Rebuilding a World

Everytime I talk about old RPG's that I have played, my friend John goes "Man, you know what RPG I liked? Terranigma, did you ever play that?"

And I have to say no. Because I hadn't.

Yesterday, I decided to remedy that problem.

Terranigma was a game released in 1996 for the Super Nintendo Console, and was produced by Enix, who also made Soul Blazers and the Dragonquest and Dragon Warrior games. It's an action RPG, so while you have hit points and armor and such, you attack enemies by pressing the A button. What I found really cool though, was the amount of different attacks you get. For instance, while running, if you press the attack button Ark will charge forward. If you press it while running and jumping, you'll do a pretty fancy (for 1996) divebomb.

I haven't finished the game yet, so I can't tell you what happens later, but so far I've learned that the main guy, Ark, is a bit of an idiot. He lives in village called Crysta, in a strange underground world. One day, he opens the door that should never be opened and finds a magical box and a strange creature called Yomi.

By opening the box a curse is laid on the village, and all the villagers (including the girl who fancies you) are frozen. The Elder tells you that in order to lift the curse you must journey to 5 towers and complete the trials that await there.

It's cool though, because inside the box you find an awesome spear and set out. The box acts as your inventory, and kind of exists in a pocket universe sort of thing. In order to access your inventory, you have to jump inside the box, which contains a whole bunch of rooms. I particularly liked this little touch, as it explains the vast amount of junk that Ark carries around with him all the time.

Anyway, you finish off the 5 towers and after every one a continent on the overworld is restored. However, these continents are all barren and void of life. So the Elder, ever confident in Ark's abilities, sends him to restore life to the freaking planet.

And thats where I'm up to. I've restored the plants, the birds and the animals, and right now I'm on my way to restore Humanity.

I'm going to leave now with a little story. While exploring Eklamata, the zone where humanity sleeps, Ark was caught in an avalanche and passed out. What happened next was a bit...strange.

Oh, did I mention that Ark can talk to animals and plants?

So, with my new friend, the Obvious She-Goat, I decided to explore the little cave we were in.

Only to find the carcass of her mate. Yeah...

Then it starts to get dark. Ark's friend the goat starts to look at him differently now that she's single. One thing leads to another and...

The next morning Ark wakes up to find the goat butting against the wall of the cave. Eventually, she manages to bust through where the ice is thin, but is stopped by sheer cliff. Ark however, has a pair of handy Sharp Claws (I got's em from some demon birds, good fun!) and just leaves his friend the goat behind. Just like that!


Yeah, this game has its moments.