So I picked up gladius along with mark of kri the other day at eb, and I need some pointers.
How do I get random encounters to show up? For once in a rpg I need to get some to level up my lower characters, but none are showing up.
What is the best way to go for recuriting characters to your school? Right now I have the 2 main guys(doing the guy’s campaign) a peltist, 2 light guys and 1 heavy guy. I have I think 2 or 3 spots left open.
Can someone explain the whole affienty system abit clearer. Such as the bar underneith the guys health bar.
Are beasts any good? Or is it better to give characters wolf and bear form?
Lastily, do characters upgrade to better jobs like in other games, or do they remain the same class?
Try walking cross country, especially at night. Be warned though, death is ultimate on the world map.
Get a bear an another spear guy, maybe another heavy guy. I never messed with the magic users, except for the summoning classes, I think they are way underpowered.
I cannot remember.
Wolves are not that strong, but quite fast, which is all you need in some missions. The shape changers aren’t that effective because they need to spend a round to change.
Its been so long I cant help much with your specific questions. I would check out gamefaqs. The boards are dead (and there is one for each console version…) but there are some good FAQs up.
I remember I had a bear I liked a lot. Some of their deeper skills rock. I didnt like any of the other animals or bugs.
My favorite heavys were Centurions and Minotaurs.
My favorite mediums were Murmillos and Undead Legos.
My favorite lights were hmm bandits and secutors?
Early on Peltasts/Gungnirs own. Later, Archers replace them.
I didnt ever like magic either.
Mongrel and Mongrel Shaman suck balls.
Ursula is a great character, Urlan not so much. The shape shifting is not very useful IMO. The other story’s hero, Valens?, he is not bad.
Always try and recruit low level fighters because the computer will fuck them up less with its skill choices. High level characters are usually a bad deal because the computer has wasted a lot of their skill points on shit you will never use.
If you are playing with meters on (the little in combat mini game things), the game is generally easier. If you are playing meters off, you really have to watch the heavy>medium, light>heavy, medium>light mechanic.
Gladius was an interesting game that would have been a great game if the devs had polished and tweaked it a bit more. The equipment system was funky and annoying and the magic system was full of nuisances. Plus the game just played too slowly in combat. It needed cleaner faster animations and a cleaner control system.
Yeah I rented it a few years ago, so I finally decided to buy it just to have a copy around. The game is great.
Back to gladius, last night I recurited a murmilo(not sure if that’s right), and a sammite which fills up my roster for now. I completed 2 tournaments in imperia. My highest guy is lvl 4( 2 main , and murmilo) lowest is 2. From early impressions, it seems that levels mean alot in this game, such as a lvl 6 can’t be beaten by a lvl 4 regardless of equipment. I’ve gotten the lvl 2 combo on one of my guys. Right now tournaments are either easy, or too hard to win. Such as a 2 on 3 match with my heavy guys vs light guys. So far I have to agree about magic and the whole affinity system, I’m pretty much ignoring it as much as I can.
I forgot the exact tournament to trigger and win for this, but you might want to look into getting a Minotaur. They’re pretty damned sweet as far as heavy gladiators go.
Levels are big because of the additional job points. Note that you cannot level past 5 in the first area, 10 in the second, etc. You shouldn’t have ANY problems getting to level 5 before you complete the required tournaments. The game caps out at level 30 IIRC.
There’s a secret encounter in the first area that allows you to recruit a level 20 character. That breaks the game more-or-less, since difficulty is calculated by the average level of all your characters. Using the level 20 against level 1-15 is funny, since the 20 is a light with incredible evasive skills. They literally can’t hit him.
What is the best way to go for recuriting characters to your school? Right now I have the 2 main guys(doing the guy’s campaign) a peltist, 2 light guys and 1 heavy guy. I have I think 2 or 3 spots left open.
You really need a good FAQ that explains the classes. Peltast is good. Bandits are good. Murmillo is GREAT.
Can someone explain the whole affienty system abit clearer. Such as the bar underneith the guys health bar.
Affinities work like a battery. When you attack with an affinity weapon, you charge your offensive affinity. If you have the appropriate skill for that type of affinity (fire, earth, etc.) you can unleash that affinity against an enemy.
Defensive affinity works the same way. Wear armor with a particular affinity to charge it. You are then protected against affinity attacks of that type. For example, someone with a fully Earth defensive affinity bar will completely resist a 1st level Earth affinity attack. They have no resistance to any other affinity attacks.
This leads to a few interesting side-effects. All beasts are automatically defensive Earth affinity. That makes having Earth offensive affninities pretty worthless.
Combos are a great way to level up your affinities. Get affinity 1 and 2 on a character, equip the appropriate weapon, hit someone with a 2nd level Combo and fun ensues (you can hit them for lots of dmg with the combo, then follow up with the affinity attack next round and do lots more dmg).
The other important skill you should always get is the Riposte and other counter-attacks. If you meet the conditions, that character gets a free hit. This is absurdly powerful in a turn-based game. You can literally kill heavy characters with a light just by standing there. The heavys have such low accuracy and the lights get a counter-attack skill with the “when enemy misses” condition.
Are beasts any good? Or is it better to give characters wolf and bear form?
Raging Bear is favorite of mine, since the bear counter-attacks when he’s hit (rather than a miss). Combined with the right item (I forget the name, but it allows beasts a counter attack), you actually get 2 hits every time they hit, plus your normal attack. Devistating if you’re good with the meters (the “red area” critical hits always land, so you can make up for the lack of accuracy on the heavies really easily).
Lastily, do characters upgrade to better jobs like in other games, or do they remain the same class?
No, but the high-level skills are, in many cases, very, very powerful. It takes a fair bit of understanding and skill to use the characters to their fullest.
This is one of the few games I desperately want a sequel to, or at least X360 backwards compatibility for. It’s a great game.
I can see why , the game is pretty good. The combat feels abit more tactical then other Srpg games , with height, and the different class types. You know the game is good, when I had trouble deciding which characters to cut because I needed room for a female for the all female league.
I got thru the first area, and I’m now in nordarth, I haven’t recurited any one new yet, maybe I’ll get a bear. The murmillo guy is great with the throw shield power, but I didn’t run into any lvl 20 hidden guys in imperia. Are barbarians good at all to recurit or are there better classes in nordarth?
The only problem with the world map I have is that I wish that there were more side quests and things to find in it. Lastily, is there a way to return to an area after you completed it?
I wish there were a PC version. I don’t have an Xbox and the load times on the PS2 were pretty bad (how are they on Xbox?). I kinda got bored with it around Chapter 3 or 4 (possibly due in part to the load times) but until then it was a lot of fun.
The load times are frequent but short. It’s pretty much 5 second or less when entering towns, 8 seconds after a battle win. (The disc I have is used and abit scratched, which could account for the additional time).
edit: Hate to sidetrack my own thread for a second, but I have a quick question about Mark of Kri, when attempting the baramutsu’s challenges that say " Strike enemy to the left of Rau with X"
Are they refering to Rau’s left on screen, or my left, or someone’s left? I can get the right side down everytime, but for some reason hitting someone to the left is alot harder. Is there an easy way to do those type of challenges?
Also the counter take weapon from enemies animations are great.
You should definitely get the minotaur while in Imperia. Go to Cro Beska, the mongrel town, and fight in the league that gives you the mongrel butcher badge. Then talk to the shopkeeper and she’ll tell you about the Historian’s League which will happen in 7 days. Win that fight and either a minotaur or a satyr will offer to join. I think it’s based on which type you kill last in the fight but save your game before the battle and reload if it doesn’t go your way. The minotaur is the pretty much the best heavy class in the game.
For extra cash run round on the beaches in the morning and hit X. This allows you to search the beaches and pick up phat lewt which can be sold for decent money.
In the light class bandits dominate. Give them evasion, riposte and the revenge armband. Then watch them beat the pus out of everyone without getting hit. Backstabber and spear attack also rock.
The murmillo might not seem great at first but wait. Once you get the shield skills and an unbreakable shield they turn into uber-tanks. Give em water affinity skills as well, the best equipment for them is almost always water affinity.
Don’t make any of the main characters air affinity. Later on in the game you run into dervishes, who take no damage from any character equipped with air affinity weapons. And there are fights against them where you’ll have to use your main characters.
Unless you really love the swing meter I’d recommend hiding it. Once you get the hang of it the game becomes to easy. You’ll get crits all the time and they can’t be blocked by evasions and parries. The game’s more tactical and more fun when your heavy can’t automatically hit a light.
When in doubt give characters combo 1 and/or 2 plus the affinity attacks of one element. Use the combos till you run out of skill points and by that time you’ll have built up enough affinity to fire off an affinity attack or two.
It’s usually better to hire female gladiators. There are several leagues that require only women, but none that require only men.
Or ignore all of the above and find out stuff for yourself by just playing the game :P
I have to respectfully disagree here. Secutors are insane. I have a male and female secutor, and they absolutely clean house. But like you said, it’s all about dodging, taunting, and backstabbing.
Yeah, Murmillo’s are pretty badass. I generally don’t use them, since most of the story characters are mediums, and I like to use them as my mediums. But Murmillo’s are definitely the most annoying medium class for me to play against. One assumed drawback: You’d pay a fortune for shields, wouldn’t you?
Totally agreed. Leaving the manual-timing bars on ruined the game for me, no question. I only started enjoying it again after I turned the bars off and played the game the way it was intended – with sensible/somewhat-challenging difficulty.
Re: beasts, they’re okay, but in general I’ve found well-built humanoid characters of the same weight class to perform better. (secutors>cats, for example) That said, I had a cat w/ a beserk collar (+damage, no player control) that kicked some serious ass.
Casting classes do also seem to be underbalanced, but some do have some nifty tricks up their sleeves that can add value in ways other than brute force for the clever player.
Anyway, it’s amazing how much I love this game despite some rather glaring flaws… (It becomes too linear in last 2 chapters; poor class balance; unbalanced manual timing bar; poor skill balance; etc.)
A cleaned-up sequel would be the shizniggity bing-bang. Yeah, I said it.
Now I hear about how to get the minotaur. I did that mission, but I had all my slots filled so I didn’t get anyone as a reward. Right now the only missions I have trouble with are the control the hot spot or king of the hill matches. Also I’m doing the yeti missions, and the final one has ursula against a yeti 1on1. Is there a way for a medium class to beat a heavy class?
