Illusion of Gaia
| Illusion of Gaia | |
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| Developer(s) | Quintet |
| Publisher(s) | Enix (Japan) Nintendo (North America) |
| Platform(s) | SFC/SNES |
| Release |  November 27 1993 January 1 1994 April 27 1995 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Illusion of Gaia (ガイア幻想紀, Gaia Gensōki) is an action-RPG video game that was released on January 1, 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was developed by Quintet. Enix published the game in Japan, and Nintendo published it worldwide. The game is titled Illusion of Time in Europe.
Fans regard Illusion of Gaia as the second game in the Soul Blazer series (which consists of Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma). While there are many similarities both in gameplay and plot themes between the three titles, they are not officially acknowledged as a trilogy, contrary to popular belief.
Background and setting
The game's setting is a partially historical but mostly fantasy-based version of Earth. The game contains several real-world sites, such as Incan ruins, the Nazca lines, Angkor Wat, the Great Wall of China, Mu, and Egyptian pyramids. Each of these hold a piece of the final puzzle, unveiled at the top of the infamous Tower of Babel.
The main character of Illusion of Gaia is Will, a boy from a small town named South Cape, living with his grandparents. It is the age of exploration (sometime in the 16th century; Columbus is mentioned at least once), and explorers have begun exploring many of the ancient ruins around the world, looking for treasure and secrets. Many return with nothing, and some don't return at all. Will's father was one of these explorers, who disappeared a year prior to the beginning of the game while exploring the Tower of Babel. Somehow Will managed to make it back, but he doesn't remember how.
When the game begins, He stumbles into a "Dark Space," where he meets "Gaia," the spirit of the Earth. Gaia tells Will that he must leave South Cape and save the world from a coming evil. An interstellar body known as the Chaos Comet is nearing Earth again, and each of the previous times this occurred, great human civilizations were destroyed. As he travels, Will gains the ability to change into two other warriors, each with special powers: Freedan, a dark knight, and Shadow, a solid form of energy.
Illusion of Gaia was scored by Yasuhiro Kawasaki, the influential manga artist Moto Hagio is credited with the character designs, and novelist Mariko Ohara worked on the scenario.
Characters
Will
- Japanese: テム Temu
- English beta: Tim
The main character of the game. Will takes on many forms; however this is most likely his true form. He also reverts to the form of Will when he is not in a hostile area.
A young man from South Cape, Will was born with psychic powers. While his ability at the start of the game is limited to small amounts of ESP as well as the ability to draw certain statues towards him, he gains more powerful abilities later.
Will was born and raised in the seaside town of South Cape. During his childhood, his father Olman, and his mother Shiera raised him. At sometime in his early life, his mother died. He later went on an expedition to the Tower of Babel with his father Olman, where his father disappeared, and Will lost his memory. Will ended up back in South Cape with a flute in his hands. His grandparents Bill and Lola then raised him. Will spent the rest of his time in South Cape attending school and engaging in games with his friends Lance, Erik, and Seth in their secret seaside clubhouse. One day, Will comes upon a portal to Dark Space where he meets Gaia, and learns the secrets behind his powers. Will decides to tell no one about this experience. Latter that day, Princess Kara, daughter of King Edward, wanders into town. Will meets her, and falls in love with her under a matter of minutes. Latter, soldiers burst into Will’s house and demand Kara return to the castle with them. Will is latter summoned by King Edward to deliver a ring from Olman’s luggage to the castle. Will, nor his grandparents know of this ring, but Will sets off for the castle anyway and meets Kara, who mentions that a bounty hunter known as the Jackal has recently been employed by the Queen. When King Edward discovers that Will doesn’t have the ring, he imprisons Will in the castle dungeon. Will receives a message from his father, from his flute. His father tells him to search the world for the mystic statures need to destroy a comet. Will flees the castle, and is aided by a girl who can change herself into a flower named Lily. She disappears, and Will flees the castle along with Kara. Will returns to South Cape to find his house raided, and his grandparents missing. Kara notices a mark on the wall that is made by the Jackal. Lily appears again and explains that Lola and Bill fled to her village; she then goes on to take Will and Kara to her village. In her village, Will meets the village elder that tells Will a story of how his parents met in this village known as Itory. Will then journeys to the camp of the Moon Tribe, a ghost like tribe who have been around for centuries. They tell Will about the comet and how it comes every 800 years and causes a mass change, and turns all living people into demons. Will then continues onward on his journey, latter joined by his old friends Lance, Erik, and Seth. Will discovers an Incan ship and has a hallucination that he is on board the ship in its prime where he meets the Incan Queen and receives a mystic statue. When Will comes to, he discovers his friends have followed him on board. Kara examines the Queen’s body and finds a ring on her finger she likes. Kara takes the ring and causes the ship to be attacked by a demon fish. The fish eats Seth and destroys the ship. Lance, Lilly and Erik escape, but Will and Kara are shipwrecked on a raft. They’re relationship develops into a more mature loving one, and they latter meet up with their friends again. Will also meets his lost cousin Neil, who has created a prototype airplane. It is at Neil’s cottage that Will reveals the tale his father told him in the dungeon, and the team continues searching the world for the statues. Lance and Lilly fall in love and settle down in a town built on rafts known as Watermia, where they find Lance’s eccentric father and nurse him back to health. Neil latter finds his family in a town known as Euro, the center of all trade. He then discovers that his real parents were killed, and he was being deceived to learn about the dark corruption of slave trade his parents had gotten into, Neil inherits the family business and becomes the president of the company. Will continues onward. Eventually Will ends up in a desert village known as Dao where he receives a letter from his grandparents who advise Will search the local pyramids for a mystic statue. Will finds Neil in this town, working to bring about a slave freedom plan. After solving the puzzles of the pyramid, Will is greeted by the hunter Jackal who has apparently seen Will go in and out of Dark Spaces and change forms into Freedan and Shadow. Will sets off a trap and kills Jackal, after getting the fifth statue, he receives another message from his father calling him to the Tower of Babel. Will sets off in Neil’s new airplane and is followed by Kara. Will discovers ring hidden in his flute that King Edward was searching for, and Kara shows Will the ring she received from the Incan gold ship, they then realize they are they represent the light and dark powers. At the top of the tower, Will meets his father who explains how the ancient people used the power of the light of the comet to create animals and life forms, but then became greedy and used it to dominate. Olman takes the two of him or her to the top of the tower where they meet every person who has died within the game. Will and Kara then join together and become one in the form of Shadow, they then continue onward to the comet that is about to make impact. They destroy the comet’s core and a dark goddess known as Dark Gaia appears. After she is destroyed, Will meets his father and mother as he and Kara stand on the moon observing the planet. Will is told that the world will now change to a more technologically advanced world, he is also told that he and Kara will be separated. Will and Kara join together for the last time and return to the new world. Will then awakes the next day in a more advanced world, and despite what his father told him, he and Kara are together again.
Freedan and Shadow
- Japanese: フリーダン Furīdan, シャドウ Shadō
- English beta: Freedan, Shadow
Freedan is a dark knight, and Shadow is a humanoid construction of energy. Will has the ability to take on the shape of these two beings by utilizing statues of them in the Dark Space. It is unknown if Will simply takes the forms of these beings, if he is actually replaced by them and takes their place as a statue for brief times, or if they are spirits who possess him and use him as an avatar. Whatever the means, these beings are completely benevolent to Will during the game despite their fearsome nature.
Princess Kara
- Japanese: カレン姫 Karen-hime
- English beta: Karen
The daughter of King Edward, Kara is spoiled and naïve, but she is also a dreamer, and can't stand the thought of a cloistered life. She joins Will on many of his adventures, and matures quite a bit over the course of the story, eventually falling in love with Will. She has a pet pig named Hamlet (or Peggy in the Japanese version) who follows her everywhere.
Gaia
The source of all life, Gaia is the main goddess of the world. One day after school, Will came upon a portal to a dimension known as Dark Space, where he met the goddess Gaia, who explained that Will was the chosen one to enter the Dark Space, and thereby alluding to the fact that Will would destroy the comet. During the game, the player will return to Dark Space many times, to heal and save their game (which Gaia herself provides), Gaia will also offer advice about the area, a special ability, or a warning about dangerous in the near future. From time to time, Gaia will provide the player with new abilities. Gaia is depicted as a giant stone head statue, with a small square shaped body holding the head.
Olman
Will’s long lost father. Olman was said to be an exceptionally great explorer. During his last journey to the Tower of Babel, in which Will accompanied him, he went missing. Will somehow made it back to his hometown of South Cape but his entire memory of what transpired at the Tower of Babel was forgotten. Olman was latter discovered to have died during the incident at the tower. He went on to be a spirit and watched over Will. When Will was imprisoned early in the game, Olman communicated with Will through a flute he had given Will at the Tower. He explained that Will was the chosen one to destroy the comet and told Will to explore the ruins across the world to find the six mystic statues, needed to summon a power known as the Firebird used to destroy the comet. Will’s father reunites with Will and Kara in the Tower of Babel near the end of the game, just prior to the final battle and reveals the secrets of the comets power, and how the ancient people abused it to create wars and weapons. He then takes Will and Kara to the top of the tower where they are reunited with every person who died in the course of the game. After destroying the comet, Olman appears with Will’s mother for the final time, and alerts Will and Kara to the fact that the world will now change and they will have to find their own place in this new world. They are also told that they will be separated. After that, Olman and Will’s mother Shiera to the spirit world.
Grandpa Bill and Grandma Lola
Bill and Lola were the parents of Olman and Neil’s father. Bill was known to be a great architect and helped construct the prison under King Edward’s castle. Lola was known to be a great chef, but lately has begun to create odd dishes because of her worry for Will. When Olman journeyed to Itory and met Shiera, she taught the family the flute anthem of the Itory village, and Lola would hum that melody to herself when she was worried. Bill and Lola raise Will after he loses his father and give Will a good amount of freedom. They are latter raided as solders from Edward Castle search for the light ring, but escape to Itory where they stay until the heat dies down. They are not heard from again till the end of the game where they send Will a letter and some of his father’s old notes on the pyramids. Bill and Lola are very wise and are not afraid to treat Will like an adult despite his immature nature.
Lance
Will’s best friend, who is alike Will in many ways, Lance grew up in South Cape and is also missing his father. After noticing Will acting strangely, he convinces Seth and Erik to join him in a search for Will, where they run into Kara and Lilly at the Incan ruins. Lilly takes them back to her village when she is summoned by the Elder and is told that Will is floating in the water. They head toward the ocean and find the Incan gold ship sailing. They all board and awake Will. A demon fish named Riverson suddenly crashes into the ship and throws Seth overboard and eats him. Lance, Lilly and Erik escape, although Lance looses his memory. After being stranded in Asia, they board a slave ship bound for a city called Frija where Lilly decides to support Lance by working at a hotel. Lance and Lilly begin to develop a relationship. Lance recovers his memory and continues his journey with Will. Lance loses his soul for a brief period when he comes in contact with a couple of vampires at the haunted seaside palace. When Lilly’s birthday approaches, Lance begins dreaming about her and asks for Will’s advice on the matter. Will suggest that Lance give Lilly a gift for her birthday. Lance latter meets his lost father in a village known as Watermia and discovers that he is ill, so he decides to search for a medicine for his father. Lance then presents Lilly with her gift, but she is shocked and leaves suddenly. Lance sets off for the Great Wall of China, trying to get Lilly out of his mind. He encounters a great demon worm known as the Sand Fanger and manages to recover a drug from it’s bodily fluids. He meets up with Lilly and confesses his feelings, amazed to learn that she feels the same. They decide to stay together in Watermia and take care of Will’s father. Lance moves back to South Cape with both Lilly and his father after the new world comes, although Lilly either leaves him for Itory to serve the Elder, or for some reason, does not attuned South Cape school.
Seth
Seth is the quieter more reserved member of the seaside gang. Seth is very intelligent and the top of his class, he also has a knack for card games. We know little about Seth because he is taken out early in the game. What we do know is that Seth is not interested in romance or having a relationship, when questioned about Kara, he said he’d rather have an adventure than a girl. This probably stems from his bad home life, his parents are constantly fighting and he probably received the wrong idea about relationships from his parents. Seth tries to scientifically break down Will’s psycho powers, but decides to chalk it up to a “sixth sense”. Seth latter joins the rest of the club as they search for Will and find him on board the Incan Gold Ship. He then falls over board and is consumed by the giant fish Riverson. Latter, while in an underwater tunnel, the party communicates with Seth via Morse code. Seth explains that his spirit still lives on within the fish, and he is becoming enlightened about the comet, and other spiritual information. Seth is seen for the last time when Will and Kara meet all the dead souls on top the Tower of Babel. Seth claims that if he could reveal his spiritual enlightenment to the world, he would surely be a great scholar. Seth then gives all his spiritual power to Will in hopes to stop the comet. Seth is reborn again in the new world, and joins Will at school again in South Cape.
Eric
Eric is the youngest and most immature member of the seaside gang but he’s considered to be a great friend nonetheless. Eric’s family was the first family to move to South Cape and also the richest, for this reason, they are looked at as a sort of “alpha family” of the town. Eric is the first to alert Kara’s existence in South Cape, although no one cares. While searching for Will, Eric ends up with the rest of the gang on the Incan Gold ship, and escapes with Lance and Lilly to Asia. Once there, they realize that Lance has lost his memory and they decide that they should head to an area where Lance would be more comfortable and could recover quicker, so they hitch a ride on a slave boat departing for the town of Frija, a slave trade town. Once there, Lilly gets a job working as a hotel manager. Eric has grown found of three of the slaves and helps them escape, he is latter captured by a slave master along with the other slaves and is kept in a slave office. Once Will makes it to Frija, he frees Eric. Eric continues to follow the party through out the journey and makes several mentions of bathrooms, alluding to his own personal wealth. Eric loses his soul for a brief period, and nearly is blown open by a bomb constructed by vampires. If the player kills the vampires as Freedan, Eric will discover Will’s secret of transformation. Eric is mostly comic relief through out the game, but is a bit of a coward at times. All and all, Eric is a very loyal friend. Eric latter returns home to South Cape on Neil’s second airplane and lives with Will and the gang in the new world once Will and Kara destroy the comet.
Lilly
Lilly is a girl from the Itory village, a village upon an ancient Incan settlement that hides itself from the rest of the world. Lilly has the ability to change herself into a flower and float around as she pleases. She works for the ghostly elder of the village and was sent to help Will out of the dungeon at Edward’s castle. After meeting Will, she takes Will and Kara to her village to show them that Will’s grandparents are quite safe. She then travels with Will on his journey for the mystic statues. While waiting with Kara outside of the Incan ruins, Lilly meets the seaside gang (Lance, Seth, and Eric) and they wish to know of Will’s well being. She then takes them to the village Elder who confirms Will’s location on the Incan Gold Ship. Lilly takes the gang to the ocean where they board the ship and awaken Will. Kara latter decides to remove a ring from the dead queen’s finger against Lilly’s advice and awakens the giant fish Riverson. Lilly escapes with Eric and Lance to Asia, where they discover lance has lost his memory. Lilly decides that Lance needs to be in a more comfortable environment to heal, so they hitch a ride on a slave ship bound for the city of Frija. Lilly then gets a job working in a hotel as a part time manager while Lance recovers. Once Lance recovers his memory, she continues on with Will. At the seaside palace, Lilly is the only other besides Will, not to lose her soul to the vampires. She morphs into her flower form and follows Will through the cursed underwater city of Mu in his pocket. Lilly latter alludes to the fact that she loves Lance. When Lance admits his feelings toward her, Lilly is shocked and runs away for the time being to think. While searching for Lance and the mystic statue on the Great Wall of China, Will meets up with Lilly and she once again rides in Will’s pocket. They meet up with Lance and Lilly confesses her feelings for Lance. They decided to live together in Watermia while Lance’s father heals. Lance returns to South Cape once the world changes, but Lilly is not heard from again afterward. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Neil
Neil is a genius inventor who lives alone in a cottage near the Nazca Lines. Neil replaces Seth after Riverson consumes him, as the brains of the group. Neil is Will’s long lost cousin and enjoys working on inventions. Neil has prototypes of a camera and oxygen tank, but neither are successful yet, the camera takes 30 minutes to work, and the oxygen tank only has one minute of oxygen. Neil has a telescope that works efficiently, but his best work of all is his airplane. After Will explains his situation, Neil takes Will to the Nazca Plains where the ancient people placed rocks to map stars. Neil thinks there might be a connection with Nazca and the comet’s location, so they travel to where the comet would be marked on the plains, when Will’s flute touches the sand and he is transported to the Sky Garden. Neil works quickly and starts up his airplane. Will is caught and Neil journeys onward toward the next mystic statue said to be in the sea. Neil’s plain crashes, and they parachute out to the sea, where the vampires capture most of the gang. Neil loses his soul for a brief period. Neil continues to travel with the group and helps uncover a Morse code from Seth in the underwater tunnel. Neil latter meets his parents in the city of Euro. Neil is amazed to discover that his parents have become successful presidents of the Rolek trade company. Will later discovers that the secret behind the company’s success is the slave market, and Rolek is in fact a front for the slave trade. Neil’s parents had been killed under Gem’s orders shortly before the team arrived, and The Moon Tribe posed as Neil’s parents so that he would learn the truth. Neil took the rest of the day to examine his life, and amazed Will by falling apart emotionally. The next day, Neil apologized and explained that he had inherited the company, and would turn it into a company about slave freedom. Neil then leaves the party. Will meets up with Neil again in an office in the dessert village of Dao, one of the biggest slaves export towns. Neil transformed the company into pepper Import Company to do away with slave trade. Neil is last seen dropping Will and Kara off at the Tower of Babel, he then drops Eric off in South Cape. Neil is never seen again after that. He quite possibly could have returned to his cottage and continued inventing, or moved his inventions to the company HQ in Euro as he transformed Rolek into a true trade company, and all slavery abolished.
Gameplay
While Illusion of Gaia has a large cast of characters, Will, Freedan, and Shadow are the only playable characters in the game. They each have unique abilities, and certain areas are impassable without a specific character. For example, in the first dungeon, Freedan's sword is required to hit a switch out of Will's reach. Specific techniques are granted to each character as the game progresses, such as Freedan's Dark Friar attack or Will's Psycho Slide.
Characters share the same health and defense scores, but have different levels of strength. Freedan, for example, does noticeably more damage than Will.
Defeating all enemies in a room earns the player a jewel. These jewels increase your attack, defense, or health power. After an enemy is killed, it will leave a stone - either a small or a large one. Collecting 100 of these allows you to restart closer to where you died with all enemies still defeated.
Combat is relatively simple. Attacks are almost exclusively melee, using Will's flute, Freedan's sword, or Shadow's pseudopod. Enemies' health bars appear upon attacking, showing as a series of red spheres that decrease in size upon striking. Bosses cannot be revisited, and enemies do not reappear unless Will loses all his lives.
Illusion of Gaia has only one difficulty setting, like many RPGs. Saving is accomplished at 'Dark Spaces' located throughout each level -- including areas without enemies, such as Will's hometown. Also within the Dark Spaces, you can heal and occasionally change characters or gain new abilities.
Within the game, hidden throughout various locales, are items called Red Gems. Fifty in total, they must be returned to Gem the Jeweler to receive rewards. Collecting all the Red Gems results in revealing one of the game's few secrets, where Gem is revealed to be Solidarm, a villain from Soul Blazer, and turns out to be responsible for creating the slave trade in order to locate Red Gems all around the world.
Illusion of Gaia English beta
A pre-release English version of Illusion of Gaia has been uncovered, which contains a number of differences in presentation and translation. First and most apparent is that the prototype has a different title screen, based on the original Japanese one. It features small sprites of the main characters running on the surface of the comet, and the title is given as Soul Blazer: Illusion of Gaia. Nintendo is not listed on the title credits, but the prototype was almost certainly designed for Nintendo of America internal use.
The translation is mostly similar to the release version of Illusion of Gaia, but uses names closer to the Japanese version - Will is called Tim, and Kara is called Karen. There are also translation errors that were cleaned up in the final release; for example, the comet (彗星 suisei, rendered in-game as すい星) is mistakenly called 'the crystal' (水晶 suishō) at least once.
The game mechanics are identical to the final version, but there are some graphical glitches. One such instance occurs at the end of the opening sequence, where a mode 7 display is rendered incorrectly.
External links
Quintet games | |
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