14 DAY TRIAL // The Glory of Heracles has quite a lengthy history, and it began long before its appearance on the DS. The game has its roots in 1987, when it was first released by Data East on the Famicom. Herakuresu no Eiko, as it was its original Japanese title, had four more sequels, all focusing on the Greek mythology and on the hero, Heracles. With the last tile of the series released in 1994, the game had to wait 14 years before it got another proper sequel. After Data East went bankrupt in 2003, Paon picked up the rights to the title and began to release several of the older games on different platforms.
But, in 2008, it joined hands with Nintendo and released a brand-new game, Glory of Heracles, on the DS. With developer Kazuhige Nojima behind it, better known for his work on Final Fantasy VII, it takes place in famous Greek settings like Sparta and Athens and follows a pretty basic role-playing game design. The DS game also features some well-made, animated cut-scenes, with characters and locations based on Greek mythology.
The good news about this fifth installment in the series is that, just as we learned at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the title will make its way from Japan onto Western shores. Originally released in Japan on May 22, 2008, it will finally make its way to North America on January 18, 2010, with the helping hand of Nintendo.
If you're not familiar with the series, but are enticed by the idea of the mythological hero Heracles, then you should be warned that this isn't exactly a Kevin Sorbo-like interpretation of the story. A lot of liberties are taken with the universe, and the first that stands out is, of course, the graphical depiction of the hero. As a Japanese game, Heracles doesn't exactly fit the Greek model of the physic, and is more in line with the anime stereotype. The mythology itself is a little jumbled as well, as a lot of elements form the Roman one are scattered along the game.