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The Illusion of Gaia(SNES) (E) (Adventure) |
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Greatness.
The Illusion of Gaia was a strange, off-topic project by Enix, the creators of the Dragon Warrior series. It seems as if Enix decided to step into a foreign field and create a game that wasnt an RPG or E.V.O.- thank god. Regardless, this was pretty much a low key release, as not many people were expecting an Action/Adventure game from Enix to be good.
They were wrong. This game exudes such perfection and such depth, it probably even trumps The Legend of Zelda in complete epic storyline and game design. Instead of using the typical Zelda or Crystalis engine to just run around and go places, the Illusion of Gaia perfects this whole concept and adds to it, making it much more fun than any other Action Adventure game I have EVER played, period.  The story starts out with Will, a blonde haired kid living in a port town called South Cape. Will has always had powers, and has the ability to move things telepathically, as well as a host of other sixth sense abilities. His father was a great adventurer, and was lost in the Tower of Babel on a trip- leaving Will to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Suddenly, the King of the area commands Will to come to the castle and bring a ring (That he doesn't have). Slowly but surely, Will is outsted of his Port home and into an adventure. The whole idea of this game is that Will returns to the Tower of Babel. OF course, he is rather weak for most of the adventuring, so his sixth sense abilities come into play- such as the ability to turn into different characters. While the other abilities like the Spin Dash for Will could be considered cool abilities, they are obviously second to the ability to turn into the knight Freedan and the strange whispy looking man called Shadow. Each character has his or her own abilities and specialties- Freedan has a huge sword that can go past barriers to hit switches, whereas Will can basically run like hell and do extreme jumps. I won't delve too far into Shadow, as he appears in the very latter part of the game.  The game mechanics other than this need to be praised, too. Will is limited to transforming and un-transforming at only Dark Space points littered around Dungeons and towns, and Will must turn back into himself when "All the enemies dissapear" (Meaning that you complete the dungeon). Then, small abilities have to be played with precision, such as a part where Will must slide under a barrier, hit a switch, slide back, turn into Freedan, and hit a second switch... you get the idea. Also, there is an interesting mechanic much like an RPG- Will/Freedan can earn more Hit Points, Power, or Defence by killing all the enemies in one room. While this sounds simple and mundane, it adds to the RPG-ness and Depth of the game, and fleshes out the game, unlike doing "Heart Piece" ripoffs and "Different Swords".  The presentation is really what makes this game super amazing. Will has to go and get all of these statues hidden in Dungeons to open the Tower of Babel- but, suprisingly, this doesnt mean you're going to be dungeon crawling most of the time. Will's friends from the Port Town (South Cape) tend to follow him, and sometimes give him ideas where to find the next dungeon, or in some circumstances, help him (Such as renting out a plane to catch your falling rear end from Sky Garden). There are a TON of dungeons. Starting off, there is a Prison, a Mountainous Dungeon, Angkor Wat, Mu... the list goes on. Each Dungeon (And, suprisingly, each Town) is very well detailed, and much time can be spent in each one. Each area has its own quirks and things to find, and any gamer will find themselves spending quite a bit of time in these expansive places. I never got bored of this game, and I definately never felt like I was tired of the story, as the Story goes on a breakneck speed of finding things, interacting with your friends, etc etc...  Overall, I give this game 5 stars. Actually, I would go and remove some of my 5 star reviews if I felt like this game would get more reading via the 5 star review. I don't care if you have to swim backwards in toxic waste to get this game, you will not be dissapointed. Also, just to note, this game was very low key, but every single Adventure gamer I know reveres this game as a small gaming god, even some agreeing with me as better than the Zelda series (Even in its entirety!)
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