Combat Help/Tips?

[Valerie]

I just got into this game and series altogether. I didn't really have the patience for the in-game tutorials due to how they were presented in such a boring unappealing way, but I just don't get this game's combat.

I have the highest ATK (sword icon) out of the NPC but seem to always be dishing out the least amount of damage. It doesn't help that I button mash 'cuz none of this makes sense. Any further easy to understand help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Also, I use controller and play on hard...Which also probably doesn't help.

[chaosbringer42]

1. Its probably best if you just use the "choose your own attack" button, as it tends to use the enemy weakness for every attack.
2. You need to hit the enemy weakness in a combo to really up your damage
3. If your soul gauge (the blue diamonds) turns red you do less damage, the enemy has a higher chance to block, and you have a higher chance to get stunned. So dont spam, let your gauge recharge after a couple chains (unless you start using consuming claw to keep your combo up)
4. You need to master weapons before you switch to the next one (mastering the weapon gives the "mastered" bonus permanently, so mastering alot of weak weapons/gear will massively increase your damage and resists)

Edit : Food for thought, this is probably one of the worst games in the series to start with, maybe try symphonia (it has a much easier learning curve).

[Valerie]

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

1. Its probably best if you just use the "choose your own attack" button, as it tends to use the enemy weakness for every attack.
2. You need to hit the enemy weakness in a combo to really up your damage
3. If your soul gauge (the blue diamonds) turns red you do less damage, the enemy has a higher chance to block, and you have a higher chance to get stunned. So dont spam, let your gauge recharge after a couple chains (unless you start using consuming claw to keep your combo up)
4. You need to master weapons before you switch to the next one (mastering the weapon gives the "mastered" bonus permanently, so mastering alot of weak weapons/gear will massively increase your damage and resists)

Edit : Food for thought, this is probably one of the worst games in the series to start with, maybe try symphonia (it has a much easier learning curve).

1. How exactly do I make that an option? I've messed around with all sorts of stuff in the Artes menu.

3. I usually just spam that 'cuz I just stack up 5 orbs. -But again, I don't do nearly as much as my NPC friends.

4. Oh mastered weapons/gear turn into PERMA buffs?! I did not know that... I've just stuck with the Amber/Beast blade.

Last game I tried was Zesteria. Both these games were given as gifts and I couldn't get into Zesteria due to cliche story, bad acting, and combat. This one just felt a lil more easier to jump into. Thank you for the reply!

[chaosbringer42]

Publicado originalmente por Serenity ❤:

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

1. Its probably best if you just use the "choose your own attack" button, as it tends to use the enemy weakness for every attack.
2. You need to hit the enemy weakness in a combo to really up your damage
3. If your soul gauge (the blue diamonds) turns red you do less damage, the enemy has a higher chance to block, and you have a higher chance to get stunned. So dont spam, let your gauge recharge after a couple chains (unless you start using consuming claw to keep your combo up)
4. You need to master weapons before you switch to the next one (mastering the weapon gives the "mastered" bonus permanently, so mastering alot of weak weapons/gear will massively increase your damage and resists)

Edit : Food for thought, this is probably one of the worst games in the series to start with, maybe try symphonia (it has a much easier learning curve).

1. How exactly do I make that an option? I've messed around with all sorts of stuff in the Artes menu. :doubt:

3. I usually just spam that 'cuz I just stack up 5 orbs. -But again, I don't do nearly as much as my NPC friends.

4. Oh mastered weapons/gear turn into PERMA buffs?! I did not know that... I've just stuck with the Amber/Beast blade.

Last game I tried was Zesteria. Both these games were given as gifts and I couldn't get into Zesteria due to cliche story, bad acting, and combat. This one just felt a lil more easier to jump into. Thank you for the reply! :sgsmile:

1. I never changed the lowest set (A button for xbox controller) so I wouldnt know how to change it back.

4. Yes


Zestiria is likely in the worst 3 Tales games ever made, dont worry about that one. Berseria is one of the more annoying combat systems, but is one of the better games (though its dark as ♥♥♥♥ compared to most other Tales games).

[Valerie]

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

Publicado originalmente por Serenity ❤:

1. How exactly do I make that an option? I've messed around with all sorts of stuff in the Artes menu.

3. I usually just spam that 'cuz I just stack up 5 orbs. -But again, I don't do nearly as much as my NPC friends.

4. Oh mastered weapons/gear turn into PERMA buffs?! I did not know that... I've just stuck with the Amber/Beast blade.

Last game I tried was Zesteria. Both these games were given as gifts and I couldn't get into Zesteria due to cliche story, bad acting, and combat. This one just felt a lil more easier to jump into. Thank you for the reply!

1. I never changed the lowest set (A button for xbox controller) so I wouldnt know how to change it back.

4. Yes


Zestiria is likely in the worst 3 Tales games ever made, dont worry about that one. Berseria is one of the more annoying combat systems, but is one of the better games (though its dark as ♥♥♥♥ compared to most other Tales games).

1. RIP me.. I've changed like all the stuff.

4. That's going to make money management a lot harder. I was wondering why it was so easy to stack up the gold.

[Simon]

Go into Arte menu, if you wish to remove artes, just click a certain button. I have forgotten, but there should be a guide down below the screen inside the menu. When you leave the fourth Arte row blank, the game will randomly select Arte to use during battle when you try to press the A button.

Equipments mastery points are gained based on grades. Once mastered, the first skill of the equipment (mastered skill) is tied to the characters permanently. So yeah, always switch equipments once mastered, don't stick with one equipment. I think the reason you deal so little damage is due to weak equipments

I'll explains the stats and what they do.
Attack - increases damage of Martial Arte and partially Hidden arte
Defense - increase defense against Martial Arte and partially Hidden arte
Arte Attack - increase damage/healing effect of Malak artes and partially Hidden arte
Arte defense - increase defense against Malak artes and partially Hidden arte. (Also increases the amount of HP gained from healing spells, maybe? Not sure)
Focus - increase the regeneration speed of Soul Gauge (SG). Also slightly increases Chance of Stunning enemy, allowing you to steal souls more frequently.

Martial artes are all physical attacks that uses less SG than Hidden artes. They are generally weaker than Hidden artes but it is easier to do combo with them since they use less SG.
(In the Arte menu, the artes with a white bracket are hidden artes. The rest without the bracket are martial artes)

Hidden artes are physical attack with magical properties. Afterall, it depends on both your attack and arte attack stat. More balance between the two stat will increase the effectiveness.
Malak artes are artes used by malak. Basically, it malak artes are all the magic spells.

[Simon]

This thing isn't really explained in this game since it is not too important, but it was explained in Zestiria.

Hidden > Martial > Malak > Hidden

For example, hidden artes will not interrupt enemy when they cast spells, but will rather speed up the casting time. You have to use Martial artes to interrupt them. Similarly, martial artes can't interrupt you when you are performing hidden artes and so on....

[Armos]

The 'your choice' artes are selected at random, sadly. (Would be the "A" button on Xbox360 controllers)

Just choose abilities that work together, based on what you're fighting. It usually ends up being neutral, fire, water, and then neutral, earth, wind. Something like that. Dual element artes are good for those foes with just two weaknesses. If you the dual element is good against one of their weaknesses but they resist the other element, it'll cancel out, and may be resisted instead. It may be a pain to often change your artes, but you really don't have to if you don't want to. Find those bread-and-butter combos, and use them.

Once you get the potentite for the R-button set of skills, which I personally use for malak artes or hidden artes, you can save a lot of space in your combo sets. To cast faster, just use martial artes a few times, and then cast. Once you get more SG, you can abuse this to the fullest, and trust me, Magilou is glorious with 8 SG.

So yeah, game starts out slow, so as to your characters' abilities, but once you Newgame+, (And also if you max all gear for each character) you'll end up quite overpowered for your next playthrough. Grinding materials to upgrade all of your gear takes too long though, so it's entirely up to you to go through with that. I got around 100% completion on the first playthrough, so I went ham with CE and upgraded my gear. Mainly just the annoying materials, that you have to upgrade and scrap for. Not so much to invalidate getting any loot. Just Fine Scraps, etc.

[Valerie]

Publicado originalmente por Simon:

Go into Arte menu, if you wish to remove artes, just click a certain button. I have forgotten, but there should be a guide down below the screen inside the menu. When you leave the fourth Arte row blank, the game will randomly select Arte to use during battle when you try to press the A button.

Equipments mastery points are gained based on grades. Once mastered, the first skill of the equipment (mastered skill) is tied to the characters permanently. So yeah, always switch equipments once mastered, don't stick with one equipment. I think the reason you deal so little damage is due to weak equipments

I'll explains the stats and what they do.
Attack - increases damage of Martial Arte and partially Hidden arte
Defense - increase defense against Martial Arte and partially Hidden arte
Arte Attack - increase damage/healing effect of Malak artes and partially Hidden arte
Arte defense - increase defense against Malak artes and partially Hidden arte. (Also increases the amount of HP gained from healing spells, maybe? Not sure)
Focus - increase the regeneration speed of Soul Gauge (SG). Also slightly increases Chance of Stunning enemy, allowing you to steal souls more frequently.

Martial artes are all physical attacks that uses less SG than Hidden artes. They are generally weaker than Hidden artes but it is easier to do combo with them since they use less SG.
(In the Arte menu, the artes with a white bracket are hidden artes. The rest without the bracket are martial artes)

Hidden artes are physical attack with magical properties. Afterall, it depends on both your attack and arte attack stat. More balance between the two stat will increase the effectiveness.

Malak artes are artes used by malak. Basically, it malak artes are all the magic spells.

Thank you very much!! This made this game a little overwhelming to be honest knowing that I have to go in and master EVERY equipment, but thank you and to everyone else who has given me this information.

Edit: So I feel like I'm either doing this all wrong or abusing the system... Dire foes and other bosses use to be really hard and annoying, but all I really have to do is Devour claw them, stack the souls, and repeat over and over again. I am playing on hard and did that to almost solo kill a Dire Enemy. Is this really how simple it boils down to?

[chaosbringer42]

Publicado originalmente por Serenity ❤:

Publicado originalmente por Simon:

Go into Arte menu, if you wish to remove artes, just click a certain button. I have forgotten, but there should be a guide down below the screen inside the menu. When you leave the fourth Arte row blank, the game will randomly select Arte to use during battle when you try to press the A button.

Equipments mastery points are gained based on grades. Once mastered, the first skill of the equipment (mastered skill) is tied to the characters permanently. So yeah, always switch equipments once mastered, don't stick with one equipment. I think the reason you deal so little damage is due to weak equipments

I'll explains the stats and what they do.
Attack - increases damage of Martial Arte and partially Hidden arte
Defense - increase defense against Martial Arte and partially Hidden arte
Arte Attack - increase damage/healing effect of Malak artes and partially Hidden arte
Arte defense - increase defense against Malak artes and partially Hidden arte. (Also increases the amount of HP gained from healing spells, maybe? Not sure)
Focus - increase the regeneration speed of Soul Gauge (SG). Also slightly increases Chance of Stunning enemy, allowing you to steal souls more frequently.

Martial artes are all physical attacks that uses less SG than Hidden artes. They are generally weaker than Hidden artes but it is easier to do combo with them since they use less SG.
(In the Arte menu, the artes with a white bracket are hidden artes. The rest without the bracket are martial artes)

Hidden artes are physical attack with magical properties. Afterall, it depends on both your attack and arte attack stat. More balance between the two stat will increase the effectiveness.

Malak artes are artes used by malak. Basically, it malak artes are all the magic spells.

Thank you very much!! This made this game a little overwhelming to be honest knowing that I have to go in and master EVERY equipment, but thank you and to everyone else who has given me this information. :sgsmile:

Edit: So I feel like I'm either doing this all wrong or abusing the system... Dire foes and other bosses use to be really hard and annoying, but all I really have to do is Devour claw them, stack the souls, and repeat over and over again. I am playing on hard and did that to almost solo kill a Dire Enemy. Is this really how simple it boils down to?

To your edit: Sadly, yes. The combat system is broken as all hell, if you get your souls back fast enough you can keep up almost permanent combos till you win. However if the enemy hits you with a burn/paralyze/stun early on the battle can go on forever, as having more souls than 3 gives boosts, and having less than 3 gives debuffs -_-. So things snowball one way or another.

[Vandread]

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

as having more souls than 3 gives boosts, and having less than 3 gives debuffs

Technically false, please refer to this document[docs.google.com].

It's the other way around in a way. The game will actively 'help' you if you are low on souls, while it'll start to turn the tables on you in the higher regions of soulcount. You simply don't notice it that much given how much easier/fluent the combat tends to get when you have higher maximum soul count - however what is listed in there is very much in play.

@OP:
This particular document I linked does contain spoilers, so I suggest you don't open it.

[Marika]

Basically use break souls every fight?

[chaosbringer42]

Publicado originalmente por Vandread:

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

as having more souls than 3 gives boosts, and having less than 3 gives debuffs

Technically false, please refer to this document[docs.google.com].

It's the other way around in a way. The game will actively 'help' you if you are low on souls, while it'll start to turn the tables on you in the higher regions of soulcount. You simply don't notice it that much given how much easier/fluent the combat tends to get when you have higher maximum soul count - however what is listed in there is very much in play.

@OP:
This particular document I linked does contain spoilers, so I suggest you don't open it.

More souls gives a damage bonus modifier, so yes, while the game starts cheating you to try and make you lose souls, you do more damage the more souls you have.

[Vandread]

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

More souls gives a damage bonus modifier, so yes, while the game starts cheating you to try and make you lose souls, you do more damage the more souls you have.

From what I know, the only thing more souls does offensive-wise is give you the possibility to extend your combo. They don't directly give you a modifier to your damage output. However, each hit in the combo gives you an additional 1% damage output for the remaining hits in the combo. Given how Berseria, like Zestiria, loves to surprise you with sudden hyper-armor on enemies mid-combo... I really don't think it's that much of a factor - especially given how quickly most mobs (and bosses for that matter) fall over even on Chaos. Get the weakness combo going, flow into an MA-chain and job's done.

The only creative way I can think of right now, how 'more souls gives a damage bonus modifier', would be to say that Break Soul'ing in a combo increases damage output of all attacks to come afterwards (up to a certain maximum). But similar bonuses exist for the other Arte-types; Martials (SG cost reduction for non-Martial), Hiddens (Status ailment rate for non-Hidden) and Malak (stagger rate for non-Malak).

What exactly are you basing more souls giving you a damage bonus modifier on? The only damage bonus modifier based on souls that I know of is based on your target's soul-count, not your own. Which can be found in the damage formulas[docs.google.com] in the same document - which is based off of information released by Bandai Namco[docs.google.com] themselves.

[chaosbringer42]

Publicado originalmente por Vandread:

Publicado originalmente por chaosbringer42:

More souls gives a damage bonus modifier, so yes, while the game starts cheating you to try and make you lose souls, you do more damage the more souls you have.

From what I know, the only thing more souls does offensive-wise is give you the possibility to extend your combo. They don't directly give you a modifier to your damage output. However, each hit in the combo gives you an additional 1% damage output for the remaining hits in the combo. Given how Berseria, like Zestiria, loves to surprise you with sudden hyper-armor on enemies mid-combo... I really don't think it's that much of a factor - especially given how quickly most mobs (and bosses for that matter) fall over even on Chaos. Get the weakness combo going, flow into an MA-chain and job's done.

The only creative way I can think of right now, how 'more souls gives a damage bonus modifier', would be to say that Break Soul'ing in a combo increases damage output of all attacks to come afterwards (up to a certain maximum). But similar bonuses exist for the other Arte-types; Martials (SG cost reduction for non-Martial), Hiddens (Status ailment rate for non-Hidden) and Malak (stagger rate for non-Malak).

What exactly are you basing more souls giving you a damage bonus modifier on? The only damage bonus modifier based on souls that I know of is based on your target's soul-count, not your own. Which can be found in the damage formulas[docs.google.com] in the same document - which is based off of information released by Bandai Namco[docs.google.com] themselves.

Whoa I just read it more in-depth, sorry about that. The Soul modifier is based on the number of ENEMY souls, not yours, so I was reading it completely wrong.