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[Celine]

Didn't they make a 'Populous' style game for The Saturn? I recall seeing a couple screens of it in a GAMEFAN, but I can't remember if it ever released or if it was scrapped. Can't even remember the name.

Yes, it was released.
Solo Crisis initially began development as an Actraiser remake however half way done Quintet decided to change the proposal while keeping the essence of the creation part of Actraiser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VngTphaNPZg

 

[Reknoc]

Wow, I thought I remembered a pretty good deal of this game before the Lab (which is as far as I've ever got) but turns out everything after the Mermaids Tower is a massive blank. I don't remember Dragoon Castle at all.

 

[ShadowgeistX]

I came in here wanting to get into the series, to find out that Granstream Saga was also made by Quintet. I loved that game so much, shame that my cousin lost all the PSX games when he moved out. I'll have to find a way to revisit this game full of blocky, faceless 3D characters someday.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Seabed of St. Elles

This is actually the first song that popped in my head upon first seeing the thread title.

It's still stuck in my head.

 

[Celine]

Being just past easter ...
there is this special password in Actraiser 2 that if inserted get you a funny sketch that depict Quintet dev team.

There is Koshiro and his sister.
The two founder and Quintet key figure (Miyazaki and Hashimoto).
Hisashi Y.(okoda) that maybe is a relative of Koji Yokoda, the founder of Shade Inc.

Wow, I thought I remembered a pretty good deal of this game before the Lab (which is as far as I've ever got) but turns out everything after the Mermaids Tower is a massive blank. I don't remember Dragoon Castle at all.

Ah the Dragoon Castle.
When I was a young teen I was stuck there for months.
English wasn't my native language and I didn't understand everything so I couldn't locate a specific button needed to advance.

One day I was at home with a flu and tried the game again, by accident I hit that switch and could go on.
Don't need to be said that I completed the game the same day and my face was flooded with tears.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Being just past easter ...
there is this special password in Actraiser 2 that if inserted get you a funny sketch that depict Quintet dev team.

There is Koshiro and his sister.
The two founder and Quintet key figure (Miyazaki and Hashimoto).
Hisashi Y.(okoda) that maybe is a relative of Koji Yokoda, the founder of Shade Inc.

Ha! I remember that!

Actraiser 2 still depresses me to this day.
I don't have a source, but I recall Hashimoto (or maybe Yuzo Koshiro, actually) saying they removed the 'world building' sim because they felt most gamers didn't like it/appreciate it in the first game, so they decided to just stick with pure action with high difficulty.

Horrible mistake, IMO.

 

[Celine]

Ha! I remember that!

Actraiser 2 still depresses me to this day.
I don't have a source, but I recall Hashimoto (or maybe Yuzo Koshiro, actually) saying they removed the 'world building' sim because they felt most gamers didn't like it/appreciate it in the first game, so they decided to just stick with pure action with high difficulty.

Horrible mistake, IMO.

Actually Actraiser 2 was created on specific request by Enix of America.
They dictated to be action only probably because they though it would have sold better outside Japan.

 

[Shining]

These games <3

I remember trading in maybe 3 SNES games for Soul Blazer in 1994. Best deal i ever made. I was hooked instantly. Very satisfying gameplay, and dat music with those funky basslines.

Illusion of Time i first heard of in a Swedish Nintendo magazine. It got a score of 7/10 i think and it was labeled as "slow paced". Looking at the screenshots i just thought the game looked very colorful and gorgeos so i didn't really pay any attention to the review itself. I never got around to buying it, but a friend of mine did and i burrowed it as soon as he finished it. I remember bringing my SNES and my burrowed game on a skiing vacation to Austria, and to this day it's one of my fondest memories from childhood. I think this might be my favourite out of the three.

Terranigma i first tried out in the late 90's using an emulator, but never got around to really play it. The last couple of years i have started collecting NTSC games as i can't stand 50hz, and last year i bought the Super Famicom version of this game along with a reproduction cart of the PAL version patched to 60hz. I finished it this weekend and.. wow. Although i still hold IoT/G as my favourite, this game is fantastic. It might have the best music in the series. So glad i invested in getting a repro cart.

 

[B!TCH]

Great thread! I just discovered these videos yesterday. They cover the general history of the games and of course the games themselves,

Soul Blazer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVrA_-Va4XU

Illusion Of Gaia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJmn1rhPook

Terranigma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZvvxzixL9Y


And ActRaiser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQz0qc4_nlo

 

[Reknoc]

Wow, Terranigma isn't quite as long as I first thought. Got all the towns expanded so all I have left is the raid on Beruga's Tower and then the final boss, and I'm only at like 13 or so hours.

 

[Chao]

Wow, Terranigma isn't quite as long as I first thought. Got all the towns expanded so all I have left is the raid on Beruga's Tower and then the final boss, and I'm only at like 13 or so hours.

If you finished the game before it's easy to beat it quickly. I remember everything from my first playthrough, I hope that wasn't the case

 

[Grampasso]

From which game? You gotta explain it in better detail so we can help you. I remember there was a mute girl in Terranigma though. If that's what you mean.

Yes, Terranigma, she was in one of the city in the last part of the game. She's just ill in bed, I think you're supposed to save her finding somewhere the remedy for her illness, but I never managed to find it

Edit: Thanks Celine, I'm sure it's not China where the ill girl is so it's probably where I should have searched for the medicine Will try next time I play the game

 

[Reknoc]

If you finished the game before it's easy to beat it quickly. I remember everything from my first playthrough, I hope that wasn't the case

Yea, I hadn't realised how far I had gotten before now. Everything past Beruga's Lab was new to me, but there really isn't that much after it!

Yes, Terranigma, she was in one of the city in the last part of the game. She's just ill in bed, I think you're supposed to save her finding somewhere the remedy for her illness, but I never managed to find it

If you mean the girl in Litz then she gets cured as soon as you free Columbus.

 

[Ledsen]

Wow, Terranigma isn't quite as long as I first thought. Got all the towns expanded so all I have left is the raid on Beruga's Tower and then the final boss, and I'm only at like 13 or so hours.

My brother has played the game around 10 times and he can 100% it in about 11 hours. It's probably about 20-25 your first time through though, trying to figure out all the sidequests.

 

[BassForever]

I feel bad, I bought Actraiser for the VC, loved it, but I never did finish it, this topic is inspiring me to go pick it back up again.

 

[Celine]

Wow, Terranigma isn't quite as long as I first thought. Got all the towns expanded so all I have left is the raid on Beruga's Tower and then the final boss, and I'm only at like 13 or so hours.

Yeah Terranigma isn't overly long.
12-15 hours sound right.

Note to myself for the next playthrough:
REMEMBER TO RESURRECT MU THIS TIME AROUND!

Yes, Terranigma, she was in one of the city in the last part of the game. She's just ill in bed, I think you're supposed to save her finding somewhere the remedy for her illness, but I never managed to find it

Edit: Thanks Celine, I'm sure it's not China where the ill girl is so it's probably where I should have searched for the medicine Will try next time I play the game

Misremembered big time.
Medicine is in

Spoiler

Litz

.

 

[Reknoc]

About the medicine:

There's a feverish girl in Litz who gets better as soon as you finish Sylvain Castle.

There's also, much later on in china,

Spoiler

Frya in the hotel ill

you get the antidote for her in Yunkou though.

The medicine you get in Litz is used for

Spoiler

an ill man in developed Suncoast

 

[djtiesto]

What a fantastic series, it's so depressing we will never see more games like them I played them all at (or near) release, apart from Terranigma which I played on emu when it got dumped.

Love the music in SoulBlazer, the storyline in Gaia, and the way you totally revive the world in Terranigma. Games have tons of heartfelt and emotional moments (like the Gaia ending -

Spoiler

everything changing instantly from the Age of Exploration to modern times

), nice soundtracks, and great ARPG gameplay.

Robotrek was the shit as well.. loved the item creation, battle system, lighthearted plot made even more charming by the abysmal translation. It's such a shame to see that the remnants of Quintet are now in the mobile gaming ghetto, where they are not making really emotional action RPGs. In a way, Nier was slightly reminiscent of one of their "creation" trilogy though, in terms of ARPG + melancholy tone.

In Illusion of Gaia, there was one part in I believe China, where you could wait on a line that would slooooooooooooowly move forward. Anybody remember what happens when you actually get to the front of it? And that ending I mentioned, how the hell did that happen? It confused the SHIT out of me as a kid. Partying to the Offspring "Smash" album and playing IoG, oh to be 12 years old and for it to be Christmas 1994 again.

 

[Dark Schala]

I think Terranigma's narrative is awesome. I was talking to a friend today who said he quit playing the game because he never found it to be profound (he only

Spoiler

revived animals

and that's it), and thus boring. I said he quit before he got to the really amazing part (but I was just amazed by being in the underworld and learning about all the twists and turns of the narrative and the world in general was).

Those twists were certainly something else, I'll say that. And that ending was so wonderful. I find that the narrative is quite profound, and well-told. If I'm--on a personal front--rethinking some of my decisions I made during town-building due to certain scenarios being played out... or thinking about the game for a few days after I've finished it, the game's done its job with regards to adequate storytelling, in my opinion.

I do like the combat better than IoG/T, though. I felt like it was more flexible given that you could modify attacks by dashing or jumping with just Ark alone as opposed to having to change characters with IoG/T, or changing spirits with Soul Blazer. Combat wasn't perfect, but it's downright fun dashing into something and taking it out immediately. It's too bad that magic generally isn't necessary because some of the effects looked neat.

In Illusion of Gaia, there was one part in I believe China, where you could wait on a line that would slooooooooooooowly move forward. Anybody remember what happens when you actually get to the front of it?

It was... Euro, I think?

Anyway, I believe you got into the store to get some stat boosts--one that boosts HP and another that boosts Dark Friar's power I think. I remember being so psyched when I figured out that you could actually stand in the line.

So IoG lovers how do you think are the official character arts ?
Like the nice Will and Kara in the western manual ?
Well, nope.
The character design was done by Moto Hagio, a famous shojo mangaka :

Spoiler

shocking eh.

Dat shojo.

Dat Seth MORRIS. Ahahahaha, oh wow. (Seth was a better name for the localization, imo.)

 

[GaimeGuy]

I propose we all fall asleep to this music


http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=lC5LlLYK_hc

 

[InfiniDragon]

So IoG lovers how do you think are the official character arts ?
Like the nice Will and Kara in the western manual ?
Well, nope.
The character design was done by Moto Hagio, a famous shojo mangaka :

Spoiler

shocking eh.

Already knew about the original art (saw the original Kara before I saw the US version) so nope, not really shocking. Cool to see though, never saw Lilly or Seth in the original art before.

 

[Celine]

Yesterday night I spent another three hours in Soul Blazer.
Defeated the second boss (which third "form" I've found the most difficult of the three bosses I encountered until now).

Third area seems a bit more repetitive than the first two probably because you go to different sections that open up slowly one after another.
However I enjoyed the diverse themes (pirate ship, deserted island,volcano) and the setting for the boss confrontation was great.

Fourth area has some fantastic mode7 effects on the background.
I was impressed by the parallax effect on the clouds (initially seemed to me there were a great deal of layers) but upon close inspection I realized the cloud rows were a single image distorted depending on where the protagonist was.
Very smart.

I propose we all fall asleep to this music


http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=lC5LlLYK_hc

Wouldn't be the first time ...
.. but yesterday I indeed fell asleep with this music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l24kSoVXlgk&feature=relmfu

Woke up at 3 AM ewww.

 

[Natetan]

I just realized this thread doesnt have lonely town in it, so someone has to post it

http://youtu.be/MCVG4oslDFw

also one of my favorite boss themes
http://youtu.be/wgrDAshabRo

and IoG too (love those kettle drums!)
http://youtu.be/Yh0MfgPPE0w

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

After signing both Jiro Ishii and Yatsumi Matsuno to Level 5, I'd really like to see Hino give Tomoyoshi Miyazaki a similar sweetheart studio deal. Level 5's debut game (Dark Cloud) owes pretty much *everything* to Miyazaki's classics, it'd be a nice gesture and acknowledgement of that I think. Plus I want another world rebuilding action RPG.

 

[beril]

This thread inspired me to start replaying Soul Blazer last night and I've just beaten it.

It's been at least 15 yeas since I played it last but I still remembered it surprisingly well. Combat isn't particularly fun, but the game still manages to be quite enjoyable and it feels nicely balanced and well paced. I was a bit surprised by how short it was; I remembered it as rather massive, but it moved at a good pace and didn't overstay its welcome.

I'm thinking of moving on to the other two games as well, though they don't hold quite the same nostalgic value for me

 

[Jucksalbe]

Look what arrived today:

It's the strange German version with the fugly catridge cover "art".

I feel right at home with this game. The font, the sound effects and of course the first boss, it's all so familiar.

 

[Natetan]

i love leos painting. such an awesome looking (and sounding!) level

 

[Dark Schala]

i love leos painting. such an awesome looking level

I thought the music was pretty good too.

 

[Natetan]

I thought the music was pretty good too.

music is amazing, and I have edited my post accordingly!

 

[Aeana]

I just started up Soulblazer and played up until I got the brown stone and I couldn't believe how boring the game is. I mean, admittedly, it's been over 15 years since I touched the game, but I wasn't prepared for that. The whole game is literally: stand in front of monster lair tile, kill ~5 dudes, then step on tile to revive something in town before moving on to the next tile. At least Quintet got better with each game. :\

 

[Natetan]

I just started up Soulblazer and played up until I got the brown stone and I couldn't believe how boring the game is. I mean, admittedly, it's been over 15 years since I touched the game, but I wasn't prepared for that. The whole game is literally: stand in front of monster lair tile, kill ~5 dudes, then step on tile to revive something in town before moving on to the next tile. At least Quintet got better with each game. :\

hm, i still love it. killing enemies is fun and satisfying with the layers, and gives you a reason other than to just skip everything and go straight to the boss.

games are supposed to be easy in the beginning anyway.

plus i love the aesthetic. quintet games, particularly actraiser and soul blazer have a quality that i dont see in games much now, especially japanese ones. the game is beautiful too.

learning about quintet years ago also made me realize that i was never an enix fan, but fan of quintet and a few of the developers they published (7th saga, etc). Dragon Quest games suck now.

 

[Aeana]

hm, i still love it. killing enemies is fun and satisfying with the layers, and gives you a reason other than to just skip everything and go straight to the boss.

games are supposed to be easy in the beginning anyway.

plus i love the aesthetic. quintet games, particularly actraiser and soul blazer have a quality that i dont see in games much now, especially japanese ones. the game is beautiful too.

learning about quintet years ago also made me realize that i was never an enix fan, but fan of quintet and a few of the developers they published (7th saga, etc). Dragon Quest games suck now.

Huh? That's kinda random. Are you saying you liked them before because you thought they were by the same developer as Soulblazer, but now that you know they aren't, you don't like them?


Anyway, Soulblazer doesn't really change. I've beaten it several times before, I just needed to jog my memory. Yes, later in the game you actually have multiple enemies coming at you from different directions, but you still just have your standard sword slash and current magic. Terranigma finally gave you multiple attack options. I just wish it didn't take that long.

 

[Natetan]

Huh? That's kinda random. Are you saying you liked them before because you thought they were by the same developer as Soulblazer, but now that you know they aren't, you don't like them?


Anyway, Soulblazer doesn't really change. I've beaten it several times before, I just needed to jog my memory. Yes, later in the game you actually have multiple enemies coming at you from different directions, but you still just have your standard sword slash and current magic. Terranigma finally gave you multiple attack options. I just wish it didn't take that long.

ah well. the game rubs me the right way. terranigma i find kind of tedious. the attack styles in that game are fun though. the menu screens in IoG and Soul Blazer are way better than the terranigma one.

i liked the localized version of dragon warrior. the original toriyama anime style i dont like. that's the only enix game they really released in the US besides like E.V.O. which i loved. so basically the localizers put wool over my eyes to what the DQ series really was, and all the other 'enix' games i liked weren't even made by them.

 

[Schnei871]

I feel bad, I bought Actraiser for the VC, loved it, but I never did finish it, this topic is inspiring me to go pick it back up again.

Actraiser is a really great game. I loved helping each area as the angel

 

[Falcs]

I just spent a few hours today playing Illusion of Gaia for the first time despite owning it for 10 years or so, as this thread convinced me to finally give it a go. It's so fucking good, it's a great experience to be playing this as a "new" game in this generation and almost 20 years after it first came out.

That's awesome!
I just played Terranigma for the first time last year and I loved it. Illusion of Time/Gaia is my all time favorite SNES game. I used to get so immersed into the story when I was a kid playing it. I still play it at least once every two or so years.

If they ever make a HD version or a remake of some sort, or even a sequel, I will die.

Like, I will actually die....












As in death.

 

[beril]

Started playing Illusion of Gaia last night and I'm not really enjoying it much. The story is horribly slow and the save/checkpoint and leveling systems are a lot more frustrating than Soulblazer. I guess there are some minor improvement to the combat but where Soulblazer made up for the quite dull mechanics with a unque setup and a nice mix of mix of dungeon crawling and exploring the towns, this just feels very ordinary and rather tedious.

Also Freedan is depressingly ugly and his sprite just feels awkardly large. Maybe I'll skip it and go directly to Terranigma

 

[Night_Trekker]

Started playing Illusion of Gaia last night and I'm not really enjoying it much. The story is horribly slow and the save/checkpoint and leveling systems are a lot more frustrating than Soulblazer. I guess there are some minor improvement to the combat but where Soulblazer made up for the quite dull mechanics with a unque setup and a nice mix of mix of dungeon crawling and exploring the towns, this just feels very ordinary and rather tedious.

Also Freedan is depressingly ugly and his sprite just feels awkardly large. Maybe I'll skip it and go directly to Terranigma

I'll possibly be attacked for this, but I think Terranigma is a much, much better game that IoG, which I've never really enjoyed.

 

[CO_Andy]

Illusion of Gaia is definitely the low point in the series. Wouldn't blame you if you skipped it.

Very peculiar of Nintendo to go with different art for each region's Illusion of Gaia.

PAL -- http://i.imgur.com/4wCYj.jpg

Looks like the PAL region got lumped with the Nintendo Power artist. The japanese version makes me want to stab my eyes out.

 

[Ledsen]

I'll possibly be attacked for this, but I think Terranigma is a much, much better game that IoG, which I've never really enjoyed.

I think most people who played IoG/T and Terranigma back in the day prefer Terranigma. It's just that most people only played IoG/T back then.

 

[beril]

I just started up Soulblazer and played up until I got the brown stone and I couldn't believe how boring the game is. I mean, admittedly, it's been over 15 years since I touched the game, but I wasn't prepared for that. The whole game is literally: stand in front of monster lair tile, kill ~5 dudes, then step on tile to revive something in town before moving on to the next tile. At least Quintet got better with each game. :\

I agree about the combat (enemies do get a bit more interesting later in the game but not a whole lot), but the game is still pretty great. There's enough variation and nice little details to keep the tedium away even though the mechanics are pretty crappy; you feel rewarded for killing enemies and the game moves at a nice pace. The story is straight to the point and the reviving mechanic is quite brilliant. Everytime you die there's a few new people to talk to in the town and possibly some small sidequest to give you items and stuff. It feels a lot more dynamic than the town->dungeon->town->dungeons structure of a lot of other RPGS (or cutscene->dungeon->cutscene in new games).

 

[ShadyMilkman]

I remember getting Illusion of Gaia for Christmas in 1994(?).

I loved it - I didn't bother collecting the 40 gems or whatever, but my sister did.

Never played the other games - hell, I didn't know IoG was part of a trilogy until a few years ago.

 

[Dark Schala]

PAL -- http://i.imgur.com/4wCYj.jpg
Looks like the PAL region got lumped with the Nintendo Power artist. The japanese version makes me want to stab my eyes out.

Still looks like the art was based on the JP version though.

I guess they changed everyone's names to sound more francophonic (er, generally speaking). Curious that they didn't use "Tour de Babel" for Tower of Babel and instead referred to it as Tour Pandémone. Censorship, perhaps?

I agree about the combat (enemies do get a bit more interesting later in the game but not a whole lot), but the game is still pretty great. There's enough variation and nice little details to keep the tedium away even though the mechanics are pretty crappy; you feel rewarded for killing enemies and the game moves at a nice pace. The story is straight to the point and the reviving mechanic is quite brilliant.

Yeah, that's how I feel about it. The combat isn't all that and it could really use some improvements, and it's very nice to see Quintet keep improving upon it throughout the trilogy, but the rest of Soul Blazer in terms of town building and presentation (re: music and some of the dungeon designs) make up for it. I don't think it's the best game in the trilogy but I think it's enjoyable nonetheless.

 

[Natetan]

Started playing Illusion of Gaia last night and I'm not really enjoying it much. The story is horribly slow and the save/checkpoint and leveling systems are a lot more frustrating than Soulblazer. I guess there are some minor improvement to the combat but where Soulblazer made up for the quite dull mechanics with a unque setup and a nice mix of mix of dungeon crawling and exploring the towns, this just feels very ordinary and rather tedious.

Also Freedan is depressingly ugly and his sprite just feels awkardly large. Maybe I'll skip it and go directly to Terranigma

yeah, it is missing alot of quintet elements you see in soul blazer and terranigma. but the music is great. The story is rather odd though, and it never really takes off either. It's basically all about the combat and the music.

I played through Mu last night even and enjoyed it. Freedan makes like no sense story wise, but he is fun to play, and once you get the dark shot ball thing its fun. Also wills slide dash is super fun to use.

 

[Zero-Crescent]

Inspired by this thread, I decided to play through Soul Blazer for the first time, since it was the only one in the trilogy that I have never played before, much less finished. I beat the final boss yesterday. The first thing that I noticed is that Soul Blazer hasn't exactly aged as well as the rest of the trilogy (or even when compared to Actraiser). The enemy sprites are small and the story is bare-bones for the most part. The combat in particular is rather simplistic due to the poor enemy AI, as for many monster lairs, my "strategy" was to find the best place to stand and keep slashing or firing magic, as many monster types would just run into my sword (or the wall) the second their invincibility wore off. Plus, the magic system was mostly useless, as I didn't find the later spells any more useful than Light Arrow, with the exception of Phoenix.

As for the story, it's too simple to be tackling some of the themes that it presents, and even that is held back by the literal translation. Lines are frequently spoken with little emotion and character motivations seem muddled.

Despite all of those criticisms, Soul Blazer was, overall, an enjoyable experience. There weren't many frustrating points in the game due to the well-placed checkpoints and generous supply of the healing item, and the dungeons and towns were at least quite varied in theme. The music was good too, especially the tune for Dr. Leo's Lab. I will admit that there is something appealing about walking into a barren field, working my way through the dungeon(s) unlocking monster lairs, and rebuilding the town one person

Spoiler

/animal/thing

at a time.

 

[Celine]

Illusion of Gaia is definitely the low point in the series. Wouldn't blame you if you skipped it.

Very peculiar of Nintendo to go with different art for each region's Illusion of Gaia.

PAL -- http://i.imgur.com/4wCYj.jpg

Looks like the PAL region got lumped with the Nintendo Power artist. The japanese version makes me want to stab my eyes out.

Oh god the horror, UK version though has the nice US art.

Illusion of Gaia/Time should have been the first RPG localized in Europe for the main countries ( except Italy :-\) with the proper language.
So probably Nintendo division in each of those countries chose what art to use in the manual.

I will admit that there is something appealing about walking into a barren field, working my way through the dungeon(s) unlocking monster lairs, and rebuilding the town one person

Spoiler

/animal/thing

at a time.

It's the same feeling of Diablo except Diablo appeal is in the loot/new equipment while SB is in unlocking new segment in the towns where you can gain new equipment/NPC.

learning about quintet years ago also made me realize that i was never an enix fan, but fan of quintet and a few of the developers they published (7th saga, etc). Dragon Quest games suck now.

I think yours is a misunderstanding.
How Enix operated was the antithesis of Squaresoft.
All Enix RPG were actually made by (sort of) indipendent studios across Japan, contrary to Square that developed most games internally.
Even their biggest money-maker has the (design) developer Armor Project in prominent view.
That was great, it gave a chance to start up like Quintet to develop their games and even be published abroad.
In fact Enix , through Enix America, was the main player that tried to seed JRPGs abroad in early nineties until the division demise in 1994.

Also DQIX was a bit a letdown to me and future with DQX looks a bit grim however IX was still one of the best RPG on DS and previous entries were generally pretty good.

 

[Android18a]

Yeah the UK manual was the same as the US one, right down to the Red Gems guide that padded it out pleasingly. Great manual, I love the art in it.

 

[beril]

So I stuck with IoG til the end and beat it last night. Wasn't really worth it to be honest. Story just felt really slow, kind of weird and generally crappy. Some of the dunguens were way too large, most of the dungeon music was just exhausting to listen to and some of the bosses were frustrating as hell

I might start Terranigma as well soon but I think need a break from quintet right now

 

[Yuterald]

So, according to my in-game clock, I have about 21 hours on Terranigma. Man, why the fuck didn't this game hit the states? I can't believe I never played this game until now! I think I'm close to the end of the game. I have to collect a bunch of stones after finishing the Lab dungeon. Am I pretty close to the end?

I love, love, love all the sidequests in this game. I just developed the Camera and now I have to take pictures of all the towns/cities to promote growth between the countries. So fucking cool! You know, I really wish this game received an update. This game deserves a DS/3DS kinda update with modern features like a quest book, bestiary, etc. They could even implement some sort of world atlas that keeps track of all the countries and their growth index percentages. So many games over the years have been update/ported around. It's a shame Quintent's games are lost to obscurity. In fact, I feel like shit for not making a bigger deal out of these games for so many years, lol!

As I've mentioned, I've only played Illusion of Gaia back when I was a kid. I never got a chance to play Soul Blazer either. I booted that game up the other day and was pleasantly surprised! I love this game's structure. The town building is to the point and completely addicting. You just go into dungeons, rock them out, and build new shit. I guess the game was essentially Actraiser with an overhead perspective, hah! Still, these titles were ridiculously ambitious for their time.

I'm definitely going to continue playing Terranigma and Soul Blazer simultaneously. I would have really liked to 100% Terranigma, but I feel like I've already missed a Magicrock. Soul Blazer seems pretty straight forward to see/do everything in so I'll probably play that to completion and attempt a "perfect" run of Terranigma some other time. I REALLY want to replay IoG now since it's the one I'm most nostalgic with, but I might hold off to avoid burn out.

 

[anotherVegan]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this tune from Illusion of Gaia / Illusion of Time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qterCE6F3RM

My favorite dungeon tune from the game. I have so many fond memories of Illusion of Gaia - but I didn't extensively play Soul Blazer or Terranigma. The story and the pacing is fantastic, and the soundtrack remains one of my favorites on the SNES.

Also,

Spoiler

Seth, and then (sob) Hamlet.

Who knew a pet pig could bring such heart and sorrow to a story.

 

[Zero-Crescent]

So, according to my in-game clock, I have about 21 hours on Terranigma. Man, why the fuck didn't this game hit the states?

Generally, many believe the reason is that it came out too late in the SNES' lifecycle. I don't think this was the most likely reason, since other major titles were still coming out in 1996 (Super Mario RPG, DKC3, Kirby Super Star, Harvest Moon, Mega Man X3, Street Fighter Alpha 2). I think part of the reason is that it was unlucky enough to hit during Enix America's 1995-1998 absence in releases. In Europe, Terranigma was published by Nintendo of Europe, so it is also possible that NoA decided not to bring it over for some reason, probably if Illusion of Gaia's sales didn't live up to their expectations, or if NoA felt it wasn't worth taking the time to make changes to the alcohol and religious references in Terranigma.