After three long decades, Terranigma is finally getting a modern re-release. The Super Nintendo JRPG, which was developed by Quintet and published by Enix in 1995, was never released in North America and had never been re-released on a later platform. But now, publisher Clear River Games is bringing the beloved classic to modern consoles and PC.
The new version of Terranigma will be released on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, Steam, and GOG in "early 2027," according to a press release.
Judging by the first trailer and Steam page, this will be a re-release that preserves the original game's look, feel, and gameplay – though the announcement notes that this version "thoughtfully adds to the original masterpiece, bringing a host of upgrades, tweaks and bonus features, designed to make the best, better still and provide an ideal point of entry for modern gamers."
Terranigma is an action RPG where you play as a boy who resurrects the Earth, charting its history from primordial evolution up through the modern day. Developer Quintet was known for Super NES classics like ActRaiser and Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma is widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever released on the platform. A shame, then, that its worldwide release was so limited.
Unlike many cult classic JRPGs, Terranigma actually was released outside of Japan – just not in North America. Nintendo published the game in Europe and Australia late in 1996, but by that time the gaming world was already obsessed with the newfangled 3D graphics of platforms like the PS1 and N64. Whatever plans might've existed for a North American version were dashed by the closure of Enix's US office, well before the Square merger, in late 1995.
Before the HD era largely standardized television formats worldwide, PAL TVs were fundamentally different from the NTSC televisions used in the US and Japan – most notably in the fact that they refresh 50 times per second instead of 60. That makes Terranigma's PAL-only release a problem for English-speaking players worldwide these days, since it runs at an improper speed that's out of line with the Japanese original.
Numerous fan patches and console mods have given RPG fans ways to play Terranigma over the years, but the rights situation around the game – with part of its ownership tied up with the original developers at Quintet, and part held by the modern Square Enix – meant that it had never gotten an official, modern port. And thus, there was never a way to officially play it in English at the intended 60Hz speed.
“I hope the themes of god and humanity, creation and destruction, and the atmosphere of the world itself resonate with today's players too," original artist Kamui Fujiwara says in the press release. "Not as a relic of the past, but as a living, breathing work. This moment has been long awaited and now it is finally here. I hope you will enjoy it with all your heart.”
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