Jeremy Zoss

Glory of Heracles Review

By Jeremy Zoss - Posted Jan 28, 2010

4 Comments

Glory of Heracles marks the US debut of a long-running Japanese RPG series. It's definitely got an old-school feel to it, but is that to its detriment?

The Pros
  • Classic RPG gameplay
  • Diverse collection of magic and skills
  • Unique Greek setting
The Cons
  • Classic RPG gameplay...to a fault
  • Slow start and sluggish pace
  • Uninvolving characters

There’s an old cliché that video game critics pull out from time to time: this is a game for fans of the genre only. It’s lazy to fall back on such a trite statement, but sometimes the game in question is itself so cliché that it’s hard to avoid falling back on familiar summarizations. Nintendo’s new DS RPG Glory of Heracles, Nintendo’s first Western release of the popular Japanese series, is one such game exemplifies fan service. The game may be set in Ancient Greece, but the gameplay is firmly rooted in ancient Japanese RPG traditions. It’s , a title built entirely on tried-and-true game design elements that everyone has seen a hundred times beforeseveral times over. That’s in part because the DS version is a continuation of several NES and SNES-era RPGs of years past. With a silent protagonist with amnesia, random encounters, turn-based combat, a party of wise-cracking misfits, Glory of Heracles never strays from classic RPG conventions. Like a ham sandwich and a glass of milk, there’s nothing terribly wrong with Glory of Heracles, there’s just nothing very exciting about it either.

Glory of Heracles

Identity Crisis

One of the few attempts at individuality Glory of Heracles’s standout elements takes is its setting: of the aAncient Greece of mythology. You learn new spells and skills by praying at the temples of gods like Zeus, Hera and Poseidon, while crossing paths with legendary heroes like Achilles. The amnesiac Heracles and his friends travel across Greece on a quest to reach Mount Olympus, battling monsters and completing quests along the way. Unfortunately, the setting is paper-thin and the world of the game is interchangeable with just about any fantastical land. The same can be said about the characters, who all speak in primarily family-friendly quips and never evolve past their archetypes like the vain guy, the big dumb bruiser or the spunky magic girl.

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Gameplay is similarly devoid of a innovationnew and innovative approach. Combat is a standard turn-based affair, with attacks, magic and special skills that let you dish out punishment during the game’s many, many random encounters. There are a few little touches that distinguish Glory of Heracles from other classic RPGs, but they’re small and mostly inconsequential: If you’re short on mana and want to cast a spell you can exchange a few hit points to make up the difference and the dual-row battlefield formation means that range has to be taken into consideration in some battles. Spells can be enhanced with simple touch screen minigames that boost damage, but beyond those few touches, the gameplay is pretty standard stuff. It feels like an RPG that hasn’t advanced past the mid-90s, which is fine if you’re looking for a retro-style game.

Glory of Heracles

The Long, Long Road

Although it’s hard to point out anything too exciting about Glory of Heracles, it’s hard to find anything glaringly wrong with it. The game does everything it is intended to do and does it all reasonably well. The biggest flaw with the game is the pacing.– In short, it’s boring. Glory of Heracles starts extremely slowly and takes a loooong time to pick up any energy. Neither the plot nor the characters are very engaging and the opening hours are pretty linear in the most dull use of the word. Eventually the game adds in some fun boss fights and interesting plot twists, but it takes about 10 hours of dulltedious slog to get to that point. Because of its slow-moving pace and heavy reliance on RPG clichés, I feel comfortable falling back on that aforementioned game critic an old review cliché: this one is aimed squarely at fans of classic Japanese role-playing games and won’t appeal much to anyone else. RPG dabblers can find better and fresher takes on the genre elsewhere.