Quintet's search for elegant and varied battling culminated with Terranigma, the final (and by far the best) part of their trilogy that struck the right balance of brawler, RPG and adventure ingredients. Moreover, it consolidated and polished ideas they established in the past: The platforming of ActRaiser, Soul Blazer's multifunctional equips, the Zelda influence and special attacks of Illusion of Gaia, and the premise of 'world restoration' (that connects these 3 games together) are expanded dramatically and set to slick production. But theirs is - above all, an action-RPG that's repetitive without feeling monotonous. New and versatile options (jump attacks, rapid strikes) complement the better ideas of IoG (KOF-style running, dash attacks with i-frames), and the result is an ever-fresh moveset whose execution seems closer to fighting games than to contemporaries (Seiken Densetsu 3, Secret of Evermore, etc.). Equally fortified - if not as complex, are its dungeons, where stronger elements of LoZ fuse with Metroid elements (unlockable auto-equipped skills, hard-to-reach treasure), while retaining their gift for original designs, scenarios and aesthetics. They also mark a return to form for their RPG side (EXP & item-based upgrades in place of its predecessor's collect-a-thon-esque approach), and - for once, their bosses are fun to challenge, although one wonders if that's more so due to their designs or combat's merits.

It's not only gameplay that excels: Early-game dungeons are followed closely by vibrant, warped, almost psychedelic cutscenes played in slow-motion, that achieve disorienting effects via creative use of Mode 7. When the trip subsides, these scenes begin to depict more traditional but no less poignant stories whose ecological, historical and humanitarian themes reveal the true soul of the Gaia series. Whereas Soul Blazer was more preoccupied with gameplay, and IoG with personal subplots, here their storycrafting skills advanced to a whole new level of maturity. More than a meticulous update, this is one of those rare SNES games that are as much a visual treat as a functional & narrative one.