The Storyline, and it's Critics

[Yet One More Idiot]

....for some reason this game would have been better as a Manga or Anime series... not to metion it's a very short game.

You've certainly got that bit right, Hydra.7 - the box for Illusion of Time proudly boasted on the back, along with being suitable for ages 5 and up....

"Over 80 hours of gameplay!"

I would seriously love to know who they got to play the game that took 80 hours to finish it. The FIRST time I played it through, I got from start to finish, with 49 of the 50 red jewels, not using the manual's walkthrough at all, in about 14 hours! The second time I made it through with 100% completion in about 8 hours, and now my average time is about 6.5 to 7 hours for a 100% run.

They really overestimated their game design. At the end of the day, there was too little plot, there was WAY too little gameplay in the dungeons, could've probably done with a few puzzles to slow things down a bit as well but that's optional. O, and the first time I played it I was 13, and found it far too simple.

Terranigma, on the other hand, is a way better game. It's like what Illusion of Time wants to be when it grows up.

[tay120n64]

They should combine Illusion of Gaia with Lufia 2.

I think that's what God plays on his SNES, actually.

[Jason Tandro]

80 Hours?! This must be the guy from Monty Python who says everything 10x too much, because at the best of times I can clear Illusion of Gaia in about 2 sittings of 6-7 hours a piece for a total game time of (as has been said) around 14 hours. I suppose they wanted you to read every single bit of dialogue and play the few and far between mini-games endlessly for a few hours, and they must have thought their puzzles were trickier than they really were...

You want a game with a high play time. Any of the Elder Scrolls games probably peak around 200 hours worth of gameplay.

[inferiare]

You want a game with a high play time. Any of the Elder Scrolls games probably peak around 200 hours worth of gameplay.

Currently, my save file on Persona 3, at the end of the game (all I have to do is beat the boss), is sitting at 109 hours of gameplay.

[EverPhoenix]

You want a game with a high play time. Any of the Elder Scrolls games probably peak around 200 hours worth of gameplay.

Currently, my save file on Persona 3, at the end of the game (all I have to do is beat the boss), is sitting at 109 hours of gameplay.

ha. my pokemon diamond recently hit about 160 hours. and platinum already has almost 40. sure, in diamond i did almost everything there is to do in the game... but still. its a ds game

[EverPhoenix]

back on topic:

i posted this here instead of making my own thread for it, because it seemed to fit exactly what i wanted to do: criticise the game, specifically the story.

now that i finally finished the game, i was rather disappointed with the story. sure, the game is fun enough... dungeons and gameplay in general is ridiculously linear (but thats not always a bad thing, see Grandia II).

SPOILER









the game is also quite short. 6 statues... each guarded by a boss. does this remind anyone of zelda? except theres only one lot of these to collect.

the plot, as far as i could see, was going nowhere... the occasional mention of will's father and the tower of babel, and some random romantic awkwardness here and there... and then BOOM, somehow it turns out that both will and kara are the chosen 2, light and dark, both "evolved humans", and somehow manage to fuse together to give shadow the power to throw phoenixes/firebirds. how random.

another complaint about the story... at a couple of points in the game there is a room with souls in it. they seem to like telling stories, and almost, imo, explain the story which should have been a gradual process.

another thing that annoys me that there isnt any explanation whatsoever as to who freedan actually is... at the start it said 'you will learn more of my nature later' or something like that... and we didnt. we just learned that he could throw energy balls, activate something like the cane of byrna, and cause earthquakes.

the appearance of dark gaia didnt really make much sense, as the concept of light and dark was only introduced in the tower of babel. at least in terranigma its a concept touched upon many a time, and youd half expect the boss to be who he is. in IoG, theres this talk of a comet. sure, sounds fair enough. then you somehow end up on the comet, beating it up. once again, sure. it was mentioned enough times, it could be the boss. then dark gaia comes out. although he does look cool, where did he come from? why is it that until the final dungeon, there isnt a single sign of anything that could possibly hint at a greater force moving the comet? since the comet is supposed to be 'the highest form of consciousness'. or are dark gaia and the comet the same thing, one independent entity who likes to make things mutate?

also, what exactly was up with the moon tribe? they just randomly appeared here and there, sometimes helped you (sky garden), sometimes werent so nice.

summary: although an enjoyable experience, i think the story needed a damn lot more work. character development was decent enough, i did get to understand the characters to some degree near the end.

[tay120n64]

That was what always irked me growing up. Everything kind of expected you to just accept whatever happened, regardless of any explanation. That's why I think it needs a remake most. Maybe expand the story a bit. It's really good, but it's still lacking.

[Freedan]

another thing that annoys me that there isnt any explanation whatsoever as to who freedan actually is... at the start it said 'you will learn more of my nature later' or something like that... and we didnt. we just learned that he could throw energy balls, activate something like the cane of byrna, and cause earthquakes.

All I can think of by "learning more of his nature" is the fact that there's a light counterpart to him (Kara); that he's one component of Shadow's power.

Still, they did a pretty poor job of explaining it.

I can't really disagree with pretty much everything else you mentioned.

[Jason Tandro]

another thing that annoys me that there isnt any explanation whatsoever as to who freedan actually is... at the start it said 'you will learn more of my nature later' or something like that... and we didnt. we just learned that he could throw energy balls, activate something like the cane of byrna, and cause earthquakes.

All I can think of by "learning more of his nature" is the fact that there's a light counterpart to him (Kara); that he's one component of Shadow's power.

Still, they did a pretty poor job of explaining it.

I can't really disagree with pretty much everything else you mentioned.

Freedan was a convoluted metaphor. Freedan was the acceptance of Will to strip away his childhood innocence. The figure that he used as a personification of his growth to adulthood.

The statement "you will come to understand my nature" is the explanation of Will's growth and maturity throughout the mission, which we definitely see, if somewhat unnaturally.

[Mig-21]

I think someone said it right that what one takes away most from this game are "moments". I remember great moments, like the real life locations, like when the pig sacrifices himself, first getting on the ship, and so on, but I can't remember the story as a whole. For me, the game was enjoyable because of the gameplay, graphics, and music. There were some cool story elements in there, but I don't think the story was the strongest part of the game. Considering the time given to Will's friends at the start of the game, it is a bit baffling that not much more time is spent on them for the rest of the game, except for Kara.

Illusion is a good game, but I consider it a light RPG experience, kind of like Mystic Quest.

[PaGaN3l3m3nts]

Mmm, a very commonly mentioned thing is the lack of character development. But, I veyr much felt, as also said, that IoG is about moments. You're not supposed to see the dynamic evolution of the characters. You're supposed to play some fun game, see some interestingly executed variations of real world myths and locations, and see various scenes that exist to each one evoke strong sentiments and give you things to think about. I always just went through IoG feeling it.

IoG doesn't exist for its characters or plot. It exists to be experienced, ingesting all the little things it strings together. That's my opinion, anyways. The main story is just something to chain the real meat together.

That said, I love this game like no other.

[Shiva Indis]

Illusion is a good game, but I consider it a light RPG experience, kind of like Mystic Quest.

Mystic Quest??? That's harsh...

But on the other hand it's not far off the mark. The game design is really, really basic, even for its day. Strangely, in IoG's case basic does not exactly equate to easy. You have to know how not to set yourself up for failure, and I wouldn't call that good game design.

The way the story is told is very strange, and that has renewed my interest in the game over the years. Some parts of the game are wordy and detail-oriented - it uses first-person narration and that's never been common in video games. But more than half the time the game is sparse on detail and doesn't come through with material that you want to see. It has a much bigger cast of characters than it needs - bigger than most action RPGs, but they all exist in the plot and not in the gameplay. The game and the story are practically at odds with each other. It's just so weird.

To get kinda creepy-English-paper on you all, it's a sort of conflict of masculine (lone wolf hero, physical, reticent) elements vs. feminine (emotional, group-oriented, romantic) elements. I know I'm getting really meta now, but isn't that an interesting parallel to the underlying themes of Quintet games?

If it weren't for stuff like this I probably would have forgotten about this game.

[Vrigash]

if you can deal with some of the big story holes in the game, then its okay, i like it.

[LG]

Terranigma seriously changed my world views (evolution of the Earth and how it we could destroy things if we as a species develop in a wrong direction).

Illusion of Gaia has some great atmospheric parts and was really a quest with a group of friends.

Terranigma is the better narrativw for me, with plot twists and a FANTASTIC main character: Ark the mischievous, misunderstood troublemaker, but such a heart of gold and so courageous.

[Steppolo Steppi]

Guys, I have never played IOG fully, only played fully Soul Blazer, and after that I Re-Translated it, all I can say is that what prevented me from playing IOG was the retarded way the translation went. I am currently working on a Re-Translation of it since, the game was so badly and zerofucksgiven translated that even the most common and easy to understand sentence would not make sense what so ever. What I am saying is, besides the stupid censorship, most of the time when people speak in the game there is no logical string connecting what they say, they might go from My dad died a month ago followed by I love smelling my sweaty socks after every workout... It is pathetic and in my eyes frustrating what Robert L. Jerauld and his buddies did to this beautiful piece of art really... But nothing to fear, I am working on it and I got a new video to showcase... Muhahahaha