Terranigma SNES

Terranigma is Quintet’s 1995 action-adventure, the last of a loose trilogy the studio built alongside Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, sharing thematic ground around creation and restoration rather than a direct story connection. You play Ark, who accidentally releases evil into the world and then travels to restore it, terraforming an empty planet back into a living one continent by continent.

Its scope — rebuilding entire towns and ecosystems as a core mechanic rather than a side activity — was unusually ambitious for the genre at the time. Despite the reception it earned in the regions where it released, Square never brought it to North America during the SNES’s commercial lifespan, leaving it one of the more notable action-RPGs that Western players only reached through import or emulation.