#40 - Terranigma

The end of the world is ni-- actually, no, it's already happened! Everybody you've ever known is dead (oops, sorry, "frozen"), and it's all your fault! Better don your skills with the blade... because you're going through a series of dungeons to restore the world to the way it was!

Originally, I was considering putting Dark Cloud here, but I found Terranigma to be more entertaining. Dark Cloud was a pretty good game, but I felt that Terranigma did it better. The combat was simple enough to work, but most of the dungeons were pretty well designed and I had a blast playing through them. But what sells it for me is the sheer scope of it - the story is more intense and the ambience of the soundtrack sure as shit ain't no slouch! In fact, Terranigma is downright beautiful at times. Certainly more beautiful than most of today's indie games, but that's not saying much, so I'll say this - playing through Terranigma is quite an experience. It basically chronicles Ark's life from when he decided to be a little shit and destroy the world, to when he grows up and takes responsibility by basically killing Satan.

Three things kill it for me - one, Ark doesn't get as much dialogue as he rightly deserves. He's the smartass little prick that you'd think would talk a lot, but actually, he's that kid at school who doesn't say much... besides a few smart little one liners. It's like "dude you're allowed to talk, we'll probably forget like two weeks later". Ah well. Secondly, it's got a slow start. The first few dungeons are a tad on the boring and easy side of the fence, and playing through them would make you wonder if it's even worth it or not. Well, let me tell you this - YES IT *bleep*ING IS! Just trudge through them and from there on, the game gets really good. Finally, some of the bosses that seem like they could be quite the tough customers... are basically neutered if you go and level up once or twice. Well, maybe not neutered, but they're significantly easier, that's for sure... a nitpick on my end, sure, but it stopped me from liking it as much as I wanted to. It's just something that generally annoys me - like why should you get to win because you wasted your time killing heaps of smaller enemies? *bleep* that noise!

Summary - A beautiful game with a slow start.
Rating - 8/10

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