---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TALES OF SYMPHONIA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BATTLE SYSTEM FAQ & GUIDE v 1.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Cyllya email: cyllya@mad.scientist.com mboard: http://cyllya.myikonboard.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basics ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle Modes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Effects of Attributes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Multiplayer and Character Choice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Targeting ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Skills ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Combos ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unison Attacks ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Defending ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status Effects ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Character Specifics ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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)). ------- Lloyd ------- 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. -------- Colette -------- 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. -------- Genis -------- 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. -------- Raine -------- 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. ------- Kratos ------- Kratos is pretty powerful even though he's slower than Lloyd or even Zelos. He slashes normally and stabs with DOWN+A. ------- Zelos ------- 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. -------- Sheena -------- 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. -------- Presea -------- 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. ------- Regal ------- 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! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- User Commands ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Switch commands with the cross button (in battle) or by going into the strategy menu. [Thanks: GallyYouko] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Smash ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over Limits ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grade Points ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Effects of Equipment ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elemental Attack/Defense ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Running Away ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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