Over the years, Quintet and Enix's 1995 Super Nintendo title Terranigma has earned itself a reputation as one of the finest RPGs on the SNES. That's despite the fact the game was only ever released in Japan and Europe, with the North American launch being scrapped following Enix's closing of its US branch.
Often considered to be the final part of an unofficial trilogy that began with 1992's Soul Blazer (and also included Illusion of Gaia), the game focuses on the adventures of a young boy named Ark, who unwittingly unleashes a curse on his village after freeing a friendly demon, and must then set out on an adventure to resurrect all living things.
In the past, fans of the game have expressed their enthusiasm to see a remake of the title, with the ActRaiser composer Yuzo Koshiro even lending his voice to the chorus at the end of last year. Sadly, though, it seems there has still been no significant movement on this front, with the current rights holder Square Enix yet to announce anything as of yet.
This is disappointing, obviously. But, in the meantime, we think we may have found something that might soften the blow for fans of the classic RPG — a new fanmade Unreal Engine prototype of the opening area that reimagines the title in a similar HD-2D style to games like Octopath Traveller and the 2022 Live A Live remake.
The prototype is the work of the developer ShinraiXenophy, who recently shared a small video of it online. And it's looking fantastic from what we've been able to see of it so far. It is being made with ephtracy's MagicaVoxel and is apparently the result of 200 hours of work spent in Unreal.
In the recent video, ShinraiXenophy shows Ark travelling around his home village of Crysta, eating food, and throwing a bunch of items around. There is also a brief glimpse of the world map at the very end, but only for a few seconds.
According to the developer, the next step is to implement combat, which may require further updating of some of the sprites to work in 3D. You can follow ShinraiXenophy on Twitter to keep up to date with their progress.
Here's a video of the original game so that you can see the difference: