[Kinitari]

Really getting into the game, just got to wallbridge.

Okay, questions:
I feel like I don't unstandard sheathing, help?
Town requests... Where do I turn today in? I've talked to I think everyone in the first two Towns, no one wants my shit.
Going to play with the roommate today, is it going to be weird?
Been playing manual, still haven't mastered it - should I try semi?
B-arts.... How do they chain with A arts?...


I feel like I need another day before I'm good at this.

[kayos90]

Really getting into the game, just got to wallbridge. Okay, questions: I feel like I don't unstandard sheathing, help? Town requests... Where do I turn today in? I've talked to I think everyone in the first two Towns, no one wants my shit. Going to play with the roommate today, is it going to be weird? Been playing manual, still haven't mastered it - should I try semi? B-arts.... How do they chain with A arts?... I feel like I need another day before I'm good at this.

You gotta be a bit more specific about the sheathing because I don't know exactly what you're trying to say.

You turn them in at the inn when you have them completed.

Multiplayer is a bit.... weird on graces. just my opinion though.

difference between manual and semi is that semi will automatically move you towards attack range of the enemy when you attack. manual you don't. I use manual because it helps me to just get stuff figured out easier.

chaining b artes and a artes varies by character.

[Kinitari]

Fuck... The inn. Okay.

So, using the main character, I remember during one tutorial fight it mentioned how strategically sheathing your sword helps with CC Regen. I was... Inebriated, so I didn't pay attention - now I'm curious :p.

Also, with the main character regarding B artes chaining. If I am up to 3cc in a chain, and then use a b arte, is my chain reset? Or can I immediately jump to a 4cc attack?

[InfiniDragon]

Fixed. Tempest and VS are utterly awful and I would advise people to stay away from them.

Wait, you're not saying you...like Legendia...right?

*holds up cross and splashes Schala in the face with holy water, runs away

Mind you I forgot about that VS game and it looked pretty awful too (never played it).

So, using the main character, I remember during one tutorial fight it mentioned how strategically sheathing your sword helps with CC Regen. I was... Inebriated, so I didn't pay attention - now I'm curious :p. Also, with the main character regarding B artes chaining. If I am up to 3cc in a chain, and then use a b arte, is my chain reset? Or can I immediately jump to a 4cc attack?

I don't play him a lot because my brother and I usually play this game together, but if I'm recalling it right when you unleash B Artes the number of artes you land successfully before switching back to A (aka sheathing his sword) will increase the bonus to CC restored (and HP too I'm pretty sure).

[StunandStab]

The Book of Glory is so overpowered and I love it. 10x damage for allies and enemies alike? hahaha, how about 10x damage for me and NO damage for them. It doesn't even consume that much eleth really... like, when a battle lasts 9 seconds it doesn't really have much opportunity to consume eleth anyway

[WeaponKnight]

I feel like I don't unstandard sheathing, help?

Asbel can't combo his A and B artes. His A-artes are faster and have more hits, while his B-artes are stronger and have a large AoE but cost a lot more CC. Other characters like Hubert can freely chain their A and B artes together, unlike Asbel, and it makes comboing very fun.

When you unsheathe Asbel's sword, he gets a bit of armor so he won't get staggered as easily (the game calls it Iron Stance). When you sheathe his sword back, HP is restored based on how many B-artes you hit the enemy with. If you get staggered with the sword drawn, it will be automatically sheathed and you will lose the healing bonus you accumulated.

The secret here is to balance between the two styles. When there are too many enemies or you have little HP left, start chaining his B-artes to clear the area and heal.

Oh, and most of the time it's better to just sheathe the sword away from enemies so that he won't try to do that fancy spinning attack. I get staggered all the time doing that and lose all my healing bonus.

[Animekatt]

The Book of Glory is so overpowered and I love it. 10x damage for allies and enemies alike? hahaha, how about 10x damage for me and NO damage for them. It doesn't even consume that much eleth really... like, when a battle lasts 9 seconds it doesn't really have much opportunity to consume eleth anyway

Hmmm, I may look into that when I play the game again. I'm tired of using up my life bottles for regular fights because of the AI not backing away. >.<

[StunandStab]

Hmmm, I may look into that when I play the game again. I'm tired of using up my life bottles for regular fights because of the AI not backing away. >.<

I only equip it for bosses and for those short battles it does consume like 1k-2k eleth... so I may have been exaggerating that "it doesn't consume much", but when you have 9700 eleth it doesn't seem like much.

[Animekatt]

Ah I see. I'm currently at 6500+, so that would be too much for me. But I will use it during the final boss fight when I need to get the Evil and Chaos wins.

[StunandStab]

Ugh, I REALLY should have got the dualize discount... I thought I wouldn't have money problems and it would be useful to get more stamps but NOPE

I started NG+ with 1.6 million gald and I've consumed half of that already. I'm just about to go to Fodra. I thought surely with the "double gald" bonus from the grade shop I wouldn't be goign through gald so quickly...

[StunandStab]

Muahahaha I just got a 295 combo on the Fodra Queen on Easy. Down in 45 seconds... this was with all my first playthrough characters at level 90

Just one trophy left: Mixer Maxed!

EDIT: Got the Plat! I'm not sure if I can say I'm glad it's over or not... I enjoyed this game, but due to the grindy nature of a lot of the trophies, I just really wanted it to be over lately.
As far as Tales games go, I've only played this, Symphonia, and Phantasia. I may be blinded by nostalgia, but I think I liked Symphonia more.

...it's going to be a long wait for Dragon's Dogma next month now
*sigh*

[Kinitari]

Asbel can't combo his A and B artes. His A-artes are faster and have more hits, while his B-artes are stronger and have a large AoE but cost a lot more CC. Other characters like Hubert can freely chain their A and B artes together, unlike Asbel, and it makes comboing very fun. When you unsheathe Asbel's sword, he gets a bit of armor so he won't get staggered as easily (the game calls it Iron Stance). When you sheathe his sword back, HP is restored based on how many B-artes you hit the enemy with. If you get staggered with the sword drawn, it will be automatically sheathed and you will lose the healing bonus you accumulated. The secret here is to balance between the two styles. When there are too many enemies or you have little HP left, start chaining his B-artes to clear the area and heal. Oh, and most of the time it's better to just sheathe the sword away from enemies so that he won't try to do that fancy spinning attack. I get staggered all the time doing that and lose all my healing bonus.

Thanks for all the advice people! Especially this!

I feel like I am starting to get more and more of a grip on the battle system, but where I am failing is in the battle reward chaining.

At best, I am decent at the 20sec count down challenge and the no damage one. But intentionally killing an enemy with a 3+ arte chain? Getting combo's over 20 consistently? Suck so bad at those. So bad. I guess practice makes perfect - I am slowly becoming more aware of the directional implications of my A artes.

[Papercuts]

Thanks for all the advice people! Especially this! I feel like I am starting to get more and more of a grip on the battle system, but where I am failing is in the battle reward chaining. At best, I am decent at the 20sec count down challenge and the no damage one. But intentionally killing an enemy with a 3+ arte chain? Getting combo's over 20 consistently? Suck so bad at those. So bad. I guess practice makes perfect - I am slowly becoming more aware of the directional implications of my A artes.

Remember that you can map artes to the right stick as well. I would recommend having some AI ones like sophie so she can do something long while you regain CC maintaining a combo.

[StunandStab]

Asbel has two artes that end with a sheathed sword, though. Sparrow Seal and Aurora Lotus both end with a sheathed sword so you can either continue your combo with A artes or unsheathe your sword again

[encephalon]

You know, I wish Namco would release the rest of Milla's waist as DLC.

[StunandStab]

You know, I wish Namco would release the rest of Milla's waist as DLC.

Who?

[InfiniDragon]

Milla Maxwell, from Tales of Xillia. Not sure why he's posting about her specifically in a Tales of Graces thread, but other folks have talked other Tales games in here too so eh.

[StunandStab]

Milla Maxwell, from Tales of Xillia. Not sure why he's posting about her specifically in a Tales of Graces thread, but other folks have talked other Tales games in here too so eh.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification.

[Dark Schala]

You know, I wish Namco would release the rest of Milla's waist as DLC.

The Tales of Xillia OT is over here.

EDIT: Got the Plat! I'm not sure if I can say I'm glad it's over or not... I enjoyed this game, but due to the grindy nature of a lot of the trophies, I just really wanted it to be over lately. As far as Tales games go, I've only played this, Symphonia, and Phantasia. I may be blinded by nostalgia, but I think I liked Symphonia more.

Congrats! I know what you mean. Towards the end, the trophies feel like a grind--especially that Mixer trophy. It got a little boring for me, but since I started a little early this time, I'm almost finished with it.

...That's why I don't talk about Symphonia much. I like it a lot since it's the first game in the series that finally clicked for me (having played Phantasia SFC and Destiny PSX prior to that), so I generally have a bias towards it. I haven't replayed it in a while, so maybe I should to see if I can get an unbiased feel for the game... especially having played ToD R DC and Rebirth afterwards, which really clicked for me too.

But after I get the plat for the English version, I think I might be all Tales'd out for a bit. I really need to get back to Suikoden PSP and that Mystic Quest playthrough I'd been doing for the FF Anniversary thread. :lol

Thanks for all the advice people! Especially this! I feel like I am starting to get more and more of a grip on the battle system, but where I am failing is in the battle reward chaining. At best, I am decent at the 20sec count down challenge and the no damage one. But intentionally killing an enemy with a 3+ arte chain? Getting combo's over 20 consistently? Suck so bad at those. So bad. I guess practice makes perfect - I am slowly becoming more aware of the directional implications of my A artes.

The battle reward chaining gets much easier as you get more CC (ie: dualize max/min shards and get better weapons with higher min/max CC), more party members who can combo, and better artes. Right now, it's a little more difficult to pull those off, but you'll get the hang of it once you're able to chain better artes which take up more hits, or are able to time your attacks with other party members to get higher combos.

[Sagitario]

[end of chapter 7]

Quick question: is the Rare equipment the best in the game?

3am and I am freaking tired and sleepy, after one week without playing, it took me a while to regain the pace of combat, so I died (game over) several times at the beginning of Lambda's Cocoon.
It was hilarious! :P

Now the rant: ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!

Cheria, why do you keep getting killed? It's freaking frustrating! As much as I like Pascal and her artes, she's just a lost cause...


BUT YOU?! WHY?! U MAH HEALER, GURL!!! Get your act together cause that's totally not cool... y'okay?


I fought Richard on Chaos, my levels were around ~62 and after 2 or 3 attempts, I decided to defeat him on Evil (used some Life Bottles but nothing to make a fuzz about).

But then the [unsurprisingly] fight with Emeraude (<3) came. Used ALL my Life Bottles on Cheria (well, most of them), but I ran out of bottles when the fight was about to end and I had to micromanage between Sophie and Asbel just to try to revive her... but before I had a real chance, Emeradue was defeated and Cheria was the only one dead :|



What strategies do you guys use for her?

I will retry both bosses tomorrow (it's not like I have the choice of fighting only one, anyway :P)

[StunandStab]

I don't known what to say about that boss Sagitario, except that in both of my playthroughs in the game Asbel was the only one alive at the end...

That boss is pretty annoying.

Rare equipment is definitely really good, but not necessarily the best. There are weapons in the final dungeon that you can find for everybody that you may find better. There are weapons in Future arc that are pretty good that come with effects that boost Accel mode and to top it all off they look fucking awesome; there are two sets of those weapons and it's debatable which ones you'll find to be better. There are also ultimate weapons you can make by finding special materials in the Zhonecage and dualizing them.

So, you could start dualizing the rare weapons now, or you could wait for the weapons from the final dungeon, or wait for the accel weapons...

My party actually had heavily dualized "mythril" weapons until future arc, which is when I started replacing them with the Accel weapons. I used the first set of Accel weapons for the rest of the game, dualized most of them to +15ish, and I never bothered to change weapons or go beyond that point in dualization.

[Sagitario]

I guess Cheria being dead isn't so bad, then.
Both fights were on Chaos, right?

And yeah, the boss is annoying: that attack where all the battlefield goes white and you need such precise timing to side-step several times in a row... and then you can't get near because of her black field.

Now that I have access to the shutter, I will grind a bit to gather materials for dualizing and money and all that... it will be a sloooooow weekend :P

[Deified Data]

You could try using Sophie manually since she sort of has more moves. The Clear Bonus multiplier is dependent if you clear the final boss on whatever difficulty (with hard difficulties giving you a better clear bonus). You don't have to play the entire game on that difficulty, so feel free to switch it up whenever. Just clear the game on that difficulty to get the bonus.

Yeah, that's what I had to do for every major boss fight in the childhood arc. She was simply too powerful to stand on the sidelines healing everyone.

So far, that Nova Wolf at the beginning of the main arc has been the toughest battle I've had so far. No Sophie to help me this time! The damn thing brutalized me for about 5 tries, it was absurd. Try and heal and you'll just be hurt even more by the time the healing animation is over. Was really tempted to turn down the difficulty for that one, but fighting it that way gave me a much better understanding of the battle system and taught me to me a bit more slow and methodical when it comes to dodging and guarding. Definitely an education.

I'm currently addicted to tempering my weapons and dualizing them to up their base stats. Does anyone know if there's a cap on that? Asbel and Malik's weapons are both +3 at the moment. I can't just keep doing this forever, can I?

[Impeccable]

I'm currently addicted to tempering my weapons and dualizing them to up their base stats. Does anyone know if there's a cap on that? Asbel and Malik's weapons are both +3 at the moment. I can't just keep doing this forever, can I?

Pretty sure it's +99.

Also, the Nova Wolf was the first thing I had problems with too!

[scy]

So far, that Nova Wolf at the beginning of the main arc has been the toughest battle I've had so far. No Sophie to help me this time! The damn thing brutalized me for about 5 tries, it was absurd. Try and heal and you'll just be hurt even more by the time the healing animation is over. Was really tempted to turn down the difficulty for that one, but fighting it that way gave me a much better understanding of the battle system and taught me to me a bit more slow and methodical when it comes to dodging and guarding. Definitely an education.

That fight was, more-or-less, my introduction to Evil (maybe Chaos?). It was uh ... quite unpleasant at the time.

[kewlmyc]

Anyone know the highest number of slots you can have?

[scy]

Anyone know the highest number of slots you can have?

In the Mixer? 16. Reasonably? Probably 10 or so. I think I'm at 13 and I hit 8 something like 50 hours ago.

[Deified Data]

That fight was, more-or-less, my introduction to Evil (maybe Chaos?). It was uh ... quite unpleasant at the time.

Yeah, I had to take a break on death #5. It was just making me mad at that point, leading to stupid mistakes. I'm confident I'd be able to beat it again with relative ease next time, if only because I've had its attack patterns drilled into my brain. Duels with single, agile enemies seem to give me the most trouble so far. This should change as I acclimate to the battle system some more.

[dakkumauji]

Still chugging through the future arc and I am really liking the skits. They must have turned up the craziness and zaniness of them just for this arc.

I do have to revisit Straha again and they pretty much kicked out all my healers. What the hell game.

[Relix]

Just beat Wallbridge and Barona Castle. The story is slowly getting interesting and the battle system, which i admittedly hated at first, is showing its greatness. Nothing like gangbanging Cedric with an Ether Burst and doing 5K damage in 8 seconds. Played for 2 hours, tired by now :p

I leave the titles to Auto and set them to be mastered. Is this ok? Should I change to 4 stars?

[dakkumauji]

I leave the titles to Auto and set them to be mastered. Is this ok? Should I change to 4 stars?

Generally when you actually have a bunch of titles, leveling them up to 5 stars would be the best before switching to another title. Mastering them is more for when you run out of titles and have nothing else to spend the SP on.

[kayos90]

The Tales of Xillia OT is over here.

Aww.... good ol' times. Was fun in that OT.

[Relix]

Generally when you actually have a bunch of titles, leveling them up to 5 stars would be the best before switching to another title. Mastering them is more for when you run out of titles and have nothing else to spend the SP on.

Ah, guessed something like that. Thanks :p

[Edgeward]

Hubert seems fun but is too much of a glass cannon on higher difficulties to be of any use in my hands.

And I'm still not sure what I should set the AIs to. Protect Allies just groups them together to be killed faster it seems and there is no "get the fuck away and just cast spells from afar" mode.

[Toki767]

Finally finished the future arc. The ending was much better than the ending to the main story. I feel bad for the Wii owners who received that ending.

[Dark Schala]

Still chugging through the future arc and I am really liking the skits. They must have turned up the craziness and zaniness of them just for this arc. I do have to revisit Straha again and they pretty much kicked out all my healers. What the hell game.

Regarding that, I love how they end up picking on Hubert's inadequacy with regards to healing during victory quotes. And the skits/some of the story bits are better in the F Arc than the main arc--thus I sometimes wish the F Arc were longer. There are some cases where I don't really like the third acts in Tales games, but the F Arc was nice.

Wait, you're not saying you...like Legendia...right? *holds up cross and splashes Schala in the face with holy water, runs away Mind you I forgot about that VS game and it looked pretty awful too (never played it).

Ha, I was just pointing out that there are worse games in the series than Legendia. But I don't mind Legendia, really. The battle system's boring, sure, but I like the characters' movesets a lot.

A game has to be shit of the highest order for me to hate it. Why God, why?

If games aren't as bad as those and others, I don't hate them. I play a lot of B- and C-grade stuff, especially in the past, so I've likely played a lot of garbage. Last Rebellion, for a recent example, felt like a cure for insomnia. Lunar: Dragon Song was outright bad. Regarding Ninja Gaiden 3... Boy, am I glad I didn't buy it and just played someone else's copy.

Hubert seems fun but is too much of a glass cannon on higher difficulties to be of any use in my hands. And I'm still not sure what I should set the AIs to. Protect Allies just groups them together to be killed faster it seems and there is no "get the fuck away and just cast spells from afar" mode.

My alternative to "get the hell away and cast spells, please" is:
-for healers: "use B-artes only", "guard/heal when HP falls below 100%", "Passive"
-for offensive spellcasters: "Use B-Artes only", "Offensive" (Malik's pretty good with it, imo)... and maybe "Guard/heal when HP falls under X"

Aww.... good ol' times. Was fun in that OT.

Half of which I spent waiting for my copy to get to my house only for my bf to hold onto it for a while despite him not knowing Japanese. :/ And then being disappointed that I got the Milla charm and not the Jude charm. :lol

I wish I'd written my final impressions in that thread, but when I'd finally finished and gotten the plat for the game, it didn't seem to matter so I didn't bother. I wrote a small comment about the game in the GotY 2011 thread, but I omitted a lot of what I wanted to say. Oh well.

[Sagitario]

[end of chapter 7]

Tried again just a few minutes ago...
Before the fight I tempered weapons and equipment several times, chose carefully titles/strategies/artes/recipes/books to better fit the situation, used costumes for HP recovery...

Both bosses were MUCH easier this time (on Evil, of course, I am not ready for those 2 bosses on Chaos), went down quickly compared to last night, but the result was exactly the same: towards the end of the second boss fight, CHERIA JUST KEEP DYING and by the end of the battle, she was the only dead character! AARRRRGGGGH! I don't get it D:

[Sagitario]

Finally did it without Cheria dying at the end... YAY!

[chapter 8]

WOW! The monsters in Ghardia Shaft are tough! I am level 65 and I had to switch from Chaos to Evil D:

[Toki767]

Gee...I wish I saw this video of how to beat the Rockgagong and the final boss in 10 seconds sooner.

[Sagitario]

No wonder this thread has been slower... It has reached Community sub-forum status.

Gee...I wish I saw this video of how to beat the Rockgagong and the final boss in 10 seconds sooner.

Link?

[Toki767]

No wonder this thread has been slower... It has reached Community sub-forum status. Link?

Over here

You have to have played through the future arc and gotten people's accel mode though. Basically equipping a title that gives damage taken added to attack, getting your stats as low as possible, then do a one on one battle with him or any other hard boss. At the moment you get hit, activate accel mode, then hit them with an attack. They get hit for 2x the damage they hit you. If you use all those books to halve your stats and take out all your armor besides your weapon, they'll probably hit you for 400-500k and you end up returning 900k+ damage.

[Sagitario]

Thanks!

I just realized... I have no idea what Accel Mode consist of :P
Never "worried" about since you can't access it until the future arc.

[Labadal]

One of the bosses in chapter 3... Dayum! I barely survied the battle. I had to use a lot Gels and Life Bottles. Cedric is the boss I'm talking about, a really intense battle.

The last boss of the chapter was super easy, just keep close and unleash combo's. I've controlled Sophie in chapter 2 and 3/4 of chapter 3, but then I changed back to Asbel. What a difference, Sophie is so much faster. It took some time to get used to Asbel again. I've also tried Richard when fighting for SP, and I also briefly tried Pascal. Her style was interesting and I'll probably use her when I get bored with Asbel. Haven't played as Cheria, Hubert or Malik yet.

I really like the skits, and I've been trying to find as many as I can, but I've probably missed a lot of them. The post battle skits or whatever they are called are also amusing. Especially the ones with Sophie.

I also have question, a yes or no anwser will do: Is Sophie the main female protagonist? It feels rhat way to me. I thought Cheria would be the one, not that it bothers me or anything.

[scy]

A game has to be shit of the highest order for me to hate it. Why God, why?

Oh god, Sonic 2006. Oh god.

Oh god.

I also have question, a yes or no anwser will do: Is Sophie the main female protagonist? It feels rhat way to me. I thought Cheria would be the one, not that it bothers me or anything.

That glorious NTR. Depends on what you mean by "main female protagonist." So ... sort of?.

[Labadal]

Oh god, Sonic 2006. Oh god. Oh god. That glorious NTR. Depends on what you mean by "main female protagonist." So ... sort of?.

Hmm, what I mean is like this: Estelle was the most important girl storywise in Vesperia. I'd call her the main female protagonist. The other girls were important, sure, but they're not the *main* heroines. Just like Yuri is the main male protagonist in Vesperia, or Asbel in Graces f.

[Mauricio_Magus]

I'm in love with this game, mostly because of the battle system.... I just got to the Ice continent or whatever and I'm playing on Evil difficulty, this is insane!

[dakkumauji]

Hmm, what I mean is like this: Estelle was the most important girl storywise in Vesperia. I'd call her the main female protagonist. The other girls were important, sure, but they're not the *main* heroines. Just like Yuri is the main male protagonist in Vesperia, or Asbel in Graces f.

Then, Sophie would be considered the main female protagonist.

Mostly cause Cheria has nil importance to the story

Playing with the cameo costumes now, and I never realize how boring sound ToS's victory theme is. Wow, so dull.

[Zee-Row]

Damn Pascal Only takes 2 baths a week , her vagina must smell awful especially after all the fighting they do!

[kewlmyc]

Damn Pascal Only takes 2 baths a week , her vagina must smell awful especially after all the fighting they do!

And somehow Hubert gets turned on by it.

[barrin87]

I just fought the boss in the second to last dungeon in the F arc and damn was it hard! I used all 15 of my life bottles, 7 grape jells, and 2 elixers. The only reason why I survived was because I used my first all divide in the battle.

So what are soul orbs for in the game? Are they used to purchase upgrades in the new game plus? I have about 90 of them right now and don't know if there is a limit.

So what all can only be done in the Future arc? I have all the narikiri doll titles already and am just about to go into the last dungeon.