Terranigma

"Adam and Eve can bite me!"

Remember when you were created? Me neither... but maybe that's for the better. Terranigma made me sort of wonder things like this... where was I before I actually was? Why am I here in the first place? Are we alone in this universe? How were we created? Terranigma addresses many of these questions in its story, and sure, it doesn't answer all of them, but how can it?
STORY:
Terranigma begins in a small town in the world of Crysta. Ark (that's you) is the star--a spunky, goofy, quick-witted kid with lots of energy. Being the troublemaker that you are, you decide to go into a "forbidden room," only to discover a little box... but wait! Some weird puffy critter popped out, claiming his name to be Yomi. When Ark goes back outside, he sees that all his fellow villagers are frozen! Time to unfreeze them, Ark! So yeah, that's basically your first mission, but certainly not your last! If you can unfreeze all your friends, you will find out that your role in the world, no, in all existence, is critical. So yeah... you're uhh... pretty much responsible for bringing Earth back to life... umm, is that cool? This includes plants, animals, and humans. If you are able to finish that feat, well... I won't give anything away. There will be sad parts, happy parts, funny parts, all that... I'll be honest, the story in Terranigma delves deep into the heart of existentialistic issues... which means it will be walking all over the grounds of religion and creationism. Just remember that it's a GAME.

The one problem I had was with Ark... sure when, he talked, he was hilarious, and he will grow to become a wise young man when it's all over, but I just wish he would've talked MORE. There are important conversations going on in this game, such as someone saying "Ark... do you love me? Let me know tonight." When the girl leaves, you simply regain control of Ark. I mean, Ark! Don't you have something to say?! I mean come on? I want you to make another snarky comment! But when Ark did talk, it really meant something. He could say something hilarious (I laughed out loud at some of his sarcastic comments) or really meaningful. As a whole though, Ark's journey is an amazing experience that will have you wondering "why?" and "how?" by the end (oh my God the ending is AMAZING). Don't worry, this is a good thing.
STORY: 9/10

GRAPHICS:
Terranigma, for the most part, looks very nice. The people and animals were given great care, and the areas you will travel through look as good as they can on the SNES. The best part is the bosses, which all look VERY cool. I had a teensy problem with their constant recycling of environments though... a lot of the places looked near identical to others.
GRAPHICS: 8.5/10

SOUNDS:
I loved a lot of the music in Terranigma, most notably the songs that played in towns. I quickly got tired of the dungeon music after a few minutes, and ESPECIALLY when it was RECYCLED into more dungeons. Oh well, that's what "volume control" is for.

As for the sound effects... whatever, they sound fine. I honestly can't give a hoot as to what things sound like in SNES games, because they usually work well enough.
SOUNDS: 8/10

GAMEPLAY:
Gameplay in Terranigma is pretty much a slightly more engrossing version of Zelda. The differences are clear: you have a spear instead of a sword, for one. You also have five different ways of using the spear, which is pretty cool and very simple. Of course, this will begin to get old as you progress through the game more and more. Enix helped that a wee bit by letting you use magical items to attack enemies, but I rarely remembered I had those. Another problem was that the regular monsters were way too easy to kill, and then you get to the boss and it's like WHOA!! This beotch is NASTY! It's just a little too surprising when that happens.

When not on the battlefield, you are in towns. Like, duh! I really liked how Enix gave you a lot of things to do and see in the towns instead of just having them there for story-progressing and shopping purposes.

Another huge problem I had was the frequent lack of any direction needed to progress through the game. After you finished an important mission, it would just be done, and you wouldn't have any clue as to what you needed to do next. Okay... so... what do I do now? I'm not saying this happened all the time, but it definitely happened way too much.

Overall gameplay is very easy to pick up, and for the most part it's pretty fun. It's just that you won't always play this game for long periods of time because its simplicity will wear off so soon.
GAMEPLAY: 7/10

LASTING APPEAL:
If the story doesn't keep you hooked til the end, then I'd blame the poor presentation of dialogue in this game. Really, play through the whole game (which will take a long time), the ending is well worth it. Once you beat it though, it'll probably be awhile til you want to pick it up again.
LASTING APPEAL: 7/10

OVERALL:
Terranigma is a beautiful thing. Although the gameplay and visuals may get old after awhile, it's worth it just to see what happens to our hero, Ark. I'd say buy this game and play through the whole thing... you'll thank me later.
OVERALL: 7/10

Thanks for reading =)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/06