Illusion of Gaia

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Illusion of Gaia is an action role-playing by Enix. The game is decent overall, but it is plagued by some serious flaws.

Status

I own this game and have beaten it.

Review

Overall: 5/10

Good

  • Over all, the game is a fun action RPG, with plenty of play time.
  • The game has some really nice graphics and animation.
  • Being able to turn into a more powerful knight is a fun addition.
  • While not as impressive as Square's soundtracks, the music is professional and fitting.
  • The developers drew Will and Freedan's sprites without mirroring, so you remain right-handed when moving left, a nice touch.

Bad

  • Will uses a flute as a weapon... lame.
  • The story's basic concept is cool, but the game implements it poorly. I was left with little idea of what was going on most of the time.
  • The non-player characters that follow Will around through the cities are uninteresting.
  • The game is entirely linear, often forcing you forward with no option to revisit previous areas.
  • The red crystals, while a nice addition to the game, are hidden in such ridiculous locations that they force you to search every single area of every map to find them.
  • A large percentage of the enemies are unidentifiable and boring.
  • Your weapon has a huge hit box, often hitting enemies that weren't actually touched by your weapon making combat easier than it should be.
  • While I like the system of constantly rewarding the player with minor improvements throughout the game, the fact that every reward is planned takes away a lot of the excitement. It also makes it impossible to grind for more power to get through more difficult areas.
  • Several of cut-scenes are really drawn out and dull, there's actually a part in the game where you have to wait in line for several minutes with nothing happening.
  • While I love the idea of using various ancient cultures, the designers often mix cultures incorrectly, like having Lamasu in Incan ruins and Shedu in Egypt.
  • The bosses vary wildly in difficulty. The bird boss is far easier to defeat than the first boss.
  • Not giving the player a chance to heal between battles in the boss re-fight makes the ending a chore.
  • The ending boss is stupid hard compared to the rest of the game, and, if you die, you pretty much have to reset since you start with only 50% life.

Ugly

  • Allowing the D-pad to clear dialogue boxes at the end of a conversation is especially annoying, and often results in missed text.

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