Difficulty Spike? (Early Game Spoilers)

[T8-TR]

Is Gattuso supposed to be this much of a hassle?

I had to burn a bunch of items, and that was after eating one of the DLC +5 level items to up myself to level 19/20. This came outta nowhere, too, as the rest of the game was pretty mild. I think the only time I hit a game over was during the first "boss" in the Palace (Zain or whatever? I don't remember the name), but that was because of my inattentiveness more than actual difficulty.

Also, is there gonna be a lot of grinding in the rest of the game? Because I can't imagine doing this boss at level 15, and I wasn't exactly avoiding encounters. Hell, I went out of my way to do all of the ones in the "linear" sections and quite a few on the world map. If it weren't for that +5 boost, I'd probably have quit lmao.

tl;dr Is this normal? Is there a lot of grinding expected ahead (for a playthrough on Normal)? Are there more sudden spikes like this? My motivation is sorta shot after this, despite enjoying the characters.

[Simon]

Some of the bosses during early game are especially very annoying so you may need a little bit grinding. But after that, boss fights gradually become less hard compare to early game.

[iriyap]

Might as well drop the difficulty down to easy if you don't enjoy grinding, as plenty of chapter bosses are very obvious grind walls. It's an old game with old sensibilities.

[T8-TR]

I am so conflicted lmao

Does the game (on Normal) require grinding or nah? Someone hit me with a tiebreaker.

[Simon]

Just like most older Tales games, it requires a little bit of grind even on Normal.

Berseria's version of Normal is way too easy.

[ShinkuTear]

Gattuso is the big problem in this game. When compared against your possible stats and options to deal with him, Gattuso is arguably the strongest boss in the game.

There is a Gattuso-like enemy who shows up end game(same moves, end game stats) but is significantly easier due to you having much better means of fighting against it and dealing with it's attacks.

Gattuso just has too much *stuff* for that point, and it all comes together to make a nasty boss that causes problems for many players. His damage is high, his mobility is high, his attacks come out fast and have little delay...

Once you get past Gattuso, the games difficulty generally ranges from being reasonable and fair, to being easy.

[dominos pizza worker]

I looked up "Gattuso difficulty spike" because there's no way I was the only one having problems with this weird-ass boss and lo and behold I wasn't, I was extremely weirded out noticing the very abrupt difficulty spike with this boss as the game up until this point has been pretty fair, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ does this sudden difficulty come out of left field

[iriyap]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhI_CqWuSLA

[Devsman]

Yeah I had to grind to level 20 and even then barely got by.

Other than that, I only had to grind a few levels here and there. If you really prepare well (see my thoughts on first playthrough thread, near the bottom), I imagine you don't really need to grind at all, except Gattuso.

I guess the QA people somehow just lucked out when fighting him or something. Or else this was intentional to try to sell the level up DLC.

[Your Last Kiss]

Gattuso is a real ♥♥♥♥♥ and a half, yeah. After him though the difficulty comes from trying to do the secret missions, conventional fighting is pretty straightforward

[darth.crevette]

Originally posted by Devsman:

I guess the QA people somehow just lucked out when fighting him or something. Or else this was intentional to try to sell the level up DLC.

From what I heard, Gattuso was intentionally made very tough because he was the final boss of the demo; they somehow "forgot" to tune him back down for the full release.

And about the secret mission: you'll have the opportunity to re-fight any boss later and complete their mission, so don't worry too much about it.

[Devsman]

Originally posted by darth.crevette:

Originally posted by Devsman:

I guess the QA people somehow just lucked out when fighting him or something. Or else this was intentional to try to sell the level up DLC.

From what I heard, Gattuso was intentionally made very tough because he was the final boss of the demo; they somehow "forgot" to tune him back down for the full release.

If that's the case, I also extremely don't get why they decided the final boss of the demo needed to be absurd.

[Lay`ton Innocence]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

Gattuso is the big problem in this game. When compared against your possible stats and options to deal with him, Gattuso is arguably the strongest boss in the game.

There is a Gattuso-like enemy who shows up end game(same moves, end game stats) but is significantly easier due to you having much better means of fighting against it and dealing with it's attacks.

Gattuso just has too much *stuff* for that point, and it all comes together to make a nasty boss that causes problems for many players. His damage is high, his mobility is high, his attacks come out fast and have little delay...

Once you get past Gattuso, the games difficulty generally ranges from being reasonable and fair, to being easy.

Here I am stuck at Gattuso...

[darth.crevette]

Originally posted by Katrielle Layton:

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

Gattuso is the big problem in this game. When compared against your possible stats and options to deal with him, Gattuso is arguably the strongest boss in the game.

There is a Gattuso-like enemy who shows up end game(same moves, end game stats) but is significantly easier due to you having much better means of fighting against it and dealing with it's attacks.

Gattuso just has too much *stuff* for that point, and it all comes together to make a nasty boss that causes problems for many players. His damage is high, his mobility is high, his attacks come out fast and have little delay...

Once you get past Gattuso, the games difficulty generally ranges from being reasonable and fair, to being easy.

Here I am stuck at Gattuso...

What's your level?
I tend to grind in these games, and Vesperia is no exception. A new cooking recipe? Master it with everyone. Oh, that teached you another new recipe? Let's master that one as well! New weapons? You guessed it, grind the skills. I think I was at least level 20 by the time I reached Gattuso... and it was still a pain, mostly when trying to do the secret mission.

[Sekoku]

Originally posted by T8-TR:

Is Gattuso supposed to be this much of a hassle?

He's notorious for being a big wall early game. Especially if you're trying for the Secret Mission.

Don't worry too much about the items, you have a item limit anyway, so if you found an item in a dungeon, you couldn't even pick it up without burning one. Just during regular battles make sure to tell the party to conserve TP and slam R3/"NO!!!!" to them using items and you'll keep your stocks up.