Treasure of the Rudras
Treasure of the Rudras is a Squaresoft RPG for the Super Nintendo, released in Japan in 1996. Its Japanese name is Rudora no Hihou (or Rudra no Hihou). Somewhere around 1998, video game emulation and fan translated video games dramatically grew in popularity. Word quickly spread of all the awesome Squaresoft RPGs that were never released in the US. What followed was an eruption of intense hype from RPG fans; they tried, begged fan-based translation groups to translate them. Treasure of the Rudras was one of these games included in the "OMG YOU MUST TRANSLATE IT" category. Unfortunately, the idea to translate Treasure of the Rudras was haunted by a hindering cloud: a bad reputation. Supposedly, RPG fans who knew Japanese played through the game and branded the storyline as terrible, concluding that translating Treasure of the Rudras was a complete waste of time. Another reason behind the flaming was because Treasure of the Rudras was really popular due to it being a Squaresoft RPG with incredible graphics. 'Hardcore' RPG fans tend to hate games that they consider to be too popular, and consider people who like those games 'stupid newbs'. This hindered prospective hackers from working on Treasure of the Rudras. To make matters worse, hackers who tried to translate Treasure of the Rudras gave up because they were unable to crack the mantra system. So for years Treasure of the Rudras was pushed aside and ignored. Those who brought the game up in emulation forums were violently flamed, just for showing interest for 'yet another over-rated Squaresoft RPG'. Those who hadn't even played the game believed the bad things they heard about it, and further supported its bad reputation, further hindering prospective hackers from it. Around 2000, RPG fans rejoiced as they heard the news that J2e Translations (the group responsible for the FF4j translation) announced that they were going to start working on translating Treasure of the Rudras! And then J2e Translations eventually shut down and took all their translations with them. RPG fans mourned the loss, but continued to persist for its translation, and continued to get flamed when mentioning the game in emulation forums. Then... years later... when those who yearned for Treasure of the Rudras had given up all hope... the most active translation group, Aeon Genesis Translations, announced their secret translation project: the translation of Treasure of the Rudras! In July of 2003, RPG fans cried tears of joy when the almighty Gideon Zhi of Aeon Genesis Translations announced their completion of the Treasure of the Rudras English project. Here's my attempt to illustrate the moment when I first heard about it. So that's the history of Treasure of the Rudras. I bothered to point out the details because I feel it's important for you to know that Treasure of the Rudras' English translation was highly anticipated for years. As for the game itself, it has an incredible feature that no other RPG has, which is the ability to create your spells (or rather, 'mantras' as the game calls it). Just type in any word and it will create a mantra. Literally!
Long ago, when the world was yet blanketed in chaos, it is said the Heavens gave order to the chaos. That the Heavens bestowed great power upon the Earth and brought unto it prosperity. Life on Earth was born. Those with great intelligence, the holy race of the Danans. Controlling the seas, the Mermaids. Proud, but arrogant, the Reptiles. And possessing incredible strength, the Giants. However, they did not have the Heaven's favor. And, in time, they disappeared. Then, the Heavens gave birth once again. Life, 'tis said, flourished anew.
Unlike other RPGs, having the proper element-aligned weapons/armor/accessories is VERY important in Treasure of the Rudras. It can dramatically effect your outcome in boss battles. Make sure to save before boss battles so you can start over with the proper equipment, because you won't know what a boss attacks with until you fight 'em (unless you look through a walkthrough beforehand). You'll easily last through most of the game if you always have at least one screen full of general elemental mantras (the mantra list is made up of 4 screens). I have the general mantras listed in my mantra guide. Don't use strong mantras immediately! They'll needlessly suck away your MP. You should gradually add stronger mantras as you progress through the game. And take your time! Days pass by -only- when you accomplish specific event(s).
You must play it!! Treasure of the Rudras kicks so much ass! Whoever said the storyline sucks must be a disgustingly picky version. The storyline rules! I find it very exciting and interesting. Three groups of people learn that the world will end soon so they go off to try and prevent the chaos from happening. I think Treasure of the Rudras has -the- most impressive-looking bosses out of any SNES RPG. Even many of the random battle enemies look awesome. All the enemies/bosses are fully animated the with same technique used in Super Mario RPG. All your characters are fully animated and they each have their own unique animations for specific moves like attacking and casting spells. The soundtrack is great! There are several songs that I like to listen to all the time I feel like opening up the SPC soundtrack. My only complaint is that some points in the game seem too repetitive (go through a dungeon, fight a boss, go through a dungeon, fight a boss, etc.). And don't play Treasure of the Rudras expecting it to be exactly like Final Fantasy 6! Its mantra system makes it a very different game.
Dual Orb 2
History
Dual Orb 2 is an RPG by I'Max, released for the Super Nintendo in Japan in 1994. The unofficial English translation was released in December of 2002 by Nightcrawler's Translation Corporation. Dual Orb 1 also came out for the SNES, but only part 2 is available in English. Toward the right is Dual Orb 2's box.
Prelude Story
Two scientists have lead the world into a prosperous utopia of advanced technology and science. Their quest for knowledge lead them to an orb of infinite power. One of the scientists got consumed by greed and wanted to take over the world with the orb's power. The **cientist managed to defeat the evil scientist at the darkest hour of his wrath. The world was left in ruin, but humanity survived and continued to prosper. All that was left from the days of old is a handful of ruins. Decades later, an evil, power-hungry empire managed to revive the evil scientist. What will become of the present day world now that he has returned? The fate of humanity is left in the hands of a child born from... the heavens?
Battle System
It's a typical turn-based rpg. The only thing that stands out is the weapon system. There are very few weapons in Dual Orb 2; each character can only equip like two or three different weapons throughout the whole game. But there's more to it! Weapons have levels and can be upgraded to higher levels which increase its power. You need to go to a town's local blacksmith in order to do a weapon upgrade (it's a little expensive). When you upgrade a weapon up to level 20, it turns into a super weapon with its own nifty special attack.
Walkthrough
If you ever get stuck, just go to the Pub and talk to everyone. I'm serious! That's ALL you need to do. Everything in Dual Orb 2 revolves around the Pubs. =P Finding out what to do next is so easy. If you really really need a walkthrough then go to the Dual Orb 2 section at Gamefaqs.
My Opinion
Woah... Dual Orb 2... is... awesome! It's such a traditional rpg. The graphics are similar to Breath of Fire's quality. The character sprites are so cute! ^_^ The battles are almost Playstation quality! The battles' backgrounds are some of the best graphics I've seen on the SNES. However, spell/item animations are almost as ghetto-fabulous as SNES Magic Knight Rayearth. There's quite a variety of enemies that you encounter, heh. In one cave, you battle against laptops and 4-wheeler Jeeps. The soundtrack is great! My favorite is the cave theme. The only thing that sucks about the songs is that they're fairly long, and the random battle encounters are quite frequent. So, most of the time, you'll only be hearing the first couple seconds of every song. Ah, and the storyline is excellent! It's unexpectedly serious and emotional. And get ready for a challenge, because most of the boss battles are insanely hard! Overall, Dual Orb 2 isn't up there with FFVI or Chrono Trigger, but it's definitely worth playing if you're an SNES RPG fan. Nightcrawler did a superb job with the English translation. Usually translation projects consist of several people, but Dual Orb 2's project was pretty much just Nightcrawler and his translator. Such devotion! If I were you I would send them a "thank you" e-mail right now.
Final Fantasy 6?
As you play Dual Orb 2 you will notice many similarities to Final Fantasy 6. The sprite style is similar, some graphics are similar, some parts of songs are similar, some aspects of the storyline are similar... things like that. For example, here's Garade's banner. Look familiar? It's FF6's imperial banner of Vector. I don't consider all these FF6 similarities a bad thing. I'm actually glad that Dual Orb 2 has done this. It gives me such a feeling of nostalgia since FF6 is my all-time favorite RPG.