Illusion Of Gaia

[2600Lives]

Ok, so I just got finished with Illusion of Gaia. I'm slowly working my way through the SNES RPG games (the highlight of my collection is the fact that I've collected ALL of the U.S. release SNES RPGs). Honestly, I was really disappointed. Some spoilers ahead, I guess, not that it would honestly matter.

 

First off, the story is just non-existent. Plotlines are left completely unfinished (what the hell happened to Seth?). What was there was confusing as HELL, and this is from someone who is used to convoluted RPG storylines! So, we go from a medieval world to the modern world overnight because of some comet? Riiight. There's the prerequisite unbelievably trite love story between the main character and some princess (who was obviously copped off of Princess Vespa from SpaceBalls, as she whines non-stop about everything), and another even more trite love story between two ancillary characters (her reaction when he confesses his love is just so retarded). You really just end up not caring one bit about any of the characters, period.

 

The main character himself is just so unappealing. An effeminate young boy who uses a flute as his weapon. Ugh. Yeah, he can transform in to two MUCH cooler forms, but so what? Freedan's reason for even being in the game isn't explained, except for a sideways explanation in ONE paragraph at the very end of the game, and you don't get Shadow till the last major dungeon. There's also very little character development, besides the groan-inducing "You've grown up" or "I now understand how thoughtless I've been" type of development. A typical episode of Barney the Dinosaur had more character development than this.

 

There are no real villians in the game, except for maybe King Edward, who chucks you in a dungeon during the opening of the game, but he makes exactly ONE appearance in the entire game. There's supposed to be some sort of bounty hunter trailing you throughout much of the game, but again, he makes exactly one appearance towards the end of the game, and goes out like a major wussy. You don't even get to fight him or learn a damn thing about him. ARGH! The real villian is some distant comet that's like an evil force or something. FF7 had something similar in Jenova, but to compare this game to FF7 (or ANY FF game, including the first one) is to compare a turd to a bar of gold.

 

The actual game is pretty good. Fast paced combat, several unique skills you can learn, and several bodily forms to take. No real complaints there. Boss battles can be extremely intense, but some take a LONG time as said boss takes forever to show it's vulnerable spot. There's some cool Mode-7 effects for the map screens, but you have no control over them (that's crap), and they can take WAY too long to get whee you need to go, so you're basically just watching your chaaracter walk from place to place. The graphics and sound are both excellent, though, with vibrant colors and excellently animated sprites. Sweeping orchestral pieces accompany things. The game is also too short. I was done in well under 20 hours. There are very few secrets to find, except for hidden red jewels (which are hidden in some really stupid spots), which can unlock a secret dungeon, but it has NO reward for going through it whatsoever.

 

Basically, this is a mish-mash of every RPG cliche ever made. Young hero sent to save the world. Naive princess who falls in love with him. Stalwart companions. Blah, blah, blah. Two things are inexcusable about this game, though. One, it came out in the U.S. AFTER Secret of Mana, which set the standard for action RPGs (hell, it came out after Zelda LOTP, too, and that had more storyline than this, and Zelda isn't exactly known for deep storylines). Mana was awesome in every single way, and at the end, you really cared what happened (if you've gone through it, you'll know what I mean). Two, this is the sequel to one of my all time favorite SNES games, SoulBlazer. While it's storyline was similarly shallow, it had a real charm that this game lacked. How did they muck this one up so badly?

[A Sprite]

It's easier to come up with good ideas, than it is to execute them.

[JB]

Awww, c'mon. Sure it's half-assed, simplistic, and linear, but it's still a fun game.

 

 

 

You really just end up not caring one bit about any of the characters, period.

Not even when THE PIG COOKS HIMSELF?!?!?!

...

Seriously, Enix America never WAS known for great translations. Or good ones. Or mediocre ones.

I think the only half-decent job they did was with Robot Alchemic Drive. It's at least grammatically consistent, and has a majority of the text looking like actual english.

Most of the rest of their work looks like it was done with a Japanese-English dictionary and a proof-reader that learned english at night school.

 

I suspect Illusion of Gaia would make a lot more sense if someone COMPETENT had translated it.

 

 

FF7 had something similar in Jenova, but to compare this game to FF7 (or ANY FF game, including the first one) is to compare a turd to a bar of gold.

Oh, come on. Now you're just being petty.

FF1's plot was "Garland kidnapped the princess. And four fiends are wrecking the world. Oh shit, the fiends were sent by Garland, who went back in time when you killed him! And made himself immortal at the cost of the rest of the universe! And now he's dead for real! And the world broke anyways because of a time paradox. BTW mister gamer-person sir, you actually ARE the light warriors. Because the real world is what the game world turned into after you killed Garland."

That's not a summary. It's the ENTIRE THING, from the opening blue screen to "the end".

 

IoG had better writing than THAT. Even if it DID steal the ending(minus the groan-inducing "player is game character" bit).

 

 

As far as turds go.... never make me play FF8 again. It may've been a more polished translation(read as: it was in english), but it wasn't BETT ER.

 

 

 

 

 

Personal peeve: It's not an action-RPG. It's an action-adventure game.

Secret of Mana = action RPG. Crystalis = action RPG*. Symphony of the Night = action RPG, albeit of a side-scrolling flavor. Zelda 2 = action RPG(barely).

Illusion of Gaia/any Zelda other than 2/Blaster Master/Megaman X = action-adventure game.

 

 

*And one I'd rank far higher than Secret of Mana. Not that SoM is a BAD game, but it's clearly only half-finished and DESPERATELY in need of another round of beta-testing. Heck, it's probably the best buggy and incomplete game I've ever played. Which says a lot, actually.

And Crystalis is just pure unadulterated awesomeness. That helps, too.

[2600Lives]

Crystalis is the bomb. I've played that one so much, I think I can get through it with the tv off.

 

SoM wasn't half-assed by any means. Yeah, it did have some small problems, but it was one of those games that grabbed you from the opening screens and never let go the entire time. Not many games like that, classic or otherwise.

 

I'll say that IoG was an action/RPG, for the fact that your character does in fact level up. It may be in a somewhat unconventional fashion, but he does level up/uses healing items/etc., the basic conventions of an RPG.

 

FF8 was terrible. Overly complicated with yet another unappealing main character (not as unappealing as the ones from FFX and FFXII, though). Hell, it even lacked a decent bad guy. Seifer was just a puppet, nothing more.

 

I adore Enix games for the most part. RoboTrek still ranks as one of the most fun games I've ever played on any system. SoulBlazer = awesome. EVO, Actraiser 1 and 2, all quality stuff.

 

I actually laughed when the pig cooked himself. He was in, what, 3 scenes before that? Again, you don't give a rat's ass about him because he wasn't ever really part of the story. "The air was filled with the smell of roasted Hamlet." was one of the funniest lines in any game ever.

 

Meh, I guess it all just fell flat for me. Yeah, I had fun playing the actual game, no real complaints there, and some of the puzzles were in fact pretty challenging, but it was just all so bland. Not as bland as Lagoon, mind you, but still, pretty bad overall.

 

I guess another thing about the old SNES games was the music. I still, to this day, have most of the music from Secret of Mana, FF2 and 3, and several other games stuck in my head. To me, that means it's quality music. IoG had none of that. Nothing that I would reemember 5 minutes after hearing it, let alone 10 years later.

[JB]

SoM wasn't half-assed by any means. Yeah, it did have some small problems, but it was one of those games that grabbed you from the opening screens and never let go the entire time. Not many games like that, classic or otherwise.

I meant IoG was half-assed and simplistic(writing-wise, anyways).

 

SoM is just half-finished. And it DOES let go sometimes. Usually when a bug takes it down.

I've tripped on bugs so many times in my last 2 plays, concluding with the mana beast knocking me off-screen unrecoverably, that it's really soured me to the game.

 

I'll say that IoG was an action/RPG, for the fact that your character does in fact level up. It may be in a somewhat unconventional fashion, but he does level up/uses healing items/etc., the basic conventions of an RPG.

My PoV is that he doesn't level up. He collects items. That's no more RPG than the power-up bubbles in Gradius.

I view item collection as VERY different from actual character growth.

 

Tangent: I'd like to see more games like FF2j/FFLegend, where instead of rigid XP levels you have stats vary with what you're actually DOING. The XP level is basically a holdover from tabletop RPGs, where it served to simplify book-keeping for the players. With a computer keeping track of everything, you can be more elaborate.

 

 

Healing items aren't an RPG element. They're a common feature of ANY game where you can take more than one hit.

 

 

 

 

I adore Enix games for the most part. RoboTrek still ranks as one of the most fun games I've ever played on any system. SoulBlazer = awesome. EVO, Actraiser 1 and 2, all quality stuff.

Enix didn't actually DEVELOP any of those.

EVO excepted, you just listed ... everything Quintet did at the time. Plus Illusion of Gaia, and the US-denied Terranigma(Very rare instance of Europe getting a localization that we didn't)

 

But yeah, they published some good stuff. Pity their US division never messed with most of them, and the ones it DID mess with got mangled.

 

I actually laughed when the pig cooked himself. He was in, what, 3 scenes before that? Again, you don't give a rat's ass about him because he wasn't ever really part of the story. "The air was filled with the smell of roasted Hamlet." was one of the funniest lines in any game ever.

The pig IS pretty funny. It's just so absurdly over-the-top, even if you WERE taking the game seriously, you have to laugh(or at least smile).

 

 

Meh, I guess it all just fell flat for me. Yeah, I had fun playing the actual game, no real complaints there, and some of the puzzles were in fact pretty challenging, but it was just all so bland. Not as bland as Lagoon, mind you, but still, pretty bad overall.

True, it does a pretty bad job justifying things.

I viewed it mainly as an excuse to stab/bash stuff. It's one of those ones I take a very gameplay-centric approach to. Story segments come off as amusingly bad or "shut up so I can go kill something".

 

Sadly, it's extremely linear. One of the most rigid "stage" setups I've seen in the genre(whichever it may be). No real opportunity to wander about smacking random stuff in the head.

That's what keeps me from messing with it more often. Aside from collecting the red gems, there's nothing to do that isn't required at the time.

 

I guess another thing about the old SNES games was the music. I still, to this day, have most of the music from Secret of Mana, FF2 and 3, and several other games stuck in my head. To me, that means it's quality music. IoG had none of that. Nothing that I would reemember 5 minutes after hearing it, let alone 10 years later.

Odd... I remember LIKING IoG's music, but not any ACTUAL music...

I guess I should play it again to jog my memory. Or rummage an SPC set up.

 

 

Chrono Trigger and Lunar are among the few to actually stick with me, music-wise.

I've found that all but the best and worst music tends to blend in with the game. It's hard for me to pick out as a standalone. Sometimes I hear it and go "What was that? I've heard it before...", but I can't place it without some of the game attached to it(add random explosions, for example, and it becomes more recognizable. ).