Tales Series

So, I find it odd that locations in Tales of The Abyss use a fair number of the Sephiroth, but not all of them.

• Keter becomes Keterburg
• Chokhmah becomes Grand Chokhmah
• Binah becomes St. Binah
• Da'at becomes Daath
• Chesed becomes Chessedonia
• Hod is still Hod
• Malkuth is the name of the empire.

However, I don't see anything using Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, or Yesod. Strange to have four of them left out.

On a side note, I did find out that Ain Soph Aur is yet another Gnosticism reference, in a different game.

Yeah, that happens in most Tales. They love their Norse mythology references, especially in the Symphonia line games.

Now it's a good time to tell here my experience on Tales games: Phantasia GBA (almost beat) Destiny PS 1, Eternia PS 1, Symponia GC, Symphonia 2, Abyss PS 2, Radiant Mythology, Graces Wii (all beat) Played 10 hours of Innocence DS, watching a Vesperia LP.

Also, I found an analogy between Hubert's and our situation on the matter of Wii Graces which could be ironically fitting:

ASTON: You are to go live with the Ozwells. It's for your sake.

(BABA: You get PS 3 Graces, but not Wii. It's for your sake)

HUBERT/FANDOM: *Urge to kill rising* *grudge boiling for years*

ASTON: *diary* 'I sent Hubert to live with the Oswells to give him a special treatment and to keep his high social status'.

(BABA: I did that so I could complete Graces F for Wii U and give fans what they deserve.)

HUBERT/FANDOM: I am still pissed... but not so much.

x3 It was also because she was one of the only two characters who could equip heavy armor.

Okay this is insane. Guy's coliseum sword is stronger than the Jewel of Gardios?

Why would they put everyone's best weapons in a place that's relatively not that hard to ge through for characters like Guy?

I don't know really, but I don't mind. I also usually use the Jewel of Gardios (and the Elven Bow) over Guy and Natalia's specific Coliseum weapons since they only lose about 10 or so attack from them, the weapons look cooler, and they gain the ability to use their Second Order Mystic Artes (Natalia's of which of spammable, since it lacks any restrictions save for doing piercing line 200 times, allowing you to use it multiple times per fight, unlike any other Second Order Mystic Arte.)

edited 6th Oct '12 7:42:12 AM by Alfric

Well, I'm going to keep using the Jewel of Gardios as well. I just figured out how to use Brilliant Overlord, and it's way too cool not to use.

So, at this point, the only second-order Mystic Artes I don't have are Lost Fon Drive (which is only availible right at the end), and Noble Roar (because I haven't bothered finding all the search points and getting all of Natalia's search titles so that I can get the stuff for the Elven Bow).

Anyone else love using alternate costumes? Stuff like Berserker and Star of Malkuth are very nice.

Also, I am very high leveled compared to my last game. Thank goodness for adjustable difficulty, or this would be too easy.

Interesting.

If you try to use Luke's Msytic Arte more than once in the last battle with Asch, the enemy will instead use his mystic Arte. No big surprise there, but one experiment I tried showed that you will be cheated out of using your Mystic Arte even if you just used an Hourglass to stop him from moving. He'll get the super flash, and immediately use Rending Saber when the hourglass wears off.

Yeah, you can't use Radiant Howl in that fight, lest he counter you unavoidably with his own mystic arte.

Actually, you can use Radiant Howl. Once. Any further attempts are preempted by Rending Saber.

I just really wanted to finish with Radiant Howl, and used an Hourglass to see if that would break the reaction. It did not. Ah well.

He was a pretty hard fight, on Very Hard mode, even at level 70something. Had to equip the Jewel a couple times.

So I was just reading the Tales Of Graces page.

I love how they deconstruct Omnicidal Maniac by simply having Asbel ask And Then What?? It's genius. The Tales Series talent for tearing down certain tropes is a beautiful thing.

It got me thinking: What tropes have been deconstructed in the different Tales Games? And what tropes have not yet been deconstructed?

I know Symphonia went after The Determinator. Have they done Idiot Hero and Tsundere yet? Cause I really want them to go after the latter. It would be glorious.

edited 7th Oct '12 6:09:49 PM by HandsomeRob

Well, there was Marta in Dawn Of The New World, but that's more of them going after Loving a Shadow.

As for Idiot Hero, there is Tales Of The Abyss, which thinks about the circumstances that would have to be in place to produce a character who is that ignorant of the world. And what that kind of naivete would lead to.

They need to do more.

Oh, and considering how often it's used in their games(in a lot of games really) I'm surprised Humans Are the Real Monsters hasn't got a kick in the ass yet. It would be nice.

They deconstructed the concept of both The Chosen One and Mary Sue with Colette in Tales Of Symphonia.

They sure did. Symphonia was my first Tales game, and I liked what they did with that. They also arguably deconstructed The Chosen One with Zelos as well(who had the same issues as Colette).

Have they done Butt-Monkey yet?

Mwahaha! I have every second-order Mysic Arte!

Funny how half of them require specific weapons.

Then you should dance a victory dance.

It sounds like you've earned it.

I certainly have. Either the move takes all game to get the proper moves to grind up, or it takes all game to complete the sidequest for the weapon.

I like how Noble Roar and Brilliant Overlord can be done as many times as you want.

Welp. Nebilim is way out of my league at Very Hard mode. Radiant Howl doing 1 damage per hit is kind of a tip-off.

edit: By the way, I put a Sunlight Chamber on Rending Thrust. With Super Chain and Ability Plus, Luke now has an extremely useful combo of Slag Assault —> Havoc Strike —> Rending Quake.

Even more scary is Jade having learned Glory, though. Uninterruptable Meteor Storms.

edited 7th Oct '12 9:24:10 PM by Enlong

My one gripe with Brilliant Overlord and Lost Fon Drive is the fact that they require that stupid "Low Health" constraint, severely limiting their usefulness when Lost Fon Drive can already not be spammed, needs a special button combo to use, and eats 100 TP. Brilliant Overlord is more forgivable, but I still dislike that constraint in general. I see you found that awesome Luke combo as well? It's Luke's answer to Guy's own Dragon Tempest spam, although Luke can also pull off Devil's Inferno -> Burning Havoc with a sunlight chamber on the latter move. My friend also spent a long time building up a sunlight chamber on Blessed Drops, using Sovereign Gale to try to activate the awesomely powerful Divine Saber spell.

As for Nebilim (not sure if that really counts as a spoiler by now), I once beat her on unknown mode with a friend. The party was Luke (me), Jade (him), Anise, and Tear, and we were level 180. Me and Anise were doing at most 20 to 30 damage a hit on someone who had around 3 million health. The only saving grace was that Tear's AI was smart enough to keep everyone alive as long as possible, and revive the dead quickly, and that my friend was able to deal actual damage (about 300 to 500, depending on the spell) after Fortune's Arc buffed him up. We eventually whittled her down, but it took a few hours.

It reminds me of the Liger Queen battle on Unknown mode, always long as hell (until Jade arrives), although due to how many times we died, we didn't get the absurdly high amount of grade that we did from that fight (we got 317 grade after beating the Liger Queen on Unknown mode, and we just watched in awe as the numbers climbed).

Also, which version of Abyss are you playing, Enlong? PS 2 or 3DS version?

edited 8th Oct '12 5:46:27 AM by Alfric

3DS.

And I don't know if Jade really needs Sunlight Chambers, when his High Fonic Artes create fully charged fields. Can aim the spell at his location, or just run up to the target (if he has Glory).

I never really found Divine Saber to be very useful. It keeps missing the target, in my experience. But if it is good, perhaps I should start giving Anise the Rare Genius doll.

OH, and I tried to go through The Abyss, and was completely unprepared for the God General Replicas, being that I was on Very Hard Mode and had only just defeated Sync on the same a few levels ago. Maybe this is a wake up call to actually beat the final boss before going after all of these sidequests. :P

And yeah, that Luke combo is pretty great. I had been trying to just do Slag Assault —> Rending Quake, but it simply wasn't working, because the circle gets created a little ways in front of Luke. I'm very glad I remembered that Havoc Strike jumps me forward just the right amount.

Does Anise have a comparable combo? Right now, I have Surge Breaker with a Sunlight Chamber, because it can charge itself.

I honestly haven't used Anise much, so I don't really know, although if you can chain Surge Breaker into itself for Gungnir a Go Go, more power to ya.

Divine Saber is good for dealing damage to slower or larger foes, or for blasting foes begin held down by combos. It's accuracy leaves something to be desired when used on more mobile foes, but then, that's why you have the rest of the party.

edited 8th Oct '12 7:26:41 AM by Alfric

I've got a little sidequest guide on tap for knowing how to do certain sidequests. Still managed to screw up Yulia City Aid (freaking maces) and Antlion Man, though.

As for Mieu Fire II, Flightstone, and Catalysts, knowing where to go helped make Mieu Fire II easier, and I sort of went through that Mount Roneal extra room without really knowing that the flightstone was there.

Funny thing about the catalysts, I wound up getting Anise's catalyst weapon by mistake. I went to Daath to pick up the Little Devil costume for Anise, and wound up triggering the other event with Florian. I'm glad I had the guide for the Unicorn Horn, though. Who would ever figure out on their own that you need to beat certain enemies with Light or Darkness to get through that puzzle?

What glitch are you talking about, anyway?

edit: oh, ninja'd?

As for Anise, I found she's far more useful if you change her strategy from "Use Strike Artes" to "Normal". Eagle Dive into Shadow Punishement/Soaring Blast/Surge Breaker is a pretty decent combo when you're controlling her, too.

edited 8th Oct '12 7:32:21 AM by Enlong

The Glitch I mentioned (and then edited out since it seemed irrelevant on second thought) was the World Map glitch, where you remove the disc, and then can walk around the world map so long as you do nothing that requires loading. Basically, you can go anywhere, and get anything, by walking there, and then picking up important stuff after putting the disc back in. I only used it to get the flightstones and stronger early game weapons, and then, only for bosses, since I didn't want to spend three hours on one boss fight.

There's another glitch where, if Asch kills you with his mystic arte in the PS 2 version, the game freezes.

Also, it's actually in the first fight with him that he always counters Radiant Howl, not the final fight, which is why I got confused.

And yeah, even with a guide, the Unicorn Horn is the most tedious thing to get, ever. Vesperia somehow made those even more obnoxious to get, but were kind enough to allow you to transfer basically everything from the previous playthrough over through the grade shop, so the sidequests are obnoxious, but at least you only really need to do them once.

So nice. Xillia 2 has Code Geass costumes. They're circa Akito as well.

I dunno. Opening Niflhiem in Symphonia was pretty obtuse and tedious, as far as final-room puzzles go.