Many of the characters have no background at all, but are still used as main points in the game. The story was definitely my least favorite part of IoG. As for the sound effects, they were nice, but I don’t really have any comment on them. Instead, Enix decided to merely let you pick the song and let the game play it. The game has many moments where Will plays his flute, and I was hoping that you could control this. The songs are memorable and add to the background feeling well, so I suppose the music was good. A few of them fit very nicely, but many seemed out of place. It used far more variety than many of the other games for the SNES, yet each of the songs lacked something. The music in Illusion of Gaia was also worthy of praise, but it could have been better. The enemies were almost all original with very little palette swapping and I’d have to give Graphics an 88%. They not only had the hulking type of boss who took up at least the entire screen, but some of them were barely larger than you. I really liked the bosses, mostly because they used both of the two rules of boss making. Everything is done with good quality, however, and there are many of those standard backgrounds, creative or not. Like Secret of Mana, all the characters are sprites, and all of the backgrounds are pretty standard. This game was made near the end of the SNES’ reign of glory. There are even a few mini games to play, and I honestly enjoyed the game for what it was. Although most are simple, you will sometimes spend hours exploring a dungeon just so you can find that one key you need or the switch that you missed.

Other times, the game just wants you to do some creative block pulling/pushing. You will be forced to find secret doors quite often, and opening them requires one of the first special moves that you learn. The game has a decent challenge to it, not only because of the hard enemies but also because of the puzzles. Each room has only one jewel don’t waste time trying to train. By killing every enemy in the room, the hidden jewel will be given to you and the corresponding statistic will increase. To improve your life, offense, and defense, you need life, offense, or defense jewels, and these are hidden inside of every room with enemies in the game. Instead, enemies drop Dark gems, and if you collect 100 of these you get an extra life.

As in Final Fantasy Tactics, you simply decide which area to move to.Įxperience is not used at all. The game consists of towns and dungeons, without a real world map to explore. Each form has its own set of special moves that are required to solve some of the many puzzles in this game. Although you only control one character, he eventually gains the ability to morph into either a knight or a big, blue blob. He sets out with his friends in hope of discovering what awaits him and, perhaps, the fate of his father…Īlthough similar to Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia is definitely not a clone. Mysteries abound even further when Will learns that he has been chosen for a dangerous fate from a mysterious voice. His life has become boring for the moment, but one day, the king sends out a summons for the boy. Will lives with his grandparents now in South Cape. Will somehow escaped and got back home, but he had no memory of what had happened. He had been searching ruins around the world with his son and eventually set out to explore the Tower of Babel. As in many of Enix’s games, Will’s father Olman, a famous archeologist, is missing. You play the role of Will, a telekinetic young peasant armed with his father’s flute and a sense of curiosity. The story takes place in a world almost like our own. Illusion of Gaia was built for Nintendo’s finest system, the SNES, and was almost completely ignored. Enix has made many good games in its history, and I would like to brush the dust off of a few of them. Pepper, and even water have been served in restaurants, leaving this tasty fruit drink on the shelves.

Bigger beverages like the rival colas, Dr. Although everyone likes it, (well, almost everyone) it has never been truly appreciated. Enix has always reminded me of the Snapple Company.

Illusion of gaia red jewel locations