Review by: Michael Tham

What is Terra Phantastica?
Well its a strategy RPG ; a cross between Riglord Saga and Dragon Force. The main character is a female warrior who must bring up a young prince and at the same time rid the world of the bad guys. The characters are something of the European type with knights, witches, goblins, pikemen,guys with wigs etc and are a refreshing change from the usual stereotype RPG characters.

Intro : 8.5/20
One of the best intros i have ever seen. Its an FMV intro but unfortunately its not full screen. You definitely have to see it for yourself. I watch it every time before I play to get me in the mood

Graphics : 7/10
Traditional graphics here,no polygon is sight. Everything in the game is very detailed though sometimes the graphics can be too dark. Some more colors would have helped a lot. The artwork is not anime type but looks like something from the renaissance period type ( Realistically drawn characters).

Sound and FX 7.5/10
The music is pretty good and is well suited for the game, There's a lot of speech. The soldiers shout before they charge, you can here the springs being released when the catapults are launched, etc etc. You can even here the sound of the characters' feet crushing the leaves when they walk!

The characters always say something before they launch their spells.

Gameplay 9.5/10
Really incredible. The battle field is divided into squares like Riglord Saga and each character is limited to a certain amount of steps. However each character can move a few times depending on the formation used. Some formations put more emphasis on defense, attack etc. Your range is also affected. So you have to choose your formations wisely. Where your character faces is also important. In the Riglord Saga/Shining Force games, you could face anywhere and no matter where you're enemy attacked you from, you'll always be facing them. Well, in this game can only face one direction when you stop. That means that your enemy can attack you from the front, left , right or back! Each character in the game has different types of soldier, just like Dragon Force. You can choose for them to attack or use your magic. The down side is that your characters or 'generals' can only attack when they've lost all their men.

There are no healing or MP recovery herbs in the game. Instead, the makers have opted for something more strategic. On the battlefield, there are certain stones on which you have to stand on to heal.

Unfortunately, you are only healed 100 hp and 100 elan(mp) per round. Secondly, these healing stones are situated near the enemy and expose you to danger.

There is really a lot of strategy involved in this game and the battles last for more than one hour, sometimes reaching two hours .

The down side is that there is not exploring, only dialogue between battles. You can also choose your path.

Another good thing about the gameplay is that the game is divided into campaigns and each campaign consists of 4-6 battles. Any character who dies will not be rejuvenated until the campaign is over. So you cannot take risks or make sacrifices.

During the game you have to educate the young prince which adds a bit of variety.

Replay value : 3/10
Because the battles are very, very long, i doubt anyone would want to play the game again. However you have to make certain choices in the game which will affect the outcome.

Summary : an above average RPG and highly recommended to any RPG enthusiast. Knowledge of Japanese is not essential to complete the game. A lot of the options are in kanji so it was easier for me to understand the game. Definitely one the best Saturn RPGs to date. If you have any questions about Terra Phantastica, mail me or look for me at #segachat on the undernet.