Treasure Hunter G

Treasure Hunter G (トレジャーハンターG) 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.

Gameplay
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 gameplay uses a grid-based system for battles, along with visible enemy encounters. The game which is closest to the battle system style is Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, since they both use strategic turn-based systems which implement things like traps, ranged spells, and Action Points which control the number of actions in a turn.

Treasure Hunter G ' s battle system is very different from other games. You just walk around pressing A and this also costs a unit called "ACT". The more you move, the more you use ACT. Everything else is used by pressing A. It's similar to the video game Secret of Mana but without ACT. ACT usage depends on the Grid Level.

This increases when you progress through the game.

Another concept is similar to Shining Force. There are area-effect spells. This means you can use spells on a certain distance.

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 has to stop them!

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 finds "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 Sakimoto, 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.