Treasure Hunter G

Overview

Treasure Hunter G is a 1996 tactical RPG released late in the Super Famicom's lifespan. It was the first project for Sting Entertainment, which would later become renowned for its in-depth strategy RPGs such as Yggdra Union and Knights in the Nightmare. Squaresoft published the game, and it would be the last 16-bit game they were ever involved in. They also cut ties with Nintendo after this game due to concerns about the lack of CD storage for Nintendo's upcoming Nintendo 64 console, with many years passing until they once again published on a Nintendo platform.

The game features two brothers - Red and Blue - who discover their father taking off in an airship at a young age and decide to follow in his footsteps once they become old enough. In addition, they discover a young girl named Rain and her pet monkey Ponga, and help them escape from the military forces searching for them.

The game is best known for its tactical RPG gameplay, which borrows elements from Chrono Trigger such as the importance of character placement on-screen and having every encounter in the game be visible before a battle starts, allowing players to prepare for them beforehand and potentially avoid them all together. It's also known for its distinct look: the game uses pre-rendered 3D character models for its characters, in a manner similar to Rare's Donkey Kong Country games.

The game was never officially released outside of Japan or localized into English. However, a mostly complete fan translation from Metalhawk became available in 2004. It became available for the Japanese Wii's Virtual Console service in 2007.

Plot

At the start of the game the player meets the two main protagonists, Red and Blue G, who are under the care of their Grandfather while their father, Brown G, is away treasure hunting. Their grandfather, Silver G, wakes them up and takes them to investigate some strange goings on at a nearby cave, which Brown G so happens to be involved with. After returning to returning home and saving their village from a mysterious fire, Red and Blue are joined by Rain, a girl with partial amnesia, and Ponga, a violin-playing monkey. The four heroes embark on a journey to find Brown G and get wrapped up in a confrontation with the recently awakened Dark Lord.

Treasure Hunter G offers a fairly recognizable tale of good vs. evil and relies heavily on JRPG tropes such as amnesia, sleeping terrors, "The Ancients", other worlds and imprisoned fairies/angels/spirits (etc.).

Gameplay

The general out of battle gameplay is like that of most RPGs in that characters move around the towns, dungeons and overworld interacting with certain objects and a wealth of NPCs.

The combat is turn-based and revolves around a grid system that dictates how many action points it takes to perform any given action, from moving to attacking. Like Chrono Trigger the encounters are not random as potential enemies are found either wandering around certain areas and won't attack unless the party gets too close, or they will ambush the party at certain points, forcing the player into combat. Also like Chrono Trigger a character receives experience points every time their attack hits an enemy, but the whole team receives experience points when the battle is over. Besides the standard attack and guard commands, there's also a throw command that allows one character to help another out of a tight spot by either throwing a healing/buff item at them or taking out their enemy with well thrown weapon or debuff item.

Characters

• Red G - The older, sensible and ultimately more powerful of the two G brothers. He is a slightly overpowered, sword-wielding, warrior class character. He is just and valiant and has the brute force to back it up, though that doesn't mean he is without intelligence, wit and a quick tongue.
• Blue G - He often cries and is usually the butt of jokes, especially if Red is the one making them, but Blue G still has strengths of his own. In battle his long-reaching spear requires good positioning to realize its potential and has a selection of traps where the player has to lure or force the enemy to trip them.
• Rain - A mystery girl with amnesia and hidden powers. She takes on the role of a healer character making her invaluable for survival. She also plays the part of Red's almost love interest.
• Ponga - He's a violin-playing monkey with black magic skills and an inability to say anything beyond "Ooki", though this doesn't stop conversing with Rain, his long time companion. He provides ranged heavy support in combat.