Flash Guard Question (Spoilers Within)

[Titler]

So I'm at the Execution fight, where Adol has to beat a Titano in just his pants in Nightmare at L38, and I'm getting the stuffing kicked out of me, in particular with the stun lock involved. It was only nearly throwing my controller in frustration that revealed that waggling the stick actually gets you out of stuns... I'd made it all this way so far just on pure fighting skill and swapping out to other characters to draw aggro away from my stunned party, whilst giving them the reduced damage for not being the active character. This doesn't work in the above fight of course.

Looking at this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpV6wjaBHJA it seems that there's some sort of shield Adol has access too which is helping, but I've never seen discussed or been able to cast.

I believe it might be Flash Guard? Reading around to find out how it works, the descriptions were vague or confusing to say the least. The reality is it's set to Left Trigger & Right Trigger by default to an Xbox style gamepad. You can remap it to a single button (I've put them both onto Right Trigger) by launching the game in Steam directly to get at the Config tool (the shortcut from Windows Start will not give you that option).

However when I do it in game, I just see Adol raise his shield, and so far, I've not been able to trigger the bubble that the video shows. I've not yet gone through the huge cutscene to get to the above spoilered fight, because once you start it, you lose the ability to save or reconfigure controls, but... am I missing something?

Give me the Flash Guard low down please!

[Doomlord]

Hold down R and tap L. Adol will raise his shield and flash white for a split second. If an enemy attack connects at just the right time then you've triggered a flash guard (the game will let you know). That bubble appears when you hold down the attack button to charge your attacks.

[Titler]

It must be the timing of guarding that's off then, as it's apparently configured correctly.

And if the effects are weapon charging (which I know about, but I tend to treat Ys like a bullet hell shmup and am watching the things around me not really the character and the effects: I'd forgotten what it even looks like to be honest!) then it's application of skill in that fight that's the difference... Hmm, lots more practice required later tonight then!

[Minneyar]

If it makes you feel any better, the exact same thing happened to me the first time I played Ys Seven on the PSP. I never even knew about Flash Guard until the fight, and suddenly I had to master it in order to survive.

The bad news is that I probably died 20 times before I got the timing for all of his attacks down perfectly. You want to hit the guard button just slightly before the attack actually connects. Against attacks that do multiple rapid hits, as long as you get the timing for the first hit right, you can usually just mash the guard button against the rest and not worry about the timing so much.

[SolHerald]

In that fight I had an easier time just attacking when he was open and then running away like a ninny. Anyway I would recommend mapping the two flash guard buttons to the same button. So instead of holding L and pressing R, you can just press R.

[Titler]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

If it makes you feel any better, the exact same thing happened to me the first time I played Ys Seven on the PSP. I never even knew about Flash Guard until the fight, and suddenly I had to master it in order to survive.

Phew, finally did it!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1137999240

I practiced Flash Guard on the mobs before the cut scene, and got how it works now; you're correct it needs to be in time with the blow, at which point you get a chevron/arrow shaped flash; however in the end I didn't use it at all with this boss battle. My actual tactic was:

I just kept dodging out of his range until he did the spin attack; then moved towards the side near the front leg, and hit him 3-5 times. If you go for the rear leg he does a back kick which can catch you, but if you hit the front you're safe until he turns towards you. I could sometimes get two more hits in there, but I took that as my cue to dodge off again and wait for the next spin.

[Doomlord]

If it's any consolation the very first time I played through the game I didn't even know flash guard existed. The game is completely doable without it. You just need practice and good reflexes.