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Let me introduce myself again. I’m not a native English speaker, but I’m a games lover.
I have played many games and many of them were RPGs. For instance, I have played Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Final Fantasy 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, Dark Chronicle 1,2, Vagrant Story, Fallout 1,2,3 and others I can’t remember right now. Speaking of SNES RPGs, Final Fantasy, SoM and primarily Chrono Trigger share the “best RPG” cake. Most people call Chrono Trigger the best RPG on the SNES and that was the reason for me to try that game... It was fabulous!
Now maybe I was also a little on CT’s side because the characters look so similar to those of Dragon Ball and I kinda felt familiar
But at the end, I had to agree, CT just gave more than the other RPGs. The graphics were very good and the story could turn out in so many ways, at this time I had to agree that this is the best RPG for the SNES.
Some time ago I came across a rumor, there was a game called “Terranigma”, the 3rd game of a series that seemed to be very popular in some selected countries and people claimed that it could be “the real king of RPGs” and “the pinnacle of 16-Bit gaming”.
Pretty promising eh? CT had created some anticipation, but what could they have done wrong? It’s the hero against the villain thing. Anticipation can be something bad you know, specially when it’s about a hardly known game, telling a probably weird story about creating heaven and earth...
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Now get ready for Terranigma Review, I hope you don’t mind *Spoilers*.
If you haven’t played Terranigma yet, please skip my entire review and ready my closing comments.
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After watching the intro movie, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The intro-theme, the one you hear when entering your name was kind of mysterious and I thought I was about to play some dungeons and dragons magic world type of game.
So the game starts with Ark having a bad dream. Melina, your girl friend, tells you to go out and get some fresh “Crystal Blue” air... Very cheesy. But it got worse... Ark had molested some chickens or whatever and got that woman at the weaving mill angry and now that woman is demanding an apology. OMG… CHEEEESY. What the hell, I am playing a dumb boy who is playing tricks on people? How did this guy get a girl friend anyway?
Whatever, I got out and first saw Crysta. I had to admit the graphics were really good. In fact, the graphics were probably the best of any SNES RPG. Just seeing Ark’s animations told me the game was high on graphics.
Ark just seemed to really walk on the floor, very different from the typical “floor shoving” motion CT, FF and SoM had. Another cool thing in my opinion was that Terranigma gave you freedom of exploring very early in the game. The atmosphere in Crysta was also surprisingly well done, I kinda agreed with Melina going out and having a breath of fresh Crysta Air.
I will be more detailed on the atmosphere of Terranigma later. So I went to the weavers and I apologized. Explored the real nice city, enjoyed the fitting Crysta Theme and went back to the house. Surprise, surprise, kinds are playing another trick on the elder. Is this game all about ill-mannered boys?
So Ark, the Bart Simpson of Crysta, is the man to open that secret door in blue. BLUE, I mean, couldn’t they make this door more conspicuous?
At least it’s the first really interactive part in the game. Door is opened, boys are scared, I go down. Music changes... and I like it
By now, I have no idea what this game is about, but I already like the atmosphere in this game. The music is just so fitting to the things you see, very nice.
Ok, go down, go down and what’s that? A mysterious box. You know, A BOX. IT’S CLOSED. INSIDE A FORBIDDEN ROOM. DO I WANT TO TOUCH IT? ISN’T IT OBVIOUS THAT THIS IS PANDORA’S BOX? AM I REALLY GOING TO TOUCH THIS? REALLY? YOU CAN BET YOUR ASS I WILL!
You can’t open the box the first time. The game gives you an option, open it or go away. That’s kind of cool, but the whole dialogue, about touching it with a calm soul is just so alluring... And by that touch, everything changes.
That little boy, living in a beautiful little place, playing tricks on people and just cheesing around with his little girl friend almost destroyed everything he loved. Trying to save his friends and the people he loves and he grew up with, he is forced to go out and face a world that no one could ever imagine existed.
Let’s cut to the chase here. Terranigma is a masterpiece. The story of little Ark becoming the creator of heaven and earth is mind blowing! And it’s not a story to be told to anybody, it’s an incredible saddening tragedy with many mature themes. Do I have to mention Emeth’s great post about “Philosophical Issues in Terranigma”?
The graphics are the best you can get on the SNES, period. It’s not just my personal opinion, it’s the way it is folks. Terranigma’s engine and animation is surperior to any RPG (or even any game) on the SNES.
The music is epic, I can hardly tell which theme is my favorite. The music just doesn’t fell “gamy”, using remastered versions in blockbuster movies would work for me.
The gameplay is simply fantastic. The amount of freedom you have is unmatched. I remember Dark Cloud 2 overloading the player with non-linear activities and at the end, none of them felt important. Terranigma is different, everything you can do feels so contributing to the game, even if it has nothing to do with the story.
Even going around the world map is such a big experience, I found myself just walking randomly on the world map just to hear the overworld theme. The fighting system is great, I felt like I had so many options to beat every enemy that I almost didn’t realize how challenging this game can be. And what about the leveling-up animation? It’s like Ark becomes a super saiyajin, very cool
So many spots in the game are so memorable, a ton of them make me laugh, other really made me think. How about helpin little Simba become king of the lions? Or that guy with sardines? Give him some aluminum and he will be able to tin the fish and expand to monopolism.. What about creation of earth? “On this day, Europe was created...” Really? Wow. Ark is the master of creation and evolution.
Did I mention the atmosphere in the game?
Everything feels so credible, if you are supposed to laugh, you will. If you are supposed to feel anger, you will. If you re supposed to be excited, you will be. The characters in Terranigma are accompanied by a tone that is supposed to be the “voice” of each character. Sounds funny, but it works very well. I swear I heard the characters talk sometimes... And if you ask me, this “voice overs” work almost as good as FFX’s superb voice acting. Just one more comment to Terranigma’s tragic hero Ark. That little boy from Crysta went out to save the people he loves and on his journey, he created what we call earth, nature and humankind. It’s really nice to encounter nature as a friend, not as an enemy like in so many other games. Ark has to even destroy one of his creations, Beruga, the genius, the pinnacle of humankind, who wants to destroy everything Ark created.
And after creating, evolving and saving earth, he will vanish from the living. Manipulated or not, Ark was the closest thing to God that ever walked on earth and now he will die and probably everyone will forget that he ever existed.
But that’s not enough, everything he loved, everyone he was fighting for, will die. The elder, the one Ark could have called a father backstabbed him. Melina, the person Ark is supposed to love and the person he could have called a family, wanted to kill him as a baby. And finally the you, the player! The game just didn’t take Ark’s life by ending the game with a sequence. You knew he was going to die, yet you pulled the last trigger and send him to dream his last dream. You had the opportunity to just switch off the console when Ark was with the ones he loved for the last time, but you didn’t. After this long journey, after so much betrayal from the people he wanted to trust, you betrayed him the last. You bastard!
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My closing comments:
Terranigma was a really great experience. It’s just so unique and it does so many things right that I just can’t (or don’t want) to compare it to any other game...
- ...But if you put a gun to my head:
Best RPG on the SNES.
