RPGM - Completed - Revenge of Gladiator Girl [Final] [Short Hair Simp]

  1. 3.00 star(s)

    RiloLaki

    Hoo...this is an odd game. And the discussion about it is possibly even odder.

    My take on the whole "MTL?" question is: No. MTL typically attempts to include prepositions and "state of being verbs" (such as "is"). Rather, this reads like someone who is a native Russian speaker is trying to write in English like a bad parody of Star Trek's Chekov. While the text is not cohesive, it's fully understandable and, sometimes, hilarious. So no, it's not MTL, but an entirely different kind of poetry - one that's completely understandable but would still give a native English-speaking first grader a failing grade in English.

    The game:

    Okay, first up is that this game is (currently) missing several tags: Prostitution (a focal mechanic of the game that the player can partake in within the first few minutes), Corruption (arguably - that Charm mechanic seems more to indicate character sluttiness than how "charming" she is, and dialogue will subtly shift the more you raise that stat), Loli (one scene, random, repeatable), Urination (two scenes, one random, both repeatable), Scat (one scene, random, repeatable), Shota (arguably, repeatable).

    Sadly, there's less than two dozen sex scenes in this game, and unless you're a genius at manipulating gameplay to your advantage or know how to manipulate the save data...you'll be seeing these scenes a lot. Each scene IS censored. For this, I give this two stars. I still enjoy the artwork, but...yeah. More options for selling your body would've been nice. Prostitution, mind, is the easiest way to make money. Also, once you become well known enough (not sure if it's just by Charm, or by Reputation (in the Arena) as both raise about equally if you spend your days killing mobs & nights banging NPCs) you'll be invited to join the "VIPs" and their personal kinks. They DO pay more, however, and there's no lasting consequences for joining their play.

    Now, the battle system is interesting. On one hand it's your standard RPGM fare - Attack, Spell (using MP), Special (using TP), Guard (not really useful outside specific situations the game actually warns you of), Item. Total snore. But what makes this interesting is that this game uses a form of Active Time Battle, for both your character and enemies. And they will attack while you're trying to decide what to do next, meaning you as the player needs to think fast and sometimes react faster. It's an interesting way to try to keep the bog standard battle system from being an absolute drag. Does it work? Eh, kinda. It's still bog standard, but at least you're not falling asleep. So, three star.

    (Side note - you can play this game with a mouse or a controller (didn't test for keyboard compatibility) - I suggest controller which seems to respond faster than mouse - especially important given the Active Time Battle nature of the fighting.)

    On that note are the various types of battles. All fighting takes place within the arena (save a couple rare, story-related instances). You can fight groups of monsters (sorry, no Monster Sex) of various set levels, earning monster parts, items, money, and arena points (more on that in a bit). You can fight Boss monsters for the same benefits. And finally you can fight duels against story-related human "bosses". Sorry, Suikoden fans, not that kind of duel. The difference with these "bosses" is that you can choose to kill them once you've defeated them, spare them (and give-up your winnings), or walk away and let the king have the loser killed. The game makes it pretty obvious what choice you SHOULD make, though it is still your choice.

    Now, what do you do with all these winnings crap? Arena Points are used to purchase stuff in the "Arena Shop". Money is used to buy new weapons, armour, and items. No problem, right? Well hold on there, Bucky! The King is a Fink, and EVERYTHING is massively overpriced. You can spend Arena Points on Level-increasing potions to level-up faster (meh), or on jewels you can sell for cash (^_^). And those items can be used to fulfill various NPC requests or to sell for cash. Expect to be going through the Arena ad nauseam until you say "screw it" and manipulate your save file. I get what the dev intended, but...man...

    The other thing you can do, once you can afford it, is to train in one of two battle schools: Axe, and Shield. Training in the Axe school is giving you thirty or sixty seconds (forget which) to kick the butts of around a dozen NPCs in a maze - just touch them and they go flying like Team Rocket. Training in the Shield school is giving you again thirty or sixty seconds to avoid NCPs within a maze. Neither are difficult, and the points earned can be used to buy new special attacks/techniques. There's also a Magic school that lets you learn spells - no Meteor stuff like one of the story character shows off for you, though - mostly just spells to give your weapon elemental damage while also raising your Attack, Defense, etc. I do like how the Axe & Shield schools don't let you just buy their techniques; you have to train in their school to earn the right to use their skills. Nice touch, three stars.

    The story. It's pretty standard. Pretty-boy husband goes off to become a gladiator to bring home the bacon, dies, wife decides to teach herself the Art of the Sword and gain REVENGE. During the game by talking to NPCs you'll get a pretty good idea why your husband died (word to the wise: if you're asked by a princess at some point in your life to marry her but you're already married, don't just tell her "no"...). As mentioned before, The King is a Fink, and you'll eventually become known to two factions who want the king made dead. Both are led by the kings' sons - the Crown Prince who is set to inherit the throne upon his fathers' death, and The Spare Prince who runs a resistance group set to overthrow The Fink. At the eleventh hour of the game you'll be given an option to join one of the two factions, which leads to one of two endings. Nothing amazing here, but a solid three for average.

    And thus the rating for the game. Utterly average. I've played worse, I've played better. But at least this game has some funny dialogue on the merit of reading like Pavel Chekov (Star Trek, original series) spouting "in Soviet Russia" one-liners. And to me, that's more than okay.
  2. 2.00 star(s)

    Apostolos

    Another poor game. No SKIP the scenes you have already seen, no FastForward either. Very slow progress in action and content, if any. Scenes seen so far poorly animated. Fight is not to my liking either with real-time action but all actions are hidden within menus.