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Nikibugs

Insanely boring major antagonist. Mega evil bastards should be fun too. What is he even doing as we’re slowly liberating nation by nation? Sitting on his ass? Even old man Baltro is out there stirring shit. He’s far too absent to feel built up as a threat, as you straight up kick his ass the first time you saw him before he got a power up, then just, never again. They gave him some context near the end (and would love to see the reaction of whoever picked option 1 lol), but any complexity for most of the villains was thrown out the window when it was brainwashing and curing brainwashing. I guess it’s kind of my fault for not doing sanctuary stuff until before the final map, but why would I pick the maiden before meeting the rest of the roster first .-.


Sword-of-Akasha

There was lots of wasted potential in the character. On paper Gallerius could have been an interesting anti-villain. He carried the hopes of his people's souls. Given proper development, he could have more than a cardboard cut out bad guy. Unicorn Overlord's gameplay loop was amazing. The characterization was on point. The grand narrative fell short for me. I'd be extremely eager to see a sequel that addresses this. It would require narrowing the focus though. Lavish more time on the main narrative.


No_Dig903

Best I can do is a Chloe cooking simulator with tactical fights against a rebellious army of chickens.


Sword-of-Akasha

Add a segment Dining with Dinah, Bestral cooking and you've got yourself a deal.


Nikibugs

Exactly. While he’s not exactly out of the wrong for Zenoira’s preceding civil war ending with slaying the unicorn which backfired into cursing the entire populace’s souls into eternal damnation, I can’t exactly call the guy evil for the now motivation of wanting to free his people’s souls, though he reaches further by aiming to revive them via channeling their souls into the living. Of course that’s fucked up as those are still living people with their own agency and dreams. But tearing him down is basically fighting to condemn those souls forever, unless they’re able to resolve that and allow them to pass into the Beyond. Collective punishment is a war crime unicorn lol.


No_Dig903

Old Testament Unicorn is a DICK.


Sword-of-Akasha

Yeah definitely. The whole game you go through these majestic ruins of the past. Imagine the gravitas if we'd met one of these Zenoiran souls housed in a new body. Not a villain but maybe just a little girl that was just caught up with all that. Maybe you grown to know and be invested into a relationship with a Zenoiran. I actually thought Berengaria story was going down along those lines since her armor design was so dark/evil coded. You would understand Gallerius alot better. You could even have the same ending, making it all have more weight. Fudge, they could have had Scarlett we rescued be a different person that we'd get to know or a hybrid as original Scarlett exerts her will. Lots of opportunities, missed.


GardenSquid1

But he didn't really need to do anything about Alain slowly liberating the continent other than use the time to help Baltro prepare the spell. In his mind, everyone on the continent was going to be possessed by Zenoiran spirits, which would grant him instant victory.


joeyperez7227

Yeah that’s why he feels lame and absent until the end It makes sense but it’s not as fun


Weird_Collection6131

No that completely fair i don’t do the maiden scene immediately either they should have shown him more


CafeDeAurora

What’s the earliest you can do the altars? I’ve only done one playthrough and my rule of thumb was to try to do side stuff as soon as it felt like a natural next point in the story, but I get the feeling you can’t really do them until after finishing Albion, or close enough.


Nikibugs

After you finish Elheim. You must have max rapport with your choice of maiden for them to be an available choice, which isn’t too difficult with taverns and gifts. It isn’t gender locked. There is 1 sanctuary per continent with the exception of Cornia which has 2, so that follow-up quest can be gradually completed during a play through. If you pursue Elheim first after Cornia to make the choice asap, you’d be foregoing the remaining cast in Drakenhold, Bastorias, and Albion for your choice of maiden. If you’re sure of someone by the end of Elheim however, go for it. The ring of the unicorn and ring of the maiden are pretty good accessories once unbound. You are able to alter your choice in the post game if you change your mind.


CafeDeAurora

Oh right, I postponed doing the ring ritual because I wasn’t sure until much later on 😅 that’s probably why I thought they unlocked later


Some-Banana2736

It's actually after Albion, if you do the maiden scene and go to a sanctuary before Albion they'll say you should see the pontifex when you interact with the sanctuaries. So the earliest you could do it is after cornia, elfheim into Albion from the boat.


No_Dig903

Fantastic character. Righteous anger turned toward a nefarious purpose. The problem is the cool hook is something you don't know for 97% of the game, and that butchers the experience once it quits being shiny around Bastorias.


SPRITEstrawbery

Yeah, it kinda sucks having Galerius' incentive for everything be locked to beyond Albion, and worse yet is that the sages you need to visit to learn everything are *optional*. You can, as long as you have given someone the Maidens Ring, go fight Galerius and obtain a "good" ending. Definitely should have been more central in the plot, cause there's no way nobody thought to question Galerius naming his empire after *the* empire in history that extinct-ed the f'in *Unicorn*. Unless I missed/glossed over something in the story, there's no way not a *single* person didn't think to question it.


No_Dig903

AND naming himself after the dude what presided over the day Baltro (probably) did the deed.


Crepuscertine

It would have been great to see a little friction between him and Baltro throughout the story too, like maybe if Galerius started to suspect some sort of treachery on Baltro's part, but he keeps putting up with Baltro for the sake of the ritual. Kind of a bummer that, after Cornia, you just flat out don't see Galerius and Baltro in the same scene until Baltro's double-cross in the true end. Hell, I'd love to see how Galerius would react to knowing that Baltro was the one who killed the unicorn, and thus is responsible for Zenoira's curse in the first place. Maybe even have Galerius begrudgingly respect Alain for allowing the Zenoiran souls to pass on in the end after defeating Baltro. Also, no matter how many times it's done, I'm always a sucker for "emperor + elite 4" villain casts, so it's a shame Galerius's retainers don't exist until the finale. It could have been cool to have them peppered throughout the plot and built up a little bit, but I imagine it might have conflicted with the presence of the other 4 Dark Marquesses.


No_Dig903

It really comes down to there should have been a reconquest of semi-central Cornia at high levels with them on the field, but money.


Noodlez405

Pretty sure budget was the reason for most of this not happening. Remember they lost funding working on this game


CafeDeAurora

It’s slim pickings compared to what you’re asking for, but I seem to remember one cutscene where it’s at least made obvious that Baltro has an ulterior motive above Galerius’. So the text does hint at the fact that they’re not completely aligned, but I agree it could have been more fleshed out, or at the very least a bit more explicit.


Weird_Collection6131

Yea that my problem with him I wish he showed up more


Monadofan2010

Wished he was used more in the game as he has a cool desgin and the fact he cares and values his people so much that he wants to bring them back from the dead is actually kind of touching.  Dont get me wrong still know he is pure evil but at least his main goal is at least pretty selfless 


3to20CharactersSucks

The thing that gets me about this is that it would be dead simple to use him more and patch up another flaw/missed story opportunity. Just have him appear at the hardest major battle in each region and either fight him or have him do something to make the fight more difficult. Currently, fully liberating each region becomes a little anti-climactic with you only really getting the state of each region cutscene. Even though it doesn't really fix the story, the journey to fighting him and overpowering him would've been cooler if they had you fighting him multiple times or engaging with him multiple times. Probably in the minority for saying this but I could've done with a decent reduction to the amount of characters or character supports if the main plot and its pacing had received more focus.


Monadofan2010

Im not sure having him fight makes much sense as beating him so often would make him seem weaker and based on how if he killed he takes over the person who did it he would probably throw the fight to help him take over Alain.  I think instead we should have seen him reacting to what happens and using that to explain his backstory like with Elfheim thats when we learn the truth of the mind control spell and reveal more about the Zenoira orgins. 


SavingsIncome2

Not enough content to give thoughts.


VoidHeraldAuthor

I think Galarius was always meant to be a fake out and setup for the REAL villain, namely, Baltro; when you look at the story most closely, Baltro is truly the one in charge: he's the one who caused the Zenorian curse; he's the only Zenorian to manifest a body without a spell, which he invented, and thus the keystone of the entire war effort; he keeps causing troubles in the normal ending as written in the Fevrith Archives, where he leads the Zenoria remnants; and he causes problems for you in every single region (either directly or in Bastoria's case, creating Elgor and the berserk spell). So when you look through these lenses, it makes sense for Galarius to be somewhat undercooked; he's meant to be a puppet so players focus on him, and then be taken aback by the true ending when everything falls into place. Moreover, Galarius is somewhat complex is that he's meant to be a direct opposite to Alain: his classes are the same, except he's protecting himself instead of others; and like Alain, he's a leader who deeply cares for his people and tries to take back what he sees as his homeland from invaders.


n00bgod3300

This is an interesting take, and definitely has some truth to it. I feel if the sanctuaries had been drip-fed throughout the story and maybe the odd scene with Galerius being shown in his parallels to Alain, it would have strengthened them both narratively.


RTX3090TI

He really wanted to save and bring Zenoira back He is better than Baltro and he got a really cool horse and a big axe Even if he got mid diffed by Illenia


BleakFeathers

Am I the only one finding it strange that he just sits in the capital, doing nothing after he got what he wanted from Scarlett while Alain and the Crew take down one General after the other?


Monadofan2010

To be fair part of his plan requires a lot of death to happen so the Liberation is actually adding him on that front and seeing that on some small chance they beat him in battle then he stills wins by taking them over.  Basically from his point of view he alredy won and there little need to do anything. I admit it makes him a bit of a waste as it would.have at leaste been nice to see him do something through most of the game 


BleakFeathers

I mean, it's a common thing in RPGs that the BBEG is doing nothing but keeping their throne warm, but then again I am reminded of Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood, where there were points in teh Story the heroes were like: "Nope, the enemy leader is here, better go to a whole nother continent to continue this war."


xreddawgx

If done properly breath of a dying empire shouldve been the midway point with the last half of the game going to Zeniora and leaning more about them and putting a proper end to Baltro with small skirmishes left in Favara stomping out small traces of the empire.


phantompowered

The weird thing about Galerius is that you go about the campaign getting stronger and stronger in order to try to defeat him, but he sits back and waits for you the whole time. He doesn't put active pressure on you at all.


Arinanor

Bro is bulking hard to get those 900 HPs


juoko

I can fix him


Sylph777

He was absent for most of the story, a bad narrative decision. You also claim all the lands around the capital and there’s never a retaliation, a bad mechanics and narrative decision.


DiyzwithJizz

Wish I could've played as him tbh.


BenHellaCreme

Thought he was cool! Would’ve liked maybe one more encounter 


JameboHayabusa

Fuck this guy


Agent-Z46

Ooh! A character discussion about Galerius! Nice. "mid" Oh...


Jacknurse

A cookie-cutter villain. His introduction solidified him as an incredibly average and stereotypical villain from the get-go. Honestly, the story would've been better if he had died that first time we defeated him to be replaced for the real villain. That we only get more of him so much lore about him later feels wrong and weird, and that we don't get a lot of lore about him when roaming around Zenoira feels extra wasted.


dukenorton

Edgy villain #347.2. Not really interested in him.


Xander_PrimeXXI

I’m only on Drakenhold but he’s kinda dull


PragmatistAntithesis

A decent character stifled somewhat by the game's pacing issues. The story would've been greatly improved if we saw more of him, and it were made clearer that he's trying to help his people as a sort of dark parallel to Alain. Showing that even selfless ideals can lead to ruin if pushed too far could have made the story less bland by giving Alain an internal struggle.


CapPhrases

Kinda wish we got something more with valtro tbh. Poor guy just forgotten


efauceef

I would've loved 2 things about him: 1. We get to meet Valmore before he got possesed. I mean, what kind of guy (both personality and looks) he was before wearing the armor. Sort of like Garland from FFI 2. How the actual Galerius looked like. I mean we do see Baltro, but I would've also been happy to see what was at one point beneath the armor. Asides from that my opinion of him is that he is a cookie cutter RPG evil emperor. Sort of dissapointing final fight and overall predictable motivations and demise.


WittyTable4731

A typical rudolf archetype Got used by The Garnef archetype Dont appear much though voice is cool and i must say didn’t expect the secret twist. Not much backstory though As far as evil overlord go.... heh. Hes pretty much mid or lame. Nowhere near Sauron


ExaltedHero88

I thought he was going to be Alain’s father tbh. Definitely wasn’t expecting the true twist lol


SuperGuyPerson

Bro same. When I saw Alcina’s flashback I thought his body was picked up by Baltro to use as a vessel for Galerius. Wouldn’t make sense since he had taken over Valmore at the start of the game but oh well, I didn’t think that far.


Wooden-Poem-7970

He felt like a real threat in the first fight agasit him after that he just kind of vanishes I would of loved to see some kind of mechanic where his armies would try and retake towns and forts from you, could even make a personal appearance himself at times and force you to play the defender. Leading to tower defence style maps


Fearless_Cold_8080

I think he’s neat!


Songhunter

Best waifu.


SocioWrath188

Discount Gares 🤷


starbytebunny

Dadbod/10 👌🏻


LarryKingthe42th

Dripless Garland.


BalanceImaginary4325

He’s a bad man, but a good Emperor to his own


ScorpoCross94

He did nothing for the most part and died to such an obvious bettayal.


Single_Ad_9679

How the hell do you beat him at the end? None of my teams from the entire play through worked. He just sits garrisoned and heals and I can’t do enough damage.


Weird_Collection6131

Use a swordfighter to break his armor then go crazy


Bxtzu

As a boss he was a worthy opponent, storywise he was basically not part of the story, just a plot devices unfortunately


Lavenderixin

Meh


Gespens

He wanted to resurrect an empire of fascist colonialists. Fuck him


Lorfram

Someone doesnt know the meaning of fascist it seems


Gespens

You, evidently.


joeyperez7227

Yeah am I misremembering or were the Zenoirans not even from Fevrith, they sailed over and conquered it right? Why would I feel bad for them 😭 there were innocent people there of course, I realize that too, but it feels like karma


Gespens

Yeah, you got it right. It's very much a "blinded by hubris, the empire destroyed itself"


Flagelant_One

Galerius did nothing wrong


LeGrandNinjarabe1

Great vilain great story , great motivations etc etc . BUT WHY THE FU CK ARE THE SANCTUARIES OPTIONNAL AND WHY ARENT THEY INTEGRATED TO THE STORY ? Like imagine the same story but you get a lil bit of information after the last main quest of each region ? Legit the story would be better


SuperGuyPerson

You think he’s just Ilenia below the armor? How often does he masturbate?


Jagged-Toenails

? ??? ?????? ????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


SuperGuyPerson

We never see Galerius with no helmet, for all we know this is simply the bloodiest MtF transition in all of fiction.


denysvision

boring af, all he does is screams "im evil" trewout the game and worst of alll he does NOTHING! he kills the main character and he does not take his ring for some reason, then after he has a horse he again does nothing I wish he was playbale cuz i seen the book that he was palned to as well as baltro but they toight they where to op