Terraria or Minecraft

[Greninjaman]

These two games are quite similar:
1: You gather resources to survive in a world made of blocks.
2: Both have monsters that are out to get you.

There are differences of course:
1: Terraria is 2D while Minecraft is 3D.
2: Terraria has a bit of a story arc while Minecraft does not.

I used to play Minecraft, but now I play Terraria. There is a ton more to it than Minecraft. What about you guys? Which do you perfer?

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I was about to vote for Minecraft, but I never really played Terraria so I’m not apt to decide.

 

[Tactician Karina]

From what little I have played of both I like Terraria more for it's adventure oriented style, I love exploring more in this game than Minecraft personally. I also prefer the art style of Terraria over Minecraft's, nothing against the latter's art style but Terraria's characters got a bit of that old school FF sprite style going for them so that's a plus for me.

 

[Phosphene]

(This is going to be kinda ramblely, I had a longer post imagined but I had trouble collecting my thoughts so...)

I was thinking about making this exact topic recently considering I've gotten back into Terraria through way of Minecraft, and I feel somewhat strongly about this topic. Anyways...

The Alpha soundtrack of Minecraft (the first few songs to be released with the game if I remember correctly) includes some of the most wonderful songs I've heard in a video game. They're just so peaceful and lovely. But, unfortunately, they only last for a 1-4 ish minutes, leaving long bouts of silence, which is perhaps a perfect metaphor for my experience with the game...

Over the past few days, I've logged over 10 hours on my new Terraria character and I'm pretty early in the game. In Minecraft, it is a miracle if the game manages to keep my attention after twenty minutes, even when playing with mods or someone else. Like @Greninjaman said, it basically boils down to the fact that there's way more stuff to Terraria than Minecraft, but to elaborate a little...

Terraria has more stuff, which in turn incentivizes more activity in the game. For example...

In terms of exploration, I believe almost all biomes/mini-biomes have some unique enemies and/or unique items (whether as mob drops or obtained in spawned chests, which I'd like to note vary depending on the biome), which gives the player a reason to go out and explore them, and keeps the experience fresh. There's more incentive to go out and do stuff compared to Minecraft, when a decent amount of content is pretty similar outside of blocks and a few mobs. You have to go to the Underground Ice Biome in Terraria (note that several surface-level biomes in Terraria have underground equivalents, unlike Minecraft, where the cave layer is basically the same everywhere) to get an Ice Blade or a Blizzard in a Bottle, for example. In contrast, most biomes in Minecraft don't really differ from one another outside of their blocks and maybe one or two enemies. While aesthetically they may be different, the differences are just window dressing in my opinion when you encounter the same mobs and loot you'll find in most other biomes, and/or can craft yourself. Just look at the loot table for Jungle Temple chests (the same kind you see everywhere I might add as there is only one type of chest that spawns to my knowledge):

Spoiler

Not a single item is unique to this loot table, being obtainable either through crafting, mining, and/or from chests in other structures. Which begs the question of, why solve the puzzle and explore a jungle temple when you can get nearly everything in any biome? Heck, you don't even need to enter a jungle biome to get these items as even the bamboo can spawn in abandoned ships.

Honestly I think Creative Mode is perhaps the one thing Minecraft does better than Terraria, maaaybe along with mod support but I haven't exactly looked into Terraria mods to really judge the two. I haven't played in Journey Mode, which is Terraria's Creative Mode equivalent, but Creative provides the player almost unlimited abilities immediately while in Journey Mode it seems the player is more restricted in what they can do. You have to collect and research items, for example, in order to be able to duplicate them; you don't have immediate unlimited access to everything to my understanding.

 

[Jumbizd]

I used to combine watching Pokemon and playing minecraft, sometimes even turning it on in the background. It was a very atmospheric childhood. However, I grew up and still play minecraft with my friends, although I don't like normal survival, I like survival like in hunger games. If someone has the same preferences, then we can agree and play together Terraria, unfortunately, did not like it, the gameplay in 2-D is extremely specific and for an amateur, which I am not.

 

[farewell friend]

My vote goes to Terraria, especially with the new additions they've updated it with.

 

[Plaid]

I have both and think I like both, but have hardly played Terraria so far (though that's mostly just because I tend to have a bit of trouble summoning the energy to play video games most days). My vote goes to Minecraft for a few minor reasons, but I do want to get back into Terraria eventually.