I used to think secutors were better as well (better looking too) but over time I’ve come to prefer bandits. Riposte is a better counter than taunt, multiple bandits gain some sort of bonus from fighting alongside each other (initiative and/or movement I think) and best of all they get the revenge armband. Anytime someone takes a swing at them, which they frequently dodge, they get two attacks in return. My bandits end up handing out more hurt than my heavies.
Hot spot and king of the hill tend to go to the teams with the highest initiative. They get there first and start racking up the points while heavies are lumbering round winding down the clock. Valens and Ursula are good for this as they are strong mediums with decent initiative.
The yeti 1 on 1 is a pain in the ass. Not only cause it’s heavy on medium but the yeti is frequently higher level than you as well. To counter the level advantage you can enter the league, press X to see who you’re facing, and then quit if they’re higher level. Repeat till a yeti of the same level appears as the opponent - there’s always one. For the fight itself I’ve always run straight for the high ground then used empower self followed by combos and affinity attacks. Empower self gives mad blocking skillz, which you’ll need to avoid being smushed by the yeti’s attacks, while the height advantage should allow you to dish out enough hurt to take the yeti out before he breaks your shield and then you. A bit of good luck doesn’t go astray either.
Suggestion: Turn off the meters. Otherwise the game is on easy mode.
If you don’t do that, then just get a bunch of centurions at the start, have them buff one another, and then just launch combo after combo at enemies. Light characters go down easy if you use the meters.
Magic can be fairly powerful in the game, so long as you get a channeler to lvl 4 attacks with their affinity. An area wide smackdown of foes for 100-300dmg (affinity dependent) is not to be dismissed. However, the sheer power of the centurion with meters on makes this irrelevant.
I have never played a more uninspiring game than this one. The cutscenes spewed forth a vapid plot more intent on pitching diversity than in engaging the player. The character classes were wildly imbalanced, and many of the animations were hideously long for no discernable reason. The pitifully few and far between minor quests were absolutely unnecessary and provided minimal ROI for the time you spent on them.
Also, the game crashed on multiple occasions, simply because I did not play it the way it expected to be played (such as coming to a cutscene init area from the wrong direction) or because it was a crappy game and crashed immediately after I won the high tourny thing with my squad of Dipshit the Boy Hero and the Centurions.
I recommend turning off Gladius and buying Whack a Mole.
I think Bandits are hands down better if you have Revenge Armbands on them. If not, Secutors are better. They are both good light classes though, pretty much the top two.
Class balance did suck in this game. I still had tons o fun with it and I really wish there would have been a sequel. Alas.
So far my dream team for the king of hill matches is the secultor and murmillo, or the sammite and secultor. I picked up a berserker and started leveling her, is buying the rage upgrades worth it? (rage 2, rage3,)
Spoiler:
I completed the side quest when you have to save the witch from the mongrel, and got a quest item for it, do I have to do something else in nordarth, or is that used in another land?
I’m glad to see someone is still enjoying this game. I had a blast with it and played it nonstop when it came out. I wish to hell we had a sequel. As for advice, I often just overrelied on the two main characters.
Last night I just finshed up the 2nd land, and I got a yeti and necromancer guy on my team which is nice. You guys weren’t kidding about how things get more linear, the 3rd land is basically a road you need to follow.
Of the main characters, I like Valans and Ursula, because of their power boost skill.
did the original designers of “gradius” mean to name it “gladius,” but being japanese, they mispronounced it? or maybe they spelled it “gradius” because they knew japanese would pronounce it correctly if they misspelled it?
That’s the valkyrie’s signet. In the fourth area you get asked to deliver a mysterious tablet that you’re not supposed to read. Read it and Valen’s gets an item called the promise stone. In this area you also get a quest to kill some bad ass summoner guy. Do the quest, get both items and have 6 characters at high level (18?) then head to the most southern point in the fourth area. A special fight opens up that, if you win, unlocks the most powerful skill in the game for those characters that survive the fight. Once you get it the rest of the game is ridiculously easy, so it’s a lot of effort for something that isn’t much fun. But you do get some special equipment - novelty helmets; one that look like you’ve got an arrow through your head and the other is the glasses and moustache disguise.
I really liked this game - it was one of a very few things I rented at Block Buster. But I was never ever able to find a copy to buy. And someone snapped the single local rental unit amongst roughly a dozen roughly nearby BB’s up before I even knew they’d finally decided to sell the unit after me asking them every single times I rented it :(
Well, I went and bought the game the other day from Gamestop in the mall (had rented it before). I had forgotten how horrible the AI was. It does the most ridiculous things on any of the special matches (points, domination, king of the hill, monument smashing, etc.). Still a really fun game, but could stand to have a more polished and balanced sequel.
I also wish you could get a bigger school. There are just too many characters I want to bring around (and never actually use). I at least want to try out a team of an ogre and some mongrels. Or all peltasts/gungirs. Or even have room for a channeler.
Well I noticed that once you reach the fourth land I had more room then I needed at that point, but I didn’t have every class in my school.
I didn’t have minotaur, mongrels, beserkers, wolves, and the 2 nordarth human class.
I’m in the fourth land, and the guy who joins me there leads me into a trap, it’s him ,3 summoners against valans ursula and her brother. I can take him out easily but the summoners seem to be resistant against physical attacks. Is there a way to beat them before they kill off my guys?
Damn, you’re blazing through the game. Wish I could help but I’ve never made it past Act 3.
gamefaqs isn’t too helpful:
You will have to fight this battle with only Ursula, Valens, and Urlan. Take
care of Gwazi first. One combo will do the trick. Then, go after the two
Summoners that are close together. Have Urlan attack one and Valens and Ursula
attack the other. Use combos to kill them as quickly as you can. Make sure
nobody dies, or you will get a game over. Ignore any beasts that are summoned,
and just take care of the first two Summoners. When they are dead, go after
the last one. Also, beware of Tornado, which can rearrange your positions.
If I remember rightly the summoners are all wearing the armour that provides frontal defence. So if you’re attacking head on you do around about quarter damage. Which is crap. Ignore the summoned creatures and tag team individual summoners so you can bust out back hits on a regular basis. Can be a pain if they use the teleport field to scatter everyone around but continous backstabbing will get you through. Much like real life in that respect.
Well I finshed the game last night, I have to say that the last hour or so was pretty disapointing. I finshed that quest in the fourth land about the tablet but I didn’t get any skills.
spoiler:
After you win all the tournaments, and compete in the high tournament, you then have to do a bunch of life or death battles. The final boss is an annoying 3 stage fight. Also for anyone who has beaten the game, do you need to play thru each character to get a different ending? Because the ending for Valans is one of those segways into a sequel ending.
I think the stories merge in the 2nd or 3rd act, such that the gameplay is about the same. I haven’t finished the game with either character, but I did play through to the 3rd act or so with each.
Oh, and the Ursula story is supposedly easier, so it’d be a step back in that regard.
I would recommend just tracking down another TBS/tactics game and going through that instead.
I’d say I have a good suggestion for you, but well, I know you’ve already played it. ;-)
The game is about the same either way (IMO, I played Ursula first and Valens path may have been tougher but I was better at the game also) but your team build changes a little because of which classes you have access to and when. The earlier you get a hold of a unit, the better it ends because of the AIs absolutely fucked skill choices.
So if you are not sick of the game, yeah play through the other way but its not all that much different.
