I had this game chiseled in stone as the end of this quest. I've heard nothing but praise for it. I even dabbled with it years ago and thought it was great. I hyped it up and hoped it would be an amazing capstone to this year. But I didn't enjoy it. Why didn't I like Terranigma!?!?
Those boss fights are ass. The first handful aren't terrible, so they give you a sense of ease, like the game is more focused on the adventure and dungeoneering with combat being a fun way to chaosify everything. There are dungeon gimmicks and unique mobs scattered throughout, so the basic action of this ARPG moved us along. Fine; cool. But then halfway through the game, you run into Bloody Mary. She has 300 HP, high defenses, several heavy attacks, a shield that damages you, comes after a long and boring sequence, and an annoying attack pattern. I was doing one to four damage per strike, even at the level RPGClassics recommended. I nearly dropped the game. But Mary has a weakness to electricity. So I trekked back through the world, found a merchant selling the correct magic, stocked up, and spammed it. Long animation aside, it worked, and I continued on. Two long and boring bosses later, I ran into another that broke me. I cheated to beat the game; I don't care. Those four really killed the fun.
The city building stuff is also flawed. You can lock yourself out of having the cities expand, which bothered me. And it isn't just because you couldn't find the correct item or whatever, but because you made the wrong choice. Vote for the wrong guy or don't talk to the inventor twice, and it's all over. One of the coolest things Terranigma has is now a dead end. Not that it mattered anyway, as it has zero bearing on the plot, but I like city building. It makes me feel good to construct a community, but now I can't.
And that throws in some basic plot holes. We help Ed(ison) discover electricity... unless we don't, but Neotokyo already has flashing neon lights before we even reach New York. How are there phones when I lied to Bell? The world itself doesn't make a lot of sense as a start. After helping the lions, you fall asleep. You wake up years later in a human world filled with multiple generations, a rich history, and electrical cities. But the lion we helped is still alive...
Finally, I hate the sound of people talking. This is a common complaint I have with retro games; you don't need to mimic speech with annoying MIDI bleeps.
But let's restart this review. What is Terranigma? You play a boy named Ark. He's a mischievous boy in the town of Crysta. Despite that, he has a sweetheart named Elle, a weaver. He breaks into a sealed off section of the Elder's house and opens Pandora's Box. Inside is Yomi, a strange spirit, and this sets Ark on a task where he must revive the world. It turns out Crysta is in the underworld, and the cycle of rebirths has stopped for some reason. He comes to Earth, revives various animal kingdoms, and restores the balance between light and dark. I'd go into detail, but I didn't understand what was going on. Who/what was Yomi or the final boss? What about the virus? Did humans exist before Ark got there? Was finding the box planned? Something, something light and dark version of Ark something something. So the story sucks...
But the gameplay is pretty solid. Combat is as basic as you can get, though, but it works. Ark uses a staff/spear, so you've got your basic thrusts, a running jab, and a run/jump dive kick that works as a small AoE. You've also got a regular jump attack, but I only used that when the dive kick didn't function right. My controller might be bad. Ark also has access to magic. I didn't use them often because I never wanted to refill the magirocks you find hidden throughout the world. It seemed really strong and useful though. Each dungeon is unique and filled with a neat gimmick. Too bad about the awful bosses...
There's also the aforementioned city building mini game that I wanted to enjoy. It's more of an adventure game with all the esoteric things you need to find and bring around to the correct person, but it's fun, and I enjoyed what I could. There are six or seven locations you help grow into bustling metropolises. And that growth shows up on the world map and adds more locations to the city maps. Just save frequently.
Visually, Terranigma looks great! It came out late in 1995, so developers knew how to make a pretty SNES game by then. There are a few areas with a weather overlay that kinda hurt my head, though. Could and toned back the deserts.
The world is amazing. It's our world, so it's easy to juxtapose growth onto it. The NPCs help this by being vital parts of city growth, and some assist us on our travels. The minor enemy who becomes a brother-in-arms is fun, even if he barely gets screen time.
But the best part of the game is the soundtrack. I've got six bangers here, but I might be adding another when I go over it track by track again. The soothing songs are peaceful, and I want to add them to my playlists. And with the remake coming out soon...
So, I'm disappointed. I was looking forward to this game for ten months. I thought it would be a great grand finale to this saga, but all I got was fury and confusion. Terranigma gets 27/50 points. The negatives are just too frequent for my tastes. Maybe it's a skill issue for me with those bosses and my desire for community, but I found myself asking too many questions at the end. A Quintet Trilogy staple, I guess.
There are a handful of other SNES RPGs out there, and even a few I'm hoping get translated at some point, so I doubt I'm done with the console, but I need a break. I need something new. Well, newer. And then I'll tackle the glory that is the PlayStation. I've got a list already written, and I'll be going in release order. So that means I'll be playing...
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Beyond the Beyond...
I should probably write my thoughts on the SNES as a whole at some point, like I've been teasing for a while now, first, though.
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