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

Awesome review man! You had an awesome intro which would make the reader interested in reading your review, and then all of the categories has a great amount of detail and you made such an awesome and informative conclusion. I really look forward to your future review man! Keep up the good work!

mohammedroxx3 : Thanks for the feedback, it was my first review and I enjoyed writing it, so I plan to continue writing them, especially for games that don't already have reviews.