Terranigma
Encyclopedia
Terranigma, known as in Japan, is a 1995 action role-playing game
for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
developed by Quintet. It was published by Enix
in Japan before Nintendo
localized the game and released an English version in Europe and Australia. The game was never officially released in North America. Terranigma 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.
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. Those items are used up when casting the corresponding spell and then turn back to Magirocks which may be exchanged for new spells again. Upon defeating bosses and completing miscellaneous tasks, new types of magic become available.
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 under world, represented decline. Over the course of billions of years
, these two forces came to be called God
and Devil
. Regardless of the inner antagonism, rapid progress took root and primitive life forms evolved to plants, animals, and humans. Technology and industry revolutionized the evolution, but the fight between God and the Devil was still taking place, more fiercely than ever. The conflict culminated in a final battle at the southernmost point of the surface world. However, neither of the two forces was victorious. The continents of the surface world submerged into the sea and the under world was sealed away.
In the second chapter, "Resurrection of the World", Ark is confronted with the barren land that was once the Earth's surface, after having crossed a dimensional crevasse. His first task is to free the giant tree Ra from the parasite he is afflicted with. This causes the resurrection of all plants in the world, helping Ark to cross the mountains of Guiana
. He travels further into the world, reviving birds, the wind, animals and eventually humankind.
In the third chapter, "Resurrection of the Genius", the Elder appears to Ark in a dream and tells him to keep helping humankind grow, as the world is still in the fledgling stages
. He continues his journey, traveling and expanding cities, assisting with the invention of groundbreaking technologies and also - much to his surprise - encountering a Lightside twin of Elle who lives as the adopted daughter of a king, but was rendered mute by a traumatic event in her childhood. Ark manages to break this condition, and although Princess Elle at first stays away from Ark, she begins to grow close to him.
Ark ultimately frees the ingenious Beruga from his sleep in a cryogenic chamber. The professor provides Ark with an insight into his personal image of the paradise
. He envisions a perfect world by killing all insignificant life with a virus
named Asmodeus and making everyone else immortal by turning them into zombies. Ark tries to attack Beruga after this revealing twist but is stopped by robots, injuring him heavily.
The Elder once again appears to him, saying that his mission is fulfilled and he may now pass away. Ark realizes that he's been used to lead the power which created him to world domination. Just as he is about to die, Kumari
, a wise human who watched the world's growth through reincarnation
, teleports Ark out of Beruga's laboratory. He then instructs him to go search the five Starstones and to lay them at the grave at time's end in order to call the golden child. Ark obtains the stones one after another and sets them into skull statues at Dryvale, the location at the South Pole
where the final confrontation between God and the Devil once took place. This leads to the appearance of Ark's Lightside self; the person Dark Gaia used to create Ark himself. He reveals to him that he, the under world Ark, is the legendary hero and then kills him.
However, in the fourth and final chapter, "Resurrection of the Hero", Ark is reborn through the soul of the surface world, Light Gaia, and departs to defeat Beruga. After having conquered the professor, he returns to the under world to defeat Dark Gaia. The victory over that entity brings forth the destruction of the Darkside. In the end, however, a major purpose is served and Ark, although sealing what appears to be his own demise as well, realizes he and all of his loved ones are bound to meet again in future reincarnations. He goes to sleep, after being told that he, as creator and defender, is what the humans would call a god. Ark's last dream pictures him as a bird flying above the world he created, watching it grow older. An epilogue plays which shows Lightside Elle at her original home. There is a knock at the door and she answers it. The game then ends.
and Soul Blazer
. 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 the Japanese audience. The theme of creation prevalent in Terranigma was introduced as a contrast to the destruction of enemies in other action titles
, and to inspire the player's imagination concerning the effects their actions might have. The script of the game was written by director and designer Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, the founder of Quintet, with the scenario provided by Reiko Takebayashi. Tatsuo Hashimoto created the computer graphics
cover art and also rendered the background images for the resurrection scenes. The music of Terranigma was composed by Miyoko Kobayashi and Masanori Hikichi
, the latter of whom was responsible for the design of the sounds
as well. The game is the last title in a loosely connected trilogy consisting of Quintet's Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia
. Unlike its predecessors, however, Terranigma wound up never being published in North America
because Enix had already closed its US subsidiary by the time the localization was finished. The English scripts of the game used in the European and Australian releases by Nintendo
were translated by Colin Palmer, Dan Owsen and Hiro Nakamura.
in Japan, including an official guide book
, a world atlas, a novel by Saori Kumi, a novelization by Norio Nakai
titled Logout Bunko Tenchi Sōzō, a gamebook
featuring artwork by character designer Kamui Fujiwara
, and the two volume manga Gangan Fantasy Comics: Tenchi Sōzō by Mamiko Yasaka. None of these materials have been released outside of Japan, though in Germany, Club Nintendo
published a 32-page comic illustrating scenes from the game up to the events of the third chapter.
versions of the game's music.
's Retronauts podcast described it as the game with the best reputation in Quintet's creation trilogy. He remarked that the series was "full of solid gameplay, great music and surprisingly deep story themes", and that Terranigma exceeded both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, "making it a long-coveted classic". Parish also expressed his wish for the title to be released on the Wii
's Virtual Console
download service. Kei Kuboki of the video game magazine GameFan described it as the developer's "best (...) effort", and as being "among the [Super Nintendo's] most memorable titles".
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
developed by Quintet. It was published by Enix
Enix
The was a Japanese company that produced video games, anime and manga. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975 as and renamed Enix in 1982...
in Japan before Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
localized the game and released an English version in Europe and Australia. The game was never officially released in North America. Terranigma tells the story of the Earth's
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
resurrection by the hands of a boy named Ark, and its progress from the evolution of life
Evolutionary history of life
The evolutionary history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and fossil organisms have evolved since life on Earth first originated until the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 Ga and life appeared on its surface within one billion years...
to the present day.
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. Those items are used up when casting the corresponding spell and then turn back to Magirocks which may be exchanged for new spells again. Upon defeating bosses and completing miscellaneous tasks, new types of magic become available.
Setting
In Terranigma, the Earth is portrayed as a hollow sphereSubterranean fiction
Subterranean fiction is a subgenre of adventure fiction which focuses on underground settings, sometimes at the center of the Earth or otherwise deep below the surface...
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 under world, represented decline. Over the course of billions of years
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
, these two forces came to be called God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. Regardless of the inner antagonism, rapid progress took root and primitive life forms evolved to plants, animals, and humans. Technology and industry revolutionized the evolution, but the fight between God and the Devil was still taking place, more fiercely than ever. The conflict culminated in a final battle at the southernmost point of the surface world. However, neither of the two forces was victorious. The continents of the surface world submerged into the sea and the under world was sealed away.
Story
The first chapter of the game, "The Outset", introduces Ark, a mischievous boy who lives in Crysta, the only village in the under world. After opening a forbidden door and touching a mysterious box inside, every citizen in the village is frozen. The only person not affected by the curse, the Elder, guides him to resurrect the continents of the surface world in order to unfreeze the people. A way out of his hometown appears, and for the first time ever, a human being leaves Crysta to explore the under world which is portrayed as a frozen wasteland of imposing crystal mountains, crossed by rivers of magma. He conquers the trials of the five towers, each representing one continent, and revives the mainland of the Earth. Upon returning to his hometown, the Elder instructs him to travel to the surface world and to resurrect all living beings. With a heavy heart, Ark says goodbye to his lifelong devoted friend Elle and sets out to the Lightside.In the second chapter, "Resurrection of the World", Ark is confronted with the barren land that was once the Earth's surface, after having crossed a dimensional crevasse. His first task is to free the giant tree Ra from the parasite he is afflicted with. This causes the resurrection of all plants in the world, helping Ark to cross the mountains of Guiana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
. He travels further into the world, reviving birds, the wind, animals and eventually humankind.
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
. He continues his journey, traveling and expanding cities, assisting with the invention of groundbreaking technologies and also - much to his surprise - encountering a Lightside twin of Elle who lives as the adopted daughter of a king, but was rendered mute by a traumatic event in her childhood. Ark manages to break this condition, and although Princess Elle at first stays away from Ark, she begins to grow close to him.
Ark ultimately frees the ingenious Beruga from his sleep in a cryogenic chamber. The professor provides Ark with an insight into his personal image of the paradise
Paradise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
. He envisions a perfect world by killing all insignificant life with a virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
named Asmodeus and making everyone else immortal by turning them into zombies. Ark tries to attack Beruga after this revealing twist but is stopped by robots, injuring him heavily.
The Elder once again appears to him, saying that his mission is fulfilled and he may now pass away. Ark realizes that he's been used to lead the power which created him to world domination. Just as he is about to die, Kumari
Kumari
Kumari, or Kumari Devi, is the tradition of worshipping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy or devi in Hindu religious traditions. Kumari means young unmarried girl. Kumari word is derived from Sanskrit word Kaumarya meaning "virgin". In Nepali and some Indian...
, a wise human who watched the world's growth through reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
, teleports Ark out of Beruga's laboratory. He then instructs him to go search the five Starstones and to lay them at the grave at time's end in order to call the golden child. Ark obtains the stones one after another and sets them into skull statues at Dryvale, the location at the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
where the final confrontation between God and the Devil once took place. This leads to the appearance of Ark's Lightside self; the person Dark Gaia used to create Ark himself. He reveals to him that he, the under world Ark, is the legendary hero and then kills him.
However, in the fourth and final chapter, "Resurrection of the Hero", Ark is reborn through the soul of the surface world, Light Gaia, and departs to defeat Beruga. After having conquered the professor, he returns to the under world to defeat Dark Gaia. The victory over that entity brings forth the destruction of the Darkside. In the end, however, a major purpose is served and Ark, although sealing what appears to be his own demise as well, realizes he and all of his loved ones are bound to meet again in future reincarnations. He goes to sleep, after being told that he, as creator and defender, is what the humans would call a god. Ark's last dream pictures him as a bird flying above the world he created, watching it grow older. An epilogue plays which shows Lightside Elle at her original home. There is a knock at the door and she answers it. The game then ends.
Development
Terranigma was developed by the Japanese company Quintet, which had previously designed creation-themed Super Nintendo games such as ActRaiserActRaiser
is a 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System action and city-building simulation game developed by Quintet and published by Enix that combines traditional side-scrolling platforming with urban planning god game sections. A sequel, ActRaiser 2, was released for the Super Nintendo in 1993...
and Soul Blazer
Soul Blazer
The soundtrack of the game was composed by Yukihide Takekawa. It was published in Japan by the record label Apollon on February 21, 1992.- Reception :The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #200 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column...
. Publisher Enix
Enix
The was a Japanese company that produced video games, anime and manga. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975 as and renamed Enix in 1982...
commissioned the developers as a subcontractor
Subcontractor
A subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract....
and decided for the title to be an action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
for strategic reasons, based on Quintet's experience in that particular genre and the good reception of their earlier games by the Japanese audience. The theme of creation prevalent in Terranigma was introduced as a contrast to the destruction of enemies in other action titles
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
, and to inspire the player's imagination concerning the effects their actions might have. The script of the game was written by director and designer Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, the founder of Quintet, with the scenario provided by Reiko Takebayashi. Tatsuo Hashimoto created the computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
cover art and also rendered the background images for the resurrection scenes. The music of Terranigma was composed by Miyoko Kobayashi and Masanori Hikichi
Masanori Hikichi
, is a Japanese video game music composer, famous for writing the soundtrack to Terranigma with Miyoko Kobayashi. He also wrote the soundtrack to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine with Masayuki Nagao, the SNES game Langrisser, the PSOne game The Granstream Saga, and the PlayStation 2 game Orphen:...
, the latter of whom was responsible for the design of the sounds
Sample-based synthesis
Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments instead of fundamental waveforms such as the saw waves...
as well. The game is the last title in a loosely connected trilogy consisting of Quintet's Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia
Illusion of Gaia
, known in Europe as Illusion of Time, is an action role-playing game that was released on September 1, 1994, for the Super NES . It was developed by Quintet. Enix published the game in Japan, and Nintendo published it worldwide...
. Unlike its predecessors, however, Terranigma wound up never being published in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
because Enix had already closed its US subsidiary by the time the localization was finished. The English scripts of the game used in the European and Australian releases by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
were translated by Colin Palmer, Dan Owsen and Hiro Nakamura.
Merchandise
Terranigma was released alongside several pieces of merchandiseTie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
in Japan, including an official guide book
Strategy guide
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in...
, a world atlas, a novel by Saori Kumi, a novelization by Norio Nakai
Norio Nakai
is a Japanese science fiction writer.His debut as a writer was in 1985 in Hayakawa SF Magazine. In 1988 he won the Seiun Award with . He is known for his unique style, influenced by magic realism. His most famous work is the series, a western-like science fiction of seven volumes .He is a graduate...
titled Logout Bunko Tenchi Sōzō, a gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
featuring artwork by character designer Kamui Fujiwara
Kamui Fujiwara
is a Japanese character designer and manga artist. Fujiwara's father was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He excelled in mathematics and computer science when in grade school. He graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School, which is attached to Tokyo Zokei University...
, and the two volume manga Gangan Fantasy Comics: Tenchi Sōzō by Mamiko Yasaka. None of these materials have been released outside of Japan, though in Germany, Club Nintendo
Club Nintendo
Club Nintendo is the name of several publications and a more well-known customer loyalty program provided by Nintendo. The loyalty program is free to join and is committed to providing rewards in exchange for consumer feedback and loyalty to purchasing official Nintendo products...
published a 32-page comic illustrating scenes from the game up to the events of the third chapter.
Soundtrack
A Japanese soundtrack album titled Tenchi Sōzō Creative Soundtracks with 33 compositions was released by Kitty Enterprises on October 25, 1995. The first six tracks are arrangedArrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
versions of the game's music.
Reception
According to developer Quintet, Terranigma sold 200,000 copies in Japan. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
's Retronauts podcast described it as the game with the best reputation in Quintet's creation trilogy. He remarked that the series was "full of solid gameplay, great music and surprisingly deep story themes", and that Terranigma exceeded both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, "making it a long-coveted classic". Parish also expressed his wish for the title to be released on the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
download service. Kei Kuboki of the video game magazine GameFan described it as the developer's "best (...) effort", and as being "among the [Super Nintendo's] most memorable titles".
External links
via Internet ArchiveInternet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...