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.
This review contains spoilers
A story about kids, thrust into great responsibility, who learn that their ultimate enemy is the inevitability of change, both on a personal and a cosmic level. Linear to a fault, forcing you to keep your head forward as you leave the remnants of old civilizations behind you. Like a creation myth for the late 20th century that treats world history — from the pyramids to the airplane — as a patchwork folklore that tells us how we got here.
It feels like it would've been even better if the story had gotten another pass. There are thematic elements that never quite come to the surface; there are pieces of the narrative, like the human slave trade, that are persistent but never fully developed. The English version of the game is hamstrung by an awkward translation, though it also results in some outstandingly weird phrases ("True genius is a violent thing!").
There are so many moments of beauty, sadness, and joy, all at the same time. In the final scene, miles above the earth, Kara and Will look out over a changed world and realize that wherever they go next, it will not be the home they knew, and they can never return to this moment together. Even their greatest triumph is tinged with an awareness that their world is finite.
It feels like it would've been even better if the story had gotten another pass. There are thematic elements that never quite come to the surface; there are pieces of the narrative, like the human slave trade, that are persistent but never fully developed. The English version of the game is hamstrung by an awkward translation, though it also results in some outstandingly weird phrases ("True genius is a violent thing!").
There are so many moments of beauty, sadness, and joy, all at the same time. In the final scene, miles above the earth, Kara and Will look out over a changed world and realize that wherever they go next, it will not be the home they knew, and they can never return to this moment together. Even their greatest triumph is tinged with an awareness that their world is finite.
My favourite SNES RPG. Love the writing from novelist Mariko Ohara with very weird detached narration and surreal character arcs.
Illusion of gaia é um jogo meh fds que eu não recomendo ninguém jogar, eu só zerei isso porque eu tinha um amigo jogando ao mesmo tempo comigo, mas sinceramente vou fazer uma review disso, porque illusion of gaia é um jogo retardado e quero compartilhar o potencial shitpost desse jogo.
A gameplay é simplória e tem o seu charme, mas ela fica enjoativa em tempo recorde: entra na dungeon, mata todos os inimigos da sala, troca pro frederico (que é uma transformação melhor para combate) mata o resto, fica puto porque o jogo do nada te obriga a usar alguma skill só do will (sua primeira forma) e volta pra trocar, e troca de novo pro frederico pra enfrentar o boss, POR UMAS 10 DUNGEONS.
Pra variar algumas dungeons vão te dando power ups pra serem usados em puzzles ou combate mesmo, alguns são bons e expandem as opções de combate, mas nem esses ajudam muito, E EU ESTOU FALANDO DOS BONS, porque um deles é literalmente um poder que você usa SÓ PRA UM PUZZLE MERDA, e ele nem é útil para combate, não só isso como a última dungeon do jogo literalmente te dá uma forma final onde torna o frederico obsoleto.
Os chefes desse jogo merecem uma própria menção aqui, a maioria é só ficar floodando espada que uma hora morre, com exceção de alguns que tem invunerabilidade que são tipo uns 3, que são lutas horríveis, uma delas é super difícil pois você é obrigado a usar o will, a outra é um tédio de longa e o outro é o boss final, que é super brochante de fácil.
Indo pra história e seus acontecimentos, o jogo é recheado de momentos que eram pra ser legais ou emocionantes não funcionam devido ao fato que o jogo não te deu tempo o suficiente pra se importar com os personagens, a grande maioria desses momentos se tornaram bizarros e me fizeram eu me cagar de rir pelo o quão ruins eles são implementados. Eu adoraria citar meus favoritos, mas ai essa review iria ficar gigante, se você manja de inglês, leia essa review, sério ela é linda: https://www.backloggd.com/u/McMahonishBoy/review/377963/
ESQUECE O CARA EXCLUIO O PERFIL FDS.
Pra ser justo, ali e aqui o jogo possui um design de dungeons e alguns puzzles ok, o que ferra mesmo é e a gameplay repetitiva e a quantidade de dungeons e seu tamanho, e não tive muitos problemas com direcionamentos pra onde deveria ir por parte do jogo; não só isso como o jogo possui algumas (poucas) cenas boas, e o que eu senti nas que achei cômicas podem passar uma sensação diferente pra outra pessoa. (duvido entretanto)
Esse jogo ficou encravado do meu cérebro, de uma forma negativa, é um jogo que eu me interessei de jogar pois ouvia bem sobre, haha, não, não mesmo. Tenho certeza que vou me esquecer dos designs das dungeons, falas dos personagens, a parte séria da história, mas nunca vou me esquecer das cenas bizarras que esse jogo possui. Agora se me dão licença vou comer um porco na brasa, bye.
A gameplay é simplória e tem o seu charme, mas ela fica enjoativa em tempo recorde: entra na dungeon, mata todos os inimigos da sala, troca pro frederico (que é uma transformação melhor para combate) mata o resto, fica puto porque o jogo do nada te obriga a usar alguma skill só do will (sua primeira forma) e volta pra trocar, e troca de novo pro frederico pra enfrentar o boss, POR UMAS 10 DUNGEONS.
Pra variar algumas dungeons vão te dando power ups pra serem usados em puzzles ou combate mesmo, alguns são bons e expandem as opções de combate, mas nem esses ajudam muito, E EU ESTOU FALANDO DOS BONS, porque um deles é literalmente um poder que você usa SÓ PRA UM PUZZLE MERDA, e ele nem é útil para combate, não só isso como a última dungeon do jogo literalmente te dá uma forma final onde torna o frederico obsoleto.
Os chefes desse jogo merecem uma própria menção aqui, a maioria é só ficar floodando espada que uma hora morre, com exceção de alguns que tem invunerabilidade que são tipo uns 3, que são lutas horríveis, uma delas é super difícil pois você é obrigado a usar o will, a outra é um tédio de longa e o outro é o boss final, que é super brochante de fácil.
Indo pra história e seus acontecimentos, o jogo é recheado de momentos que eram pra ser legais ou emocionantes não funcionam devido ao fato que o jogo não te deu tempo o suficiente pra se importar com os personagens, a grande maioria desses momentos se tornaram bizarros e me fizeram eu me cagar de rir pelo o quão ruins eles são implementados. Eu adoraria citar meus favoritos, mas ai essa review iria ficar gigante, se você manja de inglês, leia essa review, sério ela é linda: https://www.backloggd.com/u/McMahonishBoy/review/377963/
ESQUECE O CARA EXCLUIO O PERFIL FDS.
Pra ser justo, ali e aqui o jogo possui um design de dungeons e alguns puzzles ok, o que ferra mesmo é e a gameplay repetitiva e a quantidade de dungeons e seu tamanho, e não tive muitos problemas com direcionamentos pra onde deveria ir por parte do jogo; não só isso como o jogo possui algumas (poucas) cenas boas, e o que eu senti nas que achei cômicas podem passar uma sensação diferente pra outra pessoa. (duvido entretanto)
Esse jogo ficou encravado do meu cérebro, de uma forma negativa, é um jogo que eu me interessei de jogar pois ouvia bem sobre, haha, não, não mesmo. Tenho certeza que vou me esquecer dos designs das dungeons, falas dos personagens, a parte séria da história, mas nunca vou me esquecer das cenas bizarras que esse jogo possui. Agora se me dão licença vou comer um porco na brasa, bye.
Lol i sold a guy to slavery for a red gem lmao got a free herb
Like Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia also surprised me — but in a bad way! Conventional wisdom seems to be that this is one of the SNES greats, and a big improvement over Soul Blazer. I did not feel this way. It lost the simplicity and focused vision of Soul Blazer, and took a bunch of the things that game did well and did them worse. Combat is made worse by introducing some learned techniques that are pretty clumsy and not as fun as the magic in Soul Blazer, and the experience-based leveling and compelling “clear an area and unlock a part of the town” progression has been dropped in favor of tying leveling directly to area clears instead. Plus, the localization is simply atrocious — the translator didn’t seem to understand the story, as it’s presented incomprehensibly and filled with errors. It’s an action RPG with unrewarding combat and a bad story, so, why are we here? While it’s technically superior in terms of graphics and sound to Soul Blazer, I kept wishing I was playing that instead.
実在する地球上の遺跡についての知識も得られる壮大なストーリーのゲーム。幼少期のトラウマ。
This game is just good not great, but I will never ever EVER forget it. Picture this, I'm old as hell and on my deathbed, the light in my eyes is growing dim, and all my family and friends are gathered around me to share my last moments on earth:
"Come quick everyone, it's almost time! Grampa wants to say something. What is it, grampa? Go on, take your time..."
Me: "...so what was going on with Illusion of Gaia, anyway? There's a part where one of your friends just turns into a sea monster, and he's like bye now, I'm off to be a sea monster. You meet a bunch of starving people and your pet pig suddenly gains sentience and decides to throw itself on a bonfire so they can eat him. His name is Hamlet, and one of the characters says "to eat or not to eat" while he's watching this beloved pig of theirs roast to death. There's a minor antagonist you never meet until the end, and when he tries to fuck with you, you burn him alive. You spend a good minute and a half watching this guy crawl toward you in agony as the fire just renders him down to a pile of ash and boiling body fat. I mean, what the fuck?"
And then I die.
"Come quick everyone, it's almost time! Grampa wants to say something. What is it, grampa? Go on, take your time..."
Me: "...so what was going on with Illusion of Gaia, anyway? There's a part where one of your friends just turns into a sea monster, and he's like bye now, I'm off to be a sea monster. You meet a bunch of starving people and your pet pig suddenly gains sentience and decides to throw itself on a bonfire so they can eat him. His name is Hamlet, and one of the characters says "to eat or not to eat" while he's watching this beloved pig of theirs roast to death. There's a minor antagonist you never meet until the end, and when he tries to fuck with you, you burn him alive. You spend a good minute and a half watching this guy crawl toward you in agony as the fire just renders him down to a pile of ash and boiling body fat. I mean, what the fuck?"
And then I die.
excellent game and doesn't shy away from the cruelty of humanity - child slavery, canabalism etc. Dungeons have their own unique puzzles, boss battles are challenging and fun.
I was surprised by how dark the story was for a Nintendo game of its vintage.
Phenomenal game, everyone should play this at least once. One of the best story-driven games before 1994.
Illusion of Gaia is the surreal cousin of Secret of Mana.
Tighter controls, better (and far more cryptic) story/writing. Phenomenal music.
Where most games from this time are about saving the world, this is a game about growing up, family, loss, and the hope that home is a place somewhere you can find.
Wildly underrated game in every regard.
Tighter controls, better (and far more cryptic) story/writing. Phenomenal music.
Where most games from this time are about saving the world, this is a game about growing up, family, loss, and the hope that home is a place somewhere you can find.
Wildly underrated game in every regard.
Getting the bad out of the way first: the translation is bad, bordering on incomprehensible. That aside, the gameplay loop is streamlined and rewarding, and the hit detection is far far better here than in many of its contemporaries (looking at you, Secret of Mana!). With a better translation this could have been stellar.
Stunningly unique game, perhaps to the point of its own detriment. I'd love to see a major developer release a cracked-out game like this today.
The underground angel village is still one of the most beautiful and haunting setpieces in any piece of media for me.
The underground angel village is still one of the most beautiful and haunting setpieces in any piece of media for me.
A good snes RPG that holds up well. The story is nothing special but the gameplay and graphics are. Its a game that still looks fantastic to this day. The combat is fun and rewarding to slay large monsters and bosses. Sometimes you can get lost on where to go, and the controls can be frustrating at times. It is still a good game that should be in your collection.
Eu sempre via esse jogo em revistas da época que eu era moleque e foi um game que eu nao joguei (so no emulador, mas nao fui muito longe). Entao é um game que eu não tenho apego. Dito isso e tendo terminado o jogo, ele é ok no final das contas.
A historia de Illusion of Gaia é sobre um garoto chamado Will, que acompanhou seu pai em uma aventura em uma torre e ele nao tem ideia de como saiu de lá, entao depois de uns 2 anos, ele vai procurar seu pai.
Tem uns temas pesados ao longo do game, mas tirando isso, eu meio que nao consegui me conectar aos personagens. E a parte final é uma confusao que só.
Quanto ao gameplay, é como se fosse um zelda mas com foco maior nos puzzles. O combate é simples mas ate que satisfatorio. Tem elementos de rpg tambem, onde vc elimina todos os inimigos da sala que vc tá e ganha um upgrade, que pode ser vida, ataque ou defesa.
Nas dungeons, nós podemos assumir 2 formas diferentes, mas a segunda forma do jogo deveria ter vindo bem mais cedo (vc so pega ela la perto do final ja).
Se nas dungeons os inimigos sao faceis, os chefes desse jogo nem tanto. Eles podem ser complicados a principio, mas todos tem algum padrao.
O game tem um design de mundo interessante, com varias localidades diferentes e sem contar que a trilha sonora do game é bem boa.
Ao longo do jogo, vc vai achar joias vermelhas. Tem 50 delas. Na moral, nao vale a pena pegar todas.
Illusion of Gaia é um bom game no fim das contas, mas esperava bem mais.
A historia de Illusion of Gaia é sobre um garoto chamado Will, que acompanhou seu pai em uma aventura em uma torre e ele nao tem ideia de como saiu de lá, entao depois de uns 2 anos, ele vai procurar seu pai.
Tem uns temas pesados ao longo do game, mas tirando isso, eu meio que nao consegui me conectar aos personagens. E a parte final é uma confusao que só.
Quanto ao gameplay, é como se fosse um zelda mas com foco maior nos puzzles. O combate é simples mas ate que satisfatorio. Tem elementos de rpg tambem, onde vc elimina todos os inimigos da sala que vc tá e ganha um upgrade, que pode ser vida, ataque ou defesa.
Nas dungeons, nós podemos assumir 2 formas diferentes, mas a segunda forma do jogo deveria ter vindo bem mais cedo (vc so pega ela la perto do final ja).
Se nas dungeons os inimigos sao faceis, os chefes desse jogo nem tanto. Eles podem ser complicados a principio, mas todos tem algum padrao.
O game tem um design de mundo interessante, com varias localidades diferentes e sem contar que a trilha sonora do game é bem boa.
Ao longo do jogo, vc vai achar joias vermelhas. Tem 50 delas. Na moral, nao vale a pena pegar todas.
Illusion of Gaia é um bom game no fim das contas, mas esperava bem mais.
For most of my playthrough I had mixed feelings about Illusion of Gaia, and ultimately by the end I felt it was an underwhelming experience.
Gameplay, Dungeons:
Illusion of Gaia's strongest aspect is certainly its solid gameplay and well designed dungeons. The game primarily focuses on the dynamic between Will and one of his forms, Freedan the Dark Knight, when it comes to progressing dungeons and solving various puzzles. The strengths and skills of both characters are to be kept in mind to ensure thorough exploration and clearing of enemies, and I appreciate that one form doesn't necessarily make the other useless for that reason. The game also does not have a typical leveling system, instead encouraging the player to beat all enemies in an area to gain stat upgrades. I found it to be a good system that also ensured the player gets a good grip on combat and handling of the various enemies, and because of this system, exploration of dungeons also feels more natural. This way the player is both rewarded with stat upgrades and various treasures found through exploring.
Dungeons were probably my favourite part. I appreciate the variety in both aesthetic and enemies, keeping the experience fresh, and each dungeon has its own puzzle gimmick as well, none of which really frustrated me. The Sky Dungeon is definitely my favourite~
Boss fights tend to be on the difficult side, although the challenge certainly isn't consistent. That said, I found them fun, but there is a focus on pattern memorization that may lead to more trial and error than necessary with them. I also wish that there were more bosses, but ah well.
Shadow is the second form you obtained, and while he is fun to use, I do wish he could be obtained earlier. His lack of skills aside from the Aura (why it's used as an item, I have no idea) compared to Will and Freedan's rounded out repertoire also makes him feel more underwhelming than needed.
Story, Characters, and World:
The weaker aspects of the game relate to its story and characters mainly. It's just....kind of boring, honestly. There were a lot of interesting plot points the game explores, and there's a focus on the theme of light and dark as well the coming-of-age of Will and his friend group. It was handled in a way that didn't really keep me engaged; progression felt more abrupt than natural and some things just kinda happen, really.
I think a big part as to why I felt this way was that the characters themselves are for the most part, uninteresting too. Your group of friends show promising potential for character growth, but it never really gets explored or its just the bare minimum. It really just feels like they're there for plot progression only, sharing almost no interesting insights on what occurs around them nor do they seem to feel any sort of impact from them. Seth probably gets the worst of it. The most interesting I found were Lily, due in part how often she accompanies you in your journey, and Kara, the main heroine who actually does have decent character growth, and a developing relationship with Will. Overall, they're probably the most underwhelming aspect of this game.
What the game does better however is its world building and it's relation to the "dark" and "light" sides of human society. No two locations are the same, allowing us to see a variety of different aesthetics and cultures to each city. It helps that they tend to be interesting settings, such as the floating rafts of Watermia or the underground homes of the Angel Tribe. Most of these settings also show a "dark" side to them, which is to the evils or misfortunes of society. Slavery, Cannibalism, Suicide, stuff like that. It can come across jarring, going from more of a peaceful happy tone to this darker sad tone abruptly, but I feel that was the intention and as such, I appreciate the idea.
Other Notes:
The game is super linear and doesn't allow for much backtracking, however I believe there's an extra dungeon and bosses if you get all 50 red jewels. I didn't get them all, so I can't comment on it unfortunately.
Overall:
If I were to recommend Illusion of Gaia, it would be primarily for its gameplay really. The story and characters are unimpressive to say the least, so don't expect much in that regard.
Gameplay, Dungeons:
Illusion of Gaia's strongest aspect is certainly its solid gameplay and well designed dungeons. The game primarily focuses on the dynamic between Will and one of his forms, Freedan the Dark Knight, when it comes to progressing dungeons and solving various puzzles. The strengths and skills of both characters are to be kept in mind to ensure thorough exploration and clearing of enemies, and I appreciate that one form doesn't necessarily make the other useless for that reason. The game also does not have a typical leveling system, instead encouraging the player to beat all enemies in an area to gain stat upgrades. I found it to be a good system that also ensured the player gets a good grip on combat and handling of the various enemies, and because of this system, exploration of dungeons also feels more natural. This way the player is both rewarded with stat upgrades and various treasures found through exploring.
Dungeons were probably my favourite part. I appreciate the variety in both aesthetic and enemies, keeping the experience fresh, and each dungeon has its own puzzle gimmick as well, none of which really frustrated me. The Sky Dungeon is definitely my favourite~
Boss fights tend to be on the difficult side, although the challenge certainly isn't consistent. That said, I found them fun, but there is a focus on pattern memorization that may lead to more trial and error than necessary with them. I also wish that there were more bosses, but ah well.
Shadow is the second form you obtained, and while he is fun to use, I do wish he could be obtained earlier. His lack of skills aside from the Aura (why it's used as an item, I have no idea) compared to Will and Freedan's rounded out repertoire also makes him feel more underwhelming than needed.
Story, Characters, and World:
The weaker aspects of the game relate to its story and characters mainly. It's just....kind of boring, honestly. There were a lot of interesting plot points the game explores, and there's a focus on the theme of light and dark as well the coming-of-age of Will and his friend group. It was handled in a way that didn't really keep me engaged; progression felt more abrupt than natural and some things just kinda happen, really.
I think a big part as to why I felt this way was that the characters themselves are for the most part, uninteresting too. Your group of friends show promising potential for character growth, but it never really gets explored or its just the bare minimum. It really just feels like they're there for plot progression only, sharing almost no interesting insights on what occurs around them nor do they seem to feel any sort of impact from them. Seth probably gets the worst of it. The most interesting I found were Lily, due in part how often she accompanies you in your journey, and Kara, the main heroine who actually does have decent character growth, and a developing relationship with Will. Overall, they're probably the most underwhelming aspect of this game.
What the game does better however is its world building and it's relation to the "dark" and "light" sides of human society. No two locations are the same, allowing us to see a variety of different aesthetics and cultures to each city. It helps that they tend to be interesting settings, such as the floating rafts of Watermia or the underground homes of the Angel Tribe. Most of these settings also show a "dark" side to them, which is to the evils or misfortunes of society. Slavery, Cannibalism, Suicide, stuff like that. It can come across jarring, going from more of a peaceful happy tone to this darker sad tone abruptly, but I feel that was the intention and as such, I appreciate the idea.
Other Notes:
The game is super linear and doesn't allow for much backtracking, however I believe there's an extra dungeon and bosses if you get all 50 red jewels. I didn't get them all, so I can't comment on it unfortunately.
Overall:
If I were to recommend Illusion of Gaia, it would be primarily for its gameplay really. The story and characters are unimpressive to say the least, so don't expect much in that regard.
Long Answer: Illusion of Gaia is a charming JRPG that is bare bones in the extra content department, has no side quests, mindlessly easy dungeons and enemy types (aside from the boss fights which were ridiculously hard compared to everything else the game had to offer), no world exploration, and is overall super linear. There were like, three or four songs that played throughout the entire game and most of the plot was thrown into the player’s face at abrupt times. Character building was uninteresting due to the side characters having absolutely no benefit to the overarching plot as all they did was tag along for the ride essentially. The game’s ending message is repeated a million times and by then all that you really did during the entire journey was rinse and repeat mediocre town and dungeon exploration. What I did like about this game was being able to transform into Freedan and Shadow, and overall it was somewhat relaxing to play? You’re better off playing Terranigma if you want to experience the peak of Enix/Quintet’s action JRPGs.
Short Answer: Illusion of Gaia is mid.
Short Answer: Illusion of Gaia is mid.
Illusion of Gaia é um jogo medíocre, onde cada vez que eu e um amigo íamos avançando mais no jogo juntos a gente percebia mais e mais merdas, tipo O PORQUE DE DAR UM PODER NOVO PRA SER USADO EM UMA SALA E NUNCA MAIS.
Esse jogo não é nem um pouco igual oque falam em reviews, sobre ele ser um jogo com uma historia e combate incríveis, é um jogo com combate chato maior parte do tempo com uma adição ali e aqui, onde os inimigos não tem variedade nenhuma e que a historia é chata e desinteressante, e a musica amigo a musica por mais que ela seja boa, ela ainda acaba sendo ofuscada pela quantidade de merda que acontece nas dungeons do jogo entende?
Pra mim parece que fizeram review baseado em nostalgia e eu não vejo problema nisso, mas é da mesma forma que disser que Secret of Mana é um jogo MARAVILHOSO sendo Secret of Mana é um jogo podre com um combate horrível que fez eu e meus amigos dropar ele no final boss porque a gente já tinha passado muita merda com esse jogo, e eu vou fazer uma review pra essa merda.
Esse jogo não é nem um pouco igual oque falam em reviews, sobre ele ser um jogo com uma historia e combate incríveis, é um jogo com combate chato maior parte do tempo com uma adição ali e aqui, onde os inimigos não tem variedade nenhuma e que a historia é chata e desinteressante, e a musica amigo a musica por mais que ela seja boa, ela ainda acaba sendo ofuscada pela quantidade de merda que acontece nas dungeons do jogo entende?
Pra mim parece que fizeram review baseado em nostalgia e eu não vejo problema nisso, mas é da mesma forma que disser que Secret of Mana é um jogo MARAVILHOSO sendo Secret of Mana é um jogo podre com um combate horrível que fez eu e meus amigos dropar ele no final boss porque a gente já tinha passado muita merda com esse jogo, e eu vou fazer uma review pra essa merda.
Illusion of Gaia's excellent JRPG combat and deeply rewarding customization shine bright, even when it sometimes feels like Terranigma without the heart.
What in the god damn
Boring plot and characters, ok dugeons and combat.
The main character has a stupid name don't @ me
Chad: Ah the Earth, I live here. Splendid.
la historia y tematicas de este juego son bastante "??????" aún que logra comunicar lo que quiere de no sean malos con la naturaleza respeten el patrimonio cultural. Las dungeons estan bastante bien y el combate es un zelda-like bien hecho pese a que cosas como las habilidades especiales podrian aprovecharse más.
This review contains spoilers
There are enough moments that remind me of previous Quintet games that I'm glad to have finally gotten around to this. That said, this is the first time I finished playing one of their games feeling pretty annoyed? "Annoyed" doesn't really go far enough for ActRaiser 2, since that was straight up heartbreaking, but there's too much to love here that it makes this more disappointing.
I honestly don't even know what happened with the translation. I would say there was an awkwardness to the translations on ActRaiser and Soul Blazer, maybe a flatness to them, but in the case of those games it served the narrative and tone really well, and enhanced emotional impact in some unexpected ways. Maybe it's having a party of more human characters and scripting them to have human drama, but here a lot of it is just stilted and abrupt; one "sacrifice" moment in particular that was definitely meant to land emotionally was instead kind of funny? Don't know how I feel about that.
Also some of the maps and enemies are just tedious to get through. The key standouts: the Mountain Temple and its endless identical looking vines; the obnoxious bush placement in the Angkor Wat garden; the invisible enemies in the Pyramid that may not alert you to their presence which then results in backtracking because you want to clear all the enemies out for the upgrades but also don't want to bring up the map over and over.....
And the central mechanic of swapping between forms as you traverse the dungeons is really cool, at least until you realize that the dungeons are, for the most part, designed to be played in a very specific way, and you're not really going to get the freedom to play as one form over another. If you find a door to swap, odds are the game is going to make you use a form you weren't using already.
It's very rough around the edges, and ambitious in ways that aren't necessarily positive. But when I went through the underground angel village, or talked to an NPC that casually let me know one of my friends was dealing with his parents fighting all the time, I was brought back to the time I first played ActRaiser and just felt the sort of mundane sadness that games of this console generation weren't bothering with. So it's still special, just less special than I'd like, I guess.
I honestly don't even know what happened with the translation. I would say there was an awkwardness to the translations on ActRaiser and Soul Blazer, maybe a flatness to them, but in the case of those games it served the narrative and tone really well, and enhanced emotional impact in some unexpected ways. Maybe it's having a party of more human characters and scripting them to have human drama, but here a lot of it is just stilted and abrupt; one "sacrifice" moment in particular that was definitely meant to land emotionally was instead kind of funny? Don't know how I feel about that.
Also some of the maps and enemies are just tedious to get through. The key standouts: the Mountain Temple and its endless identical looking vines; the obnoxious bush placement in the Angkor Wat garden; the invisible enemies in the Pyramid that may not alert you to their presence which then results in backtracking because you want to clear all the enemies out for the upgrades but also don't want to bring up the map over and over.....
And the central mechanic of swapping between forms as you traverse the dungeons is really cool, at least until you realize that the dungeons are, for the most part, designed to be played in a very specific way, and you're not really going to get the freedom to play as one form over another. If you find a door to swap, odds are the game is going to make you use a form you weren't using already.
It's very rough around the edges, and ambitious in ways that aren't necessarily positive. But when I went through the underground angel village, or talked to an NPC that casually let me know one of my friends was dealing with his parents fighting all the time, I was brought back to the time I first played ActRaiser and just felt the sort of mundane sadness that games of this console generation weren't bothering with. So it's still special, just less special than I'd like, I guess.
Mag sein, dass ich mich als Kinde hineingesteigert habe, aber so viel Seele habe ich in keinem anderen Action-Adventure mehr gesehen.
Eine Erzählerstimme, ein Wahnsinnssoundtrack, eine packende Story, geile Charaktere und ein geniales Ende.
Das passt alles.
Eine Erzählerstimme, ein Wahnsinnssoundtrack, eine packende Story, geile Charaktere und ein geniales Ende.
Das passt alles.
it's physically uncomfortable to dash in this game on a SNES d-pad, the localization is word salad in places, and there's a good reason the game came with a strategy guide in the manual. then again, this game more than any other captures the feeling of taking part in some kind of myth or fable for me. things just happen and everyone has to live with them, and i think that's great.