Help for newbies in the game.

#1LekonPosted 1/17/2010 2:55:10 PM
A few quick bits of advice for anyone struggling: (Aka, stuff I wish I'd known at the start)

1. Item upgrading. 4th choice in the weapon shops. You combine two of any item. Under all blue/yellow named items are a set of icons. If the icons match up, that stat goes up, if the icons don't, the stat goes down and the icon is replaced. Stats go up or down depending on how many icons match. So, if you combine two items both with all the same symbols: Big bonus to attack/defense/weight. Usually its a good idea to have non matching symbols for weight, just to drop the heavy weapons down to more sane levels.

2. Storyline: When the game opens up, letting. you choose which arena you go to, you can also hit square to go to any of the arena promoter's homes. If they have at least 1 star, they'll open up a special shop for you. To advance the story though, you'll need to go to whichever arena is at, and not just win fights, but win the crowd. I missed this somehow and got to around day 70 before I started advancing on a quest. Anyway: Winning the crowd just means filling up that bar at the top right during an arena match, so that victory is with your gladiator cheering, and not falling to his/her knee after the fight.

3. Passives: passive skills don't come in for awhile (I think I only started seeing them in gold matches and up). Beat a gladiator with a strange/unique fighting style, and you get the passive skill for it. All you do is equip the weapon types and bam, you fight like they did. They only modifiy your basic attacks, and your charge up move, but some of them (Anubis's for example) really make your gladiator work differently.

Hope this helps. Let me know if there are other questions. The game can be rough, but I've rarely encountered a cheap match.

Also: Does anyone know what matches are the ones that always end in fatalities?
#2gyrobotPosted 1/17/2010 6:57:03 PM
You can go overweight with items but when overweight, your stamina takes a hit and you move more slowly.

Also how do you increase ratings?
Eh? You Serious? Hard Mode? How Disgusting!
Only the true fans should play on Hard Mode.
#3Lekon(Topic Creator)Posted 1/17/2010 9:25:40 PM
Which ratings are you trying to increase?

If you mean the arena ratings after a fight: dodge a lot. Combos and dodges/parries tend to raise it the most. Means that in gold rank/platinum you'll have to toy with your opponents a bit before killing them off.

Going overweight's a really bad idea though. Seems like even one point and a single move eats your whole stamina bar.
#4ProfoundXPosted 1/17/2010 10:19:21 PM
How do you dodge, or do any special moves at all? And what is the L and R buttons for? R is for camera? Can't figure out what L is for. Thanks.
#5ProfoundXPosted 1/17/2010 10:21:41 PM
Also, what is VIT for and what is END for? Thanks.
#6gyrobotPosted 1/17/2010 11:11:06 PM
Endurance is sorta like your mana, You pull of special attacks that can be chained from basic attacks, some of devastating attacks while others is meant to control crowds.

Vitality is your life gauge, run out and you are screwed.

R is for blocking, not really blocking but rather dodging an incoming attack. Note that you will be pushed back when you dodge so make you got some breathing space between you and the fence.

L is to begin triggering a special move or to perform a parry. Note that you can hold R and then L to parry, a successful parry causes your foe to be pushed back, ripe for attacking.

Some hints:

-Learn to item wear, this is where you break your opponent's shield or weapon or helm and force him to go run for it. Then keep the attack going and make sure he has little breathing room to recover.
Eh? You Serious? Hard Mode? How Disgusting!
Only the true fans should play on Hard Mode.
#7ProfoundXPosted 1/17/2010 11:13:56 PM
Thanks for the help. I press L but I can't seem to do any special moves. Also, for the main menu, the 5th option, the option right below skills, what does that do? It seems to go to some guy to exchange some sorta points for something. Not sure what it does. Thanks!
#8ProfoundXPosted 1/17/2010 11:28:17 PM
I figured out how to do special moves, but I haven't figured out what that option does.

Also, for blue items, what's the difference between them and regular items? Thanks.
#9DeimosPosted 1/18/2010 12:01:21 AM
The fifth option in the arena menu is the doctor. After a fight, you can heal yourself before the next fight using this option. A bit expensive, and don't bother healing if you're going to be exiting the arena anyway, such as after the last fight of the day.
#10DeimosPosted 1/18/2010 12:20:03 AM
I've played the PS2 remix version of this game for well over 200 hours, and am very happy with this version.

Things I like the most over the PS2 version?

- No more arena guy stealing your loot!
- No time limit to pick up items after a battle, this is now done via a new screen
- You can drop your stuff before the battle ends and still get it all back automatically after the battle ends
- No more repetitive exercises needed to level up your body stats
- Gives you 3 "continues" per arena. No more losing half your money (I think)
- The elephants are much easier to kill
- Able to play as a lot of extra characters after you finish the game

Things I don't quite like?
- Too easy to trigger skills without meaning to in a combo. This really eats up stamina and sometimes leaves you in an awkward position while recovering
- Arenas too small, making it much hard to keep away from opponents
- Seems harder to raise fight rating for some reason

Some more tips:

Don't forget to level up your stats and your skills. Each time you level up a fighting style, you get 1 point you can spend to upgrade a skill in that style. Upgrading skills increases the damage they deal. It is very difficult to beat all the named gladiators (especially Dannaos!) without upgrading your skills.

Wear a full set of armor! Even a cheap set of shoulder and leg plates is much better than not wearing any at all and will greatly increase the number of hits you can take. When hit in battle, the blue numbers indicate damage absorbed your armor. The white numbers indicate damage to your body (HP).