Illusion of Gaia - Version Differences

Version Differences

In keeping with Nintendo of America's censorship policies at the time of publication, numerous changes were made to the game to make certain story elements less dark. Most notably, the native tribe encountered near Angkor Wat were originally cannibals, with the skeletal remains lying around the village being the remnants of their own tribesmen, whom they had eaten to survive.

Additionally, numerous religious references were changed or completely removed. Will's school was initially a Sunday school run by a priest and held in a Christian church; the American release simply identifies the building as a school and replaces a cross with a statue. In the Japanese release, speaking with the priest would cause him to begin leading Will in a prayer; in the American release, the teacher leads Will in reciting a poem. The ocean monster was identified in the Japanese release as the Biblical Leviathan, who was revealed to be a member of a race of humanoid ocean dwellers, as opposed to a unique entity. The American release indicates that Seth's consciousness has been absorbed into Riverson's, whereas the Japanese release indicates that Seth was merely turned into another Leviathan. A line from the game's climax, in which Will and Kara comment, upon seeing Earth from outer space, that this is what it must feel like to be God, was also removed.

A notable change to gameplay itself is that the Japanese and American releases feature a different boss in the Sky Garden. In the Japanese version, the boss is simply a giant bird. In the American release, the boss is a winged Babylonian statue with talons. The American boss was apparently the creators' initial vision, and tied in with the idea that the Sky Garden was once the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the creators used the port of the game to "tidy up" the boss, as they were dissatisfied with the bird/snake hybrid present in the original release.