by RadiumEyes, HSM team writer

With the new season creeping closer to an end, the Home Challenges continue on the previous season’s offerings; along with the stalwarts seen earlier (such as those connected to Pottermore), the current batch includes new ones. From the Frost Heart mini game (hosted by Orson, king of the Northern Bears) to the LittleBigPlanet Home Derby, with WipeOut’s 2D racing along the way, Sony diversified the format; with so many spaces to include, they certainly had enough to choose from, and they delivered on that regard. Unsurprisingly, an all-new tier of rewards awaits the intrepid adventurer – such prizes include a full-body toy robot outfit, a gorilla head and a Greek bed.

Most of the costume items available through the new set are male – I can only recall one female item among the bunch, which is a bit disappointing, but nothing to get worked up over. Having to create new prizes for a new season does pose its own challenge, as repeat performances will be criticized; thankfully, this time around they have some different items available, and they’re decent fare, all told. I particularly liked the Moai statue – it definitely looks like what it’s supposed to be, and it would fit in nicely with island spaces. With that, though, the items don’t seem to have a unified theme; the ultimate reward happens to be the Greek Temple of Fratos, and the Greek bed you receive at the first tier happens to be the sole item that bears any relation to the new personal space you get for obtaining 4500 points. The same curiosity appeared in the inaugural season – but that’s not really a complaint. It’s more of an observation; the lower-tier rewards don’t have to adhere to the aesthetics of the top prize, after all, and offering more variety would actually be more beneficial. It allows the developers more freedom of creativity – nothing obligates them to have an entire series of rewards based on one motif, and the toy robot looks kinda cute to me. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor; although I never actually played with them, I do recall seeing pictures of wind-up robots from the 1950s, with science-fiction B-movies were all the rage and the “space race” took off.

But the topic of this article is the aforementioned temple – a rather splendid one, at that. It reminds me of Mt. Olympus, as the two relate to Greece and the pantheon of gods once venerated by early inhabitants; Rome made their own counterparts, of course, as mythology buffs may attest to, but since this is Greece, their versions of the gods would be more appropriate here. Like the Mt. Olympus space, Fratos contains a building that contains a single, wall-to-wall room, designed in a manner reminiscent of real-life equivalent; of course, Fratos itself doesn’t exist, so anyone wishing to see this particular construction will be dismayed.

The temple itself rests on a floating island, the bottommost portion of which resembles a hand; it’s like the gods themselves are holding it up. In the distance, once can spot another island or two, similarly supported; it appears someone uprooted this temple from its foundation, carrying it into the clouds. The exterior has a fountain, a nice addition to the atmosphere; as for the temple itself, it looks more to be an interpretation of Greek architecture than based on any specific model. If I had to make a guess, it follows the peripteral design seen in the Parthenon, one of the most famous early Greek structures; a temple itself, the Parthenon contains a row of columns surrounding the sanctuary (known as the naos). With the purple banners hanging from the frieze, it looks resplendent, if a little bare; the place has little in terms of decoration, and as mentioned, the challenges offered only a Greek bed as a related reward. If you wish to deck out your own temple, finding pertinent ornaments (such as statues) in other stores would be prudent; as it stands, it looks abandoned.

As a space, this looks nicer than Castle Durrant by a good margin – you have the entire temple at your disposal, as opposed to the courtyard and single room of the castle awarded in the initial season. Temples such at this usually don’t have many rooms, so having a larger interior available is a great way to go for the temple’s design; you’re given more room to decorate, and I can definitely see this and Mt. Olympus being used as part of a machinima. Think of the mini-epic one could produce with these two spaces in conjunction – it brings to mind some of the cheesy films like Conquest of Mycenae (a.k.a. Hercules versus Moloch), starring Gordon Scott as Hercules.

This could potentially offer an event, where you do tasks for the Greek god – nothing spectacular or time-consuming like the entire Twelve Labors (I don’t think that many people would be thrilled at cleaning stables), but one or two of said labors could be implemented as in-event games for the user. Hercules himself fought the hydra and the Nemean lion – those alone would be fun to see in a Greece-themed event. It would make for a grand day out; Granzella already had success with its Mononoke battles, and seeing that model extend to Greek mythology would be most excellent.

Anyway, back to the temple. In summation, the temple looks rather nice as a space; it definitely looks to be an improvement over the rather closed-off Castle Durrant, and one can conceivably use it to stage a Greek drama. If Sony were to release themed items for Fratos, having an Oracle of Delphi would be an awesome active item – from the foot of Mount Parnassus to Home, Apollo could greet users with a number of messages if one were to speak with him. That can also tie into the event idea; the sky’s the limit here, and seeing the Greek gods would truly be a sight to behold.

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