In this review, we build up our Dark Power in the SNES game Illusion of Gaia. We find out how well this action RPG game plays.
This game was released in 1994.
The game starts with Will being in school with three other classmates. The bell rings, signalling the end of the lesson, so the teacher dismisses the class for the day. Will is told by his friends to meet them in the nearby cave in the city later. As you explore the town of South Cape, you’ll probably stumble across a small portal. This leads you to the dark world where you meet, presumably, Gaia. Eventually, a mysterious pig shows up at your house. That pig is accompanied by an equally mysterious girl. Whatever her reasons for being there, the kings guards are apparently hot on her trail.
There are ultimately three types of areas: a non-hostile environment, hostile environment, and the dark world. In non hostile area’s, you can speak to people and even find the occasional item in various locations. Hostile environments allows you to attack. The pause button will show you enemies that are nearby. Finally, there is the dark world. In this area, you can heal up by Gaia, save, and even transform yourself into another form if you found the correct gate.
Cities simply allow you to find a couple of items. Additionally, you can talk to various NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) to help fill out the storyline. While you might think to yourself that there is the usual compliment of services, there actually isn’t any. At best, cities and safe areas have a portal to the dark world. There are no inns to heal up at. Additionally, there are no shops (weapons, items, or otherwise) to be found here.
There is, occasionally, a special character that will trade red gems for a specific item. Think of it as the mini medal system from Dragon Quest games. You collect as many gems as possible. As you hand them off, you cross of the items on the item list. You can’t get the same item twice.
Otherwise, there is no money or buying of any kind that we found in the game. This, of course, is quite an unusual combination of things to not have in an RPG, but this is the case here.
Then, there is the hostile areas. If you pause the game, you can see where enemies are located on a very basic radar. As you defeat enemies, you’ll notice that they drop items. The most common item drop is the Dark Power item. They come in three sizes, but always add to your total. If you collect 100, you’ll add a heart. Every heart represents a free life. If you die, you’ll be teleported to the beginning of the area with half health. This permits you to continue the game.
On occasion, an enemy will drop a heart pickup. This pickup will restore some of your health. At most, though, this is usually dropped by one enemy in the entire area, so don’t count on that item being there. There are also enemies that unlock new areas. They are set in stone which enemy it is. Still, they can add ladders, remove unbreakable walls, or even add the occasional slide to permit you to continue your quest.
If you defeat every enemy in a given area, you’ll get a boost in stats. Stat raisers include increasing your health capacity, offence, or defence. All of the above are pretty self explanatory.
What’s even better about attacking enemies in this game is the fact that you can see your enemies remaining health. This can help you determine whether you want to keep fighting or simply retreat to the last known gate location and heal up for another attempt.
Other general features found in this game include switches which unlock other areas. This, of course, is a very standard features in adventure games, action games, and RPGs at this point. Another feature is the slope. Slopes allow you to run even faster than you can normally. With that momentum, you can then hit a ramp to send you over large gaps to another area. So, essentially, it incorporates a feature from Sonic The Hedgehog. The momentum and landing locations are fixed, though, so it is a stripped down version of this.
Also, there are occasional treasure chests for you to find. Some contain herbs. Others give you critical keys to use. A few are even empty.
Also, definitely take advantage of your spin ability. This is used to pull objects and items towards you. This is utilized by pressing the “L” or “R” buttons. Sometimes, it helps you collect otherwise out of reach items. Other times, it is used to pull statues closer to you so you can solve critical puzzles.
Another feature is the ability to charge your attack. To get this, simply play the game until the game just hands you the ability. This can also help you attack enemies or solve critical puzzles. Think of this feature as a brief nod to Mega Man.
Occasionally, you’ll encounter a boss fight. Same concepts apply with normal hostile areas. Simply find a system or method of attack and wear down your enemies health faster than your own. Some boss fights are harder than others and don’t necessarily follow along a standard difficulty curve. So, be prepared for anything.
One feature this game utilizes on the controller is the select button. The select button brings up a menu. With this, you can “equip” an item. These items are typically keys, but can also be songs as well for you to play on your flute. Additionally, you can obtain herbs to heal yourself as well. You can also check out your stats and abilities. Think of it as the actual pause menu, but for the select button instead. Yes, that is weird, but that’s apparently how this game rolls.
This is probably the part of the review where you’d expect us to talk about the overworld. The overworld is very standard for RPG games. Battle some random enemies and travel between dungeons and cities. It’s basically the place which connects everything together. In this game, that is more or less not the case. Instead, when you leave a dungeon or city, you get to see a map of the area you are in. From there, you can watch your characters simply walk from one location to another. On occasion, you are given the option of staying where you are or advancing to the next area. No, there is no backtracking which rules out any kind of grinding whatsoever.
If there is one thing that defines this game for us, it’s the term “stripped down”. Almost everything is either reduced or eliminated altogether. On the one hand, this can be compelling because it’s possible to re-define what an RPG is. The thing is, there has to be a compelling reason or hook that lures players in. That is ultimately something this game doesn’t really have. Instead, you get a very stripped down bare bones action RPG game. In fact, you can only barely call this an RPG because there are stats and numbers working behind the scenes. Otherwise, you could really call this an action game.
There isn’t really any experience points or gold that you can accumulate. With no ability to backtrack, the only strategy you have to work with is a strategy of being as thorough at eliminating enemies as possible. That’s it. Otherwise, you are stuck with simply making your movements as efficient as possible. After a while, I ultimately wound up getting bored of the game. When you have a game so heavily stripped down, it’s only a matter of time before the game becomes monotonous and repetitive.
Probably the only thing going for the game is the fact that the dungeons are generally short and simple. So, you get that sense of rapid progression which can be somewhat compelling to continue a game. Unfortunately, that isn’t the only factor in making a game compelling. While there is a certain degree of variety to be had here, it’s basically re-purposing basic ideas from other games and offering them as central features to the game. In this case, you have an action RPG on training wheels. It might be interesting to people who’ve never played an RPG in their life, but for those who have experience in the genre, it’s, well, hard to justify playing this game to any significant degree.
Generally speaking, when I was going into the game, I was excited for the chance to play another action RPG game. Remembering games like Secret of Evermore and Diablo, I was honestly ready for another addicting and thrilling run through an action RPG game. I ended up being entirely disappointed. Not only are the features stripped down to next to nothing, but also, anything considered innovative just isn’t here. While the dungeons are short to help aid that sense of progression, the play itself winds up being repetitive and, after a while, dull. The basics are certainly there, but the forced progression and overall feel of the game just isn’t there. As such, this one wound up being a game I wanted to enjoy, but ended up getting bored of it part way through before moving on.
Graphically speaking, this game is OK for a game of its time. Certainly, there are games that are on par with this such as Pinball Dreams and Tetris 2, but there are other games that exceeds what this game has to offer. This includes Uniracers and Breath of Fire II. If this game had more special effects, then I might reconsider this, but as it stands now, the graphics are, well, decent, but not amazing.
Meanwhile, the audio is somewhat underwhelming. The music sounds decent at first, but it can get a bit repetitive and forgettable after a while. Meanwhile, the sound effects are quite basic. So, a bit disappointing on that front.
Overall, I was looking forward to playing this game. To me, it was one of those games I’ve heard so many good things about, but never had the chance to play until now. Unfortunately, the experience I wind up getting is very underwhelming. With so many features either stripped down or stripped out entirely, what I got was a very bare bones game with little compelling reason to play through to the end. With forced progression thrown in, it’s hard to get excited for this one. Graphics are OK, but the audio wound up being underwhelming. So, overall, a fairly mediocre game.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Stopped playing shortly after clearing the 2nd area of Mu.
General gameplay: 17/25
Replay value: 5/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 2/5
Overall rating: 62%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
