Several rebels rescue her at the beginning of Final Fantasy VI, and she decides to aid their campaign and protect those whose lives were affected by the Empire.

Developers, who initially planned Branford to be a young man, designed her character to start as a passive person in the first half of the game to show her growth throughout the story.

Terra's character has received widespread critical acclaim, with game journalists and fans alike praising her complexity and unique backstory.

[3] Despite the lack of a main protagonist in Final Fantasy VI, Shibuya felt that Terra was in her eyes such, due to the heavy amount of art Amano drew of her.

Nomura stated that "based on [his] feelings" from Final Fantasy VI's production, he "thought it had to be Terra" as she appeared on the game's cover art and advertisements.

[8] Pursued into the depths of Narshe's mines by Imperial forces, the thief Locke and a horde of moogles eventually rescue her.

Having been previously brain-washed and extensively trained, Terra realizes she was instrumental in the Empire's conquest of the other city-states on the southern continent.

[10] Terra became a vital part of the revolutionary movement known as the "Returners", whose strategy was to try and ally with the Espers, who live beyond the sealed gate, against the Empire.

[11] She fails to stop an attack on the town by a legendary demon known as Humbaba, requiring the players' party's intervention to drive it away.

[36] In 2013, Gus Turner of Complex called her "a physical embodiment of the clash of man and magic that has defined much of the [Final Fantasy] franchise", praising the multi-dimensional aspects of her character and personality, and noted that as the game progressed, "we can't help ourselves from attaching to her on an emotional level".

It further called her care for the children in Mobilz a turning point for her, in relation to her own experiences, and further used her as a baseline for comparison to characters with similar states in other franchises such as Tekken's Jin Kazama.

[39] In the book The Legend of Final Fantasy VI, Pierre Maugein described Terra as initially portraying the archetypal "frail, protected heroine who is led to her truth by men", citing a belief that Japanese ethos and culture played a big part in this aspect.

He further emphasized the importance of her being the character to force Kefka to justify his actions, adding that while some would not see her as the true protagonist of the game, she is just as essential for setting events in motion and the embodiment of transition from one era to another.

[40] Dr. Kathryn Hemmann in an article for Kill Screen described her as a variation of the 'magical girl' archetype of late-20th century Japanese pop culture through her "Morph" ability, and further argued that alongside Celes she represented the game exploring posthumanism themes.

She lastly added that "Terra and Celes are not characters to be consumed, but identities to be embraced and managed", feeling they represented in many ways the discussions of bioethics prominent in the 1990's, and that "humanity, in all its forms, can bravely continue on into an optimistic future".