Illusion of Gaia - The Greatest Overhead Adventure Game Ever? 

What was the most memorable part of Illusion of Gaia to you? Please consider supporting me at www.patreon.com/xygorgaming OR through RU-vid membership by clicking the JOIN button above!

What stands out in my memory the most is the part where you're stuck in a cave with nowhere to go, and you have to pay attention to your character and notice that there's a place where his hair is blowing in a breeze. Then you check the wall and find the hidden passage to move forward.

My favorite part is the sky garden dungeon where you flip on the bottom side to fight enemies. Coolest dungeon in the game!

The most memorable part for me, as a young teenager, was the raft story section with the girl. Back then, I hadn't discovered caffeine, I'd never taken drugs before or drank alcohol. I didn't have any semblance of ADHD. Didn't really have any worries, or concerns, or responsibilities in life. There was no internet or social media ruining everyone's minds... so I remember really enjoying the story sections and that one was excellent. I just really got tuned into it and wondering what was going to happen to us.

For some ungodly reason, what I remember most is when you were in that one city where you had to wait in a line. Yes, I'm still impressed how much it felt like an actual slow-moving line of people, and how happy it made me to get closer to the front. Never before, nor since, has any game made me feel quite so... accurately in regards to such a mundane, but very real situation. To make clear, *this was far from what I liked best about the game.* I just appreciate when a game can invoke a unique feeling from real life... also I'm a weirdo.

I guess my experience with this is different than most. This game came out when I was in 5th grade, and I remember watching a friend play it and it really didn't grab my attention- at that time, I was into games like Donkey Kong Country, Ninja Gaiden, Mortal Kombat II, Killer Instinct, Mega Man, etc.- but the music (specifically Itori town theme) was something I never forgot. One year ago, December 2020, I couldn't get the music out of my head so I decided to turn it on just to listen to the music that I remembered, and then I wanted to keep going, and eventually ended up playing through it with a guide. I was so hooked in to the gameplay and music that hours felt like seconds! My most memorable moment from the game was actually beating the final boss and watching the ending. I was floored! The music, emotion, and overall experience stuck with me for days after. I had never played RPG's of any type before this (unless you count Zelda II on NES) and this gem introduced me to Terranigma, my absolute favorite game on SNES and probably top 5 of all time. This was the game that turned me into a new JRPG fan and I have played and completed almost all of the "big ones" (Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Final Fantasy 4-6, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, and many, many others) from that era- and it was all because of this awesome game. Excellent review as always!

There were two parts that really stuck with me above all others in how dark they were compared to anything else on SNES at the time. First, fairly early on, when you go to the back streets of a down and stumble across human trafficking. Even today I can't think of many games that touch such a topic. Secondly, as a few folks have mentioned, was the Russian Glass/Roulette sequence. People gambling with their lives on the line felt far more disturbing than fighting for it. The game got dark. Spoilers Couple those things with cannibals, Jeweler Gem's reveal and its connection to Soul Blazer (and that trafficking subplot), and how in the ending, all of that harsh experience is forgotten in how the timeline is reset... the suffering that saved the world to go unknown... it was a heavy game for being so colorful and adventurous.

The music has stuck with me since I first played it. Absolutely beautiful soundtrack and enhanced the emotional themes of the story. Solid top 5 SNES game for me. Still love the game to this day.

Most memorable memory for me was my mother telling me the music was beautiful. And I was like it's a video game. Some water level. That was first of many times I would learn the water themed levels of games have the most peaceful music.

This game devastated me as a kid. There's so much sadness and loss in the plot. The final room before the last boss with all the souls of the people who died along your journey, god it hit me so hard.

This game was strangely impacting for me. Dealing with a spoiled brat while starving to death adrift on a raft.. Listening to your friend tapping on a wall that had turned into a whale or something?, watching a guy drink a shot of poison and killing himself... this game's got balls.

This was the first game that ever kept me awake past midnight playing it as a kid. The difficulty jumps from the dungeons to the bosses was pretty high, which I thought was a great challenge and made me feel successful when finally defeating the first boss and hooked me on the game. Very fond memories of this hidden gem of a game.

I remember it blew my mind back then when you could jump to the underside of that flying temple. This game's creativity is off the charts. Hope to see you cover the final game in the trilogy!

The music was great. The differing characters, puzzle solving, & just how completely different it was compared to most other RPGS/action adventure games at the time. Classic.

most memorable part of this game for me? the vampire fight, i got stuck there for a long time as i had no healing items, once i finally beat it, i never used healing items again except for one or two late game bosses lol

As a kid I barely understood the story and thought the game difficult. Replayed as an adult I found the story to be one of the most ambitious and meaningful of any video game, focusing on complex themes of human nature and the world. There are long sections with minimal gameplay but a lot of meaning, and even though you only play as Will and see things from his perspective, the journeys of the characters around will are just as meaningful. And the game being far easier than I expected.

I remember how not only your character notices his growth on an advanced part of the story, also your friends show how much they've changed during it. (the polar opposite of Pokemon X & Y where your friends are the same and bland the whole game)

While I still haven't beat the game, the soundtrack still stuck to my brain since childhood.

This may sound weird, but the most memorable aspect of the game for me was the music. The song playing when Will and Kara are saying goodbye (maybe forever) made me cry.

I grew up with a Genesis, but I had a relative with an SNES and we'd temporarily swap consoles when they came to town. That's when I first played this, and even though I didn't have enough time to really see much of the game, I came back to it years later because it made a lasting impression on me.

This game holds a special place in my heart! Some of my best teenage memories are from me, my brother and cousin playing this game... Trying to solve the puzzles and discover the red jewels! Still love so much the ambience in this game! All the mystery and eerie aura about it. Of course, it have it's flaws, like being so linear, and predictable in terms of character growth. Some skills are useless, like the earthquaker, and aura barrier became obsolete when you power up Dark friar. But the art, OST, and gameplay make up for it. The most memorable part... There are so many! But the hamlet sacrifice made sad... Not only because his sacrifice, but because of the children starving and the adults of tribe cannibalizing themselves... That moment really touched my heart... Especially when one of the kids show you the dead bones of his friend and then cry silently. Man... That was heavy for my 13 old self... Excellent video! Subscribed to your channel! ❤

I absolutely love this game. So much fun. And a great story. Can you do a in depth video about secret of evermore? That game is absolutely incredible.

Echoing what others have mentioned already; the raft scene halfway through the game was an absolutely memorable scene. I played this game way back in 2000 as a teenager, and even then, the poignant moment really felt palpable. And lastly, the ending. Perhaps top 10 ending of all time in a video game. Very satisfying.

Huge nostalgia trip hearing the South Cape music again. Takes me back to being a 90s kid playing this game at my friend’s house. He had a guide to get all the Red Gems and fight the secret boss. Terranigma is near the very top of my SNES backlog - I played the first couple of chapters once, but never all the way through yet.

Man, I love this game, even had the boxset with the shirt... wish I still had it

Illusion of Gaia, I never knew it was a predecessor from soul blazer... I loved the part on the raft, especially how the main grew and developed from the beginning. One of the longest games I've played~ Thanks Xygor~

I remember getting stuck for months in the Angel Village, not finding that freaking hidden door in the wall... Or the horribly hard to navigate territory of Mu, and the super hard to beat Vampires at the end.... Damn that game is good :D

Everything about this game is memorable. But as a kid i remember being truly shocked when your best friend Seth gets swallowed by a giant sea monster. And then speaks to you in morse code in the tunnels out of Mu. Truly a wonderful adventure all around. Still top 5 fav game for me!

one of the most memorable aspects of the game to me was that the overall difficulty of the non-boss enemies is so low that I thought I perhaps missed a sort of difficulty selection at the beginning of the game or something like that BUT in steep contrast to it, the BOSS difficulty is so elevated at some bosses that I hardly believed that it was the same game I am playing similar thoughts apply to Terranigma too

They should have remade this instead of Act Raiser...this game brings back so many good memories...

I'll never forget being in the 5th grade. Going to walmart to get this games like special edition package. The case wasnt different or anything but it came with a tee shirt and players guide. Awesome game.

This was one of my favorite games in the 90s. I think his friend dying still gives me nightmares and so sad.

The first demon monster boss scarred me for life, that is my memory

There's a lot of nostalgia in this game for me. It was great

The part I remember most is when you get to Mu, and have to stand in Exactly. The. Correct. Spot. to solve a puzzle so light can reflect off you in a certain way. Took me forever to figure that out as a kid. I love how in Terranigma, you’re just basically supposed to be an evil copy of Will.

“In the Earthen Womb” is one of my favorite pieces of video game music of all time.

I spent so many hours playing this game when I was younger, though I never managed to beat the Jeweler's Mansion. But I always had plenty of fun with this game.

Yes! Finally someone giving this the attention it deserves. This And Soul Blazer was great. But def. Illusion of Gaia was the best.

I loved going to all the real world locations, it was very educational in a pre-internet world for a boy absolutely obsessed with magic, adventure, and history. A truly fantastic game.

I've always really enjoyed the music of this game and I really did appreciate the real world places you would go and how they tied it into the narative

Best memory: playing the game with my dad. It was one of my first games and I couldn’t quite read yet, so we solved the puzzles together. Added a life goal to see Angkor Wat. Played the level music as I walked around. I think the floating head enemies were a riff on the statues around the temples being cut off and sold to collectors.

SoulBlazer! What an amazing game! I missed it the first go 'round back in the day, and only discovered it a couple years ago. I loved it from beginning to end. I have Illusion of Gaia, too, but have yet to play it. Your video has me anxious to do so. Thanks again for another fantastic video.

I absolutely loved this game back in the day. Well and now lol. The three most memorable parts to me in this game were 1: Being stranded on the raft having to collect fish, 2: Finding the Incan treasure ship, and 3: having to go in and out of that cave in the first town a thousand times trying to get that fishing guy to catch the pot that had that red jewel in it.

I remember getting stuck at Mu and the damn vampire bosses

Those freaking red jewels and realized some can be missed meaning you dont get the secret boss and such. Completely restarted my save to go all the way back more than once. Not super worth it for the avg player but for completionist I def had to do it. Great game overall, even with the slow, letter-by-letter, "you got a yummy tasty leg of lamb" stuff. :p Been too long, I should play this again.

I remember first playing this back in 1994 or 1995 when i was 5 or 6 years old, and I immediately fell in love with this game. Even now over 25 years later it's still one of my favorite games on SNES!

Just about everything with this game was memorable to me. The music in particular I will always remember fondly. This was probably the first game I ever played that truly drew me in with the story and that I got emotionally invested in the story.

X, I just have to say, the depth and breadth of your videos, as well as your production are ALWAYS spot on. Thank you!

One of my absolute favorite games. One of my favorite parts is the ending where the world takes a huge leap forward and it completely changed.

Wow the old SNES days..so many memories. What a great era it was to be a kid and a gamer.

I love the way to which most of the secrets took creative ways to get to. Always a back alley or cave you missed somewhere inconspicuous.

Most memorable for me was the ending. I did not want to spoil it but it was worth it at the end

Dude, I am loving this masterpiece! Hearing the music brings back so many memories, unfortunately I was not able to complete the game when I was a child, but I made it when I was older.

Most memorable part? The poor pig. Still an excellent game. I feel like I never managed to "max" it out though since you couldn't back track. Between the Dungeon rewards and the collectable currency, I definitely didn't find everything, making it all the more exciting for a potential Remake or port.

Around 7 years ago, I bought this game on a retro games website for around 3$. Sadly, the battery's been dead for about 2-3 years, so I lost my progress... It's a cool game.

I love this game so much I have multiple versions of the song "Itory Village."

I had this game back then but it turns out I don't remember ANYTHING about it. My copy of the game came bundled with a T-Shirt with the game logo on it and I remember wearing that to highschool. That's really all I remember about the game: the t-shirt I got with it. 😆

The music is my favorite memory of this game

It's been so long since I played through this game that I hardly remember any of it now. I remember I enjoyed it and that's about it. :( Thanks for bringing it back with this video.

I always loved this game. Still have my original copy, and when getting the SNES Classic, this was a game I side loaded on it and was the first to completely replay.

A very nostalgic game for me. One of my favorite games for over 20 years. A dark game, but extremely fun with an engaging story.

Another great vid! Loved swapping between forms

Illusion of Gaia. One of the best stories ever for a video game. Someone PLEASE turn this into a movie. Be forewarned, the pig sacrifice is a shocking dramatic twist.

I begged and actually got my patent to buy an snes. Sadly I had no game to play. Mom said she was going to k-mart and would buy me one. She came back with illusion of Gaia. My life changed that night, thx mom u picked the best one

This game is amazing. It is super dynamic and rich. Love the puzzles, the locations, and emotionality. I also loved the vampires. 🧛🏻‍♀️🧛🏻 Thank you for the video!

The only game that literally made my cry.. and the thing I remember most about this game is how hard I cried at the end... so sad and heart warming.. and sad. Btw, its European title is "Illusion of Time". Also worth to mention: still looks great on 80" tv and ia cheap on ebay ;)

Definitely a game Ive been wanting to play for a long time now. Even more stoked about it after watching this. Great video!

Thanks, Xygor, been curious about this one.

...my mom got me this for Christmas...it came with a shirt...I got stuck in the first town...the manual came with all the secret jewel locations...me and my cousins finished the game before we retuned to school...one of the best Christmas vacations ever...it will always stay with me...and so will you, mom...*Illusion of Gaia Intro Theme drops*...it is time to take my place in the great circle of life...

Oh hell yeah good job including that shot of the Nintendo Power cover, what a throwback! I remember getting this game and taking it out to my dad's house, and finishing it in one weekend. Now I'm wondering if I really did complete it, considering the huge variety of gameplay you showed off. But it was so long ago, maybe I was just speedrunning the story because the game really didn't capture me that much at the time. For now, I really should finally get around to playing Terranigma, and maybe revisit Gaia eventually...

In addition to what you already mentioned, one other thing about this game that I considered a step down from SoulBlazer is the fact that you're completely unable to revisit previous areas; not only does this remove some of the thrill of finding a new weapon/ability and thinking "hey, I wonder if this would work on those things from way back when", but it also makes certain feats (particularly collecting all the red jewels, some of which are very well hidden) all but impossible without a guide. The game's more ambitious structure does give it the ability to do a number of things its predecessor couldn't, but at the same time also makes it feel more constrained, and at least for a player like me makes it feel like you need to go over every area you're in with a fine-toothed comb or else risk missing a powerup you'll never get a second shot at. Definitely as unique an experience as you say, though.

Watermia. The Russian Roulette. Hamlet. Solid Arm... so many memories to mention, but won't do that for not to spoil the fun. Beautiful game, the music makes you feel so in peace. The original game was packed also with a T-Shirt. Regards.

I owned that one back when it was released here in germany under the name _Illusion of Time_

This game was iconic to me in my youth that I have the Nazca Lines Condor tattooed on my back

I had this game but could never get past the vampires when I was younger. I finally decided to try the game again and beat it today! What really shined to me was being able to pause the game and see the enemies in the room. And knowing if I took the time to clear them, I would get stronger and the current dungeon could only get easier. I really liked the town of Freejia or w/e.

i love playing this game back in 1998, Enix games focus very well on story, drama and touching tear jerking scenes you can never forget. this title, was so good it really makes you think about life, in historical way. more the reason why i enjoyed Terranigma, gives a reality on life in good and scary way....

The map with the trippy floating island where you see the Nazca lines. I was a kid back then but when I found out the Nazca lines were real my brain imploded. It really was possibly the best game on SNES. Arguably better than even A Link to the past. About Soul Blazer, I still listen to the soundtrack occasionally lol. That lonely village song is so good!

I got Terranigma as a repro cart at a convention for $20 when I was 32 years old (6 years ago) and it was an instant love! It was exactly the game I needed to play that I’d missed this whole time. (Christmas ‘95 I got Chrono trigger, Earthbound and FF mystic quest) so I definitely needed Terranigma! Plus I owned Gaia as a kid!

It's most definitely right up there with Chrono Trigger. One of the best games of all time for sure. Did you know? Actraiser 1, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma all have a character named Teddy in them.

This game is how I learned about the land of MU! The Incan ruins actually have Olmec heads. They mixed a lot of cultures together.

I can only hope that ActRaiser Renaissance is the start of reviving all of these Quintet games.

The part where they play russian roulette with some poison liquid to get money to buy some bird? To progress the story. While Will gets guided by God/Gaia not to take the wrong one against the other man doing this to get money and medicine for his family. There is just so many great stories in this game overall. One of my favorite games of all time.

Thank you so much. I've been trying to remember the name of this game for many, many years.

I wish this game was remade and modernized. The theme for this game was great. A sequel would be great too. There's plenty of opportunity to tie this in to UAP and ancient alien astronauts. :)

Thank you for keeping the fire BLAZING!

Great game! Even tho I could never finish as a kid in a rental I could never forget about it. It was several years later I could enjoy it.

Great work! Hopefully terranigma is coming next 😀

Just beating this game for the first time was a big highlight in my childhood XD Great game!

This game was so cool. I remember getting it back in the day. I mix it and Alundra up a lot in my head though.

Loved that game. Not sure why it was so memorable when I was young, but it was. Great music.

The Super Nintendo was such a golden age of gaming. Plenty of those games I still want to play today, if only for the music!!!

SO many impactful moments. This game is a (red) jewel! I have played it countless times over my life and it always give the same feelings. I think the most prominent thing for me was how ballsy the game was. From hamlet's sacrifice to starving on a raft and even the nifty world map travel. I wish they had done more games like this one. Illusion of Gaia and Secret of Mana were my most played SNES games. Might be time to give Gaia another turn!

Yayy you can never have enough Illusion of Gaia reviews on You Tube....Great game.

Will need to play this. Lots of SNES games to discover....

The music in the Sky Garden! :O

My mother hated the raft and didn't quite get what the story was going for (partly due to the translation) but I've loved this game since I was 5. Would kill for a remake. Really, it just felt awesome to hear some of that music in a video again

When I got this game in the 90s the cart came with an IOG t-shirt. Wish I still had either, but no such luck.

An extremely underrated game. The nostalgia I have for it is overwhelming. My favorite part had to be the atmospheric music.

I loved this game growing up

I like all of your reviews. Have a good day.