Terranigma

 As usual, it took way longer than it should have, but I did EVENTUALLY do exactly what I said I was going to. It's a year late, but I've finally made my way through the Quintet trilogy.

Playing these three games became a stated goal of mine since I started podcasting last year. One of my earliest episodes covered Soul Blazer, the first title in the pseudo series. The second game, Illusion of Gaia, was also a landmark episode as it was the first one to include the intro song ("A Glass Half Full of Tears" by Aura Blaze, who's music you should check out here). Both of them received pretty solid scores, though I didn't quite like the latter quite as much as a lot of people seem to. After all these years, I'm still surprised I never played these games when they came out. Both were definitely right up my alley and readily available to buy or even rent at my local video store, but I just never picked them up. It's a little more understandable that I had never experienced the third game in the unofficial trilogy, Terranigma. In the 80's and 90's, it was common for games to get stuck in Japan, whether it be for cultural or financial reasons. Often, these games were never translated into English, or any other language, because why waste the effort? Most games that made their way to the west would first be released in the North America before finding their way to PAL regions soon after. But Terranigma was a strange case, as it was translated and released in PAL regions, but never in North America. You would think that would make it somewhat easier to find and play than stuff like Sweet Home or Seiken Densetsu 3, which required either translation patches or the ability to speak Japanese, but I had heard of those titles long before I ever did Terranigma. Fortunately, there is a logical and fairly simple explanation for the decision not to release it stateside; publisher Enix had closed its U.S. operations by the time localization was finished and elected to not release it there. A bevy of rights issues further complicated things and prevented the title from being released through other means. But alas, I finally got the opportunity to play this much hyped action RPG title. 

As a reminder, the games in the Quintet trilogy are called as such because they were developed by a company called, what else, Quintet. While they have some thematic and gameplay similarities, they are all standalone titles that don't actually have anything to do with each other. I guess it's fairly similar in practice to the Final Fantasy series, they have a handful of throughlines but are almost entirely different from entry to entry. I might argue that the three games aren't even in the same genre, as Soul Blazer and Terranigma are definitively RPGs while Illusion of Gaia is more of a straight up top-down adventure. But that's a different topic for a different day. All of the games definitely feel similar and I would absolutely have realized they were related even if someone never told me they were. The general consesus is the pseudo-series got better with each entry, with Soul Blazer setting the foundation, Illusion making upgrades all around and Terranigma perfecting the formula. Terranigma was especially hyped up, I've beem hearing for years that it was a cut above the other two entries and that American gamers really missed out. While I'm not sure I enjoyed it quite as much as some, it's still definitely the best title of the Qunitet bunch. I would say it's a modest, yet still very noticable, improvement over IOG from a gameplay standpoint. However, it's the narrative that really sets Terranigma apart from its predecessors. Simply put, this game is on another level in terms of storytelling than the IOG or Soul Blazer. I do believe part of this was due to translation, IOG had the makings of a fine story but it was so poorly localized it didn't matter. But it was far more than that, as Terranigma aimed high with its storytelling and largely hit the mark. There was a lot to unpack here, from commentary about the state of the world to deep religious symbolism, as well as a bevy of twists and turns that made the game feel like a truly spectacular tale.

Terranigma puts you in the shoes of Ark, a young boy who lives in the village of Crysta. Crysta is the lone village in the underworld and its human denizens rarely, if ever leave its gates. Ark is, as one might expect, bored out of his mind, relying on juvenile pranks and mischief to provide some excitement in his mundane life. This is all well and good, but when small stakes tomfoolery and petty vandalism stop providing the rush he needs, Ark decides to take his mischief to the next step. You see, there is a door in the elder's house the citizens of Crysta have been instructed never to open, an order Ark plans on defying. He eagerly awaits his chance to open the door, speculating what might be behind it. And he's initially disapointed to find a simple cave with a mere box inside of it. Curious, he opens the box...kicking off the events of the game in earnest. The box releases a demon called Yomi, who is initially friendly to Ark. Unfortunately, it also freezes all of the citizens of the village in place, with the elder the lone exception. He asks Ark to leave the village and conquer the challenges of the five towers. This will save his friends and set Crysta back to normal. Ark hapily takes on the challenge, overcoming the towers with surprising ease and saving Crysta. All done, everyone's happy game over, right? It turns out this is only the beginning. The elder tells Ark that passing the challenges has caused the continents on the surface world to rise, centuries after a battle between good and evil, or God and Devil as they are called in the games world, submerged them. He asks ark to return to the surface and resurrect life, a quest from which he might never return. He says goodbye to his close friend Elle before setting off on a quest that will see twists and turns as both good and evil forces return to the Earth. It starts a lot like a standard RPG story of the day, but the ever shifting, constantly changing narrative will see Ark experience love, loss, personal growth and extreme betrayal (like, a lot of betrayal) at levels that just weren't heard of in games of the era.

Look, gamers are a smart bunch, especially retro gamers, so I'm sure the religious symbolism involved here was fairly immediately apparent. I mean, you have a character named Ark resurrecting the world, starting with the animals. Between that and the whole "God and devil" thing, the imagery here is really on the nose. I actually think it's pretty well done and it's kind of nice to see it used in way that doesn't make any sort of statement either way about the topic. I think Terranigma does a great job of incorporating a variety of philosophy as part of its narrative, exploring both western and eastern spirituality and thought throughout. The game doesn't really comment on them per-se, but it uses them to drive the story forward and explores them in a meaningful way, which a lot of games struggle to do. I think the story overall is strong, it definitely goes above and beyond the basic "destined child" trope. It may use it as a baseline, but it has so many twists and turns that keep things fresh. Ark has tons of meaningful growth as a character and in many ways his is a coming of age story, he ceases to be able to speak to animals as he ages and starts to realize the grand adventure he craved may not be all it was cracked up to be. I really can't go too far into the details of the plot, as it would spoil entirely too much, but I think the story is excellent despite the sometimes-awkward translation. Almost all of the plot twists were interesting and many of them explored topics seldom covered in video games. Ark is resurrecting the world, which is great and all, but that means he's also reviving bad people too. When the humans come back, what does that mean for the animals? Terranigma's story poses questions like this to the player throughout its 15 hour runtime.

Like its predecessor Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma features real-world locations as towns, dungeons and other areas. However, it leans way, way farther into that aesthetic, something I think is really cool. When I say it leans far into it, I mean FAR into it. The world map here is, well, literally a map of the world, like, the planet Earth. All of the in-game cities are not only based off real world cities, to the point their locations are geographically accurate. Storkholm is in Sweden, Neotokio is in Japan, Loire is in France (it's supposed to be Paris), you get the idea. I like it, it's incredibly unique and makes it stand out from it's more fantasy-focused contemporaries. It's not just the locations that are based on the real world either, the game is filled with references to or avatars of real-life historical figures, many of whom are significant players in the story. Honestly, this is probably the area where all of the Quintet games excel the most and Terranigma excels at it more than the other two games. This might be my all-time favorite world map just on concept alone, though I do also like how expansive it is and how easy it is to traverse. I have to ding them slightly for switching the hemispheres around, but I guess it's technically supposed to be a globe, so it doesn't really matter.

Storytelling is great, but none of that would matter if the gameplay wasn't strong as well. Terranigma made some fairly significant improvements over Illusion of Gaia and it's miles ahead of Soul Blazer in this department. The biggest change here is the pace of play, as Terranigma plays much faster than its predecessors. Ark is far more mobile than Will and this leads to snappier, more intense combat. He isn't just locked to using his weapon as he can run and perform slide and dive kicks as well as spinning attacks. These are a lot easier to pull off and more intuitive than what was on offer in IOG and you will use them fairly frequently throughout your playthrough. Some are better for taking out flying enemies while others are great for taking out submerged or shielded enemies. The selection of enemies is pretty great, there is good variety both stylistically and technically with only a few that stick out as being overly obnoxious. The boss selection is great as well, I think they are much better balanced than those from its predecessors, where every boss felt either too easy or too hard. There is one boss here that is notoriously difficult amongst those who've played Terranigma, but even that boss I found to be a fair challenge. Tough but fair is fine, it's unfair difficulty that's the problem. I will say enemies who can inflict status ailments do feel a little overpowered, but they aren't all that common. The dungeons are well designed and expansive, with a lot of aesthetic variety. This can be a problem at times, as enemies respawn when you leave a room, but it's usually not too hard to run past them if you feel the need to. You can use magic spells if you require the appropriate rings, but I never found them all that useful. At the end of the day, my issues with the combat are minimal and I think Terranigma offers some of the best action RPG fighting of the era. It's frantic and fast paced while also feeling fair and balanced.

I would be remiss if I didn't call out the graphics here. As a late era SNES game, Terranigma showcases the full power of what the system could do with its varied locations, stunning bosses and outstanding overworld screens. This is yet another way it far outclassed its predecessors, as it sort of does everything IOG did, just better. A lot of effort was clearly put in to making every town, dungeon and transitional area look alive and unique. There are so many different styles here and they are all done well. The presentation as a whole is great, Terranigma might have the most detailed and interactive inventory screen of any 5th gen game I've ever seen. The way Ark emotes, the way text scrolls on and off the screen, the way the cutscenes appear begin after each continent is resurrected, everything ties together to make Terranigma feel like a cinematic experience in a time where that wasn't common. The outstanding soundtrack also helps in this regard, it does a great job of conveying emotion and it is of pretty solid quality for a cartridge-based game. I do think some of the tracks repeat a little too often and I absolutely hate the banging sound effect it makes every time Ark walks into something, but overall it's a great soundtrack that perfectly fits with the tone of the game.

The biggest problem with Terranigma, and it's a big problem, is the endgame. My goodness does it drag and it's especially noticeable in a game that cuts a pretty quick pace. The game has a lot of sidequests, which I normally like in RPGs, as well as a town building mechanic, which I am iffy on but generally enjoy. But the issue is that so many of these sidequests are just fetch quests that don't really feel rewarding. It's doubly problematic because the mainline game also kind of devolves into a series of fetch quests at the end, making both feel tedious and time consuming. It feels like you are running aimlessley around the world for two or three hours, just padding out the length of the game. If this were a traditional RPG, I think I would be able to tolerate this a little more. But an action RPG should focus on, well, action. The game as a whole doesn't do a good job of focusing on that in the late game, though the last few dungeons are pretty excellent. This is even further compounded by the town building, which I don't think was done well and seemed like a time suck. That's a shame, because it fit the narrative of the game really well. As I mentioned previously, the English translation here is far better than it was in the previous games. However, that isn't saying much. Illusion of Gaia had what I believe may be the single worst English translation I have ever seen, it was so bad that it was difficult to determine what the game was actually about. Terranigma isn't nearly that bad and the weird translation doesn't impact the story like it did in IOC. However, it does rear its ugly head when it comes to gameplay, as it is often difficult to determine where you are supposed to go or what you are supposed to do. This is a big world and it's fairly open, so you can get thrown off track very easily. The menu is also a pace killer, while it looks great and is very interactive entering it requires a surprisingly long animation and a lot of switching back and forth between tabs. That wouldn't be an issue on its own, but it becomes all sorts of problematic during the already slow endgame.

Still, Terranigma is an outstanding game and an excellent experience for any action RPG fan. Even non-RPG fans might find something to like here thanks to its fast-paced combat and focus on mixing up attacks. It's certainly the best of the pseudo-series it was a part of and its most certainly superior to the Grandstream Saga, the PS1 RPG that was something of a spiritual successor to the trilogy. It's a shame this never got a proper release here in the states and it's doubly sad that legal red tape will likely prevent it from ever happening. Worse, its IP rights being in limbo mean there won't ever be a new game or sequel, something I think Terranigma would be ripe for. I really liked the ending, but it left a lot of things open to interpretation and would have made a follow-up an interesting proposition. Maybe it will get figured out some day. But for now, Terranigma is definitely worth tracking down and playing any way you can.

9.25/10