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1995 · Quintet · Action role-playing · Adventure

Terranigma

Nintendo console exclusive

Terranigma is an action role-playing game for the SNES. It is one of the few games which has never been released in North America. The Game is about a boy named Ark whose fate is to resurrect the earth and to contribute to the evolution of life.

Released: 20 October 1995
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2 SNES Satellaview Windows
Genres: Action role-playing Adventure Post-apocalyptic Role-playing Science
Developers: Quintet
Publishers: Enix Nintendo
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Fantasy
Country: Japan
Languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat: 16hmain story22hcompletionist
Composers: Masanori Hikichi

About

Terranigma is a 1995 action role-playing game developed by Quintet for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), with manga artist Kamui Fujiwara acting as the character designer. The game tells the story of the Earth's resurrection by the hands of a boy named Ark, and its progress from the evolution of life to the present day. The game is the third entry in an unofficial trilogy of action role-playing games created by Quintet, including Soul Blazer (1992) and Illusion of Gaia (1993). The game has been met with critical acclaim for its presentation, gameplay, and story, while being criticized for its difficulty.

Terranigma was published in Japan by Enix on October 20, 1995, and in Europe and Australia by Nintendo starting in December 1996; the game was not released in North America due to Enix having already closed its U.S. branch by the time localization had finished, and was not re-released for over thirty years due to complicated issues relating to its rights. A re-release on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Windows (via Steam and GOG.com), published and developed by Clear River Games, was announced on August 24, 2026. This re-release marks the first time the game was made officially available in North America.

›Story

The Story contains four chapters.

In the fist chapter "The Outset", Ark gets introduced as a boy who lives in Crysta, the only remaining village in the under world. He touches a mysterious box which freezes up all citizens in the village. By conquering towers in the under world, Ark unfreezes the village people little by little and incidentially resurrects the continents in the destroyed upper world. Hereupon, the Elder of the village instructs him to visit the upper world and resurrect the life.

In the second chapter "Ressurrection of the World", Ark ressurects all plants in the world making it possible to cross the mountains of Guiana. In the second step he reanimates all the birds, the wind, animals and most recently, the humans.

In the third chapter "Resurrection of the Genius", the elder of the village appears in Arks dream telling him to support humankind in making progress. Ark travels from city to city and helps in cities growth and the development of technologies. But he also resurrects Beruga, a scientist who put himself into a sleep state back when when earth was destroyed. He has a vision of a perfect world in which most people get killed by a virus and only a few people live on the world by being turned into immortal zombies.

The elder appears again, telling Ark that his work is done and he can die now. Ark realizes now he as human from the darkside has been used by Dark Gaia for his plans over world's domination. Kumari, a wise man teleports Ark away and tells him to search for five starstones to call the golden child. Ark meets his Lightside self who kills the darkside Ark.

In the fourth and last chapter "Ressurection of the Hero", Ark will be reborn as a baby through Light Gaia. He beats Beruga and then travels back to the underworld to defeat Dark Gaia. The victory over dark Gaia destructs all the dark side, therefore the underworld with the village Crysta. Knowing that he'll be reincarnated, Ark accepts his fate and goes to sleep.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game keeps a top-down perspective view of the world and utilizes an action-based real-time battle system that allows the player to perform different techniques depending on whether the protagonist is running, jumping, attacking, or using a combination of these three actions. Each attack is meant for dealing more damage to certain kinds of enemies, though in most cases there is little to no difference regardless of the technique used. Projectiles launched at Ark can be blocked by the guard technique, which is otherwise ineffective against melee attacks.

With each victory, experience points are gained, increasing the protagonist's level and his maximum hit points, strength, defense, and luck. Slain enemies sometimes leave behind gems which can be used to buy weapons, armors, healing items, and spells. There are no magic points in the game; all spells take the form of one-time use items instead. The player must collect Magirocks and take them to a magic shop to have them transformed into magic rings and summon medals.

Story

In Terranigma, the planet is portrayed as a hollow sphere that has both an external and internal face. Since the beginning of the Earth, the external Lightside, the surface world, stood for growth whereas the internal Darkside, the underworld, represented decline. Over the course of billions of years, these two forces came to be called God and Devil. Regardless of this inner antagonism, rapid progress took root and primitive life forms evolved to plants, animals, and humans.

Technology and industry further expanded civilization, but the fight between God and the Devil was still taking place, more fiercely than ever. The conflict culminated in a final battle in Antarctica on the surface world, where neither of the two forces was victorious. The continents of the surface world submerged into the sea and the underworld was sealed away.

Development

Terranigma was developed by the Japanese company Quintet, which had previously designed creation-themed Super NES games such as ActRaiser and Soul Blazer. It is considered to be part of an unofficial trilogy with the games Illusion of Gaia and Soul Blazer. This series is nicknamed either "Quintet Trilogy", "Gaia Trilogy" or "Heaven and Earth Trilogy" (after Terranigma's Japanese title, which translates to "the creation of Heaven and Earth") by fans. In actuality, according to the producer of Enix USA, there is no connection between Soul Blazer and Gaia, but the former title is related to ActRaiser.

Publisher Enix commissioned the developers as a subcontractor and decided for the title to be an action role-playing game for strategic reasons, based on Quintet's experience in that particular genre and the good reception of their earlier games by Japanese players.

Reception

Terranigma garnered acclaim from critics. GameFan's Kei Kuboki described it as Quintet's "best (...) effort" and being "among the [Super NES's] most memorable titles". 14% rating based on seven reviews at review aggregator GameRankings, and was given the "Silver Hall of Fame" award from Famitsu.

3 out of 30 score in a public poll taken by Family Computer Magazine. Quintet reported that 200,000 copies were sold in Japan.