The Battle of Olympus (NES)
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And, as I’ve written before, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Nintendo was the recipient of much flattery. While most games of this nature simply pulled some elements from Nintendo’s most popular games while still remaining original, some were hilariously obvious in their imitation. Neutopia on the TG-16 is an example of this (and this isn’t a knock on Neutopia, I adore that game). For the first part of this Retrospection, we’re looking at a game whose developers openly admired and emulated an NES classic. That game is The Battle of Olympus.
The origins of The Battle of Olympus begin with obscure Japanese developer, Infinity. While Infinity had two games under their belt, Olympus would be their first original property. Drawing inspiration directly from Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, Yukio Horimoto (programmer, designer, and president of Infinity) pitched the idea of an epic game based on Greek mythology to Imagineer, the publisher of Infinity’s previous two titles and was given the green light to proceed. The team that came together to make the title consisted of only three people: Horimoto, Kazuo Sawa (composer), and Reiko Oshida (story and graphics). As an aside, Horimoto and Oshida had met while making Infinity’s first game and would marry during the development of Olympus. From Horimoto in an interview with USGamer: “We fell in love and wanted to make our own game together, so we talked about the game concept for a long time. I like Greek myths and legends, so we decided to base our game on those legends. Given those circumstances,” he says, “we talked about the game, and our mood influenced it.”
Gameplay for Olympus is very similar to Zelda 2, excepting the overhead portions. The game is a sidescroller, but allows you quite a bit of freedom in advancing. You are often pointed in the correct direction by interacting with villagers or by encountering an obstacle that you can’t yet pass, similar to Metroid. Items and weapons are found or bought from the Greek Gods, and allow for further exploration of the world.
The Battle of Olympus was released in Japan in 1988 by Imagineer, in North America by Broderbund in 1989, and in Europe by Nintendo in 1991. Interestingly, the game was also ported to Gameboy for the European market. Upon release, Olympus received mixed to positive reviews, with reviewers noting the similarities to Zelda 2. More recent reviews have been very similar, with the game being looked upon in a mostly positive light as a clone of Zelda 2.
- Battle of Olympus is a shameless rip-off of Nintendo’s Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, boasting the same sort of graphics — in particular, human characters who might have been directly ripped from that game. At least they picked a good game to steal from, as this lack of originality isn’t a bad thing. (Honest Gamers)
- What makes the strangeness work in Battle of Olympus is that the game is so matter-of-fact about it. While you’re wandering through Laconia, the teleporting, spell-casting crones known as the Graeae just suddenly appear – there’s no fanfare, no big cut-scene building up to this boss fight. At Peloponnesus, Cyclops appears in similarly inauspicious fashion. The takeaway is that this weirdness is simply part of the fabric of mythological Greece. And as a result, the world is more intriguing and unsettling than it would be if Battle of Olympus tried to go the God of War route. (EuroGamer)
- The game’s writing and slight humor is a high point. Unlike many others, the clues and information make sense, are helpful, and was translated with care. I actually looked forward to talking to the inhabitants, plus all of the gods have different personalities and the mythological beasts are really cool. The story is better than most other games, although some of the imagery is a little too light for Greek Mythology and I wish this had a darker tone. (Nintendo Times)
I say this far too often, but The Battle of Olympus is all but lost to the modern gamer. It has never been revisited on an eshop, it’s not part of any collections. It has become very obscure, as a matter of fact. I only recently became aware of this game, but felt that I needed to snap up a copy given the comparisons to Zelda 2, which I adore (I have since obtained a copy and look forward to giving it a play through). If there’s a positive to the obscurity, it’s that it is not an expensive NES game to find on Ebay. So, if you are a fellow Zelda 2 fan, this could be another title for you to pickup.
Legacy of the Wizard (NES)
Falcom has long been a favorite developer of mine. Be it Legend of Heroes or Ys (one of my absolute favorite franchises), I am generally a fan of any game they develop. So imagine my surprise when I discovered they had an NES game that I was largely unaware of. A game released in North America, when so many of their early games were not. Yes, much like The Battle of Olympus, I had managed to miss a game that landed in a genre I love. That game is Legacy of the Wizard.
Falcom (now Nihon Falcom) is a Japanese developer founded in 1981. While they cut their teeth on PC games in the early 1980’s, they began working on consoles with the release of Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished for the Master System in 1987 (now, if you want to consider the MSX and MSX2 consoles, then that year becomes 1984). While they were probably best known for the Ys series, they also had a series that had launched in 1984 called Dragon Slayer. In 1987, Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family was released in Japan. For the first time though, Falcom made the decision to localize a Dragon Slayer game to North America. As it would make no sense to keep the Japanese name, which is the fourth entry, the game was retitled Legacy of the Wizard, and released in North America in 1989 by Broderbund. Fun fact, the Legend of Heroes series actually began as part of the Dragon Slayer series, with the first two entries being Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes and Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes II (I actually own both of these on the Super Famicom, but no English patch yet exists, so I’ll either have to use Google translate or learn Japanese).
The gameplay of Legacy of the Wizard is quite unique. You play as members of the Worzen (or Warzen) family, which includes six members as well as pet dinosaur (?). One at a time, you journey out with them into a vast cavern/labyrinth with endless enemies, hidden items, and four bosses that must be defeated. Each character has unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and all are required to finish the game. Legacy of the Wizard is an action RPG and featured some of the earliest gameplay that we’ve come to know as Metroidvania.
From what I was able to find, which was not much, Legacy of the Wizard is generally looked upon as a good, if challenging, game. The reviews I could located constantly revisited the idea that this game requires great patience to complete (and possibly a hand drawn map).
- A dungeon crawler cross-bred with a platformer, Legacy of the Wizard had too-cute graphics that belied it deadly-hard gameplay. With a massive, winding labyrinth to explore and an entire family of characters to control, Wizard was one of the most challenging but rewarding hidden gems of the NES. (1Up)
- Overall, the game is really fun, even if it IS cryptic at times. Most of the time you can find your way through the dungeon pretty well as long as you’re aware of the existence of false walls leading to other screens and your need to stock up on everyone’s items before searching for crowns seriously. I still play this game from time to time (in fact, it was an urge to play through again that caused me to write this review), and its charm only grows on subsequent playthroughs because you actually know how to progress smoothly. (GameSpot)
So, how widely is this game available now? Yeah, you guessed it. Not very. At least, for English speaking audiences. It was released on cell phones in Japan, which is something. At the very least, the game lives on. Much like The Battle of Olympus, I picked this game up not too long after learning about it. Also like Olympus, if you’re looking to give this game a try, it’s not very expensive (I was able to get my hands on a complete copy at a very reasonable price). Given how creative and unique Falcom’s games are, especially in their early days, I would absolutely urge anyone with the ability to play an NES cartridge to give this game a try. Yes, it’s tough, but it’s also wildly unique and quite fun.
References:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/the-battle-of-olympus/
https://www.vg247.com/legend-of-love-the-making-of-the-battle-of-olympus
https://www.eurogamer.net/retrospective-the-battle-of-olympus-article
https://www.nintendotimes.com/1989/12/13/the-battle-of-olympus-review/
https://www.honestgamers.com/11746/nes/the-battle-of-olympus/review.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20160305041207/http://www.1up.com/features/hidden-gems-rest-nes?pager.offset=1
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/legacy-of-the-wizard/
https://www.gamespot.com/app.php/legacy-of-the-wizard/user-reviews/2200-561058/
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