Overall 6.5 Graphics 7 Sound 5 Addictive 2 Story 1 Depth 4 Difficulty 6
5
Grindfest of Olympus Supergamer
Battle of Olympus is an adventure game on the NES based on Greek Mythology. Now, I’m a fan of both greek mythology and adventure games, so I thought that I would enjoy it . Well, unfortunately, I was wrong on that part.
Story Battle of Olympus is one of the followers of the damsel in distress trope. However, even worse is the fact of how wrong they get elements of greek mythology.The hero's actual name is in fact Orpheus, as in the musician that could charm everything with his music. I think that using Orpheus as the name for the hero is pretty dumb since his legend is more tragic than heroic. It would have been better to name the hero Perseus since he's a brave warrior in his legend. Furthermore, the game only has, outside of bosses, two characters from greek mythology as enemies. The bosses though are fortunately fully based on greek legend, but a couple of them are incorrectly designed. For example, the hydra is depicted as a singular serpent. But, despite my gripes with the misuse of greek legend, I still think that the overall story is very lazy. Thankfully though, the graphics fair much better.
Graphics Now, the sprites are actually kinda detailed in this game; for the NES anyways. The environment has a fair amount of detail that was possible back in those days. However, the only real detailed character sprites are the bosses and the gods. Of course, in regards to the gods, they are only four types of god sprites: Zeus, bearded god, beardless god, and goddess. Now, while the graphics are somewhat nice the sound is less so.
Sound Battle of Olympus’ musical tracks are a little nice to listen, but they become rather blaring. Now, while I didn’t find the music to be very good, the sound effects are somewhat alright. But, it is the gameplay itself that causes the music to become blaring.
Gameplay Battle of Olympus plays similar to Zelda II’s side-scrolling sections in terms of general gameplay. You walk and fight the way Link did in Zelda II, Of course similar to Link, you have a rather pathetic attack range, which only extends when you have a weapon with a ranged attack. And you can switch between the weapons, but that quickly becomes useless later on. Now, Battle of Olympus is somewhat nonlinear, and while you can enter almost area, you may not be able fully explore said area with a certain item.
It becomes rather annoying to walk through these areas multiple times, and killing those same enemies that you already killed when you previously visited the area. Now, you can get items to improve yourself, and most of them can be found. However, the rest of them have to bought from the gods. Oh, and the currency in the game is olives and not, you know, coins. Now, getting enough olives to buy items from the gods is perhaps the most annoying thing in this game. I spent such a long time in the same area killing enemies hoping they’d an olive that the music just becomes blaring. The rest of the items are gained through exploration, and I have to say that exploring is a bit annoying. Now. as for the items themselves most of them are upgrades (damage, health, resistance), but a three of the items are kinda useless. First off, the harp, it’s the only way to fast travel, but from I saw it has only one location. That has to be the most worthless example of the fast travel mechanic. Secondly, the sandals of hermes’ ability to cling to ceilings is only useful in just one area, and it’s annoying trying to get back down. Lastly, the shields, you can only block projectiles when standing still, and switching back and forth from standing to barely moving forward repeatedly to get close to the enemy is extremely annoying. Furthermore, the shields are less useful when you get the sandals since you can easily jump over projectiles. Now, I wish this game had better weapons since the pure thrusting combat can make it annoying to hit jumping or flying enemies. Oh, and let’s not forget that beloved feature of getting hit knocks you back, which becomes worse when swarmed by enemies. However, despite that the game is only really difficult in certain areas, I even beat a boss by standing in one spot and jumping to hit its head. It is because all of these reasons that Battle of Olympus can be a frustrating game.
Battle of Olympus is a game that I thought I would enjoy after seeing it before at RPG Classics Shrine, and being a fan of greek mythology. Unfortunately, the mythology part of it is rather misplaced, and the gameplay itself is a little frustrating. The game also features quite a bit of grinding that only serves to artificially lengthen the game’s length. Ultimately, I think that Battle of Olympus is a rather lukewarm title, and you’re probably better off playing its inspiration.
Graphics 7 Sound 5 Addictive 2 Story 1 Depth 4 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 09-30-15
Updated: 10-11-15
Review Replies: 3
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