Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
The game has been met with critical acclaim for its presentation, gameplay, and story, while being criticized for its difficulty.
MAN!ACs Robert Bannert praised its atmospheric world, characters, stereo soundtrack, map design and sophisticated controls, regarding it as a good game in the Japanese action-adventure tradition.
Total!s Michael Anton commended its varied locations, soundtrack, ease of play, and plot but several aspects such as the difficulty level were criticized.
Mega Funs Rene Schneider gave positive comments to the graphics, music, controls and technical performance but criticized the game's strategy guide for revealing many of the puzzles, lowering its fun factor.
Hobby Consolass Roberto Lorente praised its mix of action and role-playing elements, stating that it surpasses Zelda while capturing its spirit.
Nintendo Accións Javier Abad gave very positive comments to the varied scenery, carefully crafted plot involving secondary storylines and freedom of movement but criticized its dungeon maps.
Both Hellot and Pottier recognized the game's quality but panned its late French release date, stating that it should have been published before Final Fantasy VII.
RPGamers Mike Moehnke noted its narrative to be interesting on a consistent basis and praised the varied locations, fast combat system and audiovisual presentation but criticized the low difficulty level and unnecessary magic system.
Hardcore Gaming 101s David DiRienzo also agreed with the lack of a North American localization but regarded Terranigma as "the best of" both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, commending its less restrictive design, Zelda-style dungeon maps, refined gameplay mechanics and music score but criticized the inconsistent visual presentation, cumbersome magic system and certain aspects of its plot.
According to Fujiwara, Quintet president Tomoyoshi Miyazaki had "disappeared" to his knowledge; he speculated this was why the rights to republish the game were complicated, that Miyazaki was not available for contact.
The game holds a 74.14% rating based on seven reviews at review aggregator GameRankings, and was given the "Silver Hall of Fame" award from Famitsu.
Player Ones Christophe Pottier also stated that the game was excellent and "technically perfect" presentation-wise.
RPGFans Jeremy Tan considered it as "one of Enix's greatest Action RPG games ever", praising the fast-paced combat system, visual presentation, varied soundtrack and simple controls but lamented the lack of a North American release. 1Up.coms Jeremy Parish described it as Quintet's best-known Super Nintendo action-RPG, noting the quality of the gameplay, music and deep story themes.
Hardcore Gaming 101s David DiRienzo also agreed with the lack of a North American localization but regarded Terranigma as "the best of" both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, commending its less restrictive design, Zelda-style dungeon maps, refined gameplay mechanics and music score but criticized the inconsistent visual presentation, cumbersome magic system and certain aspects of its plot.
Regardless, DiRienzo stated that the title was one of the better action RPGs on SNES.
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 has not been re-released due to complicated issues relating to its rights.
The game wound up never being published in North America because Enix had already closed its US subsidiary by the time the localization was finished.
RPGFans Jeremy Tan considered it as "one of Enix's greatest Action RPG games ever", praising the fast-paced combat system, visual presentation, varied soundtrack and simple controls but lamented the lack of a North American release. 1Up.coms Jeremy Parish described it as Quintet's best-known Super Nintendo action-RPG, noting the quality of the gameplay, music and deep story themes.
USgamers Nadia Oxford concurred and expressed disappointment with the lack of an official North American release due to the closure of Enix's branch in the region and lack of a Virtual Console re-release but described its music as one of the best soundtracks on the SNES.
Hardcore Gaming 101s David DiRienzo also agreed with the lack of a North American localization but regarded Terranigma as "the best of" both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, commending its less restrictive design, Zelda-style dungeon maps, refined gameplay mechanics and music score but criticized the inconsistent visual presentation, cumbersome magic system and certain aspects of its plot.
In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the four reviewers gave 8, 7, 8, and 7, for a total of 30 out of 40, earning a place in the Silver Hall of Fame. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Family Computer Magazine, the ratings were as follows, scoring 23.3 out of 30.
The game holds a 74.14% rating based on seven reviews at review aggregator GameRankings, and was given the "Silver Hall of Fame" award from Famitsu.
Quintet reported that 200,000 copies were sold in Japan.
The game has been met with critical acclaim for its presentation, gameplay, and story, while being criticized for its difficulty.
Total!s Michael Anton commended its varied locations, soundtrack, ease of play, and plot but several aspects such as the difficulty level were criticized.
RPGamers Mike Moehnke noted its narrative to be interesting on a consistent basis and praised the varied locations, fast combat system and audiovisual presentation but criticized the low difficulty level and unnecessary magic system.
In Europe it was released by Nintendo under the title Terranigma, as Illusion of Gaia had been, but it was not released in North America.
In Japan it has a sense of having been overshadowed by Dragon Quest VI (1995) and Chrono Trigger (1995), which were released around the same time, but there are also heavy users who rate its high-quality graphics, scenario and music.
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 has not been re-released due to complicated issues relating to its rights.
In November 1997, in its 60th monthly issue, Nintendo Acción listed it as the 11th best game they had ever reviewed.
Terranigma was first previewed in mid-1995 and slated for an October launch window.
It was first released in Japan on October 20, 1995, by Enix for the Super Famicom under the name Tenchi Sōzō.
The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.