Hardest game ever..

[mrkoippa1]

For a first timer like me..For the record I have never played any of the Tales of series.
..And I thought that his would be something similar to star Ocean on PS2.
I started playing this without any guide using..I wanted to fight and game gave endless amount of story which was repeating itself..First fights went just fine..but when I got to the desert and that Oasis town my grade after the fight was negative number..For the Gald I had collected the new weapon did not give me so called"easy advantage"like it does most of the RPG games.Before Ossa Trail I just had to get some guide..somewhere I barely beat some flame boss with -2,45 rank..Grinded on the other side and thought I could beat Sword dancer..Lost life bottles,characters got killed almost instantly when getting up..cornered and killed..defeat..
got to Palmacosta with boat..At least i understood how Unison attack work..
But with combo..i really don´t know which is the time to input the move?
when first special attack is in progress(I noticed that starting wih regular attack during jump the character does not do anything for awhile)..Strat is most of the part confusing maybe because english is not my language..
But I would like if someone would answer few questions?
1:Is this game possible to play through without having to learn absolutely everything?
2:I found my first Lv 2 ex-Gem who i hould gave it to?
3:is someone leaving my party at some point which might not come back without some amount of affection points?
4:I know that combo should be started at normal attacks then those skill ones I just haven´t figured out do i press buttons simultaneosly and I have use some skills over 400 times how do I cancel attack?
5:I have readed that I should not buy anything with my grade,but also somewhere on the end was a point where to grind the grade points?
I just wanted to ask these because i have over 12 guides for this and that.but I would not like to read those after every move in the game..it would be like work..so I have somethings to find on the new game rounds..Thank you.

[Simon]

1. Yes. But you would need to at least learn most of the basics.

2. Anyone. But if the ex skills you equip is compatible with another ex skills. It will trigger a compound ex skill, the list can be found in this guide: https://www.supercheats.com/gamecube/walkthroughs/talesofsymphonia-walkthrough33.txt

3. Affection points only affects certain scenes of the story later on. (It doesn't affect the story or character leaving your party or whatsoever. Characters leaving your party is tied to plot only and only kratos will leave)
Back to topic, by SCENE, I mean like if the character has the highest affection towards lloyd, you will be able to talk to them in a more detailed manner and know about their background and so on near end game. Basically, the character will undergo more character development. And the top three highest affection characters, you will be able to get costume titles for them in sidequests near end game. If you want to get the costume titles for other characters, you will have to start NG+, and raise their affection instead...

4. According to Xbox controller. A-button will be Normal attacks. To trigger those "Tech/Techniques/Artes/Special attack", you have to press B-button.
You can set the techs in four different directions in the menu. Neutral, Up, Down, Left/Right. (Left/Right means Left OR Right. You only need to press one of it)
Plus two more "shortcut buttons".

To use the tech, you just need to hold the direction of movement stick + B-button.
(For neutral, you don't need to hold down any direction.)
By the way, the two extra shortcut buttons enables you to set tech of other characters. By doing so you can command them to use the tech when they finished their current action.

5. You should save up grade because when you start NG+, you have to spend grade points if you want to carry over data to the next playthrough. You are also able to buy power ups that make you consequent playthroughs much easier. Some are quite expensive...
Here is the list: http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/ToS_-_Grade_Shop

[Simon]

PS: depending on Kratos affection towards Lloyd, you will be able to have the choice to get him back near end game. But by doing so, a certain character called Zelos will leave your party. It is kind of like an Alternate route of the story, but the ending is still pretty much the same. But normally, it is very hard to do so in the first playthrough as Colette starts with a "hidden" 500 affection points by default and the rest of the characters starts from Zero.

To get kratos back, you have to use a guide because you need to make sure he is in top three affection. And affection of characters are changed depending on your choice when there is a conversation giving you "choices of respond" to choose from. Anyway, it is all complicated stuff and just enjoy the story for now. You can worry these if you really have the time for NG+, or NG++ or NG+++. XD lol

[Zeno]

Here's some tips to make the game significantly easier.

Set the difficulty to Normal for your first playthrough if you haven't already.

Grind gald so that you can buy the best equipment for your area, it doesn't need to be perfect, but good equipment helps a lot more than you might think. Even accessories.

Find decent accessories for your characters or just buy them boots/capes.

Don't worry too much about your negative grade on your first playthrough. It can be REALLY hard in the early game to have a positive grade. You can always farm grade later by going back to the starter areas and killing things.

Try to get usion attacks that have good synergy. Here's a link with all of the possible combinations: Usion Attacks [aselia.wikia.com]

I recently played this game fresh with my girlfriend and because I was speeding through the early parts, I also struggled like crazy when I got to harder bosses. It became MUCH easier once I grinded for gald, boosted my equipment, and bought a ton of Life Bottles and Apple Gels.

This half of the post is fairly complex, and not completely necessary. I just wrote it for fun, and it might be useful to you.

For Lloyd, my favorite combo that just absolutely shreds the game is
Sword Rain > Tiger Blade > Sword Rain Alpha > Raining Tiger Blade.

However, you need proper Ex. Skills for this to work. What I use for this is:
Ability Plus (Ex Gem Lv. 4)
Add Combo (Ex. Gem Lv. 3)
The other two gems are up to you.

There's still one last thing about using this set up. Lloyd will only learn Sword Rain Alpha if he has used Sword rain 50 times, and is in a T state (You can see this on each characters window in the menu) If you learned sonic sword rain, you need to forget it once Lloyd is in a T state.

Ex. Gems are either S-Style or T-Style, so if you have more T-Style gems, you'll move towards T-Style techs.

Also, for Sword Rain Alpha to link into Raining Tiger Blade, it needs 200 uses.

[Wyrtt]

Tales of Abyss is actually harder due to lower mobility of characters compared to the rest of the series.
I advise to visit gamefaq website and read some user faq about tech progression, item tables and etc.
ALso if you plan to replay the game than use walktrough as well, In old jrpg you just cant do half of sidequests without knowing about them or playing trouhg the game 20 times. A lot of events have a very limited time window and require specific actions to trigger, You can just lose a lot of content that way,

[mrkoippa1]

Yes I have visited at gamefaqs..ex-skills,tos tecniques and guide by Alexx and vineim I have copy pasted into text file and moved with usb stick to my old Win7 which does not have wi-fi card..
now vinheims faq seems better...Kratos would be good if there would be a way to transfer html guide to my pc on the left..
I got myself added difiiculty by HP Gaming Notebook with factory installed Win 10.
For some reason it did not detect my Thomson HD tv,,Perhaps because it´s not smart-tv..bummer..
I wish I would have used the vending machine on Human ranch near Palmacosta to my advantage more tha nI did..It had free recovery..
Well got the pass..got tired of grinding in front of Palmacosta..crossed hakonesia peek and walk all around the map..Did not run to battles on purpose and did not run away from the battles..
Found lot of those skit events and lakes,towns etc..But did not enter becausr my next destination should have been Thoda Docks and I thought it might push me to different route..Exp was better but did not know if I could enter anywhere without starting a story scene..Well at least I got to kill the Sword dancer now from Ossa Trail..Then zik-zak back to Palma..
And throught the Thoda docks to that hot spring..And inside that dungeon where I noticed that I run out of TP very quickly against those water elemental..
My cracters are on levels 24 to 25 si I haven´t got to the level of Raining Tiger Blade(like suggested)alsi I have only lvl 1 and 2 Ex-spheres..Hmm..Back to studying..

[patyos]

The game also allows you also to do many story related things in different order as well in alot of sections in the game. That also brings up different dialogues between characters in certain scenes. But Yeah after Ossa Trail The Thoda docks / Palmacosta Area / Water Spirit should be your next location thats around your level.

[mrkoippa1]

Thank you for the all hekp..I still can´t get more than about two combos with lloyd.
I have used eery skill over 200 times(and learned all of them),,I can only assume that those connect each other when pressing right after the one move ends on very tight time frame?
Also I have setted all combo ex gems as described,,Obviously since I´m past the Tower of Lightning in Tethe alla..Those dark rooms are not the kind of things that I would be joyfully waiting for the next playthrough..there has been really unsuspected rise of enemy difficulties..Like when goin from Sybak to Mizuho and Ozette..I was over level 40 when I arrived and enemies just literally ate chunks of health..Huge rise just after one forest..Also characters leaving now and then has been annoying..Good thing for guide here on Steam..sometimes I like this game and sometimes I swear"Never again"lol..Now in level 62-64 manged finally do 100 hit combo with Lloyd swor rain Alpha.Genis Cyclone,Colette´s Hammer rain and from Raine´s..Hmm..i forgot..With alittle luck from AI+s random casting and using only one Sword rain A before casting Unison on tha HUGE worm that sometimes appears on snow field near fFanoir..just had to run around with Unison bar full alot and trying to save mana by using just regular attacks(I put all on hold and beated enemies with regular hits and I got grade from +0.67 to 1.00 instead of all out and enemy destroyed with party fast got grade of +0.00 to -0.03 which is odd?).
I have been collectin Skit points and all +plus for each one..So in the future events who gets what will be anyones quess..On next plays I gues I have to write tose on paer?Or does anyone use some program to calculate those?Also to get monster in the book do I have to use Magic Lens or Inspect magic ?And what was the name of the dungeon/temple etc and the boss where I should turn back before teleporting to get sidequests done?

[Aifread]

The frame for linking techs isn't tight at all, but they can only be linked in certain orders. To link techs together, they need to continue going up in level. For example, you can link a level 1 tech like Demon Fang into a level 2 like Beast or a level 3 like Raining Tiger Blade. Or you can do a level 2 into a level 3 or a level 1 into a level 2 into a level 3. But you can't go down in level, so linking Beast (level 2) into Demon Fang (level 1) for example isn't possible (except for Kratos/Zelos if they have a certain EX Skill). You also can't use two of the same level in the same combo (again, unless Lloyd has a certain EX Skill that lets him use two level 1's in a row). It should say in your tech menu what level each tech is. You can read more about battle basics like this in the in-game training manual.

There are a few different ways you can check who has the highest relationship level with Lloyd, like who cheers him on before the first match at the coliseum or who tells him to be careful when entering the small passage in the Temple of Darkness. If you're really desperate to get a certain character as your #1, you can always look up what the characters' favorite/least favorite foods are and cook until they love/hate you.

Regarding the monster book, you need to scan them to get the data fully recorded in the book if you're OCD about that, but for the sake of getting all the titles/achievements, all you need to do is see the monster. Keep in mind though that you can't complete the monster book in a single playthrough because one of the choices you make late-game will determine which of two boss encounters you will have.

[mrkoippa1]

Maybe it´s the semi-auto setting that I have used?
After 200 hours of playing I have Coliseum still untouched and Uncle game + green light-red light.
I went and bought those ex-spheres and now I have about 1200 grade..My mistake..
Well at least after beating Abyssion(How na earth that can be beaten on the highest difficulty..Geez)my weapons do nice 2500 gamage with two of the characers being on lvl 100..
Affections are on the roof since fortune teller says everybody a soulmate..lol..
Still i have to carry that on the next game because of the costume titles..
some reason my treasure hunting has 97.7% and I used at least two walkthroughs..
Im just wondering that can I still do the 256 battles with Lloyd to get Berserker title and does it carry on to new game?Since I have fewvthousand of grade to collect anyway?

[Aifread]

I never used semi-auto much, but I don't think it should effect being able to do combos and stuff. It affects movement more than anything else.

Coliseum should be doable with the Devil's Arms unlocked depending on how much you've used each character. Though you may need certain EX Skills to beat it with the spellcasters (look up the "Concentrate" EX Skill for Raine, Genis, and maybe Kratos for heals. Colette has a similar one called "Resilience" if you feel like just spamming Grand Cross).

If you're grinding grade on low-level monsters anyway, then yeah go for Berserker while you're at it. If I remember right you also get something like 1000 grade just for clearing the game.

[Longhorn Steakhouse]

I changed the controlles on my keyboard and now I cannot do a U. attack.
I have the combo button set to X.
any help?

[Pu!se]

Originally posted by Wyrtt:

Tales of Abyss is actually harder due to lower mobility of characters compared to the rest of the series.
I advise to visit gamefaq website and read some user faq about tech progression, item tables and etc.
ALso if you plan to replay the game than use walktrough as well, In old jrpg you just cant do half of sidequests without knowing about them or playing trouhg the game 20 times. A lot of events have a very limited time window and require specific actions to trigger, You can just lose a lot of content that way,

Disagree that TotA is harder, personally I find ToS and ToS:Dawn to require much more prerequisite RPG experience starting out. I've never found myself in danger of being killed at the beginning of an RPG using an encounter mechanic, but ToS and ToS:D starter enemies hit very hard and you don't have many tools to deal with them.

I personally am not a fan of the items-are-a-necessity approach where game difficulty in-combat is dictated by their usage. I prefer it much more when they're considered a crutch for longer dungeons and random-encounter comfort, so maybe that's why it peeves me that ToS really sort of expects you to bend to the "Apple Gel or bust" mentality early on. Or maybe I was just getting smacked a lot more than the devs expected thanks to semi-auto movement, lots of enemies with projectiles, and figuring out the key mappings I wanted to use. Who knows?

Point being, even as a JRPG veteran and a religious Tales fan, ToS beginning portions stand out to me as hard.

[Aifread]

Originally posted by Pu!se:

Originally posted by Wyrtt:

Tales of Abyss is actually harder due to lower mobility of characters compared to the rest of the series.
I advise to visit gamefaq website and read some user faq about tech progression, item tables and etc.
ALso if you plan to replay the game than use walktrough as well, In old jrpg you just cant do half of sidequests without knowing about them or playing trouhg the game 20 times. A lot of events have a very limited time window and require specific actions to trigger, You can just lose a lot of content that way,

Disagree that TotA is harder, personally I find ToS and ToS:Dawn to require much more prerequisite RPG experience starting out. I've never found myself in danger of being killed at the beginning of an RPG using an encounter mechanic, but ToS and ToS:D starter enemies hit very hard and you don't have many tools to deal with them.

I personally am not a fan of the items-are-a-necessity approach where game difficulty in-combat is dictated by their usage. I prefer it much more when they're considered a crutch for longer dungeons and random-encounter comfort, so maybe that's why it peeves me that ToS really sort of expects you to bend to the "Apple Gel or bust" mentality early on. Or maybe I was just getting smacked a lot more than the devs expected thanks to semi-auto movement, lots of enemies with projectiles, and figuring out the key mappings I wanted to use. Who knows?

Point being, even as a JRPG veteran and a religious Tales fan, ToS beginning portions stand out to me as hard.

Yeah, Tales of the Abyss isn't harder by any stretch of the imagination. The fatal flaw of that game is how broken free run is, to the point that you should probably turn it off to make things fair for the baddies. If you can run around in circles like a moron and snipe the extra boss with only one party member, something's not right. Thankfully they made enemy AI better in Vesperia so they can actually keep up with you.

The intro to Symphonia is rough, as are many of the Tales games that came before it. They didn't give you a lot to work with until you leveled your characters a bit and expanded their movesets. And this was sort of fixed in later entries like Abyss by giving you access to arcane artes earlier so you could drag out your combos that much longer.

I like the items-as-necessity thing because I feel like they usually cheapen the challenge in other games like the Igavanias. Symphonia feels a bit more honest because of it and the challenge less artificial/self-imposed, especially on hard and mania where you really need to know the boss patterns and in certain cases how to dodge spells. But I do appreciate the whole thing about using items sparingly and it being a big decision whether or not to spend one so you can reach the next save point in a long dungeon. Maybe there's a hybrid system out there where you can only use items outside battles...

[Pu!se]

Originally posted by Aifread:

Maybe there's a hybrid system out there where you can only use items outside battles...

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (I can't remember how true this is for the other two) has a great item system because of the Djinn summons. Djinn can only be used in combat and taking a turn away from setting them on/off recovery is a massive hit to big-ticket summons and overall game flow, and items were extremely geared towards out-of-combat use or utility.

You could use items in combat if you were inexperienced or didn't take the time to gather Djinn/Summon Tablets, but they were mostly either gimmicks meant to clear away random mobs, cover party weaknesses, or keep your party healthy out-of-combat. It's the most creative traditional combat system I can think of off the top of my head.

[Aifread]

Ah yes! Golden Sun had a great system. If I remember right healing items were also rare in that game and clunky to use because each character had their own inventory and had to be holding an item themselves to use it on someone else.