Illusion of Gaia

"Every bit as good as Soul Blazer, and longer too"

Illusion of Gaia, from here on IoG, is the second in the great Soul Blazer trilogy. The games are not connected by story, but share similar gameplay. They are all slightly Zelda-ish in gameplay, but have a world creation/exploration theme. Quintet, the developers of this game, never made a bad game. I will use a letter-rating system for the different aspects of the game. S being among the best, if not the best for the system, and F being completely terrible with no redeeming features at all. So on with the review!

Graphics; B. If the characters weren't so huge and ugly, this would be a truly beautiful game.

The graphics at first look very similar to Soul Blazer, and many of the better aspects of that game have carried over. The characters are now larger, but unfortunately they mostly look worse in this game. Much of the population are among the ugliest in any RPG ever! Your character looks a little different than the average hero, and he's not that bad, but of the few reoccurring characters, the princess is truly a dog-faced girl. The different places you go have lots of variety, and color is used very well. The backgrounds in this game are some of the best in RPGs. Some of the dungeons are sort of long, but they all have their own unique look to them. If the characters were smaller, like in the other two SoulBlazer games, I would give the graphics a better score.

Music/Sound; A

The music is, again, a lot like SoulBlazer. The songs are just as good this time, and now there is a mysterious theme that sets the mood for certain scenes perfectly. If there is a problem with the music, it is that you hear one of the dungeon song too often. Sound is the usual exploding and splashing sounds from all Quintet games. Not much to say there. Lots of good music though.

Gameplay; A+

This was Snes' smoothest controlling RPG yet. The only game that surpasses this one in gameplay is Terranigma itself! The game is a lot faster than Soul Blazer, and thankfully a lot less rigid. Enemies no longer have momentary invincibility after you hit them. Your character can move fast and can learn special moves, like in "Castlevania; Sympony of the Night." The puzzles are every bit as clever as "A Link to The Past." In this game, you often use techniques and moves instead of items. Unfortunately, dungeons can seem rather large and bewildering, but some people like that. There is some variety in the dungeon sequences as well, as you can play as a Knight(basically the hero from SoulBlazer with blonde hair) and a Human Torch type character. Dungeons are fun and sometimes tedious, but never feel like a chore(like any turn based RPG). IoG plays very well and is quite challenging at times.

Story; B-. Would have been higher except for the stupid ending.

The story here is probably the worst of any Quintet game, but that is still better than most games. I won't go in to the details, but you go on a journey around the world and fight your way through famous ruins. From the Mayan ruins to near the end is the best part of the story. It's interesting all the way through. The biggest downside to the game(besides the ugly characters) is the terrible ending. The ending isn't bad as in "Congratulation! Play again!"....it's the turn the story takes. Oh well, just ignore that part and it's a good story with plenty of interesting characters. Especially cool is the moon tribe.

Replay Value; C.

This game is a lot bigger than Soul Blazer, and I've gone through the whole thing a few times now. As much as I like the game, I really can't say any reason you should play through it again, since it's the same thing every time. You can't backtrack, so I guess it's easy to forget the story.

Difficulty; Medium High. It's a lot harder than Zelda. It can be beaten in a weekend, but you won't get much done in that weekend.

Overall; 86%
A great game. "A Link to the Past" may have more acclaim and license, but there are three great SoulBlazer games. If you like Zelda you will most definitely like this.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/04