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[Minions]

Loved this game. It was actually a game I did not end up getting purchased by my parents as a child. (Bizarrely, they got my Earthbound without even asking what I wanted! So that definitely worked out!)

Ended up buying it on my own a few years later when gamestop was phasing out all their "old used games". I remember picking up some NES games and This game when they were phasing them all out.

Great game. I had no expectations going in, other than the teaser I remember seeing in blockbuster and when the game was advertised on TV. I thought it reminded me of Zelda based on the trailer.

Not what I expected, but still very entertaining. I actually want to go back and replay the game again. Not the longest game by any means, but man was it fun.

 

[Earthpainting]

An entry in my favourite trilogy. I guess an anniversary is the perfect excuse to give it another replay.

Thanks, OP!

 

[llehuty]

All this memories... ilu OP

I was quite impressed with the mature themes of the game back when I played it. I had like 7/8 years and I was shocked with the

Spoiler

russian roulette scene.

Very very good game. Challenging but balanced. Oh the SNES, what a flawless library of games you gave us.

 

[Celine]

First game I remember being disappointed with!

... Which clearly paled in comparison to later games I got disappointed with given that it left a lasting impact in my memory, I only didn't beat it because I got stuck on the final boss, and it was mostly over how backtracking wasn't possible until a certain point in the game, man imagine if my younger self was told that Final Fantasy would end up in the same place! Wanna get back to this sometime.

How so?
Most stats upgrade are unmissable.
You can miss red gems and thus some prize, and healing herbs are limited in quantity but the last boss is doable without any of them.

 

[tehPete]

This was my first RPG; when I was a kid a friend up the road had a massive collection of import hardware and games, and let me borrow his US version and the hardware to play it until I'd completed it. It's a beautiful game, and well worth the time even today.

Thanks OP, hit me right in the nostalgias.

 

[SirCrush]

I feel the need to post here seeing as I was one of few who bought this game at (or near) launch. I remember reading...GamePro? Or EGM? Whichever magazine my parent had subscribed me to at the time, awaiting this game's release with a friend. I ended up grabbing it within the 1st week it came out due to my parents being so nice as to get it for me

Fun game. A few memorable places. All in all I have forgotten most of the game but I do recall enjoying it immensely, my buddy and I switching off every so often as we trekked through it. Nice to see I'm not the only one who played this.

...though I recall calling this game "Illusions of Gaia" (illusion plural). Did I have it wrong all these years? :O

 

[revolverjgw]

Great game, it had some sort of melancholy beauty to it. A top tier SNES classic.

 

[Pistolero]

I finished this game in one run! I had a problem with my Super Nintendo. Long story short, I played for a good 4 hours, turned off the console, went back the following day only to discover that my saves disappeared. Retried it : Same fu***** problem. My solution : I started playing on a saturday afternoon and kept at it until sunday morning. Really loved it, and I remember that the ending was a bit touching...
Oh! The french version was titled Illusion of Time.

 

[Celine]

One of my favorite parts, is when you finally find the Incan gold ship, the last remnant of that particular culture. At one point, you witness the full splendor of the Incas, but the next day everyone on the ship is dead, and a society that existed for hundreds of years is gone.

That part, the raft scene following it and the twist presented at Angkor Wat

Spoiler

(IoG world is actually our Earth but mutated)

are the highest point of IoG IMO.

 

[Mx_Paladin]

Loved this game when I was like a wee kid I was stuck on that boss that looks like a demon with the hittable head and two hands. Revisted the game when later and beat it which I'm glad I did since if I were to beat it at like age 6 or so I wouldn't know what the game was trying to convey.

 

[Yuterald]

This thread... =*<(

Why can't we live in a day where teams like Quintet still exist? These three games are masterpieces. Grew up with Illusion of Gaia, but played Terranigma and Soul Blazer for my first time about a year or two ago. Loved them. Turbo, lol!!!

 

[Eaten By A Grue]

Illusion of Gaia was one of the reasons why the SNES era was the golden era for JRPGs.

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

I absolutely love this game to death. It's still in my top ten of all time. Such a special experience, and one I go back to pretty much once a year even now.

 

[Hero of Legend]

http://youtu.be/NcdkFsVFzMI

DK endorsed. 6:32

 

[sörine]

I recently replayed through the entire Soulblazer trilogy. So good.

 

[bryan12112]

I love this game so much. Aside from being a pretty decent game all on its own, the nostalgic feelings really add to it. I remember playing Zelda: A Link to the Past and this back-to-back and having a hard time figuring out which one I enjoyed more. Over the years I've gone back to IoG more than ALttP, so I guess IoG eventually won out.

 

[L Thammy]

Such a cool game. I used to own it, but I ended up selling it. Regret that a lot now. If only it were on VC.

I think the most memorable scenes are the raft

Spoiler

after the Incan Gold Ship is destroyed, where Will and Kara argue about food, panic over sharks, and fall in love,

as well as the scene in Angkor Wat

Spoiler

where Will is is horrified by the vision of the future

. I feel like the game sort of resembles the concept of kali yuga, where the world enters into a state of decadence before the rebirth of the world.

 

[cj_iwakura]

One of my favorite SNES games, possibly the best if not for FFVI. I own a hard copy with box. I'll always treasure it. Will play this weekend.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

I remember this game as the one that taught me about scurvy...

 

[NinjamicWZ]

Classic. I played through it so many times back then, consider it one of my favorite SNES games, and would definitely put it in a top 5 for Action RPGs like that, up there with stuff like Link to the Past, Legend of Oasis, Alundra etc

 

[Like the hat?]

Still one of my favorite games of all time.

NA got the superior manual art.

I have the tshirt hanging up in my closet. I've thought about framing it.

 

[plainr_]

The screen caps in the OP brought back many memories.

 

[LQX]

Played this game as a kid and loved it. I found the story and everything so awesome though much of it went over my head. This and Link to the Past are my two fondest action RPGs memories on SNES.

 

[teiresias]

I don't really dislike Illusion of Gaia too much, but I definitely prefer Soul Blazer and think it's more fun and has more character.

 

[Celine]

A friend let me know about the existence of a site with some neat translated interview made to Quintet staffers.

Quintet:
http://shmuplations.com/quintet/

Nihon Falcom:
http://shmuplations.com/ys/

 

[cj_iwakura]

A friend let me know about the existence of a site with some neat translated interview made to Quintet staffers.

Quintet:
http://shmuplations.com/quintet/

Nihon Falcom:
http://shmuplations.com/ys/

The vocal version of A Night Without Lovers from there is really great.

 

[Aveyn Knight]

My first RPG I believe. Couldn't beat the first boss, but loved it regardless.

Later completed it many years later.

 

[fugimax]

Remember this game fondly. Parents pre-ordered from either TRU or Software Etc. (Still my fave game store, fuck you for ruining them GameStop) and got a T-shirt with the title screen art/logo. I think I wore that thing for ~10 years after I got it. So comfy.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

Wonderful OP there, great job and lots of fascinating info there about the Quintet team itself.

Terranigma is my all time personal favourite game. I never got the chance to play Illusion of Gaia however. But I will try to get on that sometime soon.

Quintet is such a strange company though. They seemed to have made a string of bad choices after their SNES glory days and then just kind of...faded into obscurity. Really quite bizarre, but I've always loved their games even though a lot of the time I didn't even know it was made by them.

 

[cbrun44]

The thing I remember the most about IoG was the black t-shirt you received. Loved that as a kid.

 

[Vamphuntr]

Really great classic. The mood and atmosphere of the game are simply amazing. Replayed it recently and I had an easier time than when I was a kid. All of the Quintet are superb to be honest.

Hearing the world map theme is making me nostalgic T.T

 

[Celine]

Quintet is such a strange company though. They seemed to have made a string of bad choices after their SNES glory days and then just kind of...faded into obscurity. Really quite bizarre, but I've always loved their games even though a lot of the time I didn't even know it was made by them.

It seems to me that Quintet loosing the tie with Enix (they still created one or two games for them...), trying different genres (adventure racing, plain turn based strategy) and choosing to back GDNet (and thus indirectly backing Sega and the Saturn) had a negative impact on the developer.
Just think that their Saturn games could be completed only for 1998 when the Saturn was already declared dead by Sega and in doing so fucked up the sale potential of many japanese developed games.

 

[m3k]

Loved this game... Terranigma was excellent as well

 

[Lapidus' Beard]

Wow, that brings back memories. I need to replay this again!

 

[Ommadawnyawn]

Neat thread. While I liked the game (played it about a year ago), I thought the pacing got pretty bad at one point (with 3 slow dungeons in a row or something) and that the translation definitely needed more work.

IoG tackled some unusually dark subjects for a SNES game and the visuals are pretty great.

Anyone else notice the connection to FF10 with one of the characters?

 

[D-e-f-]

Loved this game... Terranigma was excellent as well

In three years that'll get its own 20th Anniv. thread

 

[Taruranto]

Yay. Terranigma is one my favorite games.

Still hoping one day for a re-release on 3DS so more people can experience it.

 

[Schnei871]

One of my most memorable and cherished games as a child. Beaten it many times with all the gems. Such a masterpiece

 

[D-e-f-]

Yay. Terranigma is one my favorite games.

Still hoping one day for a re-release on 3DS so more people can experience it.

That would require Square Enix to not be a shitshow of a company.

 

[Just take it with you.]

Great game, it had some sort of melancholy beauty to it. A top tier SNES classic.

Melancholy is a good way to put it.

I remember having to rent this game from Blockbuster (or was it Hollywood Video), but I did manage to beat it. It's certainly a very interesting and in some ways unique game, I think.

Reading the posts about the red gems, of course back in the day, I never managed to collect all 50 gems until years later when I finally tracked down and bought my own copy of the game. But it's probably just as well that I never got all 50 gems at the time, since I didn't play Soul Blazer until much later, so the significance of the hidden boss would have been lost on me.

 

[Celine]

In three years that'll get its own 20th Anniv. thread

Two years my friend, two years.

We'll do something for sure

 

[D-e-f-]

Two years my friend, two years.

We'll do something for sure

Oh wow, it came out a full year earlier in Japan? Guess I should've known.
Even better!

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

One of my favorite SNES games. I remember seeing it for the first time on some TV show that was reviewing it (don't know what that would have been back then).
Took my birthday money and went to best buy to get it. Wore the shit out of the tshirt it came with:

Stayed home sick from school a couple days to play it as well. So good.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

I still stand by my assertion that In the Earthen Womb is one of the greatest pieces of VG music every created. Absolutely beautiful. I used to save, choose not to continue just to listen to it.

 

[Nohar]

I still stand by my assertion that In the Earthen Womb is one of the greatest pieces of VG music every created. Absolutely beautiful. I used to save, choose not to continue just to listen to it.

Oh God, that music... So beautiful and soothing... I used to do the exact same thing as you.

 

[L Thammy]

I still stand by my assertion that In the Earthen Womb is one of the greatest pieces of VG music every created. Absolutely beautiful. I used to save, choose not to continue just to listen to it.

The Melody of the Wind is the one that sticks with me. That, and the world map theme.

While this thread's up. Does anyone still have the English translated Terranigma manga? It seems like the blog that was working on them took them down. Although, I'm not sure if it's allowed to post unofficial translations here...

 

[truly101]

I bought this and FFIII (VI) on the same day. I remember IOG came with a t shirt.

 

[hokagespit]

took me forever to beat those fucking vampires when i was a kid.

wheres some gifs of the final form. shit was so exciting

 

[cj_iwakura]

Started my replay. (Still have the cart, playing it legit.)

I enjoy the writing, good stuff. Also I like how the protagonist and Kara shack up immediately, no beating around the bush.


Dungeons and gameplay are still wonderful.

 

[Celine]

While this thread's up. Does anyone still have the English translated Terranigma manga? It seems like the blog that was working on them took them down. Although, I'm not sure if it's allowed to post unofficial translations here...

PM you.