Treasure Hunter G
Encyclopedia
is a turn-based tactical role playing game developed by Sting Entertainment and published by Square
(now Square Enix
). It was released on May 24, 1996. It was published on the Nintendo
's Virtual Console
service on December 25, 2007 in Japan.
The game was not released outside of Japan
. Worth noting is that this was Square's final game for a Nintendo console, released a scant two weeks before they announced their departure from Nintendo, until the release of Chocobo Land: A Game of Dice
for the Game Boy Advance
in 2002, in Japan.
The main characters are the brothers Red, and Blue, a girl Rain, and a monkey Ponga who would later go on to appear in one of Square's earlier PlayStation
games, SaGa Frontier
, albeit with radically different roles.
The character sprites are pre-rendered from 3D models, rather than drawn by hand. This allowed for a feature unique among similar games for SNES: the character sprites are created for eight directions instead of the usual four.
The game starts inside Silver G's house in Ruuri, with Silver G trying to wake Red and Blue up (there is a sequence in Tania about Red being busted out of his house and Blue (who is really Silver G) hitting Red to 'wake him up'.
After Silver G hits him awake, he announces that his 'belly is going to ring ten'. Then Herbatle comes in and tells them that there is a Ferric Falcon in the Aged Cave.
At the Aged Cave, Hel sets a bomb and the cave explodes. The group runs away (apparently also bumping into Ponga) before the Falcon explodes.
When they get back to Ruuri, Blue gets excited and tells Herbatle all about it. He jumps off and runs to the Aged Cave to find out it is blocked.
They meet Rain and Ponga on the way to Sebia Village (there is also a training hall where you can train in this game. Atchoh! Atchoh!) They buy equipment and then... Ruuri's on fire!
They rescue everyone but Silver G dies. Rain joins, and they announce their farewell 'The clock is still ticking in our hearts' and go through the forest to the northeast. They meet a strange man who talks about the Dark King in there.
Then, in Tania, they go to their dad's house and find "The Adventure Room". They examine a bookcase and a diary falls out. They keep it.
Then they go to a mountain and fight a few monks, climb up a mountain, and meet Mio. She leads them to a bed, and Rain (at night) learns a few spells!
They go down the mountain and find Mio again which gives them an OPART (Out-of-Place ARTifact) and they apparently meet... HEL!!! They defeat her and Rain runs away. They go back to Ruuri and retrieve her first, and then proceed to a live volcano.
They go to a door and a strange language that says to tickle its feet and elbow and jump in the pit each time, then they get the second OPART.
They go back to Sebia and the old woman in the pub gives them a potion that makes them slippery. Then they go into this weird forest and let the plants swallow them until they reach two bosses (Swamp Flower/Hel/Sinify/Sinifian).
After they are defeated, Hel gets kicked into the Old World (a reference to the Underworld?). And finally, the characters visit a drug dealer, who makes a Hi-Potion out of the Frog they caught at the Neko Forest. They return to the whale Kujira, and convince it into taking the Hi-Potion.
The characters are then taken to Carbukle Island, encountering enemies on the way.
They don't really do much at Carbukle Island, except that they rescue a Carbukle, grab the third OPART, and return to Kujira the Whale.
Kujira hurts his tail again, and the characters go into the sewers under Akrass and grab a frog. They meet another druggist, which makes another Hi-Potion for them.
However, when they return to Kujira, he isn't there! He arrives at the last moment, and then he takes the Hi-Potion, and is gone for good.
Please complete the rest of the plot.
Red: The eldest son of Brown-G. Although not the brightest person around, Red's good nature and resolute personality prove key in the adventure that would eventually save the world. Of the four playable characters, Red has the highest attack power, and many powerful weapons to take advantage of this.
Blue: Brother of Red. More emotional than his older brother, he is often prone to fits of tears in response to nightmares or difficulty. Despite this, he never leaves his brother's side on their quest to save the world.
Rain: A mysterious girl saved by Silver-G in the forest. Her true nature stays hidden for much of the game, but it is shown that she possesses several inexplicable abilities.
Ponga: An unusually intelligent monkey, Ponga is the faithful pet of Rain. His abilities include casting powerful spells as well as playing the violin.
NPC's (Non Playable Characters)
Brown-G: Father of Red and Blue. Appears climbing on a metal bird (Ferric Falcon) at the beginning of the game. A natural born treasure hunter and adventurer, Brown-G often told his sons wild and outlandish tales in their youth. Much of the game is played with the main characters always one step behind their adventurous father.
Silver-G: Grandfather of Red and Blue, he originally assists the boys in finding their father in a nearby cave. An old, gruff and tempered fellow, he swallowed his wife's clock after she died so that she would always be with him. He dies defending Rain from several malevolent fire spirits.
Kujira: A humpback whale with a tendency to lack motivation, he is helped on two separate occasions by the main characters. In return, he provides them with transportation over the sea to several locations.
Dr. Hello/Harrow: Referring to himself as "The Last Mad Scientist Dr. Hello", he is a skilled genius in the fields of robotics and mechanics. Responsible for repairing the Ferric Falcon, he also serves as a trustworthy, although eccentric, ally.
Dark King: The game's major antagonist, he aspires to awaken the power of "Bone Dino" to remake the world as it was before.
Mio A powerful, although outwardly youthful-appearing mage who lives atop a tall mountain peak. She is instrumental in helping Rain unlock her hidden magical powers, but also seems to be attracted to her.
J-Elf and "Leonardo" The two people responsible for the revival of the Dark King, neither of these two seem to realize the dire consequences of their actions. J-Elf is a ruffian who later tries to attack Red and his group, but fails. The Turtle Samurai, whose true name was not given, was referred to as "Leonardo" by Blue, a reference to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the various times in which "Leonardo" is encountered, he is shown to be a generally confused and bumbling character, somehow confusing Red-G with J-Elf on his quest for vengeance. Also, he appears in a short scene following the conclusion of the game's credits.
, Mitsuhito Tanaka aka John Pee, Masaharu Iwata
, Toshiaki Sakoda, Yoko Takada, Tomoko Matsui, and Akiko Goto. The 86-song soundtrack was published by NTT Publishing on June 9, 1996.
Square Co.
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
(now Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
). It was released on May 24, 1996. It was published on the Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
service on December 25, 2007 in Japan.
The game was not released outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Worth noting is that this was Square's final game for a Nintendo console, released a scant two weeks before they announced their departure from Nintendo, until the release of Chocobo Land: A Game of Dice
Chocobo
A is a fictional creature from the Final Fantasy video game series. The creature is a large and normally flightless galliforme/ratite bird capable of being ridden and otherwise used by player characters during gameplay...
for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
in 2002, in Japan.
The main characters are the brothers Red, and Blue, a girl Rain, and a monkey Ponga who would later go on to appear in one of Square's earlier PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
games, SaGa Frontier
SaGa Frontier
is a role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation and released in Japan on July 11, 1997. The game was later published by Sony Computer Entertainment in North America on March 25, 1998. It is the seventh game in the SaGa series and the first to be released on the PlayStation...
, albeit with radically different roles.
Gameplay
Treasure Hunter G's gameplay is very typical of its time, consisting of two types of gameplay (adventuring and combat). Adventuring is done in a fashion very similar to Squaresoft's Super Famicom games such as Chrono Trigger and Seiken Densetsu 3 with the group exploring various locations typical to the genre such as towns, forests, dungeons, castles and a few more fantastical locations. They make new allies and enemies and embark on a quest to stop the Dark Lord's plan of reviving Bone Dino and destroying the world. Combat takes place on a grid, with movement and fighting consuming varying amounts of Action Points. Other actions include using items, spells, special attacks and traps. Action Points increase during the game allowing for greater freedom in strategy.The character sprites are pre-rendered from 3D models, rather than drawn by hand. This allowed for a feature unique among similar games for SNES: the character sprites are created for eight directions instead of the usual four.
Plot
There is a villain called the Dark King. He was sealed away when an unsuspecting treasure hunter releases him by attempting to get "treasure". Now Red, Blue, Rain, and Ponga have to stop him!The game starts inside Silver G's house in Ruuri, with Silver G trying to wake Red and Blue up (there is a sequence in Tania about Red being busted out of his house and Blue (who is really Silver G) hitting Red to 'wake him up'.
After Silver G hits him awake, he announces that his 'belly is going to ring ten'. Then Herbatle comes in and tells them that there is a Ferric Falcon in the Aged Cave.
At the Aged Cave, Hel sets a bomb and the cave explodes. The group runs away (apparently also bumping into Ponga) before the Falcon explodes.
When they get back to Ruuri, Blue gets excited and tells Herbatle all about it. He jumps off and runs to the Aged Cave to find out it is blocked.
They meet Rain and Ponga on the way to Sebia Village (there is also a training hall where you can train in this game. Atchoh! Atchoh!) They buy equipment and then... Ruuri's on fire!
They rescue everyone but Silver G dies. Rain joins, and they announce their farewell 'The clock is still ticking in our hearts' and go through the forest to the northeast. They meet a strange man who talks about the Dark King in there.
Then, in Tania, they go to their dad's house and find "The Adventure Room". They examine a bookcase and a diary falls out. They keep it.
Then they go to a mountain and fight a few monks, climb up a mountain, and meet Mio. She leads them to a bed, and Rain (at night) learns a few spells!
They go down the mountain and find Mio again which gives them an OPART (Out-of-Place ARTifact) and they apparently meet... HEL!!! They defeat her and Rain runs away. They go back to Ruuri and retrieve her first, and then proceed to a live volcano.
They go to a door and a strange language that says to tickle its feet and elbow and jump in the pit each time, then they get the second OPART.
They go back to Sebia and the old woman in the pub gives them a potion that makes them slippery. Then they go into this weird forest and let the plants swallow them until they reach two bosses (Swamp Flower/Hel/Sinify/Sinifian).
After they are defeated, Hel gets kicked into the Old World (a reference to the Underworld?). And finally, the characters visit a drug dealer, who makes a Hi-Potion out of the Frog they caught at the Neko Forest. They return to the whale Kujira, and convince it into taking the Hi-Potion.
The characters are then taken to Carbukle Island, encountering enemies on the way.
They don't really do much at Carbukle Island, except that they rescue a Carbukle, grab the third OPART, and return to Kujira the Whale.
Kujira hurts his tail again, and the characters go into the sewers under Akrass and grab a frog. They meet another druggist, which makes another Hi-Potion for them.
However, when they return to Kujira, he isn't there! He arrives at the last moment, and then he takes the Hi-Potion, and is gone for good.
Please complete the rest of the plot.
Characters
Playable Characters:Red: The eldest son of Brown-G. Although not the brightest person around, Red's good nature and resolute personality prove key in the adventure that would eventually save the world. Of the four playable characters, Red has the highest attack power, and many powerful weapons to take advantage of this.
Blue: Brother of Red. More emotional than his older brother, he is often prone to fits of tears in response to nightmares or difficulty. Despite this, he never leaves his brother's side on their quest to save the world.
Rain: A mysterious girl saved by Silver-G in the forest. Her true nature stays hidden for much of the game, but it is shown that she possesses several inexplicable abilities.
Ponga: An unusually intelligent monkey, Ponga is the faithful pet of Rain. His abilities include casting powerful spells as well as playing the violin.
NPC's (Non Playable Characters)
Brown-G: Father of Red and Blue. Appears climbing on a metal bird (Ferric Falcon) at the beginning of the game. A natural born treasure hunter and adventurer, Brown-G often told his sons wild and outlandish tales in their youth. Much of the game is played with the main characters always one step behind their adventurous father.
Silver-G: Grandfather of Red and Blue, he originally assists the boys in finding their father in a nearby cave. An old, gruff and tempered fellow, he swallowed his wife's clock after she died so that she would always be with him. He dies defending Rain from several malevolent fire spirits.
Kujira: A humpback whale with a tendency to lack motivation, he is helped on two separate occasions by the main characters. In return, he provides them with transportation over the sea to several locations.
Dr. Hello/Harrow: Referring to himself as "The Last Mad Scientist Dr. Hello", he is a skilled genius in the fields of robotics and mechanics. Responsible for repairing the Ferric Falcon, he also serves as a trustworthy, although eccentric, ally.
Dark King: The game's major antagonist, he aspires to awaken the power of "Bone Dino" to remake the world as it was before.
Mio A powerful, although outwardly youthful-appearing mage who lives atop a tall mountain peak. She is instrumental in helping Rain unlock her hidden magical powers, but also seems to be attracted to her.
J-Elf and "Leonardo" The two people responsible for the revival of the Dark King, neither of these two seem to realize the dire consequences of their actions. J-Elf is a ruffian who later tries to attack Red and his group, but fails. The Turtle Samurai, whose true name was not given, was referred to as "Leonardo" by Blue, a reference to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the various times in which "Leonardo" is encountered, he is shown to be a generally confused and bumbling character, somehow confusing Red-G with J-Elf on his quest for vengeance. Also, he appears in a short scene following the conclusion of the game's credits.
Music
The score for Treasure Hunter G was created by the seven composers that make up the Sting Symphony: Hitoshi SakimotoHitoshi Sakimoto
is a Japanese video game composer and arranger. He is best known for scoring the games Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, though he has composed soundtracks for over 70 games and arranged music for more than 40 others. He began playing music and video games in elementary school, and began...
, Mitsuhito Tanaka aka John Pee, Masaharu Iwata
Masaharu Iwata
is a Japanese video game composer. After graduating from high school, where his musical projects included composing on a synthesizer and playing in a cover band, he joined Bothtec as a composer. He composed the soundtrack to several games there, beginning with 1987's Bakusou Buggy Ipatsu Yarou, and...
, Toshiaki Sakoda, Yoko Takada, Tomoko Matsui, and Akiko Goto. The 86-song soundtrack was published by NTT Publishing on June 9, 1996.