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Nintendo makes a new classic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: November 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

You begin as a boy, in a small town wanting to simply travel the world out of simple curiosity. You then travel the world (eventually finding two other souls to join you), pretty much going to the 7 wonders of the world, and beating monsters, solving puzzles and riddles with new skills you learn in your journey. Its a very good game for your brain. This game also spares you travel time of having to travel from point A to point B, by just having a map displaying where the heroes are going. No travel time is to make up for the fact that it is not always obvious what to do, so it may take you days to figure out simple puzzles. This an incredible game for learning purposes, as well as its fun gameplay much like the Zelda games (weapon, special item, run and map buttons). With that being said, the buttons are configured nothing like Zelda! It has a very disappointing configuration, but that's why it has a mode where you can configure your own buttons!

Favorite Video Game Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: February 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Illusion of Gaia kind of proposes the question of what the heck was going on before the continents came to be as they are today. The remarkable thing is that some very cool places that are around today are featured in this game: Angkor Wat, The Pyramids, The Incan Ruins, Nazca, The Great Wall of China, and even though it isn't around today, Mu, which many historians believe to be somewhere.

This game is almost like a Soap Opera. The Players are Will, Kara, Lily, Lance, Eric, Seth and Neil, with minor roles from Grandpa Bill and Granma Lola, the King and Queen, Neils Parents, and Gem, the jeweler and cannot forget Hamlet, Karas Pig. There are also alter egos Freedan and Shadow, and the supreme ruler, Gaia

In this game, your job is stop the Comet of Ages from hitting Earth...well, for the most part, it's more about confronting your destiny as Will with help along the way from your friends and family.

When Will leaves South Cape with Lance, Eric, and Seth, he knows nothing about his destiny. Nothing. Just that he's supposed to stop this comet and find his father. he knows not what to do and not how to do it. Through the help of his friends, you piece together Will's past and Will's future.

This game has everything from love, death, sadness, adventure, frustration...everything in one game. The levels are challenging (Mt. Kress, Angkor Wat) the bosses are hard (The Vampires) the puzzles are confusing (The Pyramid) but a person determined to beat this game can do it.

I didn't like the ending, but hey, the game more than made up for it

A classic rpg that is pure pleasure.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I had so much fun playing this game. I played this game not to long after I had played Secret of Evermore. I was so glad to have found yet another super fun rpg.
I remember liking the story line; finding out what happened to the lost expedition and saving the world from the comet. The game has different and distinct looks in the world from all types of towns and villages, to a castle, along with different terrains. I liked gathering the information to advance in the game it wasn't so hard that you would get frustrated too much, like in Chrono Trigger I had to make lots of notes. Taking a breath and thinking about something would get you past the issue. For that matter, I do not remember the puzzles being too hard or leveling up being difficult. I do not remember much backtracking like in some games. If you have ever played Secret of Evermore, Final Fantasy III or Secret of Mana this game is along those lines. I don't think it is as large as the previously name games, but it is long enough to put a smile on your face. I don't remember the exact hours I played this game, but I know it was over 40. I am glad I found and played this game.

Roleplay similar to Final Fantasy but without the frills.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 15, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This isnt an easy game but its not complex like some other RP's. The length of play on this game is good and the storyline is ok (I think they could have fleshed out the characters a little) but it has nowhere near the depth as Secret of Mana. The "movies" in between the action sequences are similar to the ones in the Final fantasy snes games and the graphics are better but in my opinion there are too many of them. Overall I like Illusion of Gaia and I still go back to it when im sick of gaining levels in FF or Mana. It really depends on weather you are looking for storyline or heavy action.

Simply awesome...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Originally called Soul Blazer II in Japan, this game completely knocked me off my chair. Its originality and replay vaule are through the roof, not to mention the cool music you get once in a while.

You play as Will, a mysterious boy who seems to have Psychic powers. His friends seem to think that this power is some sort of Sixth Sense.

Plenty of traveling in this game. You learn the mystery of Will's past, and more as you travel through dangerous ruins, climb incredible heights, explore many towers, castles and more....

This game fits together so well, you'll end up replaying again and again, to try and find all 50 Jewels (the ultimate side-quest in the game).

So, I'd call this game a rent, and if you can find it anywhere for a good used price, grab it!

One of the most beautiful stories ever told in a game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm not exactly emotional, but the story of this game is sooo powerful that I cried twice.

The reason the story is so powerful is because you get to know the characters and bond with them. The adventure spans the world. Because of this game, I would LOVE to go visit Angkor Wat (which is currently in Cambodia).

The game itself is thrilling and challenging.

I think this is one of the most underrated games of all time, and if you like adventure games at all, definitely buy this, and cry along with me.

gooses review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This was definately my favorite super nintendo game. I only had about 2 dozen games for this system but I havent played it in several years and I haven't forgoten how much I liked it. This game looks a lot richer than most games for the snes and has a crisp sound as well. Playing this game for me was like reading a good book. I really didn't like the game until I had beat the first continent. You cant judge it by its cover either. I was looking for a game that was similar to this but there really arent any. The people who made this are the same people making final fantasy games today for the company square enix. The game I believe is closest to this would have to be the first final fantasy just with more elements from final fantasy adventure which has been remade as the sword of mana. If your collecting games for the snes this would make a good museume type trophy.

Illusion of Gaia

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I remember I had this game for years before I could actually play it...The first time I got past the first "boss," the game was sold to someone, and I couldn't finish it. I got this game from a game crazy just about a year ago. I definately love those kind of games that you can just play for hours, and not worry about anything else. This game is one of those games...When I finished it, it was after an eight hour time period, and that was just for that one day. People that go on diets don't know how easy it is. Playing this game, I did nothing but play for hours at a time...I didn't eat for almost the entire time. I enjoyed almost all of the zelda games that I have played in the past, and yet this one seemed to be more fun for me. I think this game was a little bit more challenging...It has a fresh plot and storyline, whereas Zelda is almost always the same. The music is great, and was stuck in my head for days after finishing the game. Will, the person that you control for most of the game, has terrific abilities, and learns new ones throughout the game. This is most likely one of my favorite NES games that I have played yet!

More Zelda-esque than Final Fantasy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 06, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Overall, a great game -- memorable enough that here now two years after I last played it I'm buying it as a Christmas gift for a friend who still owns a Super Nintendo. This game is more accesible to players who are not so RPG hardcore. Elements of RPGs are there, but the play is much closer to Zelda games, where you walk around a dungeon and the battles are live action (you encounter your enemy and have to manuvuer to hit them), rather than the RPG menu system. The challenge level is just enough to keep it interesting, and the graphics are superb even for a game so old. I can't imagine regretting buying this title.

Decent action

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I realize this game was released in 1994, which happens to be the year I was most interested in video games, and specifically, Super NES games. I was addicted to the Super NES and probably played the darn thing every single day for the entire year. I knew at the time that games like Zelda: Link to the Past were considered classics, and most people had that game and enjoyed it (though I can remember a few people who said they hated it, which is their opinion and they're entitled to it). Back then I also knew that Zelda was not only an improvement over the original Legend of Zelda on the NES, but also an influence on many, many RPGs that the Super NES would soon have plenty of (and eventually be looked upon as the ultimate video game system when it came to RPGs).

Unfortunately, I never gave much notice to many of the RPGs back then, and instead I focused on Mario, Metroid and the Donkey Kong Country series. For the most part, you can say I was more interested in platform games. Back then I figured "I have Zelda, I don't need anymore similar type games". Well, I admit I was wrong when I thought Zelda was the only good RPG on the Super NES, but in some cases, such as with Illusion of Gaia, I see that some games were *clearly* inferior to Zelda (despite the fact that popular gaming magazines back in 1994 praised Illusion of Gaia for being just as good as Zelda). Now, I've only just experienced Illusion of Gaia for the first time a week ago, which would be in the middle of January 2006. I missed out on this game in 1994. It was probably best to leave it that way.

Right off the bat I'm bothered by the life bar for your main character. You have a series of blue dots that serve as your life, and these dots are basically the same thing as your heart life bar from the Zelda series, and your main character goes around smacking enemies with his sword, just like Link. Okay, it's not a sword, it's a flute. Same thing, really. But the game as a whole does leave you wondering if the game company (Enix) was trying to fool gamers into thinking this was something new and refreshing. Years later, you can tell Illusion of Gaia is NOT so fresh, and in fact, it has a strong, dated feeling attached to it, I think. People knew Zelda was the better game back then, and they still do to this day. You can't fool gamers. Some of the animation in Illusion of Gaia isn't quite up to the standard of other games at the time. For instance, the way your main character Will runs around flapping his arms, and the way he slides into enemies. It looks clunky and uninspiring. The graphics in Illusion of Gaia, while colorful, detailed, and big, doesn't really have that extra something that makes Zelda: Link to the Past look so appealing. It doesn't have that certain spark; or polished graphics. Enix probably thought they created something special with this game, but it hasn't really held up over the years (except with a few hardcore gamers).

To switch gears and say something positive about the game, I think people are crazy to say the music in this game is bad. Sure, it's not music you can instantly sing and dance to, but it's music that will grow on you the more you hear it. It's really good music. Just because you can't sing along to music doesn't mean it's not good. This game is a great example of that. The music is great, in every area. To compare the music in this game to that in Actraiser. I'd say the tunes in Illusion of Gaia overall cannot touch the high points in Actraiser, but they sure beat the low points, easily. I remember one level theme in Actraiser had me pulling my hair out. Nothing like that in Illusion of Gaia.

Maybe there's something wrong with my copy, but I've been having strange things happen. For example, I reached the end of the game with 18 blue dots (let me mention again that these blue dots represent your life bar). Okay, I shut the game off, go to sleep for 8 hours, wake up, play the game... and now I have 20 blue dots. How did THAT happen? Imagine if you were playing Zelda and you didn't collect all your heart containers, and then you wake up to find all the heart pieces right there on your file the next day! That's what it's like in Illusion of Gaia. Also, sometimes save points suddenly appear out of nowhere, and you clearly remember the last time you ran by that area a save point wasn't there. So save points can appear and disappear. Weird. I also got stuck in one area of the game because an item that was supposed to be given to me by one of the characters WASN'T given to me, leaving me to forever wander around doing nothing. I had no choice but to start over completely. I have no idea what's going on here. I've never experienced anything like this in ANY video game, and I've played my share of games! I can only assume either my copy has a defect, or Enix is just a cheap game company (and Actraiser is pretty good, so it must be the former).

I have to take a point off for the constant frustration found in most of the dungeons. You know how in a Zelda game when you walk into a dungeon and each of the rooms are filled with interesting and creative ideas, making it really fun to play the game over and over (and equally as important, making each room DISTINCT, so you know where you are?) It's not quite like that here. The design of the dungeons in Illusion of Gaia is, for the most part, bland and confusing. You just run around slashing enemies, and there's not much in the way of interesting strategies to make it enjoyable for you to progress to the next room. This is where you really have to admire the people who work on Zelda games. They know how to make dungeon mazes interesting. Zelda: Link to the Past featured ice, desert and water dungeons. The people who did this game just made it sort of fun, but nothing truly memorable. And the strategies to progress to the next room in Illusion of Gaia usually require something small and uninteresting (and sometimes obvious) making it feel more like a chore to do it. And why does the very last dungeon maze in the game have only a few enemies? We're talking about a BIG area to walk through, encountering the same couple enemies over and over. Those laser eyeballs are EVERYWHERE and they're SO out of place for a final level in a game, and they're so easy to destroy. Zelda: Link to the Past features WAY more enemies. Compare the final level in this game to World 8 in Link to the Past. Zelda destroys it.

I hate how sometimes in the game you have to backtrack to clear a dungeon, which means going to the end of the dungeon to grab an important item, and then go back to the very beginning to complete it. Many times, this is easier said than done. Take that super-irritating vine level for example. The entire world is covered in vines that serve as a path you walk on, and each vine looks *exactly* the same, so it's possible you can wander around for hours just trying to find your way out of there. I can't tell you how many times I pressed pause to reach for my magic mirror, only to come to the realization that this isn't Zelda, and so I have nothing to bring me back immediately to the entrance of the dungeon. But... running around slashing skeleton heads, bats, and other strange-looking creatures is usually a lot of fun (despite the strange animation from Will) but is all this WORTH the frustration you most likely will encounter from the dungeon mazes? Only when in the right mood. At the end of other dungeons you fight huge bosses. There's a total of six of them, and I think this is the games very best feature because these bosses are really fun, and you have to try and discover the best way to defeat them. I don't think they're difficult to defeat, except for the very last boss. That one is HARD!

Another bad thing about the game is the incredible amount of text you have to skim through. The storyline is okay, but sometimes you don't feel like reading it which means you have to sit through a TON of text before the enemy-slashing section of the game comes in. To start off the game, you have to sit through, even if you skim over it as quickly as possible, 10 MINUTES of text. 10 minutes of your characters talking to each other, and it's not even very interesting. They say things to each other that typical children would say. Eventually you will come across a love story between the children! But hey, I'm no expert on RPGs, so you may very well find the dialogue to be the games strong point. Given a choice between this and Zelda, make the right choice and go with Zelda. It's slightly more expensive to buy, but definitely more worth it. However, Illusion of Gaia is a pretty nice game on its own. I know it sounds like I'm bashing the game, but I don't mean to. Just don't go in expecting a classic.

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