Terranova

About

Terranova is a single player role playing game with drama and anime themes. It was developed by illuminesce and was released on April 27, 2022. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

"Terranova" is a single-player, Anime Interactive Fiction game set in the early 2000's, offering around 6 hours of playtime. The game follows four fangirls and their roleplay community on LimeJournal, allowing players to chat with them, form friendships, and make choices that impact one of three unique endings. The game features nostalgic instant messaging and blogging interfaces, and is filled with romance, drama, and plot twists.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

96%

Audience ScoreBased on 54 reviews

story12 positive mentions

music3 negative mentions

Terranova offers a powerful and emotional experience that resonates deeply with players, especially those familiar with early 2000s internet culture and roleplaying.
The game features well-written characters and a compelling narrative that evokes nostalgia, making players feel a strong connection to the story and its themes of friendship and personal growth.
The unique storytelling format, mimicking an operating system and chat interface, enhances immersion and allows players to engage with the characters in a relatable way.

The game can become tedious due to lengthy roleplay segments that slow down the pacing, making it feel like a significant portion of the gameplay is spent waiting for character responses.
Some players experienced bugs, such as incorrect blog entries appearing early or the game locking up, which can disrupt the overall experience.
The absence of background music may detract from the atmosphere for some players, leaving the game feeling silent during long reading sessions.

story
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
50%
10%
The game's story is praised for its well-crafted narrative presented in a chat format, offering a nostalgic and heartfelt exploration of teenage experiences. Players appreciate the dual storytelling approach, featuring both real-world characters and their roleplaying narratives, which are compelling and relatable. The emotional depth and authenticity of the characters' journeys, along with the inclusion of trigger warnings, enhance the overall immersive experience for those who enjoy interactive fiction.
- “Re: my playtime... I spent 6 hours playing solitaire (I know, lol) but the story was in fact a beefy whole 10 hours and I can't wait to dive back in for the other endings; thank you to the devs for letting me relive my own bittersweet teenage years through this masterpiece. I enjoyed every single moment of the experience.”
- “The story is really heartfelt and honest.”
- “Pay mind to the trigger warnings if they are things that will affect you, there's nothing extremely graphic or vivid, but a lot of triggering elements come into the story because they're involved with what is happening in the characters' lives.”
- “Seeing the progression of their stories is really great and there were lots of parts where I was honestly really worried for the characters, especially Cherry; Cherry's story hit very close to home.”
- “If you don't remember those things, then this game still has two very compelling parallel stories going on: the main story with the 'real world' characters and the story that they're roleplaying, which is fully fleshed-out.”
emotional
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its deeply emotional narrative, evoking strong empathy and genuine tears from players. Its clever writing and exploration of poignant themes resonate powerfully, capturing the complexities of human experience in a heartfelt and honest manner. Overall, it delivers a profound emotional impact that lingers long after the playthrough.
- “I felt real empathy for these characters, and their fates actually made me cry.”
- “There are no words to describe the deep, raw emotions it made me feel.”
- “The story is really heartfelt and honest.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
50%
10%
The graphics of the game are praised for their appealing aesthetic, featuring a charming, cutesy art style reminiscent of a bubbly Windows XP layout and fun icons. While the visual elements enhance the overall experience, some players feel the price may be steep for the content offered, though the interactive nature and beautiful artwork are highlighted as strong points. The game balances its lighthearted visuals with deeper, potentially triggering themes in the narrative.
- “I totally dig the aesthetic of this game, from the sounds, the bubbly, Fisher-Price looking Windows XP layout, to the very real feeling of excitement/anxiousness I got when chatting with friends on AIM.”
- “At worst, I can say that I felt $24.99 was a steep price to pay for the game - but on the other hand, this is a fully interactive choose-your-own-path sort of game with beautiful artwork.”
- “Y'all just had to lure me in with the cutesy art style and then serve me pain.”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
49%
38%
The game features no background music, which some players appreciate as it allows for a more immersive role-playing experience, enabling them to listen to their own music instead. However, there are calls for a built-in music player with pre-loaded tracks and the option for players to add their own, as some users experienced technical issues when trying to play their own music while gaming. Overall, while the absence of music is seen as a positive by some, the lack of an integrated music option is a noted drawback.
- “There's no background music, but this is actually a positive because it means you can play the first three Linkin Park albums on repeat for the true unencumbered role-playing experience.”
- “My only criticism of this game is that I think a music player on the computer would've been a nice option to have, with maybe a few music tracks pre-loaded in (like royalty-free stuff at least?) and maybe with the option for the player to add their own tracks.”
- “I played the game mostly in silence, but I did tab out a few times to pull up my own music. Sadly, twice when I did that, I made the game lock up, so I lost some progress and had to replay. However, the autosave is frequent enough that even if that happens, you don't lose much progress.”
- “There's no background music, which is actually a positive because it means you can play the first three Linkin Park albums on repeat for the true unencumbered role-playing experience.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, as lengthy roleplay segments interrupt the flow and excitement of the narrative. While the characters and their relationships are engaging, the excessive text can detract from the overall enjoyment, making it feel like the game stalls just when it starts to get interesting.
- “The characters are so much fun, the relationships are interesting - Cherry is especially good - but it's like the game keeps feeling the need to stop itself from getting too interesting by grinding everything to a halt to suddenly do 15 to 20 minutes of roleplay that I'm just too tired to remotely care about.”
- “I love the idea of these characters doing romantic roleplay and then being like 'oh wow... do I maybe actually have real feelings for the actual person behind the character?', but there's just so much roleplay text that it becomes so extremely tedious.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Terranova is reported to have some stability issues, including bugs that display incorrect or premature blog entries and occasional lock-ups. However, these problems are largely mitigated by an effective autosave feature that helps prevent data loss.
- “Terranova is a bit buggy, often showing me the wrong blog entries or displaying them early, and it occasionally locks up from time to time. However, these issues were resolved by its gracious autosave feature.”
- “The game has stability issues, frequently presenting incorrect blog entries and experiencing occasional freezes, but the autosave function helps mitigate some of the frustration.”