The Era RPG Club Plays: Glory of Heracles III (Super Famicom)

[Deleted member 419]

About the Era RPG Club
​

This "book club" for RPGs is a way for us to play some of the less familiar important/classic RPGs, and also to broaden our RPG experience with games that we might not have tried otherwise. The club began in the RPG Community thread, which can be found here. Definitely swing by if you have any interest in the genre!

Every month, we decide on a category of RPGs (such as "8-bit console RPGs"), and anyone is free to post a nomination. After the nominations have been posted and discussed, we vote on what game to play next. The winner then gets a dedicated thread such as this one, which essentially functions as a LTTP/OT thread, and we play through the game!

There's no obligation to play or finish the game, of course - but if we're playing through something that you're interested in, it's definitely a good time to give it a shot :)

The Glory of Heracles III: Silence of the Gods
​

(Note: Like many classic SFC games, Heracles III never received a Western localization. However, a completed English fan translation patch for the game can be found here.)

Though the Glory of Heracles franchise is virtually unknown in the West, it is a long-running and well-respected franchise in its native Japan. Glory of Heracles III, released in April 1992 for the Super Famicom, is a fan favorite, and was written by Kazushige Nojima - who later went on to write several of the Final Fantasy games, including VII, VIII, and X.

At the time of its release, Glory of Heracles III was praised for some of its more unique themes and gameplay mechanics. For example, the main party consists of several immortal characters, who not only have a significant role in the story, but also possess special gameplay powers - such as the ability to leap from high cliffs without taking damage.

EDIT: A tip from Aeana regarding patching the game:

Make sure that your Japanese ROM doesn't have a header. If you try to apply the patch to a ROM with a header then it will not work. You can check your ROM with this tool: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/608/

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Even though Glory of Heracles III is an older game, please keep in mind that many of us are playing it for the first time! While discussing the game in here as we play through it, please remember to spoiler tag. Basically, treat the thread as you would treat an OT.

If you want to discuss the game more (or just hang out with a lot of us from the general RPG thread) check out the RPG discord here:

You need to reply to this thread in order to see this content.

 

[duckroll]

Glory to Nojima! Time to polish off the Kingdom Hearts altar!

 

[Aeana]

I'm so excited about the book club, and I'm glad this was chosen as the first game. It's a game I'm really fond of.

A couple of beginners' tips:

• Take all of your immortal characters to the shrines to learn new magic ASAP! And make sure not to miss the shrine on the first island at the start of the game, the shrine of Demeter.
• Also, this game has a concept of "trust" between your characters (it's a stat). That trust affects whether your party members are going to obey your orders in battle. There are many things you can do to lower trust, but one of the most surefire things that will betray your party members' trust is stealing items from people's homes, so don't do it!
• Make sure to check locations both during the day time and at night
• When in doubt, do something crazy to get people's attention.

 

[Sinatar]

Alright, this should be interesting.

 

[Kickmaster Kim]

Will y'all be playing WRPGs too? I think I play way too many JRPGs with most of them being Final fantasy. I have yet to even beat a WRPG.

 

[Aeana]

Will y'all be playing WRPGs too? I think I play way too many JRPGs with most of them being Final fantasy. I have yet to even beat a WRPG.

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Yes. RPG Era is all inclusive for RPGs. I wouldn't be surprised if the next voting category is CRPG-related, but I'm not in charge of that.

 

[Deleted member 419]

Will y'all be playing WRPGs too? I think I play way too many JRPGs with most of them being Final fantasy. I have yet to even beat a WRPG.

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Like Aeana mentioned, CRPGs are definitely on the table, ideally we'll have an even split between JRPGs and CRPGs. Part of the point of the club is to help JRPG fans get into CRPGs and vice versa.

 

[Deleted member 1687]

i'd start tonight but im stuck working, boo

 

[Biske]

This seems pretty neat, I'm in!

 

[Deleted member 2102]

I'll start this up soon! Not very familiar with the series beyond hearing of it in passing, but it sounds interesting going off of the posts so far. Been in the mood for an SFC RPG lately.

Very excited about these threads in general! Seems like a fun way to play some titles that I wouldn't get around to otherwiss.

 

[duckroll]

Will y'all be playing WRPGs too? I think I play way too many JRPGs with most of them being Final fantasy. I have yet to even beat a WRPG.

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Darklands coming up soon. If I can help it.

 

[Deleted member 419]

Darklands coming up soon. If I can help it.

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Other than the fact that it can easily destroy your soul if you're not careful, Darklands would actually be a pretty neat one to play for this.

 

[Box of Kittens]

I'll be happy to give this a chance, though it can be hard for me to find time to play games nowadays. Still I like the idea of having incentive to branch out a little.

 

[ForteanMan]

I will give this a shot too as it sounds like an interesting idea! Dunno if I will actually find the time to finish the game, but I'll be following along reading other's progress.

 

[caffe misto]

I've always wanted to try this. Is there a schedule for the discussion, or is everyone just playing at whatever pace they can?

 

[Arulan]

I've been looking forward to this. Thanks FiveSide for getting it organized and started!

 

[Aeana]

I've always wanted to try this. Is there a schedule for the discussion, or is everyone just playing at whatever pace they can?

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Play at your own pace. It might be interesting to section off discussion by certain milestones in the game, but it's not something we've planned.

This game is not super long (it shouldn't take anyone longer than 30 hours, and it is closer to 20 for anyone decently familiar with RPGs), and you have all month to play it. Just treat this like a regular OT.

 

[Sinople]

Okay, nice! Good choice, everyone. Plus I own this one physically so no need to emulate.
I'm excited as the last time I played it was more than 10 years ago.

 

[iiicon]

This is a great idea. I've never touched this series before, although I think I have a copy of the DS release around somewhere. I don't have anything pressing to play right now either so the timing works out perfectly. I'm in.

 

[Marukoban]

Looks interesting.
I might give this a try later tonight :D

 

[Gloomz]

How does this work? Who actually plays through the game? I imagine with some of these obscure titles, not many people have them, right? Does someone stream the play-through? Sorry for the ignorance.

 

[Sinatar]

God damn it.

 

[Seda]

I'm in, I gotta finish up a couple things before I start though.

 

[Deleted member 419]

How does this work? Who actually plays through the game? I imagine with some of these obscure titles, not many people have them, right? Does someone stream the play-through? Sorry for the ignorance.

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We all try to play through it separately but discuss it in here. Basically like an OT. I would've just called this thread the Glory of Heracles III OT, but I think there are specific guidelines for what can be called OT and what can't.

The game does have a fan translation...but other than that yea a physical copy will be pretty rare in NA. And it'd be imported in the first place.

God damn it.

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Lol. If I do 5Side I'm good.

 

[Aeana]

wait wait Sinatar you're playing the wrong fan translation, please get this one: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/967/

 

[Sinatar]

wait wait Sinatar you're playing the wrong fan translation, please get this one: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/967/

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Ok good thing I posted that then.

 

[Magyscar]

Tempted to give this a go. Always had an interest in the series but the only game I've played was on the DS, think it was IV. Can't say I particularly enjoyed it. How is that game regarded by fans of the series?

 

[Aeana]

Tempted to give this a go. Always had an interest in the series but the only game I've played was on the DS, think it was IV. Can't say I particularly enjoyed it. How is that game regarded by fans of the series?

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The DS game is the 6th game and it's horrible. Horrribleeeee. It made me quit gaming for 6 months, and I'm a huge fan of this series. :(

 

[Magyscar]

The DS game is the 6th game and it's horrible. Horrribleeeee. It made me quit gaming for 6 months, and I'm a huge fan of this series. :(

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Ok that's reassuring in a way. I honestly could't even finish it, bored me to tears. I think I remember you talking about it a bit on the old forum as well actually.

I will probably give this a go. I think my idea of the series is unfairly tainted by that DS game so I should fix that.

 

[Narag]

This sounds like a great idea. Hopefully it'll motivate me to get through some games I've left backogged.

 

[decoyplatypus]

This sounds like fun. I'll start right now.

 

[saenima]

I might give this a go. Was trying to finally go through FF II but i don't think that's gonna happen :/

 

[Deleted member 419]

Well I'm all ready to go. Looking forward to giving this a spin.

Just to reiterate, make sure you have the latest translation patch. There's a link to it in the OP.

 

[Sinatar]

Man the encounter rate in this is pretty obscene. I've gotten a fight every 2 steps in this sewer.

 

[Aeana]

I just went through the sewer and found d it pretty fair, but I think my tolerance might be high compared to most. It helps that you have a harem to speed up battles with though...

 

[Magyscar]

Heartbreaking intro. Poor pigs :(

 

[Deleted member 419]

Heartbreaking intro. Poor pigs :(

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Yea seriously. They did nothing wrong... :'(

Great music so far, though that seems to pretty much come with the territory with SNES JRPGs.

 

[MoonFrog]

Quite curious about this. I'm used to random Greek names in my games but I'm really wondering if it will feel different in this game, i.e. wondering about the Greek trappings of it all.

Idk it is not like it is about the time period I studied works from and studied (that makes me sad...I still do, damn it! Not going to give that up) or any historical time period but...I'm still very curious.

I was going to vote but then I thought voting SNES might be too much my comfort zone :P (and ended up not voting).

...

I think I can try it in about a week.

 

[Neoleo2143]

I always wanted to take a look at this game.

 

[Aeana]

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THE HAND

Keep an eye out for weapon trainers, because if your character doesn't have skill with a particular weapon, they will do poor damage/miss a lot.

 

[Magyscar]

The first boss looked pretty rad.

Is it ok to steal stuff if there is no one else in the party? It's hard not to search everything.

 

[Sinatar]

Alright time to call it a night. Without getting spoilery I just got my "captain's license".

 

[Nairume]

After sitting on this game for over a decade, I finally decided to give it another shot. Thankfully I caught the warning about the new patch, otherwise I'd have been stuck with the older one.

Setting out on our adventure with a name and our new best friend

Spoiler

Piggies noooo

This game hates pigs

What a twist

That's a lot of party members

Also this happened

Ah, some good old fashioned combat. Refreshing.

I forgot how refreshingly quick this game starts up.

 

[Aeana]

I'll reiterate again, don't forget to take all of your immortal characters to shrines. You have to take each one! It's easy to forget to take your second char to Demeter shrine.

 

[StormEagle]

So can anyone just join in? And how steep is the learning curve? Is this game manageable for someone that isn't a big fan of JRPG menu combat?
This game wasn't high on my radar, but I will try to find a copy this week.

 

[Aeana]

So can anyone just join in? And how steep is the learning curve? Is this game manageable for someone that isn't a big fan of JRPG menu combat?
This game wasn't high on my radar, but I will try to find a copy this week.

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Anybody can join in, yes. In terms of combat, it's fairly traditional. If you don't like menu-driven RPGs then you may want to avoid it, because it's DQ style combat through and through.

 

[MoonFrog]

The hope is that more than just the people active in the community (be it forum or discord) join in.

 

[Shingi_70]

How do I patch the game to run English?

 

[Nairume]

In regards to the trust system

Spoiler

I still haven't picked up anybody beyond the Sprites that have already peaced out. I've just gotten to the one town where the old man is begging somebody to come in and steal his daughter's old things so he can move on. If I do this before I recruit allies, will that affect the Trust rank, or will that only happen if I have party members (ala Star Ocean 2 only docking you for pickpocketing and other crimes if you aren't on a Private Action) ...or is it all moot because the old guy wants the stuff to be stolen and the game won't penalize me for it period.

 

[Prophaniti]

God damn it.

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Lmao this killed me.