Repetitivo y brasas, tremenda bajona tras esa maravilla que es Soul Blazer
Illusion of Gaia - presumably Soul Blazer's follow-up, set aside the town-building elements and opted for a linear, story-heavy action-adventure. This new approach awards stat boosts upon defeating monster rooms rather than hub progress, with unlockable special attacks serving as tools. But it's hard not to be reminded of Seiken Densetsu (and in particular its sequel, released a few months before IoG) while playing this Zelda/RPG hybrid: Unlike SD2, they aren't afraid to dabble in puzzles (best represented by its dedicated gimmick rooms). Unlike SD2, they can graft Zelda's clever solutions to the unique scenarios of JRPGs, and unlike SD2, combat's variety doesn't hinge on weapon types & magic (offering transformations, beat-em-up-esque collisions and follow-up strikes instead). They also compare favorably in regards to characters, dungeon designs + aesthetics, storytelling (whose emphasis, themes and quality were rare among action games at the time) and animations, losing only when it comes to battles (that turned to LoZ-grade poking with a few add-ons). If the RPG integration feels more cinematic than functional, and they've yet to learn how to balance boss fights, this game succeeds at recreating Final Fantasy Adventure from another - more narrative-driven and puzzle-y angle.
El mejor de la trilogia, la historia es muy buena.
There’s a simple yet effective gameplay style here, but the story is practically nothing and leveling up has no satisfaction.
Once I was bored, I stopped after getting stuck with a puzzle. I’ve noticed it’s either those or navigation issues that turn me off an rpg if the combat isn’t still fun.
Once I was bored, I stopped after getting stuck with a puzzle. I’ve noticed it’s either those or navigation issues that turn me off an rpg if the combat isn’t still fun.
such a cool game...quintet games have this bittersweet vibe to them and this is no exception
Similar gameplay to secret of mana but a little goofier but still loads of fun.
For whatever reason, Illusion of Gaia is always one I get halfway through and then put down. I finished it once on a rental in high school, once in college, and then once today. About halfway through it's like the designers got scared that they were building areas that were too repetitive and mixed it up, but the way they did was incredibly aggravating.
The last three big areas, Mt. Kruik Angkor Wat, and the Pyramid, are all long, confusing, and frustrating. There's no longer a clear indication of where to go, not even a little bit, rooms and screens all start to look the same, and enemies become unfair or irritating.
So it's usually around Euro that I feel like I've had enough and I'm ready to move on. The ending has been seared into my brain for almost 30 years, so it's not like I need a refresher on that. But what I had been missing was how deeply sad the back half of the game is. There are early interpersonal/character moments that are hard, but the longer the game goes on, the more horrible things it shows us about the world -- and our world. There's hope there, but there's also a deep sadness, like maybe that hope isn't going to be enough.
And today, in 2023, I felt that. It doesn't have the melancholy that Soul Blazer has, maybe because in Soul Blazer the world had already ended at the start of the game and in Illusion of Gaia the world was still fearing the end.
But we get slavery of both the child and the adult varieties, pleas for vegetarianism, cannibalism, poverty, despotism, and this admission that maybe, despite what we want to believe, it's always been this way and it will always be that way.
The closing text, over the modern city, hit hard this time, especially the bit about the earth looking sad, even as everyone on it was happy. I will likely go through Terranigma next, and I'm already thinking about the modern city section of that game and the depressed people inside it.
The last three big areas, Mt. Kruik Angkor Wat, and the Pyramid, are all long, confusing, and frustrating. There's no longer a clear indication of where to go, not even a little bit, rooms and screens all start to look the same, and enemies become unfair or irritating.
So it's usually around Euro that I feel like I've had enough and I'm ready to move on. The ending has been seared into my brain for almost 30 years, so it's not like I need a refresher on that. But what I had been missing was how deeply sad the back half of the game is. There are early interpersonal/character moments that are hard, but the longer the game goes on, the more horrible things it shows us about the world -- and our world. There's hope there, but there's also a deep sadness, like maybe that hope isn't going to be enough.
And today, in 2023, I felt that. It doesn't have the melancholy that Soul Blazer has, maybe because in Soul Blazer the world had already ended at the start of the game and in Illusion of Gaia the world was still fearing the end.
But we get slavery of both the child and the adult varieties, pleas for vegetarianism, cannibalism, poverty, despotism, and this admission that maybe, despite what we want to believe, it's always been this way and it will always be that way.
The closing text, over the modern city, hit hard this time, especially the bit about the earth looking sad, even as everyone on it was happy. I will likely go through Terranigma next, and I'm already thinking about the modern city section of that game and the depressed people inside it.
INDIANA JONES X ZELDA A LINK TO THE PAST
Todos tenemos en nuestra cabeza muchos JRPGs donde vivimos aventuras en grandes mundos fantásticos y conocemos todo tipo de civilizaciones y lugares de dichos mundos acompañados de los aliados que hacemos por el camino ¿Pero qué te parece vivir una aventura con tus amigos de escuela por el mundo real?
Así es, en Illusion of Time/Gaia viviremos la historia de Will, un chico con extraños poderes que; siguiendo los textos de su padre arqueólogo, la ayuda de una caprichosa chica y el resto de sus amigos de pueblo, deberá de descubrir el modo de salvar el mundo de un meteorito que amenaza la vida misma de todo el planeta.
En su aventura deberá recorrer varios lugares del mundo tratando de buscar los objetos que le permitirán aumentar sus extraños poderes para poder salvar a todos.
Una jugabilidad muy mejorada de su predecesor (Soul Blazer), unas mazmorras excelentemente diseñadas y una gran aventura que hará crecer a nuestros protagonistas y entender la luz y oscuridad de nuestro mundo, es lo que le espera a aquellos que quieran jugar este gran clásico.
Todos tenemos en nuestra cabeza muchos JRPGs donde vivimos aventuras en grandes mundos fantásticos y conocemos todo tipo de civilizaciones y lugares de dichos mundos acompañados de los aliados que hacemos por el camino ¿Pero qué te parece vivir una aventura con tus amigos de escuela por el mundo real?
Así es, en Illusion of Time/Gaia viviremos la historia de Will, un chico con extraños poderes que; siguiendo los textos de su padre arqueólogo, la ayuda de una caprichosa chica y el resto de sus amigos de pueblo, deberá de descubrir el modo de salvar el mundo de un meteorito que amenaza la vida misma de todo el planeta.
En su aventura deberá recorrer varios lugares del mundo tratando de buscar los objetos que le permitirán aumentar sus extraños poderes para poder salvar a todos.
Una jugabilidad muy mejorada de su predecesor (Soul Blazer), unas mazmorras excelentemente diseñadas y una gran aventura que hará crecer a nuestros protagonistas y entender la luz y oscuridad de nuestro mundo, es lo que le espera a aquellos que quieran jugar este gran clásico.
Oh my god the incredible memories ...
From the atmosphere, the music, the story, the characters ...
It has an unique and kinda dark aura. Something is really special about it.
In any case truly a classic of JRPG !
From the atmosphere, the music, the story, the characters ...
It has an unique and kinda dark aura. Something is really special about it.
In any case truly a classic of JRPG !
I think my least favorite of the Quintet "trilogy" of Soul Blazer, this one and Terranigma, though they’re all pretty close. Mainly, I found the story to be really weirdly paced, it’s difficult to get into without a full dissertation but a lot of things happen without any buildup, and I didn’t care for it (Shitty translation doesn't help).
The gameplay itself is quite good though, and the dungeons are very well designed and were the highlight of the game for me. Definitely worth checking for those alone.
The gameplay itself is quite good though, and the dungeons are very well designed and were the highlight of the game for me. Definitely worth checking for those alone.
I wasn't the biggest Terranigma fan in the world but I will give it a bit more credit after playing this game. In some ways I actually appreciated its super simple combat and linear design because it meant I wouldn't be lost as much. While that was kinda true, the game devolves into a chore at a certain point. Enemies generally aren't handled very differently. Dungeons are mildly entertaining to explore but not super challenging unless they are really maze-like. I like the concept of upgrading your stats by clearing out rooms of enemies. The bosses are WAY more difficult than anything else in the game. Especially the vampires. Switching forms seems like such an arbitrary addition to the game. I guess playing as the knight and the other guy is pretty cool. You get one of them right at the end of the game which is lame.
It's pretty clear that the translation is really bad. Honestly it may even improve the game since it's at least funny when the writing in all these SNES JRPGs feels so stunted and weird. Even if the translation was good the event that transpire in this game are so goofy I probably wouldn't take it seriously anyway.
It's pretty clear that the translation is really bad. Honestly it may even improve the game since it's at least funny when the writing in all these SNES JRPGs feels so stunted and weird. Even if the translation was good the event that transpire in this game are so goofy I probably wouldn't take it seriously anyway.
It's pretty and it's cute and it's fun to play but it's also quite easily forgotten.
La humanidad, el futuro, los animales, la naturaleza, la tecnologia (almenos de manera mas basica cosa que terranigma terminaria mejorando) son temas que son raros de tratar, sobretodo en el mundo actual donde mas se habla de cambio climatico, de si comer carne, de si matar esta mal segun el contexto, que si vivir en una ciudad es gris y que la naturaleza es o mala o una santa.
Como cada uno tiene un contexto vital, no realmente podemos llegar a pensar cualquier cosa, aunque no lo crais, en el contexto adecuado, podríamos haber sido monstruos crueles, o los salvadores de nuestro entorno, etc.
Si el progreso requiere un sacrificio que es inevitable, o que se puede mejorar, no hay una epoca de la humanidad o cultura donde diga "es el mejor momento" porque hay muchas variantes, tanto sociales, como economicos.
Soy una persona con un pensamiento cientifico, pero no se si llamarme derrotista o optimista, el mundo puede jirar muy rapidamente por algun motivo en particular, no soy alguien que piense que la naturaleza es buena o mala, pero si tengo conceptos basicos que creo que son adecuados, obviamente la crueldad en cualquier epoca esta mal, me encanta los animales, pero su mundo tambien puede ser muy cruel, el nuestro tambien es asi porque es el mismo, solo que en contexto de una especie con muchas ciudades, estructuras, somos mucha gente, pero tambien tenemos tecnologia para mejorar las cosas, podemos colaborar para hacer cosas increibles, y mucho potencial, pero no puedes esperar que al tener muchos contextos de vida, vayamos a tener disparidades o problemas,(y creo que esto pasaria a cualquier especie que haya evolucionado a una sociedad, por lo tanto no soy alguien anti humanos o que se odie a si mismo por ser humano, porque creo que es algo evidente) pero creo que también eso no es excusa para buscar una justificacion del estado actual.
Lo mejor es evidentemente mejorar, costumbres que se tienen que eliminar, gente a respetar, sistemas ecologicos equilibrados pero que haya cabida para la tecnologia, que no haya tanta gente pero esta tenga mas calidad de vida, etc etc.
Una tematica que me hace pensar bastante fuera del juego, y que se discute mucho a dia de hoy.
Aunque quisiera que el juego lo explorara mas, ya que igualmente tiene defectos como que quizás no es muy memorable los personajes o el entorno se siente bastante igual, en estilo, y se siente un tanto vago en ese aspecto.
Jugablemente, pues decentillo, se controla bien, tiene enemigos interesantes, pero algunos niveles se sienten como que raros, la musica es exactamente igual en todas las mazmorras y se siente muy vago (supongo que era un equipo pequeño) no hay mucha expresividad en los personajes, y hay mazmorras que pueden ser un tanto aburridas en ese aspecto, como el de los hongos, que al ser todo igual, puede llegar a hacerme bostezar.
Igualmente es entretenido en la mayor parte del tiempo, y los jefes, pueden ser o un chiste, o normales, no es muy dificil ganarles, y puedo hablar del como estan muy bien posicionados los puntos de guardado, y no tiene dificultad artificial en ningun momento.
La mecanica de que subes de nivel tras eliminar a todos los enemigos puede ser interesante, ya que evita el farmeo, lo cual es un alivio sobretodo en las partes mas aburridas de las mazmorras.
En fin, podria ser mejor pero esta decente, básicamente es la versión mas barata de terranigma, que termina mejorándolo en todo (salvo por los puntos de guardado y que algunos jefes de ese juego, tiene patrones molestos).
Lo mejor de este juego es su tematica, lo que pretende, su sentimiento filosófico de hablar de los temas que habla, pero su ejecución es mejorable.
Como cada uno tiene un contexto vital, no realmente podemos llegar a pensar cualquier cosa, aunque no lo crais, en el contexto adecuado, podríamos haber sido monstruos crueles, o los salvadores de nuestro entorno, etc.
Si el progreso requiere un sacrificio que es inevitable, o que se puede mejorar, no hay una epoca de la humanidad o cultura donde diga "es el mejor momento" porque hay muchas variantes, tanto sociales, como economicos.
Soy una persona con un pensamiento cientifico, pero no se si llamarme derrotista o optimista, el mundo puede jirar muy rapidamente por algun motivo en particular, no soy alguien que piense que la naturaleza es buena o mala, pero si tengo conceptos basicos que creo que son adecuados, obviamente la crueldad en cualquier epoca esta mal, me encanta los animales, pero su mundo tambien puede ser muy cruel, el nuestro tambien es asi porque es el mismo, solo que en contexto de una especie con muchas ciudades, estructuras, somos mucha gente, pero tambien tenemos tecnologia para mejorar las cosas, podemos colaborar para hacer cosas increibles, y mucho potencial, pero no puedes esperar que al tener muchos contextos de vida, vayamos a tener disparidades o problemas,(y creo que esto pasaria a cualquier especie que haya evolucionado a una sociedad, por lo tanto no soy alguien anti humanos o que se odie a si mismo por ser humano, porque creo que es algo evidente) pero creo que también eso no es excusa para buscar una justificacion del estado actual.
Lo mejor es evidentemente mejorar, costumbres que se tienen que eliminar, gente a respetar, sistemas ecologicos equilibrados pero que haya cabida para la tecnologia, que no haya tanta gente pero esta tenga mas calidad de vida, etc etc.
Una tematica que me hace pensar bastante fuera del juego, y que se discute mucho a dia de hoy.
Aunque quisiera que el juego lo explorara mas, ya que igualmente tiene defectos como que quizás no es muy memorable los personajes o el entorno se siente bastante igual, en estilo, y se siente un tanto vago en ese aspecto.
Jugablemente, pues decentillo, se controla bien, tiene enemigos interesantes, pero algunos niveles se sienten como que raros, la musica es exactamente igual en todas las mazmorras y se siente muy vago (supongo que era un equipo pequeño) no hay mucha expresividad en los personajes, y hay mazmorras que pueden ser un tanto aburridas en ese aspecto, como el de los hongos, que al ser todo igual, puede llegar a hacerme bostezar.
Igualmente es entretenido en la mayor parte del tiempo, y los jefes, pueden ser o un chiste, o normales, no es muy dificil ganarles, y puedo hablar del como estan muy bien posicionados los puntos de guardado, y no tiene dificultad artificial en ningun momento.
La mecanica de que subes de nivel tras eliminar a todos los enemigos puede ser interesante, ya que evita el farmeo, lo cual es un alivio sobretodo en las partes mas aburridas de las mazmorras.
En fin, podria ser mejor pero esta decente, básicamente es la versión mas barata de terranigma, que termina mejorándolo en todo (salvo por los puntos de guardado y que algunos jefes de ese juego, tiene patrones molestos).
Lo mejor de este juego es su tematica, lo que pretende, su sentimiento filosófico de hablar de los temas que habla, pero su ejecución es mejorable.
First RPG I actually get to the end
This game is a mess in basically every area. The gameplay is overly simple/cheap, the translation is awful, graphics are unpolished and soundtrack is underwhelming. Plot is messy, characters are REALLY hurt by the translation. However, the good stuff in this game is flat out amazing. Contemplative, philosophical, dark, spiritual. With a remake, with a better presentation and a proper translation, this could become a great game.
Gracias a este juego descubrí que los juegos rpgs y aventura eran mis favoritos. El diseño de los personajes y la música me fascinaba. De la trilogía Blazer... Este es mi favorito, uno de los primeros juegos que me pasé siendo muy pequeña. El cariño que le tengo a este juego es enorme, de mis favoritos.
Continuing on with the Super Famicom's Quintet trilogy, this was the obvious next choice to play after Soul Blazer. Now this is a game I actually have played some of before, but I only got like a third of the way in and it was a LONG time ago. I'd also heard a lot of things over the years about how much worse the English version was vs. the original Japanese one (in a very standard mood for an Enix-published title), so I was very interested to see what the original version was like. It took me about 12 hours to play through the Japanese version of the game on emulated hardware without abusing save states.
Illusion of Gaia is the story of Temu, a young boy who lives in a coastal town and spends all day hanging out with his buddies. He's always had strange, telekinetic powers, but he's a kid like any other, and as soon as he's able, he's vowed to go out and find his father who disappeared a year ago when he left town to search for the Tower of Babel. After the kingdom's princess flees to his town and hides in his house, he and her become fast friends, and before they know it, the king has imprisoned Temu and they've all started onto a grand adventure to save the world.
In grand Enix fashion, I've heard many times over the years that this is a really poorly translated game in its English release. I've heard it described as outright nonsensical, even. The Japanese version, on the other hand, is actually a surprisingly really well written story. It's a really thoughtfully written tale about growing up, and I really loved how it tackled themes of discrimination (and while not perfect about it, it's a lot better than even a lot of games now get these sorts of things, frankly). Illusion of Gaia is a story very concerned about life, death, and just what you spend the one life you have doing. Life is never a completely pretty thing, and good people do bad things all the time for all sorts of reasons. What sort of life you lead and what you get from it, as well as what you do to others, is what paints this grand tapestry we call life. It's got some similar execution problems to Soul Blazer in how it doesn't always use music as well as it could to set certain scenes, but the story was nonetheless a really excellent one, and it's easily one of my new favorites on the console. It's just a shame it's nowhere remotely as good in the English release ^^;
The gameplay is once again a sort of Zelda-like, but with generally stiffer feeling combat as well as a transformation gimmick. Temu can turn into the dark warrior Freedan at save points in dungeons (and even another transformation much later into the game), and the respective powers of the different transformations are used to solve puzzles in dungeons. The boss and puzzle design isn't quite up to par with something like Link to the Past or other 2D Zelda games, but it still makes for a quite fun action game even if the adventure parts are more centered around the story writing than the exploration in towns and dungeons.
Speaking of which, there are significantly more towns in this game than in the last one, but they're largely for painting scenery and for telling the story. This is still a game with no money system, and you also don't level up with EXP like you did in Soul Blazer. Instead, clearing all of the monsters in a room gets you an upgrade to your max health, your attack power, or your defense power, so there's a hard limit to how great your stats can get in this game. There being no money also means that there's a hard limit to how many healing items you can get, and I've heard many a tale of how important it is to save your healing herbs in the English version to be able to deal with the harder bosses (which are MUCH harder in that version than in this one). The Japanese version, at least, had quite a nice difficulty curve to it, and while it's a bit harder than Soul Blazer and has no option to grind for power (though you can grind for extra lives, for whatever that's worth), this version should be eminently completable, especially for people familiar with the genre.
The presentation here is once again very good. The graphics are very pretty, and each location looks very distinct. NPCs and monsters are also very expressive and cool looking respectively, and the UI on top of the screen that shows monster and boss health is super appreciated for a game like this. While the UI design may've moved on from just copying Actraiser, the quality of the music is thankfully still just as strong as ever, and Illusion of Gaia has a soundtrack very befitting of its legacy.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. At least for the Japanese version, this is a game I can't recommend enough. It's a real shame that the English version is so much poorer, because it's honestly one of the strongest games on the system when it's actually written the way it's supposed to be. The action may not be the strongest on the system, but the story more than makes up for that (despite the imperfections and casual racism ^^; ), and this is absolutely a game worth checking out for action/adventure and 2D Zelda fans.
Illusion of Gaia is the story of Temu, a young boy who lives in a coastal town and spends all day hanging out with his buddies. He's always had strange, telekinetic powers, but he's a kid like any other, and as soon as he's able, he's vowed to go out and find his father who disappeared a year ago when he left town to search for the Tower of Babel. After the kingdom's princess flees to his town and hides in his house, he and her become fast friends, and before they know it, the king has imprisoned Temu and they've all started onto a grand adventure to save the world.
In grand Enix fashion, I've heard many times over the years that this is a really poorly translated game in its English release. I've heard it described as outright nonsensical, even. The Japanese version, on the other hand, is actually a surprisingly really well written story. It's a really thoughtfully written tale about growing up, and I really loved how it tackled themes of discrimination (and while not perfect about it, it's a lot better than even a lot of games now get these sorts of things, frankly). Illusion of Gaia is a story very concerned about life, death, and just what you spend the one life you have doing. Life is never a completely pretty thing, and good people do bad things all the time for all sorts of reasons. What sort of life you lead and what you get from it, as well as what you do to others, is what paints this grand tapestry we call life. It's got some similar execution problems to Soul Blazer in how it doesn't always use music as well as it could to set certain scenes, but the story was nonetheless a really excellent one, and it's easily one of my new favorites on the console. It's just a shame it's nowhere remotely as good in the English release ^^;
The gameplay is once again a sort of Zelda-like, but with generally stiffer feeling combat as well as a transformation gimmick. Temu can turn into the dark warrior Freedan at save points in dungeons (and even another transformation much later into the game), and the respective powers of the different transformations are used to solve puzzles in dungeons. The boss and puzzle design isn't quite up to par with something like Link to the Past or other 2D Zelda games, but it still makes for a quite fun action game even if the adventure parts are more centered around the story writing than the exploration in towns and dungeons.
Speaking of which, there are significantly more towns in this game than in the last one, but they're largely for painting scenery and for telling the story. This is still a game with no money system, and you also don't level up with EXP like you did in Soul Blazer. Instead, clearing all of the monsters in a room gets you an upgrade to your max health, your attack power, or your defense power, so there's a hard limit to how great your stats can get in this game. There being no money also means that there's a hard limit to how many healing items you can get, and I've heard many a tale of how important it is to save your healing herbs in the English version to be able to deal with the harder bosses (which are MUCH harder in that version than in this one). The Japanese version, at least, had quite a nice difficulty curve to it, and while it's a bit harder than Soul Blazer and has no option to grind for power (though you can grind for extra lives, for whatever that's worth), this version should be eminently completable, especially for people familiar with the genre.
The presentation here is once again very good. The graphics are very pretty, and each location looks very distinct. NPCs and monsters are also very expressive and cool looking respectively, and the UI on top of the screen that shows monster and boss health is super appreciated for a game like this. While the UI design may've moved on from just copying Actraiser, the quality of the music is thankfully still just as strong as ever, and Illusion of Gaia has a soundtrack very befitting of its legacy.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. At least for the Japanese version, this is a game I can't recommend enough. It's a real shame that the English version is so much poorer, because it's honestly one of the strongest games on the system when it's actually written the way it's supposed to be. The action may not be the strongest on the system, but the story more than makes up for that (despite the imperfections and casual racism ^^; ), and this is absolutely a game worth checking out for action/adventure and 2D Zelda fans.
As a successor to SoulBlazer, this title does some things better and some things worse. The good? Combat is much improved. Now, you can transform into certain alter-egos to gain new abilities. There's also a major visual improvement, and the battle environments are all interesting with unique gameplay elements and real-world references like Angkor Wat and the Pyramids. The not as good? I miss the visual progression of the first title, where you can see the world restored to order as you conquer your foes. The loop is not as satisfying here. Also, the story is kind of a mess, whereas SoulBlazer is comparatively simple and easy to follow. It's a good game, but I slightly prefer its predecessor.
Delightfully strange. If played with the original (very poor) translation it's an incredible journey through a harsh and incomprehensible world peppered with genuinely affecting moments of humanity. I've never played it with a proper translation but I'd be willing to bet it makes the game much worse.
An moderately challenging ARPG adventure with some interesting writing and character moments.
The amount of invincibility frames they give you in this game is so fucking amazing. I felt like a fucking god sliding through fuckers and dodging hits. The combat is definitely a step up from Soul Blazer, but it still definitely retains a bit of that (good) jank that lets you fuck enemies up super fast. Unfortunately, I think everything else is quite a step-down. The story is moving at like 200 mph with so many random things being introduced. It's entertaining in a "LOL WTF JUST HAPPENED" sort of way. Like, when you get captured by cannibals and your pig friend has to sacrifice himself I was absolutely losing my shit. The themes carried over here which is nice and definitely make this game worth playing, especially for the ending. Great palette cleanser game before moving on to the main attraction.
Time to check out Terranigma!
Time to check out Terranigma!
Basically ocarina of time???? Even the title has the same font type. I love it.
Im close to giving this 5 stars but I will conset thats its a kinda clunky action game, barely an rpg. The story is what makes this incredible and the writting consistantly goes further than most games even after the SNES. Shame on people who claim we didnt have good game storys in the early 90s. This one has some real gut punches.
A game that defined my childhood watching my brother and cousins play it nonstop so I hold it dear to my heart. I have to say though, the Mu section is horrible. All in all, it's probably one of the the weirdest and darkest JRPGs I've ever played.
Amazing game with excellent graphics, music, and storytelling!
I'm not sure how to feel on this game.
Illusion of Gaia is far from a bad game, but to me it definitely feels like the weakest of the Quintet Trilogy.
To start with the positives, traveling through dungeons in this game is amazing. Clearing out rooms to unlock upgrades, and being able to switch forms to solve a handful of puzzles. It's definitely really fun! Though there were definite noticeable spikes of difficulty, the dungeon exploration never felt too frustrating, and no dungeon feels poorly designed.
But, man, the story suffers so much. Its ending is great, but the journey to get there doesn't really feel deserved. I read from another review that it was an issue of translation, and I hope that's the case. I can see how the story wants to go somewhere, and make you care for the main cast, but at least for me, it just doesn't seem to do that. I also think some of the early bosses were just... not good. The later half were all really good and fun bosses, but the first half just felt terrible. Which, is a bit odd y'know, since you'd expect the first half to be easier then the second half.
Now one last note is that this game has what can only really be called a lives system? It's odd, and I don't think it works all that well, because it doesn't actually feel worthwhile to gain new lives.
This game, even with its strengths, is probably my least favorite of the Quintet Trilogy. Which sucks because I see a whole lot of potential within it. Yet again Illusion of Gaia is far from bad, but I wish I could like it more.
Illusion of Gaia is far from a bad game, but to me it definitely feels like the weakest of the Quintet Trilogy.
To start with the positives, traveling through dungeons in this game is amazing. Clearing out rooms to unlock upgrades, and being able to switch forms to solve a handful of puzzles. It's definitely really fun! Though there were definite noticeable spikes of difficulty, the dungeon exploration never felt too frustrating, and no dungeon feels poorly designed.
But, man, the story suffers so much. Its ending is great, but the journey to get there doesn't really feel deserved. I read from another review that it was an issue of translation, and I hope that's the case. I can see how the story wants to go somewhere, and make you care for the main cast, but at least for me, it just doesn't seem to do that. I also think some of the early bosses were just... not good. The later half were all really good and fun bosses, but the first half just felt terrible. Which, is a bit odd y'know, since you'd expect the first half to be easier then the second half.
Now one last note is that this game has what can only really be called a lives system? It's odd, and I don't think it works all that well, because it doesn't actually feel worthwhile to gain new lives.
This game, even with its strengths, is probably my least favorite of the Quintet Trilogy. Which sucks because I see a whole lot of potential within it. Yet again Illusion of Gaia is far from bad, but I wish I could like it more.
Somehow even through the terrible translation it still gets you wondering and worried about the future. A great, bittersweet story about holding on to what's important for as long as you can. Can be a bit arcane at times. Taught me to love timpani.
This game is drenched in charm. I had a smile on my face the entire time. Play it.
An amazing game! I wish this game got some port love...
A great "fall from innocence" narrative in which the protagonist's emotional maturation is braided with his burgeoning understanding of the troubled planet he lives on. Even through the mangled translation, the game's intentions, and the aesthetically diverse vignette approach it uses to communicate them, are totally legible.