A remaster of the action RPG *Terranigma* (Tenchi Souzou), originally released by Enix in 1995, has been announced, with a 2027 launch planned across platforms including the PS5 and Switch 2. Thread commenters largely welcomed a faithful port over a bold remake, with discussion ranging from pricing, to the game’s rough difficulty balance back in the day, to the soaring used-game prices at retailer Suruga-ya.
Remaster of masterpiece action RPG *Terranigma* officially announced — Square Enix-sanctioned, with key Quintet staff involved, the game returns after 31 years
At the showcase event “Pixel Arcadia,” versions of *Terranigma* for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam/GOG.com), Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo Switch were announced. Release is planned for 2027.
*Terranigma* is an action RPG developed by Quintet and released by Enix in October 1995. It’s set on an Earth where all life and civilization on the surface has been wiped out. The protagonist, Ark, lives in the village of Crystal Holm, deep in the “Underworld” beneath the earth. One day, however, he opens a sealed Pandora’s Box in the village, causing the villagers to turn to stone. Ark sets out beyond the village to save them, and over the course of his journey ends up reawakening life on the surface world.
Source: automaton-media.com / Original article here
the gaming press and aggregator sites always lead with PS and shove Switch 1/2 to the back, don't they
Gaming media is done for, man
Can't even list platforms properly anymore
This, so much
They can do a remake later
Saw the graphics in the trailer and yeah, it's a product of a good era
Don't want them tacking on weird new content, or cutting stuff that shouldn't be cut
Worst case is it turns into "Shinyaku Terranigma" (lit. "New Testament Terranigma" — Square Enix's label for divisive full remakes of classics)
Maybe after the port they could do something like the Trials of Mana remake
Worst case would be something like the GBA's Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu (the divisive remake of Seiken Densetsu 3) — what people actually wanted was just a colorized version like the feature-phone port
Well, the original was on the SFC (Super Famicom), so…
If they'd at least bundled it as a trilogy with Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia…
And how much are they even planning to charge for this? Digital only?
Probably gonna charge like 2000 yen, knowing them
Worst. This is exactly why everyone hates you, trash-Enix
Under license from Square Enix, Clear River Games is handling development and publishing, reportedly co-developing with key former Quintet staff.
Just like Front Mission — they're only lending out the IP
Quintet's still around?
I mean, the "key staff" from back then must all be old men by now lol
Apparently former president and programmer Hashimoto is still active
After leaving Quintet he worked at Ancient and INIS
Why are Japanese games always fighting over light vs. darkness?
Blame Star Wars for that
And how did ActRaiser manage to get a remake and everything else anyway?
ActRaiser only worked out because the rights got sorted before the company went under
No idea how they pulled it off, but if they could get Terranigma out this time, maybe the others can happen too
Wish it'd had a bit more breathing room in the design
It's not so much the overall balance — it's that Bloody Mary specifically is a way-too-strong boss, that one fight alone is broken
The trap is that the strongest weapon you just got right before it happens to resist Bloody Mary's element
The problem is there's no way to know that in advance, but that's just how games were back then
Even Illusion of Gaia with box and manual goes for 5000 yen, and Terranigma easily hits 10,000
So a port at around 4000 yen would actually be cheap, but there sure are a lot of people who just complain anyway
Collector demand and play demand are two different things
But they're not doing that this time
Sony's not gonna pull the same crap as toxic Microsoft blocking the Persona Switch ports
Sony doesn't have the budget anymore to go around harassing other platforms over small-fry titles
Take Goemon, for instance — the porting studio is famously super anti-Xbox and always comes up with excuses not to release an Xbox version
Quintet's games were highly rated among core gamers and got featured heavily in gaming magazines, so name recognition was actually pretty high
Since when did this become a "masterpiece"? It's a pretty ordinary ARPG
Just like with ActRaiser, are they gonna pull the same false-advertising trick of hyping a mediocre game as great before release? Typical Square Enix
This port isn't even being done by Square Enix — is this just reflexive Square Enix hate?
File size around 4.3GB, and the Switch 2 version comes on a key card
What's even in it [to make it that big]?
It's way too bad
Wasn't the original art by Kamui Fujiwara?
If so, that'd mean extra licensing cost, so maybe that's why they went with something else
Can't find it anywhere
I've got it at my place, come pick it up
I'll give it to you for free
Just some quick pocket money for them then
Under license from Square Enix, Clear River Games is handling development and publishing, reportedly co-developing with key former Quintet staff.
Clear River Games is a publisher whose whole pitch is letting players worldwide enjoy classic retro games and revived legendary series
They're basically a small-change publisher by nature, not the kind of company that's gonna make some passion project that fits your exact tastes
Can't get your hopes up with Square Enix involved
It's not Square Enix
Nope, it's a straight pass-through port
SNES9x emulator would do just as well
Ah, Quintet, right
No, that's wrong
Come on, at least check the source
Background and Key Points
For readers unfamiliar with the series: Terranigma is the third entry in Quintet’s unofficial “Gaia trilogy,” following Soul Blazer (1992) and Illusion of Gaia (1993), all published by Enix on the Super Famicom. What makes it a cult object in the West specifically is that it never received an official North American release — it came out only in Japan (1995) and in PAL territories like the UK, Germany, and Australia (1996). That absence is exactly why English-speaking fans have petitioned for a re-release for decades, and why the game’s Japanese secondhand prices (cited in the thread as roughly 5,000 yen for Illusion of Gaia and 10,000 yen for Terranigma at Suruga-ya) have climbed so high — original carts are scarce collector items even domestically.
The thread’s real disagreement isn’t over whether the remaster should exist, but over what kind of remaster it is. Most posters are relieved this is a straight, faithful port rather than a full remake, contrasting it with Square Enix’s divisive “Shinyaku” (lit. “New Testament”) remakes — the label fans use for overhauled reworkings like the GBA version of Seiken Densetsu 3, which changed content longtime players wanted preserved. A smaller minority pushes back on the “masterpiece” framing itself, arguing Terranigma is a merely solid ARPG being oversold.
What outside readers may miss: Square Enix isn’t developing this — it only owns the IP (inherited from Enix) and licensed it to Clear River Games, a small publisher specializing in reviving legacy titles, working with former Quintet staff since Quintet itself no longer operates as a studio. The “Bloody Mary” boss complaint isn’t new controversy about this remaster — it’s a decades-old, well-documented balance criticism of the 1995 original.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Terranigma Remaster Announced, First-Ever Port.”
