Poll: Box Art Brawl: Illusion Of Gaia

I played this game for the first time pretty recently hehe. It was my palate-cleanser after spending an entire month 100%ing Tears of the Kingdom.
Pretty cool game overall. and very bizarre too.

I like the USA logo, with the huge G over the earth.
Not a fan of the PAL title tbh, the game doesn't really involve "time" that much, I think the name "Gaia" suits this game's style of weird esoteric story much better.

The JP art with Will, Kara and Hamlet running along in space with Freedan and Shadow's visages in the sky is pretty nice, and well representative of the game.
But I do like the simple and somewhat grandiose impact of the USA logo by itself a little more. So I voted for that.

İ am going for the Spain 1. İ remember this game when İ was a little kid. İ have seen it many times but as Time box Art. UK and Belgium.

Box Art Brawls Current Total:

Europe: 60

Japan: 61

North America: 66

Australia and New Zealand: 1

I prefer the word “Gaia” to “Time” on the box. So I chose America.

But the Japanese one is nice also.

I like the clean japanese cover. This is another one of those game I've had since childhood but just never completed alongside few others like Paladin's Quest and Secret of Evermore. Should get to those at some point.

“…and even throws in a couple of pixel-art characters too..”
are those characters made up of pixels? They do t look pixel art to me, just regular cartooncute characters.

The North American one just looks like Zelda.

Japan wins once again, what a shocker!

Would love to see this trilogy come to switch. Terranigma is an amazing and underrated game.
I'm not sure I ever completed Gaia though...

Japan is best here but it would be better without the characters on the bottom, seems out of place for what is otherwise a moody mysterious cover.

Was so tempted to vote for Germany as Japan basically gets a leg-up by having the portrait format - but it works so well here, I had to give it to Japan. Real sense of space and grandeur where all the others feel a bit claustrophobic.

Firstly, it is very cool to see a box art that has different versions in different parts of Europe.

Secondly that North American box art is dreadfully boring, why is it in second place?

The North America and UK versions make them seem like separate Pokemon versions

@CharlieGirl
I voted for the NA box art because of nostalgia, I imagine a lot of other people did as well.

@PlasmaticSnake I agree, been playing for a long time and also have those ROM SNES packs where there’s like hundreds of games and you kind of know which ones are great…. And alas … I’ve never heard of this game…. And that’s a shocker … will look into i
That’s the beauty of the SNES library… even after 30 years you can find some hidden gem

It seems like an RPG that can be completed at 7-8 hours..: which is great

UK/NL/B one. The muted tone fits better, especially on the planet, compared to the US one, it will always be Time for me, instead of Gaia, and well... I have a soft spot for this box art. Actually started playing it again few weeks ago.

I do like the characters in the front on the JP one, but I really dislike the blue character art.

This week, nostalgia wins out and I voted for the North American box art.

I never really liked the North American version though it is pretty majestic when animated on the title screen. Felt a bit too much like trying to hone in on Zelda which the game shouldn't because it stands well on its own with a unique story that I still love. The Japanese version is probably the best with that scene looking like the beautiful final battle of the game. That said, Illusion of Gaia is definitely the better name for this game and it's not even close. Illusion of Time is so generic sounding and barely fits for the game's story.

Also, it still bugs me a bit that Shadow is so advertised in the game's material and even on these cover arts, but you only get that form for part of the penultimate dungeon and then for the boss gauntlet at the end. Such a tease.

Why did Europe have the name change?

Japan this week, followed by US.

@Uncle_Franklin @Uncle_Franklin where do you get your numbers?

Call me a noob, this is the first time I hear about this game.

I can't even choose, they are all very, very nice. The first one has that 90's RPG look, the 2nd one would be even better if not for the bigger M, Germany and Spain are nice too, and Japan's addition of the small silhouettes is a brilliant touch.

I vote for Japan, but it's more like a 5x tie, they are all moving, they have this kind of presence.

I need to find out more about this game.

Regardless of the game, that US box art is iconic. I’d argue it’s among the best box sets of the era. It tells you nothing about the game and yet demands you find out more. Beautifully composed, colored and presented.

@Dom_31 Normally I’d agree with you, but the Japanese bow art here is so monochromatic and doesn’t use space well. I voted NA.

Never heard of this game but the Japanese box art makes me want to play it so has to be Japan

I didn't notice that Hamlet was in the Japanese box art until after I voted. Can I get a redo? Respect that lil' piggy and his sacrifice o7

I'm very surprised that the north american one got so many votes, to be honest I think is after the UK one the worst. My favs are the japanese and the german one

God all of these covers are absolutely stellar. None of them have bad art or composition in any way shape or form. Really hard to choose on this one

@Uncle_Franklin these numbers need to context of how many times they’ve been an option compared to how many times they’ve won the poll.

It looks like with 66 wins NA is doing really well and Australia and New Zealand are doing really badly with 1. But if Australia and New Zealand have only been an option once then they’ve won 100% of the time (and they really don’t appear very often). Whilst NA might have been a choice 200 times in which case they’ve only won just under a third.

To use the phrasing of a previous commenter, though not intended as a knock against that person or their opinion, the US cover tells nothing about the game, and does nothing to demand that I learn more. And that's the problem with mystery and logo covers. I literally have no interest in this game based on that cover. I consider it dreadfully boring. Same for the UK/Belgium cover. The US cover is also made worse by the border and and silly corner tear, two things that both got worse for N64.

Germany is okay, though it's crushed by the aspect ratio. Japan is the one this week by far.

The Japanese one is awful. Yikes. But they are all pretty ugly, to be fair.

Giving this one to Japan easy. It’s a mix of the best things from all of them. The planets. The dudes in space from the Germany box art. And even the new addition of the little pixel characters at the bottom. Like with most of these I judge it by would I pick this up if I saw it in the store today and the answer for the Japanese one is yes please.

The NA one is neat looking and definitely stands out as the most recognizable but man the Japanese one is beautiful

@YoshiF2 It's a great game but does show its age. I've actually been playing it again and it definitely lost some of its impact. Things go pretty fast, it would be better if it took its time for its storytelling.

That said, the story becomes very emotional later on. Few games made me well up, this is one if them.

Enjoy!

@Ogbert
I suggest you provide a comment which details the improvements you think are necessary. It would be a great addition to Uncle Franklin’s totals. It would also probably be my second favourite comment on Box Art Brawl articles.

JP one for me this week, without any doubts nor regrets!

Tbh none of them are that great imo (sorry artists!).

Japan wins by quite a margin for me!

Sorry, I think they're all bland looking.

I like all of them… except the one I have, the Spanish one. Voted for Japan. It’s nice to see the characters there, with that big space.
Loved this game. Very touching at some points.
The first RPG that got translated to Spanish, i think. It was a big thing !

I definitely prefer Japan's box art. I feel like I get a better idea about the game with that one.

japan actually show the premise of the game so it better

Easy win for Japan. NA box is cluttered with gumpf and "Illusion of Time" is a much worse title. There's a lot to look at on the Japanese box, but it's all interesting and nothing jars.

@CharlieGirl I can only assume there are a lot of people voting NA out of patriotism. It really is terrible. Those two shades of black are a crime, the illustration is boring and the "WOW"s all over the place are very distracting.

I'll always know this game as Illusion of Gaia (as it was Earth that was changed so much due to the comet) and that box art will always resonate with me. But I HAD to vote for JP-- That image is epic with the Earth, Freedan and Shadow, then finally Will, Kara, and her pet pig (forgot the name).

@Jacoby I did in the first half of my previous comment.

@Ogbert yes I saw your ideas in the first comment and I think they are good.
What I’m saying is for you to do the research and post comments with your research. So you need to add context to the numbers.

@HotGoomba I'm sure that was the marketing department's point.

@sdelfin It's clear Nintendo was aiming for the Zelda audience, especially A Link to the Past which didn't need to tell us anything about the game on its cover.
I know Link's Awakening had the owl, but I feel like that might've been a change on the 1997 Player's Choice rerelease cover, not present on the 1993 original. Can't remember for certain.

@KingMike I did consider that and it is likely what they were after. I think the problem there is that Zelda as a property was already established. Zelda had the benefit of Nintendo's marketing push fairly early in the successful run of the NES, so it didn't need to stand out with its cover. The sequels sold because of the name and the reputation of Nintendo. Some people may have been drawn to the covers, the gold box. The gold cartridge was another effective marketing gimmick. But I doubt the Zelda boxes alone did much to sell the game. So doing a totally new property with that approach to a cover seems like a tougher sell for me. Then again, maybe it did intrigue Zelda fans and perhaps it got a marketing push via Nintendo Power. It does nothing for me, though, as a cover.

@Ogbert - Not really; if you take out AU/NZ, all of the options have been constants in these polls. The only confusion might come from when two of these share the same cover (e.g. NA/EU); if they win, do they both get a point, or no? If yes, then there’s no problem, really.

Went for NA this time around, as the EU covers don’t look great, and I’ve never been a fan of Japan’s “let’s make it a poster” approach to box art design.

@Jacoby ah so you didn’t actually mean “provide a comment which details the improvements you think are necessary” you meant ‘do it yourself’.

No. I was giving constructive feedback not taking their thing for my own.

@FullMetalWesker no there have been some that did not get an Eu or NA release in the past. And the issue of what if there is a joint win and do they both get a point? Well that’s something they’re already having to deal with isn’t it. Adding the context of how many times they’ve been an option doesn’t add complexity to the tally of who wins.

@sdelfin Nintendo actually printed unusual ads in other magazines which were a banner ad on something like six consecutive pages and I recall it name-dropped A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana.
Funny though that the title screen of Will/Tim and Kara/Karen running on the moon (used in the Japanese and European versions) was printed in the USA manual. That was still in the early USA prototype ROM that is online, so the final USA title screen must've been a fairly late change.

@Ogbert Yah you got it! Would be cool information to see. All the previous Box Art Brawl articles are available I believe. Good luck if you change your mind.