Video Game / Treasure Hunter G

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"All of the world is an adventure."

These were the words of the greatest treasure hunter, Gamrius VI.

The last game ever released for a Nintendo console by Squaresoft before merging with Enix (and developed by Sting Entertainment), Treasure Hunter G is a 1996 Turn-Based Strategy that few people know because it was never released outside Japan. Despite its obscurity, the game had a surprisingly high budget with both an excellent soundtrack and early Mode 7 3D graphics which allowed for claymation-esque sprites that actually looked better than many early PS1 games.

The story is simple: Our heroes are two brothers (Red and Blue), a girl (Rain) and a monkey (Ponga), who have to stop the nefarious Dark Lord from resurrecting Bone Dino because... something! The game's main appeal comes from its battle system, which combines Turn-Based Combat with a certain level of strategy, and unique implementation of items and trap spells.

Incidentally, the game has also been made available for download on the Wii's Virtual Console service... but once again, only in Japan. That's right, No Download for You.

Tropes Featured:

• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Averted. The cost of items fluctuates depending on how rare they would be in that area. For example, items from the forest will be much more expensive in castle cities to buy or sell. This is actually how you make money in the game, since enemies don't drop cash upon defeat: Buy items where they're cheap (or find them in dungeons) and sell them where they are expensive.
• All Myths Are True: As J-Elf can attest to after stealing the Dark Crown and unknowingly undoing the seal that was put in it, the Dark Lord story was true all along.
• Funny Animal: The animals in the Neko Forest (the Atlanteans).
• Booby Trap: Blue's specialty. A few enemies use them as well.
• Came Back Wrong: Partway through the final battle, Bone Dino is resurrected... but thanks to Rain being mistakenly sealed in a Crystal Prison instead of Ponga, who's revealed to be the last guardian fairy in disguise, its resurrection turns out incomplete, making its skin melt off almost immediately. It's weakened enough in this state to be harmed by regular weapons once Dark Lord goes down.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Dark Lord; his name is Dark Lord.
• Colourful Theme Naming: Red and Blue's family also includes their father, Brown-G., and their grandfather, Silver-G.
• Crystal Prison: Dark Lord attempts to seal the six guardian fairies using these. It does not prevent them from possession or using Exposition Beam, though.
• Disappeared Dad: Brown-G is generally considered a deadbeat due to spending all of his time exploring the world while his kids are raised by their grandfather.
• Doomed Hometown: Sort of; the town gets burnt down for no particular reason, but the villagers start repairing it later. Besides, they were already going to leave anyway, although the town-burning definitely clinched it for them.
• Dub Name Change: The Fan Translation altered a few names from the original. Some are more noticeable than others.
  • "G. Red" became "Red-G.", swapping the position of the name with the surname and adding a dash before the G. The same applies to the rest of the G. family.
  • "Turtle Samurai" became "Leonardo", a Shout-Out to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • "J. Red" became "J-Elf", which made the joke about Leonardo mistaking Red's identity with his no longer make as much sense.
  • Perhaps most bafflingly of all, the Animalistic Abomination that Dark Lord is trying to resurrect went from "Jörmungandr" to freaking "Bone Dino", which has the side effect of making its Religious and Mythological Theme Naming-abiding name be Lost in Translation.
• Establishing Character Moment: Blue enters crying over a nightmare. Later revealed that he was Dreaming of Things to Come.
• Evil Is Bigger: Outside of the Atlantean Fairy, the villains are always much larger than the good guys. Dark Lord in particular is huuuuuuge, positively towering over even his already larger-than-normal henchmen!
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Ponga uses this kind of magic.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Fan translation exclusive: "Bone Dino"? Really, Dark Lord?
• Friend to All Living Things: Rain, even going so far as to be able to speak with plants and animals.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Not just the bosses but quite a few random encounters as well. Where are all those enemies hiding?
• Guide Dang It!: Quite a few puzzles. For instance, one features a carving of a humanoid with instructions to "tickle" his feet and then tap him on the shoulder. What you actually have to do is examine the foot, then jump through a hole for no apparent reason, then touch his hand. A faulty translation is to blame.
• Insistent Terminology: The world's last mad scientist, Dr. Hello!
• Lilliputians: The Carbukkles in Carbukkle Island. They're about the same size as the various bee enemies found throughout the game.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The weakest monster in the game is a threat to Lilliputians.
• Old Soldier: Silver-G. kicks far more ass than you at the beginning of the game.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the original: G. Red (Red-G) and J. Red (J-Elf).
• One-Winged Angel:
  • Dark Lord. More like an inverted Heroic Second Wind, since he did this by The Power of Love.
  • Fenril, one of the Dark Lord's henchmen, turns into a hulking werewolf with lightning powers once his HP is depleted.
• Human All Along: Or rather, Fairy All Along. Ponga was a fairy in disguise this entire time, something that's only revealed during the second-to-last fight.
• Post-Final Boss: Bone Dino, both from a gameplay and story standpoint. Dark Lord is for all intents and purposes the real Final Boss, despite not being the last enemy fought. Unlike Bone Dino, Dark Lord is an actual character, and after he's killed, there's still the Animalistic Abomination left to deal with, who's little more than his Right-Hand Attack Dog. Despite it being level 99 and being able to hit the entire party from anywhere in the field, it puts up a considerably weaker fight than Dark Lord (due to the fact it Came Back Wrong): it has pitiful defense, its sole method of dealing damage is a Breath Weapon attack that deals below average damage for that point in the game, and it's very slow, meaning it'll take several player turns before it gets another chance to attack. The only reason it's fought directly at all is so the story can avert No Ontological Inertia.
• Plot Coupon That Does Something: Each of the OPARTS has a special effect when used in battle.
• Point of No Return:
  • It's impossible to go back to any previous island as soon as you reach the next one.
  • There's a nasty one as well: As soon as you enter Stonehenge in the last island, you'll be unable to return, with there also being no shops or inns beyond that point.
• Pre-existing Encounters: Much like Chrono Trigger, there are no Random Encounters in The Overworld, and all enemies in areas that have them always spawn in the same place every time. Now, whether the encounters are visible before you run into them or not is a different story.
• Random Events Plot: Due to the amount of Aborted Arcs present, most things just sorta happen for no real reason besides getting you moving along to the next area no matter what.
• Red Herring: Rain's design and color scheme bearing a resemblance to those of the guardian fairies, plus the fact that she specializes in White Magic, which uses them as their motif, would seem to imply she's one in disguise, right? Dark Lord certainly thought so, at least, and it proved to be his downfall. Ponga is the one who's actually the last guardian fairy, with nothing but the fact that it can inexplicably cast Fire, Ice, Lightning magic being a hint of its true nature.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Dark Lord's lackeys are named after different deities in Norse mythology, like the Starter Villain Hel.
• Rewarding Vandalism: One of the game's most notable aspects. From breaking pots to punching out plants, you are rewarded with various things, including but not limited to: accessories, armors, boots, consumable items, Giv (the game's currency), status increasing items, weapons, and monster encounters.
• Royally Screwed Up: Queen Charlene cannot believe that her son is dead.
• Sad Battle Music:
  • Dark Lord's first form is set to "A Former Kagonarl", a chorus-heavy track that is both melancholic and oppressive, fitting the near hopeless situation of the Kid Heroes going up against the most powerful evil in the world, surrounded by an army of monsters, all while Rain, being mistaken for the final fairy, is stuck in a Crystal Prison, unable to do anything but watch them.
  • Bone Dino's fight is set to "Emperor of Balladry", an emotional track that perfectly pulls off the "victory lap" feeling that is dealing with the resurrected Animalistic Abomination before it has a chance to do much damage to the world.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Dark Lord.
• Talking Animal: The whale and the Turtle Samurai.
• Teleport Spam: Dark Lord's first form loves to teleport away from you if you get within melee range.
• The Stinger: The post-credits scene has Leonardo doing a Fake-Out Fade-Out, asking where the darkness surrounding him is coming from.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Dark Tower, located at the top of the World Tree.