Unpopular opinion: I prefer Soul Blazer over this game. Soul Blazer may feels more 'primitive' and have less beautiful and colorful graphics in comparison (it looks very, very old, but personally I like that very retro aesthetic). However, that game have a great balance between enemies, bosses and difficult (the story is good too), is a very underrated game. Illusion of Gaia (also known as Illusion of Time) have nicer and more colorful graphics (a great story too), but unfortunately, the game have very, very, VERY difficult bosses in contrast to the rest of the game, which can seriously ruin the experience. This is really sad, because Illusion of Gaia is a great game but also a very unbalanced one too. I've never played Terranigma (I'll try someday), people says that this game is the best of the Heaven and Earth trilogy. Sorry for my English.
After playing both of them, I also prefer Soul Blazer over Illusion, but for a different reason: Soul Blazer's design is more _open_ (as in, you can backtrack through dungeons and between hubs, despite there being little left to do since most enemies are non-respawning, and there's almost no sidequests to speak of). Illusion is a strictly linear story sending you from point A to B to C with no branches or return trips, and I also just ... didn't actually like its story, either. I couldn't call it a "bad" (or poorly-written) story, but I'm not keen on "fictionalized version of the Real World" as a setting. Now in my case, this game was on my mom's arbitrary ban list back in the day so I've only ever played it as a digital purchase. It's not the first game where I generally didn't like the story -- I disliked _Breath of Fire IV's_ story back in its day too (though I look back on it more fondly now; the parts that bugged me then no longer do now, and I can better appreciate its strong points).
I would like it back on the Snes for switch. Since you only got one chance to fight Solid Arm. The only bit that the manual doesn't tell about Since it has a walk-through of everything in the manual.
You beat Castoth and the Vampires as Will, and without taking damage? Wow. I think I tried beating them all as Will once, but not without pain. I noticed how you used invincibility frames against the vampires to survive with one hit point left; that had to have taken liquid nitrogen-temperature sangfroid.
I have no choice but to choose Freedan with the bosses except the fourth and solid arm. Will's jump attack is pretty useful with these fights, I can't beat most of these bosses with Will Castoth the Vampires and Solid Arm are a pain to beat.
My god you make this look easy. Most RPGs/ARPGs are incredibly easy even on the SNES, but these bosses are difficult. Unlike most games, there's absolutely no way people beat most of these on the first try, and especially not as Will 😐. I also had no idea the jump attack was invincible.
