Snes - Terranigma Review

Terranigma is the third game of the Gaia series. The previous two being Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. Like Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma has no direct relation to the other games but similarities abound. This is an action rpg like the others.

Gameplay and interface: 8/10

In Terranigma, you control Ark from a top down view and go around defeating monsters, solving puzzles and usually reaching the boss. Ark is able to run, jump and use a number of attacks with whatever spear he has as well as cast spells using rings or pins. Unfortunately, you can only use a spear as an attack weapon and although some spears have different characteristics, in terms of animation, Ark doesn't change at all. The only difference is in the colour of the spear. As for magic, you'll have to collect magirock and trade it in a magic shop to get the magic rings which can only be used once unfortunately. Later on, you'll get special items which will allow you to perform special actions such as climb walls and swim. Like most role-playing games slaying monsters will give you experience and once you get enough experience, you level up. Sometimes, the bosses are a little too difficult which can be frustrating considering you can defeat the normal enemies in the battle area with two hits.

Outside of the battle areas and towns, you'll travel on a map and you can appreciate just how vast the map is as the game takes place in the underworld and the surface of the Earth. So just like in the real world, you'll find the various continents such as Africa and Asia as well as the North and South Pole. The only problem with the gameplay is that unlike Will in Illusion of Gaia, Ark can not transform or gain any new fighting abilities which was one of my most favourite things about Illusion of Gaia. This is real shame because as cool as his attacks are at the beginning it would have been fun to obtain some new fighting styles.

The interface is fairly easy to use. You push select to enter Pandora's box which is a box containing a variety of rooms and books. There's an item room, a armour room and a weapon room which naturally carries items, armours and weapons respectively. You can also equip items such as a bulb which heals your life or the magic box which allows you to cast spells. To change an item you'll have to return back to the box and choose another item which is somewhat distracting as you have to go to the room and choose the item. It would have been better if the game actually remembered which room you were in before. You can use items either in the box or outside by pressing the use item button. This is useful I suppose for cutting down on the afore mentioned time lag but once again only the equipped item is used so if you want to use another item you still have to go into the room. It would probably have been better if you could actually equip several different items and cycle through them.

Finally, performing certain actions or helping certain people will allow you to expand towns and see it change. This is probably one of the coolest things about Terranigma as you seen the towns modernise and people start having telephones and televisions.

Storyline: 4.5/5

The story revolves around Ark your main character and his quest to revive and guide the world as it develops. A unique premise just like the previous two Gaia games. As your quest continues on, you'll get to meet 'geniuses' such as Eddy and Bell, named after Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell in the real world, and you'll get to assist in their inventions and help towns grow and become bigger. You'll also get clues as why the earth needed to be revived and what happened before. While the characterisation I think isn't as good as Illusion of Gaia's, because you meet the main characters less often than you'd expect, it's still fairly cool and interesting.

Graphics: 5/5

The graphics extremely high quality and much clearer than Illusion of Gaia. The ressurrection scenes are especially photorealistic. This is probably one of the best looking games on the Super Nintendo especially since it was released late in the Super Nintendo's life.

Level design: 4/5

While the graphics in Terranigma are great, the various battle and towns in Terranigma are quite extensive. It's especially fun to walk around in a town with new shops and houses after you've helped expand it. However, sometimes in the battle areas its hard to figure out where to go next or what to do next especially since the clues are somewhat obscure. This can be somewhat frustrating but usually you'll figure it out after a while.

Music and Sound: 4/5

The music and sounds are quite clear. It is pretty good although not great by any means.

For: Good graphics. Fairly cool ideas

Against: No transformations or new fighting techniques, obscure hints.