Heracles no Eikou

Heracles no Eikou: Toujin Makyouden (ヘラクレスの栄光 闘人魔境伝) is an RPG, developed by Data East and published on the Famicom in 1987. The game is regarded as one of the earliest Dragon Quest clones, albeit a fairly good one with a total size more equivalent to Dragon Quest II. The game is roughly based upon the Greek mythology that depicts the 12 labors of Heracles. Additionally, Heracles must help the goddess Aphrodite (unfortunately given the Roman name of Venus), who is trapped in Hades. Some of the monsters associated with the 12 labors appear as the 12 bosses in the game. Others of the 12, have nothing to do with anything in any mythology and were created just for the game.

The game was known for a few difficult features. These included certain items that are required to clear the game that must be sold or thrown away if acquired too early, as the players inventory is severely limited. Fortunately, if done so, the player simply has to get a password and re-start the game with the password, as the game does not save anything about what the player has done, found, or killed, only what he has in his inventory, his gold, his experience level, and which towns he has visited. Also, characters sometimes give confusing or vague advice in the middle of the adventure, causing the player to lose their way. Often, the key to figuring out what to do requires hearing different parts of the hint from different people, and putting them together.

The series contains six games altogether; two on the Famicom, followed by one on the Super Famicom, one on the Game Boy, another on the Super Famicom and finally one on the DS, the only to be released outside of Japan.

Differences from other RPGs

 * Rather than finding a town icon and entering a blown up map of the town, towns and the world map are one and the same. There is no division between the two.  This allows NPCs to walk outside of towns.
 * Unlike many RPGs, you can converse with the bosses.
 * Two handed weapons, when equipped, still allow you equip a shield, but the make the equipped shield useless, as it absorbs no hits.
 * Weapons and armor have a durability. Each time you attack with a weapon, or defend an attack with your armor, the durability of the item decreases.  If it reaches 0, the item is broken and lost.  To restore the durability, you must visit the blacksmith, Hephaistos, who only resides in Athens.  Additionally, you can hire him for 5000G so that he will automatically restore the durability of an item at the end of a battle, but he takes up a valuable slot in your inventory.
 * Hercules has no MP, but he can use magic by using re-usable magic items he finds or buys, but they deplete his HP.
 * Different weapons are more efficient against different kinds of enemies. Axes, hammers and swords are strong against land enemies, the Trident is strong against sea enemies, and the Silver Bow is strong against flight enemies.  You can change between three weapons at any time, but this uses up one turn in battle.

Story
In the land of Greece, the gods lived above in the Heavenly Realm, and the people resided below in peace. One day however, that peace was broken. The goddess Aphrodite, who gave men peace of mind, was kidnapped and fear and worry became rampant across the land. The gods discovered that Aphrodite was stolen away by Hades, ruler of the underworld. And so Zeus instructs Heracles to subdue Lord Hades and rescue Aphrodite in order to return peace to the land.