Gladius - Staff Review

Amish_Chief · January 2004

I?ll reiterate the point made in my review that had Gladius been released a year earlier, it would have easily stood on its own against the field of TRPGs at the time. ?Needless to say, it wasn?t, but it was still a good game in its own right. ?For anyone who wants to nitpick on my particular critiques of the game, I played through Valens' quest on the PS2 version. ?Some of those quests were extremely difficult, hence the extremely long turnaround time on this review. ?Nevertheless, our policy at RPGamer is that we finish the game before reviewing it, and this title is no exception.

Whether anybody here agrees or not with my opinions is questionable, but that?s what this thread is for, right? ?You may commence with the flaming.

LukeTSManager · January 2004

I would of liked it if you explained more about the battle system and how it works. As far as to how the meters work.

I see a lot of low scores and complaints about the PS2 version that gamecube version did not suffer. I would give this game a 9 or an 8.

Bloodcat · January 2004

To me, this game BLOWS AWAY the other Tactical RPGs released this year, and comes in very close to being top RPG of the year.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? Bleh. Overly easy, dull, unfun and childish. Plus an interface from hell.

Fire Emblem? A good game killed by the game autosaving every single thing that happens in game and adding a permadeath system, turning battles into frustrating affairs of paranoia.

Disagea? Ok, this one is almost the equal of Gladius, but it requires a little too much powerlevelling for my tastes. Still a definate contender for RPG of the year though. Its a must buy, it just has the whole anime/Japanese thing to it which I am less fond of these days. I could blame Gamefaqs and its more literate cousins (GIA, Toastyfrog, every console RPG website on the planet..), for this frame of mind, but I won't. At least not right now.

Gladius just does it for me. Battles that are short & sweet, but have a purpose to them, even if its just a small part of unlocking a regional tournament. Plus I enjoy the whole Biblical era vibe it gives off. Its different to the usual fantasy land that pretends to be middle ages but is closer to some 14 year old's fantasy of what the middle ages would look like.

LukeTSManager · January 2004

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Bloodcat @ Jan. 02 2004,04:13)</td></tr><tr><td class="QUOTE"Its different to the usual fantasy land that pretends to be middle ages but is closer to some 14 year old's fantasy of what the middle ages would look like.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
LOL That is a perfect generalization.

I also am not fond of the anime looking games. However if the gameplay is good I do not mind.

I really liked how much strategy they put in Gladius. Way more than any tactical rpg I ever played.

LordKaiser · January 2004

This game is junk! is to tedious. The characters looks dumb moving from side to side. At least it makes me laugth.

LukeTSManager · January 2004

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (LordKaiser @ Jan. 02 2004,11:51)</td></tr><tr><td class="QUOTE"This game is junk! is to tedious. The characters looks dumb moving from side to side. At least it makes me laugth.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Would you prefer them to be walking in one spot yet magically not moving?

SevenStar · January 2004

ive got this game and its ok the only things i dont like about it are the king of the hill mode- if someone gets on the hill you have to kill them to get them off (sometimes the shapeshift which can take up to 20 secs of gameplay resulting in a instant point) you should have to just hit them with a certain attack which would make them fall back a square
also i dont like the fact that you can only do special attacks such as combo atk and affinity atk when you are next to an enemy you cant move and do them (unlike in front mission or vandal hearts) also u cant chose what side of the enmy u want to attack e.g back its just if its showing by chance u can tatke advantage of it

i was thinking of changing it for worms 3d which is quite good from the demo ive played

thats my seven cents on it ;)

Otterland · January 2004

I really didn't like this game. The battle system is the worst I've seen in a TRPG, and inteface really irked me.

Bloodcat · January 2004

The Battle System is what I love about it.

Its give and take, and has an excellent blend of risk vs reward to it.
I also love the swing bars, power meters, and button press attack bit. If you are good, you get rewarded with almost 100 percent hits with extra damage. If not, you are punished. I feel like I failed to hit or pull off a special attack, instead of screaming at the game's random number generator.

It does things differently. That's why I love it. It takes risks. It sees the status quo, and tells it to go blow itself. It keeps the fun with its changes, but doesn't do anything the way most people are used to.

And Cthulhu bless the game for that!

Cactuar Joe · January 2004

Gah! You beat me to it! Oh well. I'm playing through Ursula's quest as opposed to Valen's. It's very easy, but a bit dull.

So far - 10 hours or so in - I'm not all that impressed. The combat system relies too much on levels as the deciding factor of battle. The meters do introduce an aspect of skill that I find refreshing, though.

I thought the review was good and informative. Good work.

bebop007 · January 2004

I thought the review was dead on accurate, having played about half the game it was a rather good concept, that was marred by repitition. Go to an arena, win leagues, beat the tournament, go to another arena and do it again, and again, and again, and that's basically the game in a nutshell.

While not the best TRPG I've played, it did have its redeeming qualities, I enjoyed the battle system a lot as well as the story. Being the geek I am, I enjoy going through loads of equipment deciding which is best for what class of character, or who I have to use in the upcoming battle.

Great job on the review.

Solon · January 2004

A good review, seemed fair. I haven't played this game yet, and I don't think I will either, at least not in a long time.

It feels as if I've played enough games with mediocre plots lately. I want something more than interesting battles.

Firemyst · January 2004

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Bloodcat @ Jan. 02 2004,02:13)</td></tr><tr><td class="QUOTE"Fire Emblem? A good game killed by the game autosaving every single thing that happens in game and adding a permadeath system, turning battles into frustrating affairs of paranoia.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I'm not sure what you mean by 'adding a permadeath system' to Fire Emblem. It has always been that way, and you pick up so many characters it's okay to lose one now and then when you make a mistake. As long as your side wasn't devastated in the last chapter, there's no reason to replay it.

This kind of reaction to Fire Emblem is likely why we've waited so long to even see the series. It's a tough series, by design. Even this watered down entry to help ease it into this side of the Pacific was too hard for many people. I am concerned. ^^;

Phatose · January 2004

I doubt he meant added to the most recent title, rather he meant added to the series in general. And hard isn't neccessairly the same thing as frustrating either.

Kensiko · January 2004

One thing that sees important to me and that wasn't mentioned in the review is the loading times...or is it because I was the only one who had to suffer the rotating gladius in the corner of the screen for interminable amounts of time (especially when going to the world map which doesn't even look that good...so why so long to load?) in addition to the game seemingly freezing while a character transforms or summons (the clock kept going in modes like King of the Hill though...)?

And the plot, IMHO, was practically non-existent. It may have been because I played in Ursula's story, but there practically was nothing happening...Besides the few chance encounters with witches or people Usus know, you had to wait to change regions to get an advancement in the plot, even though it wasn't a big one.

That doesn't mean I think the game deserves the dumpster though, it is good. The battles were innovative, actually implementing real strategic elements with good graphics and innovative elements (love those meters! non-stop criticals hehe). However, the game concentrated too much on the battles which make it tedious and repetitive, especially for a completionist like me who has to complete all the Leagues to get the prizes.

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Gladius - Staff Review

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