Eternal Chronicle and the Glory of Hercules

When Data East was alive, eating buffet lunches on Robocop’s dime, they published a series of RPGs infused with Greek mythology. The series was called Hercules no Eikou (Glory of Hercules) and the five entries were only released in Japan. A few of them got fan translated, but Hercules found little glory even in gray area localization.

Last October, Nintendo had Eternal Chronicle on their Japanese release schedule as a Nintendo DS game. The RPG was in development care of Paon, who recently finished up Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast. Eternal Chronicle was only a placeholder name.

The game’s real name is Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei (Glory of Hercules: Proof of Soul) and it is a new entry in the Glory of Hercules series. How did Paon, a company not even ten years old get the rights to the series? Hero of Legend pointed out (thanks!) Paon bought the rights to some of Data East’s franchises. This is one of them.

Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei sticks with the Greek setting, but before you can sip wine with Dionysus you have to figure out who you are. The protagonist is an amnesiac boy who wakes up on a beach. The combat system in Glory of Hercules: Proof of Soul is turn based. Players select skills, attacks and spells. After the plan is set, commands on the touch screen can boost attacks. There is also a limited grid system, which suggests range plays a role in Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei.

Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei comes out on May 22 in Japan. Until then Wii owners can sink their teeth into Hercules no Eikou IV, which came out on the virtual console earlier this week with Paon’s name as the publisher. This really should have been the first clue something was up with the series since it was an odd addition on Japan’s Virtual Console release schedule.

Images courtesy of Nintendo.