Story of a Gladiator from Brain Seal Entertainment is an action-packed arena-style brawler. Learn more about it in our Story of a Gladiator review!

 

Your story begins as a man who has lost everything during the war against the Roman Empire. Your family? Dead. You friends? Dead as well. Your house? Oh, it was burned down. At least you still have your land, right? Nope. The Romans have confiscated your land. After all of that, the worst thing that could have happened is that you were to become a slave, forced into hard labor until you end up dead. Your destiny, it seems, is to become a gladiator, turning into a deadly foe within the arena.

You’ll move your character around with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, running with the ZR button and attacking with the A button. You can block with the B button to try and lower the overall damage you receive, as well as do a dodge roll with the X button. If you have an item on you, you can use it with the Y button. If you have the favor of the Gods, you can use a Godpower with the L button, which can quickly turn the tide of battle. To unleash powerful moves, you will need to press the ZL button before performing another action – this applies to, say, the jump attack you can purchase.

 

Before you start a new run, you can select between three difficulty settings. Gladiator is the default setting, and it’s the one recommended by the indie developers at brain Seal Entertainment so that you can have a balanced experience during your time with Story of a Gladiator. If you feel that this could be a bit too challenging, then you can select the Scared difficulty setting. What this will do is grant you twice the health points, while also having your character deal 50% extra damage. And then there’s Lion, which is a roguelike style mode in which you have a limited number of lives, and once they’re gone, you’re done.

On top of this, you can select your character’s origin, which will provide a boost to a particular stat. If he’s from Greece, then he can get an 8% bonus to the damage it deals. If he’s from Carthage, then he can get a 5% boost to his overall health, making it a formidable and sturdy opponent in the arena. The last option is Egypt, which will grant your character one extra skill point which you can spend to unlock new skills – the aforementioned dodge roll, a jump attack that cans surprise your opponents, and more.

 

For every battle you take on, you will be graded based on your performance, receiving one, two, or three stars. If you win with 40% or 60% of your health left, you will receive two or three stars, respectively, as well as a 10% or 20% boost to the gold you win. To be able to keep as much of your health as possible, you need to make good use of your block ability, as well as make sure you don’t run out of energy as you fight. Every action you take will require some energy, and if you run out, you will be stunned and left wide open to attacks for a couple of seconds. Oh, and when you have managed to kill three opponents, the next attack you unleash will deal a bonus 40% of damage, so do keep that in mind!

You will also be rewarded with gold and experience points. Experience points will allow your character to level up, gaining additional skill points in the process, which you can then use to unlock extra skills for your character at the Combat Training area. The maximum level you can achieve is 15, and you can reallocate skill points as needed so that you can create a new build for your character based on what is needed for the next battle. More skills will become available for purchase as you level up, so be sure to check back at the Combat Training area to see what you can add to your skillset.

 

Gold can be used to purchase new weapons and armor for your gladiator – that is, once you’ve managed to unlock additional stores in the city. To have a chance of gaining some bonus gold for each battle, you should make sure to work the crowd in your favor. Performing kills – as well as double and triple kills –, making good use of your blocks or decapitating your opponents will entertaining the crowd. If the crowd favors you, they might throw food and weapons on the arena, which you can use to boost your chances of being victorious.

Story of a Gladiator is a fun and to the point arena-style brawler on Nintendo Switch that is fun to play, as it has a slightly addictive “just one more battle” gameplay loop. The game is available for a budget $10.99, and you will be spending a handful of hours trying to win all battles as you level up your gladiator, making good use of your skill points and the gold you win to upgrade your weapons and skill set.

Disclaimer
This Story of a Gladiator review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Brain Seal Entertainment.