This title screen will recall good old memories
to a lot of people.
This is Illusion of Time, as known as
Illusion of Gaia in the United States.
The word "Gaia" was also referenced
in the Japanese title of the game.
I don't know why did they change the title in Europe...
It happened often at that time.
Were we not clever enough to understand "Illusion
of Gaia" ? Maybe that's why they changed it to "Time".
Illusion of Time is the second opus of the trilogy...
In fact, it's not really a trilogy.
Let's say the spiritual trilogy of Gaia,
composed of Soul Blazer, Illusion of Time and Terranigma.
These three games were developed by Enix,
Squaresoft's former rival.
In France, Enix was quite unknown. Not in Japan,
of course, with the Dragon Quest franchise.
In Japan, Squaresoft and Enix were gods.
In Europe, there were only some Squaresoft games
like Mystic Quest.
And only the Gameboy game, of course !
Not the SNES version !
This shitty SNES version... Do not want !
And of course, we also had Secret of Mana in Europe.
It was released before Illusion of Time.
And that's where the problem is : in every respect,
Illusion of Time is better than...
Er, what am I saying ? No ! Secret of Mana was better
than Illusion of Time, and it was released before.
Illusion of Time was released in 1993 in Japan,
then localized in France...
Yes, you can see it here :
the game was translated in French ! Hallelujah !
Congratulations ! Thank you so much !
Incredible ! Fantastic !
They decided to localize the game in French.
What happened ? Did they have a flash of lucidity ?
So, the game was localized in French,
but only released in 1995.
As usual, we had to wait for one year and a half
or two years to play the game.
But despite of these long years of waiting,
the games didn't lose their appeal at all.
This shows how timeless these games are :
you can play them 10, 20, 50, even 10.000 years later...
And they would still be so high and mighty.
16-bit adventure games or Action-RPGs
are really special games.
You can play them many years after their release,
it would still be pleasant.
It's something extraordinary which doesn't exist today.
There are no games like that nowadays.
Some years after their release, they're already outmoded.
Except for a few of them, of course.
But at that time, all the games were like this.
Like the Final Fantasy games.
Well, I think I got carried away...
Let's get back to Illusion of Time.
Let's begin to play.
Er, I'm pressing the start button, but nothing happens...
Maybe I have to wait for the title screen
to be entirely displayed.
Yeah, we know, this is Illusion of Time...
Look at the bottom : "Quintet/Enix". In fact,
Enix didn't develop the game : it was Quintet.
But as Quintet is a subsidiary of Enix,
it's just like Enix developed the game.
The Gaia trilogy has awlays be considered
as an Enix creation.
There are barely no options in the menu,
like most of the adventure games of that time.
Let's start. To be honest, I didn't know
what to begin with.
Here, we are in a dungeon. A temple.
I already explored a long part of this temple.
The dungeons of this game are quite long :
they'll take you from 30 minutes to 1 hour to finish them.
They are also quite complicated,
with some good old typical puzzles.
It's one of the strong points of Illusion of Time,
in my opinion :
the dungeons are long, interesting, esthetically nice,
they have a good level design...
Isn't there anything that surprizes you ?
As you can see, there are no monsters.
How can this be ? It's extremely strange for an A-RPG...
The reason is simple : Illusion of Time...
Er, where do I have to go ? It's up there.
Look here... Damn, I'm sure I'm going to interrupt myself
again and again. Never mind.
Here, we are in the Mu Temple.
There's a treasure chest just here.
But I can't reach it : it's submerged into water.
We can't swim in this game. That means I'm stuck.
In fact, I need to go up.
Just before, I got a little statuette.
It can be used to decrease the water level.
Let's open the menu... I'll explain you
everything about this later.
In this game, we'll be able to learn melodies,
just like Ocarina of Time.
In this game, we'll play as Paul.
Yes, that's his French name. My god...
We'll play as Paul and his different metamorphosis.
Paul will play with his flute the melodies he learnt.
He'll also fight with his flute.
There are also Red Jewels.
We'll find them inside pots or jars.
They represent the only sidequest of the game.
Yes, this game is extremely linear.
To finish, these Herbs are the only items
we can use to recover HP.
There are very few items in this game.
Okay, I need to use this one.
It's a good thing there's not a lot of items because
you won't have to go often in your inventory.
I don't really like RPGs where you spend
half of your time in the inventory.
So, what was I talking about...
That's it : the monsters !
The reason why you didn't see monsters is that...
You should pay attention, because it's extremely special.
Damn, I want to close this dialog box !
Once you kill the monsters in a dungeon...
They won't reappear.
It's really uncommon. It was the first time
I saw that in an adventure game.
The monsters don't repop once you killed them.
Incredible, isn't it ?
You might wonder : "Right, but how can I increase
my experience level in this case ?"
Because yes, there's a level system in this game.
As you could see, I just got a Red Jewel.
So, the level upgrade system
is once again totally original.
Let's take an example : if you kill
all the enemies of an area, you'll get a sphere.
There are 3 kinds of spheres :
one will increase our maximum HP.
Our life is represented by the little blue balls
in the top left-hand corner. It works like in Zelda.
The second kind of sphere will... Wait,
I don't know where I'm going here.
All the dungeons are extremely labyrinthine.
It's not that way... It must be down there.
This strange thing here will make us rebound.
Okay, now let me show you the gameplay...
No ! Before, I must finish my other explanation !
So, what was I talking about...
Concentration...
It was about the monsters who don't repop...
Yes : the experience system !
That's it : I was talking about the spheres.
I hope I won't get lost.
It must be this way.
So, every time we'll kill all the monsters of an area,
we'll get one sphere.
This sphere will increase our HP,
our strength or our defense.
It's extremely simple. Illusion of Time is
a perfect game for beginners.
I also have a telekinetic power.
I can use it with the L or R trigger.
It uses Paul's flute to move items.
I can also hit them.
No ! I stucked it...
No, it's okay. I have the telekinetic power.
I was afraid it could stay stuck.
The goal here is to use this thing to climb up the slope.
There are a lot of little puzzles like this all along
the game. This one was really easy. But sometimes...
Oh, careful : there enemies are difficult to kill.
Fucking wizard !
Damn, their homing spells are so annoying !
Let's slide to dodge him. It's a very useful technique.
Goddamn !
Let's attack this one now !
One hit left !
There.
Look : as I killed these wizards, I got a sphere
which increased my defense by 1 point.
It's the same thing with the defense, the strength
and the health points.
There are no armors to equip in this game !
No shops to buy things !
When I told you this game is simplistic,
it was not a joke.
There's not even money !
No money, no shops, no armors, no weapons.
Paul will always fight with this flute.
There are different attacks we can learn.
This one, for example.
Damn, it's not working !
There.
The slide is a move we'll learn late in the game.
In fact, it's here : in the Mu Temple.
We'll learn new abilities in some Dark Places.
I'll explain you this later.
You can run by pressing twice the D-pad
in the good direction.
And that's all. You've just seen all the different moves.
I have to hurry : I'd like to show you
the boss of this dungeon.
It's this way.
The bosses of this temple are two vampires.
They are quite difficult to kill, but...
Damn, them again !
Come here, bastard.
Nice !
Every time we'll kill a monster,
he will drop a little sphere.
I can take it with my telekinetic power if I want.
And once we'll get 100 spheres like that,
we'll win an extra life.
It's not really useful. It can revive us...
Come on, wake up !
So, it will revive us...
Damn ! Stop with your rocks !
Is there a bug or something ?
There.
This is one of the two statuettes I need
to unlock the access to the boss.
I'll also try to show you a city.
The game follows a classic plan.
Come on, wake up !
This bastard was angry.
Good, my strength just increased here.
Of course, it's impossible to make sequences of level up
like in other adventure games,
where we just have to constantly kill monsters
until we have a good level to defeat a boss.
In Illusion of Time, it's impossible to play like that.
That's the reason why the bosses
will generally be difficult to kill.
It's the main difficulty of the game :
the bosses are really hard.
Look : at this point, I have to use the slide
to pass through the hole in the wall.
That's something I couldn't do...
Damn, this bastard is pissing me off !
He aimed at me well.
So, I won't be able to do this slide if I play as Chrysaor,
Freedan's French name.
I still didn't talk about this.
Oh, bastard...
Come here !
We can't do this move with Chrysaor.
I didn't talk about him, but...
There are so many things to say.
Chrysaor is a shadow knight.
We'll be able to take his appearance. It's one of the...
Look, here's a Dark Space. I'm not sure
I'll be able to transform myself inside this one.
We can't do this in every... No, it's not possible here.
There's only Paul's statue.
If there was Chrysaor's statue here,
I would have been able to take his appearance.
I'll take some time to show it to you later, because
it's one of the most interesting points of the story.
These Dark Spaces are kind of stargates...
When I'm close enough of it, it materializes.
Inside, we can save our game, restore our life.
Look in the top-left hand corner : I don't have my full life,
so let's talk to Gaia's statue to be healed.
It asks me now if I want to save my game.
I don't want it now. And then, we continue.
As I said before, we'll be able to transform into Chrysaor.
Each character have their own abilities.
It's really interesting, because we'll often have
to change from one character to another.
There's also a third character, but he only appears
at the end of the game, so I won't talk about him now.
His name is Likefia in French. He'll only be there
for the last dungeon of the game.
It's not a really interesting character, in my opinion.
Despite his appearance is really well made.
I hope I'll be able to show you Chrysaor later,
because he's really interesting.
That means I'll have to look for another Dark Space,
as I couldn't transform in the previous one.
What can I say now ?
This game is really great.
One of its few weak points is that it's extremely linear.
Phew, that was close. Fucking wizards...
Damn, it can't be !
Bastard ! He was about to attack me again...
The gameplay is really interesting.
It's simplistic, but the game is really fun.
The maniability is pleasant, the game is quick,
the animation is good for a RPG.
Usually, animations are very limited in RPGs.
But here, it's way better.
Let's try to dodge these rocks...
This game is really pleasant to play.
Illusion of Time is a game based on action.
The second statue must be here.
Oh, great, a HP sphere. Now you saw
all the different spheres.
I have now an extra half ball of life.
At the top, you can see a heart with the number "4".
It represents my extra lifes.
The number is tied to the little red spheres
I can drop them on some enemies.
I'm lost. I think I have to back.
Every time we'll kill an enemy, he will drop a Dark Gem.
It must be this way...
I don't remember.
No, it's this way.
Most of the enemies drop these Dark Gems.
Look at this one.
A HP sphere again ? Incredible !
Another thing now : let me press Start button.
There's nothing left on this map
as I killed all the enemies.
If there were still enemies on the map,
I would have seen them here.
It's extremely important to kill all the enemies of an area,
to get a lot of power-ups.
There's nothing left here : 0 enemies, 0 treasures.
I'm sure that noboby will try to attack me.
Let's move to another zone... Oh, you see ?
There are 2 monsters left here.
On the map, I can see there's one of them down left.
What, is this the monster ?
No, here it is. He was invisible.
Let's try to kill him. I can't reach him now.
Come here !
There.
You see ? He dropped a Dark Gem.
When we'll have 100 of them, we'll get one extra life.
If we die, we'll start back
from the last Dark Space we went in.
It also works with this room.
I'll also start back from here if I die.
But you won't die often.
This is the place where I must place the two statuettes.
But I have to do this as Chrysaor...
I'd prefer to have his appearance
if I want to use the statuettes.
Let's find a way to transform in Chrysaor.
It would be difficult to fight the two vampires
with Paul's appearance.
They would really be difficult to defeat,
despite I have a lot of herbs to recover my life.
Huh ? Why is there another monster here ?
Didn't I kill him before ?
My defense increased.
It's really strange. Or did they repop ?
There are some enemies who can repop.
I need to find a Dark Place
where I'll be able to transform into Chrysaor.
Let's try this way... I don't really remember.
Is it this way... No.
Damn, I'm lost again !
Let's try this way.
What can I say now ?
There are very few sidequests, except the 50 Red Jewels
to find all along the game. Not really interesting.
I think it's this way.
We'll always find them by chance :
in pots or in jars, for example.
Is it here ? Yes !
Now I should be able to play as Chrysaor.
I just have to go in front of the statue...
What, did I say "No" ? Of course I want to transform !
Chrysaor's abilities are completely different.
For example, I'll be able to cast a fireball.
I'm also way stronger,
and I have a longer reach than Paul.
I inflict twice more damage than Paul.
Up to now, I only have one spell. I concentrate myself
for some seconds, and I cast a fireball.
There are other spells I can learn, like a shield spell.
Oh, I forgot to show you another ability of Paul.
Wait... It's not that way !
I had another technique with Paul.
It's not the tornado, it's... Er...
Yes : the dash. I have to hold the attack button
for some seconds, and then he'll charge at the enemies.
It can also reveal secret passages in walls.
I'm really not sure this is the good way...
Where can it be ?
Chrysaor still has Paul's telekinetic power.
Just like before, I have to use this thing to climb up.
Chrysaor is really classy, don't you think ?
I still didn't talk a lot about the story,
but it's not really interesting.
It's not really one of the strong points of the game.
The story is quite classic : we just have to save the world.
A comet is about to crash on the Earth...
Wait, is it really this way ? No !
With Paul, I could have gone this way.
But I can't slide with Chrysaor !
I'm totally stuck... This was not the good way.
Maybe down here ?
Yes, there it is !
The dungeons are really labyrinthine.
Yes, I'm pretty sure it's this way.
Here, I have to hurry : I must reach the exit
before the pikes on the ground close the way.
Yes, that's the good way.
So, the scenario is not really interesting.
Paul is looking for his father, who was killed
at the Tower of Babel, at the beginning of the game.
Of course, the story enriches all along the game.
But I didn't really like it. It's very childish.
It's the same thing with all the dialogues :
the characters are extremely naīve.
It looks like South Park, if you remove
all the irony present in the show.
The dialogues look like discussions
between children of 8 or 9 years old.
Hey, what am I doing here ?
I don't need to go in this Dark Place now !
I could have transformed myself in Paul, of course.
His statue was there.
Let's go down.
Damn, the video is already more than 20 minutes long...
Maybe I'll have to split the video in two parts.
I don't know how I'll do this.
I absolutely want to show you the boss
and then a village.
You'll see that the exploration on the world map
is a complete washout.
The game is so linear that there are only
a few main places to explore on the world map.
Okay, let's place the two statuettes.
Okay for the first one.
And now the other one, in order to unlock
the access to the boss. There.
As I told you before, the dialogues of the game
are really silly. You have to know this.
The first time I played the game,
it dishearten me a little.
Later, we get accustomed. But you really have to
make an effort at the beginning to immerse in the game.
Illusion of Time is a game with
a really specific atmosphere.
This game is really fascinating,
but also extremely strange.
Illusion of Time is a game different
from the others of its kind.
It has nothing to see with Secret of Mana, for example.
The goal of the game is to get the 6 Mystic Statues.
I've just got the third one.
If I go up now, I'll find the boss.
About the music : the OST of Illusion of Time is great,
depite it doesn't have a lot of different tracks.
There are no anthologic themes like in a Final Fantasy,
in Chrono Trigger or in a Seiken,
but there are 3 or 4 tracks which are really beautiful.
Like the towns' theme.
You see where's the problem :
I'm telling you that the towns' theme is great,
but there's only one theme
for all the towns of the game !
Usually, we have one theme for every village,
but not in this game.
Okay, here's the boss.
I should be able to kill him easily,
as I'm playing with Chrysaor.
In fact, you can also defeat
all the bosses of the game with...
Uh oh, they're going to shoot their giant energy ball !
Dodged.
So, you can also defeat
all the bosses of the game with Paul.
But of course... Look : as you can see, I'm inflicting them
2 damage points every time I hit them.
But if I played as...
Here comes the giant ball again.
So, if I was playing as Paul, I would only inflict them
1 damage point every time.
Of course, it's way more difficult in that way !
Damn ! Bastard !
I'm doing bullshit... Let's hurry.
Hopefully, I can use Herbs.
Good, one down. They won't be able
to shoot their energy ball anymore.
I'm close to death, so let me use an Herb.
I didn't played well at all. But it's always difficult
to play while talking - especially during this fight.
He's so annoying with his energy waves !
Bastard !
Never mind. Let's finish him quickly.
I know I shouldn't play like this, but...
As you can see, there's a timer in this battle.
I have 60 seconds left.
This thing in the middle is obviously a bomb.
One of our friends is tied to it.
Perfect !
I think we had about 150 seconds to defeat the boss.
Otherwise, the bomb explodes.
This boss is quite difficult to defeat
when we play as Paul,
but many people must have played
like this at that time.
As the closest Dark Space was...
Damn ! I have to free him now !
No, I have to go behind !
We have to choose a wire to cut,
but it doesn't make any difference.
It reminds me the movie Lethal Weapon...
Er, what was I talking about...
Yes : at that time, most of the players
tried to defeat this boss with Paul,
as you couldn't change yourself in Chrysaor
in the nearest Dark Space.
The developers were really deceitful... Why couldn't they
let us transform in Chrysaor in the last Dark Space ?
We are forced to make a detour
to find Chrysaor's statue !
Trying to beat them as Paul is...
Oh, what do I have to do now ? I have no idea !
Maybe free him from his bonds ?
"It's funny you can transform yourself when you want."
Yeah, I know it's funny...
Where do I have to go... Down ?
That's it.
So, what can I say now ?
I don't know...
The lasting power is correct. No more than that.
It's way shorter than Secret of Mana
or other A-RPGs. About 20 hours.
That's not bad, but it's not really outstanding.
In my opinion, one of the strong points
of the game is its gameplay.
It's a real pleasure to walk around and to kill monsters.
And that's the most important.
The OST is great, but way to limited. There's about
twice less tracks than in a Seiken game.
And I'm not even comparing this with Final Fantasy...
About the dungeons and the temples...
Oh, by the way : I didn't talk you about the graphics.
Once again, it's correct, but mo more than that.
I'm not of those who say this game is beautiful.
The Mu Temple is quite good. But there are some
ugly places, like the Great Wall of China.
It's not only hideous but it's also extremely repetitive.
There are some other repetitive dungeons,
like the beginning of the Seaside Palace.
Once you've seen one room,
you've seen all the settings of the palace.
But there are also a lot of beautiful dungeons,
like here : the Temple of Mu.
I started to explore it before the beginning of the video,
that's obviously why it's already over.
The Sky Garden and the Inca Ruins are also beautiful.
There are a lot of interesting temples to explore.
And some other are pointless.
So, let's conclude about the graphics :
there are both beautiful and horrible settings.
It's really difficult give my opinion on that point.
Well, I think I told you everything.
Oh, no, there's another thing :
as you propably noticed, you'll visit
real famous historical places all along the game.
For example : the Plains of Nazca,
where giant figures have beew drawn on the ground.
By the way, we still don't know
how they have been made...
The visit of this place will be
one of the greatest moments of the game.
You'll also explore the Great Wall of China,
Incan Ruins...
There are a lot of such historical places
all along the game. It's very interesting.
Once again, I don't know at all where I have to go now...
I think I'll stop the video soon.
I'll just show you the exploration
on the world map - which is completely shitty -
and also one of the cities. In that way,
you'll be able to hear the music in the towns.
I'm going to reset the console, so
the video capture may freeze. Let's see...
I'm playing on the Super Nintendo, of course.
I don't know why does it makes this every time...
I always have to reset the console 50 times
before the image is correcty displayed again.
Let's wait. If in 20 seconds it still doesn't work, I'll...
Oh, it worked ! I'm lucky !
So, let me show you a village and the world map.
I'll stop after.
To conclude : Illusion of Time is a great game.
We didn't have a lot of such games at that time.
There only few games translated in French :
Secret of Mana, Illusion of Time, Secret of Evermore,
Terranigma - at the end of the life of the SNES -...
And that's all ! Maybe I forgot
one or two games, but not more.
And in Japan, there were about 40 games like that !
Incredible !
Okay, let's go there, in the Native's Village.
I think it's not a really interesting place...
I'll probably make a second video, where
I'll show you the final boss and the end of the game.
As I have one save just before the end of the game,
I'll do this easily.
This village is quite boring.
I won't stay here for a long time.
No, I don't want to watch you. You're ugly.
Oh, there's another thing I didn't talk about :
even if the dialogues are childish
- everybody speaks like 8 or 9-year old kids -,
it's completely in contradiction with some topics
which will be broached in the game.
For example, there's famine in this village.
"This man gives you food. Will you eat it ?"
"The sadness shows in his face."
"It looks like pork spare ribs."
Oh, of course : something really sad happened here,
but I won't tell you anything more about this.
I found this really sad at that time.
That's exactly what I wanted to explain you :
the atmosphere of the game
is in total contradiction with some events of the game.
Famine in this village, slavery in another place...
It's really strange to see that adult subjects
are brought up in a childish way. Amazing.
Okay, here's the world map system of the game.
I have to choose the place I want to go.
And then, that's all : I don't have anything left to do !
It's been realized with the mode 7 of the SNES,
but in a very bad way.
I can't do anything : the character moves by himself !
I can't even use the L and R triggers...
Everything is automatic. We choose our destination,
and we're automatically sent over there !
The course of the game is really classic :
village-dungeon-village-dungeon-village-temple...
We'll never be able to go by ourselves
to the dungeon by a specific way.
It will always bring us from the village to the dungeon.
Of course, it removes... It removes...
I don't know how to explain it.
They delete something in this game which was present
in all the other games : Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy...
I hate this system.
Here's the town. Of course, you can enter
in a lot of houses, talk with people...
Once again, there are no shops at all.
This girl was talking about the comet.
That's it, in the game, a comet...
Huh ? There's a mistake here...
"Comet" is a feminine word, my dear translators !
So : "A comet is approaching Earth,
it's the end of mankind."
We'll have to stop this comet.
Let me try to show you the jeweller.
He's named Samuel in French.
Damn, the video is already 35 minutes long...
I didn't see the time going by. I'm sorry.
I hope you didn't get bored.
Wait, I don't remember where's the jeweller...
It's not this place.
We can find him in every city.
As it's the only sidequest of the game...
Oh, here he is !
Is this really him... Yes, it's Samuel the jeweller.
He controls the seven seas.
I never understood what this meant...
"I'm keeping 36 Red Jewels for you."
That means I found 36 of them all along the game.
Let's give him more... Except that
I didn't find any more Red Jewels.
Here's the table of the items we will exchange with us.
With 3 Red Jewels, I'll get an Herb.
5 Jewels : a defense power-up. 8 Jewels : a life bonus.
With 12 Jevels : our attack will be increased.
After, we'll get special abilities.
With 30 Jewels, Chrisaor's fireball will be upgraded
and will be divided in 3 parts.
And when we'll get the 50 Red Jewels of the game...
It's impossible without a walkthrough,
as there are some places you can only visit once.
If anyone tells me he found the 50 Jewels by himself,
I wouldn't believe him.
So, the gift obtained when we'll have
the 50 Red Jewels is...
Something I won't tell you.
I know what it is, but I won't spoil you.
It's the most difficult boss of the game.
And by the way an huge reference to Soul Blazer.
Okay, let's stop here. I'll let you listen to the music.
This is the same music for all the cities of the game.
The OST is really great, but it doesn't have enough tracks.
I think I told everything I had to say.
I don't have anything to add.
I let you listen to the music, and I say you good bye.
Illusion of Time is a RPG which deserves to be played,
even if it's not the best one on the Super NES.
But it has a very particular atmosphere, and
some of the dungeons are really interesting to explore.
The gameplay is good, the graphics are nice.
Okay, let's stop here.
It's already 35 minutes long, it's incredible...
I let you listen to the music,
and see you soon !
