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ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 3!
Hey everyone, made some more progress here, and some actual plot progress as well! So let’s get into it!
Okay, so I didn’t realize I needed to beat the ice arena too and thought I only needed to beat Mordare to be done with the Nordagh region. Luckily this was only a matter of taking longer and not being much harder. Once that was done, it was back to our home tourney to dominate and become the regional champs.
Afterward, we finally get to see Ursula and Urlan’s father! And he praises them and everything before asking to speak to Urlan in private. By private, we mean in the exact same place while Usus and Ursula walk about ten feet to the side so...yeah. King Orin basically say’s he’s disappointed that Ursula has an interest in the games and is worried about the witch’s discovering her. Ultimately, Urlan convinces him to let her travel away from their region and the witches since they are going to hunt her either way.
Ursula magically hear’s none of this so...whatever. Anyway, we head to our next region, Imperia, which is where our Mentor Usus is from so he can guide us and all of that jazz (note, there is no jazz in this games soundtrack). 6 tournaments in this region to beat so got to get to work! We run into some asshole who thinks we can’t fight because we are savages and all that. Dunno, savagery has been working pretty well for me with the massive axes, and the bear and the wolf but what do I know?
Anyway, Ursula runs into a downtrodden looking young man who doesn’t reveal his name (but is clearly the other main character, Valens) and the two talk for a bit. Ursula offers her support and a chance for him to join our school (he declines) and they totally awkwardly flirt for a bit. He runs off while Usus insists we go to some shoreline arena, which has Ursula excited.
After an initial challenge, we go outside to see two dark magic people demanding Ursula comes with them. Obviously this isn’t going to happen so a fight breaks out on the street. Valens comes to our aid and assists in the fight before offering our place to stay at his gladiator school. Usus is excited to do this when he realizes Valens is the son of his old friend.
Of course this takes a sad turn when it’s revealed that Valen’s father is dead, but it does prove to be a catalyst for him joining our team. And thus team beast mode has their third human onboard...booooooo.
One of the arena’s is one where the opponents are almost exclusively beasts, which I obviously find very enjoyable and some nice teasers for future party members hopefully. I recruited a Mongrel (Goff) here as well and while I’ve only used him once, I expect him to round out the team nicely. Also one arena hypes up Channelers as some big bad tough opponent but I’m not seeing it, they’ve fallen pretty easily so far and are really slow and more annoying then anything. Also ran into an arena where lava can hit you soooo, that’s fun : p
So yeah, gonna leave party member summaries and updates under a read more. Til next time people!
Ursula (Level 7) No big updates here. Has some new equipment that’s helped her pick up the offense and has a second combo now. Gotten better at timing her combo as well so that’s made her more effective.
Urlan (Level 7) New weapons, more boom, still goes down easily when ganged up on.
Zod (Level 7) The undeniable badass and leader of this team. Just shrugs off most hits while countering for about triple the damage they do to him. I don’t expect him to remain this badass throughout the run but for now he’s the creature I can send into any situation and expect him to come out on top.
Bestia (Level 7) Has a counter attack when she dodges now and has a second combo. Still more about speed then power but is certainly becoming more reliable as time goes on.
SIm (Level 7) For some reason, the Satyr is easily my quickest member. Has picked up Jug Bonk, which is for some reason the most satisfying move to pull off. If you time it correctly, Sim hit’s them over the head with his jug, doing heavy damage and stunning them. Still very fragile but his offensive capabilities have definitely improved
Valens (Level 7) Pretty much Ursula without the shiny magic and some additional sword skills. Nothing too special but he can buff himself just like her, making him very capable of bringing the pain.
Goff (Level 7) Our new Mongrel friend. Still haven’t quite figured out everything there is to no about him, but he seems quick, not the weakest on the offensive end and with some buffing capabilities (can increase his defense) so we’ll have to see how he develops.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 4
Hello again peoples! Progress has been made, allies have been gained and many asses have been kicked and mauled! Let’s get to the recap.
There is a much more difficult spread of missions in the Imperia region, including some tournaments (due to my...somewhat undiverse team...) that forced me to temporarily recruit members to complete certain tasks. It was honestly a pretty nice balance between challenging but not to the point where you wanted to bash the console in with a hammer. I did however, recruit some new members to the team, which I will get into at the bottom of this. The most notable though (to me) is Langston, who is a Minotaur and my first heavy class and is quickly becoming one of my new favorites.
Once we clear out the Imperia region, there is surprisingly little fanfare and plot as we head into the Windward Steppes. We do see Ursula having the same dream again, though this time it is extended and we see more destruction and beasts before it just kind of slowly pan’s up into the sky and relaxing music plays? So...not entirely sure what that’s about but alright.
Oh, and then there is a brief scene where a narrator talks about Mutis raising an army for the dark god. Full disclosure, I kind of wasn’t paying attention to the scene until I heard the name Mutis so I could totally be missing some things here. I’m not entirely sure we’ve met Mutis but if we have, he’s the assclown who taunted us in Imperia and if not, he was an old war buddy Usus met that was still kind of an assclown.
Anyway, once we get to the next region, it is revealed you can’t compete in the games here unless you have an archer...so that’s arbitrary as hell, but it’s apparently an economic thing somehow...so whatever.
As our group makes it’s way through the camp nearby, we are introduced to a cocky archer lady by the name of Eiji who overhears us lamenting our lack of archer. She pulls off some fancy arrow tricks with three apples and wins her way onto the team. She’s kind of portrayed as a trickster so not sure how permenant her addition to the team is, but she’s useful enough for the moment and she helps us earn our symbol to compete in the region and gives intel about the other arenas.
Oh, and Ursula and Valen’s relationship is getting shoved down our throats some more. Also Urlan still distrusts everyone because he can.
Anyway, that’s all for the major updates. Character section below will only discuss those who are either new or have some important updates that I feel like touching on. Thanks for reading!
Current squad is all between levels 10-11 at the moment, so let’s get into some specifics.
Zod (11) Zod will also have a place here as long as he continues to be my favorite : p. While admitiedly, he is beginning to lose a bit of his offensive luster, he can still take hits like nobodies business. Also has Hibernate now, which allows him to recover HP...assuming i ever remember he can do that.
Goff (10)) The Mongrel is very much a glass cannon. Very quick and has some nasty combo’s to mess people up but falls very quickly in battle.
Langston (11) MINOTAUR! Slow, bulky, can’t take hits quite as well as I would have imagined. That being said, hits EXTREMELY hard and has a four hit combo which will one shot damn near anything. Has proven to be a very nice trump card for missions I fail the first time without his assistance.
Eiji (10) Our new archer friend took me a little bit to figure out how to properly use but I feel like i’m getting the hang of her. While he melee attacks are (understandably) weak, she can move and attack from a range and has some more powerful longer range attacks. Also has some status moves but I haven’t really messed around with those yet.
Ekaterina (10) A plains cat who is kind of like a mix of Zod and Bestia (wolf). Is very fast like Bestia but hits a bit harder. Unfortunately, seems to be less durable then her and has a smaller pool of moves, for the moment.
Also just recruited a level 11 Ogre (whose name I forget) and haven’t used them yet. A heavy class so expecting them to be fairly similar to Langston but I’ll let you know when I actually get to use them.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 5
Hello everyone! More progress has been made and just one region remains to conquer before the high tournament at Caltha! Or you know, the world ends, whichever comes first.
Anyway, The Windward Steppes proved to be a difficult region to conquer, partially just due to the enemies being tougher, and partially due to the increasingly strict demands for which classes could be used in certain leagues. For one battle in a specific league I had to field a team entirely of temporary recruits to complete it.
That being said, starting to get a little more selective of which units I send into battle. Before it was a pretty even spread, but now I’m definitely starting to favor the units that bring about the most success. If I had to split the team into teirs, it would probably be this
Tier 1: Zod (Bear), Ursula (Main Character), Eiji (Archer) and Langston (MINOTAUR) Tier 2: Urlan (Barbarian), Valens (Other Main Character), Bestia (Wolf) and Ekaterina (Plains Cat) Tier 3: Goff (Mongrel), Sim (Satyr) and Vagka (Ogre)
Not to say that the bottom tier can’t be useful, but they either can’t bring the pain like the others or in most cases, just aren’t as survivable as the rest of the team.
Onto plot progress, as we were headed for the championship tournament of the Windward Steppes, we see a group of dark affinity warriors on the world map. The dialogue seemed to hint that they would show up in the tournament but they didn’t so that makes this scene pointless for the moment. Though admittedly, that could just be me being bitter that the game froze on me the first time the scene triggered and I lost 2 hours of progress.
Oh yeah, and before that we ran into some dark witch that tried to tempt Valens and Urlan but Ursula chased her off. Pretty sure she’s the one that is later shown in a cutscene trying and failing to resurrect the dark god so..all is well in the world clearly.
Speaking of Urlan (kind of), he was even more grating in this last section then usual. Critical of every type of fighting style that isn’t of the ‘run straight ahead and bash things’ variety. He also was very critical of Imperia, stating that Nordagh has been fine without interference or advice from imperials for centuries. Me thinks young Urlan is forgetting that his mentor and his father’s advisor is from Imperia.
Anyway, when we get into the Southern Expanse, we see some guy being attacked by muggers. Because we don’t listen to Urlan in this group, we run over to help him out. Once he is safe, he is introduced to be a man by the name of Gwazi. Urlan realizes his opinion is useless to me and we quickly recruit him.
So yeah...setting up to go rock this region of the game and earn that spot in the high tournament! Or reserving a ticket for getting murdered by the dark god, we shall see.
Oh and recruited a Cyclops, wheeeeeee!
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?!? Gladius Part 6
I told you I was still playing this, and oh boy do I have some progress to report this time! Just warning now, this will probably be the longest edition of this yet and will contain spoilers for what I’m assuming is rapidly approaching the end of the game.
So anyway, we continue our journey to kicking the asses of every region in this game. Luckily, this is made pretty easy in this last area by only having two different tournaments to conquer. Granted the battles themselves weren’t exactly easy...but we’ve preserved through worse so of course we are victorious!
After beating both of the tournaments, we are interupted by a cutscene of Gwazi mourning the loss of his village. Ursula offers to go to the alter where the affinity stone is that can cure their drought problem but he refuses of course since he is under our orders. Of course, Ursula being the kind boss she is orders him to take us there.
Along the way, we are treated to a weird little thing where Eiji tries to tell Ursula what is bothering her. Unfortunatly, this get’s misinterpreted as Ursula assuming Eiji has feelings for Valens and she obviously doesn’t want to hear any of that. Eiji then laments that it may be just as well since they would all hate her if they knew the truth
MYSTERIOUS
Anyway, we continue on our way toward the altar while Urlan complains, asking “Why are we doing this again? BECAUSE WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE URLAN STOP BEING AN UNLIKEABLE ASSHOLE.
We arrive at the location to see nothing of the sort that Gwazi mentioned. Suddenly, three summoners appear and Gwazi is revealed as a traitor.
...Okay Urlan, you were right...for once.
This battle is actually kind of a pain, since it starts with you, Urlan and Ursula against Gwazi and three summoners who will pretty much immediately all summon, leaving you at 3 against 7 which is not favorable and it’s game over if Ursula dies. Took me 3 attempts but I emerged victorious.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was during the first league, we ran into Valen’s old friend Ludo appearing working for the dark legionnaires. He talks some trash to Valens, saying that his school was trash but he must know that since he jumped ship as well...okay, point Ludo but it’s irrelevant since we kick his ass.
After that region has been conquered, we head to Caltha to take on the High Games. Everyone is suitably impressed and pumped and Usus has more life in his voice here then any other part of the game. With our dream team selected, we take part in the five battle series to be the very best!
Team: Ursula/Zod/Eiji/Langston/Bestla
First battle was arguably the trickiest, with a bunch of imperials and a commander, who constantly buffed their stats. Luckily, Zod can pretty much take anything thrown at him so we are triumphant. Round 2 goes by without even breaking a sweat, round 3 was a little tricky due to all the archers ganging up on Zod before he was in counter range and four was easy despite it being an all insect team (HATE THOSE).
The final battle pits us against Ludo’s team once again. Honestly, he’s not THAT hard. He doesn’t hit hard, he’s not particularly bulky, his only saving grace is that he is dodgy as hell and if you don’t time your button presses correctly he will dodge pretty much everytime.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! BOW DOWN TO BEAR GOD ZOD AND HIS FOLLOWERS
And then...the world went crazy
We flee from the arena in Caltha (Which was really pretty by the way) as the sky grows dark. The giant statue that watches over the proceedings proceeds to come to life and destory the royal box, along with the King and everyone else that was inside.
As everyone else flees, one man stands to face the rampaging staute...Muutis. He queels the beast with a single stroke before being named a hero to Imperia and becoming their leader.
EXCEPT IT WAS ALL A RUSE BY HIM AND EVIL WITCH LADY.
As our group contemplates this, Eiji reveals her dark secret for real this time, that she was hired by Muutis to watch his back as he retrieved whatever macguffin he needed to pull that gambit off. It’s then revealed that they are heading straight for Nordagh so we hurry back to defend our country and King/father from the impeding death.
Oh, and Usus warns us that every battle will be to the death so...any recruits that aren’t the four main characters will die if they fall in battle from here on out...fantastic.
Unfortunately, evil witch lady beats us to the punch and we walk in on her zapping the shit out of the king. She flees when we appear and leaves us to battle her minions, forcing us to use Ursula/Urlan/Valens/Eiji. We dispatch them quickly before another cutscene starts with Ursula and Urlan talking to their soon to be dead father.
Orin reveals the truth that Ursula is actually Urlan’s twin and that she has some magical abilities and should go seek out the Galdr for information. Urlan is against this but is, like at every other point in the game, talked into it by Ursula. Usus agrees and decides to hold off the Imperial forces BY HIMSELF. Good lord he’s a badass. Anyway, Urlan and Usus leave which leaves Ursula and Valens to share a tender moment.
They also may or may not have kissed...I may have been looking down and looked up just in time to see the scene fading...
Anyway, we journey to the Galdr and after a laughably easy battle, Ursula finally get’s the secret’s of her powers revealed. Not only is she the darkness...BUT THE LIGHT. She is the last Valkyrie and has the ability to stop the Dark God, along with Valens, who will take the place of his father as the previous Valkyrie’s guardian. CONVENIENT.
Anyway, we make our way to the old Valkyrie city that is now ruled by Cyclops to go retrieve a staff that belongs to the Valkyrie. However, once we arrive, the Cyclops King does not approve and we are thrown into battle again.
EXCEPT THIS TIME WE CAN FINALLY CHOOSE OUR PARTY AGAIN! URSULA/ZOD/LANGSTON/EIJI GO!
What follows, is a very cool sequence of battles where the Cyclops king will summon the affinity god of each of the four elements (Fire/Water/Wind/Earth) and you have to take them down. The creatures are huge, taking up a whole 3X3 area.
Luckily, they also go down pretty easily, with the exception of the Wind one who was a tank. The designs were really cool though and it was probably my favorite moment of the game so far, definitely suitably epic.
Left to his own devices, the Cyclops King charges us himself. We charge into battle and get about half of his health down before he can attack...taking off over half of Zod’s health in one shot.
SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!
Luckily, he spends the other two turns he get’s trying and failing to use status effect spells, allowing the bear god to escape unharmed. Once that ends, Ursula picks up the sword and get’s a nifty power up and new wardrobe. She announces that we need to go to where the Dark God had last risen, being the place where he will be more powerful and the ideal place for our enemies to attempt to summon him.
However, that will have to wait til next time. But yeah...this picked up and I am excited to finish it!
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?!? Gladius FINALE
You read correctly folks, this overlooked gem has been conquered!
Finally on the world map again, we make our way into Roanor, where we are once again greeted by Ludo. Valens and he exchange some words before we throw down for the last time. What proceeds is a pretty easy battle where our main four outnumber Ludo and his two lackeys. Despite Valens getting triple teamed to start and quickly defeated, we down the former friend with ease.
Following this, we finally meet Muutis face to face. He brags about how he will control the dragon and doesn’t care about what happened last time before facing us in battle. Despite him having us outnumbered, his team falls quickly, treating us to a cutscene of him struggling to his feet while Nephellia (WITCH LADY) approaches from behind.
BAM, STABBED IN THE BACK! Muutis cries out before going limp and Nephellia thanks us for playing our parts before a warp tunnel opens up below him and the Dark God emer-JESUS WHAT IS THAT?
Okay, it may be worth looking up the dragon from Gladius because it looks insane. It’s basically a three layered beast with a bunch of soldiers sticking out of the bottom, four faces in the middle with some weird six armed lady above them and then the Dragon on top of that.
So yeah, needless to say it is quite the sight : p
The first stage of the battle we have to use Ursula and Valens along with three members of our choosing. Obviously I roll with Zod, Eiji and Langston. This however...does not go well. There are eight soldiers to beat and the dragon is breathing an area of effect fire attack that will hit anyone who isn’t right underneath it. The soldiers can also counter attack and hit both spots infront of them with a knockback effect.
The first time, everyone died except Ursula, who has regen when she get’s to critical and the soldiers couldn’t do enough to finish her. However, the thought of losing Zod and Langston did not sit well for me so I decided to restart with a much better plan.
Instead of lumping everyone together, I spread everyone out (and subbed Urlan for Langston) so that the fire wouldn’t hit a large member of party members. Each of the four melee units would pick a side and focus on two soldiers at a time while Eiji would hang back for as long as she could avoid the fire and provide support.
This was going better, Valens still got knocked out quickly but Urlan was able to handle his wall with Eiji’s help and Ursula was doing fine. Zod was hanging in but struggling.
GUESS WHO FINALLY REMEMBERED HE CAN HEAL HIMSELF?!?!?!?
So yeah, using Hibernate I was able to keep Zod alive and get him to finish off his wall before he and Ursula teamed up to finish off the wall Valens failed miserably at handling.
Once the soldiers fall, we are treated to a cutscene of the dragon beginning to sink into the ground, putting the four faces into the firing range. After a brief chance to change equipment and purchase abilities, we are ready for round 2!
Round 2 was much easier, the face’s themselves don’t attack but summon hell cats to go after you. They must have gotten the memo that Zod was the danger beast as they triple teamed him right away. The faces have poor defense though so they were quickly demolished with no one going down this time.
After another cutscene, the Dragon is all that’s left. The team assembles and we charge into what is...a laughably easy final battle. The dragon has no defenses and seems to be unable to stand any hits (Eiji’s long shot doing 250 to him). His attack animation was pretty neat though, where he basically ate Urlan and took about 200 HP from him. After 2 rounds, Eiji strikes the final blow, sealing our victory!
As the dragon fades back into hell or whatever, Nephellia...does a twirl before disappearing...alright. Ursula begins to float into the sky as Valens cries out for her, revealing that for peace to be established, a sacrifice must be made. So she floats into heaven or something while also putting the other Valkyrie spirits at rest.
This then cuts to Ludo and Nephellia plotting their next move and making out...not the most rewarding note to go out on but whatever.
So yeah...that was Gladius! It was a fun game and I’m glad I was able to pick it up! I may play Valens story at some point but I think I’m done with this game for now. Got to finish up Digimon Dawn and then we’ll see what I play next from there!
I have been waiting for my hacked ps2 memory card for 5 hours now It feels like a full week without sleep
Finally people are making games I could never find after enjoying Dog's Life (2003).
Playing as a dog just running around town, fields and snowy mountains was such a great escape. And you could bark at people.
Goat Simulator (2014) dev. Coffee Stain Studios
Untitled Goose Game (2019) dev. House House
Stray (2022) dev. BlueTwelve Studio
my second draw in Krita
doodle time vol 2
Could've been an accident when handling heavy artillery during his time in the army or even when he started working for Valiant videos,Or it could be from an attack by someone else ,It up to anyones interpretation but I personally like the idea of it being an Accident on his part :)
How do you guys think Ramirez got the scar that made him lose his eye?
I JUST WATCHED PS2 ON 28TH AND OML I HAVE NO WORDS SJJANSBSNBDKSKSKSKSNSNDN
PS2 IS THE FIRST TAMIL FILM I WATCHED IN THE THEATRE AND SHIT I WANT TO WATCH IT AGAIN!!!!!
Aditha Karikalan is hands down my favourite character, followed closely by Nandini and Kundavai.
The entire cast is so FREAKING BEAUTIFUL, LIKE HOW?!!!
Karthi, as usual, charming as ever!!!
Trisha, she slayed the role ofcccc
Vikram, oml I can't even put into words how nuanced his acting is! The man is a legend ❤
Aishhh, she's an evergreen beauty I swear. Her subtlety is just next level!
Jayam Ravi, such a strong presence this man has istg I can't 😩
And ofc every cast member was bloody amazing!!!
Now I'm on the hunt for ps1 and 2 fics on tumblr, but to no avail 😫
Pls help if you find any thanks 😀
Mmmhm james in hello kitty room. I'm sad so I made silent hill edit.
What a difference 17 years makes. Gran Turismo 4 (2005) was a racing game that for its time was considered to be quite realistic. But when compared to the immense level of detail in the latest installment - Gran Turismo 7 (2022) - you can tell there's a world of difference. (This is my gaming equivalent to the "what a difference" posts by @carsthatnevermadeitetc)