The Greatest Video Game Never Released in North America 

Here in Germany Terranigma is one of the most cherished retro games with a sizable fanbase, heck there's even a multihour documentary made by TheParappa for this (in german sadly). It's so amazing to see an American talk about the game and understanding it the way we understood it, as an artistic masterpiece. Thank you Derrat, spread the word!

This, is part of what some call the "soul blazer" trilogy, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia/Time and Terranigma are an amazing set of games with memorable music and very similar themes. Quite unique in all 3 games.

I have a severe disease that causes me awful pain, games and fiction in general have literally kept me alive, I was always so invested in “what will happen next?” It soothes my anger at my situation and gives me something to be excited over, I Honestly do hate the life I was born into, especially since I can’t do much of anything in a work setting because of my illness, I feel useless, I know and accept that I would leave reality if I could because a big part of me just doesn’t care for it, it’s unhealthy but my life revolves around fiction, it’s all I really have

I KNEW IT WAS TERRANIGMA! I played a ROM of this as a kid, and it took me nearly 20 years to find it again. One of the best games of all time.

Your encounter with Terranigma is identical to mine. I was mesmerized by the way people described it, but horrified to discover it never released in America. I had to play it for myself. So I emulated it and became obsessed with the story. The music is incredible, the characters are iconic, and the ending gives me so many conflicting emotions. Terranigma is a gem.

Terranigma is one of those games that I am so fond of because I played it as a child and it was "the adventure". I still remember how many times it made me cry and even in certain cases be very afraid. I remember the desert city where everyone was very friendly, where you would then sleep in the inn and the next day you would wake up to a rotten smell. The part where you help the Lion's son gain courage. The part of the goat that the video points out left me very thoughtful. The part where you find a girl very similar to Naomi and how your heart breaks knowing how far you've come but how much you miss home. Too many things that I still remember despite so many years. Oh and I remember taking months to get through the first part of the second tower because I didn't know which statue to move... that damn tower.

When I played this game as a child most of these themes were lost on me, but the beauty of it always stuck with me. To me personally the theme of this game is "you can never go home", which is represented in the story itself and also the fact that I can never again have the same experiences I had when I was a child. The music of Crysta brings up this emotion so strongly in me even to this day.

As a german kid, I had the pleasure to get the SNES bundled with Terranigma as my very first console game, that wasn't my gameboy. I have just learned to read and granted, to grasp the full context of the game, I surely was too young with my 5 yrs back then, but I was absolutely captivated and mesmerized by the visuals and the soundtrack and it was funny to have all those real life places woven into this fantasy game and I can remember my mum so vividly sitting by my side and witnessing the scene in the ice cave with the goats. She was absolutely dumbfounded she told me when I was older and that this game was the reason why she let me engage with videogames in a more leisurely way. Replaying it as a teenager with much more knowledge did let me experience the game in a completely new light and once again, I was struck by it's beauty. I love this game. Happy holidays everyone!

The Terranigma OST is a hidden gem on the SNES. Thanks for the awesome videos, as always!

I only played this game for a few hours as a teenager, now I'm kind of sad that I apparently missed out on a profound gaming experience on par with the likes of _XenoGears, Silent Hill 2_ and _Chrono Cross._

I've heard people lovingly call Terranigma "Europes Chrono Trigger". Chrono Trigger and FF6 didn't release in Europe for the SNES, instead they first released here in the late 2000s for other platforms. Terranigma was such a joy to play growing up and even after finally playing the aforementioned games years later, I still consider it my favorite SNES game.

All I can say is: You gods damned right. (It has been one of my favorite video games for over 20 years -- stuck in NA myself -- but I found it in 1999 because of emulation.)

I'm gonna shout out HCBailly here, because it was his Let's Play of Terranigma some years back that introduced me to this game. I didn't have a SNES growing up and without him (at least until now, with Max's video) I would never have learned about it.

Was not expecting a Terranigma video from you of all people but this is so cool!

Max, thank you for talking about one of my most favorite games I ever played. Happy holidays and I hope this video shines a light to a forgotten gem!

Yes. For sure one of the SNES's best soundtracks too. I love vibing to the music in this game. Also, it's a legitimately amazing game, with really solid combat and only one spot where grinding could be called necessary.

It's also a phenomenal example of what an experienced team could pull off on the SNES near the end of its life cycle. The quality of cutscenes might seem pretty quaint now, but they were groundbreaking at the time and indicative of how JRPG story telling would evolve in the PS1 era.

I remember getting this game for Christmas as a teenager, and it has always had a special place in my heart, just for the scope and atmosphere of it. Thank you for reminding me of this beautiful game, I know what I'm replaying over Christmas this year!

I played this game in the mid 2000's on ZSNES on my old desktop. It was so good I played nothing else till I beat the game.

As a European I cannot wrap my head around that Americans never got to play this absolute gem. It was one of the biggest releases in the 90's in terms of hype, it was marketed like crazy. I didn't even play JRPG's at that time, and I absolutely loved it.

So sad that Steve Jobs died of Terranigma

North America not getting Terranigma is revenge for Europe never getting Xenogears.

An all time favorite, and also something of a mystery in my life. I played this game at my grandma’s house in the mid-late 90’s. She had lots of games and often traded with her sisters, but to this day, I have no idea how this was possible on a North American SNES.

So, I too had no idea of this games. I came across a RU-vidr by the name of HCBailly some time in the early 2000's. He did LP's of JRPG's and was doing an LP of Terrinigma. I soon had my old family dell outfitted with an emulator to experience this game. It's such a hauntingly beautiful game. In so many ways, it is a very tragic story, yet it's conclusion is so sweet. It's a story of restoration and connections. I truly have never experienced the same mix of feelings I feel when I play this game. Thanks for the retrospective mate. You reminded me it has been years since I played it myself.

I used to say this about LiveAeviL but now look. It not only got a faithful remake here but got ported to everything AND got a physical release. And I was 100% certain that it would never release in America. Not in 1,00,000 years. Never say never.

This is by far one of the most amazing & beautiful games I've ever played. Epic story & epic soundtrack. I had the privilege of playing the game upon discovering emulation back in the early 2000s.

I can't beleive the ending of a 16 bit SNES game from the 90s has the capacity to make me cry. Its a beautiful game.

In Germany Terranigma is THE Game on SNES, Americans really missed something huge

I hate that I have played so many of the games you have talked about but have no deep understanding other than the surface face value that is given and none of the deeper meanings. I appreciate you helping me grasp a deeper understanding of the greater classics!

I played this game in the 90s (from Europe) and it has been one of my favorites to this day. I replayed it a few weeks ago and was really suprised to see your video. Thank you. P.S. nice try fighting Bloody Mary at lvl 22 😊

One of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had while engaging in this particular form of art. I lost my Grandpa around the time I was able to emulate Terranigma to my SNES mini. Given the context of life and loss within Terrangima (and to some extent Soulblazer) It's hard for me not to get emotional while talking about it, and I will continually argue that the Soulblazer trilogy (Sans possibly Illusion of Gaia) are the earliest examples of existentialism within the video game format.

thank you for covering this game, it's one of my all time favorites and I've always been surprised by it not being more popular

One of my all time favourite games, I wouldn’t be a gamer today without this game, I really wish more people got the chance to play it, such an underrated hidden gem, a few of the tracks from the OST still give me goosebumps and fond memories

I borrowed this game from a friend when I was 14. It became my favourite snes game and over the years has remained in my top ten. The music alone is pure nostalgia for me. Absolutely fantastic game.

I literally name every RPG protagonist "Ark" because of this game

The combat system in this game is like no other. the athletic movement of the character. how you can run and hit enemies. jump and hit enemies. slide and hit enemies. stand still and hit enemies. use magic attacks. hit with combos. dodge and everything. it's all so satisfying. and I hate that I haven't seen any games try and mimic this physics-based athletic combat system.

You might want to give Soul Blazer a try if you liked Terranigma. Soul Blazer does a very good job of showing how the small things is what really makes life matter to people.

Beautiful video, Max

I recently watched a playthrough of terranigma, having never seen or heard of this game before, because I didn't grow up in the NES era, I was so fascinated by this game. while the gameplay itself had some inconvenient aspects which looked tedious or not very intuitive, the story and everything the game tried to convey was so well done, I ended up looking up more information about story parts I missed or didn't quite understand. I really liked the video and your take on the ending, as it seems to be somewhat up for interpretation about what exactly happens

Interesting fact: the director and producer for this game, Tomoyoshi Miyazaki and Masaya Hashimoto, respectively, were the creators of Falcom's flagship series, Ys. They left Falcom after Ys 3 released in 1989. They then founded their own company, Quintet, who went on to develop Actraiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and, of course, Terranigma.

I never would have expected a Terranigma review from you. You're right it was a tragedy that it was never released in NA, fear not though as a sizeable contingent of SNES RPG fans at the time were well aware of the "final fantasy game never released because they closed" Crazy how thinking of that time brings me right back to it. The RPG scene in the 90s was so strong it burnt me out on them for decades, until I realized we were never going to see that caliber of story again. Terranigma, FF Tactics, Legend of Mana (my personal favorite), you will never see stuff like that again. I think the industry itself now echoes too many ideas of the past to be able to design from scratch. RPGs show it especially because they're written now to include arcs specifically, so you can basically tell each characters personal journey from the manner in which they introduce themselves. What these people had as an advantage when writing these stories was the advantage of having a new frontier all to yourselves. End of the 90s was the tipping point where the majority of gamers went from being DND inspired RPG fans to playing casual action platformers. Those were not the same group of people, although there was obviously some crossover. These RPGS were written at a time when the natural evolution of their environment was predicated upon the majority of its own merits. The truth isn't that you couldn't make Lufia 2 today (games great fight me), it's that if you did it just wouldn't be noticed.

I cried watching this, gosh i love this game, the goat scene on the montain had stuck with me for years, this game holds a special place in my heart, that ending is so good!!

YEEEESSSSSS. I literally thought/hoped it was that when I saw the title. Illusions of Gaia was one of my favorites, and I read about the sequel in 1999. I had to emulate it to finally get to play it

Terranigma is a wonderful game. Loved it when I found it on ROMs way back in the day.

Fuuuuuck! Terranigma, Lufia 2, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore! Those are my childhood! I was so blessed we got to play these in Germany back then!

Love your videos, Max. I see Lost Odyssey is on your backlog, a video on that would be greatly appreciated!

This area for rpgs was...unlike anything else in video game history. Truly a golden age. FF IV, FF VI, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Chrono Trigger, Actraiser, Terranigma.... Some of the Greatest games ever made.

Its gotta be Terranigma, right? I bet it's Terranigma. *clicks* "Hell yeah."

The game is absolutely magical and I child me got goosebumps so many times while playing. The music when the continents come back always gets me.

What a gorgeous analysis of one of my favorite games. I discovered this gem on the Fantasy Anime website and decided to play it. I was floored by the deep themes of this game, and the gameplay and music only added to the magnificence of it all. This is my second-favorite story, right behind Chrono Trigger, and glad to see it receive some love. Great job!

I've had this games name rattling around in my head for many years, and I haven't been aware that it's a game for many, MANY years

Nice video! It's good to see someone else's interpretation of the stories that were important to us. I always liked Terranigma mainly for being an rpg that wasn't turn based, so the fights didn't bored me... and it stuck mostly for the end. As the main character, you do the hero's quest, the spirit of the hero appears and kill you, so we weren't the hero in the end. But still, we saved the world from Dark Gaia, and all we got was a nice dream while we disappear from the world. Not an usual story at the time. Was a happy ending? Dunno, we beat the bad guys, but all our friends were dead. The only thing we got was the hope that it wasn't going to happen again in the next rebirth cycle.

I only played this bc of emulators and some unnamed person that put the game’s rom in a collection available for download and it’s kinda special. Now that I think abt it, perhaps this anonymous poster was trying to show the world this game and damn he succeeded. Years and years after playing it I still remember it and the credits song is engraved in my brain

Had to play this game on an emulator when I was younger but I'm super nostalgic about it, it felt very unique in setting, themes and gameplay compared to other stuff at the time. The combat actually felt really smooth for such an older game with a bunch of different moves you could pull off, and while the story could be completely bonkers at times, it was still full of emotionally resonant moments and some surprisingly dark themes for a RPG of the time, and I loved the pixel art and animations.

Love this game, love this, the addition of the Xenogears soundtrack on this is just so fitting *chef kiss*

Aah, Terranigma. What a journey, one can truly feel both the all consuming void and the fullfilment of life in this videogame.

Have you ever seen speed Grapher?

I will play this game first before watching the video I think. I heard lots of compliments about it. I know nothing of the game outside knowing people like it a lot, so it will be interesting.

It was a story that didn't pull its punches, didn't give you the old lie of the happily ever after. You could make a difference but only for others, the world moving past you. That was something that needed to be said.

Talk about jungian synchronicity. I've been watching a few videos about terranigma the last several weeks, and now Max uploads a video about it.

I cant begin to explain what this game means to me. . . Thank you so much for making this video as this is one of the few games i come back to every other year to enjoy again. Theres just something so profound baout this game that made me reflect on philosophical questions of life as a little girl. My brother and i cherish this game immensly❤ ❤❤

I started to watch this video as soon as it dropped, and thank god I paused it to play the game myself. This has been truly a wonderful experience, thank you Max.

it's been more than a couple years since I finished playing this game myself and was feeling nostalgic today, so I looked it up on RU-vid. I was surprised and happy to see such a recent video pop up! Thank you for making this video! I hope It reaches many people.

Finally. I promise you, if you are interested in Taoism, Shintoism and Buddhism this game is a treadure trove of its time for you. It is the most important medium of my life. I would never have become nearly the same human being if I had not played it when it came out in Europe. This game has the power to change the course of one's life, especially if experienced at a young age.

Man, I played this game on my SNES as like a 10 year old and definitely did not appreciate how profound the story was. I wish I could play it again now as a 40 year old. It would be so great to get a remastered collection of Illusion of Time and Terranigma! Didn't those guys make Actraiser? They remade that game so MAYBE there's hope! Please!

I absolutely love the games Quintet developed on the SNES and this one was like their crowning achievement. Their games often had this theme of order versus chaos. Other games like Actraiser, Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia all in some way tackled this idea. With endings that can often disappoint unless you are invested. In fact the latter two are often said to be part of a trilogy even though they only have a few connected themes. I think Terranigma took what Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia did and just improved the story they wanted to tell. Although not as deep the other two are excellent games in their own right! In fact I think Illustration of Gaia had an ending would make a great topic it’s self Absolutely love 16-bit RPGs and not too many know just how deep some of the stories got. Terranigma is one of those crowning examples!

Man, I ought to play it again. I remember playing it way back in 2002 or 2003, as downloading SNES and Mega Drive (Genesis) roms was super easy and took way less time than downloading any actual PC games on a dial up. As a young teenager, pretty much the entire philosophy went over my head, I just thought it was a really cool game with great graphics. The overworld theme when you first exit Crysta, and which nicely tunes in with the animation of reviving a continent in the early game, is one of the best songs in the SNES library.

I finally got to sit down and play this legendary game and could not stop wondering about the meaning of the end for weeks, heck I'll even admit I cried at the end because of how beautiful and sad it was, and now that I've finally come to truly understand and embrace the end, I appreciate the tale much more. More games and stories like this should be made.

The death and eventual rebirth of Ark seems to allude to the fact that evil cannot be defeated/ balance cannot be obtained in one lifetime and it takes passing it on to others to truly succeed.

There’s a lot of excellent games not released in America, and it’s sad that so many people haven’t played them because they weren’t officially released. Stuff like Momotaro Densetsu and Trials of Mana get missed out on because of it.

As far as I know, the Cataclysm was the outcome of Dark Gaia and Light Gaia fighting each other. At the end, Light Gaia lost and was sealed by Dark Gaia, thats why we only hear from Light Gaia directly at the end.

I played Terranigma in the zsnes back in the day. I was a big fan of Illusion of Gaia/Time, and finding out that Terranigma was a spiritual sequel/successor made me want to play it more than anything. To say that it has become one of my most beloved games would be an understatement.

You're probably already aware of this, but Terranigma is the third part of a three game series including Soul Blazer on the NES and Illusion of Gia on the SNES, and I think you'll like those as well

what make terranigma unique is not just a story of heroes, not just so spiritual but also you make rebirth & reshape the earth by your actions. there no other game similar to this yet.

Weird to hear that there is still many adult gamers in the US just now finding out about this game. It's understandable since it was never released there. Since i'm Dutch and it was released in my country I played it when I was 9. And I still play it now in my late thirties. But it's good it finally gets all the recognition it deserves. A remake would make me very happy, although I realize that is a pretty impossible task, a good remake at least...

Great video. Hope to get another banger from you before the year's end

I'ma bring up SNESDrunk, he's talked about this game a handful of times

I remember finishing the game at the age of 12 and just staring at the credits until the secret ending scene played. Amazing game and amazing story telling.

Shame this was never officially released on the Nintendo Switch Virtual Console. Terranigma is on par with JRPG greats such as Earthbound (Mother 2) and Chrono Trigger.

I played this game like 2 or 3 years ago. It was pretty good until the one medusa fight. You know the one. Never touched the game since. This video does want to make me go back tho

Terranigma is great. What starts as a simple journey slowly gets deeper with the revival of Earth and then saving it from Beruga. I remember feeling conflicted about the progress of humans affecting the animals Ark helped before. The whole game has many moments like that. And the ending is very melancholic, yet hopeful.

Beautiful video, Max! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My entire life! In a GAME!! The eye opening fact of the game is that ones you are awaken from unconscious living, you see the world you live in as the GAME of LIFE, we above all, have a choice to make, are we living to build a world that is as chaotic as it is now or are we here to restore a world that resembles LIGHT GAIA. Once you REALLY understand that the game is just part of your own world and your responsibilities towards betterment of the world! You start know your role! The Hero's Journey!

Dude! You know how long I've been looking for this! I've played it 5years ago at a friend's house and couldn't remember the name thank you bro!

I played this game a long time ago. It was such a profound experience even for my child self.

Terranigma was the very first thing that came into my mind when I looked at the title, I'm glad I was right. I heard about this game from a Brazillian youtuber, "Cogumelando". Best game I took so long to play, and I didn't expect the actual Earth to be the setting. America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the poles just shocked me, since they were pretty much carbon copied into the game with different names.

Another great video thank you

I remember Nintendo magazine in the UK were releasing like a guide to terrinigma month by month, just before the n64 release. It would detail sections of the game and enemy types, for some reason that's a core memory for me.

19:00 those graphics are truly way ahead of their time.

I dont know if I would have been ready for a game like that at 15. What a brilliant idea, story, and game.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE RPG EVER ... So happy to see it receives the love it deserves

Most of us enjoy the "cliche hero's journey". See the push back against Rey Skywalker... Ed. Joseph Campbell wrote an awesome book about the hero's journey.

Terranigma is without a doubt my favorite Super Nintendo game. You really nailed it with this video. For anyone who likes the music of Terranigma, Bad Hairline Productions just released a great Cover of the Crysta Theme!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this video. Terranigma means so much to me. I played it in 1996 when I was 12 years old. It was far from my first video game, not even my first (action) RPG, but it was the first game where the plot was so much more than "save the princess/world" and really made you think. Not to mention the great OST and the great mix of humour and melancholy.

I remember Terranigma as a deeply profound experience and one that I still remember to this day. It's a masterpiece that needs to be experienced one way or the other.... ... Just make sure you save enough magirock for Bloody Mary. God that boss was a pain in the bum.

Informative as always.

Terranigma is quite the famous snes rpg, nice to see you finally came out of your cave. I actually was thinking of Tales of Phantasia given it's the most ignored "Tales of" and the best one.

A lot of people play games for escapism, others in search of a challenge. I'm not skilled enough or patient for some challenges, and see both the good and bad in evasion. Terranigma, though, is one of those games that make me say that the reason I play games is for "general knowledge". It's one of those "early" examples that the mainstream wasn't aware of that exemplify why games should be considered cultural artefacts. It's a game that despite its shortcomings, its naivety or its age people can and should still play and get a feel for what its Japanese creators wanted to transmit. The parts where you talked about its setting and story as a celebration of life and the world, pretty much, spoke to me a lot these days. I've been feeling insanely nostalgic for this game, which I only played emulated when it was recommended to me by a friend who was also a fan of JRPGs. This friend of mine and I had been extremely hyped for the release of Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The time between the first and second iteration felt massive in those days, and he even went on to play a rom in Japanese for not being able to wait. He introduced me then to Lufia 2 and Terranigma, which became two of my favourite games of all time alongside the Golden Sun games on the GBA. Now it is harder for me to find JRPGs that I will like as much as those, a matter I shouldn't complain about because my backlog is full to the brim with JRPGs from that era precisely, some of them not obscure at all. I think it's partly to blame because those settings, like the one you eloquently described here for Terranigma, seem to have disappeared in favour of more modern-anime-fantasy ones. I can see the value in inventing settings that are more original or resonate with the national youth of Japan more... but I can't help but feel we're being robbed of something. For as imaginative as these settings are, you'll have a hard time not finding a fantasy setting where characters don't take selfies with magical technological phones, for example. It's like, in a way, we can't imagine anything but the modern world and we lose our connection with tradition, which was also reinforced by games like these. Terranigma and Golden Sun made teenage me obsess about a romantizised mythical past of our planet. Be in awe about ancient civilisations, human ingenuity, the sense of adventure, discovery, exoticism, the awesome scope and scale of time, how small we are in the scope of things, the romantic vision of a distant past even going back to prehistoric geological eras, and how much it matters that we do what we can to make the world a better place... I hope someone takes notice that there is again untapped potential in settings and stories like those which we may have been robbed of in a time in which we can't seem to be able to imagine a world different than our own and which seems to conflate exoticism with cultural insensibility and plot simplicity and universality with a pre-modern mantra post-modernism has to expose and denounce constantly. I miss the sense of wonder those games gave the younger, more imaginative me, but I don't envy the youth that won't get the chance to experience them or won't go out of their way to give themselves the chance to go back and explore these cultural artefacts of video games.

Australia got this game you mentioned and it is an amazing storyline with a twist you never seen coming. Cystario tried to do something quite the same but lacked the impact but one of the best JRPG twists in living memory. But the game has clues shown if you keep a sharp eye and the ending DOES make sense if you follow the clues

im 43 and every time i play that ending become a blubbering mess hahaha. the other thing that i love is when a sound effect is a little over eccentric for its placement. the door opening is a perfect example and the way its used in the end of the game is remarkably expressive. it puts the button on that scene.