Illusion of Gaia

Illusion of Gaia
Also known as: Illusion of Time (EU), Gaia Gensouki (JP) Developer: Quintet Publisher: Enix, Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: November 27, 1993 Released in US: September 1, 1994 Released in EU: April 27, 1995 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

The second part of a spiritual "trilogy" including Soul Blazer and Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia (Or Illusion of Time, as it is known in PAL regions) is a straightforward action-adventure game with RPG elements, heavy on the premise of exploring and reviving a dying world, just... less so than its spiritual "relatives".

Unused Items

Items that aren't found anywhere in the game. They also work for the most part. You can write their value to 7E0AB4 to replace the first slot of your inventory with them.

• 05 - Incan Melody: Description: "Told by father to go to Incas with melody." Oddly, its name is "Inca Melody" in the inventory, but if equipped, it's called the "Incan Melody". This seems to be an early/alternate version of the Melody of the Wind, as attempting to use it gives you the exact same message. There doesn't seem to be anywhere you can play this song, and there's no corresponding unused song hidden in the data.

• 15 - Blue Journal: Description: "Journal found by fireplace." This gives you the option to choose between three different topics, "Tower of Babel", "Mystic Statues", and "Great Wall of China", but the text for them is nothing more than repeating the "chapter title". The text when using this item indicates it's Lance's father's, and given this, and the subject matter, it was probably supposed to be obtained at Watermia.

• 1B - Bag of Gold: Description: "Prize from Russian Glass". Obviously, this was supposed to be the prize for winning the drinking game. Evidently you were supposed to buy the four Kruks at one point; in the final game, you're given these beasts right off for winning.

Most of the invalid values are also replaced with Mystic Statues. They have no graphic nor description and don't do anything.

Unused Graphics

Early	Final

Loaded into VRAM in the inventory is what appears to be a very rough, early version of the Mushroom Drops item. The design is the same, but is little more than a sketch, with no real detail.

Early	Final

Likewise, these... things, which appear to be rough early versions of the Mystic Statues, are also loaded into memory on the inventory screen. It's unknown if this was their intended purpose, but they're right next to the statues in the data.

Before	After

For some odd reason, the Gorgon Flower you obtain in Angkor Wat is stored in two pieces; the plant itself and the flowers on it are separate sprites. Though this appears to be because the plant and petals use different palettes, it's also possible the plant, sans flowers, was intended to be used elsewhere.

Some blue slime, smoke, and flames, also loaded into memory on the inventory screen. These come right after Will and Freedan's Dark Power icons, meaning they were almost certainly intended as a trio of powers for Shadow, who otherwise only gets any abilities from the Aura flame item. The slime seems to correspond to Shadow's ability to morph into liquid, and the flame may be the Phoenix used in the final battle. The smoke's purpose is unknown, however.

Small 8x8 filler/placeholder tiles which, oddly enough, bear a striking resemblance to Kirby.

Unused Text

A few bits of text are rendered unused by the simple fact that there's no actual way short of cheating to talk to people.

Neil's father: You can't
go wrong by taking over
the Rolek Company.

During the Euro sequence, you can speak with Neil and his mother, but there's no legit way to actually reach his father, so this line is never heard.

This is a green apple.

Also in Euro. While it's possible to speak with this woman normally, talking to anyone from behind the counter will result in them scolding you, and the man at the counter effectively blocks you from speaking to her that way, either. Nevertheless, she does have something to say.

Unused Music

A single unused jingle buried away in the game. It's a simple snippet of the title/main theme, with slightly different instrumentation. Possibly intended as a short "victory" fanfare after completing major events.

Miscellaneous

This more standard RPG-ish island map is technically present in-game, during the "attract mode" prologue, but is rendered in Mode 7, and shown so low that it's virtually impossible to make out any details. Moreover, only the bottom three islands, and the island with Babel Tower on it, are even visible at all normally. Interestingly, the top two islands seem to feature towns or castles, using a more elaborate version of the graphic normally displayed for these on the in-game world map.

The Mode 7 city shown in a strange cutscene at the end of Angkor Wat is considerably larger than what can actually be seen. Most notably is a small park with a Japanese-style shrine in the southeast part of the map, which is completely unseen in-game. Four unique small colored signs also exist, completely out of view: a blue and white "ENIX" sign, red signs that read "01 01" and "ALTO", and a white sign with red Japanese text written on it.

Version Differences

Gameplay

• The first boss, Castoth, was made considerably more difficult in the North American release. In the Japanese original, all you have to do is attack its head repeatedly, but in the North American version, you first have to attack and disable both its hands before the head becomes vulnerable. This makes the fight much longer and more dangerous.

Graphics

Japanese	North American

With a lot of areas being renamed in the North American version, it stands to reason that the world map would be modified accordingly. To fit in the longer names, a few trees around the Moon Tribe Camp and Natives' Village, and one was added outside Neil's Cottage. Curiously, despite fixing a few obvious misspellings ("Cotage", "Nasca"), the American version introduces one of its own, changing the correctly-spelled "Angkor Wat" to "Ankor Wat".

Japanese	North American

As if it wasn't obvious enough that the "school" in South Cape is actually a church, the statue on the back wall was a large cross in the Japanese version.