Rune of Punishment??

[Meian]

So, yeah. Do we have a "Worst True Rune" Award? How about a "Worst Rune" Award? 'cause this thing gets my vote for both. It literally does nothing, but not only does it not do anything useful... It breaks the hallowed saving grace of most bad things in games, "Well, does it get you killed in the process of sucking?" Lets compare it to the other true runes that we've seen so far, shall we?

I'll be listing each level of spells all in a row. To be sporting I'll mix them up for each list. I am not acknowleding the copy of the Soul Eater in S4 because it looks like Blizzard got ahold of it and pulled a D2 Paladin scale nerf on it. Note these aren't the names from the English versions. I was too lazy to go to gamefaqs and get those so I used the ones straight from the site. See if you can find all the spells that belong to the Rune of Punishment. After reviewing the list, honestly the Black Blade Rune isn't much better until levels 3 and 4 but at least none of it's spells can kill YOU for casting them.


Level 1 Spells.

Deadly Fingertips - Instant kill vs. 1 enemy.
Flash Judgement - 120dmg vs. 1 enemy.
Great Blessing - Heals 70hp for all allies.
Eternal Ordeal - 300dmg to enemy, 30dmg to self.
Guardian Earth - Cure all status and field effects.
Blazing Wall - 400dmg to target+foes+allies in area
Soaring Bolt - 900dmg divided among foes.
Kindness Rain - Heals 400hp for target + allies in area.
The Shredding - 250 DMG to foes.

Level 2 Spells.

Black Shadow - 300(500 in S2)dmg vs. all enemies.
Twinkling Blade - 100dmg vs. all enemies. 30% chance of death.
Shining Light - 150dmg vs. all enemies.
Earthquake - 800dmg to all land-based foes.
Explosion - 700dmg to target+foes+allies in area.
Furious Blow - 1000dmg to target+less on foes beyond
Silent Lake - Temporarily silences MGC chanting.
Double Bladed Sword - 150dmg to all enemies, 50dmg to self.
Funeral Wind - 300 DMG to 1 foe + chance of instant death.

Level 3 Spells.

Hell - Kill all enemies.
Piercing One - 700dmg vs. 1 enemy.
Voice of Death - Random% chance of instant death (1 enemy), 10% chance of instant death (self).
Battle Oath - Heals 300hp for all allies; causes berserk
Canopy Defense - Protects allies once from all MGC.
Final Flame - 1200dmg to one foe.
Thunder Storm - 1100dmg to foes.
Mother Ocean - Restore 1 ally's HP+status+combat state.
Shining Wind - 500 DMG to foes. Heals 300 HP for allies.

Level 4 Spells.

Judgement - 1500dmg vs. 1 enemy.
Hungry Fiend - 1200dmg vs. all enemies.
Forgiver Sign - Heals 2000hp for all allies; major damage vs. 1 enemy.
Land of Eternity - 1400dmg to land-based foes.
Hellfire - 1500dmg to target+all in area.
Everlasting Mercy - 500dmg all enemies, heals 500hp all allies.
Hammer of Raijin - 1800dmg to target.
Heavenly Drops - 1000dmg to foes.
Eternal Wind - 1200dmg to foes.

Now, that that is over with. Does anyone else think the power level of the main character's true rune is a BIT low in S4? Something about the lv1 Soul Eater spell opening mocking the Lv3 RoP spell? But that's ok, because thanks to the Final Fantasy item hoard system and the allmighty 4 characters (I really wanted to make the 8-bit party but besides Jeane = Black Mage, Ameria = Thief and Kika = Fighter... The Stalker (hero) just wasn't cool enough to be Red Mage, I tried to name my army the "Light Warriors"), I cannot be stopped!

Throwing out all my other complaints (I think I have about 7+ fully typed pages worth) about this game aside. The selling out to the Final Fantasy 1 system without even improving the world map is quite possibly the most insulting.

[kosento]

Technically the Bright Shield and Black Sword Runes aren't even True Runes, only components of one, so that makes the Rune of Punishment seem even worse. Really though, I'd have to say that I personally found the Rune of Punishment more useful than the True Fire Rune despite what a let-down the RoP was. At the very least I made use of each level of its spell throughout the game (though I only used Voice of Death when I had a party with 3 low-level people I wanted to work up). Even with Precision, I was generally too afraid to use any of the True Fire Rune's spells other than Final Flame and once I ran out of Lv. 3 MP, it was basically a dud.

[taliefer]

i think the true fire rune was a bit of a let down mainly due to the battle system...if it was in suiko's 4 kinda system, itd kick major ass, i know i love rage runes in 4.

the rune of punishment seemed alright to me, the first level spell got alot of use outta me in the early parts of the game.

but yea, it does seem kinda weaker than the otehr true runes, but i think thats to be expected...the rune of life and death(souleater) seems to me like it SHOULD be more powerfull than Punishment. i think the same could be said for the elemental runes, especially when you consider how strong the 2nd level elemental runes are (thunder, rage, etc).

the hero himself in S4 seems kinda weaker than other heroes too, maybe that is just me tho.

[patapi]

The weakest statswise. But seeing how Soul Eater is dumbed down overall in this game, I'm not too surprised. You can't really compare across games when the systems differ somewhat. Especially when the only rune that appeared across multiple games undertook slight changes every time.

The strongest plotwise. It does not only destroys everything around it, but also its own bearers. In terms of plot-driven development, both the two aspects of Rune of Beginning and the elementals pale in comparison with this one rune. We learn so much about the nature of this rune in such a short game compared to how long the two previous games had. Probably the only True Rune better than it when it comes to development is the mighty Soul Eater.

[taliefer]

i agree, i think they did a good job with the devolpment of the rune itself...jsut wish we coulda got a better devolped hero to go along with it ;p

[Crom_Cruithne]

Or a better developed character of any sort. From the little snippets you see for the handfull of characters they bother to add backstory for, there's any number of other character's I'd rather have as the Hero.
Tal's got the best dialog, Kenneth's actually closer in terms of power and play to the S1 and S2 hero's.
No one character is really developed to any length though. I love the graphics in this one, but I dream of the days when even bit characters had real stories; i.e. just about any character in S2.

[taliefer]

yea..they had a great chance to do some things with paula and the elf village, but nada was there

[Snowe Man]

i agree, the rune in terms of spells is pitiful when compared to other true runes, or even upgraded elemental runes for that matter. Rage, Thunder, Cyclone, Flowing, Mother earth, all better spellwise IMO.

[Chaos_Zero]

Gameplay-wise the RoP sucked bitter horse testes, yes, but story-wise, the rune was one of the best. It's power was incredible... blowing up ships my the masses...

[Clangeddin]

Gameplay-wise the RoP sucked bitter horse testes, yes, but story-wise, the rune was one of the best. It's power was incredible... blowing up ships my the masses...

Well the True FIre Rune, in Suikoden 3 blew away the ENTIRE Harmonian army when used by the Flame Champ, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of soldiers here, not about a fleet or 10 or 20 ships...
The RUne Cannon of Kooluk was almost more powerful, lol...

P.S. First Post! ^___^

[kosento]

Story-wise aren't all True Runes supposed to be equal in power?

[Fists Of Protocol]

yeah, this hero is the weakest. Tir and Riou were strong. Geddoe and Chris were powerhouses. Hugo was fast as hell and when teamed with Fubar, devastating.

Not only is he not that strong physically, but he's the slowest magic caster in my party everytime.

[Petrograd]

I have yet to find any second level elemental runes in S4, I reached the point of assuming they've removed them. Even if that isn't the case, there seem to be fewer second level element runes around, thus, weakening the power of runes in the game, the weaker True Rune makes sense - otherwise it'd be overpowered.

Personally, I like the rune. It kicks several other runes, since there are no resistances to it, like there are to wind, fire, etc.

That has made the "weak" True Rune, and Viki's "odd" rune quite useful, early on at least.

[kosento]

Well assuming that the strategy guide at least has enemy resistances to magic right, there are enemies who are more resistant to the Rune of Punishment than other runes.

Prophets found in the Fog Ship have 50 resistance to the RoP (and 20 to everything else except 30 to lightning), Troy has 60 resistance to everything but fire (so the RoP is up there too), the Fog Ship Guide has 30 resistance to the RoP, the Moving Island has 35 resistance and its tentacles have 30.

Also the 2nd level elemental runes are in S4. Certain characters come with them (although they are removable) and you can find them through treasure hunting as well.

[jonathan_priest]

What burned me about the rune itself wasn't so much that is sucked away the life of the user, but that nearly every spell on the RoP was a duplicate copy of a spell on the Cyclone Rune. Compare the two runes and you'll see what I'm talking about. the RoP is only slightly more powerful, but hurts the caster. And lets face it, when your second level spell does 150+ dmg to all enemies, third lvl has a chance of death and 4th lvl heals 500 and does 500 dmg...you think that you'd rather use the Cyclone. As I said, same spells, different names and only slightly different power levels.