Okay, maybe I shouldn’t tell you what you want out of an RPG. I don’t know you, person reading this. But if you’re here on RPGFan, I have at least an idea, and I’m telling you that Terra Nova: Legend of the Runes is one to keep both eyes on. I was able to try it out at PAX and talked to developer Andrew Stamps a bit, and I have nothing but good things to say. I’m so glad I checked the side of the expo hall behind Nintendo’s booth, because Terra Nova became perhaps my favorite discovery of the show.
One look at Terra Nova and you get the inspiration — half the people that came by the booth while I played were clearly big Final Fantasy VI fans — but I am deeply impressed at the detail and care going into this game from a variety and customization perspective. I didn’t get into the story details or narrative during my time playing the game, because frankly, that kind of stuff is hard to focus on in the middle of a busy show floor! I spent my time exploring the world and trying out battles. More than anything, I was poking and prodding to determine what does what between the extensive job system and the “are you serious?” levels of customization present.
Jobs first! While I don’t know how many jobs will end up in the final game, I believe there were close to a dozen in the build I played. Vikings, Eagle Knights, several casters like White and Dark Magus but also something called a Biomagus, and so much more were on offer. I picked four that seemed interesting and fun, though I had to include an Eagle Knight, and the Viking had a real valkyrie vibe, so she made it in. I’m not against newer RPGs, or even newer Final Fantasy titles, but I know many of us have fond memories of job classes and characters each having their unique thing, where they weren’t basically interchangeable. Terra Nova has you covered. I was siccing a wolf on monsters, leaping onto the back of an eagle to maybe plunge into the enemy in time but more often ending the battle with my Eagle Knight off in the sky, tossing magic out, and really enjoying the variety that the jobs brought to battle.
Though I sure was grateful that for Terra Nova‘s PAX demo, the game had auto-revive after battle turned on (with 1 HP), because in my fervor to try a bunch of cool jobs and test out battles, I was deep in a castle with no healers or potions. Whoops! Amateur move, but I made it work, and it was still cool seeing how four of the jobs function.
Now for the thing that really blew me away: the visual options and character customization. First, a few images to illustrate these features. Note that the black background version is an older version of the game, but it shows the “Original/Edited” differences better.
Do you know I have never finished the original Wild ARMs? I started it on PSone, and again on my PSP (or Vita?), and maybe even a third time as the PSone Classics version. It’s those damn customizable icons. I’ve always been a creative type, and when I was younger, my brother played Wild ARMs, and I thought, “I should play this, too. But first, let me redraw every icon in the game, and I will not get back to the actual game until they are perfect!” You can guess how things went from there.
With that story in your head, it goes without saying that when I saw the screen above with the option for me to customize every color on the character sprites with RGB sliders, I fell in love. One big change between the new (first image above) and old (last image) versions is that these color values are also reflected on the full screen character portrait, so you can see how your changes look at every size and scale. It’s a great way of making each character your own, and for players who want to style certain jobs after their own favorite characters, Terra Nova gives you that power. Also, there is a full list of preset palettes if you don’t want to fiddle with every value but still want to try out different looks.
Maybe you are fine with the color palettes but also remember the days of CRTs or low-res handheld consoles. Or even just like those classic-style filters in your emulators. Terra Nova has some really cool visual options on offer that will appeal to your nostalgic senses, starting with a scanline filter, and a “square pixel” filter that gives the impression of playing on various flavors of Game Boy or a PSP. Most of the screenshots you’ll see below have the scanline filter on, but rest assured it is only an option, and clean, clear pixels are just as viable!
Beyond this, you can choose between 8-bit and 16-bit modes at any time, instantly swapping between an NES-style look or an SNES flavor with more detail and wider color palettes. But it goes beyond more visual detail, too. Take the battle screens:
8-bit mode goes so far as to give you a solid black background with the hint of your setting along the top, just like the NES Final Fantasy titles, while 16-bit mode not only includes full backgrounds across the top area, but the full screen, with an overlaid window, more akin to RPGs beyond the 16-bit generation. Personally, I prefer the latter because I love seeing all the detail that goes into the backgrounds, but it’s awesome that Terra Nova offers these options.
I know I spent a lot of time and many, many words in this article covering customization, visual options, and inspiration more than the gameplay. But I wanted to give an accurate picture of what I did and observed, and it’s certainly too soon to review the game in full. The thing is, between my experience and briefly talking with the developer as I played, his passion about this project and the world are clear to me. You don’t build in all these things to let players make a retro JRPG their own to this degree without passion and dedication, and I respect the hell out of that.
You can learn more about Terra Nova: Legend of the Runes on its delightfully retro website, and keep an eye on the game’s upcoming Kickstarter. At the moment, there are plans to bring Terra Nova to PC via Steam, and I believe one of the upcoming goals will also include console versions, but there’s no specifics on that yet.
More Terra Nova: Legend of the Runes Screenshots
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