Even Moss Drinks Water: Let's Play Illusion of Gaia.

lllusion of Gaia was a "spiritual" sequel to Soul Blazer, and was released in 1994 for the Super NES.
I did not get around to playing it until about a year and a half later. I was first struck by its vastness, its ability to make me want to explore in a way that even Final Fantasy VI and Super Mario RPG hadn't. It was, in essence, a game about exploring the great ruins of earth, with an atmosphere that only enhanced that mysterious feeling our ruins have.
I could go on, but I'll let the game speak for itself. For now, I'll let you watch the opening. I did not record the video, all credit goes to the person who did, whomever they are. Any subsequent youtube links will only involve music, and will also not have been recorded by me. That's how it goes when you only have the bare essentials.
So, next update will involve actual gameplay.

I've tried this game a few times but could never beat it, so I'm really looking forward to this LP.

I played this game like crazy when I was... 11, I think, until I beat it. At that point I realized I had had enough and I haven't played it since, and I have no desire to. It should be interesting to see it again for the first time in 15 years, give or take.

Are you going to collect all of those gems or whatever they were? I didn't, so I'm curious to see what happens.

A personal favorite. A lot of people didn't like this game, but I think it's fantastic. It has some pretty good puzzle-solving segments!

Tried to replay it recently, but it has way too much talky-talky for my modern sensibilities.

Yeah, the game was a bit heavy on the jibber-jabber, but it certainly looked nice, and the dungeons were well designed.

Also, when you get all the Jewels, you get to fight a powered up version of the first boss from Soul Blazer

I loved this game. I still own the cart too (somewhere, I've misplaced my SNES, I think my brother swiped it on me when I wasn't looking).

Another thing about this game was how it tackled issues normally glossed over on most games from that era of Nintendo censorship. It had issues of starvation, disease, and slavery; child slavery no less.

Then it also had stuff out of left field like the Vampires, but hey.

The Sky Garden was an awesome dungeon. Mu... not so much, but they can't all be great.

Anyway, looking forward to this LP.

*gasp* One of my favorite games evar! Pray continue!

You are going to get all 50 red jewels, right? RIGHT?

Ooh, I'm eager to see this one! Illusion of Gaia was one of my favorite games ever, and I'd been kinda hankering to replay it. But an LP is way better! I'd never have the patience to collect all the red gems! hint hint

I love this game. Whenever I think "hey, I should do an LP," this is one of the first games that comes into my head. Truly a mostly forgotten gem.

I'll echo the sentiment that you should get all the red jewels. Every time I have replayed this game I tell myself I will, only to give up after not getting the one in the fisherman's pot in the very beginning because I'm so impatient. And then you can't go back and get them later. I always loved/hated that about this game- it feels very open for some completely unquantifiable reason. You can't backtrack most of the time, it has a pretty clear-cut level structure, it has a linear plot, but I feel like I'm exploring rather than going from point A to point B.

It should also be added that this game has, for me, the best 'coming of age' story of any video game. For once, a group of teenagers are out to save the world and they actually act like a group of teenagers. Love stories have more awkwardness than emo posturing. People quickly form cliques and pair off. Characters decide to settle down and leave the main story because they want to live their lives rather than adventure. Things like that just don't happen in most epic 'save the world' games. Plus, as mentioned above, this game involves actual serious situations. People die of starvation, get sold into slavery, etc. and there is no attempt to sugar coat it (or go the other extreme and push it to hyperbole as many modern 'M' games would do). That is very rare, and to be encouraged.

I always forget which action-RPG SNES games are which. I know I liked and beat Soul Blazer. And there was a second I liked/beat but I probably won't know until this LP is half over if this is the one. ^^;

This is one of those game that Nintendo saw fit to include a walkthrough of the entire game in the instruction manual. I resent that a bit now, but I never would have found all the red gems without it.

To answer the question most on everyone's minds: Yes, I will be getting all fifty jewels and showing the results. As for the first concrete update, I'm hoping to post it tonight, but definitely expect it by tomorrow night.

Fond memories of this one. I like the song that plays when you die and in a few other places. I think it's called "In the Earthen Womb." Somewhat odd graphics, though. Will and the other playable character forms look nice and animate well, but the NPCs all look boxy and animate in a very perfunctory way. Always looked off to me.

Man, I just got this game from our kind host. I'm enjoying it alot, but I realized right away that I missed some jewels. I'm at the sky garden, maybe 2 hours intot he game, and I'm thinking about starting over. The game is very brisk, but I doubt I'll want to replay it again right after I beat it just to get the bonus level.

By the way, the inca ship will always be absolutely heartbreaking.

Funny aside, It's like the first super nintendo game I actually got all the box/manual/etc. in really good condition. I'm not a collector, but it was kind of neat...for the second it took for the package to reach the floor from the mail slot. My dog went crazy and bit through all the packaging in one chomp!

The noble sacrifice of Hamlet the Pig is forever burnt into my mind.

Illusion of Gaia impressed upon my young mind that video games could have a satisfying story line.

Not that it's especially deep, but at the time I found the pseudo-philosophical ruminations the characters kept interrupting the gameplay for to be fascinating. Now I moreso enjoy the game as being a very solid and quirky Zelda knock off that loves to ramble.

I still want Terramiga on Virtual Console!

Let's face it. This is a superhero game.

Think about it.

Will is a helpless kid who happens to always save the day by transforming into different super forms, then reverts back to his alter ego to take a journey with other harmless kids and they're none the wiser. That's what I thought was cool about this game.

Huh, that's really odd, I never thought about how they never see his transformations. He's far from a helpless kid though. That flute packs a punch!

They never see him fight (much) either, so he is, for all they know.

I finally got a copy of my own a few weeks ago, actually. I guess I have to beat it before this LP finishes!

Yeah, but they DO know he can move stuff by spinning his flute.

It was a pretty decent game, but the ending was strange.

A lot of the story/themes were strange in the game to me. All otherworldly, but not in the typical fantasy cut and paste way.

This is a terrible game, but I could never stop playing it for some reason.

This game must be on the shorter side, because I'm pretty sure my friend and I beat it on a rental. Of course, that was back when we could play a game all day during the summer, and rentals were a week long with only slight late charges.

Yeah, its not that long. A weekend rental could probably get you through it if you committed yourself. But that's the case with most SNES games;it is indeed one of the great things about a bygone era of video games- they were short but replayable.

I'm sure I've played this game, but I sure can't remember much about it. I'm glad to see a let's play for this game to help jog my memory.

Ok so this was the one with the piggy... my brain is still trying to home in on it with limited success. ^^;

I know I've beat this game with my brother, many, many years ago... I don't remember anything about the story though... Maybe I need to play it again.