Glory of Heracles

Posted 3 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

There are those that absolutely want nothing to change and then there are those that very much enjoy something different. If you look at video games, it’s almost always important to give gamers something different if you want your game to succeed. The Nintendo DS is no stranger to RPGs and one of the latest titles is Glory of Heracles. The long running series has been available in Japan for years and only now is Nintendo bringing the series to North America. It doesn’t particularly stand out from the crowd, but it still might be serviceable for those looking for an RPG fix.

Gameplay

Glory of Heracles puts you in charge of a group of Immortals in Ancient Greece. As you would expect, this group of special characters all have mysterious pasts and in fact, most are suffering from a mysterious illness that has resulted in amnesia. These Immortals have to reach Mount Olympus in hopes of finding out exactly what happened to their memories and hopefully explain why they are who they are.

Surprisingly, the story references Greek mythology quite a bit. You will get to visit both Sparta and Athens. Unfortunately, the pacing of the story isn’t really even. It takes a very long time for the story to develop. The secrets behind our characters are retold in a very long winded way and it takes a long time for the main plot and antagonist to be revealed.

Combat is a grid based system with your heroes and villains lining up anywhere along a 5x2 grid. If you decide to use your weapon, the one you use will factor into which foes you can attack. Magic and characters that use long-range weapons open the possibility of attacking foes in the backlines. Every character has the ability to use magic and your magic abilities are unlocked when you visit statues of Prometheus.

The way you dish out magic is varied. You can either do it automatically or perform one of a dozen mini-games that increase your magic power. Each spell has its own mini-game. Some require you tap the centre of the touch screen as quickly as you can, while another one has you tap the proper sequence of numbers as they move quickly around the screen. The closer you come to maxing out your score in these games, the more vicious an attack you will deal. Not all magic abilities require you to play these mini-games, but you will more than likely use this method in order to get the most out of your attacks.

Even with a fairly good magic system, the game itself is not overly difficult. On top of a slow-paced story, your journey is extremely linear and it will be rare for you to ever get into any serious trouble, particularly early on. This easy feel will certainly appeal to younger gamers, but those looking for a challenge will rush through this without breaking a sweat.

It is kind of disappointing in that regard since the combat during boss battles is actually quite good. It is during those tough battles where you really need to put your best foot forward but this is tainted by the game giving you a head’s up before each major battle. You will always be able to adjust your squad before a big fight, so you never have to worry about reloading a previous save or dying because you were ill-prepared. Again, this is definitely geared to assist younger gamers but veteran RPG players will yawn at this type of handholding.

Graphics and Sound

There are a lot of different locales you get to trek through in your journey across ancient Greece. Thankfully, the game does offer a nice 360 degree camera view when walking around most towns. You will be able to find just about anything with ease. In battle, the animation for the characters and enemies are somewhat limited, but, thankfully, it doesn’t feel cheap. Magic and Skill based attacks offer some nice animations and Boss character designs stand out the most with some great models.

While there is no voice work in the game, the game’s score does its job in really adding to the experience. Each area comes with a nice musical arrangement to accompany it. It is far from memorable but at least you never feel like the music is getting annoying or repetitive.

Value

It will take you a while to get through Glory of Heracles. The story itself lasts around 30-35 hours. Even with the lengthy story, the slow pacing will detract some as the real core of the game doesn’t really kick in until you’ve played nearly 10 hours.

Conclusion

If you’re just looking for an RPG title to tide you over until the next big thing, then Glory of Heracles will do the job. For those who are looking for a grossly engaging and absorbing challenge, you won’t find that here. It is a fine first release in North America, so here’s hoping that if a sequel is in the cards, more effort is put into giving everyone a more expansive experience.