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[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

So I've cleared one of those challenge

Spoiler

One man Gate battles with Sorey. I can't beat Lailah's on account of her having no range or crowd control that doesn't crumble when you have fast enemies after you.

Lailah is really bad at handling multiple enemies. Her martial artes are slow and have little range, even the side ones don't do much which means you don't really have room to cast anything because enemies will either hit you out of the animation on account of them all moving and attacking at different times.

Even if you use back/sidestep spam to reduce the cast time in general enemies will move fast enough that they will hit you before you can recover. Which leads to annoying shit when you have to fight the armadillos that begin their attack out of your range but the other enemies will cover the armadillos so you can't hit them afterwards which leads to the annoying situation where you're constantly dodging around trying to get a cast/heal or anything really but since the enemies are all moving/attacking at different times you can't take advantage of them missing you. None of this matters in a part where you have people to cover you. Reveal the spoiler to find out where this is applicable.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

Things like people using martial artes on an enemy and not staggering them, not realizing the enemy is using a hidden arte or remembering the rock paper scissors system.

Actually I'm a little confused on this. What's the difference between hidden artes and seraphic artes?

When I look at the artes menu there seems to be seems to be 3 different symbols, a sword, a staff and star-thing. However as best I can tell, the sword can mean either a martial or a hidden arte. It doesn't say but are the staff artes (which going by previous games are artes that need casting) the seraphic artes?

 

[texhnolyze]

I don't really get the AI in this game.
How do I set them to use healing artes when someone is in danger?

 

[Bladenic]

I don't really get the AI in this game.
How do I set them to use healing artes when someone is in danger?

Press the right stick down (or it may be right).

I got my code and was so excited to be able to use the cameo mystic artes on the snake boss but then I checked and you need 4 Blast gauges and everyone but Sorey only have 3. Ugh. Also why the hell did they translate Final Prayer as Final Player? And Silent End became Silent Apocalypse which is fine if unnecessary.

 

[Kasumin]

Well uh
Would be interested in your sources though.

I was going off of the feature with scenario writer Daisuke Kiga on Famitsu's website where he talks about Xillia 1's main scenario.

 

[PKrockin]

Actually I'm a little confused on this. What's the difference between hidden artes and seraphic artes?

When I look at the artes menu there seems to be seems to be 3 different symbols, a sword, a staff and star-thing. However as best I can tell, the sword can mean either a martial or a hidden arte. It doesn't say but are the staff artes (which going by previous games are artes that need casting) the seraphic artes?

It should say on your artes screen, "(down arrow) To Hidden Artes", "(up arrow) To Martial Artes". Hidden artes look more like martial artes actually, they don't have casting times. Everything with casting times is seraphic artes I believe.

The tricky thing is distinguishing between enemy hidden artes and enemy martial artes, the game says enemy hidden artes require a "charge up" or something, but it doesn't really look that way to me. I think there's a unique sound effect and visual effect when you hit someone with a martial arte when they're using hidden artes, so when I see that I immediately pull out a hidden arte and they stagger. From what little I've seen so far it also seems like enemy hidden artes have more magical-looking effects, like flames erupting and such, whereas martial seems to lack that. I need to look a little closer into it.

Press the right stick down (or it may be right).

I got my code and was so excited to be able to use the cameo mystic artes on the snake boss but then I checked and you need 4 Blast gauges and everyone but Sorey only have 3. Ugh. Also why the hell did they translate Final Prayer as Final Player? And Silent End became Silent Apocalypse which is fine if unnecessary.

Getting 4 BG is pretty easy actually. Just stack 3 of the same skill.

 

[flatearthpandas]

I'm sure this sentiment has been expressed multiple times but the skill system is really bumming me out right now. I'll need to read up on it more in depth but I feel like I get the idea but fusing the equipment for it seems like a huge pain in the ass.

 

[Dari Elxix]

I'm sure this sentiment has been expressed multiple times but the skill system is really bumming me out right now. I'll need to read up on it more in depth but I feel like I get the idea but fusing the equipment for it seems like a huge pain in the ass.

Honestly I'm just kinda lost on all of the systems in this game lol. Having a hard time trying to grasp how everything works together, but I'm still really early in the game so far (

Spoiler

Just Armitized for the 1st time!

) so it's been alright.

 

[Dugna]

K spoilers for ahead but

Spoiler

I'm at the fire temple the first temple the shepard goes through and the the last door I need to open that leads to the second statue spewing lava for some reason has its torches not lighting up in the right order. The rim of each torch has its number in order so I try it but the first keeps going out for some reason.

 

[Peff]

K spoilers for ahead but

Spoiler

I'm at the fire temple the first temple the shepard goes through and the the last door I need to open that leads to the second statue spewing lava for some reason has its torches not lighting up in the right order. The rim of each torch has its number in order so I try it but the first keeps going out for some reason.

Spoiler

The first few iterations of that puzzles had numbers on all four sides of the square, so the position where you cast the flame didn't matter, but that changes as you progress through the dungeon

 

[Dugna]

Spoiler

The first few iterations of that puzzles had numbers on all four sides of the square, so the position where you cast the flame didn't matter, but that changes as you progress through the dungeon

Spoiler

Ohh so it isn't just the number but the side that you cast the flame on also, ok thanks.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I think I figured out Lailah a bit.

Her martial artes are still kind of bad. But her Seraphic Artes are where you need to focus. You need to find an opportunity to chain cast her seraphic artes.

Like dodging a few times to build up reduced cast time bonus then use Blast Bomb (I think that's it, it's the higher arte that creates a huge multi hit explosion around Lailah.

When you're getting surrounded charge this up, wait for enemies to get close then let it rip, immediately after the cast charge up another one for even faster casting time. The point is to use the explosion to keep enemies away while dealing damage, you can end your cast with the higher arte (can't remember the name) that fires 3 slow meteors at your target. You can use this to set up at another position. In situations where you don't have multiple enemies crawling up your behind you can focus on your ranged seraphic artes. In team situations I'm not sure what purpose her martial artes will be, maybe if the enemy is resistant to all your seraphic artes.

Anyway, that's what I think of her currently, compared to my post earlier where I was pretty harsh.

In short, Lailah's strength lies in chaincasting those seraphic artes for keeping enemies off of her and hitting enemies at long rage. Do not ignore chain casting.

 

[irfaanator]

found a weird beast outside of the waterfall. proceeded to one shot me. what the hell was that?

 

[texhnolyze]

Press the right stick down (or it may be right).

I got my code and was so excited to be able to use the cameo mystic artes on the snake boss but then I checked and you need 4 Blast gauges and everyone but Sorey only have 3. Ugh. Also why the hell did they translate Final Prayer as Final Player? And Silent End became Silent Apocalypse which is fine if unnecessary.

Ah, alright. I'll check it out later.
Thanks.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

found a weird beast outside of the waterfall. proceeded to one shot me. what the hell was that?

I figure they are this game's version of the Giganto monsters. I could be wrong though.

Regardless they are tough as hell and can easily one-two shot your party members.

 

[Sarcasm]

How does quick save exactly work? I just noticed it.

Can you qs than exit game and reboot your pc and it will stay there?

 

[Basileus777]

How does quick save exactly work? I just noticed it.

Can you qs than exit game and reboot your pc and it will stay there?

It stays even after you exit the game. I don't think it works any differently than normal saves.

 

[names2hard4you]

Just for curiosity I decided to listen to a few skits in Japanese. I can't do it. I'm so used to the English voices that the original ones funnily enough just don't seem to fit the character, at least in my head. I recognize all the voices from anime and whatnot, but to me Sorey is Robie, and no one else lmfao. So I guess I gotta prop the English VAs for their work.

 

[Pancakes]

Yea the English VAs are actually pretty decent.

 

[glassgannon]

the artes in this game are so painfully underwhelming...
worst in any tales in can remember

 

[texhnolyze]

Yea the English VAs are actually pretty decent.

Indeed.
Moreover, there are interesting and quite funny combat chatters which I won't be able to understand with Japanese VAs. No subtitles for those.

 

[Vazra]

the artes in this game are so painfully underwhelming...
worst in any tales in can remember

My issue is that some battles may drag a bit more than they should. Speed up things a bit more and change the damage values.

That may be mod friendly tho.

 

[Saikyo]

Someone know the name of the track when

Spoiler

after Rose colapse doing her first "fusion" with a seraphim in the game

? It also plays when

Spoiler

Sorey discuss with Layla and Mikleo near the lake of first city about Malovelence I think

.

 

[glassgannon]

My issue is that some battles may drag a bit more than they should. Speed up things a bit more and change the damage values.

That may be mod friendly tho.

oh no...trust me, ive unlocked all of em..its not just the damage they do.
the game just becomes a boring grind 40hrs in because of how much more effective fusion mode artes are and little variety is in them.
i get that its using graces combat but its objectively inferior to it.
the final attacks in a-arte strings arent half as cool, and 4 out of the 6 characters are slow magic casters were only 2 a arte lines.also, mystic artes are lazy as fuq...one of them is literally a simple basic attack animation with a line of dialogue
also b artes dont get extensions either..

 

[Sarcasm]

Yea the English VAs are actually pretty decent.

I am enjoying the Japanese VA. Why does it ask me every boot what voice I want? It said it only does it once.

 

[texhnolyze]

I am enjoying the Japanese VA. Why does it ask me every boot what voice I want? It said it only does it once.

It's happening for me as well. The game asks me which language I want to use on every boot.

 

[Volodja]

So, I just came down of the mountain area near the broken bridge and

Spoiler

unlocked the earth seraphim.

Gotta be honest, at this point the fights aren't really pulling me in that much.
I still have the same Artes that I've had since the beginning of the game, it's starting to get kinda boring and, more importantly, the last few boss fights have been a pretty silly dance of Armitize, get one combo in, block until you can combo again, get your combo in and repeat until boss death.
No point in not being Armitized at all times outside of easy "random" battles.
However, those feel kinda unrewarding with leveling being so weird, so I kinda just skip them entirely.

 

[Pancakes]

Yea being stuck with that water spell and the rising slam is really boring for being 6 hours in.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

So, I just came down of the mountain area near the broken bridge and

Spoiler

unlocked the earth seraphim.

Gotta be honest, at this point the fights aren't really pulling me in that much.
I still have the same Artes that I've had since the beginning of the game, it's starting to get kinda boring and, more importantly, the last few boss fights have been a pretty silly dance of Armitize, get one combo in, block until you can combo again, get your combo in and repeat until boss death.
No point in not being Armitized at all times outside of easy "random" battles.
However, those feel kinda unrewarding with leveling being so weird, so I kinda just skip them entirely.

You'll get more as you play. My list is filling out pretty nicely but it's clear there's still a lot more for me to learn.

If you find it's too easy then you should probably up the difficulty setting. You probably won't stay in armitization when you realize that there are bosses that can one-two shot you which means both characters are KO'd and will learn to use it more situationally like for saving your partner, healing blue health, taking advantage of stun opportunities, etc.

Getting two shotted in this game isn't as bad considering there are ways to revive without using Life Bottles which was annoying as hell in previous games when you would have to spam the crap out of them on account of people dropping like flies against certain enemies. A guard taunt skill would be useful for keeping deadly bosses off of my allies. Currently what I do is try to get in their face and stagger them as much as possible to buy my party time to heal up.

 

[Bladenic]

Man, I owned the snake boss but here comes this naga bitch with a game over, then a retry (thank fuck) but suffered a lot of deaths and actually killed her while poor Lailah was dead so now she's WAY behind the others in experience (especially since on Hard you get shit for exp from regular enemies).

Seriously, I gotta make better use of the effing quick save feature.

 

[Dice//]

Do you think they will they make the cameo costumes available for non-preorderers?

 

[Alucrid]

anyone else of the ps4 version think the audio sounds off? seems like poor recording / mixing

 

[texhnolyze]

Yeah, I'm kinda struggling at boss battles because I have no idea how to taunt and interrupt. How do I do that?
Anyway, I'm on moderate difficulty.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Do you think they will they make the cameo costumes available for non-preorderers?

They probably will. And should. I love how each costume has a different battle/victory theme attached from previous Tales of Games (some in remixed form), and been alternating them as I do casual battles. I bet they'd sell some since the costumes are pretty cool, and the battle/victory music is a nice touch.

 

[Volodja]

You'll get more as you play. My list is filling out pretty nicely but it's clear there's still a lot more for me to learn.

If you find it's too easy then you should probably up the difficulty setting. You probably won't stay in armitization when you realize that there are bosses that can one-two shot you which means both characters are KO'd and will learn to use it more situationally like for saving your partner, healing blue health, taking advantage of stun opportunities, etc.

Getting two shotted in this game isn't as bad considering there are ways to revive without using Life Bottles which was annoying as hell in previous games when you would have to spam the crap out of them on account of people dropping like flies against certain enemies. A guard taunt skill would be useful for keeping deadly bosses off of my allies. Currently what I do is try to get in their face and stagger them as much as possible to buy my party time to heal up.

Can't up the difficulty any more than this, Hard is as high as I can go and bosses already can kind of 2 shot me and in Normal mode I can get very little damage in, mostly it just means that I'm cutting my Armitize hp in half. I just Armitize instantly and make sure to not get hit more than once in a while and actually manage to get some damage in when the openings show themselves.
I fully expect things to change in the future, but I hope that it's a pretty near future, that's all.

 

[devious.one]

anyone else of the ps4 version think the audio sounds off? seems like poor recording / mixing

I've noticed it in the anime cutscenes so far

 

[Abusement Park]

Is there any indication of exactly what the turtlez maps do? Just bought the first one and can't seem to figure it out in-game, and a cursory searching online didn't turn up any solid results.

 

[Rhapsody]

Do you think they will they make the cameo costumes available for non-preorderers?

Possibly. I'd say they'd be available in the future. They weren't locked as preorder bonuses in Japan, and usually they match what they do regarding bonuses. It's the mystic artes that were preorder bonuses there.

 

[CrazyDude]

So which characters are the focus of the story? Usually Tales of games has a two or three characters that have more importance to the story than the other characters.

 

[Dice//]

Possibly. I'd say they'd be available in the future. They weren't locked as preorder bonuses in Japan, and usually they match what they do regarding bonuses. It's the mystic artes that were preorder bonuses there.

Thanks.
(and Dusk Golem).

 

[R0ckman]

What the hell, why is the game guilt tripping me for grinding? People are complaining about taking a rest if I battle for too long, their health seems fine so it must keep track of how often I'm battling.

So which characters are the focus of the story? Usually Tales of games has a two or three characters that have more importance to the story than the other characters.

Mikleo and Sorey

 

[Alucrid]

I've noticed it in the anime cutscenes so far

ok thanks, good to know it's not just me then

 

[PKrockin]

What the hell, why is the game guilt tripping me for grinding? People are complaining about taking a rest if I battle for too long, their health seems fine so it must keep track of how often I'm battling.

Maybe the game is hinting that you should rest at inns to see skits? I dunno

 

[names2hard4you]

Maybe the game is hinting that you should rest at inns to see skits? I dunno

^ Probably this yeah.

 

[TheFatMan]

Is there any indication of exactly what the turtlez maps do? Just bought the first one and can't seem to figure it out in-game, and a cursory searching online didn't turn up any solid results.

I'd really like to know this as well. I don't seem to notice any difference at all.

 

[Ketkat]

Is there any indication of exactly what the turtlez maps do? Just bought the first one and can't seem to figure it out in-game, and a cursory searching online didn't turn up any solid results.

Press R3 and it'll bring up the world map. The turtlez map will fill in the area that you bought it in and show you how many of things are in that area. For instance, you can have 3 dungeons in that area all marked with ??? but you can see which fields they're connected to

 

[Kensuke]

What the hell, why is the game guilt tripping me for grinding? People are complaining about taking a rest if I battle for too long, their health seems fine so it must keep track of how often I'm battling.

I think your SC recovery takes a hit once this happens...

 

[R0ckman]

I think your SC recovery takes a hit once this happens...

Yes, I'm noticing this BS. *Sigh* this is starting to remind me of Tales of Destiny 2 (JP) battle system, I hated the **** out of that one. It's not as bad as that one though because at least it feels like the enemies are penalized for SC meter in this one.

For those curious this system is kind of an evolution of an old linear one. In that one there was an SP meter the functioned similarly. Only you basically controlled one side of the field and the enemies another, if you entered their side, your max SP was cut in half or sometimes worse, so spell casting was overpowered in the game. If there were melee units blocking a caster you would have to have your casters attack their casters, everyone had magic (though in that universe it made no sense according to the prequel why everyone could use magic and was never explained) but it slowed down the battle and your melee units would be attacked by theirs if you focused on magic. It also seemed like the system was lenient towards the enemies. All in all it was designed primarily to keep you from going in and curb stomping random monsters, but it was horrible.

 

[PKrockin]

I think your SC recovery takes a hit once this happens...

Ah, now that you mention it, I remember hearing that for every battle you fight your initial SC--the amount of SC you start a battle with--goes down by 1. So the game is telling you to restore it by resting at an inn (but the snacks you make with the Snack Preparation support action also increase it).

 

[names2hard4you]

About 8-9hrs in. The more I play the more it clicks with me. The characters too. One thing I'm noticing is how over my head all of these systems are for me compared to previous titles. Specially the skills, I think I know what I'm doing but I'm not even sure. Same goes for artes, seraphic artes and whatnot. Still I'm having a ton of fun.