Game: Illusion of Gaia
System: SNES
Oh I love this game. This was one of the first games that introduced me to anime style video games. It was long, very story oriented, and it had a fantastic plot. I was even inspired to write a book because of the storyline this game had to offer. Hah, I remember writing everything down in this game to make appear like a book rather than a game. Oh the silly things I did as a middle schooler.
Either way, this game was an awesome game and it was very in depth with the story, characters, and the way it guides you through the plot. I guess it is kind of like an RPG but with the team building and role playing. I guess it is similar to Secret of Mana...even though as of right now I have never played Secret of Mana. I downloaded it to my Ipad and played maybe the first few scenes in the game. It reminds me a lot of Illusion of Gaia. I remember when I used to play this I would actually try and figure out what this game was talking about. I never realized this until I became OLD that this game was showing the development of our planet. Hah, I never knew the map was a design of Earth. WOOPS DETAILS...WHO CARES ABOUT VISUAL DETAILS. OH WELL. Even having just beaten this game I still can't figure out if it is teaching that God does not exist. I followed the story this time but I'm pretty sure I'm interpreting it as God does not exist. Some horrible comet evil monster demon was the reason humans and Earth was the way it was. Oh Japan. Or, I misinterpreted the entire game completely. Likely. *never verifies because tired* Oh well.
You start out in a church, which I am assuming is a catholic church. If this is an anime game based on Japanese things then this probably is a catholic church. Anyways, who cares? You begin in a town called South Cape.
This is a nifty picture from somewhere that shows you everything in this town. I don't remember much other than you running around talking to other characters and basically building the plot. This does however remind me of an absolute pain in the ass portion of this game.
Collecting gems! This above picture is the epitome of why I hate this part of the game. A. It's a pain in the ass because all of the gems are scattered everywhere in the game. You have to know where they are hidden, who is holding them, etc etc. I remember when I tried to accomplish this quest to get every gem I would come down to the end of the game needing only 1. ONE. It turns out the bitch above in the picture has it....on level 1. The reason this is an issue is because when you go into the cave out on this pier and exit...he changes position. You have to enter and exit 384623876423 times until he is sitting in front of the cave next to a pot. Inside the pot is one of the gems.
How the hell is one supposed to know that? I'm just going on about my merry way through the game doing my thing and it requires me to enter and exit 83 billion times because he moves all over the pier???? And no, no where in the town does it reference him doing this. No where in the game does it every mention where any of these gems are. So once you get to the end of the game and you miss this gem...oh well...screw you because you can't ever come back to this place to pick it up.
So after you get to know the main characters and do whatever it wants you to do you eventually leave and head to Edward's Castle.
Bleh. Nothing significant happens here. You eventually end up in the dungeon where the first true "level" begins. This where you fight bats, skeletons, and other various enemies. There is no boss in the castle dungeon so it isn't worth mentioning. Eventually you find your way back out of the dungeon with some crazy scene about some girl/ boy not sure what side of the fence she is on LILLY girl scene...thing.
This bitch.
I forgot her importance but she ends up falling in love with Lance.
This bitch.
I guess that solves her girl/ boy lesbian straight issue. Also, hold up, I'm looking at google images on Lilly and that is by no means how she is portrayed in the game.
Who the fuck is this??? This is Lilly????? She looks hot as hell in this picture. Yeah I'm going to go with artist's rendition which I totally wish was true. LIES MY FRIEND.
Anyways, yeah you end up out of the dungeon and out of the castle to find your way back to South Cape. Nothing important happens and eventually you end up in Itory village. Again more nothing happens because basically they are building up the plot. Whatever.
At some point you end up at Larai Cliff which is a real level with a boss. There is nothing difficult about any of these levels through the whole game. The real hard parts of the game are the bosses. I guess I'll break up this review into bosses and their stage.
Castoth
I love reviewing these bosses because not once does anyone ever mention the name of the boss in the game. Where do they come up with the names then? I never knew this guy's name was Castoth but apparently it is! He is a pain in the ass...especially for a first boss. He looks awesome and probably qualifies for looking like a last boss. He sucks because you can't strike him until both hands are "destroyed". At the same time a fire ball thing is flying all over the screen for you to avoid. Not only that but a stream of fire is being shot across one of those sides next to him. No matter where you stand fire things are coming at you everywhere. Your goal is to kill both hands so that his eyes open and you can all out attack his head. Don't wait too long because while his eyes are open he is about to shoot some crazy blast thing at you. It is just way too much going on this boss and I feel it is about who can kill who first. Whoever survives first wins! I still think he looks dope and he'd make for an awesome last boss.
After beating him you end up on a ship and Inca this and that. Whatever. It is heavy in story telling again but eventually you will end up at another level called Diamond Mine. You have to save all of the slaves and for some reason this level always felt so side quest. It seemed like the level was to fulfill the plot, which is cool but no bosses were at the end. You were just saving all of the slaves. I guess that is a cool idea...beating a dungeon just to elaborate on the story telling. Actually I like it. It adds depth because come to think of it this game does a lot of that.
Anyways, blah blah blah until you finally get to a real level where a boss lies.
Viper
I really liked this level because the whole thing was based upon being on the bottom or top of the platform. You could be on the bottom where underneath is nothing but sky, or you are on top and you are looking down at the sand beneath. It was a cool idea because you were progressing through the level on both sides. I thought it was clever.
The boss Viper was stupidly easy though. He flies down and you strike at him. He will shoot feathers down that shoot out in the same exact pattern each time. It is very easy to avoid. He also shoots blue fire out of his mouth but it only goes a small distance so you aren't really near him ever until he flies down. There isn't much else to him.
Oh I forgot to mention that throughout the game you change from little kid Will to Freedan, which is an older knight looking guy. Then at some point in the game you become the Aurora looking Will which is a blue fire looking man guy thing.
After you beat Viper you quickly progress to one of the most difficult and tedious levels I think in the whole game. I hate this level with a passion. This level also contains one of the hardest bosses at the end of it.
Jack and Silvana
Mu. Mu is the name of the level and get ready for ultimate BS. It is long and you have to lower the water 3 times by solving puzzles to do it. What is worse is that you have to find statues that lower the water. The trick is that somewhere in the level a small shiny dot will occur and that is where the statue is lying. How the hell am I supposed to know that? I remember being lost for hours because I never knew to be looking for a shiny dot on the ground somewhere at some point in the level. Ugh, it is long but once you get through the tedious level you fight these two vampires.
Let me tell you though, this boss fight is an epic battle. I love everything about this boss because they look awesome, and they are hard as hell. You have an overall time to beat them too because Erik, that bitch in the middle, is strapped to a bomb. You have to kill both of them before that bomb goes off. Beware of the fact that EVERYTHING that hits you by them takes a hell of a lot of damage. You can die really quickly in this battle.
I think Silvana is the less aggressive one who just kind of hovers around shooting. Jack is the one that has this enormous swirling barrier that surrounds him. They shoot fire up and down the middle of the columns while you are running everywhere trying to hit one of them. At some point they will come together and shoot this horrific purple ball of death. That is what they are preparing to do in the picture above. It takes a good quarter of your health away. So basically this boss is a doozy. I just basically try to take out Jack first. It'll probably take you awhile to beat these two but after you do you have to quickly run up and diffuse the bomb. Good boss!
After you fight them the story still goes on and on like always. You blah yourself through another dungeon and more towns and cities. It is just more story but eventually you end up on the Great Wall of China where another boss is at the end. I really start to lose interest in this game after Mu because it's just a lot of getting through towns and fulfilling plot stories. I never liked the Great Wall of China level.
Sand Fanger
Bleh. This whole stage was boring to me. Even this boss seemed boring because he was so incredibly easy. Yes, it's a big centipede looking thing. All he does is jump out of the sand upwards or across the screen where he hops back into the sand over and over. That's about it. I don't know why we fight this thing or what his point is in the story but here he is. He will pop his head up every now and then to shoot out something which gives you the opportune moment to hit him. *shrugs* There isn't much else to mention about him. Dumb. The Watermia town is far more interesting than this boss and stage. Heh, yeah with this being the Great Wall of China...I still never knew this was ancient Earth. Oh well. Details....
As you move through the story you will come up to probably one of the longest, most annoying levels in the whole game. Other gamers agree this next level is super annoying.
Mountain Temple
Pointless. This whole stage is pointless. There is no boss at the end. It looks like a big fungus plant level. I think you get some kind of pot thing at the end. I don't even remember and I just did it. If you are killing every villain in each map to increase your strength or defense then be ready for extreme annoyance with this level. The villains suck here. The skulls suck. The flute guy sucks. This whole damn stage just flat out sucks. I'm telling you...there is no point to this whole dungeon. For it to be this long it was purely a nuisance. I had to mention it separately. Sucks.
It's funny they created the Mountain Temple to just completely suck because after you do the cutscenes at the Native Village and so on you end up doing another SUCKS dungeon. It may not be as annoying and pointless as the Mountain Temple but it is significantly harder. Ankor Wat is the name of the dungeon and boy the villains here are WAY harder. I personally like this level because you feel like you are at an ancient temple place with heavy history. I don't know what it is about this place but I think it is cool. The villains here suck though. Get ready to die a lot in Ankor Wat because it is a very confusing temple. You get to wear sunglasses though!
Blah blah blah....eventually the story takes you to the Pyramid where another boss lies.
Mummy Queen
I don't know about this place. The more I've played this game over my life the less and less I like this stage. The mummy queen is a really cool boss but the stage sucks again. It is a cool idea though. You are in a pyramid and you are making your way down the pyramid to get hieroglyphs that will unlock the boss where the mummy queen lies. When I first played this stage I thought it was cool because come on...you are in a pyramid doing cool pyramid things. If you really think about this stage as a whole you just tend to lean more towards suck. It is probably the most confusing dungeon in the whole game. The Aurora blue form is introduced into the game which is great because if you melt into the ground you are temporarily untouchable. So do that every single time someone is about to hurt you.
The Mummy Queen herself is a great boss. She is not easy and she is hard to explain. She floats around a two story room where you have to go back and forth from the bottom level to the top level. She shoots blue balls from her staff which do a hell of a lot of damage. These things are flying around in circles around her so you are constantly having to stay far away from her. Only one ghost face is touchable which is a pain to hit because the things are flying so quickly around her. It is a difficult boss. Tiles begin falling on your head too when she gets angry. I like her though because the more she dies the uglier and more dead she looks. It was a pretty decent idea of a boss. Not a big fan of the level I guess.
FINALLY, after beating the Mummy Queen you reach the point in the game where the story telling brings you to the Tower of Babel. This is the final stage where at the end you must fight the boss on the comet. The Tower of Bable just consists of having to fight every single boss over again. Yes, it is a pain in the ass but remember the earlier bosses were difficult because you were weaker. Now you are full on the strongest Will can get so fighting these bosses aren't that hard. The only boss I don't like playing again are the vampires and the mummy queen. They were hard to begin with so to play them again at this level posed a slight issue.
Eventually after fighting them all you end up at the top of the Tower of Babel where you are shot to the comet to fight the final boss.
The Comet
This is the first form of the boss. It is retardly easy because when the face shows up it will shoot crap up out of the comet. That crap then falls down on top of you. All you have to do is avoid it which is not that hard. The only time you can strike this face thing is when it appears to shoot the crap out of it. Do that a few times which is easy he will evolve into the main final Boss.
Final Boss: Dark Gaia
This boss is a very VERY difficult boss if you don't know the cheat. There is a flaw in this boss and when you exploit it this boss is a joke. The entire time you fight him you are the blue shadow aurora being that can shoot red fire eagle looking things out of your hands. While you are running back and forth trying to hit him you realize you can't. There is no way to strike him until he opens his mouth to fire this horrible yellow beam down at you. Of course, that beam hurts the hell out of you. So before he shoots the beam hit him as many times as possible. While his mouth is closed the two shoulder extensions are firing yellow balls of death down at you...all hurting the hell out of you. Then these annoying as hell blue ball things are floating around everywhere hitting you. It is one enormous pain in the ass that kills you quickly. Let me tell you the cheat...
STAND IN THE MIDDLE FACING UP. From there shoot up towards the face. Do that over and over and over and over. You will destroy the blue ball things and you will be positioned right beneath the face for when it opens its mouth. Remember that melt into the floor trick you can do as the Aurora being. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah, that is the cheat. Every time one of those yellow balls or beams shoots down at you just melt into the floor. You won't be hurt and by the time you reappear from the ground the shot is gone. Is a cheap way to never get hit. Do that over and over when it attacks and keep shooting upwards at the head. The End. He is the easiest boss every with this cheap cheat.
HOLD UP THOUGH. YOU THOUGHT IT WAS OVER AFTER THIS BOSS. HELL NO. There is something you can do before you ever get to this boss. Once this boss dies the game will go into this long as shit conclusion and credits BUT there is a boss you can beat before you fight him. Remember those pain in the ass gems?? Yes! If you manage to get all of the gems and talk to the gem collector he will take you to one of the most horrible places ever in this game.
The Gem Mansion. This place is hell. It is pure hell. Everything about this place is absolute hell. It is so incredibly difficult that sometimes I can't even get to the boss in this dungeon. I despise this mansion. You really have to experience this dungeon to understand the hell it causes. Villains are everywhere and they are so frustrating to beat. I'm not kidding. You go from somewhat easy of a video game to finally getting all of the gems to this hell of a dungeon. If you manage to survive this fucked up dungeon let me tell you what you get rewarded with...
Solid Arm
Hah, solid arm? I never knew he was named that. This boss is an optional boss but he is on another level of hell. He is probably one of the hardest bosses I've ever fought in this type of game. I've only beaten him once and what is most fucked up about this boss is A. you have to be young Will to beat him. B. when you somehow by luck defeat him...you get NOTHING. That's right...nothing. Nada. You find out he is the gem collector the whole time and that he has been trapped as this horrific demon thing...yadda yadda....sad story but he gives you nothing. You get nothing. No powers. No trophies. No one ups. No accomplishment. Nothing. It is the most anticlimactic bullshit in the game. After getting through the dungeon, rendering you half dead by the time you reach this motherfucker, and you BEAT HIM....you get a GOOD JOB.
I guess to explain this boss the three platforms in the middle change direction so you have to climb over the right one that moves towards him. If you get near him he swings his arms like crazy doing insane damage. He shoots red fireballs absolutely everywhere. There is no way to avoid anything. I can't do my melt into the ground cheat because I'm not Aurora. I can't do shit! He is dope looking but there aren't many bosses in the SNES world that are this difficult. That's probably not true but for right now with what I've played....yes...it's true.
GOOD LUCK BEATING HIM BECAUSE YOU GET A HUGE PAT ON THE BACK AND GOOD JOB. ONCE HE IS DEAD YOU GO BACK TO THE REGULAR GAME PLAY.
YAAAAAYYYYY!!!! Ugh....sucks.
I love the game though. You can ignore the whole gem thing and fighting this boss to beat it so if you want to avoid bullshit then do just that. I rank this game very high on my list of games I like. I highly recommend it. The story is great even though I think it's an attack on Christianity. I think. I think it references to how everything is evolved thanks to this comet. There is no God and the reason for everything on Earth is because of this comet. I don't know. Japan has all of these weird ideas about things in their games. I don't get offended when things attack my religion so WHO CARES GREAT GAME. GO PLAY IT.