Illusion of Fun

I lied. You actually get plenty of fun. 

Illusion of Gaia is the second game in the famed Quintet series of loosely connected experiences. I played Soul Blazer a few months ago, so now, in the middle of my only playing Japan only games (IoG is not region locked), I decided now is the best time to give the sorta sequel a go. 

Illusion of Gaia starts off as a standard action game of the time. You’re an orphan with strange powers, and an evil overlord ransacks your house looking for something your historian father left behind. You can’t find it, but talk to him anyway, and you get thrown in prison. You escape, along with the princess, and then your flute starts talking to you. Okay, so it gets weird fast. You’re then thrust into a touching story about love and friendship, which are more typical ideas. Towards the end, though, the game touches on the merits of human evolution, what a soul is, and the cycle of rebirth. Sometimes, it hits, like when you slowly lose your companions as they find a place to settle down and settle the reasons why they came on the journey with you. Other times, it’s weird, like when Kara’s pet pig randomly shows up after you’ve crossed multiple oceans, via shipwreck and plane crash, a three week long tunnel walk, and a final continent for good measure, only to gain sacrificial sentience and the feasting powers of Jesus. It’s almost hilarious. It also gets Xenogears level deep at the very end, which just confused me. Even the final boss isn’t a thing; it’s a concept! Didn’t help that the final dungeon was a dropped ball. 

Gameplay is quite solid. It builds off the foundation of Soul Blazer, but feels much bigger and less formulaic. Rather than spawn camping monster lairs, all the mobs are already on the field. Killing all of them now rewards you with stat gains. The basics are the same, but combat has tangible rewards you can feel live. It isn’t just a way to force the story. And monsters can be defeated in three ways. You play as Will, and Will can transform into two other dudes. One of them isn’t given a lore reason, but he looks hella rad, so who cares? Freedan is large, imposing, and eventually learns to throw energy around. The other is Shadow, a sentient light. He has a whip like arm and can melt into the floor. He only appears in the penultimate dungeon, and I liked Will more. Will is faster and eventually has more attacks. He can slide, spin, and break statues. Performing all of these special attacks is a tad cumbersome, mind you. Holding down the attack button and waiting for it to charge mid battle isn’t the greatest experience. I never found it reliable and just spammed basic attacks or Will’s slide attack. I accidentally jump attacked a lot, which was interesting. 

The soundtrack is varied and fun. I grew sick of the town theme towards the end, but there are a handful of other songs I might add to a playlist. Not a lot of key changes in this sound font, but I’m not a music nerd, so whatever. 

The graphics are of a similar tone. All the dungeons look different, with bonus points for playing differently as well. Towns are equally unique. If someone showed you a picture of all the dungeons, you could tell which was which instantly. Is there only one cave!?

A good way to describe Illusion of Gaia is that it’s well built but lacking a good paint job. Will may be the only playable character, but there are plenty of friends along the way. The world is giant, but feels kinda empty. You go at speed from event to location, often over the course of weeks, so you don’t get to see how things change. And the only side quest ends up being, well…

So, you collect gems throughout the game. Some of these are nonsense and difficult with hella hidden or random triggers. You even have to enslave a person… And your reward for doing all of this is a big pile of nothing! A secret boss that gives you an ass whooping in a bonus dungeon that doesn’t even boost a stat. What the hell were they thinking? It was a waste of everything and made the ending hour feel even worse. Cool callback to Soul Blazer? I don’t care. 

Illusion of Gaia is a lot of fun until you start to think about it. It’s a weird story filled with melodramatic scenes that take forever to go, a terrible side quest, a lack of villains, and a final dungeon boss rush that can soft lock you, ruining the experience. IoG gets 68%.