Heh, not too bad when you realise that leveling does silly things with numbers in this game. Like, you might be doing 1 damage to her at level 21, then 1 damage to her at level 22, then 2 damage to her at 23, then 40 damage to her at level 24.
I'll bet that everybody got past her by grinding back then (she's not even that hard, it's just that, at that point, you're going to be at least 2 levels below the point where you actually do more than 1-2 damage). The funny thing is that there's a much simpler solution: She's weak to light attacks and there's actually a spear that does light damage, which does decent damage to her even if you're still a few levels below the "sweet spot". The problem is that that the spear in question has a lower attack value than what you're probably using at that point, which means that nobody will come up with the idea of ever using it again (because why should you?).
Edit: Ok, I looked it up. You can get the spear in question as early as the zombie town in the desert. It has an attack value of 15. By the time you reach the witch's castle, it's already outdated as you're probably using another spear with an attack value of 22. And of course, nobody in their right mind will think of switching back to the weaker weapon when your most powerful weapon is only doing 1 or 2 damage against her...
This is maybe my favorite ARPG. The plot, music, character development, all the little details... Maybe it's the nostalgia talking but I still think this game shouldn't be forgotten.
I wonder why the various translation teams out there have never really had a go at this one. Even as a kid I could tell a lot of the English translation was fairly janky, a lot of the speech sounds unnatural. I heard that's all quite a literal translation, with not a lot of proof-reading and tweaking.
This is maybe my favorite ARPG. The plot, music, character development, all the little details... Maybe it's the nostalgia talking but I still think this game shouldn't be forgotten.
I remember Terranigma being enjoyable. I played it for a few days back when I got a copy ~10 years ago, but I never finished it. By now the battery has probably died.
Dark Gaia cloned the hero of light that previously defeated him and to let him grow he cloned the entire town he lived in.
His purpose was to revive the earth so he could then conquer it through Beruga.
Beruga in fact had invented a virus that could transform living beings in zombies that is dead living creature thus letting the cycle of destruction and rebirth to freeze.
So Dark Gaia already planned from the start to unleash Ark for his purpose and then dispose him at the right time.
However in a twist, Ark somehow could skip the loop of fate (creation and destruction).
He resurrected in place and began a journey that led him to met his light counterpart.
Merging with him Ark became an entity that unified the dark and light side, something that neither Dark Gaia or Light Gaia could be.
He met the elder (Dark Gaia) and destroyed him.
However in doing it, he eliminated the source vital for the existence of (underworld) Crysta and its living beings (Ark included).
So despite being a deity he was destined to lose everything most dear to him.
The spirits moved by his sorrowful fate and being grateful to him, let Ark to live one more day in the peaceful Crysta with his friends unaware of their doomed destines.
Ark unfulfilled love with (underground) Elle was put in the hands of fate because if they are bound by fate to meet again, maybe reincarnated, they could then fully live their love.
Great thread, cheers for all the work, this game deserves it.
Greatest game of all time for me. This game is my childhood... more often that I'd like I get stuck in a vicious cicle of watching my favorite scenes in youtube and listening to the OST, and oh man, what a OST as well, first time I heard the underworld theme I was fucking stoked.
I will never forget the first time you jump into the overworld and you're welcomed by that desolate World, those high pitch wind-like sound effects, right after leaving lovely Elle and Crysta behind. What a fucking adventure it was for me at the time.
I have tried to get into this game on a few occasions, but it never grabs me and I end up quitting early. Can't help but feel like I still need to give it one more shot.
Dark Gaia cloned the hero of light that previously defeated him and to let him grow he cloned the entire town he lived in.
His purpose was to revive the earth so he could then conquer it through Beruga.
Beruga in fact had invented a virus that could transform living beings in zombies that is dead living creature thus letting the cycle of destruction and rebirth to freeze.
So Dark Gaia already planned from the start to unleash Ark for his purpose and then dispose him at the right time.
However in a twist, Ark somehow could skip the loop of fate (creation and destruction).
He resurrected in place and began a journey that led him to met his light counterpart.
Merging with him Ark became an entity that unified the dark and light side, something that neither Dark Gaia or Light Gaia could be.
He met the elder (Dark Gaia) and destroyed him.
However in doing it, he eliminated the source vital for the existence of (underworld) Crysta and its living beings (Ark included).
So despite being a deity he was destined to lose everything most dear to him.
The spirits moved by his sorrowful fate and being grateful to him, let Ark to live one more day in the peaceful Crysta with his friends unaware of their doomed destines.
Ark unfulfilled love with (underground) Elle was put in the hands of fate because if they are bound by fate to meet again, maybe reincarnated, they could then fully live their love.
Thanks! Yeah it was the part after Beluga where the game starts revealing the whole hero clone thing that I got confused the first time I played. The game really could use a retranslation.
is the english translation really that bad? granted I only played the German version, but that seemed fine to me... surely the English one can't be that much worse, right?
how's the French translation? or the Italian for that matter?
I remember one summer long time ago where I really wanted to play this game, but I got stuck at the very beginning. I got stuck at the part where they asked you to bring a pot for them but I didn't know how to hand it to them and I just gave up. So what buttons were you suppose to press?
Miyazaki apparently left Quintet and joined Shade on the PS1 era (along with other Quintet people) and made Granstream Saga (a 3D arpg on the PS1 that runs at 60fps and is pretty good).
And the last game with Miyazaki's name in it was apparently a YuYu Hakusho RPG on the PS2 (I don't think he made it though, he was just a guy on the team).
I remember one summer long time ago where I really wanted to play this game, but I got stuck at the very beginning. I got stuck at the part where they asked you to bring a pot for them but I didn't know how to hand it to them and I just gave up. So what buttons were you suppose to press?
Miyazaki apparently left Quintet and joined Shade on the PS1 era (along with other Quintet people) and made Granstream Saga (a 3D arpg on the PS1 that runs at 60fps and is pretty good).
And the last game with Miyazaki's name in it was apparently a YuYu Hakusho RPG on the PS2 (I don't think he made it though, he was just a guy on the team).
is the english translation really that bad? granted I only played the German version, but that seemed fine to me... surely the English one can't be that much worse, right?
how's the French translation? or the Italian for that matter?
Twenty years on and this gem still hasn't seen a rerelease on any platform. I thought it was a shoo-in for the Virtual Console, but even there it's been a no show for nearly a decade. Tragic.
Thanks for making me remember how much i love this game. It was one of those game i absolutely loved as a kid on my emulator. That underworld map, those tower, that music when
you put back the continent, going to the surface, talking to animals, can't talk to animal anymore, visiting a simplified version of our world, developing cities, visiting that strange lab, learning the truth about you and your mission, going to the final battle.
And here i am skipping a lot of awesome stuff... This game is really something incredible for me, the only game i may like better on SNES is Yoshi's Island.... And i'm not even sure.
is the english translation really that bad? granted I only played the German version, but that seemed fine to me... surely the English one can't be that much worse, right?
how's the French translation? or the Italian for that matter?
The French translation is good in my opinion. A little strangely worded from time to time (I think the translaltion is quite "literal" if that made sense but i don't really know).
Maybe because of nostalgia-glasses, i think it adds some charm to the game.
One of the best games of all time, IMO. I firmly believe that if it had received a NA release it would be looked upon with the same love and appreciation as FFVI and Chrono Trigger. We Brits missed out on a LOT of classic games back in the 90s, but we got Terranigma, so I feel it evens out.
I remember being so stoked to play it, as I'd enjoyed Illusion of Time (Gaia) so much and Super Play magazine (anyone remember that?) had stated Terranigma was its spiritual sequel. I got it for my birthday the year I started "big school" and have always associated it with that indescribable feeling of closing one chapter of one's life and starting another. It felt like my own life was almost a parallel of the game itself...just as Ark had to leave Crysta and everything he knew behind in order to explore the bleak and uncharted surface world, my younger self was facing the end of childhood and everything that entailed (that sounded far less pretentious in my head, but whatever).
It was absolutely mindblowing to realise the game took place in our own world, and travelling around the world map actually taught me a fair bit about geography and the different cultures of planet Earth (though much of it was either heavily fictionalised or downright fabricated). Illusion of Time did the same thing, to an extent, but Terranigma just felt more *real*. Journeying from the lush jungles of South America to the Gobi Desert, the Loire Valley, the African savannah, and everything else in between (even the tiny British Isles!) was just incredible.
The soundtrack, as has already been stated, is sublime.
Some scenes from the game still make me tear up (that damned goat) and it handled numerous ideas and themes that most devs wouldn't have dreamed of touching at the time. It's amazing how the game could be so goofy yet have such a sense of loss and melancholy right the way through (I'll never forget the sadness I felt when I found I couldn't speak to animals anymore
and then the humans came along to fuck everything up
.
I really wish someone would re-release it for the 20th anniversary. More people need to play this gem.
I'm gushing and rambling incoherently now but IDGAF it's 1:30 AM here and I need to sleep.
I know that there's the NTSC rompatch, but has anyone ever gotten around to figuring out a Game Genie or Pro Action Replay code to bypass the region lock screen when playing the European PAL version on a North American SNES?
I have tried to get into this game on a few occasions, but it never grabs me and I end up quitting early. Can't help but feel like I still need to give it one more shot.
I just played this recently for the first time. It's a good game but I think it's the weakest of the trilogy.
Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia had more intriguing stories. The beginning of Terranigma especially felt very bare bones. It took me a while to get into it. I think Terranigma's story only began to get interesting at the middle.
Illusion of Gaia had a more powerful atmosphere of mystery and dread (Basically any part of the game where you heard this theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R93Y17S2tiY)
Inca Ruins and Sky Garden were more captivating than any dungeon in Terranigma.
Illusion had characters that you connected with more since they travelled and interacted with you a lot.
In Illusion of Gaia you learn more skills as you progress. That was neat. You had a ton of variety of attacks with the three different forms: Boy, Knight, and Shadow. In Terranigma, you're doing the same moves at the end that you were at the beginning. That made it a bit repetitive.
Terranigma had more awkward menus and controls. Your best attack was a running attack but since the Y and A buttons are far apart, you have to let go of run to attack. So you're constantly having to start running and stop. Your other big attack is to run and dive at the enemy. Half the time I got hit as well from doing that.
Magic is useless.
Both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia had better music.
On the positive side, it was the only game in the series with an overworld and it was a lot of fun exploring in it. I loved seeing the growth of the towns.
Very good but I don't see how someone could put it up there with Chrono Trigger. I wonder if Brits just tell themselves that because they didn't get FF4, FF6, CT, and Earthbound.
Dark Gaia cloned the hero of light that previously defeated him and to let him grow he cloned the entire town he lived in.
His purpose was to revive the earth so he could then conquer it through Beruga.
Beruga in fact had invented a virus that could transform living beings in zombies that is dead living creature thus letting the cycle of destruction and rebirth to freeze.
So Dark Gaia already planned from the start to unleash Ark for his purpose and then dispose him at the right time.
However in a twist, Ark somehow could skip the loop of fate (creation and destruction).
He resurrected in place and began a journey that led him to met his light counterpart.
Merging with him Ark became an entity that unified the dark and light side, something that neither Dark Gaia or Light Gaia could be.
He met the elder (Dark Gaia) and destroyed him.
However in doing it, he eliminated the source vital for the existence of (underworld) Crysta and its living beings (Ark included).
So despite being a deity he was destined to lose everything most dear to him.
The spirits moved by his sorrowful fate and being grateful to him, let Ark to live one more day in the peaceful Crysta with his friends unaware of their doomed destines.
Ark unfulfilled love with (underground) Elle was put in the hands of fate because if they are bound by fate to meet again, maybe reincarnated, they could then fully live their love.
Terranigma had more awkward menus and controls. Your best attack was a running attack but since the Y and A buttons are far apart, you have to let go of run to attack. So you're constantly having to start running and stop. Your other big attack is to run and dive at the enemy. Half the time I got hit as well from doing that.
You can map controls to any button you want, though.
I would put run on R, jump on B and attack on Y. That was you can do the drill style attack over and over, left to right to left to right, repeatedly through an enemy. You're basically invincible for most of those frames, so with good timing, you can deal with anything so easily.
That scene was this game's Hamlet The Pig to me. This series has such an odd way to deal with the subject of life and death. The non-human characters tend to be so level-headed and blasé about it all, which makes it so hard to process. Games are no stranger to finding glory and utility in death, but these games try to find the beauty and serenity in it as well. I guess that also ties into the main story,
where death and birth keep the world going, and the big threat is that this cycle is broken by getting rid of the destruction part. I can't think of many stories where the "light" side is pro-death and the "dark" side is anti-death.
I suppose "life and death" may be the wrong way of looking at it. Ultimately what it revolves around is evolution and stagnation. Change can be good or bad, but in the grand scheme any change is progress no matter what. When you equate "change" to "life", it all sort of falls better into place.
Soul Blazer is the simplest of the three, I can still highly recommended it if you enjoy the atmosphere of Illusion of Gaia. Mechanically and structurally it's entirely different, but different is fine.
Very good but I don't see how someone could put it up there with Chrono Trigger. I wonder if Brits just tell themselves that because they didn't get FF4, FF6, CT, and Earthbound.
Strange way to put it, people have different tastes. CT and FF6 are two of my favorite games, Terranigma is still the top one for me. I'm not Brit and I don't tell that to myself.
For example, you talked about IoG characters and how they interacted with you, but a positive point for me in Terranigma is the fact that this is Ark's adventure, you feel alone, travel around a desolate place and eventually resurrect it. I wouldn't want it any other way. People are different.
I learned about that on GAF. ~20 years too late. lol
Still have to try it myself but yea, apparently one of the rings lets you beat her without grinding levels until you can actually damage her at lvl 24.^^
I'll bet that everybody got past her by grinding back then (she's not even that hard, it's just that, at that point, you're going to be at least 2 levels below the point where you actually do more than 1-2 damage). The funny thing is that there's a much simpler solution: She's weak to light attacks and there's actually a spear that does light damage, which does decent damage to her even if you're still a few levels below the "sweet spot". The problem is that that the spear in question has a lower attack value than what you're probably using at that point, which means that nobody will come up with the idea of ever using it again (because why should you?).
Edit: Ok, I looked it up. You can get the spear in question as early as the zombie town in the desert. It has an attack value of 15. By the time you reach the witch's castle, it's already outdated as you're probably using another spear with an attack value of 22. And of course, nobody in their right mind will think of switching back to the weaker weapon when your most powerful weapon is only doing 1 or 2 damage against her...
I recently came across a boxed copy of the game but the seller was having a way of a good time pricing that one. I'm not willing to sell my soul for the game. I do really want to play it on a genuine Super Nintendo however, so my search goes on for another complete copy that doesn't cost parts of my body...
If by slim you mean zero then yea. Square Enix doesn't give a fuck about VC in the West anymore. Nevermind that they don't even care about their Enix catalog unless it's Dragon Quest. God damn shame.
kills me that we never got this one here; i totally rented & loved soul blazer & gaia in the day.
picked up a repro cart of this one a while back & it was one of the first games i played on my XRGB mini...glad it waited, it's a gorgeous game & sounds fantastic too.
One of the most important games for me right there. The last time I beat it some years ago I felt it still has a very good balance of battle, dungeons, exploration and story/drama. The setting is one of the most powerful I have ever seen in a game, and some dungeons could rival those of early 2D Zelda, which is a compliment indeed. As an overall experience I think it is a must play for every adventure fan.
This game was so awesome and holy shit I just felt so old.
So lucky that I got to play through it as a kid here in Australia. Had a couple of weird translation things, but the story was crazy emotive for a SNES game.
Loved the combat, visuals, sountrack, everything. The whole Neotokio part was so incredibly memorable. And yeah, that goat.
