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31 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Great sword-swinging fun!Jan 27, 2004
By Ben
Gladius is a turn-based tactical strategy game. That is, your gladiators and your enemies each take turns moving and attacking in a grid-based arena. Gladius is very deep and can be complex if one does not take the time to learn how to really play it. I had this game for a month before I really discovered how great a game this is. I would reccomend the strategy guide as well, to help you spend your gladiator's earned Skill Points more effectively.
There is so much customization and character development - it is great! The gold you earn from battles is spent on better Weapons, Shields, Armor, Helmets, and Accessories. The graphics are very good, and the "paper doll" representation of your character looks great as you try on all the different equipment. Just like in Japanese RPG's, your character stats change colors, red or green, to indicate if the equipment will help or hinder your chance of success in the arena. You can also customize the color of your character's hair, skin color, armor, and clothes. They also have four different styles of outfits you can choose from for each character - you can make all your gladiators the same color (i.e. team colors) or just make them all individually completely different. It's really cool.
As you earn more Experience, your Level or stats goes up - Hit Points(HP), Defense(DEF), Power(PWR), Damage(DAM), Accuracy(ACC), Initiative(INI), Constitution(CON), and Move Rate(MOV). As these abilities go up, the better your gladiator will perform in the arena. Different equipment will also change these a bit. For instance, a certain sword might increase your DAM by 2, but reduce your DEF by 1 which might be good for your offensive-heavy Samnite, whereas your Archer might prefer a weapon that increases ACC but decreases MOV, or whatever. That's just two examples, but the customization is limitless.Your gladiators are divided into 5 classes - Light, Medium, Heavy, Support, and Arcane . Combat works on a paper-scissors-rock style. Light beats Heavy, Heavy beats Medium, Medium beats Light. Support and Arcane classes are best used from a distance (arrows and lightning bolts, obviously.) As you go up in Level, you also earn Skill Points. These are used to customize your fighters even more! Each character has dozens of different Skills to potentially learn, but you will never earn enough Skill Points to learn them all, so you must select few that complement the gladiator to your liking the most. Once again, I recommend the Gladius strategy guide to help you choose the best Skills for each Class - there are so many branches to develop your character, it can get daunting and hard-earned Skill Points unwisely spent. The Swing Meter is what keeps the combat from getting boring and static. Just like in golfing games, it's a meter at the bottom of the screen. You have a normal hit(yellow), critical hit(red), and miss zone(blue). It's not too terribly difficult to score critical hits on a semi-regular basis, but it makes you pay attention and be involved in how your fighters do in battle. Enemy A.I. is actually OK. During the fights where the object is something other than all-out combat, (i.e. Points Battle, Barrel Break, Defend the Statue, or King of the Hill) the computer will do some dumb things, but during true battle the computer will stomp you if you don't employ the right tactics and appropriate gladiators (luckily, you can preview who your opponents will be beforehand, so that you may assemble your team with the best advantage.) You are the leader of a gladitorial School, so you are able to recruit a large variety of fighters to choose from. This game is HUGE. It will take a long time to go all the way through it. You must travel with your School through 4 different lands and compete in numerous Leagues and Tournaments, with the ultimate goal of being able to take on the best Schools in the High Tournament in Caltha.
Each land you travel through (Nordagh, Imperia, Windward Steppes, and Southern Expanse) all have an average of 3 to 7 towns. In each town, there are numerous Leagues and Tournaments to compete in. Please give this game a try. If you enjoy deep and involved games that can quickly consume hours of your free time, this is a game for you. I hope this game does well, so that we might be able to look forward to Gladius II.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Strategy, role-playing, violence...everything but a plot.Jan 19, 2004
Actually, my title is misleading. It has a plot. But this isn't what I've come to expect. If, in the beginning of FF7, the narrator explained in overdramatic tones who and what Cloud was, what Sephiroth was planning, and constantly hinted that Aeris was going to die, who would give a rat's rear end about the plot? That's what they did with Gladius. I kid you not. Narration aside, this is an awesome game. Anybody who loved playing FF Tactics is probably going to like it (although it's much, much easier than Tactics.) It's NOT an action game. It's a strategy RPG. Expect some battles to take a while. I expected the wide variety of classes and huge number of weapons to be worthless baggage, but LucasArts seems to have balanced the game well. It's decently complex wihtout requiring you to memorize the inch-thick manual that comes in the DVD case. Of course, too much of a good thing can get annoying. You travel around the world and fight in many arenas, but it's pretty much all the same. A decent grasp of basic tactics will see you though the whole game. Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper. I noticed someone else complaining about enemy AI. They're right. The computer is STUPID. You can set up a beautiful, classic defensive formation, with archers ready to rain down death and soldiers guarding them, and the enemy will blindly charge at you. Even weak, arcane classes that the tutor character Usus claims should 'hang back and pelt the...gladiators with spells' will try to beat an ogre to death with their staves. However, the head-to-head option is pretty darn cool, as is the in-game multiplayer support. My biggest complaint: replayablilty. There isn't any. When I spend fifty bucks, I wanna be seriously entertained. And while Gladius is addictively fun, the plot isn't going to draw me back. Niether is the character development system: by the time you've beaten one of the character's games, you've used every skill and every class that exists. They could take a serious lesson from Dungeons and Dragons. All in all? Fun game. If you're thinking about getting that sacrelige FFX-2, blow your fifty bucks here instead.
12 of 14 found the following review helpful:
2 Years Of Waiting Pays Off!!Nov 03, 2003
By Christine A. Smead
Before I start to review this, let me say I had reserved this game 2 years before realease. That's how much time, maybe even more, i would wait for this game. Wow. From the beautifully done opening sequence, to the intense brutality of the galdiator rings, this game is one of a kind. It has a Final Fantasy Tactics feel to it in the sense of the way you move and attack. In my opinion, the most innvoative feaeture is the swing meters. I like how if you time your swings right, you do more damage. Another thing that just blows me away is the animations. From Ursula's spells to the incedible cut scenes.
That brings me to another point. The acting in this game is phenominal. Kudos to the actors and writers!! Gladius also lets you create your own school. This makes for a very open ended experienece. It almost follows Baldurs Gate in the sense of having a story, but not really having to go with it. You can do quite a bit without the story. That is because of the Godly world map. Yes godly. This may be one of the best world maps i have ever seen. It rivals FF7 and Wild arms 2 in terms of vastness and beauty. I honesty spent 3 hours alone on the world map gazing at its supreme beauty. The arenas In this game really bring the experience together. They are all differnt and have differnt scenarios like King Of The Hill, Domination, Deathmatch, Fast-Money, and Beast Battles. This makes for an ever changing gameplay experience that never gets old!! I also love how the characters advance. It is very easy to understand and very easy to master. This makes a gameplay experience that all can enjoy. All in all, Gladius is one of the best RPG experinces for any console. I reccomend this game HIGHLY!! It's now one of my 4 favorite games. Please Check this out!! I finish with the words of Crowe: "In the ring we die, and in the ring we are more alive than ever"
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
There need to be more games like thisMar 01, 2007
By JimboJohnson
This game is great. It may not be for everyone, but I love it and everyone I know who even remotely enjoys strategy games has fun playing it. I own it for the XBox, but I sold my Xbox to get an XBox 360 and the game is not backwards compatible. When I found out it was coming out on the PS2 I had to order it. My roommate has a PS2 and we both can't wait to play it again, despite the fact that we've each beaten the game twice. To me this game is an instant classic. I played over 150 hours my first time through, and I'm looking forward to a third time through. The turn based strategy gameplay is like a complex game of chess (except way more entertaining), and the meter and button combo style special moves are a refreshing change of pace and add chance and excitement to the battles. Eventually you get so good at the meters that it's second nature and you learn the best army to take against the opposition, but it still retains it's fun factor. Repetition is inevitable, but the complexity of the characters and classes, as well ad the relative open-endedness of the storyline make this easily one of the top ten all-time games I've ever played.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Awesome GameJun 23, 2006
By Anthony
"Prince Fox"
This is one of those games you set the school/work clock ahead on friday to get home early for. The story line is well thoughtout and the graphics/portraits are amazing. Great by that is well worth the money.
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