Hero Senki: Crossover Games Before It Was Cool
Crossovers between similar pop culture properties have become fairly common recently. GI Joe and Transformers are an incredibly popular one, as well as Aliens or Predator crossing over with any other possible franchise. Hasbro’s Power Rangers have even joined in, crossing over with the Justice League and now the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. IDW has even announced a crossover between Transformers and Terminator, of all things. However, Japanese company Bandai has been doing some truly epic and bizarre crossovers since the early 90s under the twin banners of Super Robot Wars (Super Robot Taisen) and the Compatible Hero (Compati Hero) series.
Hero Chronicle: Project Olympus (aka Hero Senki) for the SNES (or Super Famicom) is one of the few games released by Bandai that falls under both banners through some weird plot twists and references. However, Hero Chronicle began its life as part of the Compatible Hero franchise. Starting in 1990, the series began as a completely off-the-wall variety game series featuring heroes from the franchises of Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Mobile Suit Gundam.
Seeing how Ultraman features normal humans becoming gigantic to fight Godzilla-sized kaiju, Kamen Rider features normal humans altered into normal-size cyborgs to fight Nazis and other evil, and Gundam features normal humans piloting smaller-than-Godzilla mecha in order to fight one another… huh. Normally, it would be hard to see where this could go. Japan being Japan. However, there was an instant idea: make them all human-sized when turning into their alternate forms or mecha.
The first game in the Compati Hero franchise was actually a Sumo-Wrestling game on the Nintendo Famicom, SD Battle Pro Sumo Wrestling: Heisei Hero Wrestle (SD Battle Oozumou: Heisei Hero Basho). Characters involved would simply just follow simplified rules of Sumo Wrestling and try to bash one another about. The concept was popular enough that spinoffs began to hit for the Super Nintendo.
SD The Great Battle, released in 1991 on the Super Famicom, was a top-down shooter akin to a faster-paced Legend of Zelda or Contra. 1991 would also bring a dodgeball game between the three franchises, and a top-down turn-based strategy game by Arc System Works. 1992 would feature a side-scrolling beat-em-up that continued the Great Battleline and a portable version on the Game Boy. And then, in late 1992, Bandai chose to make a turn-based role-playing game with as expansive a story as 1992 would allow.
Taking place in a world called Elpis, there are three major continents. Each one is inhabited by each major franchise: Mobile Suit Gundam, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman. How they break down in terms of role-playing games is that the Gundam characters focused on technology, the Kamen Riders focused on genetic engineering and personal modification. At the same time, the Ultras are just a species of magic people. In the year 098 CC, the governments of all three lands have chosen to make a unified force of good: ZEUS. Unfortunately, terrorists have also struck, destroying most methods of reaching any other city or continent. It’s up to the three main characters of ZEUS (and the fourth-slot-temporary-party-member) to take on the villains of all three franchises in order to restore peace to Elpis.
How the game breaks down is simple: wander from town to town in order to solve the issues of each city, invade the local dungeon or secret headquarters, and grind out levels. As the game goes on, more roads will be repaired, opening more cities to explore.
The Ultraman franchise started in 1966, featuring live-action combat akin to the old Godzilla movies with the hero turning into a giant alien to fight other monsters from outer space. In this game Ultras, (like the player character Ultraseven) are basically spellcasters. They have a massive spirit pool and some versatile abilities. This includes healing, which they can do for relatively cheap. However, they take more than normal damage and often move slowly in taking action. In one stretch of the game, the transformation trinket of Ultraseven is stolen, and you are forced to use the Windom capsule monster… who is an incredibly weak stand-in.
Kamen Rider started in 1971, with humans begin initially turned into cyborgs by Nazi remnants hiding in Japan. Before being brainwashed, the Riders would escape and fight their former captors through various means. Later shows would expand this with ancient alien cabals of death as well. In this game, Kamen Riders (like the player character Black) are like monks. They have a massive variety of melee attacks and a high level of strength. However, they’re basically glass cannons. Riders often have lower pools of HP and take damage at a similar pace to the Ultras. Black also winds up with a lot of powerful attacks, and several that can hit the entire enemy force at once.
Gundam began in 1979 and was a series of teen soldiers forced to fight in a horrible war with giant robots. Those Gundam characters (like the classic Gundam the player uses) are close to just plain warriors. They use melee weapons and ranged weapons, with some abilities that can hit entire teams of opponents. However, their spirit pool is relatively low and runs out quickly compared to the other two.
During your journey, the fourth player slot will be filled initially by Gilliam Yeager, an original character who uses the mecha Gespenst. While the idea behind him is to function as a jack of all trades with a built-in healing command, he literally vanishes a third of the way into the game and never comes back. Other characters that take his place function like guest party characters from Final Fantasy: you can’t change their equipment, and they take off before too long.
Gameplay itself actually is similar to the SNES Final Fantasies back in the day. All combat is turn-based, with a character’s speed determining turn order. Characters can choose a generic attack, special skills, a skill inherent to the character themselves, defend, or even flee combat. Where the differences mount is in the details. Technique Points can be earned by both fighting and by defeating opponents. This, aside from rare items and leveling up, is the only way to restore these points and highly adds to the grind.
Items can be purchased at Hospitals to revive characters mid-battle (they have 1 HP after the battle ends), to restore health, or cure status changes like blindness. There are also two different equipment slots for each character type: offensive and defensive. Basically, just buy the strongest item for each slot and apply them ASAP.
The plot is fairly paper-thin but works well for an early Super Famicom RPG. Again, it is comparable to the early Final Fantasy 4, and cameo appearances by other popular characters from all three franchises show up everywhere. There are plenty of character beats to both tug at nostalgia strings for fans and also let the player get to know the less familiar characters. There’s a real charm to seeing Kamen Rider Black spoil his disguise as one of the enemy Combatmen because they’ve taken a little girl hostage, and he just cannot stand it. You’re not about to see any revolutionary storytelling here, but the plot has plenty of minor twists as it unfolds.
The art is pretty solid for the era, though the human characters all tend to look very similar. Once in battle, however, the mecha and monsters look decidedly like their live-action and animated counterparts. It’s obvious that a bit of love went into this game, and it shows on this level. Music is also palatable, bringing to mind other JRPGs of the era. Unfortunately, this does not extend to the music used for hospitals and military headquarters. For some reason, the cartridge I use has incredibly tinny and sharp music that is somehow three levels louder than the rest of the game.
Hero Chronicle has a bit of a legacy, as well. Gilliam Yeager has become a surprise guest character for the Super Robot Wars franchise, specifically the Original Generation branch. His black Gespenst comes with him, and he even mentions his time on Elpis during a moment of rare reflection. The Compatible Hero line hasn’t quite gone either. While the side-scrolling brawler Great Battle franchise died in 1997, the strategy RPGs have been revived on the PSP and PS3, with the most recent coming out in 2014. Of course, they’re all still in Japanese while the two Original Generation games did receive a translation and release on the Game Boy Advance.
From Atlus games, so good luck finding a copy of those.
An unofficial translation for Hero Chronicle: Project Olympus has come out recently by fan group Aeon Genesis, and it is a complete game conversion into English. While we cannot show you how to obtain the cartridge digitally or how to add the patch, it’s safe to say this can be found out there in the wild. If you like JRPGs from the 16-bit era, Hero Chronicle is a fantastic little game and should be checked out.
