• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

US LAUNCH OF GLORY OF HERACLES | JAN. 18th

Hasn't this series been around for quite some time? I always assumed the games were Dragon Quest-style JRPGs set in ancient Greece. The fact that the series is still alive obviously means that it's pretty popular in Japan.

Edit: Oh, duh, it even said so in the first post, I'm retarded.
 
Ooh, this almost slipped under my radar. :)

I realize it's probably a low-profile title for most of you, but one thing Nintendo hasn't mentioned (as far as I know), is that the battle speed has been increased considerably for the US version. Several of the major complaints people here had about the Japanese version have been addressed, so hopefully those who were on the fence will be willing to give it a try. It's a charming little game -- good battles, good characters, and great music (IMO). At $50 (the price it launched at in Japan), I don't think I could recommend it, but at $30 (the US price), it's definitely worth a try.
 
duckroll said:
Are one of the improvements the removal of the touch screen minigame garbage every time you cast a spell?
Click to expand...
Nope. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, though -- it's automatic if you just leave it alone.

That said, I actually found those to be kinda fun. ;p What I didn't like was how damn long the spells took, but fortunately they sped that up quite a bit for the US version.
 
I felt the need to reply to this...

john tv said:
Ooh, this almost slipped under my radar. :)

I realize it's probably a low-profile title for most of you, but one thing Nintendo hasn't mentioned (as far as I know), is that the battle speed has been increased considerably for the US version. Several of the major complaints people here had about the Japanese version have been addressed, so hopefully those who were on the fence will be willing to give it a try. It's a charming little game -- good battles, good characters, and great music (IMO). At $50 (the price it launched at in Japan), I don't think I could recommend it, but at $30 (the US price), it's definitely worth a try.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
The battle speed was my biggest issue with the Japanese release, and it was SO slow that I couldn't stand it, and the game actually soured me on gaming as a whole for months. The battles themselves are very strategic and cool, but they were just way too slow. So glad this is has been changed. With this change, I can wholeheartedly recommend the game to everyone who's interested.
 
john tv said:
Nope. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, though -- it's automatic if you just leave it alone.

That said, I actually found those to be kinda fun. ;p What I didn't like was how damn long the spells took, but fortunately they sped that up quite a bit for the US version.
Click to expand...

I dunno, they were "fun" maybe the first 3 times, but when each element has the same goddamn minigame, it gets really old after a while. The game was pretty much loaded with problems imo, mostly to do with how the battles were butt slow, and also how LONG some battles took. The speed definitely made it a lot worse, but some of the balance in the battles later in the game got really annoying. Enemies with tons of health, and there are quite a number of them, and the battle takes a long ass time to beat. Then.... you run into another one shortly after that.

Personally I gave up when I got to Troy. It was just too boring and slow. I liked a lot of the concepts in the battle system, like how there are pretty interesting skills with auto triggers based on conditions, and how positioning in the battles made for more strategic and interesting fights. It's just that the actual implementation was kinda wonky throughout and eventually it felt more like work than play, and I just dropped it. The script is pretty funny though, and the characters aren't terrible. The art direction and the way they implemented the graphics were pretty interesting too.
 
Aeana said:
I felt the need to reply to this...



Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
The battle speed was my biggest issue with the Japanese release, and it was SO slow that I couldn't stand it, and the game actually soured me on gaming as a whole for months. The battles themselves are very strategic and cool, but they were just way too slow. So glad this is has been changed. With this change, I can wholeheartedly recommend the game to everyone who's interested.
Click to expand...
Hey, you're alive! Where you been? :)
 
Aeana said:
I felt the need to reply to this...



Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
The battle speed was my biggest issue with the Japanese release, and it was SO slow that I couldn't stand it, and the game actually soured me on gaming as a whole for months. The battles themselves are very strategic and cool, but they were just way too slow. So glad this is has been changed. With this change, I can wholeheartedly recommend the game to everyone who's interested.
Click to expand...
Oh hey! I didn't even know you were gone! but now that I know you're back, I'm glad you're here.
 
I was mostly writing this off, but in what way are the battles strategic?

Though I guess the underhyped DS JRPG I should be looking forward to is Sand of Destruction or whatever.
 
Llyranor said:
I was mostly writing this off, but in what way are the battles strategic?

Though I guess the underhyped DS JRPG I should be looking forward to is Sand of Destruction or whatever.
Click to expand...

Well, for the amount of time I played it, the battles reminded me a lot of Lost Odyssey in several ways. It's traditionally turn based, so you can plan your actions relatively well.

There are TONS of skills for each character, and aside from combat skills some of them are passive skills, while some are auto-skills. Auto-skills have conditions for triggering, like for example the archer character has a Hunt skill which will automatically trigger a bonus attack when an enemy's health is put into critical by another character.

This means if you manage the targeting well, you can end battles even faster, say with the archer attacking Enemy A, another character finishing off Enemy A, and then a character who does the most damage attacking Enemy B instead, to trigger the autoskill to kill off that enemy in the same turn.

The bosses also have rather unique tactics sometimes, another detail I found similar to Lost Odyssey. They usually have special patterns or attack/weakness sequences which you have to pay attention to and take advantage of to win.

I only played about maybe half the game though, because between the slow ass battles (they got slower and longer as the game went on), the above average encounter rate, and the annoyingly repetitive minigames to power up spells in battle, I just couldn't be assed to continue playing.
 
Well, if the game is as solid as the music..the battle theme is awesome. Anyone know who the composer is?
 
Interesting. I'll certainly keep an eye on it, though between FFXIII/EoE/SJ and tentatively Sands of Destruction, I'm not sure how much time I'd have for this one.
duckroll said:
the slow ass battles (they got slower and longer as the game went on)
Click to expand...
Another similarity to Lost Odyssey!
 
Llyranor said:
Interesting. I'll certainly keep an eye on it, though between FFXIII/EoE/SJ and tentatively Sands of Destruction, I'm not sure how much time I'd have for this one.
Click to expand...

Yeah I can't really recommend this game over the others, even with the promised improvements John mentioned. Although, I will say this, even though Heracles was slower, and World Destruction was way faster, I believe Heracles is the far superior game in terms of gameplay implementation and balancing. Unfortunately, it is the worse game because ultimately it is meaningless if it bothered me so much I couldn't finish it, while World Destruction was fast and fun enough to beat even though the battles were totally broken for half the game once I learned certain skills.

In terms of production values though, World Destruction has Heracles beat really really badly. The towns, dungeons, music, sprite work, and designs are all way superior.

Another similarity to Lost Odyssey!
Click to expand...

Yes. Quite unfortunate. :(
 
GloryOfHeracles.png


This story again?
 
duckroll said:
Yeah I can't really recommend this game over the others, even with the promised improvements John mentioned. Although, I will say this, even though Heracles was slower, and World Destruction was way faster, I believe Heracles is the far superior game in terms of gameplay implementation and balancing. Unfortunately, it is the worse game because ultimately it is meaningless if it bothered me so much I couldn't finish it, while World Destruction was fast and fun enough to beat even though the battles were totally broken for half the game once I learned certain skills.
Click to expand...
Wasn't WD supposed to get improvements for the localizationt, too?
 
Llyranor said:
Wasn't WD supposed to get improvements for the localizationt, too?
Click to expand...

Yes. Obviously since neither game is out, I can only base on my actual experience of having played the originals. My stand on improvements for re-releases/international releases is always to expect the worse (pretty much no substantial impact on improving the game), but to hope for the best.

Edit: Man, the "completelygone" in that screenshot gets me every single time. It sticks out so badly, how the fuck did Nintendo approve these screens? :(
 
duckroll said:
Yes. Obviously since neither game is out, I can only base on my actual experience of having played the originals. My stand on improvements for re-releases/international releases is always to expect the worse (pretty much no substantial impact on improving the game), but to hope for the best.

Edit: Man, the "completelygone" in that screenshot gets me every single time. It sticks out so badly, how the fuck did Nintendo approve these screens? :(
Click to expand...
I don't think that's from the real game -- that was from the E3 demo, if I'm not mistaken.
 
This should be interesting. I've heard this was pretty popular in Japan. What I heard was this was the 5th game in the series but was simply being titled Glory of Heracles and not given it's proper number. A writer from Final Fantasy is a plus. Didn't a number of SquareSoft people end up at Nintendo after Final Fantasy 9 was released?

Here's hoping Nintendo give it a good push. Looking forward to what Nintendo Power has to say about it.
 
john tv said:
I don't think that's from the real game -- that was from the E3 demo, if I'm not mistaken.
Click to expand...

I don't expect it to be in the final game of course, I just think it's a pretty big oversight to be used in PR materials at all. It's pretty unsightly! :(
 
I'm still on the fence about this one.

On the one hand, I appreciate Nintendo throwing audiences outside of Japan some scraps now and then, but dammit I want a localized version of Soma Bringer!

I'll wait until we see this improved battle speed before I make any purchases.

Or Nintendo can get off their asses and finally release Soma Bringer.
 
Don't give shit about GOH. I want a western Soma Bringer release :/

Still, GOH seemed fun from what I watched. I think I will try it if I see it cheap.
 
Effect said:
Here's hoping Nintendo give it a good push.
Click to expand...
I'll be shocked if NoA can make this game a success, this thread was the first time I've even seen the improvements mentioned and it wasn't even from the PR in the first post. If even the niche that do like these games are ignoring it then its chances are pretty shit to start with.
 
Wow, I think I'll definitely have to check it out. Hearing that it has possibly been optimized for localization makes it fit more into what I'm looking for. The majority of RPGs I can't stand because of high encounter rates and slow battles.
 
john tv said:
Nope. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, though -- it's automatic if you just leave it alone.

That said, I actually found those to be kinda fun. ;p What I didn't like was how damn long the spells took, but fortunately they sped that up quite a bit for the US version.
Click to expand...

YAY! :D
 
ethelred said:
Yeah. Someone who should be doing a lot better stuff than this.



No kidding.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the incredibly informative answer, I shall go to the googles now.
 
If they say that buying this game would convince them to bring over Soma Bringer I would buy 100 copies

But it wont matter, it never matters

So instead I will pick up Nostalgia when I have the cash and Sands of Destruction, that will appease my DS RPG fix for a good while
 
Bel Marduk said:
Don't worry guys, Soma Bringer will one day be localized, the same way Heracles is finally localized! :D

:(
Click to expand...
Why did you have to remind me of Soma Bringer? Are you a sadist?
 
So there are now web ads for this floating around, links to a teaser website. Apparently you can "share it" with twitter or facebook, which in of itself isn't noteworthy other than the fact that Nintendo's actually doing it. Uh, not much to say really.

That is all.
 
Damn, the animations and effects look fantastic!
Battles look nice and speedy. Now I'm REALLY looking forward to it.
But this and Sands of Destruction within a week of each other... ouch!
 
Looks pretty nice.

With that I think Nintendo has won my dollars for this month... still waiting for Sega to acknowledge that Sands of Destruction is actually out.
 
ascii42 said:
Well, they are the same person. Heracles is just the Greek name. Hercules is Roman.
Click to expand...

Oh, well I don't feel as stupid. But I do seem to have a problem reading words these days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The 18th Attic - Official Launch Trailer
Trailer Indie 
0
138
IbizaPocholo replied
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales - Launch Date Trailer (June 18th 2026)
News 
18
353
Mr Hyde replied
Steam Winter Sale 2025 - Dec 18th through Jan 5th |OT| Even Half-Life 3 Deniers Welcome
|OT|  6 7 8 9 10
474
4K
Magister replied
  • Locked
Spain Sales: Week 4, 2026 (Jan 19 - Jan 25)
11
296
TintoConCasera replied
Blood of Dawnwalker - Launch Year Special
13
405
The Cockatrice replied
Top Bottom