The recent subject of my gaming focus in the last weeks, aside from copious copying con Kirby, has been a game I've never heard of outside of randomly finding and playing it years ago. Given its pedigree, I have no idea how it flew under the radar. While it definitely has its flaws, this is an Enix title from back in that company's reign over stat heavy games. It's bizarre, frantic, funny, and provokes a bit of introspection.
The game is Terranigma. I've put off playing it for some time because I wanted to do it for the show, but it doesn't seem that it's ever been republished in any form. What's more, this title never got an official North American release. The only official English version was the European release. This is mildly disappointing, since this is one of the most memorable games from my early teenage years. Along with Soul Blazer and the mechanically similar Illusion of Gaia, the game's thematic focus is on reincarnation and the protection of the world from dark deities bent on dominating creation.
To be honest, I had misgivings about the fond memories I had of this game when I started playing again. You start in a calm village during the presence of what the villagers call "crystal blue." Basically, they're soap bubbles that fly overhead. The town is peaceful and everyone seems to be getting along fine. Ark, your character, is being woken by his childhood friend and unofficial girlfriend after sleeping in for too long. Being the town hooligan, Ark sets off to cause trouble and, with varying amounts of sincerity, apologize for the last week's misdeeds. Eventually, he is goaded into breaking down a door in the village Elder's house that was never supposed to be entered. Upon doing so, your peers bail with excuses of mild maladies, leaving you alone to explore the old man's basement.
At the bottom, you find the game's menu. Seriously. It's actually an interesting concept. The basement contains a small box, which in turn contains a pocket dimension that has acted as the prison of a small pink winged... bat thing named Yomi. Yomi bequeaths the box and his dubious quality as a servant to Ark. The menu in this game is contained within the box. When you access it, Ark wriggles inside and navigates the contents through Yomi as a cursor. Instead of a list of text, there are objects in various rooms that serve various functions. There are instructions on the various techniques you can perform, game settings, rooms full of your arms and armor, and a tiled room full of miscellaneous items. You can't actually walk around it aside from the introduction, but it's a neat way to do a menu.
At this point, however, the world start falling apart, and it's all your fault. With the exception of the elder, all the townsfolk, your friends and family, are frozen in some sort of crystalline state. The old guy sets you off on a journey to return their souls to their bodies by conquering several towers across the land. Ark is now the first person living in the village, with the implied exception of the elder, to set foot outside. This is where it started to get a little less amazing. Outside has a weird fishbowl lens effect that's quite distracting while walking around. The underground is a barren wasteland filled with lava and strange crystals. The towers are externally identical, though contents may vary. This section basically serves as a tutorial for the game, though it starts to get monotonous rather quickly.
The combat is a lot of fun, however. There are a fairly wide variety of moves available, and different moves are more effective against various enemies. Combine this with the fact that our hero's favored weapon is a spear, one of my favorite and seldom used fantasy weapons, exploring dungeons is pretty entertaining. The world maps throughout the game are SNES era FF-esque. It's a big, roughly 40 degree from perpendicular view of the landscape. I do rather like Ark's little traveling ensemble.
After returning everyone to normal and getting a sweet cape from your sweetheart, you find that you must resurrect the entire planet. All life is gone, and it is up to Ark to play god and bring everything back to life. Yeah. Things just got really heavy. Ark proceeds to play god and resurrect all life on the planet. There's a lot of implied incarnation going on here. What's more, it's actually an acknowledged fact that this happens, as there are people later who have the ability to remember stuff between lives. This isn't just a bunch of charlatans, either. One guy uses his keen memory to help guide entire societies to betterment.
It was about the point that I was wandering around the first topside dungeon (you live underground, it seems) and I was having doubts about continuing the game. It was fun, but the plot seemed to be going nowhere. I stuck with it, however, and I was treated to some amazing things. I said earlier that this game has a rocky start. That's only because you're seeing the side of the cliff you jumped off of to get to the sea of awesome. There are many wonderful scenes in this game. You help manage economies, meet alternate reality versions of people you know, get killed by yourself in a manner that doesn't constitute suicide, wake up in after a nice night in the inn to a completely destroyed zombie town, and have super fun time adventures with a lion cub. There's a particularly dramatic scene with a mountain goat. This makes more sense knowing you can talk to animals for a while.
The combat never really changes, but the enemies do, so your tactics may vary a bit over the course of the game. Honestly, I use the rushing-jumping attack 90% of the time, and that seems to suit me well enough. There's a lot of stuff to collect and a fair amount of flavor in the world that could go unnoticed if you're not into looking for that kind of thing. Basically, it's a combat-heavy LttP style game with some decent puzzles and super heavy themes. You're basically god. Except for the two things that are more godly, but you stab them in the face eventually, so it's all good.
This game continues to stand out as a rather enjoyable romp with a light to medium treatment of some heavy topics. The experience is fun and engaging, and the ambiance is palpable at times. If you happen to have some sort of Super Nintendo device, or a close facsimile, I recommend trying to find a cart. Or do what I do. Not that that's an endorsement of any kind.
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