Illusion of Gaia

In Illusion of Gaia, players follow the journey of a young boy named Will, who is tasked with saving the world from an impending disaster. Guided through levels inspired by ancient ruins and Wonders of the World, Will, along with his companions Freedan and Shadow, embarks on a quest filled with exploration and combat. With each character possessing unique abilities, players must strategically navigate through challenges and uncover the secrets of the mystical Dark Spaces. As Will collects artifacts and confronts the approaching comet, he discovers his true destiny and the power to shape the fate of the world. Special thanks to GamePhobias for pulling together most of the information below.

• Release date: 11-27-1993
• Developer: Quintet
• Publisher: Nintendo & Enix
• Platforms: Super Famicom, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
• Not rated by: PEGI, ESRB

Triggers for this game

Animals & Wildlife

• Arachnids

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  Acid Spider enemies are based on spiders.

  • Can't be avoided

• Insects

  Pillbugs, centipedes, flies, ticks, beetles

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  Slugger and Scuttlebug enemies resemble pillbugs. The Sand Fanger boss is a centipede. Zip Fly enemies resemble flies. Wall Walker enemies resemble large ticks. During the Ankor Wat level, Will ends up jumping down into a dark room which, when the lights turn on, turns out to have a floor covered in harmless beetles.

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Animals & Critters

  Pig, fish, bats, reptiles

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Will and his friends end up on an ancient Incan ship which gets attacked by a giant fish and is destroyed. Will and Kara wake up on a debris raft, and one of their friends is eaten by the fish. Bat, King Bat, and Dive Bat are based on bats. Flayzer enemies are reptile-men. Draco enemies are small, reptilian dragons.

  • Can't be avoided

• Sharks

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  While Will and Kara are on the raft, they are briefly threatened by sharks, though they end up not being attacked.

  • Can't be avoided

• Snakes

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  Asp enemies are based on snakes. In the village of Dao, Will can encounter snake charmers.

  • Can't be avoided

Crime

• Explosions & Bombs

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  In several places, defeating a certain enemy will prompt the next area to open. A small light orb will fly to whatever will open or change to unlock the next area and create a small explosion to open the way. Several enemies fight with explosions. Will’s friend Eric gets strapped to a bomb at one point during a boss-fight. Will must defeat the enemies within two minutes to prevent the bomb from exploding and save his friend.

  • Can't be avoided

• Fights

  • Can't be avoided

• Kidnapping

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  At the beginning of the game, Kara has run away from her home at the palace and is forcibly dragged out of Will’s home by two knights who come to take her back. Kara is taken by the angel painter, Ishtar, and sealed into a painting, from which Will must rescue her. At one point, Will has to rescue slaves whose backstory is that they willingly left their tribal home when the animals died off and were hired as laborers. They were tricked and sold as slaves instead. Kara’s father sends a bounty hunter called the Jackal after his daughter. Kara is eventually captured, but Will saves her.

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Crime

  Weapons

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  Freedan uses a sword, and Will attacks with his flute, using it like a bludgeon. Enemies use spears, swords, chain whips, and bows. Some constructs shoot needles, rocks, detachable rocket fists, feathers, or fireballs. Several enemies and bosses fight with fire or are fire-themed.

  • Can't be avoided

• Murder

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  When Will is saving Kara from being captured by the Jackal, he triggers a fire trap which lights the mercenary on fire and kills him. The characters feel remorseful over his death and are notably disgusted by what happened.

  • Can't be avoided

• Torture

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  In the diamond mine, Will must rescue slaves, many of which are being beaten by the reptile-men wardens. Several background tiles and stones around are the skeletons of former slaves and their skulls, implying that they were tortured or worked to death.

  • Can't be avoided

Death & Loss

• Abandonment

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  Will went on a trip with his father before the events of the game, and only Will returned home from it. His father appears to still be alive but is nowhere to be found at the beginning of the game. Since his mother died years before, Will lives with his maternal grandparents. The father of Will’s friend, Lance, also went along on this trip and was lost. Lance was raised by his mother who had remained in South Cape. Lance’s father turns up alive in the town of Watermia. Neil lives apart from his parents, but that seems to be more his personal choice, rather than a case of abandonment.

  • Can't be avoided

• Death of Friend

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  Will’s friend Seth is presumed alive after the accident with the Inca ship and even talks to his friends and tells them that he has, somehow, become the fish that ate him. Come the end of the game, Olman draws up several spirits to give Will extra power, and Seth is one of them, along with Hamlet, Neil’s parents, and Will’s opponent in the Russian Glass game in Watermia.

  • Can't be avoided

• Death of Parent

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  Will’s friend, Neil, is briefly reunited with his parents, but they turn out to be disguised moon spirits and that his parents have been dead all along. Will's mother died many years before the game opens, and he later discovers that his father, Olman, had been physically dead the whole time Will presumed him missing and had instead ascended to a spirit form, in which Olman continues interacting with his son.

  • Can't be avoided

• Death of pet

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  Kara’s pet pig, Hamlet, sacrifices himself for a village of hungry people, by jumping into a fire and cooking himself.

  • Can't be avoided

• Suicide

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  Aboard the Incan gold ship, Will and his friends find the long-dead skeletons of the last of the Inca, who, instead of setting off and trying to save themselves, waited on board their ship and needlessly died waiting for him. In the town of Watermia, Will has to play a drinking game that’s basically Russian roulette. When he and his opponent have worked their way through four of the five glasses and have not been poisoned, the spectators realize that the final glass must be the poisoned one and try to dissuade the opponent from drinking the final glass. As he’s been disgraced as the champion and is also terminally ill, as Will will later learn, he insists on drinking the cup and dies, leaving behind a sizable inheritance for his pregnant wife. Kara’s pet pig, Hamlet, sacrifices himself for a village of hungry people by jumping into a fire and cooking himself.

  • Can't be avoided

Drugs & Alcohol

• Alcohol Consumption

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  In the town of Watermia, Will has to play a drinking game that’s basically Russian roulette, in order to win transportation across the desert. The glasses contents are not explicitly alcohol but could very likely be and are described with terms usually applied to alcohol (shot, etc). A similar scene is set up in Watermia’s gambling hall with two men having a drinking competition; this one seems more likely to be alcohol as it seems to be a competition of who can drink the most.

  • Can't be avoided

• Drunkenness

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  In the town of Watermia, Will has to play a drinking game that’s basically Russian roulette, in order to win transportation across the desert. The glasses contents are not explicitly alcohol but could very likely be and are described with terms usually applied to alcohol (shot, etc). A similar scene is set up in Watermia’s gambling hall with two men having a drinking competition; this one seems more likely to be alcohol as it seems to be a competition of who can drink the most.

  • Can't be avoided

Gore

• Animal Violence

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  In the town of Dao, Will can play Snake Panic, a game where he must hit as many charmed snakes as he can within one minute. If his score is high enough, he gets two Red Jewels, which are necessary to unlock the game’s secret dungeon. The snakes are non-hostile and merely pop out of their pots when called by the snake charmer. Kara’s pet pig, Hamlet, sacrifices himself for a village of hungry people, by jumping into a fire and cooking himself.

  • Can't be avoided

• Body Horror

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  The Zombie enemies feature an eye-less snake head on a humanoid body. When the head is defeated, an eye opens up on the monster’s chest and must be attacked for the monster to be killed.

  • Can't be avoided

• Cannibalism

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  In the Japanese version of the game, there is a tribe of native people who are starving because the animals they would hunt have all turned into monsters. They resorted to eating the sickly among their village and attempt to eat Will and his friends when they arrive at the village. This is cut from the American release of the game, though certain elements remain. The skeletons of dead villagers still litter the village, though they are described as simply being dead and not having been eaten. Will and his friends are still set upon by the natives, tied up and, seemingly for no reason, as the threat of cannibalism is removed, dragged out by a large fire. Will finds the journal of a dead adventurer in Ankor Wat, which reports that when he and his party entered the village, they were put up for the night by the villagers, and some of the party died there mysteriously overnight. This could be a cannibalism reference, or it could be a reference to the diseases reported by slaves who used to live in the village.

  • Can't be avoided

Hate & Discrimination

• Chattel Slavery

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  In the town of Freejia and other locations throughout the game, Will and his friends encounter slave traders and slave markets in which the enslaved laborers are being treated like animals. The Flayzer enemies which are in charge of keeping the slaves of the Diamond Mine in order are depicted as carrying large whips, which implies that the slaves are whipped. While on a raft drifting at sea, Will and Kara will find a message in a bottle from a slave on a ship begging for help. When Will and Kara then get to the town of Freejia, much of the plot for the town will involve the slave trade and freeing slaves. During the Freejia arc, Will has the option to turn in a runaway slave for a reward: one of the fifty collectable Red Jewels which unlock a secret final dungeon. This is not required, but if the player wants to 100% complete the game, this Jewel is necessary. This slave-rescue plotline reappears once the party reaches the town of Euro. In the town of Dao, the slave trade is more openly practiced, and Will can go into a sweatshop staffed by female slaves who cannot speak the same language as Will and his party. These women weave decorative carpets for rich, whiter people in a far-off part of the world, nonstop for 40 years.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

• Dehumanization & Objectification

  Slavery, sexual objectification

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  Slavery -- In the town of Freejia and other locations throughout the game, Will and his friends encounter slave traders and slave markets in which the enslaved laborers are being treated like animals. Sexual objectification -- The Mummy Queen boss is supposed to be the queen who was buried in the Pyramid dungeon hundreds of years before the game takes place. She does not possess the appearance of a desiccated mummy and is instead a very busty, leggy woman. Her skin starts out pinkish and human-looking, but then turns green, then brown as though she is decaying as the battle goes on. Despite this decay, her sexualized build never changes.

  • Can't be avoided

• Racism

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  The game features a mishmash of ancient world cultures, fusing elements of fantasy with historical elements from our world. When characters who ought to be POC based on their attested cultural affiliations are depicted, their skin is usually as white as Will’s. Will has a white-savior plot-line. He is a blond, white male who is “the chosen one” and must dig through the ruins of ancient cultures which would belong to POC in our world. Throughout the plot, Will has to rescue slaves whose backstory is that they willingly left their tribal home when the animals died off and were hired as laborers. They were tricked and sold as slaves instead. Will also travels to the home of these slaves and must save them from starvation, disease, and the monsters plaguing them. During the Freejia arc, Will has the option to turn in a runaway slave for a reward: one of the fifty collectable Red Jewels which unlock a secret final dungeon. This is not required, but if the player wants to 100% complete the game, this Jewel is necessary, and Will must turn in the slave. The game features a region based on Incan mythology and architecture. This part is relatively inoffensive. The biggest issue is that Incan people are depicted as white, and most of the women are even shown as blonde; however, other members of the Incan crew have blue or purple hair so realistic depictions were obviously not a priority. A region based on China features a zone called China’s Great Wall which Will has to explore. It features a large wall, vaguely reminiscent of the Great Wall of China, full of living clay soldiers. The music for the zone draws from Chinese musical traditions. Will does not encounter any people there, and it seems as though the mishmash of the area is not a pan-Asian mishmash and sticks merely to Chinese tropes. A man in a village near the Great Wall makes a crack about how weird Chinese medicine is, apparently drawing the line at “the bodily fluids of insects” even though the particular variety he’s criticizing do prove to be a cure-all. Will and his friends encounter an indigenous tribe who has been all but wiped out by famine. The tribespeople have darker skin than most of the game’s characters and cannot understand or be understood by Will and his friends. In the Japanese version, this tribe turned cannibalistic and ate their sick and dead when faced with starvation. They attempt to eat Will and his friends in the Japanese version and merely capture them in the American release, only releasing them upon a sacrifice by Kara’s pet pig, Hamlet. The town of Dao is supposed to be based upon the Middle East. This is probably the most problematic part of the game. Snake charming is apparently a sport in the town, and Will can participate by whacking charmed snakes to get Red Jewels. Tough-looking, turban-wearing, pot-bellied, mustachioed slave-traders, who look more non-white than almost every other character in the game, read as Arab stereotypes. These men control part of the town and force female slaves who cannot speak the same language as Will and his party to weave decorative carpets for rich, whiter people in a far-off part of the world in what reads as a sweatshop for 40 years.

  • Can't be avoided

Horror Themes

• Demons & Devils

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  Monsters throughout the game are described as demons, but none of them resemble classical Western demons.

  • Can't be avoided

• Ghosts & Hauntings

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  The Moon Tribe are ghost-like creatures. For a time, Will interacts with the crew of an Incan ship who believe him to be their king. He goes to sleep and awakens to find that the crew had been dead for a long time and that he had interacted with their ghosts. Flasher enemies are ghost-like and resemble dementors from Harry Potter: hovering cloaked figures with skeletal hands. Will interacts with the long-dead inhabitants of the island of Mu and the Tower of Babel who appear as small ghostly wisps. Haunt enemies are haunted mummies which will, when they’ve received enough damage, unravel and reveal the ghost haunting the mummy. The Mummy Queen boss of the Pyramid will burst into several small ghosts when she is struck. The ghosts will then coalesce, at which point she can be attacked again. Will discovers that his father, Olman, has been physically dead the whole time Will presumed him missing, and had instead ascended to a spirit form, in which Olman continues interacting with his son.

  • Can't be avoided

• Monsters

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  Several location feature the aftermath of disasters. As much of the game is spent investigating ruins, many of these locations are only ruined or abandoned due to a calamity. Other locations, such as the village full of starving people which Will's party encounters, are facing much more current disasters, such as people falling ill or animals turning into monsters. Monsters throughout the game are described as demons, but none of them resemble classical Western demons.

  • Can't be avoided

• Psychological Horror

  • Can't be avoided

• Zombies & Undead

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  The Zombie enemies feature an eye-less snake head on a humanoid body. When the head is defeated, an eye opens up on the monster’s chest and must be attacked for the monster to be killed. Ribber, Skull Chaser, and Steelbones are animate skeletons. Flasher enemies are ghost-like. A pair of Vampires are the boss for the Mu island region. Skullker and Yorrick enemies are animate skulls. Goldcap and Frenzie enemies are animate mummified heads. Haunt enemies are animate mummies. The Mummy Queen boss is undead, but she is not decayed.

  • Can't be avoided

Mental Health

• Misc. Mental Health

  Existentialism

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  The game features a complex, philosophical plot, in which powers of a mystical comet which approaches Will’s world have stunted the development of the various societies and prevented them from any kind of modernization. It touches on elements of fate, destiny, and the afterlife, which may be triggering to people susceptible to this tag.

  • Can't be avoided

Natural Events

• Misc. Natural Events

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Several location feature the aftermath of disasters. As much of the game is spent investigating ruins, many of these locations are only ruined or abandoned due to a calamity. Other locations, such as the village full of starving people which Will's party encounters, are facing much more current disasters, such as people falling ill or animals turning into monsters. The arrival of the magical comet is supposed to bring calamity upon the world, though Will and his friends stop it before it can do any damage.

  • Can't be avoided

• Pandemic

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  The long-dead inhabitants of the island of Mu report a disease-like plague once decimated their population, turning people into monsters.

  • Can't be avoided

Non-Sexual Abuse & Violence

• Altercations

  • Can't be avoided

• Child Abuse

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  Will’s friend Seth has a very unhappy home life, thanks to his parents’ constant fighting. Seth’s father wants to be able to spend his money on fun things, and Seth’s mother feels that that is irresponsible. Seth’s mother says she’d leave her husband if not for Seth. When Will first opens the door to Seth’s house, a jar comes flying out of the house and onto the street, implying that one parent or another threw it, likely Seth’s father, since he is standing near a similar jar. Kara’s parents, King Edward and Queen Edwina, are cruel and keep her locked in her room. Kara is desperate to get away from them.

  • Can't be avoided

Phobias

• Acrophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Will will jump off of cliffs, ledges, and roofs, though the falls are never damaging. The Sky Garden dungeon is a floating garden high above the Nazca Lines. While traversing the dungeon, Will has to jump between the top and bottom sides frequently to complete it. Will cannot mis-jump and fall.

  • Can't be avoided

• Arachnophobia

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  Acid Spider enemies are based on spiders.

  • Can't be avoided

• Claustrophobia

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  Following their visit to the land of Mu, Will and his friends navigate an extremely long, ancient undersea tunnel. It does not seem especially small to the player, but the characters worry that they won't make it out, and putting oneself mentally into the position of the players might be triggering in this case.

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Phobias

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  Fire -- Several enemies and bosses fight with fire or are fire-themed. In the back alleys of the town of Freejia, a man will offer to provide an interesting demonstration for Will. He will breathe fire, but his hair will be accidentally lit on fire, and he will run offscreen. When Will is saving Kara from being captured by the Jackal, he triggers a fire trap which lights the mercenary on fire and kills him.

  • Can't be avoided

• Necrophobia

  Bones

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  Bones -- The opening cinematic includes both a skull and a skeleton. Ribber, Skull Chaser, and Steelbones are animate skeletons. Flasher enemies are ghost-like and have skeletal hands. Ramskull enemies are bone-constructs. Skullker and Yorrick enemies are animate skulls. Skeletons can appear as background tiles in ruins, and can sometimes be interacted with to get backstory the person the skeleton belonged to. Dead bodies -- Haunt enemies are animate mummies. Will and his friends encounter the skeletons of the long-dead crew of an Incan ship, along with the mummified body of the Incan queen. When Will is saving Kara from being captured by the Jackal, he triggers a fire trap which lights the mercenary on fire and kills him.

  • Can't be avoided

• Nyctophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  During the Ankor Wat level, Will ends up jumping down into a dark room which, when the lights turn on, turns out to have a floor covered in harmless beetles.

  • Can't be avoided

• Ommetaphobia

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  The Zombie enemies feature an eye-less snake head on a humanoid body. When the head is defeated, an eye opens up on the monster’s chest and must be attacked for the monster to be killed. Eyestalker is an eye-shaped monster. Eyesore and Firebug enemies are fiery eyeballs.

  • Can't be avoided

• Trypanophobia

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  Some enemy constructs shoot needles.

  • Can't be avoided

Physical Health & Body Issues

• Misc. Physical Health & Body Issues

  Disease

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  The long-dead inhabitants of the island of Mu report a disease-like plague once decimated their population, turning people into monsters. Some of the slaves Will encounters report that terrible diseases that petrify the infected were becoming common near their homes when they were made to leave.

  • Can't be avoided

• Pain & Physical Suffering

  Memory loss

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  Will’s friend, Erik, loses his memory after the Incan gold ship is attacked by a large fish. The father of Will’s friend, Lance, is discovered part-way through the game, having suffered amnesia during his trip with Will’s father.

  • Can't be avoided

Sex & Erotica (Consensual)

• Nudity

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  Will’s Shadow form is a muscular, blue, nude male surrounded by flames. His crotch is in shadow, but his butt is visible when Will jumps off of a ledge in this form.

  • Can't be avoided

Traumatic Events

• Accidents

  Plane crash

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  At one point, Will and his friends travel by airplane which crashes, though no one is seriously hurt beyond the party being split up.

  • Can't be avoided

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