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[SkylineRKR]

I was ever so satisfied when Milla called him out.

I was thinking he would join for a moment, I was like 'please don't'.

 

[Voror]

You get Mystic Artes by unlocking the Arcane Artes which is located on the second LLO on the 2nd bottom right box locked between Phys. Atk. and Health/Armor. If you rush expansion you can get it really fast.

Is rushing expansion simply grinding? In which case, what are good spots to do so?

And with the upgrading artes, is it worth doing all of them or are there particular ones worth focusing on.

 

[Dark Schala]

Is rushing expansion simply grinding? In which case, what are good spots to do so?

And with the upgrading artes, is it worth doing all of them or are there particular ones worth focusing on.

Outside of Nia Kheria. The place where people accidentally got wiped, lol (so the northeast exit). Set the difficulty to Easy and don't get into fights with any Gentlemen enemies until you feel like you're ready to do so. Save after every battle and stay near the entrance until you level up some.

As for artes, it just really depends on your playstyle. Which ones do you think you want to look into upgrading? (I'm guessing your asking about arte progression, ie: use this arte x amount of times to make it more useful.)

 

[chickdigger802]

Haha. A few of us felt like fans in NA/EU will like the game more than we did because of the game's emphasis on plot and characterization and it turned out that we were right. Jude's voice isn't as high-pitched and perhaps some of his lines may have been revised to make him seem less naive and more likeable, which is a good thing because he did little things that added up for me in terms of dragging the character down completely. Either way, it was obvious to me that a lot of people would like the game given the reception of Graces f's narrative and characters. And some people might enjoy the more streamlined structure & design, and streamlined systems that Xillia includes.

With that said, I did enjoy it, and I ended up enjoying my second plat run a little more since I knew how to break the game by that point. If I didn't like the game, I wouldn't have played it four times. But it does so much bad in terms of some aspects of its game design that I can't help but to constructively criticize it that way. Emphasis on constructively criticize. I don't do this because I want the series to do poorly in the west or some weird conspiracy nonsense like that which apparently some people believe. I do this because I want a better game, and because I have played better in the past in the series. No game is perfect. If there's something bad about game in terms of design or mechanics, hell yes, I'll point it out and I'll probably rip it apart depending on how bad it is. This isn't exclusive to Tales; I do it with many games like Rhythm Thief, Sonic Generations, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Time & Eternity, Ni No Kuni, etc. I'm not going to sugarcoat my criticisms at all because I feel like being blunt will communicate what I think about a game in the end. I don't like overselling a game at all and lying to myself and to other people about whether or not certain aspects of a game are good when I really thought they weren't.

There are many different opinions out there, regardless, so people shouldn't take stock in what just one or two people say about a game. There are many people, like Shouta, R_thanatos, Disgaeamad, Jucksalbe, Jijidasu, Rhapsody, etc. who thought the game was really good when they'd played the Japanese version despite some stuff they didn't like about it.

As I said before, there are quite a few iffy things that the game does design-wise that doesn't jive well with me and lowered my opinion of the game in general. It certainly has the potential to jive well with others, and it certainly has for a lot of people as evidenced in this thread... and that's perfectly okay. There are simply different things that different people look for in a video game. I typically don't look for story or characters when I play a video game. I look for systems, good map design, general good game design, cohesion, etc. whenever I play a game. I sometimes have a tendency to overanalyze various aspects, but that's the way I've always been. Other people may not be like that, and that's fine.

Just play the game yourself and stick to whatever you think a good game is. If ya like it, that's fine. If ya don't, ya don't. If you find flaws but still like it, that's fine, too.

I tend to enjoy systems as well and I do personally feel like 90% of all games that people think are the best shit ever is 'good' at best for me. The little things that games do wrong just resonate more for me.

What I truly dislike is losing due to rng, or poor friendly ai, or anything out of my control. Could be tales ai during bosses, or SMT's 'attack twice from crit/weakness' destroying you out of random.

probably why i tend to enjoy jrpgs with more timing based elements and find the mario luigi ones to be some of my favorite, combat wise, period lol.


Still iffy if i should pick up dream team, with all the criticisms about it being a 'babby game'.



am still pissed off that i missed the whole equiping skills for this though. I like to play tales games without guides... but that usually leads to me missing an entire system or just not caring about how something works, like recruiting monsters in ToS2, or how the whole enchanting thing worked in graces.

bah.

 

[Voror]

Outside of Nia Kheria. The place where people accidentally got wiped, lol (so the northeast exit). Set the difficulty to Easy and don't get into fights with any Gentlemen enemies until you feel like you're ready to do so. Save after every battle and stay near the entrance until you level up some.

As for artes, it just really depends on your playstyle. Which ones do you think you want to look into upgrading? (I'm guessing your asking about arte progression, ie: use this arte x amount of times to make it more useful.)

I thought that was one but wasn't sure where it was. So definitely don't try hard until the party is much more powerful and I've gotten the mechanics down?

Not far enough yet to really know but was curious on recommendations. Does Jude get any better healing moves for instance?

 

[BassForever]

So I got to the first human boss

Spoiler

Jaou

and you guys were right, this is stupid artificial difficulty. It's like after finishing Graces they sat around and said "hey nobody likes the infinite respawning minions the bosses have, lets keep that, add more spawnable minions, and make the boss be able to break out of combos to summon them".

If it was just respawnable minions or just combo breakers I'd be okay, but both is just stupid. I get that they don't want players to just wombo-combo bosses into oblivion but there has to be a better way of making that possible without both of these borked systems. It's funny Vesperia got it perfect by giving bosses OL that enabled them to blast the player away, far enough that you couldn't get wombo-comboed like what happens in Xillia but close enough that if you don't react fast the boss can get some nasty hits in.

 

[dakkumauji]

I thought that was one but wasn't sure where it was. So definitely don't try hard until the party is much more powerful and I've gotten the mechanics down?

Not far enough yet to really know but was curious on recommendations. Does Jude get any better healing moves for instance?

Using artes so so many many times will only modify the existing arte, like increasing its range, the number of hits, being able to use in the air or whatever.

Jude only has two healing moves, but using them enough will increase the range of it and I believe using after so many times will allow Healer to remove statuses.

 

[leatherhat]

http://www.twitch.tv/leatherhat1

Streaming until I go out, currently in prison

 

[Kagari]

Passed chapter 3 not too long ago. How many chapters are there in total?

 

[kayos90]

So I got to the first human boss

Spoiler

Jaou

and you guys were right, this is stupid artificial difficulty. It's like after finishing Graces they sat around and said "hey nobody likes the infinite respawning minions the bosses have, lets keep that, add more spawnable minions, and make the boss be able to break out of combos to summon them".

If it was just respawnable minions or just combo breakers I'd be okay, but both is just stupid. I get that they don't want players to just wombo-combo bosses into oblivion but there has to be a better way of making that possible without both of these borked systems. It's funny Vesperia got it perfect by giving bosses OL that enabled them to blast the player away, far enough that you couldn't get wombo-comboed like what happens in Xillia but close enough that if you don't react fast the boss can get some nasty hits in.

You think that boss is dumb? HA! Can't wait for you to fight the final boss. Note that the final boss fight on hard took me 1 hour and 15 minutes ish to beat.

Passed chapter 3 not too long ago. How many chapters are there in total?

Four. You're on the final stretch.

 

[Jrmint]

=D, =D, =D

Any hints/tips for the beginning, i.e. some things that can be missed and never reobtain ala the Monster book in Abyss -__-;

Can anyone answer this? I'd really like to know as well.

 

[nintendoman58]

Just beat

Spoiler

Nahctigal.

. Best Tales boss I've ever faced. He kicked my ass at first, until I realized that I should focus more on guarding than dodging. His freaking mystic arte was the real killer though.

He had 3k HP left and that damn hyper combo of his KO'd the entire party on one try. Thankfully avoiding it became easier afterward.

 

[Reveirg]

Where does one find a Meadow Powder?

Doesn't seem to be in the meadows :/

 

[Bladenic]

Just whooped

Spoiler

Presa and Wingul's asses.

Loved the fight honestly. Much better than the last few.

 

[aravuus]

Does it say somewhere what chapter I'm at? I'm already 13 hours in and haven't seen anything about chapters. Just got the sixth party member, am I still at the first chapter?

Also seems like the sixth character is the thief of the game, is she like Graces' thief was, small chance of stealing every time she uses a melee arte?

 

[kayos90]

Does it say somewhere what chapter I'm at? I'm already 13 hours in and haven't seen anything about chapters. Just got the sixth party member, am I still at the first chapter?

First chapter ends when you get everyone in your group. Like... everyone all at once.

 

[dakkumauji]

Does it say somewhere what chapter I'm at? I'm already 13 hours in and haven't seen anything about chapters. Just got the sixth party member, am I still at the first chapter?

I wanna say when you save it says what chapter you are in.

If not, you could always check your titles. You get a new one every time you clear a chapter.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Am I the only one who made saves for every single boss in Tales of Vesperia?

I have forgotten to do it so far for Xillia. I've only missed a few bosses at the beginning so far so it's not really a big loss.

 

[TraBuch]

Anyone else find "Mutton! Fresh mutton!" incredibly irritating?

 

[aravuus]

First chapter ends when you get everyone in your group. Like... everyone all at once.

I wanna say when you save it says what chapter you are in.

If not, you could always check your titles. You get a new one every time you clear a chapter.

Welp, quick answers, must be the prime gaming time in the US? Thanks!

 

[kayos90]

Welp, quick answers, must be the prime gaming time in the US? Thanks!

Not really. I'm just keeping up with this thread to help lol.

 

[FSLink]

So I got to the first human boss

Spoiler

Jaou

and you guys were right, this is stupid artificial difficulty. It's like after finishing Graces they sat around and said "hey nobody likes the infinite respawning minions the bosses have, lets keep that, add more spawnable minions, and make the boss be able to break out of combos to summon them".

If it was just respawnable minions or just combo breakers I'd be okay, but both is just stupid. I get that they don't want players to just wombo-combo bosses into oblivion but there has to be a better way of making that possible without both of these borked systems. It's funny Vesperia got it perfect by giving bosses OL that enabled them to blast the player away, far enough that you couldn't get wombo-comboed like what happens in Xillia but close enough that if you don't react fast the boss can get some nasty hits in.

Vesperia had the best bosses, Graces had better 1 on 1 fights.
For that boss in particular, I just made Elize use Negative Gate over and over while I attacked, the wolves/birds were usually weak enough to die while I'm focusing on him. Had to be careful about Devil's Maw since on Hard mode, if everyone is too close they can all die.

 

[Shouta]

while im enjoying it, I think bamco is still a longs way off before being able to make an 'incredible' tales game lol.

They already made an incredible Tales game, it's called Tales of Destiny Remake.

Anyway, Xillia/Xillia 2 are definitely the next best IMO despite a few design gaffes and not really hitting certain expectations of Tales fans. What is present is very good though.

 

[BassForever]

Vesperia had the best bosses, Graces had better 1 on 1 fights.
For that boss in particular, I just made Elize use Negative Gate over and over while I attacked, the wolves/birds were usually weak enough to die while I'm focusing on him. Had to be careful about Devil's Maw since on Hard mode, if everyone is too close they can all die.

Yeah I was able to survive one of those due to the fact I was over leveled thanks to Bacura. Elise didn't have time to cast offensive magic she was too busy healing.

 

[FSLink]

They already made an incredible Tales game, it's called Tales of Destiny Remake.

Anyway, Xillia/Xillia 2 are definitely the next best IMO despite a few design gaffes and not really hitting certain expectations of Tales fans. What is present is very good though.

Agreed.
Vesperia PS3 is up there too, but the battle system isn't as fun as some of the CC entries + X1 and X2.

Yeah I was able to survive one of those due to the fact I was over leveled thanks to Bacura. Elise didn't have time to cast offensive magic she was too busy healing.

Yeah, I made her start with offensive magic and that juggled him for awhile until she ran out of TP.

 

[Kagari]

They already made an incredible Tales game, it's called Tales of Destiny Remake.

Anyway, Xillia/Xillia 2 are definitely the next best IMO despite a few design gaffes and not really hitting certain expectations of Tales fans. What is present is very good though.

Yeah, Xillia 2 is probably my favorite Tales game overall, despite the large amount of reused assets.

 

[Holmes]

Ugh, I'm piss poor at chain link artes. I can get two in a row, but then I mess up. Hope this one isn't a chore to get to 450.

 

[Datschge]

Okay that first part is very interesting. Is it because the staff has left that dev group or they left the company entirely. If it's the latter, then I wonder if that currently affects the development process of the next mothership in some way. Of course, unless they weren't key people then I guess it wouldn't matter all that much. I also wonder why the ST section was removed. Hm.

They left the company entirely, this is still from the aftermath of Tales Studio dissolving, a part of the staff relocating into Namco Bandai Games and four months later into the newly formed Bandai Namco Studios, all of which happened between Xillia 1 and 2. The last reported employee number for Tales Studio was 109 in April 2011 (was at an all time high of 135 in 2009), and the press release for Bandai Namco Studios mentioned 80 people from Tales Studio becoming part of it. I've confirmed 25 so far, though two of them were credited in Xillia 2 still.

The last part stands out to me the most. Didn't John say that it was CoT who was doing Xillia or did I hear that wrong? Regardless, if no recording studio was listed it makes me think that there was something done most likely inhouse but even then, that would probably be cited. All interesting stuff. Thanks for always doing the staff roll stuff!

I think JohnTV mentioned Ted Tsung who has been the Hometek/Namco Bandai Games America producer responsible for Tales since Peter Garza left after Vesperia.

Hm! That's really interesting... kind of disappointing, really. I didn't really think they'd remove all of that in this version (dang, that's a lot of small changes for the game already, lol). Do you remember who was removed at all, or if they were someone we'd know?

I keep track of them on this page. Mainly "Team Destiny" people and 2D illustrators and some newer staff that didn't stay all that long, though Shinichi Yamaguchi (responsible for the notorious/iconic "Abyss" 3D monsters) and Takashi Mizushima (responsible for the cell shaded look in Vesperia and graphic R&D thereafter) did surprise me. May hint at what Namco Bandai don't want to bother with anymore (RIP 2D Tales ;_; ) and which areas they intend to serve with non-Tales Studio developers in the future (monster designs? foley sound already happened with Xillia 2).

I can't remember, but isn't Cup of Tea usually credited? I thought I'd read somewhere that Cup of Tea Productions did do the dub work. And now that I'm looking around, it certainly was.

They were visibly credited until Graces f. The Western Xillia staff roll is really cramped and fast scrolling though, maybe they saved space by not including anyone they didn't legally have to... *shrugs*

 

[Bladenic]

Ugh Elize's MA is so hard to pull off. Rowen's is easy since Tidal Wave hits everyone, but Elize has to aim hers and it's really frustrating especially if the enemy hits you. Boooo. And Xillia seems to suffer from "enemy targets party leader" like most Tales games too. Xillia 2's method of MA activation is far superior.

 

[dakkumauji]

Ugh Elize's MA is so hard to pull off. Rowen's is easy since Tidal Wave hits everyone, but Elize has to aim hers and it's really frustrating especially if the enemy hits you. Boooo. And Xillia seems to suffer from "enemy targets party leader" like most Tales games too. Xillia 2's method of MA activation is far superior.

I know you do learn a skill where you can chain your link artes/mystic artes off the start of a spell instead of the end of it. That makes it a lot easier to pull off Elize's mystic arte though it still might suffer from you gotta hit the enemy first.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Sooo I booted up Xillia for the first time just now and am seriously conflicted on which character to chose. I know the FAQ says to pick Jude first but there is this certain... odd good feeling about being "Huh? o.o" first and then going "Ahhh I see! " in the second playthough

 

[Dragoshi1]

I'm about 15 hours in, and just got the whole gang together(found Leia on the ship).

How much of the main story is left? Am I half way done, or nearly done?


Right now I'm just getting subquests completed.

 

[Holmes]

Just realized Kline and Driselle's mansion is the Lhant mansion.

 

[Rhapsody]

Finally picked up my copy and going through Milla's story this time. Ugh, you guys weren't kidding about the lisp.

 

[Gintoki313]

If there's one thing I'm liking right now, is that almost every kind of team in this game has a fighting chance. In Graces and Tales of Vesperia there was at least 2 teams in each one you couldn't pick, or the game would be harder then it is. In Xillia almost every character team can be useful, even the most weirdest of teams.

I can finally pick a team that I like because of personality and my favorites (yeah I'm kinda weird because I choose my party by how much I like certain characters, not how good they are in battle; I even used Karol in TOV because I thought he was cool) instead of them being useful or not.

 

[Zertez]

I apologize if this question has been asked many times and I know the answer comes down to personal taste and opinion, if you dont mind explain your pros and cons of each game. I have only see poor gamefaq replies about the games, so the replies have been almost useless.

Ive been very poor lately, so I havent picked up Tales of Xillia or Tales of Grace f. In time I will buy both, but can only afford one atm. I cant decide which to buy. I loved Tales of Vesperia story, characters, and combat, if either of the games are similar. Tales of Grace f is cheaper, but I dont mind spending a little extra for a better game. I got hundreds of hours out of Vesperia, so 60 dollars is a bargain for the amount of content in most Tales games.

 

[kayos90]

I changed my avatar to fit my mood. I hate Jude but I like Milla so w/e.

 

[Soriku]

I changed my avatar to fit my mood. I hate Jude but I like Milla so w/e.

I forgot the month for the avatar bet was up

 

[kayos90]

I forgot the month for the avatar bet was up

You're damn right it's up.

 

[Schadenfreude]

I changed my avatar to fit my mood. I hate Jude but I like Milla so w/e.

Boo! Bring back the cutesy avatar.

 

[Peff]

I apologize if this question has been asked many times and I know the answer comes down to personal taste and opinion, if you dont mind explain your pros and cons of each game. I have only see poor gamefaq replies about the games, so the replies have been almost useless.

Ive been very poor lately, so I havent picked up Tales of Xillia or Tales of Grace f. In time I will buy both, but can only afford one atm. I cant decide which to buy. I loved Tales of Vesperia story, characters, and combat, if either of the games are similar. Tales of Grace f is cheaper, but I dont mind spending a little extra for a better game. I got hundreds of hours out of Vesperia, so 60 dollars is a bargain for the amount of content in most Tales games.

The safer bet is Xillia. Graces has a really great battle system, but the story and characters are even more generic shounen anime than usual for the series, whereas Xillia is not quite as tight gameplay-wise (still good though) but it's more in line with Vesperia.

 

[Suikoguy]

Finally picked up my copy and going through Milla's story this time. Ugh, you guys weren't kidding about the lisp.

After listening to it some more, I agree it's more to do with the recording then the actress.

 

[FSLink]

I can finally pick a team that I like because of personality and my favorites (yeah I'm kinda weird because I choose my party by how much I like certain characters, not how good they are in battle; I even used Karol in TOV because I thought he was cool) instead of them being useful or not.

Karol's good in TOV though. >_> Especially if you level up the Stamp skills. (Nice Aid Smash and such)

 

[Rhapsody]

After listening to it some more, I agree it's more to do with the recording then the actress.

Yeah. The recording quality just seems lower, especially compared to Jude's which sounds much more clear.

Also, I think I'm feeling that shot lag when I open up the battle menu that Kayos mentioned.
It's noticable, but it's not that bad luckily.

 

[aravuus]

After listening to it some more, I agree it's more to do with the recording then the actress.

Definitely. The acting is perfectly fine, it just needs a bit de-essing.

Anyway, I assume minerals like mud rock, rock salt, block of quartz, iolite ore and so on are meant to be sold? They give 1 point, but a ton of money. I already gave a quartz block in a sidequest, should I save any others or just sell them?

 

[Metaledgeking]

Man, I just used the Old Vicalle Mine to jump at least 8 levels. The spicy chicken dish and fighting three gentlemen in a battle helped out alot.

 

[Rhapsody]

I keep wanting to use Jude even though I did choose Milla's story. Jude's just more fun (and broken) to me.

Having a lot of fun right now going through this. Always had a soft spot for Tales.

 

[aravuus]

Man, I just used the Old Vicalle Mine to jump at least 8 levels. The spicy chicken dish and fighting three gentlemen in a battle helped out alot.

Just did the same thing! Think I'll stop for now, before I break the game beyond repair lol

... It's just so addictive, so fast levels man!

 

[TraBuch]

I've been using that mine to farm materials/feathers. Finally got 459 feathers about an hour ago.

Speaking of materials, what're Mysterious Jewels used for? I'm assuming there's a quest somewhere?

 

[Freezasaurus]

Question about shop levels... If you say, level the weapons shop up to level 30... Does that mean the shop will carry weapons suited to level 30-ish characters, or is the shop level non-indicative of the equipment level?