Quick Review: Gladiator Trainer

Back to the well of games made on RPG Maker, and... this one’s peculiar. I’ll always approve of those who do something with the program that’s a step beyond a cookie-cutter RPG, and today is an example.

I trust this big tough guy to be good at fighting.
...The Heck? He lost!

Developed by Pilgrim Adventures, published by Senpai Studios (which publishes a lot of RPG Maker games) and released on November 25th, 2016, Gladiator Trainer brings you into a very dark world where slave owners send their property to battle other slaves for the pleasure of the masses. You start the game with two slaves, which are randomly generated, and then put them in low-rank tournaments to start. They gain experience and levels, learn new attacks, and can fight in better tournaments, where the enemies are also stronger. The goal? To beat the highest tournament.

Our land. Where we prepare people so that
they'll fight each other. Yikes.

So, since it’s a game made on a software tailored to RPGs, then we can expect that, right? Well... Not quite. The greater focus is on the management simulator aspect. You manage your slaves by training them in combat, buy them weapons and armor. Hire a personal trainer, a cook and a doctor. You can even hire non-fighting “pleasure slaves” (yikes) of both genders for, ahem, morale boosts, and dance training for HP and agility boosts. Get a scribe who’ll look over your collection of books, which provide passive bonuses. If you don’t manage your money well and cannot pay your employees, they’ll quit, one at a time. And if your slaves have low morale, they’ll run away. If your slaves sustain long-term injuries in a battle, they cannot fight in tournaments while they recover. Oh, and as a final element: Fighting slaves earn their freedom upon winning 75 battles.

Ah, the battling. Of course there would be some.
...Wait, I don't control the character?

Well, I'm still broke, so I can't help. Sorry.

True to the form of management sims, there’s a variety of random events that can happen, and it’s up to you to figure out the best course of action, all based on your finances and status. The game is divided into weeks, with a tournament being the “last” thing you do in a week, as upon return from the tournament (no matter the result), you move on to the next week. You can also opt to skip a week, if the tournament available that week sounds too difficult, or if you feel your characters aren’t ready. You gain reputation as you beat tournaments, and there are additional ways to earn (or lose) more. 

They don't exactly start out great, so it's
your job to make sure they're ready and
can survive.

And, occasionally, we battle
big freaking feral animals.

Where’s the RPG part? The tournament battles, of course. The first tournaments are set against three opponents – two enemies and a “boss” – and I expect these to grow with more opponents over time. Your slaves learn new attacks the higher their level is, and the further in we go, the more often we fight opponents who can inflict status effects. Slaves regain HP between battles, 20% at first, but the amount can be increased up to 50%.

What’s the catch? Your involvement stops at picking the slave that will fight. You do NOT control them in battle. You let the fight play out, and then deal with the results. A victorious slave with high morale will earn you extra money with theatrics, while a loss instantly ends the tournament. You better hope your slave’s AI makes the right decisions. Nor has a streak of bad luck where it keeps missing the opponent. That’s cost me victory often, and there's no way to improve accuracy. In short, victories are down to luck.

For a while, Elison was my go-to fighter. Then, she had some
bad luck, so Sela got to fight and earn experience in her
place. But they're both close to 75 victories, so...

Oh no, Basewin, my worst fighter...
Well, cure him anyway! Just in case he
finally gets good! He's got a freedom to earn!

Oh, and the characters in-game are all portrayed with 3D models... If the anime girl in the header on the game’s Steam page is what brought you to buy it, sorry, you fell prey to false advertisement. There’s also some weird issue with the cursor, where if you move out of the game’s screen, you must go back to a smaller version of the game hidden behind the enlarged screen to go back to interacting with things in mouse mode. Also annoying is that the game frequently springs dialogue options in the middle of conversations. Imagine you're skipping the text, an option box pops up, and in your hurry, you auto-select the first option, and it's the one you don't want. Yep, happened a lot to me. Some way to prevent that would have been nice.

Yeah, we ain't winning that one.
Freaking heal yourself! Dammit, she never does.

I take moral issue with the core concept of the story, but it's not all dark as there's multiple ways to "free" the slaves. Either way, gonna let suspension of disbelief deal with that one. The character models are merely okay; 3D assets repurposed for this game, but at least it’s a change from the usual anime-styled RPG Maker assets. The management simulation is overall fine; it gets more complex as you go up the ranks, but luck can screw you over. The game's balancing is terrible at the beginning, as your opening options are very limited and any misstep means your slaves are unprepared for even the most basic battles; in fact, your odds are much too low unless you know exactly what to do. Guides say, don’t upgrade any of your facilities until after you’ve won a tournament or two, and focus your early cash on equipment. Even then, battles remain completely steered by the characters’ AI, so you can very easily get fucked over by a streak of bad luck, like your slave not healing themselves when they need to, constantly missing the opponent, or being wounded for weeks after a fight. Not to mention it ultimately becomes repetitive once we reach the upper echelons of the competition.

Interesting combo of genres, I appreciate the novelty, but the game is only okay at best in my opinion. At least it’s not expensive if you do want to check it out.

Gladiator Trainer is available on Steam for 0.55$ USD.

Also note that I won’t be posting next Friday, as I’ll be on a trip. However, I’m going to resume posting the Friday after that.... and it will be the start of that long-promised 11th anniversary review!