Ah, Illusion of Gaia. I was so, so pumped for this game. I loved the heck out of SoulBlazer, and I had become smitten with Secret of Mana at first glance — but I owned neither. So when I heard about this semi-sequel to SoulBlazer, I knew I had to have it. So, I preordered a copy from the locally owned mom-and-pop game shop (those used to exist, believe it or not)… and as the promoted release date came and passed, I called them pretty much every day to check to see if it was in stock. I’m pretty sure they hated me by the time it finally came out! And in the end it wasn’t quite worth the hassle; it was a good game, but it seemed to try a little too hard. Jeremy Signor disagrees, though; perhaps you’ll agree with his take more than mine.
I think we can all agree it was pretty awesome the way the standard edition came in a jumbo box with a super-sized manual-slash-guide and, of all damn things, a T-shirt. One that was way too big. Oh well.
I wore that shirt to school on multiple occasions.
I was a bad kid.
This game was the first JRPG I ever saw. I still remember the first dungeon, a floating temple you can jump off and land on the underside of.
The plot and character motivations were pretty ridiculous in this one… but the gameplay excels. It may be a Zelda clone, but the combat mechanics are even more fun than A Link to the Past.
IoG was a fun game, to be sure, and it was mechanically smoother (as well as prettier) than Soul Blazer. But I still prefer Soul Blazer, overall. Something about the simplicity is charming.
Of course, it’s the sequel, Terranigma, that really rocks my socks. I may actually enjoy that more than A Link to the Past, depending on what day you ask me.
Always had a soft sport for this one, but I’m not sure why, as I’m not normally a big fan of Zelda or Zelda clones. I think it’s the music that really draws me in. And hey, the mechanics are nice, I guess.
I recall it being sort of easy for a game like that… did I have just have that childish gaming prodigiousness (or, more likely, I just suck at games these days), or was it actually an easy game?
Man, an independently-owned game store just opened up by me. I haven’t bought much from them (though I’ve got my eye on that Japanese copy of MvC2 for Dreamcast — should be able to burn a boot disc and run it on my US model) but I love that it’s there.
There’s something wonderful about being able to walk into a place and ask if they have an A/V adapter for a model-1 Genesis and they not only know what the hell you’re talking about but can pull it off the shelf for you. (And then answer the followup question, “And you need a mini-stereo-to-RCA adapter out the front to get stereo, right?”)
Please give them all your money. Keep them in business. The world needs more of those.