GENRE
	RPG
	DEVELOPER
	Paon
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	No
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	No
	MICROPHONE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

"In ancient Greece, not everything is as the legends say," the back of Glory of Heracles' DS game box reads. This statement is smartly placed up front: Greek/Roman mythology fans will certainly see familiar character and location names in this game, and even a few chestnuts like the Trojan Horse and Titans, but these mythological trappings are more akin to gift wrap over an original, lighthearted story featuring amnesiac immortals and very sci-fi machinery used to manufacture God-like powers and resurrections. While the story starts slow and relies on the "who am I/who are we?" cliche for far too long, Glory of Heracles ends up being a fun, lengthy adventure thanks to its strategic battle system and continuous flow of new objectives and rewards.

Interestingly, 2010's Glory of Heracles has much in common with '90s-era RPGs with its random battles, turn-based combat and extremely linear parade of travel-town-dungeon quests. Fortunately, the random battles are reasonably spaced out and seldom feel overdone. Furthermore, the battles provide just enough experience and items to nearly negate the need for any grinding. The lack of monotonous experience-points farming and the abundance of towns and dungeons to trek to makes the game always feel heavy with forward momentum. There's always a new town to get to-- by foot, boat or even Pegasus-- a new dungeon with a deviously clever boss and a swath of magic spells and battle skills to learn and practice. Yes, there's seldom chance (or reason) to wander off the road to your next goal, but with this much content always around the corner for a good thirty hours of game time, developer Paon has demonstrated it didn't skimp on content.

However, the story does sometimes hold the experience back, as suggested earlier. Given its well-known mythological inspirations, relying upon amnesia for not just one hero but the entire squad of them-- for dozens of hours and scores of quests before resolution-- is a bit obnoxious and frequently frustrating thanks to bait-and-switch moments of revelation that never come. Thankfully, other plot lines are increasingly prevalent halfway through the game forward, and the more significant menace shadowing the second half is much more interesting than the still-identity-less heroes' plights. The game's localization team also deserves a lot of credit for making the tone of the game's dialogue and even tutorials very self-aware and grounded in plucky (and, to some chagrin, "punny") humor. The writers even acknowledge, sometimes to detriment, the cliche and arduous nature of the game and its characters, with protagonists noting in separate occasions how "an amnesiac hero? Such a cliche!" and, after several unplanned detours, "This is the longest trip to Mount Olympus ever!" There are cheesier riffs, too, such as, "Don't be a heel, Achilles!" and "That's as serious as a staring contest with Medusa!", but everything's consistently in good fun and makes Glory of Heracles' story fun for young, first-time RPG-ers and kids-at-heart.

The battle system is really the heart of the game's draw, though. At first, with all of the "advice" panels, menus to flip between and speedy tutorial, the combat system seems needlessly complex. Other Glory of Heracles reviews have even bemoaned that at least half of the game can be planned completely on "auto" with the heroes' battles being played by the game AI. This may be true for the first hour or two, but once the second big boss is reached, gamers will be compelled to pull their brains out of park and start engaging in all the battles going forward.

First, dungeon bosses are cleverly designed and fun to battle, often featuring unique attack patterns or abilities that must be figured out before being exploited. Prepping all the heroes' HP and MP to 100% (as you can: the game always pauses before a boss battle so that the gamer can make sure all heroes are healed and equipped as desired before the battle screen even appears), and then unloading the strongest spells and attacks ad infinitum will not work. Instead, a boss may skulk in the back row of the battlefield, protected by an endless row of henchmen in front of him and out of reach of melee attacks. Or, it may endlessly spawn copies of itself while dancing around the battle grid, though exactly which monster on the battlefield is the actual boss to attack won't be clear without observation. Another tricky boss will mimic every spell cast by the heroes (beneficial or harmful) to its benefit, and counter every basic attack with a strong one of its own. These are just a few examples-- but bosses are always a major highlight.

Then, there's the combat system itself that's used against bosses and grunts alike. As alluded to above, both heroes and enemies face off in front row/back row formations. Only front row enemies and heroes can inflict melee damage upon one another; people in the back row can only execute and be harmed by projectile attacks or magic spells. Row position can be voluntarily changed by each participant once a turn, and some attacks even disadvantageously knock front row melee characters into the back row.

The use of magic is another complex system. All characters can perform magic, but they must first pray at statues of Prometheus in each town to incrementally learn new spells that are later unlocked by advancing to a higher experience level. Standard for RPGs, all spells have an MP cost, but there's also a greater economy of "ether" at play in every battle that further constrains spell casting.

The DS's touch screen handles all the battle menu commands and illustrates enemy and hero front/back row positions. It also features, in a nod to extremely old school RPGs, a pure text "battle log" that types out for every action that occurs on the battlefield, allowing review of every effective and ineffective move played out. The DS's top screen shows an animated 3D representation of the battlefield and action, but its main informational boon is a series of five numbers at the very top. These numbers represent the level of fire, earth, electric, water and dark ether on the battlefield. In addition to spending a chunk of MP to cast a fire spell, for instance, a corresponding chunk of environmental fire ether will be spent. If there's not enough ether available, the number of ether points that would have organically been spent casting the spell will instead come out of the casting person's HP-- "reflux" damage. This clever constraint keeps gamers from blasting away with the same spell, and, if used smartly, may cause an enemy to take reflux damage when it tries to cast a spell against the heroes and there's insufficient ether. Mercifully, ether's usually in abundance and naturally replenishes in small amounts with each turn, though at higher levels in the game, when many strong spells are being shot off, balancing ether costs can be entertainingly tricky.

Speaking of spells and special combat abilities, both can be super-powered to above-average efficacy by voluntarily jumping into a brief touch screen minigame at the time the spell is cast or combat ability activated. These minigames are often pretty basic-- tap circles in numerical order, tap and drag them into correspondingly numbered blocks, tap them when they overlap or are at a certain size-- but suffice in mixing battles up a little more and feature nice payoff both in visual presentation and the damage done if completed correctly. They're also the only mandatory touch screen part of the game-- the rest of Glory of Heracles can be played completely with the stylus, or completely with face buttons, and both are executed perfectly.

Yet back to the battles-- another detail that makes even the most basic fights more engaging is the concept of "overkill." When dealt a killing blow, an enemy's body will fall to the ground-- but it doesn't disappear within the turn. And, if a second hero was already assigned to attack this now felled monster, that hero will still attack the fallen enemy. That may initially scream "bad programming," but if the hero inflicts a strong enough attack on the fallen enemy, it will be "overkilled," truly removing it from the battlefield while generating fresh ether and replenishing a chunk of MP to the hero who executed the overkill. Also, fret not-- if three heroes were assigned to attack an enemy, and hero A killed it and hero B overkilled it, hero C will not then proceed to whiff an attack at thin air-- hero C will instead attack the next living, available enemy instead.

Perhaps most gratifying and something every RPG should have is Glory of Heracles' "dispatch" ability. Some of the game's heroes have this dispatch skill whilst others gain it by equipping certain items. When in effect, if one hero's attack leaves a monster with 10% or less of its life, a hero with the dispatch skill will automatically leap in to deal a blow that truly finishes the monster off (sometimes to overkill), free of charge and without taking away the dispatcher's originally assigned or executed move in a given turn.

The intricacies of combat extend beyond battle to the armor and weapons, every piece of which can be imbued with up to three enhancements related to spells, stat boosts or special skills such as dispatch. Gamers will have a great time selecting which weapon to use depending on its inherent or augmented bonuses, and when to spend gold at a town's alchemy store to add special powers to equipped or stored weapons and armor. Beyond the hardware of war, food, drink and herbs also give benefit beyond basic HP and MP regeneration, facilitating additional spells and stat boosts.

As intricate as bosses and combat can be, Glory of Heracles doesn't often feel too penalizing. Saving is allowed not only in towns and the overworld but often whenever you like in some (but not all) dungeons, and, if defeated by a superpowered group of goons or a boss, you're allowed to continue right from where you lost, albeit without any items you may have expended in your just-lost battle. Also, there always seems to be just enough random herbs and MP-regenerating flowers sprinkled in just the right spots of dungeons to keep the trials from being too daunting. That said, there are certain dungeons and sequences in the latter half of the adventure that are a little merciless-- one dungeon near the halfway point is actually a series of them and only allows a save at the very beginning, mandating (without warning) the gamer have a couple hours prepared to progress, as well as a full DS battery. Also, some of the later boss battles can become grueling back-to-back encounters void of the "patch everybody" up moments that spoil the gamer early on.

Visually, Glory of Heracles has an above average presentation but doesn't set any new standards. The environments have a detailed, painterly look to them that initially surprise when you realize they're in 3D and the camera dynamically swivels around the action and towns. Characters and enemies are also in 3D, though they feature strong black outlines and almost chunky coloring that evokes 16-bit era sprite art. However, the varied and smooth animation, particularly within combat, show off the capabilities of the 3D engine. Spells are also a visual highlight-- while not on par with an epic Square Enix showcase, they're still pretty and, thankfully, can be set to short or long animations, and even cut short with a button press if desired.

What's most odd about the visuals is their artistic design, or an unexpectedly broad exercise of artistic liberty to be more precise. The game may be set in mythological Greece, but most of the game's heroes, enemies and NPCs look more like standard Renaissance Europe than ancient Greece, if not "generic fantasy theme." Even the architecture of most of the buildings in the game-- with their gray brick walls, red tiled roofs and arched windows-- look straight out of medieval France and Germany, save for the columns, pools and white statues in the few gods' temples.

The soundtrack isn't as artistically jarring. Most compositions are grounded with orchestral strings, overlaid with piano or a solo oboe, clarinet or flute. More synthesizer effects come into play later in the game, and everything, regardless of the instruments chosen, is pleasant and in-tune with the goings-on. It doesn't stay with you once the game's turned off, but it's not bad enough to mute your DS over. The clangs and roars of battle are also solidly executed.

Once through the 30-plus hours of the adventure, a "new game plus" mode can take you on another trip through the story, while a survival mode allows you to take on waves of enemies. Completionists may also enjoy the ever-growing glossary that also builds out during the main game, which provides one to several screens of information on every major character and place discovered, as well as notes on the many elements of the game's specific mythology.

Glory of Heracles is a game that requires managed expectations. If you dive into it expecting lots of mythology fan service, an unforgettable story and hardcore challenge, you'll be disappointed. Instead, this is a game with a detailed yet very usable and well-designed interface that you'll grow to love, and it's particularly accessible to both new and seasoned RPG players. While the story's inspired by Greek mythology in only the loosest sense, it also benefits from an atypically lighthearted localization and picks up in the second half without having to regurgitate "Greece's Greatest Myths." Last, with over 30 hours of new towns to explore and dungeons to conquer, RPG fans are likely to be surprised and happy they set out to resolve these heroes' identity crises.

7.5/10