Hercules no Eikō IV: Kamigami kara no Okurimono
| Developer(s) | Data East |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Data East Paon (Virtual Console) |
| Writer(s) | Kazushige Nojima |
| Composer(s) | Shōgo Sakai |
| Platform(s) | Super Famicom Virtual Console |
| Release | Super Famicom Virtual Console |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Hercules no Eikō IV: Kamigami kara no Okurimono (ヘラクレスの栄光IV 神々からの贈り物, "The Glory of Hercules IV: Gift from the Gods") is a Japanese role-playing video game developed and released by Data East in 1994 for the Super Famicom. It is the fifth installment of the Hercules no Eikō series (fourth game in the main series), released after the portable spinoff Hercules no Eikō: Ugokidashita Kamigami.
The game was made available for the Wii Virtual Console in 2008 for 800 Wii points.[1]
Gameplay
The player takes the role of a young man whose spirit was separated from his body. The player must progress by having the spirit enter and take control over the bodies of various humans and animals encountered along the way.
Plot and setting
The game's plot and setting are very loosely based around various episodes from Greek mythology, with a particular focus on Atlantis and the tale of Pandora's box. The game's story was written by Kazushige Nojima, who would later achieve widespread recognition for his work on Final Fantasy VII.
Characters
- Hero
- The game's main character is a student and soldier who was living in Atlantis. He enters Pandora's box along with Aremoa and Platon during the country's demise, and his spirit is later returned to earth by the Moirae. The hero no longer has possession of his own body, and must travel the world by entering and controlling the bodies of other creatures.
- Platon
- The hero's sidekick is a young man who has a passion for literature. The Moirae erased Platon's memory, and his spirit was released into the body of a lumberjack. He also sets off on a journey of his own, and is eventually reunited with the hero. Platon keeps a diary of the events in the game, which is similar to the diary kept by Reion in Hercules no Eikō III.
- Epipher
- Epipher was a classmate of the hero and Platon before being buried alive during the destruction of Atlantis.
- Hercules
- In this installment, Hercules has awaited the appearance of the heroes for over 9000 years since the destruction of Atlantis.
- Aremoa
- This character was the instructor for the hero, Platon, and Epipher before the destruction of Atlantis. He was in the midst of a romantic relationship with Epipher's older sister, and began conducting research on eternal life after her death.
Story
The story begins in Atlantis, a country surrounded by towering fortifications that separate it from the rest of the world. However, the Greek army begins a siege on Atlantis just as a tremendous storm erupts, destroying the fortifications and causing Atlantis to become flooded with sea-water. The Greeks begin to massacre the people of Atlantis, and the survivors escape into an orichalcum mine, not knowing that the Greeks had stormed Atlantis in order to obtain the orichalcum.
Aremoa tells the survivors that they need to head towards the deepest part of the mine in order to stay alive, but the only ones that manage to arrive there are the hero, Epipher, Platon, and Aremoa himself. Aremoa reveals that Epipher's older sister, long thought to be deceased, was actually alive, and Epipher bursts outside in search of her sister. The same instant, the mine begins to collapse, trapping the remaining three characters inside. Aremoa decides to preserve the memory of Atlantis by placing himself, the hero, and Platon inside of the box of orichalcum (later revealed to be Pandora's box), where their bodies will remain forever without decomposing. As his two students begin to pass out, Aremoa warns them to refrain from drinking out of the river in the world of the dead, since the water will cause them to lose all of the memories they had while they were alive. Aremoa wishes for them to be reincarnated while still preserving their memories, and eventually return to Atlantis where their bodies are being kept. Aremoa also takes his own life, and all three of the characters' spirits travel to the afterworld.
Thousands of years later, the world is suddenly overrun with dangerous otherworldly creatures, and the Moirae decide to revive the three spirits to have them investigate the cause of the phenomenon. Aremoa's spirit is sent into the body of a young man with the memories of Atlantis kept intact as Aremoa had hoped. However, Aremoa's spirit is filled with the desire for revenge, an evil that took control over his spirit inside Pandora's box, and he begins a plan to take revenge on Zeus for destroying Atlantis. Because of this, the Moirae decide to erase Platon's memory and transfer his spirit into the body of a lumberjack. However, this caused Platon to simply continue living the life of the lumberjack instead of fulfilling his intended objective. The hero's spirit is returned to earth with his memories still intact, but he accidentally enters the body of a dog instead of a human. The Moirae explains that the hero is now immortal, and can take control over the bodies of certain humans and animals, and promises to grant him a new life if he successfully completes his mission.
References
- ^ "VC ヘラクレスの栄光IV 神々の贈り物" (in Japanese). Nintendo. Retrieved 2008-08-03.