Flutes, Swords, Flying Death Orbs - Let's Play Illusion of Gaia

[Magic Fanatic]

Welcome, everyone, to the Illusion of Gaia.



Illusion of Gaia is a little...  Gem (not of Diamond quality, but maybe a good Sapphire?) of the SNES era that came out in the States in September of 1994.  This little action-adventure piece was developed by Quintet and published by Enix in its initial release in Japan, before Nintendo took over the publishing when it got ported over to the states.  Rumor says they redesigned the cover art for the NA release to resemble The Legend of Zelda, just so they could sell more copies.

The game has a very simple premise with characters that you will come to either love or hate (rather than them just existing).  You play as Will, and travel around the world, looking for clues to the whereabouts of your father, and exploring ancient civilizations along the way.

This game is also considered the second in a series called the Soul Blazer Trilogy, mostly just for similarities between this game, Soul Blazer (the predecessor) and Terranigma (the successor).  One really does have to go out of their way to find the more blatant ties, but that's neither here nor there.

However, for this VIDEO LP, as it's merely a v.2 of one I tried before (I deleted all I could, so it should be impossible to find now), I'll be performing the same challenges as last time:
1. Will only on the bosses - this should be simple enough, but I know of one boss in this game that is going to give me fits because of this.
2. No herb usage allowed - same as above.

In any case, I hope to impress.

VIDEOS:
Episode 1: A day in the life of a young boy.
Episode 2: From decent to awful.

[Magic Fanatic]

Reserving this post for a near future/related analysis.

[SnowFire]

1. Will only on the bosses - this should be simple enough, but I know of one boss in this game that is going to give me fits because of this.

I'm guessing you're referring to the twin vampires with the time limit before your friend blows up?  Admittedly Will is more broken against randoms since the slide double-hit tends to kill them before Will can get up and be damaged by them, but when in a hurry Will can still aggressively slide the bosses to kill 'em quick.  I remember trying to kill that boss with just Will, and pretty sure that was the most difficult boss in the game with him.  Probably one of the most difficult in general anyway.

Anyway, random Illusion of Gaia thought: Will is (thankfully) not a silent main.  He talks to people, he reacts.  So...  why is it that Will is completely silent in the Dark Space?  And doesn't talk or think about this at all, or chat with others about the experience?  Being told "Your form is not constant, you can transform into this knight dude" would instigate *some* kind of reaction, right?  Even if to be completely blase about it?

[Rozalia]

Watched and I liked the information on the game but I think you take things a little too fast. Stopping to talk to some of the Npcs and commenting on things adds a lot to your LP.
Regardless I'll be waiting for the second one which include some battles right? Also those are some weird save points.

[Yakumo]

Please don't read things off the screen that we can read just fine, like during the backstory.  Also, give text boxes a little more time on screen.  I read pretty fast and I barely had time to read some of them.   Game audio could stand to be a little louder.

Other than that, seemed fine to me so far.  Any particular reason for the Will only challenge, though?  Seems like you're going for an informative style and a self-imposed challenge doesn't seem to fit.  I mean, I know it's not really that much of a challenge but still. <_<

[Meeplelard]

Generally speaking, "Challenge" LPs are usually done for well known games to add a little zing to them.

Look at Oyster's Mega Man LPs.  Early on, when looking at rules and suggestions for LPs, one of the things they said to do for an LP is that "Popular game =/= popular LP."  The example used there was Mario.  People don't care about watching someone play a game everyone has seen and beat.  This doesn't apply to Illusion of Gaia, but I'll get to how its relevant.
So Oyster in his Mega Man LPs decided to place self imposed challenges, ranging from Gameplay ones to Commentary RElated silliness.  Lots of people have played Mega Man games, so watching someone else, when its not something spectacular like a speed run, is probably pretty meh, and these games are easy to pick up too.  Oyster added that little extra to a well known game.

Illusion of Gaia isn't a game like Mega Man though; many people have not played it, and many people don't understand the game's workings, etc.  Its probably best to do a normal playthrough for this.  As an added bonus, make a 2nd save state or something, and say "Here's the boss being beaten on the challenge!"for people curious, but the main LP should stick to a regular playthrough.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Well, honestly, as long as he shows off how Freedan and Shadow work in non-boss segments of the game, the viewer isn't losing any idea of how the gameplay works, and it adds in some challenge/accomplishment that he can beat all of the bosses with Will.

[Yakumo]

The problem I have is that for at least one boss, possibly more as I don't remember the game that well, doing it with Will will be a pain to do and probably quite boring to watch.  I don't mind challenges in general, but this one has the potential to cause bad videos.  As this isn't a very well known game, it doesn't need any special shining up to get people to pay attention to it. 

[Crystalgate]

I advice you to add a bit more personal touch to the commentary. For example, at one point Kara says something rude and you comment "how rude". However, Will already covered that with his "excuse me!" response. While your comment wasn't a problem, it at the same time conveyed nothing the game doesn't already. Try to give your comments a bit more personal touch and not to repeat less of what the game already covered.

[Magic Fanatic]

Episode 2: From decent to awful.

Notes:  Slowing down text boxes - Trying.
Interesting commentary:  Failing, but trying
Fighting:  Reserved for Video 3
Sound quality:  Giving up until I get a new sound card, since this SigmaTel Audio one isn't helping me at all

Note of challenge runs:  Will perform seperate bonus videos for them, I suppose.

Extra notes:
I only really brought up the Will "challenge" because...  Well, I honestly find Will easier to beat the bosses with than anyone else.  No herb also feeds on my obsessive-compulsive side, since Herbs are in limited supply in the game (by no means short supply, however).  The Will challenge will not be applicable in a certain area, however.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Well, the commentary is a little better this time, but it's more sparse. Also, you sound really bored. If -you're- not interested in the LP, how is the viewer supposed to be?

[Magic Fanatic]

Well, the commentary is a little better this time, but it's more sparse. Also, you sound really bored. If -you're- not interested in the LP, how is the viewer supposed to be?

I suppose I could use some work on my voicing.  Still, I'd like to blame my sparseness and boredness-sounding of my voice this time to be worrying about how Edward Castle BGM was going to ruin my sound this time, thanks to the tremendous bass in the music, plus trying to come up with commentary that is actually interesting, even with going through the are two times previously just to get a handle of topics.  Experience really doesn't seem to make it any easier.

[DjinnAndTonic]

If you have time to do practice runs of the area to think up topics, why not simply record the run, then do post-commentary using whatever notes you took? Doing live commentary divides your attention way too much for you to concentrate on your topics, organizing the information, and voice inflection.

[Magic Fanatic]

That's really what I'd like to do.  The problem is that I don't know how to record sound directly from the computer - it always requires my mic...  And nothing I try to look up will even come close to helping me.  I assume I need Stereo Mix or the "What I hear" recording feature or something, but until I get a new sound card, I almost want to say that the most favorable option is closed off to me.

[nobody]

I've always thought that some of the more spontaneous comments made during playing can be batter than scripted ones.