Treasure of the Rudras - Squaresoft's last project for the SNES, appropriately played like a 'greatest hits' of their past experiments, assembling concepts not only from Final Fantasy (row-based sideview combat, personal subplots) but also from Live A Live (multiple routes tackled in almost any order, although this time reduced to four) and Trials of Mana (intersecting storylines). What makes this portfolio stand out is the Enscribe function; Ars Magica-like spellmaking achieved by entering names into the magic menu, their power, element and range determined by a combination of keywords learned from around the world. Combat - however, fails to exploit its potential, often resorting to type-matching during boss fights instead (i.e. cast the element opposite of whatever they're using while wearing the appropriate armor). In the meantime, a severe lack of unit/party-building options and lightweight versions of Square's usual merits (story beats, dialogue and humor) tend to expose their usual flaws (simplistic dungeons & progression). Gameplay marks a step forward in terms of animations & pacing, and their town designs remain top-notch, but overall this is unusually conventional by their standards, trying in vain to impose a meaningful identity despite 30 hours of play.
Muy buenas ideas ejecutadas de forma regular. Lo del sistema de Mantras está bien hasta que lo rompes, entonces es tirar de los que ya tienes y pasar por el slog de explorar la historia tres veces, que, si bien no se sienten repetitivas entre ellas, se sienten repetitivas consigo mismas.
Mehhh... Treasure of the Rudras starts out fine but it just kinda hits the same snag as a lot of RPGs of this time. The mantra system is cool, the presentation is great the story being split between three characters is... probably cool but I focused on Surlent's story and kinda got bored of it (apparently a lot of events in it only make sense if you play Sion's first but that just makes me wonder why you'd let me play the campaign in any order).
My issue with Treasure of the Rudras is the same as FFV, it's just dungeons after dungeon without really anything new introduced to the gameplay or story, just aimless wandering through them hoping that the core combat is somehow strong enough to carry the game for that long (it isn't).
Typically I always try to only be playing one game at a time but I kinda got bored of Rudra, started some other game with the intention of it just being a break to refresh myself, barely ever came back to it, today I just decided to "officially" drop it.
Also apparently you can bug out the game if you use save states to play it, and there's a glitch where you can softlock yourself which I might have done? So uh, I dunno, maybe a good thing that I dropped the game.
My issue with Treasure of the Rudras is the same as FFV, it's just dungeons after dungeon without really anything new introduced to the gameplay or story, just aimless wandering through them hoping that the core combat is somehow strong enough to carry the game for that long (it isn't).
Typically I always try to only be playing one game at a time but I kinda got bored of Rudra, started some other game with the intention of it just being a break to refresh myself, barely ever came back to it, today I just decided to "officially" drop it.
Also apparently you can bug out the game if you use save states to play it, and there's a glitch where you can softlock yourself which I might have done? So uh, I dunno, maybe a good thing that I dropped the game.
Visually Treasures of Rudra is easily one of the most impressive games on the system. The animations and spritework done on this game are honestly incredible. One of the very last squaresoft games to release on the SFC, it’s no surprise how much of a step up in quality the game is compared to past releases. The story is centered around 3 characters you play as within a span of 15 days in hopes you can prevent the end of the world within that timeframe. Each character will cross paths with the each other and by experiencing each story you’ll get different perspectives on the world and the grand narrative as a whole. This game features an extremely unique and creative magic system in the form of typing words. Any word can be a spell and you power them up by finding suffix’s throughout your journey while also finding new ones via chests, NPCs, bars, or copying an enemy/boss’s. The soundtrack unsurprisingly is filled with a ton of rememberable bangers and aside from the unique magic system the game is filled with deep mechanics you can play around with.
'Treasure of the Rudras' corre con la vitola de ser "el último gran RPG que desarrolló Square en SNES", por lo que se le presuponen muchas cosas que vienen marca de la casa. Ambición descontrolada, virtuosidad técnica, parafernalia argumental o malévolo diseño de niveles propio de FF sobrevalorados. Algo de eso tiene en su ADN, pero lo cierto es que en 1996, con los principales equipos desplazados a PlayStation y el desarrollo 3D, 'Treasure of the Rudras' se permitió mucha menos pretensión con el equipo C al cargo (o el D, o quizá de menor rango aún). Gráficamente está bastante chulo, pero no aporta nada nuevo que no se hubiese visto en la consola hasta la fecha. Su planteamiento y estética hindú son atractivas e inofensivas, pasables, pero nada superlativas. Su guion es simple y su ejecución, principalmente lineal. Pero no molesta.
¿Por qué lo tengo tan bien valorado? Principalmente por su sistema de mantras, en el que el jugador debe escribir el nombre de sus magias, cuyo efecto en combate depende su morfología. Es un sistema fascinante porque, en primera instancia, produce resultados aparentemente disparatados y aleatorios. Escribir 'BARRIGUITAS' y que aparezca la palabra en pantalla aplastando a los rivales. Escribir 'MRAJOY' y que el juego no sepa quién es. Pero a medida que descubres las propiedades de cada partícula o sílaba, el sistema se descubre como un arma por pulir, destinada a ser afilada tras experimentar con el lenguaje y comparar resultados hasta encontrar la palabra idónea para tus fines. Y resulta muy entretenido hacerlo.
Por ejemplo, la partícula 'IG' produce un hechizo de fuego con un valor de daño determinado. Si esta partícula viene acompañada por el sufijo 'NA', el hechizo pasa a atacar a todos los enemigos del escenario consumiendo 2PM más. Si le añades el prefijo 'LUC' a la ecuación, su potencia es mucho mayor a cambio de 3PM más. Ahora, si lo juntas todo es posible que funcione como has concebido, o puede que no, tal son los azares de la gramática y el reconocimiento de patrones que emplea el juego. 'LUCIGNA' puede que funcione peor que 'LUCIGMEL' o 'NELNA', pero no lo sabes. O quizá esas mismas extensiones no funcionen correctamente con otras partículas elementales.
Como si un programador se tratase, la experimentación nos buscar a probar fórmulas distintas buscando: 1) el hechizo más poderoso, 2) el hechizo más óptimo de PM, o 3) la mejor combinación posible entre 1 y 2. Podrías verlo como un Zachtronics primitivo y no irías desencaminado. Los mantras están escondidos por todos lados: entre los diálogos de los aldeanos, escondidos en el interior de un cofre, o en los combates, recitados por tus propios enemigos esperando a que un mago azul se los devuelva. El juego va introduciendo nuevos estímulos en cada una de sus 3 rutas principales, y aunque cada vez que inicies tendrás la tabula rasa, puedes reutilizar el vocabulario de otras partidas para romper el sistema en tu beneficio. El juego, encantado.
Hay un factor fortuito que hace la investigación más fascinante si cabe. La excelente fan-traducción al inglés de Aeon Genesis (empleada como base para el resto de idiomas) cambió drásticamente la escritura de mantras respecto a la versión japonesa, que usaba katakana (equivalente a 2-3 letras cada uno) para un límite de 6 caracteres. Con la fan-traducción, los katakana fueron sustituidos por letras romanas y un límite de 12 caracteres, lo que en cierta medida, eleva de manera exponencial el número de casos posibles, y dificulta la elaboración de buenos mantras al no disponer de tanto espacio para trasladar directamente la implementación original. No obstante, al ser más ofuscado también tiene mayor margen de optimización, y también de producir sorpresas por el camino.
Así pues, las ~40h que lleva completar todas las rutas de 'Treasure of the Rudras' no se perciben como muy repetitivas, a pesar de su progresión grindy y lineal (aunque puedes visitar áreas y mazmorras opcionales de otras rutas). Su narrativa épica y su camuflada epopeya de los 4 Guerreros de la Luz (tan manida por Square) no rompen demasiado el ritmo, no se toman demasiado en serio ni resultan melodramáticas. Es simplemente, un juego agradable de jugar, donde el mayor sueño es llegar al endgame con mantras tochos e impronunciables cual '¡CHÚPATE ESA, TERREMOTO!'. Y con música cañera.
¿Por qué lo tengo tan bien valorado? Principalmente por su sistema de mantras, en el que el jugador debe escribir el nombre de sus magias, cuyo efecto en combate depende su morfología. Es un sistema fascinante porque, en primera instancia, produce resultados aparentemente disparatados y aleatorios. Escribir 'BARRIGUITAS' y que aparezca la palabra en pantalla aplastando a los rivales. Escribir 'MRAJOY' y que el juego no sepa quién es. Pero a medida que descubres las propiedades de cada partícula o sílaba, el sistema se descubre como un arma por pulir, destinada a ser afilada tras experimentar con el lenguaje y comparar resultados hasta encontrar la palabra idónea para tus fines. Y resulta muy entretenido hacerlo.
Por ejemplo, la partícula 'IG' produce un hechizo de fuego con un valor de daño determinado. Si esta partícula viene acompañada por el sufijo 'NA', el hechizo pasa a atacar a todos los enemigos del escenario consumiendo 2PM más. Si le añades el prefijo 'LUC' a la ecuación, su potencia es mucho mayor a cambio de 3PM más. Ahora, si lo juntas todo es posible que funcione como has concebido, o puede que no, tal son los azares de la gramática y el reconocimiento de patrones que emplea el juego. 'LUCIGNA' puede que funcione peor que 'LUCIGMEL' o 'NELNA', pero no lo sabes. O quizá esas mismas extensiones no funcionen correctamente con otras partículas elementales.
Como si un programador se tratase, la experimentación nos buscar a probar fórmulas distintas buscando: 1) el hechizo más poderoso, 2) el hechizo más óptimo de PM, o 3) la mejor combinación posible entre 1 y 2. Podrías verlo como un Zachtronics primitivo y no irías desencaminado. Los mantras están escondidos por todos lados: entre los diálogos de los aldeanos, escondidos en el interior de un cofre, o en los combates, recitados por tus propios enemigos esperando a que un mago azul se los devuelva. El juego va introduciendo nuevos estímulos en cada una de sus 3 rutas principales, y aunque cada vez que inicies tendrás la tabula rasa, puedes reutilizar el vocabulario de otras partidas para romper el sistema en tu beneficio. El juego, encantado.
Hay un factor fortuito que hace la investigación más fascinante si cabe. La excelente fan-traducción al inglés de Aeon Genesis (empleada como base para el resto de idiomas) cambió drásticamente la escritura de mantras respecto a la versión japonesa, que usaba katakana (equivalente a 2-3 letras cada uno) para un límite de 6 caracteres. Con la fan-traducción, los katakana fueron sustituidos por letras romanas y un límite de 12 caracteres, lo que en cierta medida, eleva de manera exponencial el número de casos posibles, y dificulta la elaboración de buenos mantras al no disponer de tanto espacio para trasladar directamente la implementación original. No obstante, al ser más ofuscado también tiene mayor margen de optimización, y también de producir sorpresas por el camino.
Así pues, las ~40h que lleva completar todas las rutas de 'Treasure of the Rudras' no se perciben como muy repetitivas, a pesar de su progresión grindy y lineal (aunque puedes visitar áreas y mazmorras opcionales de otras rutas). Su narrativa épica y su camuflada epopeya de los 4 Guerreros de la Luz (tan manida por Square) no rompen demasiado el ritmo, no se toman demasiado en serio ni resultan melodramáticas. Es simplemente, un juego agradable de jugar, donde el mayor sueño es llegar al endgame con mantras tochos e impronunciables cual '¡CHÚPATE ESA, TERREMOTO!'. Y con música cañera.
A fine Final Fantasy style RPG by Square near the end of the generation. The graphics reflect this and are pretty impressive. The music is phenomenal, thanks to Ryuji Sasai, who also worked on Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. My only real issue is the magic system, which was weird, but not in a good way.
It's a visually beautiful game and probably the best looking one on the console... however this game is just really boring.
The gameplay becomes very tedious when it has you constantly backtracking through levels and fighting enemies that are much lower than your own, and it doesn't help that there's zero puzzles to break up the gameplay. Separately, while I like the games gimmick, the spell naming shit that creates better spells, it felt like more could have been done. A remake would do this game a great service because the story and characters from what I remember aren't that bad. The soundtrack isn’t very memorable either which is a shame considering it’s a Square game.
The gameplay becomes very tedious when it has you constantly backtracking through levels and fighting enemies that are much lower than your own, and it doesn't help that there's zero puzzles to break up the gameplay. Separately, while I like the games gimmick, the spell naming shit that creates better spells, it felt like more could have been done. A remake would do this game a great service because the story and characters from what I remember aren't that bad. The soundtrack isn’t very memorable either which is a shame considering it’s a Square game.
Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8
Treasure of the Rudras was the first and last game by director Keita Amamiya, responsible for the Kamen Rider series, as well as Zeiram and some other things. Popular belief holds that Amamiya was fired by Squaresoft for making such a bad game. I find this very difficult to believe. I mean, it's a pretty decent game, for one thing, and I think that if a game really was that bad, and it actually was the fault of the director, it probably wouldn't have gotten, you know, released. Anyways.
Rudra here was one of Squaresoft's last releases for the Super Famicom, and looks very much like every other post-FFVI RPG of Square's. The music is very catchy, having been done by the same guy who composed the soundtracks for all the Gameboy SaGa games. Hell, some of the tracks are downright fantastic. Naturally, it's Rudra's graphical and musical excellence (and the simple fact that it's a Japan-only Squaresoft game) that have propelled it to “underrated gem” status.
There's three chapters, involving three different people, that can be played in any order, and you can stop one and start another one as easily as hitting Reset (and possibly saving beforehand). In the fourth chapter, all three characters band together, and go fight the ultimate evil or something. This system works out to be pretty neat, and would probably in today's gaming world be called the “Matching Cool Encounter System” or something crazy like that. As an early example, if you clear the air of toxins in one chapter, the characters in the other chapters will be amazed at how the sky suddenly turns blue and bright and clear. It really gives you a sense of three people doing stuff all at the same time. It seems like lots of developers now are using the “play-as-multiple-people” shtick nowadays, but not put to such good use.
The real jewel of the game though, at least to most people, is the game's magic system. It's all based on words; meaning, enscribe a word, any word you want, and pow it's a magic spell. There's some order to it all, like IG is a basic fire spell, and LEF is your healing magic, and you can attach various prefixes and suffixes to those words to make them more powerful or target multiple enemies and such. The further along you travel, the more powerful suffixes you can learn, and you can see what spells your enemies cast and try them out yourself. Pretty neat, huh? The problem is, the magic system the way it is, every single spell is available to you from the second you start playing; all you need to know is the right word. So you can go look at a FAQ or type in random things and immediately rock your enemies’ faces, with no limit to your power other than your Max MP. It also seems like the developers were prepared for this, as the game (especially the bosses) are bastard hard. If you don't know what you're doing, you will die quickly and often. This might not be a problem if you know exactly what to do, but it seems like the game discourages fair play, while (in contradiction) encouraging straight-up trial-and-error. Personally, I've never been big on the whole “die repeatedly while learning from your mistakes” way of beating bosses.
Gideon Zhi mentions more than once that despite the graphical similarities, this game is definitely not Final Fantasy VI, in that you can't just walk through the game and expect to be prepared for anything. But is that necessarily a good thing?
Treasure of the Rudras was the first and last game by director Keita Amamiya, responsible for the Kamen Rider series, as well as Zeiram and some other things. Popular belief holds that Amamiya was fired by Squaresoft for making such a bad game. I find this very difficult to believe. I mean, it's a pretty decent game, for one thing, and I think that if a game really was that bad, and it actually was the fault of the director, it probably wouldn't have gotten, you know, released. Anyways.
Rudra here was one of Squaresoft's last releases for the Super Famicom, and looks very much like every other post-FFVI RPG of Square's. The music is very catchy, having been done by the same guy who composed the soundtracks for all the Gameboy SaGa games. Hell, some of the tracks are downright fantastic. Naturally, it's Rudra's graphical and musical excellence (and the simple fact that it's a Japan-only Squaresoft game) that have propelled it to “underrated gem” status.
There's three chapters, involving three different people, that can be played in any order, and you can stop one and start another one as easily as hitting Reset (and possibly saving beforehand). In the fourth chapter, all three characters band together, and go fight the ultimate evil or something. This system works out to be pretty neat, and would probably in today's gaming world be called the “Matching Cool Encounter System” or something crazy like that. As an early example, if you clear the air of toxins in one chapter, the characters in the other chapters will be amazed at how the sky suddenly turns blue and bright and clear. It really gives you a sense of three people doing stuff all at the same time. It seems like lots of developers now are using the “play-as-multiple-people” shtick nowadays, but not put to such good use.
The real jewel of the game though, at least to most people, is the game's magic system. It's all based on words; meaning, enscribe a word, any word you want, and pow it's a magic spell. There's some order to it all, like IG is a basic fire spell, and LEF is your healing magic, and you can attach various prefixes and suffixes to those words to make them more powerful or target multiple enemies and such. The further along you travel, the more powerful suffixes you can learn, and you can see what spells your enemies cast and try them out yourself. Pretty neat, huh? The problem is, the magic system the way it is, every single spell is available to you from the second you start playing; all you need to know is the right word. So you can go look at a FAQ or type in random things and immediately rock your enemies’ faces, with no limit to your power other than your Max MP. It also seems like the developers were prepared for this, as the game (especially the bosses) are bastard hard. If you don't know what you're doing, you will die quickly and often. This might not be a problem if you know exactly what to do, but it seems like the game discourages fair play, while (in contradiction) encouraging straight-up trial-and-error. Personally, I've never been big on the whole “die repeatedly while learning from your mistakes” way of beating bosses.
Gideon Zhi mentions more than once that despite the graphical similarities, this game is definitely not Final Fantasy VI, in that you can't just walk through the game and expect to be prepared for anything. But is that necessarily a good thing?
As one of the last Squaresoft games on the SFC, they go all out with an incredible spritework and animation.
This is just me talking out of my ass but I believe Octopath Traveler took inspiration in this game with how it's structured. You get to play with 3 main characters and those 3 main characters cross paths with each other as you get to see the story from different perspectives.
What differentiates this game from the others is the magic system, or in this case, the Mantra System. This mantra system gives you the liberty of creating the magic spells you want my entering up to six characters. Of course, as this was played with a fan translation, it was probably a different experience if you play the game in japanese.
Special mention goes the incredible OST, with a lot of diverse tracks and bangers, this a game that makes me sad it was never localized. Maybe one day.
This is just me talking out of my ass but I believe Octopath Traveler took inspiration in this game with how it's structured. You get to play with 3 main characters and those 3 main characters cross paths with each other as you get to see the story from different perspectives.
What differentiates this game from the others is the magic system, or in this case, the Mantra System. This mantra system gives you the liberty of creating the magic spells you want my entering up to six characters. Of course, as this was played with a fan translation, it was probably a different experience if you play the game in japanese.
Special mention goes the incredible OST, with a lot of diverse tracks and bangers, this a game that makes me sad it was never localized. Maybe one day.
Fun old school, but the magic system is kinda busted. What started as a fun idea doesn't devolves into rather silly book keeping by the end as you manage all the spell sheets and have to check your notes on prefix and suffix. Still, it did something really cool and unique in the space (especially at the time) and I appreciate the game for it. I'm also a sucker for environmentally conscious stories.
I'd wish it would get the live a live hd treatment where they tune up a couple of those rough edges and the game would really shine.
I'd wish it would get the live a live hd treatment where they tune up a couple of those rough edges and the game would really shine.
A really late Hindu inspired SNES jrpg from Square we never got in English. Choose from three perspectives with 16 days until humanity is wiped out. Each character has their own party and mission to accomplish, and occasionally you see the others and what world changing events they cause from each perspective. Swap between each campaign when you want or keep up momentum on one. The game never asks you to switch perspectives mid campaign, though little differences can happen in each campaign depending who does what when, but usually nothing major.
The magic is a very cool password like system. Spells can be found through dialogue, chests, or just copying down enemies attack names. Mix and match suffixes and prefixes til you get a low cost, High damage attack that hits everyone. Use what spells you find in one campaign and type them in at the start of another for an advantage. Ethers are cheap and every character is capable of dealing out magic. Keep a pen and paper if you want to get the most out of it. Or when the going gets really tough and you need every powerful spell and buff to get through, Google.
Unfortunately problems started to really set in late game. It's a big world with a high encounter rate and the game likes to ask you to go back and forth. There's no airship for these sections and you might have to walk through previous dungeons, fields, towns, boats, and one way teleporters to get from point a to b. And then you'll be sent on your way again after a short talk. Unless you have a good memory on how or where you'll probably be looking at a guide often as there's only a handful of places to check a map, and they aren't very helpful.
The story also gets hard to follow. With many god-like beings around it's hard to remember the general heirarchy and who did what especially when they're filling multiple roles within the story. Add in the multiple perspectives whether you're playing one at a time or rotating it's hard to remember what the goals, and villains are.
Lastly, I wasn't able to unlock the final stretch of the game. Theres no feedback or star on each character when you complete them,and you can't save your game. Though Google assured me that if I didn't rely on save states the final portion would unlock, I got nothing upon defeating all three campaigns. I can only redo the dungeons and hope it triggers.
Treasure of the Rudras was an interesting experience and feels like one if the most ambitious games of the SNES. Some real problems do occur, but the good and bad together convince me this game needs to be on the list for games that get a proper Global release or remake that fixes it and makes it the all time great it could or should have been.
The magic is a very cool password like system. Spells can be found through dialogue, chests, or just copying down enemies attack names. Mix and match suffixes and prefixes til you get a low cost, High damage attack that hits everyone. Use what spells you find in one campaign and type them in at the start of another for an advantage. Ethers are cheap and every character is capable of dealing out magic. Keep a pen and paper if you want to get the most out of it. Or when the going gets really tough and you need every powerful spell and buff to get through, Google.
Unfortunately problems started to really set in late game. It's a big world with a high encounter rate and the game likes to ask you to go back and forth. There's no airship for these sections and you might have to walk through previous dungeons, fields, towns, boats, and one way teleporters to get from point a to b. And then you'll be sent on your way again after a short talk. Unless you have a good memory on how or where you'll probably be looking at a guide often as there's only a handful of places to check a map, and they aren't very helpful.
The story also gets hard to follow. With many god-like beings around it's hard to remember the general heirarchy and who did what especially when they're filling multiple roles within the story. Add in the multiple perspectives whether you're playing one at a time or rotating it's hard to remember what the goals, and villains are.
Lastly, I wasn't able to unlock the final stretch of the game. Theres no feedback or star on each character when you complete them,and you can't save your game. Though Google assured me that if I didn't rely on save states the final portion would unlock, I got nothing upon defeating all three campaigns. I can only redo the dungeons and hope it triggers.
Treasure of the Rudras was an interesting experience and feels like one if the most ambitious games of the SNES. Some real problems do occur, but the good and bad together convince me this game needs to be on the list for games that get a proper Global release or remake that fixes it and makes it the all time great it could or should have been.