When loading into Terraria, whether on a PC(personal computer), gaming console, or mobile device, you’ll hear the epic journey you’re about to embark on just from the background music alone.

Soon after creating and customizing your first character and world, you are introduced to a 2D world. You are given a map, a copper sword, an axe=, a pickaxe, and an NPC(non-playable character) referred to as the guide. It may seem like a 2D Minecraft in the beginning; you have to chop down a tree, fight zombies at night, mine for ores underground to get better armor and weapons, and finally, you’ll fight your first boss after receiving an ominous message in the top right corner of your screen. 

However, where you’d fight the Enderdragon and the Wither in Minecraft, and that would be it for the most part in terms of bosses, Terraria has several bosses that get harder one after the other and require you to progress your armor. The differences go on and on. Terraria is completely different from Minecraft, despite its straightforward, but charming design and limited world size.

When I first got the game in 2020, I was rather bored and easily agitated by the rigor that came with wanting to progress as fast as possible. I would recommend thinking small at first and taking your time to enjoy the game. At first, don’t stray far from the universal spawn point. If you know the quote  'At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel, then you should understand why I still remember my first night in the game, three years back; I voyaged over large hills, fell in holes, climbed out of holes and by nightfall I ended up in the desert only to be greeted by a zombie. At first, there’s one on the right side of the screen, then there’s a second on the left, and sooner or later you’ll be swarmed by zombies, not to mention the wandering eyes that attack you from above. The first time I died was in the desert, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, etc. were all at spawn where I was agonizingly killed over and over and over by herds of monsters that kept attacking me when I respawned right next to them.

Since I’ve gotten the game, the developers have almost completely overhauled the aesthetics to the point where my first world looks alien compared to my most recent world. The developers created and improved the aura of the journey by hyping up the background music, creating and redesigning sprites that are candy to the eye, whether they be the sprite of a grotesquely detailed Eye of Cthulhu, the sprite of the dark but Holy Hollowed armor set, or the simple and cute sprite of the Princess NPC. The Developers also expanded the biomes and the diversity of features each biome has, giving each biome different lighting, different furniture sets, and different terrains that make up for the fact that the world map isn’t infinite like Minecraft’s. 

As someone who’s in love with completing fine collections of anything, the soul of Terraria lies in the immense detail packed into every sprite, the developers’ care put into making the game more enjoyable over the last decade, the addicting fun of chasing after the next boss, the next set of armor, the next NPC, the next weapon, the next stage of the game. Only the ignorant who haven’t played will equate the experience Terraria offers to the mechanics and enjoyability of Minecraft.