Illusion of Time is a laudable Zelda-esque epic!
The story of Illusion of Time revolves around a young boy called Will. Will's Dad had, a year and a half prior to the games setting, set out on an expedition to a mysterious place called the Tower of Babel with Will and some other people. But some un-foreseen circumstances resulted in the expedition not going to plan. All who went to the Tower of Babel went missing, except for young Will who managed to escape… although he has no recollection of how he did so.
At the games start, after leaving School, Will stumbles across a mysterious worm hole, and upon entering he finds Gaia, a mysterious entity. Gaia informs Will that a comet is coming to Earth, dooming all life to certain extinction. She informs Will that he is the one who can save the world by travelling to the Tower of Babel, so Will accepts the quest because not only is he the only hope for the world but he may also learn more about the Tower of Babel and why his Dad disappeared. Throughout the course of the game Gaia acts as Will's save point. Talking to her will record your save data.
There's a wide variety of characters in Illusion of Time and they are all really great. Will is the only playable character, but as you progress through the game his other compatriots follow him around. At the beginning of the game Will is with his friends Lance, Seth and Eric, but as you get further in to the game you're also joined my Princess Kara (and her pet pig Hamlet), Lilly and Neil. Each character is well integrated in to the game. Lilly, for instance, at the beginning of the game acts as a make-shift guide for Will because she can transform in to a dandelion and sit inside his pocket, but as the quest furthers she moulds in to a much more fleshed out character. Lance is the same too. He starts the game simply as one of Will's best friends, but as the games wares on he falls in love with Lilly and occasionally asks for Will's advice on what to do about his feelings.
Other characters like Neil and Kara, on the other hand, are more important to the flow of the games story. Kara is the most important character in the game after Will, and her feelings for Will grow as the game goes on (to my knowledge Illusion of Time is the only role playing game I've played with two love stories). Neil is more important for other reasons. He is an inventor so some of his inventions, most notably his airplane, help the gang get to places they couldn't reach before. Some of the characters aren't really expanded upon, such as Seth, but apart from that the character's each have their own nice role in the game.
The gameplay of Illusion of Time is that of an action-RPG. It plays very similarly to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – ie: dungeon crawling through very well designed and often complex dungeons - but incorporates elements of character growth and statistic increase that are found in usual turn-based role playing games.
The character growth in Illusion of Time is different to that found in the likes of other action RPG's like Secret of Mana or Secret of Evermore. In Secret of Mana, for instance, you still battle enemies and crawl through dungeons in a similar manner to that of A Link to the Past, but your character growth is handled like in the Final Fantasy games. You individually levelled up your three characters against the enemies. Grinding was still something that you needed to do in Secret of Mana. Now in Illusion of Time you still need to battle enemies, but you grind rather differently. Killing enemies doesn't earn you experience points to grow levels, because Will doesn't grow levels. Instead killing all the enemies in the room/area you're in will earn you a crystal that grows your abilities (either attack, defence or hit points). It's a nice little change to the whole levelling up concept found in other 16-bit role playing games and it works really well.
Illusion of Time is quite a linear role playing game really because it is quite story driven. You can only walk freely around in towns and dungeons, when you leave one location for the next the game takes you there automatically. At first I wasn't really that massive on this concept, but it keeps the story flowing nicely and keeps the game more balanced then other role playing games.
One of the best aspects of Illusion of Time is that Will can transform in to other warriors with abilities varying to his own. Throughout the course of the game you'll need to transform multiple times to solve certain puzzles or defeat specific enemies. As well as serving as your means of recording save data Gaia also allows you the ability to transform in to these other forms. You can transform in to two different forms; Freedan the black knight or Shadow.
Freedan is like Will, but he uses a sword to attack instead of the flute Will uses. He has a bigger attack range and can therefore activate switched by swiping them with his sword when it'd have been impossible for Will to reach. He is also a more powerful fighter, you'll use him against bosses more then you will use Will.
Shadow is the strongest transformation in the game. His attack range is roughly the same as that of Freedan but he possesses much stronger fighting strength. Also, using an item, Shadow can melt in to a puddle of water to fall through cracks in floors.
As well as having Will and his two transformations you can learn new attacks from Gaia too. There's no magic system in Illusion of Time, but you do learn more powerful attacks as you go along. Will learns abilities called Psycho Dash, Psycho Slider and Spin Dash. Psycho Dash can break holes in walls, Psycho Slider lets Will slide in to small gaps to reach other places and Spin Dash turns him on to a tornado which can allow him to climb steep slopes. Freedan learns Dark Friar, Aura Barrier and Earthquake. Dark Friar is a long ranged attack that shoots beams from Freedan's sword, the Aura Barrier is a protective shield and Earthquake is… well pretty self-explanatory. Shadow learns less moves then Will and Freedan, but that's only because he is more powerful. Apart from being able to use the afore mentioned ability all Shadow learns is Firebird - the most powerful attack in the game.
I liked the transformations and new abilities on offer to you a lot, but I did have a problem with them a little bit. For instance you don't get Shadow until very late on in the game a so you don't spend too much time using him, and when you get him Freedan becomes all but useless. I'd have much rather have had Shadow a little weaker and get him earlier in the game, this way Quintet could have incorporated more complex puzzles that required the abilities of both Freedan and Shadow.
Visually Illusion of Time is on par with a lot of other later Super NES titles like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger, which is only a good thing. The games colouring and lighting effects are really nice for a 16-bit game and the sprites are really well animated on occasions. Musically the game is good to. Illusion of Time's music isn't really original, its music is what you expect from that of a 16-bit RPG, but it's still nice regardless.
Illusion of Time isn't the best game you'll ever play, but that's not to say you won't enjoy every minute of it. I wasn't too sure what to expect of it before playing, but because it's similar to other games such as A link to the Past and Secret of Mana I felt comfortable straight away. It's not as good as A Link to the Past, but Illusion of Time is a laudable Zelda-esque epic that just about every fan of 2D role playing games should definitely check out.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9/10