History VideoGame / ZeusMasterOfOlympus

* BadassGrandpa: Theseus' beard is already going gray, but that doesn't stop him from kicking ass.

* DeusExMachina: The actor walker is probably meant to invoke this (as an actual ancient theater trope), wearing a winged costume and being seen caught in the machine that descends him from heaven. When near a monster he fervently wishes for one.

* ExactWords: The Symphonia Ithikos prevents Atlanteans from raising arms against anyone except in self-defense, under penalty of divine retribution. Later levels clarify that this only applies on the actual continent of Atlantis, leaving you free to send your armies against Mayans, Phoenicians, and Greeks.

** Atlas sends Hercules to widen the Strait of Gibraltar. In-game, there's a flood that plows through the strait, widening it.

* GradualGrinder: Attacking a full-strength city is usually suicide, it's better to continuously raid them for supplies and chip away at their strength.

** Played straight with the auto-combat system in which troop movements are handled by the computer, usually resulting in losses because the troops only go to their preset positions instead of defending outlying suburbs.
** Honoring the gods can net you some very interesting blessings such as increasing trade frequency or instantly killing enemy armies. However, to prevent you from getting overly reliant on them there is a limit to how often you can pray/hold festivals per year. Furthermore, sacrifices regularly lower your sheep/goats/cattle, which need to be manually replaced (there's no automatic warning that your livestock population is getting low).

* WellDoneSonGuy: Averted: Atlas regularly approves his child's achievements, and ends the campaign claiming to be proud to be your father.

* AssholeVictim: No one mourns when Bellerophon falls from his horse on his way to Olympus. Even when he survives the fall, no one wants anything to do with him.

** Heroes have very heavy requirements (such as 32 of a resource, large armies, or even a functioning sanctuary) before you can summon them. Fortunately, monsters can eventually be killed by regular troops or rarely by an outmatched hero.

** It's possible to have enough high-level housing to have an army consisting entirely of horsemen/chariots. Quite aside from finding the space to house them, sending them all on campaign leaves you with only static defenses, and invites attack from other cities.

* EinsteinHair: Atlantean inventors and astronomers.

* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Averted with Ares, Theseus, Achilles, Hector and hoplites, who always keep their face-concealing helmets on.

** The actor school's line "Build me a pyre to roast my friends upon" is almost a literal quotation from ''Theatre/{{Lysistrata}}'', as is "For Athens' sake I will never threaten so fell a doom" (and is indeed one of the womens' lines, being spoken by Lysistrata herself).

* SuperStrength: One of Hercules' quests in ''Poseidon'' is to widen the strait that connects the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Atlas himself perfoms a similar feat by tricking Hercules into holding up the sky for a while.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Monsters ''can'' be defeated by using military units and very rarely by the "wrong" hero, but it takes so long you might as well develop the infrastructure needed to get the appropriate hero to the city.

* CurbstompBattle: Sometimes a summmoned hero will run into his monster before he's made it to his hall. The monster dies instantly.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Orichalcum-enhanced towers can sometimes turn even attacking gods to stone.

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: If an attacking city destroys your palace, you can continue playing as their vassal. If you're conquered by someone else and the original conqueror returns and wins, you lose the level.

* ShoutOut: The actor school's line "Build me a pyre to roast my friends upon" is almost a literal quotation from ''Theatre/{{Lysistrata}}''.

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Bellerophon turns out to be one, demanding sumptuous living quarters for himself in just about every level he's in (in one Atlantis mission, you need to summon him on a tiny, cramped island that barely has enough resources for the city, so that he can go look for the FountainOfYouth for Aphrodite).

* ChallengeSeeker: "[[IncomingHam I am Hercules]], and I'm ready for a challenge. What have you got?"

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Zeus'' is considerably easier and way more forgiving than ''Caesar III'' and ''Pharaoh''; buildings are automatically staffed, as there are no labor-seeking walkers anymore. A single building provides maintenance and fires can be put out before the building is consumed. There is only one single type of food and fewer types of goods and services required to fully evolve houses, and no complex fertility system. Taxation can be implemented from the start, as unlike in Phraoh, the infrastructure to set it up is quite cheap. Wages can quickly lower or rise the labor pool. There is no rating system, no gods to appease by default (the hostile ones can still damage the city), and no painfully slow recruitment system, as the basic housing provides weak but free and numerous soldiers from the start to defend the city, with elite housing providing strong soldiers and cavalry. Invasions are not always inherently deadly, as the enemy can be bribed off or the city can lose/surrender once and become a vassal, even to several cities. Everything is cheaper, and fortifications are no longer prohibitibely expensive. In campaign mode, all the treasury is carried over from one mission to the next, which usually translates to only the first episode being a financial challenge.

* ShoutOut: The actor's line "Build me a pyre to roast my friends upon" is almost a literal quotation from ''Theatre/{{Lysistrata}}''

* TakenForGranite: The fate of people who run into Medusa or orichalcum-enhanced towers.

** Dionysus is a permanently drunken, fun-loving guy who increases you wine production and even gives you some if prayed to, but he'll unleash madwomen on the city, curse the wineries, and send walkers to eternal drunkeness.
** Demeter gives you free food. If she hates you, she goes around destroying crops and agoras.

** The gods are arranged in order of strength, with Zeus naturally being at the top. However, he's not entirely invulnerable, as having Hera around will cause him to flee.

** Honoring the gods can net you some very interesting blessings such as increasing trade frequency or instantly killing enemy armies. However, to prevent you from getting overly reliant on them there is a limit to how often you can pray/hold festivals per year. Further, sacrifices regularly lower your sheep/goats/cattle, which need to be manually replaced (there's no automatic warning that your livestock population is getting low).

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Monsters ''can'' be defeated by using military units, but it takes so long you might as well develop the infrastructure needed to get the appropriate hero to the city.

* AnachronismStew: It's possible to have Perseus and Hercules (Perseus' great-grandson) running around at the same time.

* SuperweaponSurprise: ''Very'' surprising: The Atlanteans, under Ares' guidance, are building a superweapon to deal with Greek threats once and for all. Unfortunately, a Greek manages to infiltrate and fire the weapon at Atlantis itself, destroying the sanctuary of Poseidon., before sabotaging it so it can't be used again. It's used in the final level to weaken Mycenae, and in another campaign where it succeeds in destroying Atlantis.

* UnreliableNarrator: The Atlantean narrator seesm blissfully unaware that his actions might be interpreted as BlatantLies by people unhappy with Atlantean expansionism.

** Poseidon's monster is the Kraken. Note that it's not the GiantSquid of NorseMythology, it's a giant talking fish-man (closer to the actual SeaMonster killed by Perseus, named Cetus).

''Zeus: Master of Olympus'' (2000) is part of the ''VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries'' taking place, as the name suggests, in AncientGreece. Players seek to build up their city-states while fending off attacks from rival cities, ferocious monsters, and even gods while calling on the greatest heroes of GreekMythology to help them.

** There are two entities named Atlas in GreekMythology: the Titan (son of Gaia and Ouranos) holding up the sky and the first king of Atlantis (son of Poseidon). [[CompositeCharacter The game conflates the two after the latter ascends to Olympus.]]

* AtlantisIsBoring: Mostly averted, though it's telling that Greek cultural interests (sports, philosophy and theater) are replaced by earning, scientific conferences and astronomy.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Sanctuaries are high-appeal buildings that provide divine favor and can provide you with otherwise-difficult to obtain resources. Unfortunately, they're also ''huge'', take a lot of time, marble, wood and sculptures to build, need a lot of workers, and if your city produces fleece, cheese or cattle, will require constant monitoring and replenishing of your flocks as priests take animals for sacrifice.

** If you let monsters run amok until the final level, you can then use multiple heroes for the last map.

* BadassBoast: "I'm Perseus, and I cannot be stopped"

* ChallengeSeeker: "I am Hercules, and I'm ready for a challenge. What do you got?"

** Anytime a previously-invulnerable city is weakened by the plot (TrojanHorse, Atlantean superweapon...), the only in-game explanation is that the city's leader has decided to greatly reduce his military.

** Though never named, the player character of the Proetus and Beleerophon campaign is either king Iobates or his (unnamed) wife, the parents of Stethenoboea.

* OddballInTheSeries: The tone and artwork are notably more [[LighterAndSofter cartoonish]] than in the rest of the series, with the narration, events and exposition usually relying on sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor. Also, unlike the other games, ''Zeus'' doesn't use the name of a political, human leader (since Ancient Greece wasn't a unified entity) in the title, but goes with a mythological one instead. Several key mechanics are notably simplified, something that get mostly reverted in ''Emperor''

* UnblockableAttack: Gods and monsters can't be prevented from rampaging around. Ares and Artemis' troops can be engaged as normal, however.

--> At my bidding, fertile farmland will no longer be fertile, and all that is growing upon it, will ''''':die.'''''

* OddballInTheSeries: The tone and artwork are notably more [[LighterAndSofter cartoonish]] than in the rest of the series, with the narration, events and exposition usually relying on sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor. Also, unlike the other games, ''Zeus'' doesn't use the name of a political, human leader (since Ancient Greece wasn't a unified entity) in the title, but goes with a mythological one instead.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Zeus'' is considerably easier and way more forgiving than ''Caesar III'' and '''Pharaoh'''; buildings are automatically staffed, as there are no labor-seeking walkers anymore. A single building provides maintenance and fires can be put out before the building is consumed. There is only one single type of food and fewer types of goods and services required to fully evolve houses, and no complex fertility system. Taxation can be implemented from the start, as unlike in Phraoh, the infrastructure to set it up is quite cheap. Wages can quickly lower or rise the labor pool. There is no rating system, no gods to appease by default (the hostile ones can still damage the city), and no painfully slow recruitment system, as the basic housing provides weak but free and numerous soldiers from the start to defend the city, with elite housing providing strong soldiers and cavalry. Invasions are not always inherently deadly, as the enemy can be bribed off or the city can lose/surrender once and become a vassal, even to several cities. Everything is cheaper, and fortifications are no longer prohibitibely expensive. In campaign mode, all the treasury is carried over from one mission to the next, which usually translates to only the first episode being a financial challenge.

* ShoutOut: The actor's line "Build me a pire to roast my friends upon" is almost a literal quotation from "Theatre/{{Lysistrata}}"

** Heroes have very heavy requirements (such as 32 of a resource, large armies, or even a functioning sanctuary) before you can summon them. Fortunately, monsters can (eventually) be killed by regular troops.

* BadassBoast: "I'm Perseus, and I cannot be defeated"

[[caption-width-right:350]]

The sequel, ''Poseidon: Master of Atlantis'', puts the player in charge of {{Atlantis}}.

[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

''Zeus: Master of Olympus'' is part of the ''VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries'' taking place, as the name suggests, in AncientGreece. Players seek to build up their city-states while fending off attacks from rival cities, ferocious monsters, and even gods while calling on the greatest heroes of GreekMythology to help them.

** Poseidon sends [[{{Kaiju}} Kraken]].

** The [HarpingOnAboutHarpies Harpy]] (a giant bird with a woman's head) and [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Echidna]] (usually half-snake half woman, here a woman's head on a snake's body) attack on their own.

* InstantVictoryCondition: Colony missions only require you to have a certain amount of resources sent back to the parent city, as you're there to set up basic industries, one of which will be their tribute in following missions. In fact, you can simply ask around for the necessary resources and win in a few minutes.

''Zeus: Master of Olympus'' is part of the ''VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries'' taking place, as the name suggests, in AncientGreece. Players seek to build up their city-states while fending off attacks from rival cities, ferocious monsters, and even gods while calling on the greatest heroes of GreekMyth to help them.

The sequel, Poseidon: Master of Atlantis, puts the player in charge of {{Atlantis}}.

* BeastOfBurden: Greeks use oxen to carry heavy loads around, while Atlanteans use elephants.

** Aphrodite sends [[Literature/TheIlliad Hector]].

* CreatorBacklash: InnUniverse example, one of the enemy gods in the minicampaign "The Sinking of Atlantis" is Atlas himself.

--> Mommy Echidna and Daddy Typhon will be so proud of their little girl!

* InstantVictoryConditions: Colony missions only require you to have a certain amount of resources sent back to the parent city, as you're there to set up basic industries, one of which will be their tribute in following missions. In fact, you can simply ask around for the necessary resources and win in a few minutes.

--> [=I'mHermes!Worshipme,andsomeofyourcitizenswilltastemyspeed!]

* Narm: [[Invoked]] One outcome for the Pythian games is for your actors to reduce the crowd to tears. Unfortunately, they were performing a comedy.

* NonIdentityGeneral:

* Orichalcum: Known as orichalc, the ore appears as a red metal in the Poseidon expansion, used in defensive towers, warships, and monument decoration.

* PlayerCenteredMorality: Attacking an ally is a heinous act that ensures no one wants to work with you. Attacking a rival? No problem whatsoever.

** Poseidon's monster is the Kraken. Note that it's not the GiantSquid of NorseMyth, it's a giant talking FishMan (closer to the actual SeaMonster killed by Perseus, named Cetus).

* SsssnakeTalk: Sssscylla and the hydra, with ssssimilar lines to boot.

--> At my bidding, fertile farmland will no longer be fertile, and all that is growing upon it, will [[evil:die.]]