Overall 9.3 Graphics 9 Sound 9 Addictive 7.5 Story 9.5 Depth 8 Difficulty 6
9
A great overlooked SNES RPG sloanstar1000
This game was one of my beloved favorites as a child, and I still enjoy it to this day. So I figured I should write this simple review on what I consider to be one of the greatest SNES RPGs ever.
The SNES game Illusion of Gaia was brought to us by the developers Quintet, the same developers of such critically acclaimed live action RPGs as Terranigma, and Act Raiser. It was released September of 1994(US)
Illusion of Gaia is a live action RPG, that can be considered to be sort of the resurrected corpse of it's less successful predecessor, Soul Blazer(though now it is widely recognized as a brilliant and underrated game). There are many links between these games regarding gameplay, even characters and story elements, some that can even be found in Terranigma as well.
Story/Depth: 9.5/10
As with many of the games developed by Quintet, the story depth of Illusion of Gaia is rivaled by few others in it's generation. You're taken from your humble little village, to real world ancient ruins and locations across the globe such as the Incan ruins, the Nazca lines, Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and Angkor Wat, even to a city in the sky, or a palace hidden beneath the depths of the ocean, and even to a place known as "Dark Space" with the help of your magical flute. The depth is spectacular, and the story is well executed.
The story starts you off in a classroom as a young child named Will, who is explaining the Journey he and his father took to the tower of Babel, that tragically ended in his father's death.Will doesn't remember how his father died, though he has in his possession a flute that was taken from the tower itself. He then vows to become an explorer like his father when he grows up. After leaving the school exploring your small home town of South Cape, you meet your friends Seth, Eric, Lance. After becoming acquainted with them, you eventually find a portal atop one of the buildings in the town, where you meet Gaia(this is also where you record your game progress, and change forms)
Back at your house with your aunt and uncle, you come upon the Princess Kara who eventually, and unintentionally initiates a scenario in which Will finds himself in a prison cell at the depths of a castle. To Will's surprise, he is contacted by his father through his flute, who then instructs you to escape the prison cell, venture out into the world and
to collect 6 mystic statues from around the globe and put them atop the
tower of Babel to ward off the impending evil to come...
Gameplay: 8/10
As with most RPGs, there is a capacity to level up. Unlike Soul Blazer(and even most RPGs) however, instead of finding new armor and weapons that can be used to improve your health, defense and attack rating, the dungeons are set up into separate rooms that each have a certain number of enemies to be killed. Upon killing all the enemies in a room you receive an extra level to either your defense, health, or attack rating. Though if you defeat the boss at the end of the dungeon you will receive these power ups regardless, though it may make the boss much more difficult to deal with if you haven't gained these power ups before hand. You'll also want to search for "red jewels", after finding them they will float away to a merchant that exists in every town, that will then reward you according to how many you find.
The combat is somewhat improved from Soul Blazer in that you can take use of many different? special attack moves that are developed throughout the game, such as dash attacks, whirlwind attacks and firing projectiles from your sword.
Though you start out as the quick and agile Will who wields an unlikely deadly weapon(a flute), you quickly find out early in the game that with the help of Gaia in Dark Space, you can change into your alter Ego(Freedan), who is a slower but much more powerful knight who wields a large sword, or your other alter ego(Shadow) who wields his arm(I think). Each of these alter egos have different abilities that need to be implemented to progress through the game.
The dungeons are extensive with a wide variety of enemies and bosses that become progressively harder to deal with(obviously). Each enemy has it's weaknesses and strengths. Though some dungeons/levels can be somewhat maze like, and you'll find yourself back tracking and might find yourself confused on where to go next or going from place to place to change your physical form, this can be a bit tedious, and would be one of my main gripes about the game(as well as with a couple of Enix games),Though it could be that I'm just not sufficiently observant....
Difficulty 7/10
The dungeons and bosses present a decent challenge to the typical player, though the game should be pretty much a breeze for any adept game player(save for a few boss fights). Most of the difficulty involved would be puzzle and riddle solving, though these aren't particularly hard either.
One thing that might annoy people is that there isn't really any
currency in the game beside the red jewels, there are a limited amount
of items in the game such as herbs(that restore health), and you find
these in different locations throughout the world. The game is set up in a way that removes
the element of skill grinding or accumulating lots of gold so you can
buy endless supplies. It's more of a survivalist game in this aspect,
something I actually find refreshing about the game.
Addictiveness: 6/10
Some people will enjoy this game while others don't. The game is decently long, but not too long, though the playability is pretty much beat once you've finished it, though you might find you want to play it through again weeks later. The game is loaded with subtleties that you are bound to miss the first time around anyway. I've personally played through this game at least a dozen times(though I'm sure the nostalgia factor has something to do with it, and I don't want that to make a biased criticism)
Sound: 8/10
Well if you've ever played any SNES games published by Enix, you'd know what to expect music and sound-effect wise, all of them seem to have very similar music and sound effects. Some music scores were even used in at least two other games. The sound effects effectively let you know when you're not dealing damage and just hitting some thing's defense, or when something gargantuan is near with rumbling sounds as is the purpose of sound effects. There's also nothing particularly amazing about the music. Your dungeon music is your typical dungeon music that would expect, the tension music is tense, and the "I'm in a safe town" music is your typical happy town music, so the music does it's job to properly set the atmosphere. As is it's purpose.
Graphics: 9/10
Given the 16-bit limitations of the SNES, I'd say that the graphics were well implemented. The art team did a fantastic job in designing the architecture and creatures in great detail, they were exceptionally good and being able to give the illusion of a 3-D setting(though some things like building angles and perspectives are a bit off, that's to be expected from any game of this generation). Most importantly, I never found myself confused about where the game will allow me to go, or what objects are interactive, a problem I've had with a few games of this genre. The graphics clearly delivers what's meant to be delivered to the player, and I couldn't complain.
Summation...
To sum it up, I would definitely recommend that you give this game a go, I won't bother to recommend something using a number out of ten, because I think that's completely pointless. Being that the number is based on something completely arbitrary, and I know that some people absolutely love this game to death, while others think it's the worst of all the Enix games.
If you like live-action progressive RPGs with an extensive story that's deep, though doesn't overwhelm you with excessive dialogue, and a game with decent and moderately challenging sword/flute combat., I would venture to say that you would enjoy this game.? Either way, I urge you to give it a try
and here are a few somewhat interesting facts...
-This game was rated 186th in Nintendo Power's top 200 list
-It sold over 200,000 copies in Japan, over 300,000 copies in North America, and over 150,000 copies in Europe
-There were a few changes in content from the Japanese version to the ones released in the US regarding censorship. A native tribe that you come across at Angkor Wat were originally cannibals in the Japanese version, where human remains were seen littered throughout the camp.
Will's School was originally a Sunday school in a church, with a cross, but was simply titled a "school" and the cross turned into a statue, there were many changes made regarding religious content(as is typical with US versions of Japanese made games)
The stalker that tries to find Will and Kara throughout the game was originally named The Black Panther, though his name in the game is "Jackal" in the US version, the change is most likely due to a possible political reference to "The Black Panthers"
Thanks for reading,
Sloanstar1000
Graphics 9 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 9 Depth 9 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 10-26-13
Updated: 10-28-13
Review Replies: 2
9
Illusion of Gaia is a Fantastic Game zeldanerd91
To start things off, I should probably mention "The Illusion of Gaia" is the first video game I ever successfully beat as a child, so my review my be a little biased due to fond memories from playing the game and taking turns with my siblings. That said, I will do my best to keep my views subjective to give a quality review because the game deserves it. Over all, I rated the game at a 9 because while it's an amazing game (come on, who doesn't want to travel the ruins of ancient civilizations while defeating demons created by an evil comet), there are a couple of irritating factors about the game play.
The first problem I noticed was in the first part of the game and happens occasionally throughout, but not as much. When you're sent to the dungeon, all you can do is wait for time to pass. When I first started playing, I had no idea what to do, so I kept thinking I chose the wrong decision, or my game was glitching. Then I would restart. That was very frustrating indeed. Another frustration was the lack of being able to travel to a place you have once been if it is not necessary for the story line. You start in the town of south cape, and eventually you are not allowed to return which makes the red jewel side quest impossible if you forgot to get all three in the town before you weren't allowed to return. This happens later throughout the game, but not as bad once you progress far enough. Although it only affects a side quest, from a completionist stand-point, it is very frustrating. The Red Jewel side quest is a fun part of the game, which gives throwbacks to a previous game in the series: Soul Blazer. That's one of my favorite parts of the game.
Although Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia are in the same series, they follow different story lines. However there are similarities, mostly involved with the Red Jewel side quest. Some other similarities include the monsters that you fight, and the concept of receiving an award for defeating all monsters in the area (among other minor similarities including graphics). As far as graphics are concerned, I found the sprites adorable. Owning the pamphlet that came with the game at home, I also got a chance to look at the actual art for the characters, and the sprites do a pretty good job portraying the characters they are meant to portray. Of course, the dialogue sound effects also help. For Kara, her speech is represented by a higher pitched bleep, while Lance is portrayed with a lower pitched sound. This also adds to how incredible the sound is for the game as far as I'm concerned. I found the soundtrack for the game to be one of the most enchanting soundtracks I've experienced during game play. Although you can tell the sound is very computer generated, the musicality of the soundtrack seems to almost make you forget that it's not an orchestra, and you can appreciate the music for what it is. Yasuhiro Kawasaki did a fantastic job when writing for the series (something I consider heavily when I review a game, being an aspiring composer myself). Music from different parts of the world use different tonalities and musical modes, and I feel that the composer captured that well. For me, that's enough to make the game incredibly addicting Part of it may be my nostalgia, and part of it the music, but there's something else. There's s omething that makes this game truly addicting for me. I think I've beat it a total of eight or nine times in my lifetime, and I'm still wanting to play it again. I will say that because the game is so storyline driven, it's hard to do a play through two times in a row. You already know the story, and it gets a little bland once repeated, but over time the game keeps drawing a person back in. The story line keeps the classic adventure story line: Go on a quest to save a loved one, and save the world with the new power you suddenly receive, but there is so much more to it than that. The way I interpret it is almost an explanation of the idea of pangea. You are in a world, that will suddenly be changed by the comets light if you don't do anything to stop it, and the end result is shocking, yet familiar still. Included actual ruins that exist in the world gave the game an almost "real life" adventure feel that many fantasy games are lacking. Though, making it seem more real did seem to remove some depth from the game because that caused the story line to be more straight forward. The majority of the depth this game provides is in the Red Jewel side quest which is very difficult to complete because the Red Jewels can be hiding anywhere. The quest is worth it, though for three reasons. It adds some difficulty to the game, it will assist in level your character up to a certain point, and if you've played Soul Blazer, you will appreciate the reference Illusion of Gaia makes to the game. Other than completing the Red Jewel side quest, the only other thing you can do in the game is progress the story line and fight the bosses. With practice, the game can be completed in a day or two after you've figured out the puzzles which are sometimes made a bit too easy for my tastes. That said, if they were too hard, it would make the game a pain and too difficult to truly enjoy the simple, yet engaging story. As far as difficulty of the game overall goes, I'd say it's not hard, and it's not easy. You definitely have to be able to solve some form of puzzle, and have a decent memory to progress in the game, but a lot of the puzzles are spelled out for you if you pay close attention to the dialogue. For example, a person may note something strange or different about you (to avoid spoilers, I have omitted specifics), and that will be the answer to a puzzle further along in the game. The attack system is very basic and easy which is nice, but can sometimes get bland if you master learning how to attack and block quickly. Over all, I think that factors such as difficulty and depth were set aside to bring attention to the story line which I believe is the main focus of the game. If you're looking for a game that will prove enough of a challenge to keep you playing, but mainly focuses on well developed storyline concepts and characters, then this is the game for you!
Review Rating: 4.3/5
Submitted: 12-19-14
Updated: 12-19-14
Review Replies: 0
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