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[Coxswain]

Keep him stunlocked enough, and he really doesn't seem to get the chance. It was a replay obviously, so Yuri had Combo Plus 3, 2, and 1, which is 9 attacks in the basic combo, or something ridiculous like 16 or 17 in his down-combo (which you can only do from behind or else you'll knock him down, and you have to be careful because sometimes he'll turn himself around), then follow that with Shining Fang -> Brutal Fang, use the Arte Extension on Brutal Fang to push Yuri's combo up high enough to activate the Tension skills; as soon as the first Overlimit starts just start spamming Shining Fang right up until the level 3 Overlimit is almost over, then end with a Brutal Fang and try to extend it as long as you can. As soon as you can, just start hitting again and try to do the whole thing over again.

In the meantime, between Repede on full assault (making sure to disable all of his Artes that knockdown), Rita makes with the Bloody Howling to initially get him stunlocked, and then Fireball spamming (10 fireballs, takes a while for them all to hit, by which time she's probably just about done casting the next one, even without any Overlimit shenanigans), and even Raven's Dark Chase - he's my healer, but since I'm not taking any damage I just flick the right stick whenever I can to spam DC - the odds are pretty good that the boss'll stay stunlocked in between Yuri's combos.

Fun fact: The experience that boss normally gives is 12000, meaning that at a max combo of 567, you get just shy of a 12x experience rate if you're using Combo Exp.

 

[rykomatsu]

So what's the longest combo anybody ever got without Tidal Wave spamming?

I manged to get a 210 combo on a Giganto monster using a long ass Shining Fang chain (Shining Fang-> Shining Fang Drop-> Shining Dragon Swarm-> Shining Fang-> ...)

2700-ish with Judith...controller got disconnected at that point and i didn't really want to keep trying again

 

[Firestorm]

It's not rise attack because I've unequiped it, I equiped all my default armor/acc/weapons everything from the beginning of the game, stayed at an inn twice, it won't stop. I'm serious I think it's glitching.

What part of the game are you at?

 

[Synless]

What part of the game are you at?

I just arrived at the overgrown forest. I just started up the game again and it's not doing it anymore, I don't know what happened but I'm glad it stopped.

 

[Relix]

Finally beat the game. Can't have two JRPGs side by side so had to beat this before SO4 :lol I rushed a bit the ending, but at the same time it kinda felt rushed. I don't mind, it was a fun dungeon and I was well leveled against the final boss. In fact, I found him a bit too easy if it weren't for the near insta kill attack.

The ending was a bit rushed as well, but I see I can load my old save and go from there so I will do that before beginning an EX and see what I can bring. I gotta finish that extra dungeon as well.

Overall, stole best JRPG on 360 from Lost Odyssey, and is definitely near the top of my all time face JRPGs

 

[Sagitario]

60 hours in! Finally beat

Spoiler

Alexei

...

That achievement took me like 6 times and not to be able to skip the scenes didn't help to my frustration...

Story is better buy still 'don't really care enough!' in my book...

 

[Firestorm]

Hold A+X to make cutscenes go faster.

 

[MechaX]

... without carrying over super-powerful equipment and 10x exp; otherwise Unknown is nothing special

Actually, I've been curious on Vesperia's inner workings of Unknown mode. In Abyss, Unknown Mode was severely unbalanced due to the fact that the multiplied defense stat in bosses led to some absurd 1-Point-of-Damage-Dealt battles, even with optimum equipment and 10x experience carried over. Does Vesperia handle the defense stat a little bit differently in this regard with weapons carried over?

In this case, I might just eschew my x10 EXP Unknown run in lieu of a Combo Exp run or a x2 EXP run. How difficult does Combo Exp make things in unknown when considering that characters might not even have the TP to keep long chains going?

 

[cann3dheat]

So I just finished

Spoiler

Egothor Forest

and I'm wondering about how many hours I have left. I'm guessing

Spoiler

around 20

, but I'm not sure.

 

[Coxswain]

Actually, I've been curious on Vesperia's inner workings of Unknown mode. In Abyss, Unknown Mode was severely unbalanced due to the fact that the multiplied defense stat in bosses led to some absurd 1-Point-of-Damage-Dealt battles, even with optimum equipment and 10x experience carried over. Does Vesperia handle the defense stat a little bit differently in this regard with weapons carried over?

I never bothered replaying Abyss on Unknown so I can't do a direct comparison, but Vesperia is a lot more forgiving than that sounds. The very beginning is kind of like that (if you don't use the Grade Shop to at least carry over your Skills and Arte usage, you won't be able to deal more than 1 damage to the guards in the castle, although I think Zagi and the monsters in the surrounding area are a little less tough to crack), but once you get her, Rita's spells still do more or less regular damage and it's easier to keep enemies in stunlock in Vesperia than Abyss, and then once you learn Fatal Strikes again you'll probably be using those to kill most regular enemies.

It gets less challenging as you go on, partially because your equipment is steadily improving back toward your old endgame stuff, and because you eventually get good at keeping enemies in perpetual stunlock (especially if you use Combo Exp), and if you do use Combo Exp, then because eventually you're getting 10x or more experience from most boss fights. From the moment I fought the first Gigant, it gave me enough experience that I could Holy Bottle my way through the game and pretty much only fight bosses.
Of course, the counter-point to that is that the bosses are actually arguably easier than the regular encounters, since it's a lot easier to keep one strong enemy stunlocked than it is to keep four of those Sharkmen, and everything does so much damage on Unknown that you're pretty much dead every time you get caught with your pants down.

 

[MechaX]

So I just finished

Spoiler

Egothor Forest

and I'm wondering about how many hours I have left. I'm guessing

Spoiler

around 20

, but I'm not sure.

Around there, yeah. You're towards the end of the 2nd third of the game.

It gets less challenging as you go on, partially because your equipment is steadily improving back toward your old endgame stuff, and because you eventually get good at keeping enemies in perpetual stunlock (especially if you use Combo Exp), and if you do use Combo Exp, then because eventually you're getting 10x or more experience from most boss fights. From the moment I fought the first Gigant, it gave me enough experience that I could Holy Bottle my way through the game and pretty much only fight bosses. Of course, the counter-point to that is that the bosses are actually arguably easier than the regular encounters, since it's a lot easier to keep one strong enemy stunlocked than it is to keep four of those Sharkmen, and everything does so much damage on Unknown that you're pretty much dead every time you get caught with your pants down.

That sounds pretty interesting. Although, I was planning on maining Judith during my Unknown playthrough, and the longer combo strings are more up Yuri's alley than any one else's. And if I do choose to fight the random battles, that will serve as a test for avoiding damage (although, I'm a little concerned about how the AI can handle itself on that difficulty, lest I expect to be using Gels by the boatload).

 

[Sagitario]

I was experimenting a little bit with the battle system last night, trying to get better at it and executing bigger combos and FS when the overlimit effect activated alone without me actually pressing the d-pad (and without consuming the overlimit level bar)... this happened several times but I couldn't figure out how to trigger it... any help?

Edit: Tension family skills... I didn't even realized I had activated them ...

Also:

- Is there a way to fill the overlimit bar faster? It takes way to long to refill...
- Because of the last question, how does Taunt 1/2 work?
- Only 2 base arte are allowed per combo?

 

[ZealousD]

- Is there a way to fill the overlimit bar faster? It takes way to long to refill...
- Because of the last question, how does Taunt 1/2 work?
- Only 2 base arte are allowed per combo?

With Taunt, you basically just tap the left stick and it'll fill the bar a bit. Honestly just attacking is probably a better idea, taunting isn't that much faster.

The number of artes you can pull off per combo depends on what skills you have. The ones that let you do really long combo chains I think are called Super Chains.

I eventually found Super Chains that let you chain from an base to an altered, from an altered to an arcane, and from an arcane to a base. With that chain, you can endlessly perform artes until the cows come home.

 

[Sagitario]

What I meant is this:

I can currently do Base -> Altered ->Arcane -> Base

After I got Ability Plus, I can chain either
Base -> Base -> Altered -> Arcane
or
Altered -> Arcane -> Base -> Base

I asked if it was possible to have 3 Base artes in a combo with Ability Plus [Base -> Base] and for example, Super Chain [Arcane -> Base], like this:
Base -> Base -> Altered -> Arcane -> Base

I'm guessing no because:
1) I can't perform that combo [and I don't think is the timing]
2) It would break the battle system, right?

That would mean only 2 Base, Altered and Arcane artes per normal combo [with the proper skills equipped]... is that right?

ZealousD, Firestorm, rykomatsu and everybody, what's your favorite/most used combo? What artes and characters?

 

[ZealousD]

What I'm saying is that I've been able to, with super chains, do Base -> Altered -> Arcane -> Base -> Altered -> Arcane -> Base -> Altered -> Arcane -> Base -> Altered...... etcetcetc. Basically, keep that going until the enemy does an overlimit or they knock me out or whatever. I don't think I used Ability Plus.

My particular combo of choice was doing ^that^ with Shining Fang.

Base: Shining Fang
Altered: Shining Fang Drop
Arcane: Shining Dragon Swarm

I like that Shining Fang combo because there's a lot of hits in it (so good for beefing up combo numbers) and it easily keeps the enemy almost endlessly staggered.

 

[Firestorm]

I never got Shining Fang Drop which I hear is really useful so my combos usually consisted of Shinging Fang, Brutal Fang w/extension, and Azure Storm repeated with each other. My friend was telling me a really cool long combo but I haven't tried it yet. It requires the Tension skills.

Shining Fang --> Dragon Swarm --> Shining Fang --> Shining Fang Drop (overlimit) -->Dragon Swarm x2 --> Burste Arte (blaze) --> Dragon Buster down -->Dragon Swarm x2 --> Burste Arte (blaze) --> Dragon Buster down --> Dragon Swarm --> Mystic Arte

 

[Sagitario]

... I'm going to try it later ...

The Tension skills are really great...

I've been using Shining Fang + [extended] Brutal Fang A LOT... so far, my biggest combo is 175 I think ...

Is it just me or the blue Fatal Strikes require less hits to activate than green ones? I love doing FS ...
Also, one thing I've missed since ToS: being able to equip 2 accessories... that's was so freaking useful ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the story: just got the 4th

Spoiler

spirit [I hate Undine voice]

, they made the situation better but seriously... this is a mess and I feel it's worse than TotA (even with its over complicated mythology, I mostly understood everything), with Vesperia I got to a point where I don't really care about what's going on or any explanation the game gives about the aer, apatheia and now mana [mana -> eres -> fonon -> aer -> mana: the full circle ]... I'm guessing this is how some people felt about TotA story...

And finally great battle music: the one in the crystal cave and when you fight Entelexeias... the game needed more themes like those...

One last thing, someone spoil me with the message Estelle was trying to give to Flynn during the beginning, somehow I missed it or the game didn't really tell you about it...

 

[Kreed]

One last thing, someone spoil me with the message Estelle was trying to give to Flynn during the beginning, somehow I missed it or the game didn't really tell you about it...

Spoiler

I believe the message was that Flynn's life was in danger (Zagi had been hired to kill Flynn).

 

[Sagitario]

Yeah, but she never really told him that and even after they met the first time, the continued chasing for Flynn for a while IIRC...

 

[Kreed]

Yeah, but she never really told him that and even after they met the first time, the continued chasing for Flynn for a while IIRC...

I haven't played from the beginning of the game in a while so I might be wrong about this, but I believe

Spoiler

Estelle missed her opportunity to tell Flynn the message the first time they meet but eventually she is able to deliver the message (though you're right, we never got to see the actual conversation, unless the conversation is a missable event).

 

[ZealousD]

About the story: just got the 4th

Spoiler

spirit [I hate Undine voice]

, they made the situation better but seriously... this is a mess and I feel it's worse than TotA (even with its over complicated mythology, I mostly understood everything), with Vesperia I got to a point where I don't really care about what's going on or any explanation the game gives about the aer, apatheia and now mana [mana -> eres -> fonon -> aer -> mana: the full circle ]... I'm guessing this is how some people felt about TotA story...

I just accepted that you aren't really suppose to understand it. I mean, most of the characters don't even understand it.

 

[Working_Stiff]

I've got a question which i think I know the answer to, but is there any way to warp out of dungeons once you complete them, or do you always have to trek back to the entrance?

 

[Basileus777]

I've got a question which i think I know the answer to, but is there any way to warp out of dungeons once you complete them, or do you always have to trek back to the entrance?

Some dungeons have a warp point at the end, but otherwise, no.

 

[Pelydr]

I'm way late to the party but this game is great. I love the battle system which is a huge draw for me in the JRPG's. The only downside is I do wish I could skip some of the cut scenes/conversations as they can drag and really aren't very interesting (the story is really bad). Still, the actual game is really great.

 

[Firestorm]

I'm way late to the party but this game is great. I love the battle system which is a huge draw for me in the JRPG's. The only downside is I do wish I could skip some of the cut scenes/conversations as they can drag and really aren't very interesting (the story is really bad). Still, the actual game is really great.

But then you'd miss Yuri being a badass. 'specially at

Spoiler

the end of Act 1

. Hold A+X to make dialog fastforward. Makes it faster even if you have the text set to appear instantly.

 

[rykomatsu]

I'm way late to the party but this game is great. I love the battle system which is a huge draw for me in the JRPG's. The only downside is I do wish I could skip some of the cut scenes/conversations as they can drag and really aren't very interesting (the story is really bad). Still, the actual game is really great.

The battle system was indeed pretty good...things started getting really interesting once Judith joined the fray in terms of gameplay

ZealousD, Firestorm, rykomatsu and everybody, what's your favorite/most used combo? What artes and characters?

I have aerial combo 1, 2, and 3
I just Judith, primarily. Favorite combo, I think (translated from JPN so some attacks might be off...just compared level learned at and TP used)

1. Knock up w/ up+A and follow into aerial combo as long as you can
2. Luna Rise (mid-air) (如月, kisaragi)
3. Thunder Moon (mid-air) (天雷槍月, tenraisougetsu)
4. Aerial dash
5. Luna Rise (mid-air) (如月, kisaragi)
6. Thunder moon (cancel before thunder) (天雷槍月, tenraisougetsu)
7. Moon Glare (A+B, mid-air) (月閃光, gessenkou)
8. Thunder moon (ground) (天雷槍月, tenraisougetsu)
9. Moon Glare (A+B, ground) (月閃光, gessenkou)
10. Moonlight Talon (ground) (飛燕月華, hien gekka)
11. Moon Glare (A+B, mid-air) (月閃光, gessenkou)

Since moonlight talon forces a mob up, you can get a little creative from there.

 

[Sagitario]

I've never really used Judith outside of a 3 or 4 times, I guess I should try...
She does seem kind of complicated to use though [now that I've gotten good with Yuri]...


Question about King of Adventure sidequest:
I talked to Rich before killing the first Giganto monster, then I killed them all and when to talk to him after the event of Capua Nor (

Spoiler

after the floating castle appears

)... but he doesn't say anything and the scene is not activated...
Is there something I should be doing first? Or any other sidequest that must be finished prior? Because this is driving me nuts (I'd not be able to continue with the after parts of that sidequest and that would mean losing titles, skills and artes >__<)...

 

[rykomatsu]

I've never really used Judith outside of a 3 or 4 times, I guess I should try...
She does seem kind of complicated to use though [now that I've gotten good with Yuri]...


Question about King of Adventure sidequest:
I talked to Rich before killing the first Giganto monster, then I killed them all and when to talk to him after the event of Capua Nor (

Spoiler

after the floating castle appears

)... but he doesn't say anything and the scene is not activated...
Is there something I should be doing first? Or any other sidequest that must be finished prior? Because this is driving me nuts (I'd not be able to continue with the after parts of that sidequest and that would mean losing titles, skills and artes >__<)...

With all the cancels and on ground/mid air variations, Judith is much more technical, but once you get into the groove of things, she's pretty fun to use (and I like using spear wielders in general). It's hard for me going back to Yuri.

Did you finish all the cutscenes with Rich/porta-inn? I think that might be one of the preconditions (like when Carol joins you) and what not...unless you had the sit-down fireside talk about him and his sword...in which case I dunno what to tell you...maybe you have to talk to him after killing the first one?

 

[Working_Stiff]

I'm at the part where you fight

Spoiler

estell

and I am having a lot more trouble with it than I think I should be. I get to her second form and keep having the floor mopped with me. I have read a couple FAQs and they all say that it should be pretty easy. I think I may not be performing the right combos or whatnot. I basically have the skill set where I can do four normal attacks, which I do, then I follow it up with an arte, and then try to run away, and do it all over again. I think I should be also through in some burst artes and arcane artes (or something); however I forgot what the tutorial said regarding how to pull these off and I didn't see them mentioned in the instruction book. Can anyone provide some insight into what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Relix]

Is that the

Spoiler

Yuri vs. Estelle fight?

. Just free run. Azure Edge her, run, Azure, run, Azure, run.

 

[Working_Stiff]

Yeah thats the fight. I will try that.

 

[Working_Stiff]

I actually still seem to be getting crushed. Every time I try to do an asure edge, I don't have enough time to start moving again before she starts attacking.

 

[Tailzo]

Nothing new about a possible PAL release date?

 

[Pancakes]

I actually still seem to be getting crushed. Every time I try to do an asure edge, I don't have enough time to start moving again before she starts attacking.

First time I did it I just used Ghost Wolf, ran back, Ghost Wolf and repeat.

 

[Sagitario]

I actually still seem to be getting crushed. Every time I try to do an asure edge, I don't have enough time to start moving again before she starts attacking.

- Don't be afraid of using items
- Activate overlimit (Limit bottles if the bar is not full)
- Use the extended Brutal Fang arte to get more hits and Guardian Field to heal yourself and attack her at the same time
- Take advantage of her spell casting time to attack her
- Lower the difficulty level if you're still having problems
- All-divide?

 

[Sagitario]

With all the cancels and on ground/mid air variations, Judith is much more technical, but once you get into the groove of things, she's pretty fun to use (and I like using spear wielders in general). It's hard for me going back to Yuri.

Will definitely try Judith later...

Did you finish all the cutscenes with Rich/porta-inn? I think that might be one of the preconditions (like when Carol joins you) and what not...unless you had the sit-down fireside talk about him and his sword...in which case I dunno what to tell you...maybe you have to talk to him after killing the first one?

What cut scenes in "porta-inn" [I'm guessing that's Portua Torim]?
I remember talking to Rich in the field near Aspio before killing the first Giganto and I talked with him again after I killed 2 or 3 of them...
I don't remember the fireside talk about his sword though...
I wish there was a video of this sidequest but there is none in Youtube >_< ...

 

[Firestorm]

I actually still seem to be getting crushed. Every time I try to do an asure edge, I don't have enough time to start moving again before she starts attacking.

Well, for arcane artes, this is how it works. Some artes are designated Arcane, just go down your list and you'll see it listed in the description. You can follow up a base arte with an arcane arte. So instead of going 4 hits -> base -> fall back, you can do 4 hits -> base -> arcane -> fall back. Depending on your skills, you may even be able to do 4 hits -> base -> arcane -> base -> fall back by now. I remember this boss being really easy. If you got the

Spoiler

Mother's Memento

in Mantaic by sleeping at the inn a couple of times, use that. It breaks her shield. Maybe not breaking it makes it harder? If you missed the item, you're out of luck for that part (and won't receive the secret mission achievement either).

 

[ivysaur12]

Anyone want to tell me how far I am in the main story? I just got to the Weasand of Cados. I assume not terribly far since I'm only at around 14 hours, but I'd still like to get an estimate if I can beat it over spring break.

 

[Kreed]

Anyone want to tell me how far I am in the main story? I just got to the Weasand of Cados. I assume not terribly far since I'm only at around 14 hours, but I'd still like to get an estimate if I can beat it over spring break.

If you avoid doing any side quests/backtracking then you're almost half way through the game.

 

[rykomatsu]

Will definitely try Judith later...



What cut scenes in "porta-inn" [I'm guessing that's Portua Torim]?
I remember talking to Rich in the field near Aspio before killing the first Giganto and I talked with him again after I killed 2 or 3 of them...
I don't remember the fireside talk about his sword though...
I wish there was a video of this sidequest but there is none in Youtube >_< ...

sorry...i meant porta-inn as in like...porta-potty...dunno what Rich's inn on a wagon's called in the US version.

I don't remember the exact details of the scene that flags you for the Giganto subquests, but it was a fireside chat with him, Yuri...and i think Repede...he has some sword that's related to the Giganto subquest.

What might be happening is there may be another subquest that you need to complete that passes through Rich and the porta-inn that has a higher priority than the Giganto subquest flag...that's all I can think of :/

 

[ZealousD]

Anyone want to tell me how far I am in the main story? I just got to the Weasand of Cados. I assume not terribly far since I'm only at around 14 hours, but I'd still like to get an estimate if I can beat it over spring break.

The game is around 40-50 hours if you go minimal on sidequests. My first playthrough was 60.

 

[Darackutny]

Nothing new about a possible PAL release date?

Ugh... I thought I had it bad when waiting for a PS3 port. Why is it so hard for publishers to bring these games to Europe btw?

 

[Firestorm]

Nothing new about a possible PAL release date?

It's in the OP. Late 2009. Second half.

 

[Darackutny]

It's in the OP. Late 2009. Second half.

Damn. =/

 

[Sagitario]

Is there any place for fast level-up/experience? Or any tricks like Rita's Tidal Wave for getting experience?

sorry...i meant porta-inn as in like...porta-potty...dunno what Rich's inn on a wagon's called in the US version.

I don't remember the exact details of the scene that flags you for the Giganto subquests, but it was a fireside chat with him, Yuri...and i think Repede...he has some sword that's related to the Giganto subquest.

What might be happening is there may be another subquest that you need to complete that passes through Rich and the porta-inn that has a higher priority than the Giganto subquest flag...that's all I can think of :/

I'm almost done with all the sidequests [only Tarqaron to go]... so I don't think it will be activated anymore... I'm going to try it again in the next playthrough, but THANKS ...

Edit: Also, ToV +1 for having a Norma reference!

 

[rykomatsu]

Is there any place for fast level-up/experience? Or any tricks like Rita's Tidal Wave for getting experience?

I thought monster combos tended to give you more XP? Atleast...i remember getting 3~4 levels up after doing a 2700 hit combo...

 

[Firestorm]

Just do the secret dungeon for experience if you activated it.

 

[Notorious_Roy]

Looks like the game will be released in june in Europe. I don't have an official source, but it's better than some releasedate from an online shop

 

[Tailzo]

Looks like the game will be released in june in Europe. I don't have an official source, but it's better than some releasedate from an online shop

The OP states a later date. Since you didn't get the date from an online shop, where did you get it?

 

[Notorious_Roy]

The OP states a later date. Since you didn't get the date from an online shop, where did you get it?

From someone who was told by someone from Atari that they will be releasing the game this june in Europe

I know how that sounds, but I think it's legit.