A look back at: Treasure of the Rudras

Well I uh...

You know, it's either this title or Rudra no Hihou, which is where I looked at the guides from. Regardless, if it wasn't for the Mantra system in this game, this would've been another boring and generic turn-based RPG. This magic enscribing system, honestly, you don't see it anywhere else as far as I can tell, and it's the kind of system that actually manages to work very well. Yes, you can enscribe endgame magic in the very beginning, but unless you have a hell of an MP pool, and especially if you're playing as Sion, you ain't gonna be able to cast these spells in combat for a while unless you level up. Then again, there are still some powerful mantras if you cheat and look at a guide, meaning that the strong spells only cost a measly 1 MP and can still cause enough pain.

And then I give credit where credit is due. It's often boring always being in control of one protagonist on the field, as I have clearly stated in my last blog post. And Treasure of the Rudras offers three protagonists to follow, allowing to switch at any time. And then it comes together at the final scenario where Dune is the apparent party leader, but by then I'm not complaining since the final scenario is your average boss rush before the final boss. Making matters much better asides from switching at any time is that the scenarios intertwine at least twice before they all come together, and there's no rivalries between any of the characters aside from what Dune and Cid sometimes do to Sion and Surlent. Well what I mean is that there's no infighting between the character parties.

Looking back at the main plots of this game, well there's only one that is actually interesting to some degree. Sion fighting in a tournament? Yep seen that one before, but it does have a nice plot twist. Not to mention the floating continent business afterwards. Captain Taurus, a noble knight and semi-father figure being an evil cultist all along? Sure, okay. Riza's whole deal with being Chosen? Purifying the lands, skies, and oceans? That's something I'm pretty sure people have seen before, although because other characters are doing other things while Riza's doing hers, it's a strong example of this Chosen business, since these other characters are of course wondering who is healing their planet. That and the start of the game and the fact that everything's bathed in warm colors as if there hadn't been a single iota of blue skies for days adds to the bleak atmosphere being cured.

Surlent's scenario seems boring at onset, since he's doing research with an old guy. Who plays a JRPG to do research? And then he actually dies. Surlent is an unfortunate hero in this game as his research not only leads to his death, but even worse problems when he's tricked by actual bad guys into getting sealed so they can zombify the aboveworld (although they only reach one town). Like any other hero who screws up, he at least sets things right eventually. Though the branching point on trading with Sion for treasures can result in an almost even worse fate for Surlent as well. Very nice touches there.

This game definitely has loads of characters, though not everyone is explored. I would like to see some potential romance blossoming, obviously between Garlyle and Riza, or perhaps Sion and Foxy to an extent as well. We also don't see much about Pipin and Lolo's travels before they join their respective parties. And Sork? He had just one cutscene owing to his past with Captain Taurus. So we really could've used more out of him. The jadebearers naturally get the most out of all of this. I personally wish the epilogue could've been done better in that regard, considering how the four all should've went home to their friends they left behind. I guess they do that? It's not really seen. Still though, at least Riza convinces Dune not to repeat bad history.

My thoughts on: Designated Heroes

You know my overall activity has horrifically waned now that I'm currently going through RPGs at the moment, as more than enough of my life is rather busy to really prevent me to write on a lot of things. So one thing came to mind, and that's the obvious fact that a great chunk of the JRPGs I've played always has that one designated hero, the one guy that cannot be dropped from the active party or perhaps cannot die in combat without a game over. I don't remember if this was on the grand list, but whether or not it is, I couldn't honestly care, since it's another common trope.

So yeah, that one character is always the hero, the chosen one, but what's relevant to this post is how he cannot officially be dropped from the active party. Why is it that I have to control just this one character on the field? Characters like Legend of Legaia's Vahn, as well as the famous Cloud and Squall. There are a few exceptions to this rule, like when you control Noa for the first time in LoL, or as Tifa and later Cid in FF7, or as practically anyone on a short time period in FF8's first two discs. Yet in those cases, you cannot drop the character you are playing as either. Like in the jail in FF8, your lead character in that case is Zell, who cannot be swapped (then again, this prison scene puts only a few characters in the jail until the rest of the group comes back, but Zell remains the leader until you at least get Squall back).

And then I wonder about navigation on the overworld and wonder, am I gonna get bored looking at the same character that basically encompasses the whole party? And I say yes. Games where you control just Cloud (or Tifa or Cid in their short stints as leader) or Ratix from Star Ocean on the world map with no other party members following isn't all that appealing. What about those games where the party members basically follow one another? Like in the Chrono games or the Breath of Fire games? I like these, but better these games since you can actually reorder them so certain characters are in front. Of course, this could be because of field abilities, like Breath of Fire and Wild Arms* games show. And that's awesome. I think the Phantasy Star games do this too, albeit without field abilities or nifty-ness, but you can reorder your party and they are even the "all in a row" instead of "everyone in one" type of deal.

But most games will likely have you with one character as your lead, regardless of the party setup. It's a bit boring to nitpick on such thing, but it's something I felt like venting about. This post probably wasn't worth it.

*well this one isn't the "all in a row" party setup, but you can change your lead character for the tools needed to do things on the field or dungeons, and that's pretty cool.

RPG: First name last name apex

If it isn't blatantly obvious to every single person who reads this blog, I've pretty much run out of ideas until I at least get to completing my next RPG. In the meantime, I have just been looking at that grand list and seeing just how accurate it can be. Well let's see: Good guys will only have first names, and bad guys will only have last names. Any bad guy who only has a first name will become a good guy at some point in the game. Good guys' last name may be mentioned in the manual but they will never be referred to in the story.

Well, I wanted to argue on the first name mechanic for good guys, because practically every Final Fantasy hero from 4 onwards has both a first and a last name, but it plays the cliche straight most of the time since the last name is not mentioned. I mean, where can you hear Harvey when referring to Cecil or Joanna Farell for Rosa. Heck, Rydia doesn't even have a last name. What about Strife? Never hear Cloud called that, and hey, villains usually refer to some characters only by last names, just watch how Harry Potter is always called Potter by villainous characters (or Snape in general) and Harry by good characters. I think the only Final Fantasy character to be referred by both first AND last name would be Irvine in Final Fantasy 8, but it's really only in one cutscene and doesn't even show for the rest of the game.

But the gray area of this particular cliche would have to be the bad guys with only last names. It's honestly hard to tell since many of the villains have either both a first or last name (Luca Blight and Graham Cray from the Suikoden series, Zieg Feld from Legend of Dragoon), or will just have one name where it can be hard to tell if it's a first or last name (Lavos, Loki, Ghaleon, Zophar, Indalecio, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia). Not a whole lot of games I know of pull off the bad guy with only last name straight, heck some of those villains tend to already have a title anyways, like Emperor Barbarossa from Suikoden, or the King of the same name from Valkyrie Profile (and on that note, I mention Loki and two villains from other Suikoden games, so it's not even consistent with the series they're in).

So not a lot of games I can think of pull this trope off fully. I'd say Brave Fencer Musashi might actually be the closest, since we do have a villain with only a last name (Flatski), as well as one with a first and last (Col. Capriccola, who turns out to be Jon) who switches sides. Although we do have members of Leader's Force who go by first names, then two other members of Thirstquencher which seem to have titles and last names. Plus there's Growlanser 2's Arieta and 3's Vincent and Orpheus, although the circumstances for those are all very different. Meanwhile, Gevas and possibly Wolfgang* in 2 and Clive, Randolf, and Zion in 3 definitely don't have last names, so for a series that has every playable and several non-playable characters with full names, it's quite good at pulling this off pretty well.

Eh, names in RPGs tend to be second nature and no one really pays much attention to the nitty gritty names most of the time, unless a plot twist naturally occurs. But still, names don't mean THAT much.

*He's mostly a villain in Growlanser 2, he never gets out of that phase at all and I'm pretty sure Wolfgang isn't a last name. Then again, since you can side with his more democratic ideals, it's hard to say.