All right, I’ll admit it. I’ve never played an RPG before. The closest I ever got was Super Paper Mario (which I thoroughly enjoyed), whose qualifications as an RPG are debatable at best. So when I received Glory of Heracles for the Nintendo DS, I was a little afraid as to what I was getting myself into. Turns out, it might have been the perfect game for me to cut my teeth with when it comes to learning the fine arts of the RPG. Almost like taking an RPG 101 course.

Glory of Heracles is an old-school style JRPG. It’s actually the latest in a series of Glory of Heracles games that have been released in Japan, but the first to make its way to North America. It follows the story of Heracles (Hercules for those of us more comfortable with the Roman version of the mythical hero), or, at least, someone who is allegedly Heracles, as Our Hero finds himself washed up on the shore of a beach somewhere with no recollection of who he is. So you actually start out as “? ? ?” when looking at your character (which you end up changing to whatever you want later on, leaving me with the irresistible urge to use something juvenile, which I did). You then start picking up other members for your party, encounter randomized turn-based battles, travel through towns, fight bosses, and other adventures, all on your journey to Mount Olympus to find out who you are and why you’re in this situation.

Meet Leucos. He's your main companion through your adventure. Yes, I said "he." Perhaps I've said too much? SPOILER?!?!?!?!?!?!

Glory of Heracles does a very good job of holding your hand as you start your story. The game involves a very extensive tutorial on the various menus you’ll have to navigate, equipping your character, the battle system, and other key aspects of the game. Plus, when you’re in battle, every time a new ability is used, you get a quick explanation as to what it was and its implications. Within no time, I was playing almost like I knew what I was doing, setting up my attacks, equipping my players with the right weapons and armour, healing, casting magic spells, and everything. This is great for newcomers like myself, or for kids who you’d like to introduce to the genre.

Yes, you might be concerned that an RPG is the gateway drug to them playing MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or other life-sapping games of that ilk. Responsible parenting is the only way to prevent that from happening, I’m afraid. However, RPGs are something that I think can be good for kids to try. There’s a lot of strategy involved in figuring out what attacks to use, how much magic remaining for both the character and the world itself, when to heal, who to put in which row, how to attack enemies, etc. Plus, the pace isn’t too frenetic, so it allows deeper thinking than the typical fast-twitch reflex gameplay you find in other genres.

Even though the game handholds the player quite a bit, this is a fairly deep battle system.

As a preemptive strike against RPG fanboi nerd rage, I enlisted the services of our Consultant of Most Things Japanese, Adam Hunt, who has played many an RPG in his time, to help evaluate Glory of Heracles on its own merits as an RPG, and how it stacks up to other games in this space. From the perspective of an experienced RPG player, the game is quite average. The battle system is solid, and you can speed up the battles (which admittedly do tend to drag along) by changing a setting to omit some of the animations. Nothing about the game stood out, in either a good or a bad way. The story is ok, though quite linear, so don’t expect a ton of side quests here. If that sounds like a pile of “meh” to you, then you’ve got a pretty good idea of how the veteran RPGer will find Glory of Heracles.

From my perspective, I did see a few things I wasn’t all that keen on. It’s repetitive. Even I got a little exasperated by the constant cycle of walk, encounter battle, fight, win, walk, battle, lather, rinse, repeat when all I wanted to do was get to the next area or town. Get ready to grind. I wrote it off as something to expect out of an RPG, but it was still an annoyance. The boss fights took forever, and if you’re sailing on a ship, prepare to have to run a gauntlet of a number of consecutive battles before a boss encounter.

A rare moment at sea when you're NOT fighting somebody.

One aspect I’m still not sure about is the assortment of minigames you play when casting most magic attacks that allow you to boost the attack power. It was great at first, as most of the minigames are pretty easy. Unfortunately, the 100th time you find yourself rapidly tapping the touch screen to make a circle smaller has you thinking that the extra power just isn’t worth the time. It adds variety, yet gets repetitive, in a bit of irony. I applaud the attempt to try something new, and this is probably another one of those features that makes the game better for the younger set than the grizzled RPG vet.

There’s a good dose of humour in this game, which helps keep the entertainment factor up, and the story is engaging enough, though I imagine not anywhere near as epic as a Final Fantasy game. Again, for the uninitiated, it works. The characters I encountered all provide some nice comic relief moments, breaking up the grind of the game and giving me a nice chuckle just before fighting the same couple of monsters for the 10th time.

The game has many comical moments, which can be appreciated by gamers of any age.

Where Glory of Heracles shines, and really where its sweet spot lies, is as an RPG for the beginner or novice. On its own, it’s a dime-a-dozen RPG that will give you a reasonably entertaining experience, but if you’ve been spoiled by Square Enix fare, you likely won’t be all that impressed. The very things that will make hardcore RPG fans pause, will be the exact qualities that make it attractive to the noobs among us. A simple, fairly linear story. Handholding. Slow pacing. Repitition (good for novices to help them practice). Minigames for easy magic boost. Not particularly difficult. If you’re looking to get your feet wet in the genre, Glory of Heracles is a great place to get started, no matter what your age.

Glory of Heracles for the Nintendo DS is developed by Paon and published by Nintendo. It is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older. A review copy was provided to GamerPops.

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