Line #70 VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia


1	[[quoteright:189:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GaiaGensouki_3452.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:189:Psychic KidHero and friends can [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathe in space]].]]
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4	An ActionAdventure game with RPGElements for the Platform/SuperNintendo, developed by Quintet. Enix (now Creator/SquareEnix) published the game in Japan, and Nintendo published it worldwide, with release dates of November, 1993 (Japan) and September, 1994 (North America). It was released in Europe in April, 1995 [[MarketBasedTitle under the title]] ''[[MarketBasedTitle Illusion of Time]]''. The game revolves around the adventures of Will, a boy with PsychicPowers who winds up having to SaveTheWorld from an ancient evil that wiped out the legendary civilizations of the past. The game never met the levels of success that ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' or ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' did, probably because of its shortness, but it is still well-remembered by many.
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6	''Illusion of Gaia'' describes its setting as the "age of exploration". In practice, it's that special blend of MedievalEuropeanFantasy and UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain that {{Eastern RPG}}s are fond of mixing up, with an emphasis on [[LandmarkOfLore Landmarks of Lore]] and world explorers. The father of [[KidHero Will]] is one such explorer. Sometime in the recent past, father and son went on an expedition to {{the Tower}} [[TowerOfBabel of Babel]], but a ''completely mysterious something'' went wrong. Only Will made it back home, but with only vague memories of the journey there and back, and adding to the mystery is his newly-awakened PsychicPowers.
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8	Aside from the ESP, Will is an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary schoolboy]]. At least, he is until the day he meets two people - Gaia, the [[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers spirit of the earth...]] er, [[MotherNature "source of all life"]], and Kara, a [[RebelliousPrincess runaway princess]]. Before long, Will is on the run from Kara's sovereign parents and trying to stop a [[CometOfDoom doomsday comet]] under Gaia's direction, all while trying to reunite with his missing father. Will's [[TheHerosJourney journey]] takes him through an assortment of (16-bit renditions of) real-world sites, such as [[{{Mayincatec}} Macchu Picchu]], the [[AncientAstronauts Nazca lines]], [[TempleOfDoom Angkor Wat]], the [[FarEast Great Wall of China]], and [[PyramidPower Egyptian pyramids]].
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10	The game was once planned to be localized under the title of ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer: Illusion of Gaia'' back when Enix's U.S. subsidiary was planning on publishing the English version themselves. Despite this, ''Soul Blazer'' and ''Illusion of Gaia'' are not actually related to each other storywise, unless you count a certain enemy character from ''Soul Blazer'' having a cameo in ''Illusion''. Later on, Nintendo planned to localize ''VideoGame/{{Terranigma}}'' (originally titled ''Tenchi Sōzō'') as ''Illusion of Gaia 2'', leading fans to treat all three games as part of a loose trilogy.
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12	----
13	!!This game contains examples of:
14	* EleventhHourSuperpower: The Firebird ability from Will's [[spoiler:FusionDance]], as well as the ability to travel into space to stop the comet.
15	* AccidentalTruth: When the king demands the Crystal Ring, the player can choose to have Will respond, "I don't have it." Will genuinely has no idea where the ring is, but [[spoiler:all the way at the other end of the game, you find out that Will ''does'' have it -- it was on his flute all along]].
16	* AdvertisedExtra: The descriptions and marketing of the game, and even the ''instruction manual'', all give the impression that Lance, Erik, and Seth had larger roles in the game than they actually do.
17	** Shadow as well, since he's only playable for about the last two hours of gameplay.
18	* AfterTheEnd: It's said that the comet's light brings TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. A Moon Tribesman tells you that this will be the fourth time it has done so.
19	* AllThereInTheManual: As literally as you can get. The manual actually has a ''walkthrough'' in it, including Red Jewel locations and help for most of the GuideDangIt moments.
20	* AllUpToYou: Will has a large entourage of {{sidekick}}s; none of them ever participate in the actual gameplay (until the FusionDance at the end), but they manage to show up everywhere Will goes nonetheless.
21	** Lilly acts as an ExpositionFairy of sorts during Mu. Not so much in The Great Wall.
22	* AlwaysKnowAPilot: As soon as Will's quest for the Mystic Statues starts to really get underway, it's revealed that he has an inventor cousin who just so happens to be working on building an airplane.
23	* AmbidextrousSprite: Will's third form, Shadow. Justified in that there's visibly no difference between the sprite's right and left sides.
24	* {{Anaphora}}: The "A legend from each ruin, a legend from each creature" slide of the opening cutscene.
25	* AncientAstronauts: Subverted. Including the Nazca Lines suggests this trope, but the spaceship is replaced by a [[FloatingContinent flying city]], and instead of aliens, there are {{Sufficiently Advanced\|Alien}} {{Mutant}}s.
26	* AngerBornOfWorry: After Will rescues Kara from [[spoiler:nearly being lost forever in a painting in Angel Village]], he gives her a furious earful for wandering off on her own without caring about her friends' feelings. After this point in the story, she is much more humble.
27	* AnimeHair: [[spoiler:The Jackal]], of all people, has a blond, spiky, and ridiculously tall hairdo. Some might have interpreted it as an Aztec-styled hair ornament, due the readability of the sprite itself.
28	* AntiGrinding: The only way to increase your maximum health, attack power, or defense is to clear all of the enemies from a room in a dungeon, at which point one of the three stats goes up. If you completely ignore the enemies and just rush through, you still get the power-ups anyway once you defeat a boss. However, the game has some stretches without any bosses to activate this "catch-up" mechanic, particularly between the Great Wall and the Pyramid.
29	* AnyoneCanDie:
30	** Subverted when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Seth isn't actually dead Not yet, anyway]].
31	** Played straight later on, with [[spoiler:Hamlet's death being a major surprise as he makes a HeroicSacrifice to prevent the party from being eaten by cannibals]].
32	** Late in the game, [[spoiler:the Jackal dies when Will uses a trap in a temple to set him on fire]].
33	* ArtificialGravity: Seen on the Sky Garden, where you can jump off the edge and wind up walking upside-down on the underside with gravity pulling everything upward.
34	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
35	** The game states that the comet causes rapid evolution by speeding up time, so that organisms mutate faster. However, organisms cannot evolve, only populations -- once your chromosomes combine, you're stuck with that DNA. Granted, this could potentially work if it was ''mutating'' the organisms, similar to radiation, which is probably the original intent. Of course, in that case, it would not be the biological superweapon the spirits claim it to be, since it's extremely rare for radiation to result in positive mutations.
36	** The game claims that a camel's hump contains water. It does in the sense that all organic matter contains water, but a camel's hump is actually a storehouse for fat.
37	* AstralFinale: How do you deal with a CometOfDoom? You go into space and kick its ass, of course.
38	* {{Atlantis}}: Actually Mu Continent, the Pacific Ocean equivalent. The developers were fond of depicting Mu in their games; it appears again as a side quest in ''Terranigma''.
39	* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:Hamlet, who was left behind in Edward Castle when Kara ran away with Will, unexpectedly turns up much later in the game and accompanies what's left of the party to the next destination, an impoverished village that has lost many to the labor trade. He winds up throwing himself into their fire, so he can become food for the remaining villagers.]]
40	* BattleCouple: Jack and Silvana, the DualBoss [[UnholyMatrimony vampires]] of Mu. Though not all is well in paradise- if you kill Jack first, Silvana will say she's glad he's gone.
41	* BetaCouple: Lance and Lilly. A subplot features their relationship blossoming, which gives Will reason to go to the Great Wall Of China when Lilly [[spoiler:temporarily abandons the group after Lance confesses his feelings to her]].
42	* BigBad: Dark Gaia, the malevolent entity using the comet for its own ends and Gaia's antithesis.
43	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The comet's light has an unnatural effect on the evolution of the planet ''itself''. By defeating Dark Gaia, Will and Kara stop the cycle of destruction, [[NoOntologicalInertia enabling the world to assume its proper shape]] (real-life Earth of the 1990s). Will and Kara go there to live new lives, with no memory of their adventures or feelings for each other. Happily, Will and Kara vow before returning to Earth to find each other - and the final scene of the game shows Will, Kara, Lance, Erik, and even Seth (but not Lilly, for some reason) together again, in a modern-day school. Furthermore, while the people of the Earth are happy, [[GreenAesop their lack of awareness of the spirit of the earth makes it sad]].]]
44	* BlackKnight: Will is the Knight Of Darkness, but his Freedan form is a more direct embodiment of the trope, being a broad-shouldered knight in strong, black armour with a broad sword and long, flowing blonde hair. A subversion of the current use of the trope, though not as originally written in ancient legend, since Will is the hero.
45	* BlatantLies: In the original Japanese script, Kara tells one of the soldiers sent after her that she's actually a flower girl. The soldier tells her that this is an obvious lie.
46	* BlindIdiotTranslation: This game's English translation is particularly bad. While the basic story is intact, a lot of subtext, jokes and even crucial plot information are gone. The dialogue often can't tell if the subject of its sentence is singular or plural. A few lines that were meant to be someone's thoughts are spoken out loud instead. There are more than a few proofreading fails, like when Kara is referred to as "Karen" (which was her name in a draft of the translation), or the spot where "violinist" was misinterpreted as "violent". The game even has a few lines said by ''the wrong character''. Some more accurate translations in areas containing particularly bad grammar (as well as [[{{Bowdlerise}} the censorship issues]]) can be found [[http://www.terraearth.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1926 here.]]
47	* BookEnds: The game begins and ends with a scene of the hero and his friends at school.
48	* BossRush: The end of the game forces you to fight every boss you've faced so far in succession, though you can still heal and save after a couple of them. At least the earlier ones are easier now that you're (a) using Shadow, (b) more powerful and carrying more health, and (c) presumably better at the game than you were when you first fought them all.
49	* {{Bowdlerise}}: The English translation blunts some of the darker aspects of the world, a common practice for English-translated SNES games at the time.
50	** Slaves are never called slaves. They're called laborers or servants instead.
51	** References to the [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal tribe]] eating people were written out to the point that players might not suspect they're a cannibal tribe.
52	** Most suggestions of polytheism are obscured. At one point, Kara says "It's as if we've become spirits" whereas, translated accurately, she should have said "It's as if we've become gods".
53	* BraggingRightsReward: While you gain various rewards for reaching certain milestones in Red Jewel collection, you gain nothing for collecting all fifty of them aside from access to the BonusDungeon and its boss -- Solid Arm, the first boss from ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer''. Oh, and you have to fight him using Will (instead of the stronger Freedan or Shadow) so it's probably a longer fight than most of the others put together.
54	* ButThouMust: If you tell King Edward that you didn't bring the Crystal Ring, he'll throw you in prison for having the nerve to refuse him. If you say yes, Will hesitates, and the king will throw you in prison for lying. Granted, Will doesn't know that [[spoiler:the ring was on his flute all along]], and King Edward can't seem to comprehend that the ring was never "found" in the first place, considering [[spoiler:what it took for Will to finally add the damn thing to his inventory]].
55	* CallingCard: The Jackal carves a picture of... well, a jackal, to mark the places where he's been. An easy-to-miss NPC ends up foreshadowing his return to the plot.
56	* CatchAFallingStar: Double-subverted. Neil uses his airplane to save Will from freefall, but only on the second pass.
57	* ChekhovsGun: An NPC in the Pyramid tells you that the hieroglyphics room is rigged with a sound-triggering booby trap. Just before that level's boss fight, [[spoiler:Will sets off this trap by playing his flute, killing the Jackal who had taken Kara prisoner.]]
58	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:The Jackal himself, who exists to demonstrate the evil in the hearts of King Edward and Queen Edwina by hunting down Will and Kara. His chasing you is referenced in a throwaway line when you first meet the Moon Tribe not that long afterward. Then in Euro, someone mentions seeing the Jackal, noting his seeming evil and that he seemed to be chasing someone, and just before you leave, you're told someone has come to see you, and the player would expect the Jackal, come to finally end his role in the plot, only for it to be Hamlet in an accidental Bait And Switch, but only in-universe. Then you reach Dao, there's a young lady in an alcove who quietly gives Will a piece of paper, and suddenly the BGM cuts off as Will notices the picture of a jackal, the Calling Card of the notorious mercenary. Sure enough, just as you're about to finish the Pyramid, the Jackal shows his face, having taken Kara hostage as you were collecting that last Hieroglyph.]]
59	* CollectionSidequest: The red jewels. Finding all fifty is a real pain, since at least ten of them are {{Permanently Missable\|Content}} after leaving a continent, and the game provides no hints about where they are. However, finding them grants various bonuses like buffs to special attacks, and any more than thirty just gets a BraggingRightsReward.
60	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
61	** Subverted for most of the game, then [[DoubleSubversion double-subverted]] at the last minute.
62	** The RainbowSpeak also works like this with character speech. Will's text is yellow, [[PrincessesPreferPink Kara's]] is pink, Lance's is green, Lilly's is blue, Erik's is orange, Seth's is purple, and Neil's is gray. Everything else uses white text.
63	* ControllableHelplessness: There's nothing you can do to get out of the prison cell in Edward Castle faster, even though you can walk around and examine things. The same is true of the shipwreck sequence.
64	* CordonBleughChef: Grandma Lola's cooking has gotten weird lately, according to Grandpa Bill. In the Japanese version, it's merely strange combinations, like fish curry or meat pie with whipped cream. The localization punches this up to outright ''weird'' things like snail pie and mouse fritters. Oddly, Bill still eats "half the pie", despite earlier stating he "can't stand it anymore".
65	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: To say that [[spoiler: Rolek]] engages in shady activities is to say that the ocean is damp. That said, it may be because [[spoiler: Neil's parents were replaced with demons]].
66	* CrapsaccharineWorld: On the surface it's a typical 90s [=JRPG=], all bright colors and friendly neighbors, but there's impending doomsday, famine, slavery, and human trafficking lurking around every dark corner. Pointed out in-game that the nicest looking towns tend to have the seediest underbellies.
67	* DarkIsNotEvil: The names of most of Will's transformations and attacks indicate that his powers are [[CastingAShadow darkness-based]].
68	* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Neil's parents were killed by their servants on the Moon Tribe's orders, and Seth dies somewhere between Angel Village and the Pyramid, as his spirit turns up on the roof of the Tower Of Babel, and Will's father Olman is found long dead in room just before the roof.]]
69	* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler:The Jackal, who's been chasing after Kara for the entire game, spends his last moments crawling across the floor after her as he's ''burning alive''.]]
70	* DemBones: A couple of the early enemies are versions of this, with much more dangerous flying skulls turning up later on.
71	* DefrostingIceQueen: Kara, who gains a great deal of humility the longer she spends away from the castle.
72	* DescriptiveVille: Many towns are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. South Cape is located on a southern cape. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freesia Freesia]] is full of flowers. Watermia is built on a river.
73	* DifficultyByRegion: In the Japanese version, herbs fully recover your health. Also, you don't have to [[spoiler:attack the first boss's hands to hurt him]], and the earthquake attack can be used to stun a boss.
74	* DreamMelody: Will has his grandmother's lullaby, which turns out to be the key to revealing her village of origin and an identifying call. Also, a couple dungeons have background music that turn out to be versions of other melodies.
75	* DubNameChange: Several character names were changed in localization -- fairly ''late'' in localization, as a leaked prototype shows. Will was originally Tim, Kara was originally Karen, Hamlet was originally Peggy, Lance was originally Rob, Seth was originally Morris, and the Jackal was originally the Black Panther. Why these names were changed is not clear, beyond Hamlet obviously having been for the {{pun}}, and Black Panther likely incuring legal issues. Hamlet is also called Becky in her introduction in this version, then never again. Erik however, stays Erik in both versions.
76	* DwindlingParty: A (mostly) non-fatal version. Will's group grows to six members at some points, but they leave one or two at a time as the game nears its conclusion.
77	* EarthAllAlong: After the comet is defeated, [[spoiler:the world assumes its natural shape, which is that of present-day Earth.]]
78	* EasyAmnesia: Lance suffers this after a shipwreck. His family has bad luck with this, [[spoiler:as his missing father turns up half a world away with IdentityAmnesia courtesy of a different shipwreck.]]
79	* EndOfAnAge: As the spirit of Angkor Wat foretold, Will is destined [[spoiler:to usher in the modern, industrialized world. He has mixed feelings about leaving the world as he knows it, and players will likely sympathize with the fantasy world giving way to life as we know it]]. The closing narration points out that the new world may not be as open or as wild, but it has good people in it, and that makes it worthwhile.
80	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: The CometOfDoom that drives the plot is responsible for the fall of many of the civilizations whose ruins Will explores. Will has to prevent it from happening a '''FOURTH''' time.
81	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Jackal, a ruthless bounty hunter, notes that the King's plans for using the ancient bio-technology for power means that "He might be more evil than a mercenary like [the Jackal]." That said, the Jackal's willing to follow the King's orders for money.
82	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep:
83	** Your opponent in the drinking game is simply called "The Opponent".
84	** The Jackal is also never referred to by any other name. Unless you play the beta version, which calls him the Black Panther, even though he's a white man wearing blue.
85	* EvilCounterpart: Dark Gaia to Gaia.
86	* {{Expy}}: The Flasher enemies that appear in Mu are pretty much identical to the Wizzrobe enemies in the [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]] series, attack pattern and all.
87	* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath:
88	** [[spoiler: Hamlet]], then later [[spoiler:the Jackal]], both of which get ''burned alive''. The latter's is particularly gruesome.
89	** Dark Gaia's ''face melts off'' when you defeat her.
90	* FantasticMedicinalBodilyProduct: Unspecified body fluids from the Sand Fanger are thought to cure diseases. Lance uses some to cure his father's memory loss.
91	* FetchQuest: The journey to Mt. Kress is one of these, as there's nothing about the quest or its objective that seems relevant to finding Mystic Statues or advancing to new areas. And when you ''do'' advance, you wind up going to Ankor Wat on another fetch quest... only this time the game doesn't even tell you that it's a fetch quest.
92	* FictionalEarth: Despite historical landmarks from the real world existing, and certain historical figures like Columbus being mentioned, the landmasses of the world are radically different. [[spoiler: Subverted that it's actually a corrupted version of our Earth, and after you defeat the comet, the Earth regains its natural appearance.]]
93	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: There's an NPC in Dao that you have to go out of your way to talk to. She silently (to the point that the BGM cuts off) shows you the Jackal's CallingCard, after a throwaway reference to him chasing you from a Moon Tribesman and an (in-universe) accidental BaitAndSwitch (clearly intentional on the devs' part) courtesy of Hamlet in Euro. Sure enough, we finally meet the Jackal in person at the Pyramid.
94	** When Will bids [[DwindlingParty what's left of]] his friends one last farewell and parachutes out of Neil's plane over the Tower or Babel, a second parachute can be seen drifting down just before the scene ends. A few minutes later Will bumps into [[spoiler:Kara, and she explains that she followed him because she had a feeling she'd never see him again if she didn't.]]
95	* FloatingContinent: The Sky Garden is a small one of these.
96	* FollowThePlottedLine: Will's journey is fairly linear, although he does have at least an idea of where to go next.
97	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Will's original band of friends form one of these.
98	** Will - '''Choleric'''
99	** Lance - '''Sanguine'''
100	** Eric - '''Supine'''
101	** Seth - '''Melancholic'''
102	* FusionDance: The endgame, where Kara and the spirits on the roof of the Tower Of Babel join with Will to grant Shadow his one ability, [[SwordBeam the Firebird]].
103	* GaiasVengeance: Inverted in that ''Illusion of Gaia'' is conscious of the GreenAesop, but Gaia is helpful, not vengeful.
104	* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: The scene where Will is trapped on a raft. He gradually gets more and more hungry and the narrative tells us that Will's feeling weak from hunger. Look up at his health and you'll see that he's gradually losing health, too.
105	* GeniusLoci: The game appears to subscribe the the Gaia Hypothesis concept of the Earth as a living organism. [[spoiler: Organisms exposed the comet's light mutate, and the Earth is no exception. This ends up being the explanation for why the game world is unlike the real Earth.]]
106	* HitodamaLight: Will [[ISeeDeadPeople talks to dead people]] quite a bit. They take the form of tongues of spectral fire.
107	* ISeeDeadPeople: Will can talk to dead people. They take the form of [[HitodamaLight tongues of spectral fire.]]
108	%%* GiantHandsOfDoom: The first boss attacks with these and [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]].
109	* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Bosses seldom have much in the way of context. The major exceptions are the vampires and the comet, who are discussed quite a bit in advance of their actual appearances. Sand Fanger is mentioned ahead of time if you happen to talk to the right NPC in Watermia, though it's described more as a dangerous beast than a malevolent antagonist.
110	* GreenAesop: Much like ''Soul Blazer'' before it and ''Terranigma'' after it, ''Illusion of Gaia'' contains the idea that the Earth is a living organism, or at least aware of what mankind is doing to it. As a result, the message of the game is that the Earth must be cared for and protected.
111	* GuideDangIt: Finding the fifty red jewels, almost half of which are {{Permanently Missable\|Content}}. The red jewel in the fisherman's pot is a double example; the manual ''has'' a guide, which tells you that's where the jewel is, but it fails to mention the condition for the pot appearing -- it's [[RandomNumberGod randomly decided each time you enter the area]]. Worse, nothing tells you that you have to use the Red Jewels in order for it to count.
112	* HealingCheckpoint: Save points also restore your health.
113	* HealingHerb: The game's only healing item. Not to be used lightly, since there's a strictly limited number of them in the entire game.
114	* HeelFaceTurn:
115	** [[spoiler: Viper (the Sky Garden boss), and the vampire couple]] both help you get to the top of the Tower of Babel.
116	** [[spoiler: Solid Arm]] compliments Will's strength upon defeat and (seemingly) transports him back to the Tower Of Babel to save the world.
117	* HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: At the beginning of the game, Seth tells you to stand in front of the statue and use the L/R buttons to use telekinesis to make the statue move.
118	* HeroicBSOD: Poor Neil briefly goes through this after [[spoiler: his parents are revealed to be Moon Tribe spirits who impersonated the real ones after having them killed]].
119	* HeroicSuicide: [[spoiler:Hamlet the pig throws himself into a fire in order to feed a starving village. In a re-translation of the game from the original Japanese, his sacrifice makes more sense; the tribe was cannibalistic, eating its own people to survive, and Hamlet willingly becomes food for them so that the tribe doesn't eat the party... or more of their own.]]
120	* HonorBeforeReason: The opponent in the [[RussianRoulette Russian Glass game]] drinks the only remaining (and therefore fatally poisoned) glass rather than forfeit the game. It turns out he's [[SoapOperaDisease terminally ill]] and [[TheLastDance trying to go out with a bang]] while putting his family on easy street with his winnings.
121	* HumansAreBastards: The game occasionally likes to remind you that humans destroy the environment, mercilessly kill each other, and think themselves superior to giant man-eating fish. Furthermore, while the ending does show you saving the human race, it does take pains to remind you that "(T)he Earth was the only one that looked sad."
122	* HundredPercentCompletion: Collecting all fifty red jewels grants access to the game's BonusDungeon.
123	* IFellForHours: There's a part where you jump from near the top of the Great Wall and plummet all the way down to a basement level. The drop takes almost ''ten seconds'', and [[MadeOfIron somehow]] Will lands completely unharmed.
124	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Will apparently bashes in his enemies' brains with a ''[[InstrumentOfMurder flute]]''.
125	* IndianBurialGround: The major dungeons in the game are all ruins of ancient civilizations.
126	* InventoryManagementPuzzle: Will can carry no more than sixteen items, and as you fill those slots with precious, finite Herbs, freeing up space for new quest items gets tricky late in the game. The 50 Red Jewels seem like a headache waiting to happen, but fortunately they can be sent off to the Jeweler at any time. [[GuideDangIt Sadly, not many players figured this out. leading to many clearing their inventory of irreplaceable herbs in order to make room for the Red Jewels.]]
127	* InvisibleToNormals: Itory Village is like this, invisible to the human eye until a song from the village is sung (or played on a flute, in Will's case). [[labelnote:Interestingly...]]You don't get to explore the shielded village, trying to move instead prompts Lilly to tell you to ContinueYourMissionDammit[[/labelnote]]
128	* IrrelevantImportance: A few items can't be thrown away even after they become useless. This is irritating due to your limited inventory space, especially if you've been hoarding the Herbs you get throughout the game.
129	* ItMustBeMine: Kara is drawn to the ring worn by the Incan Queen's mummified corpse. [[spoiler:As the reincarnation of the Light Knight, she needed that ring to be able to get inside the Tower of Babel.]]
130	* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: [[spoiler:Remember that Crystal Ring Kara's father wanted so badly? Turns out it's part of Will's flute. It gets knocked off when Will is repelled by a barrier in the Tower Of Babel, allowing him to finally "acquire" and equip it, which lets him pass through.]]
131	* JewsLoveToArgue: Rofsky and Erasquez, those [[AmbiguouslyJewish Einstein-looking]] old men in Euro, are supposed to bicker and trade insults with each other but the translation butchered their dialogue even worse than it usually does.
132	* KidHero: All of the protagonists appear to be in the neighborhood of 12-15 years old. Will is a bit taller than his friends, so presumably he is a little older, but definitely no older than 15. Will's cousin Neil is the only exception, appearing to be in his late teens or early twenties. Lilly celebrates her 15th birthday at one point in the game, so it can be assumed that the ages of the other kids are in that area. Erik is likely the youngest, and Will is just a tad taller, so possibly older.
133	* LadyInRed: Silvana wears a red dress underneath her cloak, fitting for a vampire woman.
134	* LandmarkOfLore: The game's dungeons include real locations like Angkor Wat, the Nazca paintings, the Great Wall of China, and the Great Pyramid, as well as mythological locations such as Mu and the Tower of Babel.
135	* LaserGuidedKarma: It's implied that many of the comet's victims were horrible people who effectively lost their own souls through their evil deeds.
136	* LawOfOneHundred: Collect 100 DP to earn an extra life (up to 9). If you die with any extra lives, you respawn in the same room where you died. If you don't have any lives, you'll still respawn, but at the beginning of the dungeon. Also, if that death was as Freedan or Shadow, you respawn as Will, forcing you to hunt down the nearest Dark Space that will allow you to transform.
137	* LegacyBossBattle: With Solid Arm, a boss originally from the first game in the series, ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'', [[GuideDangIt can only be fought]] if you [[GottaCatchThemAll collect all fifty Red Jewels]].
138	* LightIsNotGood: The comet's light is TheCorruption in this game. The Moon Tribe, the people of Mu, many of the demons you encounter in the game, [[spoiler:Shadow, and Will's own father,]] are all victims.
139	* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: King Edward and Queen Edwina are both horrible people, who look so alike that they could pass for fraternal twins. Their daughter Princess Kara looks nothing like them, and ultimately proves to be a much better person.
140	* TheLoad: Kara often makes a nuisance of herself early in the game, [[CharacterDevelopment but improves as her character arc advances]].
141	* LoveAtFirstNote: Grandpa Bill mentions that this is how he fell in love with Grandma Lola.
142	* MaamShock: Will addresses Queen Edwina this way, pleading for her help while being dragged away by the king's men. She is not amused. Will doing so is a bit less outlandish than it sounds, considering that in RealLife, you're expected to call the Queen of England "Ma'am" after first addressing her as "Your Majesty" (as mentioned in ''Film/TheKingsSpeech''), so it may be that the first "Ma'am" should have been a "Your Majesty" if Edwina was expected to aid him.
143	* ManOnFire: [[spoiler:The Jackal's fate is being set on fire by a trap in the pyramid. He still tries to crawl after Kara in spite of this, but he dies not long after.]]
144	* TheMaze: Mountain Temple. The manual even suggests drawing a map as you explore the area. That said, experienced players learn to instinctively intuit where they are in the area and where to go from there.
145	* MessageInABottle: Ironically Will and Kara find one while adrift at sea themselves. You eventually get a chance to help the people who wrote the note when you storm the Diamond Mine and set them free. In return, they give you a song to restore Lance's memories.
146	* MissingSecret: There's a hole next to the second dungeon's entrance that looks like you can Psycho Slide through it, but you don't get that ability until quite a bit later after crossing multiple [[PointOfNoReturn Points of No Return]]. There's no way to try sliding through this hole without hacking, and ''with'' hacking you find it's just decoration, as solid as any other wall.
147	* MusicalAssassin: Again, Will and his flute. Becomes a literal case when playing the one melody you still have at that point triggers a booby trap that [[ManOnFire kills the Jackal]].
148	* MysteriousMercenaryPursuer: The Jackal chases Will throughout the game, but only shows up once near the end. Given FiveSecondForeshadowing if you fully explore Dao before going to the Pyramid.
149	* NeverSayDie: You "lose your life" instead. And then there's an Angel Tribeswoman you can find standing where the sun is shining. Will compares it to "sleeping, as if the spirit's drawn out" if he examines her. Another Angel Tribesman flat out tells Will that if they stay out in the sun for too long, they'll "perish."
150	* OneOfTheseDoorsIsNotLikeTheOther: In some areas, there appears to be no door at all, but paying careful attention to [[spoiler: the wind, or else the sound made by striking,]] reveals the secret.
151	* OneWingedAngel: The FinalBoss has two forms.
152	* OrganicTechnology: The endgame reveals that [[spoiler: the comet is a LostSuperWeapon created by an ancient civilization that mastered biotechnology and altered organisms to suit their needs. Shadow is another one of their products.]]
153	* OurAngelsAreDifferent: A whole colony of them live in a secluded place underground. They apparently die if exposed to sunlight for too long, and they're rumored to be the form into which humans will evolve. [[spoiler:They're the descendants of the survivors of Mu.]]
154	* PaletteSwap: Most enemies have more powerful versions with a different colour scheme (and sometimes different attacks), but it's most noticeable in the Sky Garden. There, every enemy on the underside is a tougher PaletteSwap of those on the top.
155	* PermanentlyMissableContent: The game's [[FollowThePlottedLine highly structured plot]] results in several points where the characters take one-way trans-ocean trips, making backtracking to collect items you might have missed (mostly those Red Jewels) impossible. The last of these occurs around the midpoint of the game, so after that you can actually skip something and go back for it.
156	** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] regarding stat gains. Defeating a boss nets you any stat gains you would have gotten between it and the last one. You will face the FinalBoss with the same stats regardless of whether or not you cleaned out the enemies in a specific room.
157	* PhantomZonePicture: Ishtar's paintings are lovely to behold, but have the unfortunate side effect of trapping their models inside them.
158	* APigNamedPorkchop: Hamlet. [[spoiler: Sadly, unlike most instances of this trope, it becomes all too literal when Hamlet pulls a HeroicSacrifice to stop Will's party from being eaten by cannibals.]]
159	* PinkGirlBlueBoy: The ''staff credits'', of all places, seem to be written like this.
160	* PlatformingPocketPal: Lilly's dandelion transformation ability lets her take cover in dungeons by hiding in Will's pocket.
161	* PlotCoupon: The Mystic Statues. You GottaCatchThemAll, but they don't do anything gameplay-wise.
162	* PressXToDie: You at one point have to win a game of [[RussianRoulette Russian Glass]] to advance the plot -- you and your opponent take turns drinking from a row of glasses, one of which is spiked with a deadly poison. Of course, Will is psychic, so if you actually pick that glass, he freaks out and makes you confirm drinking it with a yes/no dialogue, which you don't have to do if you picked one of the safe glasses. But if you say "yes"... you die.
163	* PrincessesPreferPink: Kara seems to be a particularly egregious example of this trope, seeing as both of her parents wear blue.
164	* PunnyName: The pig's name is '''Ham'''let. [[spoiler:He ends up turning himself into "roasting Hamlet" to save the party from being eaten]].
165	* PutOnABus: Seth, who disappears abruptly when a giant sea creature attacks the Ghost Ship. He does reappear briefly later on, but in dialogue only, [[spoiler: as he transformed into the same creature that sank the ship]]. Eventually, [[spoiler: all the characters [[DwindlingParty leave the party forever]], and only Will and Kara see the quest through to its end]].
166	* PsychicPowers: Will's friends make a big deal out of his telekinetic powers early on. He also has some sort of ill-defined, seldom used predictive power that only comes up three times in the whole game. [[labelnote:And they are: (SPOILERS)]]{1} making whichever card, out of the four Lance lays down, the Ace Of Diamonds; {2} making whichever [[WireDilemma wire]] you choose in [[StrappedToABomb Erik's bomb]] the one that defuses it; {3} warning the player that [[AreYouSureYouWantToDoThat they picked the wrong glass]] in a RussianRoulette knock-off.[[/labelnote]]
167	* RainbowSpeak: Every named character speaks in a text color different from the default blue-white text, as do a few nameless, but prominent, characters. The color of the speech text also largely depends on the character in question.
168	* RansackedRoom: After Will and Kara escape from Edward Castle, they return to South Cape to find Will's entire house completely trashed.
169	* RebelliousPrincess: Kara, who appears to have made several unsuccessful attempts to run away from Edward Castle before the start of the story.
170	-->"I too am a prisoner -- in a [[GildedCage prison of silk and gold]]."
171	* RegionalBonus: Beyond the increased difficulty, the international versions of the game have bug-fixes and graphics alterations. Some are for {{Bowdleri\|se}}zation purposes, but others add flavor to the game. For instance, the second boss went from run-of-the-mill giant bird to winged Babylonian-style statue. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFajPdNlRjQ#t=1m16s Here for those who want to see the bird in action without the statue on its head.]]
172	* ReincarnationRomance: [[spoiler: Will and Kara, apparently.]]
173	* RetGone: Defeating Dark Gaia erases the comet from history, reversing the damage it caused. [[spoiler:However, that will include Will's memories of all of his traveling companions, and vice versa. Will still goes through with it anyway.]]
174	* RussianRoulette: The Russian Glass game, where you have to choose between five shot glasses, one of which is poisoned. [[spoiler:[[DeathSeeker Your opponent]] is playing to lose.]]
175	* TheSacredDarkness: Will's powers use Gaia's "Dark Energy", and there are no negative connotations associated with them. Not that there aren't bad darkness powers; the FinalBoss is called "Dark Gaia".
176	* SchrodingersGun: When presented with multiple choices, Will guesses correctly thanks to his psychic powers. No matter what option the player picks, the outcome is the same.
177	** Early in the game, Will is asked to pick a card. No matter what the player picks, it is the right one.
178	** Later in the game there seems to be a WireDilemma, but it's actually [[DefiedTrope defied]]: There IS no wrong wire. The bomb only explodes if the timer runs out '''AND''' you haven't beaten the accompanying DualBoss yet. If you defeat the boss first and '''THEN''' time runs out, the bomb's a dud, [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment probably to disappoint players who wanted to let Erik die even though they'd beaten the boss]].
179	** The Russian Glass game ''does'' have a wrong answer, [[AreYouSureYouWantToDoThat but you're given a chance to back out of it]], unlike the safe glasses. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as Will is [[PsychicPowers psychic]], and thus can [[SherlockScan notice]] something off about the glass.
180	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Getting rid of the comet is going to do this to the world at large. Failure to do so would lead to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, so it's still the best option.
181	* ShapeShifting: Will has two different forms (apart from his usual one) he can assume, and Lilly can transform into a dandelion seed.
182	* ShoutOut: Several to Enix's other SNES games.
183	** The dog that rescues you after the shipwreck is named [[VideoGame/SoulBlazer Turbo]].
184	** The Skeleton head enemy from ''VideoGame/ActRaiser'' is in Angel Village.
185	** The Moon Tribe looks like a spirit enemy from ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer''.
186	** Just watch a LetsPlay of ''[=ActRaiser=]'' and count the number of enemies, themes, and other such goodies that were later used in ''Illusion of Gaia''. For example, a statue that is somehow connected to a CrystalDragonJesus and its form being used to get through a level. Heck, even many of the sound effects are re-used between this game, ''VideoGame/ActRaiser'', ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'', and ''VideoGame/{{Terranigma}}.''
187	** There's a scene in ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'' where a man and a woman are extremely close to each other and facing each other, then when you enter the room, they suddenly face opposite directions and [[ImplausibleDeniability deny the obvious]], claiming the woman was trying to get dust out of the man's eye. This scene is repeated almost verbatim in the town of Freejia.
188	* ShowsDamage: The Mummy Queen initially starts out as [[MsFanservice a beautiful woman]], but her skin [[FanDisservice slowly starts to rot as]] you deal damage to her.
189	* ShowDontTell: Will narrates the story in some of the more plot-heavy bits, but the translation has an unfortunate habit of turning his narration into dialogue and his dialogue into narration.
190	* SkewedPriorities: Kara won't let Will eat fish on the raft at first because the fish are "innocent creatures" - and Will doesn't press the issue until he's almost dead. In this case, part of her CharacterDevelopment is learning that there really isn't much choice, and that it's just the way things work. Intriguingly, this is still treated as a good thing, and evidence that Kara, like Will, is an [[spoiler:"evolved human" immune to the Comet's light]]. Some time afterward, the raft is surrounded by sharks, but [[WhyIsntItAttacking they don't attack]];
191	-->'''Kara''': I got it! They're not hungry! My grandpa said that only humans attack living things when they're not hungry.\
192	'''Will''': Then what we're doing isn't normal human behavior. We didn't eat the fish until we were starving…
193	%%* SpaceElevator: The TowerOfBabel. [[WildMassGuessing Possibly.]]
194	* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
195	** Angkor Wat is spelled 'Ankor Wat' in the game.
196	** For humans, it's 'Lilly' rather than Lily. [[labelnote:Although...]]the two L spelling '''IS''' a valid name.[[/labelnote]]
197	* SpinToDeflectStuff: Will's flute can block incoming attacks by spinning it. But then again, he does have telekinesis.
198	* StrappedToABomb: Happens to Erik during a [[TimeLimitBoss Time Limit]] DualBoss fight. It only explodes if you haven't defeated the boss yet. If you have, it's a dud, but only if you let the time run out after winning. See SchrodingersGun above.
199	* {{Superboss}}: Solid Arm, a.k.a. Metal Mantis, the first boss from ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'', [[spoiler: the true form of Gem the Jeweler.]] He can only be fought if you collect all 50 Red Jewels, the last of which is found early on in [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon the tower of Babel]].
200	* SwissArmyHero: Will has three forms he can change between -- his normal form as a young boy, a towering knight named Freedan, and an amorphous spirit named Shadow.
201	* SwordBeam: Your EleventhHourSuperpower is functionally this. Sort of like in [[VideoGame/ActRaiser another Quintet game]], and even more like the [[VideoGame/SoulBlazer Phoenix magic]].
202	* TagalongKid: Erik is younger than the other members of the seaside gang, and stays with Will the longest. While he is not very capable, he does attempt to fight the slave trade in Freejia and tips Will off about the Diamond Mine.
203	* TakenForGranite: An effect of exposure to the comet encountered in the Natives' Village (and referenced in Mu).
204	* TeamPet: Hamlet, Kara's preternaturally smart pet pig.
205	* ThreateningShark: Subverted - there is a tense moment with a school of sharks during the shipwreck, but they don't attack.
206	* ThreePointLanding: Will and Freedan always land like this whenever they jump from one platform to a lower level. Not Shadow, though, who dives down headfirst to splash and reform into a standing position.
207	* TimeLimitBoss: You have about 140 seconds to defeat the Vampire Couple before the bomb they've tied Eric to explodes (why they felt the need to do this is unknown).
208	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Of the [[TwoGirlsToATeam two girls on the team]], Lilly has a [[OneOfTheBoys boyish attitude]] while Kara is stereotypically feminine and under-prepared for the rigors of adventuring.
209	* TookAShortcut: {{Muggle}} secondary characters can and will show up wherever the plot demands, no matter what extraordinary abilities Will has to use to achieve the same results. One of the kids that is established as being rather weak (both physically and mentally) is able to walk in through the very same door that Will had to use spin-dash jumps to reach. Lilly, at least, can turn into a dandelion seed and drift past any danger; but the others have no such capabilities.
210	* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: Pointedly [[AvertedTrope averted]], surprisingly; while a lot of [=JRPGs=] see the cast walking across the world in a matter of hours (or minutes if you have a GlobalAirship), and even if this isn't meant to be literal they don't draw attention to it, ''Illusion of Gaia'' features multiple story sequences where the characters spend ''weeks'' traveling across the world, whether sailing across the ocean on a raft or passing through an undersea tunnel hundreds of miles long on foot.
211	* TheUnfought: [[spoiler: The Jackal]] is killed by a booby trap triggered by Will's flute in a cut-scene just before the actual boss battle of the Egyptian temple.
212	* UrbanSegregation: The town of Freejia, with a well-to-do neighborhood facing the road... and a very poor slum and a slave market on the other side.
213	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You want all the Red Jewels? Hope you're okay with telling a slave-trader where his escaped slave is hiding. At least you can take comfort in knowing that you'll soon break into the slave camp and free all the slaves, presumably including the one you turned in.
214	* WaitingPuzzle: A puzzle early on has elements of this. One room in the Larai Cliffs has a floor of gold tiles, and when Will plays his flute, one tile glows. Will must then stand on that tile for several seconds before a door opens in the southern wall.
215	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Seth, who is left behind in South Cape with Lance and Erik until all three suddenly show up on the Incan Gold Ship, then apparently gets eaten by the giant sea monster that destroys the ship. [[spoiler:He's not exactly dead, though, having turned into the same sort of sea monster. He's eventually able to communicate a message to the party explaining that this means he cannot return to them. And then he dies between Angel Village and the Pyramid, as his is one of the many spirits encountered on the roof of the Tower Of Babel.]]
216	* WhiteSheep: For all her flaws, Kara is a much better person than could be expected of someone raised by the amoral and power-hungry king and queen of Edward Castle. The same goes for [[spoiler:Neil, the child of parents who ran a company involved with the slave trade, though that's another story]].
217	* WhoDares: If you tell the King that you didn't bring the Crystal Ring, he will say "How dare you say such a thing to me!!"
218	* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The approaching comet grants humanity amazing power, [[spoiler:causing them to be driven mad and change into demons]].
219	* YinYangBomb: In the end, [[spoiler:Will (the Knight of Darkness) and Kara (the Knight of Light)]] perform a FusionDance to become a souped-up version of [[spoiler:the Dark Knight Shadow, with a new move, the Firebird.]]
220	* YouExclamation: Jack, if you kill Silvana first when fighting the vampire bosses in Mu.
221	--> You! You did that to my wife! [[ThisisUnforgivable I'll never forgive you!]]

Context VideoGame / IllusionOfGaia