Glory of Heracles is a RPG developed by Paon and published by Nintendo. Originally released in Japan in 2008, it was localized and released in the US on January 18, 2010. Glory is actually the 5th game in the series and the first to be released in America. Much like Fire Emblem before it, Nintendo has hopes that its popularity will extend to the United States.

In this game, you find yourself in the role of an amnesiac young boy who is told he is legendary immortal warrior, Heracles. Early in the game, he is pushed off a cliff and subsequently can’t remember anything. Awakening on the isle of Crete, he encounters a fellow immortal in the roguish Leucos. Finding a kindred soul on his journey of discovery, they decide to head to Mount Olympus in Northern Greece to speak to the Gods, both as a quest and as a means of discovering their true purpose. A very typical story with the most convenient of beginning plot twists is held together by Kazushige Nojima’s well-written dialogue, its steady pacing, and the strength of its mythological Greek setting. The game starts off slow, but the plot picks up after a few hours and kept me engaged. Maybe I just like RPG’s though.

The graphics in this game are a subtle mix of 2D sprites and 3D renderings. I like the touches that make the animation unique, especially how fluid each sprite moves in battle. Just think of Heracles as he swings his sword or the follow-up attacks that can occur. It has a dance like quality that really suits the game.

The graphics aren’t all roses, as the enemies suffer from recoloration syndrome. This is when the same sprites are used for stronger monsters and simply recolored, rather than redesigning by even a slight variant. It was acceptable in the days of the 3rd and 4th generation of video games due to limited memory, but it is far less forgivable in today’s video games. There is also some framerate inconsistency/slowdown that occurs as you explore towns and other landscapes. The effect isn’t harmful, but can be jarring by throwing your focus off, like a sudden flash of color palate change.

Spells are visually distinct, but not all that impressive. I’m hoping that they will change for the better with the higher level spells that target entire enemy rows. Using the stylus to power up spells via the techniques you learn from nymphs does work to improve the visuals.

When it comes to music, Glory of Heracles is unremarkable. From Battle of Olympus and Rygar on NES to the God of War series, great music is something that you can always count on in these mythological games. Not quite with this DS RPG. The music is serviceable, but is really ordinary doing little to stand out, especially in the battle themes. These themes, both for regular encounters and boss battles move along to the pace of the battle, but never feel like a part of it, almost like they can’t be bothered.

The village themes are peaceful and calm, but sound too typical for the genre to stand out. Honestly, it I heard this music before playing the game, I don’t think I would be able to guess it was from a game based on Greek mythology due to the lack of dramatic flourish usually present in such works.

Being a traditional turn-based RPG, Heracles is easy for veterans of the genre to pick up and play. The traditional level up system is present as well as the equipment and magic system. Spells, skills and other abilities are acquired by praying to statues of the various Greek deities located throughout the world. Once you level up, you will gain the new ability. You can also use some abilities if you use certain pieces of equipment, like necklaces or armor. You can see which pieces have which ability by pressing the X button.

When it comes to battles, this game uses a system similar to the Active Time Battle from Final Fantasy. You input commands from all your characters and they act depending on their speed and actions factoring in the enemies as well. There are back and front rows, and you set which characters go in which row and change them during battle as you will. There are advantages to both rows; the front row allows melee attacks on either row and is best for dealing damage. Of course, you also receive more from the enemies…

The back row is ideal for magic users, as only magic and long range attacks seem to be able to hit them. Party members in the back row also regain some MP every turn. For me, the best option depends on your strategy, just be aware that most multi-target spells only target a single row rather than your entire party, so plan accordingly.

Spells make use of the ether system. There are 5 kinds, fire, water, earth, wind, and darkness. The first 4 increase after each turn and darkness increases from using skills, abilities, and through other conditions. Each spell costs a certain number of ether to cast, with greater amounts for stronger spells. Casting spells without sufficient ether causes reflux, which is a penalty to your HP, so be prepared with a cure spell if necessary.

The other interesting gameplay system present is the diverse ability system, which covers everything from counters to dealing an extra blow to enemies with low health. These abilities seem to activate at random, making them helpful but unreliable in combat. I’m sure ability activation has something to do with luck or another familiar stat, but the game hardly spells it out, leaving me to mark it as a half-baked feature.

This game’s challenge tends toward easy. This is due to the fact that characters regain all their HP and MP at each level up and that you can save at any time. Also, if you happen to die in combat, there is no penalty, allowing you to restart from the same point before the fatal battle, with all your characters at low health. Any characters that are dead at the end of regular battles are revived as well.

Then there are the powerful encounters, which the game defines as more than 6 enemies. While some of these are simply battles that are more drawn out, others are real fights as you progress further into the game; enemies work in tandem, heal each other, and target members in a row, often killing an already vulnerable character. The funny thing is that the A.I often shows more competence in these encounters than it does even in boss fights, which are often little more than LONG battles with dumb enemies. I was wishing the whole game worked like this, as you have to make judicious use of both defensive and offensive abilities to win these fights, and the result is very rewarding if you should triumph. The developers had something good going on with this feature, and should have used it more often. As Demons’ Souls showed, difficulty is often part of great games just as much as any feature.

Replay value is limited and even a bit misleading. There is a new game plus but none of your items carry over, extras are limited, and you only earn double money from combat. I’m not sure what the developers were thinking, as money is plentiful in the game, and not even that necessary. Now if that feature went hand in hand with a higher difficulty (Every battle a powerful encounter, anyone?) it would be a neat feature.

Handicap runs don’t really work due to the random enemy A.I and the automatic revival of characters as mentioned above. It would really be more trouble than it is worth, as you can’t even hit your own characters to kill them.

In summation, Glory of Heracles is a great RPG that I hope will sell well, allowing Nintendo and Paon to translate and release the rest of the series. It has some rough edges that I view more as quirks than actual faults. It might be an easy game, but the combat kept me interested and the ability system works well (the Berserk ability might be a little too powerful if used with buffs though…) Truth be told, any game can probably be nitpicked to death, it is just that Heracles is probably an easier target. I enjoyed it both as a mostly traditional RPG and for its Greek mythology setting.