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TALES OF SYMPHONIA
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BATTLE SYSTEM FAQ & GUIDE
v 1.2
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by Cyllya
email: cyllya@mad.scientist.com
mboard: http://cyllya.myikonboard.com
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CONTENTS: INFO TO COME:
-Summary -Formation
-Basics -User Commands
-Battle Modes -EX Skill
-Multiplayer and Character Choice -More Character info
-Effects of Attributes -(any suggestions?)
-Targeting
-Using Skills
-Combos
-Unison Attacks
-Defending
-Status Effects
-Character Specifics:
Lloyd
Colette*
Genis
Raine
Kratos
Zelos
Sheena
Presea
Regal
-User Commands (coming soon)
-Technical Smash
-Overlimits*
-Grade Points*
-Special Effects of Equipment*
-Elemental Attack/Defense*
-Running Away
*just added or updated to a noteworthy extent
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Summary
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The following is the rest of the FAQ crammed into one little list, just in
case you're in a hurry:
-This battle system is real-time.
-Target enemy with R.
-Attack with A. Use the control stick for different kinds of attacks.
-Use skills with B and the control stick.
-Defend with X. Defending is handy.
-You control one character while the other three are AI-controlled.
-There are settings to control how the AI characters work. You can command
them via the battle menu also.
-You get bonuses for combos (hitting the enemy multiple times before it
recovers)
-When your combo gauge fills, you can do a team attack on an enemy.
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Basics
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The camera will change so that P1's character and the target form a
horizontal line across the screen. Here are the general button commands.
push... UP - jump (manual mode only [See: Battle Modes])
UP+X - jump (semi-auto mode only [See: Battle Modes])
LEFT/RIGHT - walk to and from the target. Tap twice to run.
A - slash (or club or punch)
UP+A - attack upwards or jump and attack
DOWN+A - stab/thrust/kick
B - use first equipped skill
UP+B - use second equipped skill
DOWN+B - use third equipped skill
LEFT/RIGHT+B - use fourth equipped skill [See: Using Skills]
X - defend [See: Defending]
Y - open the menu
Z - initiate U-Attack [See: Unison Attacks]
START - pause
Cross D-Pad - change user commands [See: User Commands]
C-Stick - UP and DOWN are skill short cuts
When fighting in Tales games, you must consider the movement speed, attack
speed (how fast they can attack), casting time (how long they stand still
while preparing to cast a spell), and recover time (how quickly they are up
and moving again after being hit) of both your characters and the enemies.
In the case of the enemies, you should also consider their size and distance.
Press A a couple times to make a few hits in a row (depending on the
character and the type of attack, you can usually do a two- or three-hit
combo).
Whenever a character uses a normal attack on an enemy, they regain a tiny
bit of TP per hit.
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Battle Modes
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You can switch battle modes in the skill menu. In battle, you can open the
battle menu and change between modes with the START button. Here are the
battle modes.
SEMI-AUTO - The default setting. If your character is not in range of an
enemy when you tell him/her to attack, he/she will run forward to attack.
You must push UP+X to jump, which makes it easier to do your UP+B skill and
UP+A attack without jumping by accident, but it's much harder to jump over
enemies. Your character will also defend automatically when attacked, but
I'm not sure how reliable it is.
AUTO - The character is controlled by the AI. Sit back and watch.
MANUAL - the character does nothing except what you tell him/her to do. If
your character is not in range of an enemy when you tell him/her to attack,
he/she will attack thin air. Since only pushing UP makes you jump, you have
to be careful not to jump instead of doing your UP+B skill and UP+A attack,
but it's easier to jump over enemies (why attack from the front when you can
attack from behind?) or to dodge by jumping. The character will never defend
without you using the X button.
All characters who are being controlled by a human player should be on
either Semi-Auto or Manual mode. All others should be on Auto. DUH.
[See Also: Multiplayer and Character Choice]
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Effects of Attributes
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These are the effect of attributes according to the game manual:
Strength
Directly effects attack power. Higher strength means more damage.
Accuracy
Higher accuracy means more damage when the attack hits the enemy.
Defense
Higher defense means less damage taken.
Evade
Higher evade means less damage taken when an enemy attack hits a
character.
Intellegence
Higher intellegence means casting stronger/more effective spells and
taking less damage from enemy spells.
Luck
Affects many things, including critical hit percentage (changes randomly
whenever you sleep).
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Multiplayer and Character Choice
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Outside of battle, you can change the order of your characters in the menu.
To change characters in battle, open the battle menu and flip through your
four characters with the Z button (only works on single-player). The
character in the first slot is the one you control in battle. (This is not
necessarily the character who's shown walking around.)
The second player controls the character in the second slot and so on. To
activate a second/third/forth character, go into his/her skill menu and
change him/her to semi-auto or manual. [See: Battle Modes]
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Targeting
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People who have played past Tales games should keep in mind that targeting
is more important in this game than it has been in the past.
An enemy is automatically targeted at the beginning of the battle, but you
can change it with the R button. The camera will change so that the first
player's character and the target form a horizontal line across the screen.
(So that left and right move to and from the enemy predictably.)
If you're using offensive magic, you target enemies the way you do with
weapon skills and normal attacks.
If you're using a skill that targets a party member, the target is indicated
at the bottom of the screen, and you select it during your character's
casting time. (Multi-target healing/support spells effect everyone, no
matter who you target.) [See: Using Skills]
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Using Skills
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You can equip four skills for your player-controlled character to use. Use
them in battle by pushing B, Up+B (careful not to just jump instead when in
manual mode), Left/Right+B, or Down+B.
You can open the menu (Y button) to change which skills you have equipped or
to command another party member to use a particular skill on a particular
enemy. You can turn off certain skills to keep the AI from using them (so
they don't waste TP casting powerful spells on weak enemies or don't waste
time casting less effective spells on strong enemies).
You can set two shortcut skills (for characters other than the one you're
controlling) to be used by pressing the yellow C-stick either up or down.
Handy for healing or comboing.
Like in past Tales games, you need to keep in mind how long it takes for a
skill to take effect. Most physical skills start hitting the enemy right
away, but there are a few that leave you vulnerable for a split second before
attacking. When it comes to spells, there's a very notable amount of time
before the spell takes place, while the character does the incantations and
everything, so remember to move away from enemies before casting spells.
[See Also: Targeting]
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Combos
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Whenever your team hits an enemy multiple times before it recovers from the
first attack, that's a combo. The number of hits will appear in the
upper-right corner (upper-left if the enemy is comboing on you!). When the
enemy recovers, your combo is broken, and the game will display the total
amount of damage you did to that enemy during the whole combo.
You get some bonus EXP based on whatever your biggest combo was. (Say if you
got a 10 hit combo and a 9 hit combo in one battle, you get bonus EXP for 10
hits, not 19 hits.)
The formula is
Earned Experience * (HIT)% = total
(rounded down)
When you get combos, it fills up a combo gauge. [See: Unison Attacks]
Try linking normal attacks into lv 1 skills, then into lv2 or lv3 skills.
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Unison Attacks
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When you get combos, it fills up a combo gauge. [See: Combos] A couple of
big combos fills it up faster than getting lots of smaller combos. Also, if
your character has the Taunt (aka Appeal) EX-Skill (level 1), you can
increase the combo gauge by pushing Z.
When it's full, you can push Z to perform a U-Attack. In a U-Attack, the
battle pauses for a short time to let each of your characters pummel the
enemy with one skill. (You equip four skills to choose from for each
character just as you equip four skills for your controlled character, but
each character is assigned a different button out of A/B/X/Y.)
The skills will be listed along the side as they are used. Based on which
skills they used during the U-Attack, two characters may combine their two
skills together. For example, if Genis uses Lightning and Colette uses
Pow Hammer, after all four characters go, they will use Mjolnir together.
You can only do one combination skill per U-Attack. Just in case someone
uses a skill that can be combined with more than one of the other skills you
used, there's a predefined priority for which skills will be used. If you add
Lloyd using Tiger Blade in the example I used above, Colette will do Pow
Blade with Lloyd instead of Mjolnir with Genis.
[Thanks: GallyYouko, dgjk, maiwurm]
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Defending
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Push (and hold) X to go into a defensive stance. While holding X, push
LEFT/RIGHT away from the enemy to hop backwards. Press DOWN while holding X
to use the character's barrier skill (Guardian, Force Field, Guardian Seal,
Earthly Protection, etc), which takes 10% of their max TP. Holding DOWN and
then pushing X won't work.
While defending, you can take as little as 1/4 of the damage you would have
normally taken. Also, you're ready to attack again right after the enemy is
done attacking, instead of waiting a split second while Lloyd is in
"Ouch~ ;_;" mode. If an enemy throws you into the air, push X while in
flight, and you're almost guaranteed to land on your feet and ready to
fight, instead of on your back ready to get hit as you stand up.
[Thanks: dgjk, Chuc]
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Status Effects
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PHYSICAL AILEMENTS
Effective until cured by item/spell/sleeping. Use a Life Bottle to cure KO
and a Panacea Bottle for everything else.
STATUS APPEARENCE EFFECT
Poison green hue/bubbles HP decreases gradually
Deadly Poison green hue/bubbles HP decreases more quickly than poison
Paralysis lightning over head Sometimes stagger when attacking
Petrified chara is a statue Can't do anything
Curse XX over head Can't use skills
Dead dead-looking HP is 0. No world-saving for you.
MAGICAL AILEMENTS/BOOSTS -
Effective during only one battle, can be cured with Anti-Magic Bottle.
(icons are above a chara's picture in battle)
STATUS ICON EFFECT
Attack Up/Down Arm Attack is increased/decreased
Defense Up/Down Shield Defense is increased/decreased
Accuracy Up/Down Arrowhead (?) Accuracy is increased/decreased
Mag Att Up/Down Staff (?) Magic Attack is increased/decreased
Holy Song Flower? Light? Attack and Defense increased
St Change Immune Heart Immune to the other stuff in this list
St Effect Immune Body shape Immune to the stuff in the above list
Weak chara pic is red Max HP decreases by half
Heavy ? Slowed movement
Reduce Item Effect Gel(?) Item effects are halved
MISC - effective for a short a few seconds
STATUS APPEARENCE EFFECT
Stun (aka Piyo) birds around head Can't do anything for a few seconds
Overlimits black aura [See: Overlimits]
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Character Specifics
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I thought I'd add some info specific to each character, since the manual and
most other info usually focus on Lloyd. If you have any comments on how to
use a specific character (especially non-Lloyd characters) more effectively,
please feel free to send them too me (email or messageboard(above)).
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Lloyd
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He attacks quickly because he two swords. He is pretty good at everything
since he's the default character.
To use Falcon Crest, equip the Material Blade and the Eternal Swordsman title
and push B+A+X together while HP is in red.
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Colette
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Colette is meant to be a ranged fighter, so whenever you put her right up in
an enemy's face, she's likely to get clobbered. If you do want to use her at
close-range, make sure you have you thumb entirely off the Control Stick when
pushing A. Pressing Left/Right+A or Down+A will make her throw her chakram,
which isn't something she does quickly, so she's very vulnerable to nearby
enemies in the process. She can combo two hits with a close-range attack so
long as the first hit doesn't push the enemy too far away.
Paraball is a great skill, but many choose to sacrifice it for Hammer Rain
(necessary for the Stardust Rain U-attack).
Colette is the only character who can steal. Item Theif will steal an item,
and Item Rover will steal both an item and gald. During both skills, Colette
will trip and fall. To steal successfully, she must fall onto to the enemy,
and even then it may not work. To make it work every time she falls on the
enemy, set her to have the Item Getter Ex-Skill (Lucky + Sharp-Eyed + Stat
Boost + Magical). Note that some enemies don't have an item to steal; you
can check the enemy's page in the Monster List to see what, if anything,
it has to steal.
Tip for using Holy Judgement:
Holy Judgement has a random chance of happening in place of Holy Song if
you've used Judgement and Holy Song 50+ times each. Since Holy Song is a
support skill, the target indication will show up at the bottom when you
start to cast it. It doesn't show up for Holy Judgement, so if you see the
target thing pop up, cancel with X and try again.
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Genis
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Pay attention to how much range Genis has, because you tend to expect him
to have more than he actually does. He loses a lot of range when jumping, so
try to keep him on the ground.
The Randomizer EX-Skill (Tough + Rythm) makes it possible to occassionally
cast a spell almost instantly. Alternate pushing B and X, and anytime it
doesn't come out instantly will be canceled and you can try again. Lots
of people find this useful for casting spells quickly.
To use Indignant Judgement, use Indignation 50+ times and use it again while
in Overlimits.
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Raine
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Remember to read about targeting healing spells. [See: Targeting] She jabs
with Down+A and tends to miss when attacking downward from the air. Not much
to say about her otherwise. She seems better at physically than Genis because
she can actually hit the enemy easier. She can combo two hits, but she moves
a bit slow, so it only works if the enemy doesn't recover too quickly.
The Quick Spell EX-Skill (Neutralizer + Happiness + Spell Save) makes it
possible to occassionally cast a spell almost instantly. Alternate pushing
B and X, and anytime it doesn't come out instantly will be canceled and you
can try again. Lots of people find this useful for casting attack spells
quickly.
Raine is definately better as a T-Type, at least for healing spells.
Photon can upgrade to Ray on T or Holy Lance on S. Comparing each of those
by itself, Holy Lance is better, but Ray can combine in a U-attack with
Genis's Lv.3 T-type skills to form Prism(ic) Stars, which is a guarunteed
30 hits.
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Kratos
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Kratos is pretty powerful even though he's slower than Lloyd or even Zelos.
He slashes normally and stabs with DOWN+A.
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Zelos
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He does stab/slash just like Lloyd does. He's very good at all types of
normal attacks. He's handy in a clump of enemies because his slash swings
around to both sides of him. He does three hits in a row easily.
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Sheena
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She just swings her ofuda with A, and Down+A is the same thing only lower.
(Might be handy with small ground-going enemies.) She attacks upwards pretty
well. She can do a three-hit combo pretty easily.
Remember that you can only use summons other than Corrine while in Overlimits.
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Presea
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She jabs with Down+A. Considering her axe is often almost as big as she is,
she swings it pretty fast. She can usually combo two hits with normal
attacks.
She is very strong, with the highest attack power in the game.
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Regal
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He does a wide kick with Down+A and flips up to kick the enemy with Up+A. He
can do a two-hit combo easily. It takes a lot of skill to use Regal
effectively, but he has very excellent AI!
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User Commands
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Switch commands with the cross button (in battle) or by going into the
strategy menu.
[Thanks: GallyYouko]
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Technical Smash
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You get a Technical Smash if you meet certain conditions when killing an
enemy. A few examples:
NO DAMAGE Kill the enemy before it does any damage to your party
COUNTER Kill the enemy just before it was about to attack you
SKILL Kill the enemy with a skill
SUMMON Kill the enemy with a summon
AERIAL Kill the enemy while it's airborne (higher % if non-flying enemy)
COMBO ~+ Kill the enemy with a ~ or more combo. (~ usually intervals of 5)
HIGH SPEED Kill the enemy quickly
Everyone argues as to exactly what Tech Smashes do, but it's agreed they're
a good thing. Many tech smashes are given for the same things that give you
Grade, but I don't think their purpose is to increase Grade.
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Over Limits
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When a character goes into Over Limits mode, "OVERLIMITS" will flash up and
the character will be surrounded by a black aura. It lasts for about eight
seconds (more like 9.8 if you have the Limiter aka Over Limit compound
EX-Skill), and during this time, you have these advantages:
-less damage taken
-you don't stagger when hit (no "Ouch!" mode)
-immune to Stun/Dizzy status effect (with the little birds)
-Sheena can summon
-Genis can use Indignant Judgement (if he's used Indignation 50+ times)
Whether a character goes into overlimits is determined by a hidden parameter
which represents the character's tension value. Each time the character gets
hit (without guarding?), that's +1 tension. A character can get +2 to +5
tension by cooking (weird). When a character dies, tension drops to 0, but
all other characters get +10. Sheena gets +2 by using Sylva Seal and Tethe
Seal skills.
The required tension is a fixed value which varies between characters.
Getting the "Increased Tension" option from Grade Shop lowers the required
value to 67-70%.
Default Requirements:
Lloyd 67
Colette 91
Genis 84
Kratos 100
Raine 84
Sheena 56
Zelos 72
Presea 100
Regal 84
Most humanoid bosses are capable of Overlimits. There can't be more than two
characters in Over Limits at once.
[Uber-Thanks: Majestic Fantasian]
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Grade Points
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The system grades how well you fought after each battle. Most battles tend
to range between -2.00 and 2.00 grade points, but the total possible range
is bigger (not sure how big... -15.00~15.00?). The grade increase option in
the Grade Shop makes the max +20.
You can use your grade points to purchase stuff sometimes. It also effects
which things you get to keep when you go into Clear File (playing the game
after beating it).
Details of grade acquisition:
Defend against enemy attack +0.01 (each time)
Use defensive skill against enemy attack +0.02
Get 5+ combo +0.02 (20hit=0.02*4= +0.08, etc)
Enemy killed w/ combo +0.04 (combo number * 0.04)
HP is full at battle end +0.25 (per person)
TP is full at battle end +0.25 (per person)
Do a successful U-Attack +0.50
Battle ends within 15sec +0.50
Battle ends within 5sec +?
Take damage -0.01 (each time)
Use an item -0.05 (each time)
Attack w/ element enemy is strong against -0.05 (each time)
Enemy gets an 8+ combo -0.10 (16 hits is -0.20, etc)
Character dies -0.50 (each time)
Character you control dies -1.00 (each time)
Dead character at end of battle -0.50 (per person)
Status effect at end of battle -0.50 (per person)
Your grade is also decreased if you're at a very, very high level compared
to the enemy. Nonetheless, it's still efficiant to hunt for Grade near
Iselia at the end of the game because of the bonuses you get for speed.
[Uber-Thanks: Majestic Fantasian]
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Special Effects of Equipment
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Obviously your biggest concern in your choice of equipment is the numbers.
[See: Effects of Attributes] to figure out what those numbers mean to you.
Remember when choosing weapons for Raine and Genis that INT is more
important than ATK.
Your second biggest concern is element. [See: Elemental Attack/Defense]
The other stuff is what this section is about. If the descriptions aren't
clear enough, you can view the effects of your equipment by checking the
second page of the character's status screen (push C-Stick down). Here are
some more details:
WEAPON BONUS AND MONSTER TYPE
Certain weapons give you bonus against certain kinds of monsters. To see
what bonus, if any, is provided by your weapon, equip it and check the
second page of the character's status screen. It will be listed as "Added
damage to...." You can check an enemy's type in the upper-right corner of
its Monster List entry. When you attack an enemy for which you have a
weapon bonus, damage will be increased by 12.5%.
REGENERATION
"Small HP Regeneration" means you will regain 1% of your max HP every six
seconds. "Large HP Regeneration" means you will gain back 3% every six
seconds. The same goes for TP.
The other stuff should be obvious enough. You now have no reason to make a
topic on any message board asking what Yata Mirror, Yasakani Jewel, and
Turquoise do!
[Thanks: Majestic Fantasian]
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Elemental Attack/Defense
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The elemental attack attribute of special skills or spells can be seen in
the skill menu next to TP usage amount. A character or enemy's attack
attribute is the element of his or her normal TP-free attack. Elemental
defense affects whether and to what extent the character or enemy is damaged
when attacked with an element.
For your characters, the elemental attack/defense attribute comes from what
you have equipped. The list of the item's stats should specify what kind of
elemental defense it provides or takes away, but does not specify how much
(see below).
To see what kind of elemental defense or attack you have, check the second
page of the character's status screen (C-stick DOWN). You can only have one
attack element at a time. The character's weapon is the default detirminant
of attack element, but it is canceled out by accessories, the second
accessory having priority. You can have multiple elemental defenses. Here
is the terminology used by the status screen:
"REDUCE" STATUS
Damage of that element is halved
Have 2~4 units of a certain elemental defense
"INVALID" STATUS
No damage taken from attacks of that element, you do not stagger
Have 5~6 units of a certain elemental defense
"ABSORB" STATUS
Attacks of that element HEAL you, you do not stagger
Have 7+ units of a certain elemental defense
"WEAK" STATUS
Damage of that element is doubled
Have any negative value of that element
(blank) STATUS
Element icon appears on status screen without label
Damage of that element is normal
You have equal positive and negative units of that element equipped
The game doesn't tell you how much of a certain elemental defense an item
gives you; the above numbers are based on Majestic Fantasian's armor/accessory
guides. Those guides don't take much Japanese knowledge to use, but those of
you who don't know any are out of luck. Just know this: most armors give or
take two units, while some accessories only give/take one.
Here's an example:
Sheena has an armor (Shaman Dress) which gives +4 Light defense and +2 Dark
defense. If she equips that, a Stun Check (+2 Light), and a Reflect Ring (+1
all), she'll be healed by most of what the first form of the last boss has
to throw at you. ^_^
Elements work the same way for you as they do for enemies. When viewing the
Monster List or Magic Lens display, the elements listed as S or Str are
either Reduce, Invalid, or Absorb for that monster, but it doesn't say
which. The elements listed as W or Weak are the Weak element, obviously.
Attack attribute is only visible in the Monster List as AA. Don't assume
that the monster's elemental weaknesses are the opposite of its strengths
or that it's attack attribute is the same as its strengths.
[Thanks: Majestic Fantasian]
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Running Away
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The last option on the menu is to run away from battle. A little meter
appears after you select this option, and when it fills, you leave battle.
How long it takes depends on your levels, monster type, etc..
If you run away from a battle in a dungeon, the monster is still RIGHT THERE
once you're out of battle, so it will catch you again if you don't leave
quickly.
If you change your mind and don't want to run away, choose the option from
the menu again to cancel.
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Credits
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We all know Cyllya sucks at video games, ToS being no exception, so help me
and I will put you here.
- GallyYouko
- dgjk (http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/45191.html)
- Chuc
- maiwurm
- Majestic Fantasian (http://www.din.or.jp/~albion/tales/), the website
which puts all guidebooks to shame