RF Generation Message Board

This playthrough will be no flutek!

Flute Hero!

Haha, that's surprisingly close!   ;)

My Hero!  (Perfect timing, you just sold me that)

Awesome, awesome game.  If you have not played this I definitely recommend that you play this playthrough.

I'm in of course. Looking forward to this.

I will do it, a reason to use my retro DUO portable :)

I'm ready to go.

I just bought this cart

I'm SO in for this

one of my favorite games

I haven't played this.  I am going to make this one my maiden RF Gen play through.

Awesome! Welcome to the playthroughs. ;)

Just updated the OP with the first week's checkpoint.  Have fun with this one, guys!

A bit late, but I'm in.  Hopefully I won't have the same problems I had with the Super Metroid playthrough.

The intro to this game is different...

Spoiler (hover to show)

Within the first 30 minutes you find out your dad is now a flute, you are the chosen one, and only you can visit the dark space. The main character just accepts this with no emotion. 

I'm working my way to the first checkpoint.

That boss gave me more trouble than it should have....

I'm past the first checkpoint.

Haha!  Yeah, I didn't remember the script/translation being this screwy, but there have definitely been some lines that made me raise an eyebrow.


Same here, took me a few tries to put him away.

Are we talking about the first boss? Because damn. How many times do you have to know the hands away? I'm stuck dudes.

I think I had to get rid of the hands about 3 times total.  In case you don't know, the strategy is to knock the hands down, then hit him in the center eye jewel thingy as much as you can, run behind his head when he starts shooting lasers, repeat.  It can be pretty tricky and can take a few tries before you get the hang of avoiding all of his projectiles.  And don't forget about your herbs when you get low on health.

I burnt through all three herbs during that fight- no matter what I did I just kept getting hit.

I found that when lasers started firing, the safest spot was actually on the side near the top.  Being behind Castoth usually meant getting hit by a fire bar.

Damn guys I had to just say f*ck it and turn cheats on. I tried for two days to beat this bastard Castoth and I didn't want to fall behind.

Just made it to the first checkpoint.

The scene with Will and Kara floating adrift at sea was really great.

This game really cries out for a turbo controller.

I'm currently working my way through the

Spoiler (hover to show)

 "Sky Garden"

I'm behind!  I hope to catch up tonight.

This game seems to be fairly light on boss fights.  I'm about halfway through it now and have only encountered three bosses, and Castoth has been the most difficult for me so far.

You probably already know this, but just in case you don't, be sure that you're killing every enemy in every room you come across.  The stat bonus you get for clearing out a room is the only method of "leveling up" in this game.

I agree about the raft scene.  Even though not much really happens there gameplay-wise, that's one of the few scenes from the game that has always stuck with me since I was a kid.

I'm up to the third boss fight, and it has been giving me a few problems.  That might be because I am out of herbs.  Oops.

I remember this game being a lot easier than this.

I also like with the raft scene...

Spoiler (hover to show)

...how the game chastises you for not sitting still on Day 2(?).

Got to the Castoth fight and he's kicking my butt. I'm going to give it a few more tries tomorrow.

So far this game has felt very streamlined, almost rushed. You move very quickly from town to town and plot point to plot point.

Third boss fight down - by the skin of my teeth.

Spoiler (hover to show)

I originally thought I had to fight the vampires with Will.  

Even with Freedan's projectile attack, this was tough!

I ended the fight with 1HP and 3 seconds.

EDIT: Checkpoint 2 get

Finally found some time to start my game, I have been cleaning my game room

Yeah, I'm guilty of not starting the game yet as well. Lack of sleep with an infant has been catching up to me. Tonight's the night though.

Still struggling with the first boss. No matter what, I just can do it. Ughh....

EDIT

I gave myself one last try before calling it quits for the day and I beat Castoth! Holy cow, that was tough!! I made it out with one thing of health left. The bouncing fireballs made this whole thing so frustrating. So glad I'm done with him.

 

I'm at him now, what a pain...

Just a little piece of advice: if you stand against the wall where you entered the boss fight the line of fire can't hit you. Also, your sword (as Freedan) has a longer reach than you'd think.

I just hit the second checkpoint. The third boss fight is a lot easier once you realize you can

Spoiler (hover to show)

 hit the vampires from across the columns as Freedan.

I was asked to record a short gameplay clip for someone, so I recorded one of my game sessions to capture the footage.  I uploaded the clip to our channel in case anybody wants to check it out.  Note that the video may have some story spoilers if you're not there yet (not that this game has much story to spoil).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEO9pO0l10M

Curious.  The UK Australian version (Illusion of Time) uses a Green Enix logo (not purple). 

[img width=500 height=343]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r534/Blood-Spattered_Angel/Community%20Playthroughs/IllTime%20-%20GreEnix.jpg[/img]	[img width=500 height=310]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r534/Blood-Spattered_Angel/Community%20Playthroughs/IllTIme%20-%20Title.jpg[/img]
Green logo.  I believe that purple logos were only used in North American SNES releases.	"Illusion of Time " title screen, for comparison.

I've also come across a couple of curious glitches:

Incan Ruins [img width=500 height=290]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r534/Blood-Spattered_Angel/Community%20Playthroughs/IllTime%20-%20Incan%20Ruins%20Glitch.jpg[/img]	Spoiler (hover to show) Ankor Wat [img width=500 height=300]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r534/Blood-Spattered_Angel/Community%20Playthroughs/IllTime%20-%20Ankor%20Wat%20Glitch.jpg[/img]
Managed to see past the bottom of the screen.	Found two tiles meant to be solid (but aren't). (Sorry image is upside-down - Photobucket decided to screw up)

EDIT: Thought I was playing the -UKV variant, turns out I am playing the -AUS version.

I made it to Checkpoint #1 last night. And here are my initial thoughts on the game:

1. The story is very vague and kind of matter-of-fact. We are kind of thrown into the middle of "oh, you just woke up and your father's gone," but get very little intro or backstory.  Though this was frustrating at first, as I've moved along, the story is kind of piecing itself together, which is actually a very nice use of storytelling.  After the initial bumps, I'm quite invested and enjoying this.

2. The controls are good and I have little complaints with them outside of some odd hit boxes.  Not a big fan of the item menu and I find it a little odd that the A button is defaultly mapped to action and B is secondary item us. I dunno, maybe it's just me.

3. The graphics are just okay and nothing too great IMO. The first boss was nicely done and detailed, but the character sprites look a little washed out and less detailed to me compared to titles released around the same time.

4. I really like the concept of clearing rooms and earning stat upgrades. This is a new and quirky concept that I've never seen in a game prior to this one and I dig it.  It seems to make the game more challenging, as risk vs. reward if you will.

5. The linear gameplay is pretty good, since you don't have to concern yourself so much with a guide or have to figure out, what do I have to do next. However, the downside is that I'm currently stuck at a point where I can't seem to make the action move forward. I know that there is something I have to trigger and I'm getting a little annoyed running around town wasting my time and trying to figure it out.

6.  I like the idea of changing forms (though I have no idea what it means or why I can do it yet) and it goes well with the puzzle mechanic in the game, which I really enjoy.

7.  The first boss was a bit of a slow burn in terms of learning how to approach the fight.  It definitely takes a little learning, but I was able to down him on the 4th try after learning the fight, being more patient with my actions and focusing more on dodging than attacking, and going through some herbs.

8. The raft scene.....well, let's save something for the podcast. ;)

Anyway, I'm happy to see how active this thread is and am catching up on posts right now, since I wanted to avoid spoilers.  Looking forward to discussing this game more after I get "unstuck."

Good points, Rich.

The graphics look very much like other games Enix was putting out at the time. Specifically the towns that look they're made of buildings stacked on top of one another as opposed to giving the town a sense of depth. The towns look very dense. The sprites look nice and one detail I especially love is that the text colour matches a a colour in a character's hair or clothes so you always know who's talking.

This game also bridges the gap between action games and RPGs really well. Illusion of Gaia is kind of like Zelda with character stats.

As for the raft scene.... finally some depth to the previous paper thin characters! :D

I didn't even notice to color coded text for the characters. That's a nice touch!  However, some of the text seems kind of thin like it's missing pixel, but I think that's just some effect they were trying to pull off. I'd like it better if it stood out more

Good comparison to Zelda and I'd also throw in that it might even be closer to Beyond Oasis. However, this is quite more enjoyable to me than the latter.

@Nanners: I would draw the comparison to Beyond Oasis as well.

@Raidou:  Interesting stuff!  I don't think I've ever seen any Enix logos other than the purple one used here in NA.  It's also cool to see the Illusion of Time title screen that was used in Europe and Australia.  I've read that Nintendo had them change the logo to what we got so that it would more closely resemble the Legend of Zelda logo.

I just made it to checkpoint #2. Had some trouble finding Ishtar, dang secret passages.

I'm really enjoying this game. I feel like it has been forever since I've played any old-school game.

I feel like talking about the story will be challenging. The characters just get dumped from place to place with seemingly no justification. 

Up to the final boss.  Well, stuck on the final boss.

A few thoughts:

Dark Power Renewal System
This was meant to be one of the game's key features, incorporating a lives system into an action RPG.  Dying and respawning in a level is okay, but dying in a boss fight causes more problems than it solves.  Respawning at the start of the fight with half health is pretty much prolonging the inevitable (especially if you've used your herbs).  Every time I died and respawned on a boss, it was easier for me to reset the console and start the fight fresh.  Especially noteworthy are two end game sections:

Spoiler (hover to show)

During the Tower of Babel section, you have to re-fight all five bosses.  You can save and refill health before and after the first two fights, but the last three have to be fought one after another before you can save/heal again.  This is the only time the renewal system was beneficial.

Spoiler (hover to show)

During the final boss fight, I found that if you die with 0:00 DP, you will restart the boss fight with full health (instead of half).  In other words, it is better to have no DP whatsoever entering this fight.

The Pyramid

Spoiler (hover to show)

This is an odd level aesthetically, because it mixes Egyptian and Mesopotamian (I believe Akkadian in particular) imagery.  The wall reliefs depict Lamassu/Shedu amongst clearly Egyptian-style depictions of people, and the icon on the world map looks like an Akkadian bust.

Almost to the third checkpoint.

I am at the vampire palace. Am I close to the 2nd checkpoint?  One complaint I have is the text going away when you press a direction, I have missed some text because of it.

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You've still got a ways to go before you reach the second checkpoint.  As I was playing though the game, I definitely felt like the second checkpoint was the longest of the four, so I probably could have done a better job at dividing up the game.

I also had a problem with the text disappearing because the boxes popped up while I was running.  Very annoying, I wish they would have done a better job at implementing that.

Theses vampires suck. No pun intended.

Arrived at Watermia last night. Second checkpoint cleared.

Fought the vampires last night. I couldn't figure out how to make it to the battle with Freedan, since he can't power slide, so I fought with Will.  A bit aggravating and it took me about 8 tries, but I finally downed those mothersuckers.

Is it just me, or is the story for this game all over the damn place?  I'm trying to make sense of it, but I feel like the only ending that will make sense is if Will wakes up from an acid coma.

@Nanners: The story really is all over the place. Some of the later stuff is even crazier.

My favorite line from this game is:

Spoiler (hover to show)

 The previous owner of this body is now a skeleton sleeping under the shrine

Finished the game...

Spoiler (hover to show)

 I hoped the story would go off the deep end and I was right... fighting on a comet attacking a face. The end boss was a lot easier than I expected as you just had to stand there spamming attack most of the time.

I just finished the game.

That was fun! And yes, the story is nonsense on stilts! Amazing.

I took a bunch of screen captures with the Retron 5, but boy do they come out tiny (fixed, thanks MumboKing)!

Spoiler (hover to show)

[img width=512 height=448]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-3_zpstcdebxzh.png[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-3_zpstcdebxzh.png.html)
[img width=512 height=448]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-2_zpspuxowwxk.png[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-2_zpspuxowwxk.png.html)

A Persona 3 de-make?
[img width=512 height=448]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-4_zpsiuz3ruhs.png[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-4_zpsiuz3ruhs.png.html)

A Resident Evil 4 de-make?
[img width=512 height=448]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-1_zpsioidj221.png[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-1_zpsioidj221.png.html)
[img width=512 height=448]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-5_zps1tysglp5.png[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/Illusion%20of%20Gaia%20USA-5_zps1tysglp5.png.html)

Seems they're native resolution screenshots. If you want them bigger, edit your post and change the to

Now that a busy week is behind me I've got some catching up to do. This afternoon I played up to the Palace of Mu. The Sky Garden gave me a bit of a headache. I've never been a fan of switch-based puzzles and mirror image level layouts, and those always confuse me.

the Sky garden was crazy.  Does anyone know if you can travel back to places you have been eventually? I decided to look up where all the red jewels are and I missed one at the house where you wake up after the golden ship gets destroyed.

Sorry Doug, I think you're out of luck. For the most part, you really can't visit previous towns and dungeons once you complete them.

Unfortunately backtracking to previous areas is impossible for the most part.  This makes collecting all of the red jewels very difficult to do.  I didn't think anybody would be up for it, so I didn't bother mentioning them before.  There's not really much of a reward for collecting them all, but if anybody wants to know what you get:

Spoiler (hover to show)

Collecting all 50 red jewels will let you unlock the 'secret' from the Jeweler Gem.  This gives you access to a new dungeon and a special boss fight, both of which are very difficult.  There are no actual rewards of any kind for completing the dungeon or defeating the boss, just the satisfaction of knowing you cracked the game's biggest secret!

Some of the Red Jewel bonuses are worth it. I think you get HP upgrades and stuff.

Last night I beat the vampires and made it to Watermia. The vampires were pretty tough so I looked for a way to backtrack to a point where I could turn into Freedan. I've come to realization that he's the go-to character for boss fights.

One thing that I've enjoyed so far is the recreations of actual places. It's cool to visit the Nazca Lines and other mysterious historical places. Sometimes I get the vibe that this game is going to go all Ancient Aliens. Anyone seen that show?

Made it to checkpoint 2, I hope to be to check point 3 by the end of the day tomorrow [img width=700 height=393]http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160622/60661b2bbd16f374ebd701362afd6c93.jpg[/img]

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Playing on a Retron 5? Those colours look crisp!

That is with the Framemeister  ;)

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Reached checkpoint 3 last night. In the home stretch.

Game beaten.

Spoiler (hover to show)

Turns out Dark Gaia phase 2 is much easier when you BLOCK her homing attacks instead of outrunning them like a twit.  How embarrassing.

Also I love how at the end, Will say that he wants everyone to see how beautiful the world is, but his dialogue box covers the world up.

Ha ha Raidou!  Yeah, took me a few tries to figure that out too. However, I really like that they use that mechanic in the final boss battle and would have liked to have seen it used more.

Looks like Fleach finished as well, so we are recording our podcast tonight.  Anything you guys would like to hear us talk about or any questions for the group?  We'll take the colorful and off-topic as well. :)

A brief discourse on your SNES RPG experiences wouldn't go amiss- this game is a bit of an odd duck by those standards, being half action RPG half whatever-genre-Zelda-is with a more rigid progression.

I would say that while the story (penned by Mariko Ohara & Moto Hagio)  went at a brisk pace, and didn't make a lot of sense there was a surprising amount of character development. As most on this playthough have commented the raft sequence in particular stands out.

I also liked the theme of morality and how it came in to play by forcing you perform some morally reprehensible acts such as outing a slave to a group of slavers for a red gem.

The soundtrack by Yasuhiro Kawasaki was great and even though I would get lost in a location I wouldn't grow tired of the music. (We'll call it Darm Tower syndrome)

The pacing of the game is great because you are constantly switching between characters so you never feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again.

I didn't like the item limitations and the inability to drop things such as letters as I found myself stuck between leaving a red orb or using up a herb to free up space. The ending can also be a pain if you haven't been conservative with your herbs.

I would agree with Hard Core Gaming 101 and call it one of the best Zelda clones on the SNES. Thanks for giving me a reason to pull this title down from my shelf.

It also reminds me that I should give another look at The Grandstream Saga as it's made by former Quintet developers...

Great comments, we'll definitely talk about these things on the show! 

I probably should have mentioned earlier that you can actually 'use' the red jewels in your inventory to send them to the jeweler and free up some space.  ;)

Never had inventory issues. You know that you can use your red jewels and they automatically fly to the jeweler right?

Doh!  Knock on wood. :)

I was looking up some information for this game, and found that there are only 12 herbs for the entire game. Madness!

I remember watching a video for Granstream Saga.  The character models had no eyes and it kinda wierded me out.  I started playing Terranigma straight after because it's meant to be the follow up to Illusion of Gaia (even though it really isn't). 

All of the Playcast hosts were all talking about playing Terranigma and doing a sidecast on it, since I believe we all own it.  Since it's not a NA release, we thought it might be a tough playthrough in terms of participation.

@Disposed Hero & Nanners: I did not know that... oh well...

I am in the pyramid right now, hope to finish it really soon. Am I close to the end?

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@douglie007: The pyramid is the penultimate dungeon.  The final dungeon is fairly straightforward, so yeah, you are near the home stretch.

Yeah douglie, that's the last dungeon.  After that, it's just a re-skinned boss rush up to the final boss.

Well, it's July now. I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts on the game.  We had our podcast Wednesday night and I think it's one of our better shows.  I attribute a bit of this to the game itself.  Enjoyed this pick.

I'm looking forward to hearing the podcast and everyone's thoughts.

You are mentioned several times. We addressed a good bit of the input you had on the thread.  Thank you for your comments. :)

This was a great episode to record. I think everyone enjoyed this game for different reasons and that's great! Coming in to this I was expecting a huge epic RPG like Final Fantasy but I'm glad I got something totally different. I really love the Zelda games, so to play a Zelda and RPG hybrid was excellent!

Great game and I'm happy I finally got a chance to play this gem.

thank god, this thing is driving me crazy.  I have found 3 of the 6 stones... I might have to use the internet :) I have the first, 3rd and 4th stones.

 I really liked this game, even with its flaws,  The leveling system really makes you want to hunt down every monster so you can be as strong as possible. 

Glad you enjoyed it douglie. Thanks for playing with us!

Just finished it today and started the next game, woot[img width=700 height=393]http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160708/744cb8a8101095180881e6149e034a4a.jpg[/img]

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Congrats!