He's got some sort of pig power. Let's Play Illusion of Gaia!

The Age of Exploration

Illusion of Gaia is one of the few games that I have ever replayed in my life. I played through several times, and yet I still don't think I ever really understood what was going on at any point in the narrative. Illusion of Gaia has a story, which it tells. However this story edges on the absurd and likes to spend time playing canasta with the surreal. And even the parts that are normal went way over the head of young Nodal. So why did I play it? There is no backtracking, and any secrets you lose you lose forever. Combat is generally simple, and there are a few areas where the maps are more maze-like for the sake of having a maze than for good design. But, tired as this expression is, Illusion of Gaia is more than the sum of its parts. There are bits of clever design that I still smile at today, mixed with an interesting set of controls and a couple neat puzzles. The boss battles are interesting and mostly different from one another, and I've never been one to turn down a stat system that effectively prevents grinding.The locales you visit are intriguing, and the music is beautiful. Illusion of Gaia is simply a fun game.

However it is a fun game that enjoys its talking, most of which is nonsense. So I'll be summerising much of the dialogue, ignoring conversations entirely that are not important or interesting, and providing snapshots of what I think is worthy of note. The systems of Illusion of Gaia are not particularly deep, but what there is I'll point out.



Start a Journey

And I think the journey will be fun for all of us.



I always liked this small touch. This is a story of a boy's travel, and the game's save is thus naturally a diary.



South Cape, the town by the sea

Will's father's party met with disaster however. Will was separated from them, and managed to make his way back to South Cape.



Will's musings about his future are interrupted by the bell. His teacher calls the end of the lesson.



He seems pretty nonchalant about this whole thing. Apparently demons are no big deal, if you're just heading out for a quick run don't worry about it.



I've always thought it was neat that all the main characters have a theme color. So, are we ready to head off to meet our friends? Haha, no, first exploring! Will heads into the staircase ahead of him. But, what the heck is THAT on the roof?

Dark Space



Welcome to Dark Space, Illusion of Gaia's saving mechanic. Any time you see one of those little windows, or the glowing orbs that turn into one when you near them, that is your cue to save. Dark Space also has another function that will be gone into later.

Gaia, the giant talking statue, informs us that Will has the Dark Power that allows him to see entrances to Dark Space and thus is the chosen one. She(?) then allows us to record, and continue on.

Back outside a local man who enjoys standing on top of ceilings harrangues us about our enjoyment of jumping down from things. I'll jump down from things all I want old man! But first, I'll take a look into this conspicuously accessible bell tower.



By god! A red jewel! And after a quick hop down to the school entrance, and (after a quick tip that running is done by tapping on the control pad twice by a local bystander) another hop down to a ceiling, we meet the Jeweler Gem! I sure hope the Jeweler Gem is connected with that Red Jewel we found!



And by god he is! Red Jewels are Illusion of Gaia's main quest. By finding them scattered across the world, we can trade them in to Gem in exchange for fabulous prices. Dark Power, Psycho Power and Gem's secrets! This all sounds so bountiful. To start off he will give us an herb for 3 gems. In another game this would be a paltry prize, but in Illusion of Gaia there is no money and limited items. So a healing herb will never be unwanted. I tend to horde them however, so it might not be used for some time. Before we leave Gem warns us that he is a master of disguise, and if we see him again we won't know him.

A young woman nearby tells us that she feels sorry for our friend Seth, whose parents fight all the time. That sucks man, I guess I'll head in and try to cheer him up, if he hasn't left yet for THE USUAL PLACE.



But when Will tries to open the door, a pot flies out almost braining him in the head! Inside, Seth's parents stare at the wall on opposite sides of the room, in an apparent attempt to not get sued for almost killing one of their son's friends with a pot. To mollify him, they tell all of their marriage's troubles to him, so that he has more fodder for making fun of Seth. That'll teach him for wearing purple!

Back outside, a man tells us that his astronomer friend has reported a star heading towards Earth. Sounds unimportant! Let's go see what Lance is up to. He lives next door taking care of his frail mother.



Apparently being sick doesn't teach you any tact though. All she has to say to Will is a mention about his father being gone. Thanks for the reminder! In return, Will roots around and steals a gem that she was probably going to use to pay for medicine. Justice!

Outside again Will sees a pier. Hmm...something about meeting people...no, can't remember. Onward! A passing salesman is selling weapons to fight demon's with. He won't sell to children though. Curses! What the heck am I supposed to adventure with, this flute?! Maybe Erik has some weapons, let's head into his house next.



Erik may have a big house, but his father and housekeeper don't seem to think it's a big deal or something to lord over other people. His mother is testing a revolutionary new treatment wherein she lights a dirty candle and ties it to her neck. Genius!



On the roof, some children are playing red light green light. This is a neat little detail as the kids will walk whenever the girl's back is turned, and stop when she turns around. Across a short bridge, a man in his hovel is busy ostentatiously being poor. And nearby a soldier refuses to allow us to leave town without our parents, due to demons. This is all very alarming.

Hm...something about the ocean...nope! Will heads home.



Upstairs his grandfather is proud of Will for having to stay after at school. Will is something of an underachiever.

Oh right! The pier! Will should probably go meet his friends now.

Will races down to the pier, passing a fisherman and heading into the partially boarded up cave that he meets his friends in. They stay here after school, talking and playing games until sundown. But wait! That means if he never stays here with his friends then it will never be sundown! A solution for infinite time in a day! Will hurriedly escapes the cave.



Outside, the fisherman seems to have been more lucky in a new location. He found a strange teapot! Since a teapot is useful for all manner of cooking food, Will assumes the fisherman won't mind losing the red gem that is in it. Will now has two more gems to give to Gem, and in his glee at reaching the first milestone he tosses them into the air! The gems float away mystically as they are sent to the Jeweler Gem. How convenient!



Gem is pleased that we have given him the three gems he requires, and in return he gives us an herb. Will does what any young boy would do, and stores it in a slot on his personal ancient civilization inventory grid. Will is a Good Boy. However, he has realized the perils of tampering with the space-time continuum and as such he returns to his friends in the cave.

Lance and Seth are playing cards, when EXCITEMENT STRIKES.



Lance, however is not as impressed as Erik thinks he should be. He thinks the princess is probably just that spoiled girl Kara that Erik has a crush on. Erik calls him a liar and insists that soldiers are going to come look for the princess. He then immediately reveals his true excitement, which is to own a steel helmet and look awesome like the soldiers. Erik has big dreams. After the big news Will sits down next to his friends.



Apparently, Will is able to move the large statue in the corner of the cave! Astounding! Will's friends demand to see this.



Will is able to move the entire statue by twirling his flute! Wow, the ability to move large objects without even touching them! Surely this ability must be incredibly useful in day to day life! Hahaha, no I'm afraid not. Will is only able to move large stone statues with a menacing face and a bulbous nose. Not exactly something that comes up often. However, Lance then instructs Will to pick a card.



Will is psychic you see, and has the ability to know things that he should not be able to, such as which card is an Ace of Diamonds. Erik is astounded and Lance explains. Most people have five senses, but Will has six, this psychic sense.

After, the excitement is over and Will decides to head home.



And, of course, there is a pig wrecking his living room. Worse, when Will decides that this isn't worth dealing with, the pig comes over, prevents him from leaving, and pushes him from the door. A young girl descends, and yells at the pig whose name is... Hamlet.



She then insults Will as well, just to round it off. This must be Kara, the spoiled girl Erik likes. The girl who is definitely not the princess who ran from the nearby castle.



Will makes the traditional response to people who are not princesses, and Kara calls him adopted. Because she is well adjusted from speaking to normal people, and is not a princess even in the slightest. She then asks if Will has a piano, so Will feels ashamed at his poor surroundings with the single bed and defends his home by saying this his Grandma is a terrific singer.



Danger Abounds

When he goes upstairs to talk to his family and tell them that a pig is downstairs ruining all of their possessions and defecating on the floors, a scream breaks out! Kara, oh no!



My god! Kara's a princess! She professes not to know the soldier's but they are having none of it. Apparently the king has a bit of a temper and wouldn't be happy that the soldiers let his only daughter run away.



Kara doesn't give a shit. She just felt like leaving so she did. She doesn't really...care for others. At all.



However, she apparently feels very close to Will. She remembers the good times, like that time she called him adopted. Good times... Will's grandfather meanwhile finds it very amusing that Kara is attempting to get his guardian's killed as she explores the demon filled wilderness. Ah, youth. Meanwhile Will's grandmother tells him about the castle that Kara is from. Apparently Will's grandfather designed a viaduct and dungeon underneath the castle, but feels ashamed that he designed a place where people go and are never heard from again.



Will's grandmother will brook no talk of anything important however, and so the family heads upstairs to eat. She is a very... creative cooker. Afterwords Will dreams, of Kara and him traveling around the world... But that will never happen! He's just a kid!

Tune in next time for: Will discovers he has a talent for maths, and decides to give up on his father and become an accountant!

Yay! This game, again! I can't wait til we can turn into Shadow. He's the best.

That pig must be named Hamlet because you're going to let him be best buddies with you forever, right?

It's too bad that Moto Hagio killed the other thread, but this one is looking good so far.

Well they were going to name him Rosencrantz, but some other pig took it first.

Seth's face gives me nightmares to this day.

But yeah, I played the hell out of this game. I'd never call it exceptional, and Nodal is right in describing the plot as nonsensical, but there are definitely some cool parts. It was also a relatively quick game to go through once you knew what to do.

Thanks to the hype machine of Nintendo Power, I wanted to play this game SO BADLY as a kid. I drove the employees of my local rental store absolutely with my incessant calling.

I like this game, despite it's linearity. I think my favorite part of the game is the spritework of the playable characters. Freedan's manly-ass strut is awesome and I love little details like how Will's hair and clothes blow in the wind.

Gaia is pretty wordy for a SNES game, but it's still comes off as underwritten. There's tons of stuff that could really use a bit more explanation. For example, what the hell happens to Neil's parents in Euro?

Man, you make it look so easy.

Good, it wasn't just me then. This game's plot was so random that I can't remember if I ever finished it. Looking forward to reading this one.

One of my favorite things about this game was the colored text. Not much of a selling point these days, but hey, it was pretty fancy back then.

I must be the odd one out in that I had no trouble understanding what's going on in this game. It probably helps that it's basically the same underlying story from every Quintet game of the era. Seriously, Illusion of Gaia has the exact same story underpinnings as Soul Blader and ActRaiser (and later Terranigma); it's just a wee bit more subtle about it since you're not playing as a blatantly obvious avatar figure.

I can never remember the details or name of this game. I remember Freedan and the pig. Very little else.

I remember getting punched for having the audacity to jump off some person's roof.

Nodal, teach me to love this game.

For me, this is one of those titles that I enjoy more than the sum of its parts make me think I should. As a game, I can't think of anything particularly amazing about it, but I have very fond memories of my original playthrough, and I don't think I've ever abandoned it out of boredom or lost interest on any of my replays over the years like I have with most other older games. It's just got this weird charm about it

Did someone say a face giving nightmares?


Riverson is the master species, Boss.

Yaaay! This is one of my favorite games of all time! I love this game to death, and have played through it a bajillion times. I'll be really looking forward to this!

Honestly, the Percy-fication is... well, it's kind of an improvement!

I mean, look at this mug:



What's even going on here? I think Seth looks more pig-faced than Hamlet, but with the added bonus of a mustache. And those eyes. Those staring, soulless eyes...

Edit: Upon even further reflection, the "He" in the thread title must clearly refer to Seth.

I try to not look at Seth's face too much. I can easily imagine him wearing some weird Dr. Insano-ish goggles and that's as far as I go with my imagination. And for a man who wears all purple, that's none too weird.

It's like he has a hare lip, but on his eyes.

You people are all horrible monsters and now I can't unsee it.

Is this a new record for ruining the game for the LP'er?

Along with the atmospheric music, the way the game seems to consciously let so many surreal events go unexplained serves to make them that much more unnerving. It's one of my favorite things about it.


For me, it just feels like it's overflowing with sincerity.

Illusion of Gaia is a wonderful game and playing it improves your quality of life immensely. This is not something that can be said about many games, or many forms of entertainment, for that matter.

When I played this game as a kid, the concept of traipsing through the great ruins of the world and fighting monsters blew my mind. Illusion of Gaia made me feel like everything in the world--my world--was secretly a dungeon waiting to be explored. Like, maybe I'd go on a field trip to the cardboard box factory, only I'd fall through a hole somewhere and find out that underneath the factory was the Temple of the Cardboard Box Dragon.

Imagine that you're a kid whose main form of parsing the world around him/her is through video games--escapism, representations of things that can never be. Now imagine that one of those games comes along and says to you, "hey, all that stuff you see in video games? It could totally happen in real life. Here, check it out," and then you learn about a place called Angkor Wat. And some fifteen years later, when you're actually standing in front of Angkor Wat, you just want to run around laughing and waving your arms around.

Or, if childish antics aren't your style, imagine that you're pushing 30 and standing on the Great Wall of China, and the flocks of vendors hocking tchotchkes to even greater flocks of tourists are nearly invisible to you, because ever since your foot first scraped against the stones you started hearing this in your head.

Many games make you yearn for other, impossible worlds. Illusion of Gaia is the only game I know that makes you year for this one.

It's just glasses guys I mean come on really

Also, they each have a unique text-scroll sound. It does a lot to give every character their own 'voice.'

You're slacking, Nodal.

All I can say about Illusion of Gaia is that it is incredibly bland relative to other Quintet games, like Soul Blazer or Slap Stick (better known in the US as Robotrek). Or at least I never bothered to go beyond the Great Wall.

Well it's better than his official art:


I want you to know I feel very depressed...

HAHAHA I'M RUINING IT AGAIN!