The game formerly known as Eternal Chronicle for the Nintendo DS from developer PAON has now been seemingly rebranded as ‘Glory of Heracles - Proof of the Soul’, a successor to an extremely popular Japanese role-playing series from back in the 1980s that spanned the NES, Super Nintendo and Game Boy, and has been likened to Square Enix’s Dragon Quest games.

Nintendo and PAON are teaming up once again, following the success of Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber on the Nintendo DS, this time to bring out an impressive looking role-playing adventure for the DS portable format. The game was previously known as ‘Eternal Chronicle’ and was initially revealed last year alongside Monolith Soft’s already released Soma Bringer, but will no go under the name ‘Herakles no Eikou’ or ‘Glory of Heracles’. According to duckroll of NeoGAF, next week’s edition of Shonen Jump magazine in Japan will have the scoop on this next big release from Nintendo.

Previous entries into the series came from Data East, but it looks like, just as with Fatal Frame, Nintendo is stepping in to resurrect a classic. According to details released so far, when the game begins, the game’s main character is washed up on the shore of an island called Creta and, as seems to be the norm in RPGs nowadays, has absolutely no memory of who they are or why they are indeed immortal…Characters shown so far include Logos, a female immortal who discovers the protagonist on the shore, as well as Shukion, an immortal male that has a graceful figure and is met in a place called Knossos.

For those completely in the dark about the series, below is a brief overview of each game released so far, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Glory of Heracles: The first game in the series was released on the Famicom and MSX in 1987. Like many RPGs of the time, the game shared many similarities with the previously released Dragon Quest. The protagonist and namesake of the game is Heracles, and the main antagonist is the Greek god of the underworld, Hades.

Glory of Heracles II: The series’ second game was released two years later on the Famicom, in 1989. This time, in true Dragon Quest fashion, the protagonist was merely a nameless hero, instead of being Heracles himself. This time, instead of going alone, the hero was joined by other companions, including a neurotic centaur and a living statue. The titan Cronos replaces Hades as the main antagonist. This game was the first in the series to gain any real notoriety in the English-speaking world, as it was the first one to be fully fan-translated into English.

Glory of Heracles III: The third installment of the series made the jump to the 16-bit world by being released on the Famicom’s successor, the Super Famicom in 1992. The game features improved graphics and an odd border surrounding the playing screen.

Glory of Heracles: Snap Story: Later in 1992, Data East released its first and only portable game in the series, for the Game Boy. In this game, the player reprises the role of Heracles, and the graphics are very reminiscent to the second game in the series, and many sprites are taken directly from that game.

Glory of Heracles IV: The fifth and final game of the series was released on the Super Famicom in 1994. The game boasts impressive graphics and is a culmination of the advancements the series made in its previous four installments.

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