Courtesy goes to Hardcore Gaming 101 for laying the connection between the original trilogy and the fourth title which I recently beat. Technically, The Granstream Saga isn't developed by Quintet but by Shade, who had staff members of the former. Still, I like the title for this particular post.
Soul Blazer
Soul Blazer is where it all started. Well, almost
everything, since some things were definitely borrowed from Quintet's previous
game ActRaiser, which by the way is also worthwhile to play. You emerge from
some kind of godlike altar where The Master informs you of the situation and
asks you to fulfill your destiny, which is releasing every kind of souls in the
world, be it human, animal or wooden objects such as doors or even vines.
The action RPG gameplay is fun, but quickly starts to get repetitive as well because of the way the enemies spawn constantly like a precursor to tower defense and how each level in the game starts basically the same and ends the same. There are some memorable songs such as Dr.Leo's lab dungeon, his painting and after listening to it more my personal favorite being the Mountain of Souls.
The reward feeling is nice for releasing the souls, but even that becomes so repetitive that you either want to drop the game or finish it quickly, like me. In overall, it's a good start, but in the end it remains a decent game with not much to offer other than hacking a lot of enemies, freeing souls and repeating the process.
+Fast-paced hack and slash action RPG.
+Rescue souls in order to restore parts of several villages.
+Challenging moments including some of the bosses.
Rating: 7.3
Illusion of Gaia
My personal favorite out of the four by far. Now why
is that, when Terranigma is favored by pretty much everyone else? I will get to
that game soon, but first let me explain this. Like HG101 already said, this is
the odd one of the bunch, focusing on 1 literal forced route to take only, because
once you are done with a town or a dungeon, you will never access that part of
the game again in Illusion of Gaia. Quite an unusual game design in the way it
is executed, but it works in a way.
Not only does this contain some very successful songs such as Sky Garden, The Guardian and my personal favorite Angkor Wat, it also has a likable cast that goes through some heavy emotional moments. Perhaps the very reason I talked about that unusual game design before and because of the presented story is why I enjoy reading up on their emotions so much throughout the game.
I really like the action RPG gameplay this time, where you will have to defeat every enemy on each screen to advance further or to level up your main character Will, who by the way can morph into 2 other forms as well. It is perhaps the most difficult game out of them all... yeah it is, no question about that. I mean Illusion of Gaia instantly throws at you one of the most difficult first bosses in any game I had played back then as a kid. Mu remains the worst place to be though.
I am intrigued by the established ancient civilizations this game provides, and the brief fantasy history lessons it teaches gamers, also talking about the majority of the dungeons found here, which are awesome and most of them are even based on real life locations.
Backpacking towards these locations in the world is still possible and so far, I have visited Cambodia. There's a strong possibility that a next "dungeon" will also be visited this year, and it would be fun to complete the others as well such as Mu being partially based on Eastern Island in Chile.
Illusion of Gaia has memorable parts. For example, the gold ship part was surreal to say the least. The Nazca Lines being the entry point for the Sky Garden was a nice touch, and who could forget about the Russian Roullete part involving deadly alcoholic drinks?
And with a nice side quest involving finding red gems as well, this is a one of a kind game, where I would had liked to see more of, but I also think at the same time that this story is over and there is no need for continuation.
+Large graphics for the sprites, buildings and effects.
+Memorable bosses such as Castoth and the Vampires.
+Likable cast.
+Diversity in enemy design plus 3 different playable characters available.
Rating: 7.9
Terranigma
Oh, how so very dissapointing. Don't get me wrong,
because this game really started off great, full of mystery, a beautiful unfolding plot and good action RPG gameplay. But this game is split up for me into two parts.
First, you start with the awesome part, which contains Crysta, the 5 towers, resurrecting the plants, animals and humans containing several dungeons each and finally the mirage town which turns out to be a zombie infested town in actual reality, a great twist right there during the era of the SNES.
But then comes the terrible part in my opinion, which starts once you get to be introduced to a second Ella at the surface world. Right at that moment, inconsistent parts appear where it would be impossible to know how to proceed at some random points.
Unless you were using a guide to navigate to lessen the frustration, repetitiveness is written everywhere including Terranigma's music, the many similar area's and even the enemies themselves. It really dragged down for what was done at the first half.
Furthermore, the magic system straight out sucks and is pretty much useless EXCEPT for 1 boss battle, the bosses were boring and the backtracking parts were painful as well. I can't recall the exact backtrack parts, but they are definitely there to be found in the terrible part.
Which is all really too bad. Because the reason I decided to go back to this game and beat it as an adult was because of the best song in the game, which is Mountains. You already know what I'm talking about here. Because of that song, I wanted to see beyond the zombie town, which is the point where I got stuck as a kid and never could figure out how to proceed further in the game, yeah.
First, you start with the awesome part, which contains Crysta, the 5 towers, resurrecting the plants, animals and humans containing several dungeons each and finally the mirage town which turns out to be a zombie infested town in actual reality, a great twist right there during the era of the SNES.
But then comes the terrible part in my opinion, which starts once you get to be introduced to a second Ella at the surface world. Right at that moment, inconsistent parts appear where it would be impossible to know how to proceed at some random points.
Unless you were using a guide to navigate to lessen the frustration, repetitiveness is written everywhere including Terranigma's music, the many similar area's and even the enemies themselves. It really dragged down for what was done at the first half.
Furthermore, the magic system straight out sucks and is pretty much useless EXCEPT for 1 boss battle, the bosses were boring and the backtracking parts were painful as well. I can't recall the exact backtrack parts, but they are definitely there to be found in the terrible part.
Which is all really too bad. Because the reason I decided to go back to this game and beat it as an adult was because of the best song in the game, which is Mountains. You already know what I'm talking about here. Because of that song, I wanted to see beyond the zombie town, which is the point where I got stuck as a kid and never could figure out how to proceed further in the game, yeah.
But even this
song was so horribly repeated so many times that it somehow has become a lesser
song to listen to. How sad. Terranigma's
soundtrack however remains pretty, but it's second part of the gameplay really
isn't, with the surface map being revealed as a mirror reflection
towards the real world and having all of these towns that can shape
their prosperities slightly by your actions.
That isn't
really a deal, unless you could excuse the wacky random characters, the
cryptic proceedings, the repetitiveness of things and the dull moments.
About the only part I liked during this second half was Beruga's Lab.
In overall, in the end, it's a dissapointing game
for me. Even after seeing the much loved ending by everyone and understanding
it and how the underworld and the surface world work, or how Light and Dark
work in this game, I wasn't thrilled by all of it, unlike Illusion of Gaia's
ending.
+Strong themed songs.
+Heavy emphasis upon ideologies.
+Arguably the best resurrection plot of all four games.
-Repetitive at locations and enemies.
-2nd half is almost a complete dissapointment after the zombie town.
Rating: 6.6
The Granstream Saga
As a spiritual successor towards the resurrection
trilogy from Quintet on the SNES, The Granstream Saga is sadly the least
qualified one. The main quirks are the overall story, the voice acting, the
length and the rather limited battle system.
It’s one on one fights, in which
you are able to attack, defend, dodge, use spells and some special moves. But
because of the minor variety in enemy design and the way each tactic is laid
out, it turns out to be disappointing.
Also, the game is very easy, especially
when you are able to get the best weapon in the game very early on. What I did
like though are the same themes of resurrection and sacrifice that also played
in Quintet’s other games, plus I dig the old PSX graphics similar to Final
Fantasy VII.
Eon is an alright hero, but the world and its inhabitants were
small and I wasn’t too fond of the supporting characters either. Korky was
annoying. However, I liked how the game ended into starting out in what seems
to be a different life for the cast. The Granstream Saga is supposedly Quintet’s last game. Rest in peace, you guys made some pretty interesting
action RPG’s.
+One on one fights.
+Early smooth PSX graphics.
-Typical early bad voice acting.
Rating: 6.5
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