The Super Nintendo was the console that I discovered RPGs on. I didn’t have my own yet, but I was at a friend’s house and he showed me Final Fantasy II (which is what we called IV back then). During this time, I quickly became aware of many other games in the genre. One that I had heard of but knew absolutely nothing about was Illusion of Gaia. It had a logo that made it look like something similar to Final Fantasy, a title that reminded me of Secret of Mana, and I had no idea if it had anything to do with either of these. Well, now, in 2025, the random number generator has decided that I need to actually see what this game is.

To be clear, Illusion of Gaia has nothing to do with any Squaresoft game. It was actually published by Enix, well before Square and Enix became the same company. It’s developed by a team called Quintet and is a follow up to another SNES game of theirs, Soul Blazer. Soul Blazer is a game I had never heard of until I started looking into this whole thing. Weird that Illusion of Gaia was a title that I was very aware of growing up, but not the first game.

But anyway, what is Illusion of Gaia? In simple terms, it’s like a 2D Zelda game. You run around towns and dungeons with an isometric perspective and hit bad guys with your sword. The game does have a bigger emphasis on talking to townsfolk and telling a story than Zelda does though, which feels more like a Final Fantasy. It also gets very weird very quickly.

You play as a boy named Will and the game opens with you at school. Your friends all tell you to meet them at some hideout they have and then leave. Before heading that way, I explored the school for a bit. I went upstairs, which led to the roof, and immediately ran into a big black square which brought me to some other dimension? There I was told that I had some power because I’m the chosen one? And also I could come here to save my game.

So that’s weird. But after leaving there, I decide to explore the town. Here I find all my friends houses. One of them is the the biggest house in town and apparently everyone else is jealous of it. One of my friends’ parents are fighting, and when I try walking through the door, a pot gets thrown straight out of it and hits me. One of the NPCs I encounter talks about how a star is going to crash into the planet? I don’t know, but I eventually make my way to the hideout.

There, my friends have me show them my mysterious power, which I apparently have. Holding either L or R will cause me to move certain objects towards me, in this case, a statue. A friend also sets up four cards upside down and asks me to find the ace of diamonds. I get it in one try, which leads my friends to thinking I’m psychic. I’m guessing that you always get it right, but I don’t know for sure. Oh, and one of my friends starts talking about how a princess has run away and is hiding somewhere in this town. There’s a lot going on in a very short amount of time.

I’m not going to talk about everything that happens, but the princess ends up being in your house, but guards show up and take her back home. So now you and your grandparents have dinner, which is snail pie. The next morning, you get a letter from the king asking you to come to the castle and give him your father’s ring. After going to the castle, I try to give him the ring, but I guess I don’t have it, and I end up arrested and in the dungeon. Thankfully, the princesses pet pig Hamlet brings you a key to get out of your cell, leading to the first dungeon of the game.

There’s not a ton to this dungeon. You’re mostly just moving forward and beating up monsters. You have a very simple sword attack and not a whole lot else going on. Sometimes doors won’t open until you defeat certain enemies, and beating all enemies gives you upgrades as a sort of level up system. Eventually I come across another of those weird dimensional doors. Going in, not only can I save my game, but I can now take on the form of a big warrior guy. At least at this point in the game, he doesn’t seem to dramatically change the gameplay, but he is stronger, so that’s cool.

Illusion of Gaia is a pretty weird game, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it. The writing is funny, the combat is simple, and I never know what it’s going to throw at me next. While I don’t think it holds up when compared to the other legendary SNES RPGs, at least not in the early going, I do think it’s worth checking out if you’re like me and just never did this whole time.