Illusion of Time / Illusion of Gaia (SNES)

I have no idea what happened to all the SNES games this year. A year back I must have been playing a new Super Nintendo game for the site every other week, but somehow I've managed to avoid writing about one for over seven months straight (aside from like seven screenshots worth of words in my Genocide 2 article) and I don't even know why!

Well I'm fixing that right now, by taking a look at a classic Super Nintendo game, Illusion of Time. That's what it's called in Europe and Australia anyway, though you might know it better by the US title: Illusion of Gaia. You could also call it Soul Blazer II I suppose if you wanted to confuse people, as it's part of a trilogy of SNES RPGs by Japanese developer Quintet that ended with Terranigma (or Granstream Saga if, like author Douglas Adams, you consider the definition of 'trilogy' to be more of suggestion than a rule).

Illusion of Gaia (SNES)

Oh crap, this is what the US title screen looks like? That is so much better! Once again I've been cursed to endure an inferior logo design due to a cruel and senseless name change.

I'm sure it's just a crazy coincidence that the G has the same 'diamond and two arrows' shape etched into it as on the Z does on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's cover art.

Huh, I just start off in a school with a few lines of backstory? No long intro explaining how the Dark Lord Malevibad the Ultrawicked and his four mid-bosses were sealed away a thousand years ago? No endless in-game cutscene with ten straight minutes of message boxes? I don't even have to go visit the King and/or Village Elder?

I think this game and I may just get along.

I'm playing as Will, the blond-haired guy on the left, the son of an explorer who went missing during a disastrous trip to the Tower of Babel one year ago. Will still believes that his father is alive though, and is determined to travel the world to look for him... right after he graduates from school.

Does this bother you, huh? Are you bothered by this? Is it driving you mental? No?

My initial tests with the 'stick twirl' button have produced inconclusive results. Further testing required.

By the way, that statue in the background is a replacement for a cross that was in the Japanese game, as any reference to religion was frowned upon by Nintendo of America back in the 90s. And then obliterated. The teacher is obviously still a monk though, as that doesn't technically break their guidelines.

The other students left the church through the side door on the right, but I want to go investigate the room in the back first. Because, I have to be honest here, I want to see if there's anything I can rob from my teacher. There might be a health potion in there that could mean the difference between life and death at some point, don't judge me!

There's a magical star gate on the church roof. I cannot say that I expected that.

Well as enticing as the idea of jumping straight into another part of the universe with no supplies (and potentially no way back) is to me right now... I think I'll leave it alone until I've explored the town a bit first.

This woman picks up the pot, carries it over to the left, puts it down, picks it back up again, and then puts it right back where she found it. That's so weird. Though I guess you gotta do something to keep yourself sane when you're stuck as an NPC in a JRPG. I mean the only other thing these people have to live for is the chance to say a line or two of dialogue to me when I talk to them. IF I decide to talk to them.

These guys seem much more scripted than typical SNES RPG NPCs though, as they all have their routines that they go through. It's only a small town so there's not many of them around, but there's a weapon salesman going from door to door and kids on a roof playing Red Light, Green Light. And the best bit of all of this is that I can walk right through them, so I can't get trapped as they walk around.

I'll should start inviting myself into random houses then. There may be treasures within, plus it's the only way I'll ever find my way back home and I kind of need to do that to continue with the plot.


LATER, AT WILL'S HOUSE.

Well there's one way to drain all my good will away: tell me to 'go play' in an RPG. I demand clear, direct instructions dammit! A lot of JRPG designers seem to rely on their players having a desire to methodically locate and interact with every NPC in an area, and assume that they'll eventually stumble across the next story trigger through natural curiosity, and it's maddening to me. I'm maddened here.

See what they've done to me, they've broken the spell. Now I can help but notice that the dining table is almost as tall as Will is, and he's taller than most people in town!

Fine then, I'll go 'play outside' then. The other students at church school mentioned meeting up 'at the usual place!' so I'll go look for that.

Will's hair starts blowing in the breeze when I walk down to the docks! That's such an amazing little detail, I've never seen an RPG like this do that before.

All is forgiven Illusion of Time, c'mon let's go somewhere and play.

I found the others hiding out in a cave at the seashore, playing cards. Suddenly Lance's random "Like always, the cave at the seashore!" line when I talked to him back at the school is making a lot more sense to me.

The others want to see Will show off his amazing special powers, first by using his spinning stick move to pull that statue head towards him, then by successfully choosing the Ace of Diamonds from the four cards face down on the sand. It's a pretty random pair of super powers to have, but I'm sure they'll be endlessly useful in the JRPG battles to come. I'll never be caught out by a 'one of these doors lead to freedom, the others to certain death' trap at least.

Will's friends got bored of his awesome powers after that and went right back to playing cards. They didn't even bother picking up the three cards left on the floor, but who wants to play with damp sandy cards anyhow? Chatting with them didn't help much as they just keep repeating the same line of dialogue, so I guess this is my cue to go back home.

Oh no, the Princess has escaped her castle and now she's hiding out in my house with her pet pig!

Well she was giving it her best shot anyway, until the King's guards found her and dragged her away again. I'm kind of surprised that the matter was resolved so quickly and painlessly, with no adventures or trips to visit the King required. Now I can move on to dealing with this mysterious letter my grandparents have just gotten.

"Bring the Crystal Ring from Olman's things to Edward Castle.
-King Edward."

Aw crap.

I couldn't fine Olman's ring in the end (that's Will's missing father by the way), but I decided to leave Will's grandparents at home and go off to the castle by myself regardless. If the King wants my dad's ring so badly he can give me a good reason first.

This world map is a bit like the Mode 7 enhanced overworld of Final Fantasy 6, with two major differences:

1. There are no random battles.
2. I have absolutely no choice in where Will goes.

I was asked "Where do you go?" and my only options were "Quit" and "Edward's Castle", so I went off to the castle. Always time to quit later.


SOON.

I couldn't speak to King Edward right away as he's eating lunch, but that gives me just enough time to go up and chat with Princess Kara about things. Wow, it's almost like I have to go up here and talk to her before the story will progress. In fact a guard literally said "Go to the second floor if you want to meet King Edward," which I kind of appreciate actually. He had no in-story reason to say that, seeing as the King is in his throne room on the ground floor, but I'll take that over wandering aimlessly.

Anyway Kara seems happy enough, so I'll leave here and go get this meeting with the King over with. Actually fuck the King, I've started exploring this castle now so he can wait until I've finished.

The fuck? He won't let me explore the prison in the basement because 'innocent people can't enter'. I can't believe this blatant discrimination!

I'm going to take this matter straight to the King and I WILL NOT REST until I've convinced him to order his guards to let me through. I haven't found a single box, bookcase, barrel or cupboard in the whole game that I've been able to loot for items so far and I doubt the prison will be any different, but... well it's the principle of the thing!

Hah, I knew I could make him see reason.

Will has been stuck in this cell for less than a minute and he's already going a bit strange, talking to himself about how the moss on the floor must have encouraged other prisoners.

A few minutes later and he starts imagining that his dad is talking to him through his flute, then he sees a pig arriving to give him the key to his cell...

Hang on, this key is actually looking very real to me. It's as tangible as that musical note at least, which represents a melody Will was taught earlier. That's the only other thing I've got in my inventory so far by the way. I've searched a church, an entire town, and every floor of this castle, and haven't found so much as a health potion.

I apologise for how this animation jumps by the way, I was trying to keep the filesize down by looping it too early. It gets the look of it across at least.

The key actually worked! That'll do pig, that'll do.

I've learned that I'm the only prisoner down here, and that they could've given me a better cell. There's a bloody star gate sitting in the corner of this one for instance, giving prisoners a chance to walk on out into another dimension whenever they feel a need to stretch their legs or escape.

Also there's no bars or door.

I decided to step into the stargate this time and found myself face to face with Gaia, the source of all life! Then Will asphyxiated in the cold emptiness of deep space, GAME OVER.

Actually this is the Dark Space, which is a completely different kind of space only accessible by the chosen one. The main difference between the two (aside from the presence of oxygen, gravity, and a giant tentacle-head statue), is that in Dark Space I'm able to save my game. So I did.

Unfortunately the only place that Dark Space leads to is back to the room I came from, so I have to take the long route out of the prison, down through the underground viaduct under the castle.

On the plus side, I've learned that I can use my flute as a deadly weapon, taking out anything directly in front of me with a few good prods (less if I lunge at them instead by tapping the d-pad in their direction straight after hitting the attack button). Dead enemies leave behind a shiny ball that I can pull closer to me with my spinning flute power (see, I told you it'd be useful in fights), and if I collect the balls... something might eventually happen. It's a mystery! They definitely don't give me health or experience.

Oh, I should also mention that enemies die with a skull-plosion, because that's awesome.

I don't know how screaming skulls inside explosions became a thing in games, but they definitely get around. I've seen them show up in everything from a British strategy game to a Spider-Man platformer... well okay those are almost the only games I've seen them in besides this, but I'll be keeping my eye out.

Well I don't want to sound ungrateful about this map, but it seems that they forgot to include the 'map' bit. They haven't even managed to fit all 10 monsters onto it!

It's important to know where they all are though, as wiping them all out gets me a vital character stat upgrade: either health, attack or defence. Oh, plus the balls obviously. Can't forget the balls.

Here's what I'm dealing with at the moment, aside from the bats. I've got sea monsters firing off eyeball rays at me, and skeletons firing off... skeleton rays or something, I dunno. The skeletons don't attack all that often and the sea monsters are very predictable so it's only my own carelessness I really have to worry about here. I am down to my last two hit point crystals though and that's my own dumb fault.

I can't just dodge through enemies though, as aside from the stat bonus (and the balls), it's likely that I need to slaughter them all to open the exit.

Okay this is new, I popped into another Dark Space portal along the way and was rewarded with full health and the option to transform into a knight called Freedan! He has a sword and armour and looks like the player characters from Rogue Legacy, so I expect this is going to work out much better for me.

When I'm playing in the form of Freedan I don't have the extra-damage lunge attack, but I do more damage naturally so I don't really need it. Turns out that swords are better weapons than flutes, who knew?

The way north is blocked until I kill this guy, so I suppose I'd better get it over with. No wonder the cells were abandoned if those poor guards have to kill every single enemy down here to open the door whenever they bring a new prisoner through. They've probably just been kicking them out the back door instead with a warning.


A DARING ESCAPE LATER.
(I hit some more bats and skeletons, then met with the Princess and walked out with her entirely unchallenged).

I returned to the starting town temporarily with Princess Kara and a new ally called Lilly, but I can't stick around seeing as the King has sent a bounty hunter after us.

Before I head off to Lilly's town though I'm going to give the treasure I've collected to this trader to keep safe for me. He seems like a trustworthy type so I'm sure it'll be fine.

He tells me he'll give me a healing herb in exchange for 3 Red Jewels, a Defence Force in exchange for 5, a Life Force in exchange for 8, etc. I'm just going to assume that the forces are a stat increase, and that it's definitely in my interest to find more jewels so I can purchase them. It's impossible to grind in this though, so there's only a finite number of these items in the world.


LATER, IN LILLY'S SECRET TOWN OF ITORY.

I've automatically travelled to Lilly's secret town of Itory, hidden from the world by a magic barrier that I was able to remove with the power of awesome. Will knew the musical code to turn it off because his grandmother was singing it earlier (it showed up in my inventory as a musical note, remember).

Speaking of Will's grandparents, they've both made their way here and are hiding out from the King's bounty hunter. They poisoned his men and ran away to their former home of Itory while the soldiers were... digestively inconvenienced.

Am I done here now then, have I finished the game? Will's grandparents are safe, I rescued the Princess... oh, I suppose his father did mention something about travelling to ruins and collecting Mystic Statues while I was stuck in that prison cell. But who can really trust advice coming out of a flute?

Whoa, there's a trick you don't see in many action RPGs. If I see two ramps together like this I can run down and leap massive distances like I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. Shame that doesn't work at all in real life.

Well the people in town kept telling me to meet with the Village Elder, so I suppose I can cross that cliché off my list as well now. He turned out to be standing in the flowers on the other side of the jump, and he entrusted me with a task to figure out an Incan riddle, unsolved for hundreds of years. Because Will has 'sucker' written across his forehead.

First I'll need to get myself an Incan statue, enshrined in the cave below.

Well, crap. I guess I'll have to go tell the Elder that he forgot to lock his shrine and the statue is long gone. I don't know what else to do here now, I'm utterly stuck.

After trying for a minute or two to activate the statues, walls, stones etc. I finally gave up and resorted to a walkthrough. Which incidentally is included in the manual. The solution was to hit the back wall with the flute until I found an area that sounded hollow, then to smash through the weak wall with a charged run move.

I bet there's one NPC I missed somewhere in the village that gives a clue about this. At least I hope there is, as otherwise there's absolutely no hint that I can even hit walls with my flute! I definitely wouldn't have ever solved this on my own without some serious hints.


EVENTUALLY.

Okay now I've got a full set of Incan statues I'm ready to travel these ruins across the cliffs and place them "where the spirits' breath cannot reach". I guess that means 'someplace where there's no wind', or with any luck 'the really obvious place at the end of this dungeon'.

This time I'm fighting colour-cycling mud-yetis and dart-spitting head-turrets, and again they're only a threat if I'm being stupid, because they're very straightforward and predictable. The trick with these turrets for instance, is that they they either fire in a '+' shape or an 'x' shape depending on where I'm standing, so there's a huge arc where I'm perfectly safe. I have to get in close and hit them a few times to kill them, but if I get the timing right I can just step out of the way a split-second before they fire to trick them into shooting the wrong way, and they can't do a thing about it.

I hope I'm going the right way. When I killed all the enemies out here a ladder appeared heading upwards, but I'm pretty sure that was trying to trick me into going back to the start of the ruins. Mostly pretty sure.

Everything out here on these cliffs looks so much the damn same: it's all doors and ladders and little patches of grass with paving stones on them, and I could really use that map feature they almost gave me right about now.

Awesome! The door did lead to a new area and I found an herb! I guess the British version of the game received a new name but not a new translation, because that should be 'a herb' for us, as the 'h' generally isn't silent here.

These healing herbs are incredibly rare so this is actually a huge help.

Hang on, this is a dead end! I could reach these bugs with my flute when they wandered by, but killing them all didn't seem to open anything, and the game's usually really good at showing me what's changed when I kill an entire group.

I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to hit the walkthrough again if I want to keep making progress.


SOON.

Crap, I should've noticed that a stone was missing, giving me a gap to jump through. That one's my own fault for being unobservant.

But in my defence, the place it leads to looks almost exactly like the place I just came from! In fact the first ledge I tried jumping from DID send me back to the place I just came from, which didn't help with my confusion any.

I'll be very happy when I never have to come back here again.

A downwards slope without a ramp at the end to send me airborne, huh? Something else to add to my list of mysteries.


LATER.

I transformed into Freedan at a Dark Space portal and now I've learned the Melody of the Wind... which I can only play as Will. So I guess I have to go and transform back now and then play the melody to open up the next part of the path. Where I have to play it through I have no bloody idea.


EIGHT MINUTES OF BACKTRACKING THROUGH THE RUINS AND PLAYING THAT TUNE AT EVERY PLACE I WENT LATER.

Well I gave up and checked the walkthrough again. In fact at this point I'm seriously considering just leaving the thing open and following it step by step as my patience is evaporating.

Though I have to admit that I could have also solved this one myself if I wasn't so focused on using the Melody of the Wind. It turns out that the real key to making progress here was the transformation to Freedan, as his longer reach allows me to attack this statue head. Destroying the head then raises the ramp I need to make the running jump.

Then a few rooms later I used the Melody of the Wind here to make the the correct tile glow. I figured that one out myself!

With the correct tile revealed, I placed the Incan statue down and... nothing happened. I stepped on it... nothing happened. I spent five minutes screwing around and trying everything... nothing happened. Okay, this likely has a really obvious solution, so I'm prepared to start kicking myself for being an idiot just as soon as I've looked up what exactly it wants me to do.

Oh, I just had to stand on it for 12 seconds.

Well I'm sure I just missed a clue along the way, it happens, but this is the final straw for me. I'm following the walkthrough step by step from this point until I reach a good place to quit, because personally I prefer the kinds of puzzles that make any fucking sense at all.


AFTER PLACING A COUPLE OF INCAN STATUES AND STANDING ON ANOTHER TILE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

Oh hey it's a large, impressive looking boss enemy! It climbed out of the pit, then started waving its hands at me and shooting rows of flames across the floor. Just to make absolutely sure that I'm entirely screwed it then also brought out a deadly octahedron, which bounces around the screen like a Pong ball, except surrounded with deadly fire.

So I have to get myself into a position that isn't about to be hit by any of those four things as I work my around the room, smacking the guy from all directions, trying to find his weak point. Seems simple enough.

Oh shit, these things really carve chunks out of my health bar! I was expecting to last at least seven hits, but it destroyed me in what seemed like three.

Bloody difficulty spikes, man. A player who is up to this challenge would've found the rest of the enemies so far insultingly easy, while I'm hitting this guy like a brick wall.

It's not all bad news though! As I've been diligently collecting balls all game, I've earned myself two extra lives! It's mostly bad news though, as the extra lives bring me back with only half my health, which isn't going to cut it. The last save point was close enough though that I might as well just reset, reload, and return here instead.


10 MISERABLE MINUTES LATER.

Holy shit I actually killed the bastard! My reward: a screenful of skullplosions. I am honestly shocked, I really didn't think I could do it.

The secret turned out to be that I had to hit the hands a few times each to knock them back into the pit, which then made the head vulnerable for a short while. Then it brought out the laser beam and I had to go hide until I got another chance to start hitting hands again. Those healing herbs really helped here too.

Apparently in the original Japanese version, hitting the hands isn't necessarily, so this is a case of the game being made tougher in the West, presumably for the sole reason of pissing me off personally. Or maybe it really was far too easy originally, I don't know.

Plus I don't care, because I'm finally free now!

Free to cross the ocean on the fabled Incan Ship of Gold: the shiniest ship to ever sail the seven seas.

Don't ask how I got here, I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that I am their king and the mysterious invaders cannot catch us out here on the open sea. I just hope they remembered to pack some fresh fruit along with all the gold bricks they've no doubt got stashed below decks.

Well this seems like as good a place to quit as any. I'll just keep playing long enough to save my game and then I'll turn it off. I haven't seen another save point since the boss fight, so if I quit now and decide to play it later I'll have to defeat him all over again.


MUCH LATER.

It's been 21 days now since the incident. 21 days trapped on a raft with just Princess Kara to keep me company. All I do each time I get control is wander around bored, hit fish, or talk to Kara until she runs out of lines, then the next day starts and I do it all over again. Kara seems to be experiencing some actual character growth out here, away from her castle and her life of luxury, but unless she's going to grow into a save portal I'm finding it hard to care.

Eventually we were rescued and found ourselves in a new town. I still couldn't find a place to save. We travelled to another town, full of pretty houses and slavers. I still couldn't find a place to save. I turned the game off.


CONCLUSION

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There was a point during Illusion of Time where I was absolutely certain I was going to give the game one of my little Gold Star badges, signifying that it was something I'd want to keep playing. I'd reached the end of the underground prison viaduct, combat seemed shallow but fun, the plot was moving along, and there'd been a bare minimum of frustrations.

But then I just had to keep playing it a little longer, and my interest started to steadily wear away as the puzzles and level design made it difficult for me to know where I'd already been and what I was meant to be doing next. Either on their own is bad enough, but when you add the two together it leads to backtracking and misery.

I was happier when I was out hitting monsters than I was closing message boxes though, as the cast weren't all that endearing to me, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to having to speak to them again. It didn't help I seemed to be looking at the conversations through a fuzzy layer of sub-optimal translation, to the point where Will's lines and narration started getting mixed up sometimes. He kept having 'Wait, did I say that just then or did I just think that? Am I saying this out loud right now?' moments, except unintentionally. It wouldn't be so bad, except that the game obviously wants players to spend time with these people, going as far as trapping them on a raft with Kara for several days. Without a save point.

Illusion of Time is a slick and reasonably decent looking action-adventure-RPG with solid gameplay, lots of nice details and clever touches, and even the obligatory 'save the world' plot seems to be taking a detour down the road less travelled. I'm shallow enough that I can't stay mad at a SNES RPG that actually bothers to have NPCs walking around behind the windows of their houses, but I doubt I'll ever want to play this again either.

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Next time on Super Adventures there's one last 'I' title to go and it's a sequel to something I've played recently, so adjust your expectations accordingly. (And then leave me a comment.)