly bought to me as a gift by my grandfather (because he couldn't stand listening to me beg for one anymore ^^;). One day at the toy store, I randomly picked up Secret of Mana (I must have been around 9 years old?), took it home and played it for a while. I remember really liking it, but I found it confusing, and then I eventually completely lost it when I got stuck on a boss. So I did what any rational person would do... I took it back to the store and claimed there was something wrong with the game (KID LOGIC RULES~). The store owner was really nice to me and let me trade in the game, I randomly picked out a similar looking game, which was Terranigma. It's the best random act of randomness I've ever made. Terranigma will probably always and forever remain my all time favourite game. It's just that good.
Then during secondary school I got tired of my SNES, I decided to sell off most of my games (to earn some money). I ended up selling Terranigma to an acquaintance, and I regretted it almost immediately. Several years passed, but I couldn't stop thinking about it @_@; I downloaded roms and played through it again, but it just didn't feel the same. I needed to be able to play it on my SNES again.
First year of university I suddenly decided to browse e-bay. See, Terranigma is sort of a rare game, it was never released in the US and isn't that well-known. My e-bay browsing did give me some results, and I started bidding on a mint-condition copy from Germany, which I eventually won~ It felt completely unreal, but I was finally able to play it on my SNES again~ (though this copy probably cost me a lot more than my original copy did T_T;;)
Then in Japan, I found a mint condition, boxed, copy of the game at a retro-games store in Akihabara. I threw caution to the wind and bought both the game and a Japanese Super Famicom. I can't express how happy I was to learn that both the game cartridge and system worked perfectly once I got back home to Norway and tested them out xD;
.... so to make a long, rather unnecessary story short; I'm completely obsessed with Terranigma D:
Now, I've always been curious about the other games in the series Terranigma is a part of. Terranigma is the third game in a loosely connected series of games produced by Quintet and Enix. Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma.
On our last day in Paris we stumbled across a (rather big) retro-games store, and I was delighted to find that they had Illusion of Gaia for the SNES! But it was for the American SNES, the only Super Nintendo console I don't own 8D;; then I turn around, and to my astonishment they had the original Japanese version too! Iiih. It went for €19. I went ahead and bought it~ Been playing it for a few hours (progress is slow, because I read Japanese really slowly, looool), and it's simple, but so much fun! The plot is insane XD;; Love, love, love. I don't think it'll knock Terranigma off of its pedestal, but this might come in a close second to my favourite SNES game ever :x we'll see~