When I finished Terranigma I wondered why did Dark Gaia make Ark into a good, self-sacrificing person? And then I realized, Ark's "heroic" traits were exactly what he needed to accomplish his mission. He needed to be brave and enough of a zealot to explore a unknown continent for what was probably very long time, he needed to care enough about his fellow villagers (especially Elle) to give him a proper motivation to do said exploring, he needed to be impulsive enough to trigger the trap that turned the villagers into crystal and trusting enough to take Dark Gaia/The Village Elder's word at face value.
Back in Soulblazer some of the earliest souls Blazer releases is an old man who misses his deceased wife and a goat he adopted that's actually the reincarnation of his wife. Given the loose trilogy's recurring themes of reincarnation and cyclical history, it's likely (or thematically appropriate) that the married goats Ark finds are the reincarnations of Soulblazer's couple.
One mermaid mentions how easily humans are lost at sea, and that they "give them a helping hand". Her giggle afterwards, coupled with the Ambiguous Syntax, makes it chillingly vague as to what kind of "helping hand" they're giving.
You rescue and assist one of the world's worst colonialists and enslavers when you help Columbus.
