is it bad that I only recognize "Big naturals" as a Vinesauce reference?

No

In conclusion, I liked Terranigma but because I hold Illusion of Gaia in such high regard I wanted to love it. I wouldn't even remotely call it a *bad* game, but it's a game with several strong starts that fails to stick the landing due to its pacing and rushed explanation of its plot.

...would inch those few pixels further forward so I could finally land a few hits of my own. Bad bad bad. I do appreciate the inclusion of the game's past musical motfis in the accompanying music, however the overall execution felt weak and lacked impact for me.

My biggest complaint by far, though, would have to be the final boss. What a miserable experience. Not even because of difficulty, either. Between slowdown and RNG, any tension or excitement was overpowered by boredom and frustration as I waited for endless attack cycles hoping that Dark Gaia...

The translation, too, didn't seem to help matters. From what I understand there's a retranslation effort in the works and I'll probably give that a playthrough once it's done to see if my opinion changes any, but I doubt it'll give us, for example, a better-developed Fyda.

And then, the endgame just kind of...happens? Like the game suddenly says "Oh yeah I guess we gotta resolve things now, huh?" and kind of ferries you across the finish line. At the end of the day I felt left wanting. There's so much in here that was just never given enough room to breathe.

As for complaints, it's gonna have to be the plot for me. There's really some good ideas in here but man the pacing is not good. The game kind of dawdles through the intro for far too long (although, gameplay-wise I enjoyed it) and feels kind of directionless in the midgame.

Gameplay was pretty damn solid. Combat felt good and I didn't really struggle at all, outside of maybe being underleveled for Bloody Mary but that was a lesson well learned. Terranigma trades IoG's drip-fed progression with something more akin to a traditional action RPG. No complaints here, really.

There's some really impressive visuals, but for the most part they're pretty front-loaded. Some fun use of Mode 7 on the overworld. Soundtrack overall I would say was pretty good but not great, with only a few real standout tracks.