Poll of the Day > I just got Tales of Graces f (spoilers no welcome past where I am)

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I'm at that poor place in Fendel and absolutely nobody has addressed that giant thing in the sky.

Are they seriously just gonna ignore it until it (probably) becomes the final dungeon or something?
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The giant thing in the sky is Foselos and has no bearing on the plot in any way whatsoever except in the optional post-game dungeon and even then the plot for said dungeon side quest makes no sense whatsoever within the core story. You'll understand when you get there.
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Man, I just started another Vesperia playthrough and forgot how god damn hard this game is. I got to the Ehmead Hill boss (Gattuso) and got absolutely bodied. Even fully prepped with full HP/TP, over limit, and even an attack-boosting dish cooked beforehand. I ended up having to drop the difficulty for that fight because there was just no way to get through it (though I think I was underleveled after seeing where other people were typically at in their "guides," but there really is not a lot of good grinding, especially considering you can't go back to town for more stuff, so I didn't want to burn my items on randoms).

Feels okay though because pretty much everywhere people agree it's stupidly hard.

The easy mode was a joke though. I mean it literally (and I'm not misusing that word) attacked twice. It stood totally still while I took out the minions. Then it used poison claw once and the roar another time.

Had to try twice against Zagi 2.0. It's unfortunate because I feel like I have to play a melee character to keep pressure on the hard-hitting bosses, but I feel like I play more efficiently in general when I play Estelle, what with casting Sharpness/Barrier and First Aid at the right times.
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How did you have trouble against Zagi 2? At that point, everyone has more at their disposal to deal with stun locking him and Rita's fireball should be at 3 shots per spell. And I think Rita should have splash by then.

Basically just pin him against the wall and you're golden
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PK_Spam posted...

How did you have trouble against Zagi 2? At that point, everyone has more at their disposal to deal with stun locking him and Rita's fireball should be at 3 shots per spell. And I think Rita should have splash by then.

Basically just pin him against the wall and you're golden

I was playing Estelle the first time. AI melee is really annoying, they don't do true combos, they'll just run up and either A.) Use an arte and run away, or B.) Attack twice and run away.

Rita's fire ball is only up to two at this point, despite my starting with her and spamming fire ball since the first fight with her available.

She doesn't have splash though. But I'm pretty sure I'm underleveled. I'm only like 13-14 IIRC (will check when I get home). I know I was only 11-12 at the Ehmead Hill boss. I wanted to stay and grind a bit in the monster dungeon basement of Ragou's place, but there was nowhere to get more items and I didn't want to screw myself (since there was no save point down there).

But yeah, switched to Yuri for the second try, got him against the wall with Karol and Repede, and Estelle held her own. Didn't have much of a problem that time.
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So I'm FINALLY headed towards the Valkines in Fendel. Am I close to leaving this place yet?
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That depends on how you handle the boss there. It took me nearly 3 hours to win, I got my ass handed to me. :(

The boss in the Valkines is one of the hardest bosses in the game, if it's who I'm thinking of. It's been a long time since I've placed Graces f.
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Fendel the ice place right?

I remember there being some Ice Boar thingy that had a digging attack with basically no cooldown.
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Yeah, I actually have to bring the difficulty back down to hard and AGAIN to moderate for that fight.
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Lol, the gang's gonna need to preform an exorcism on Richard
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Sophie's getting seriously fucked up now

How far am I in the game?
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For a second I thought you were playing Abyss and I would have been hyped af.

I was considering playing Abyss again (it's been 10 years) but my DVD drive is not connected to my PC and it would be a pain to have to hook it up.
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PK_Spam posted...

Sophie's getting seriously fucked up now

How far am I in the game?

Is that at the World's Eye? I'd say you're about 3/4 of the way into the main story. There's a lot of optional things and side quests that open up a little later on.

Ugh, is the game seriously gonna make me go back to Fendel when I just left there like a second ago?
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It still surprises me that everyone tries to justify Asbel's dad being a dick after his death.

Initially, I thought he'd be the secret final boss, but... I guess he really is just dead and rotting in the ground
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Yeah, that was one thing I loathed about Graces f. "Oh, now that he's dead, let's uncover how good of a person he was even though we went out of our way to establish him as an asshole in the first act of the game!" There's shedding light on a thing or adding another dimension to a character, but things like that are going backwards and actually show less than subpar writing ability.
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Damn, the enemies in that Snow field are.... snow joke!

But seriously, I've been grinding for an hour and the enemies STILL give me a ridiculously hard time on Sevilla mode. The last battle I was in made me use 8 Life Bottles just to avoid wiping. This difficulty spike is nuts
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I'm not surprised that Aston would be among the most hated characters in the game, while Abel was kind of a rascal at the beginning of the game, his own father was not exactly better since his parenting skills are not good.
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So, for the record, he's not gonna turn out to be the thing possessing Richard?
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No, far from it, you will find out soon what is possessing Richard.
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It's that demon thing from the end of Act 1. I know.

Probably Lambda.

I just hoped that the thing was, like, Asbel's father's familiar, and he wanted to keep Asbel in Lhant alone because he was grooming his son to be the next host. All of this eventually culminating in the reveal that he's an anti-Sophie. Or something.

Gonna play more in an hour or so. Hopefully this snow temple place isn't gonna kill me like the area outside it.
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PK_Spam posted...

Probably Lambda.

bingo
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The snow ruins are undeniable proof of the uninspired dungeon design in this game
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PK_Spam posted...

It still surprises me that everyone tries to justify Asbel's dad being a dick after his death.

Aston is a perfect example of a classic Japanese storytelling trope, one that doesn't translate well to Western audiences: the stern, strict, emotionally distant disciplinarian father, who nonetheless secretly loves his children and wants the best for them.

This trope is the sum-total of several cultural trends that are very strong in East Asian cultures (and Japan specifically), but have little, if any, presence in the Western zeitgeist. One is respecting one's elders - we have that here, but only to an extent, whereas in many Asian cultures, the concept of holding your parents in extremely high regard is considered a duty of the children (it stems from Confucianism - Confucius once stated "A youth who does not respect his elders will achieve nothing when he grows up" - and it even has a specific kanji, typically translated as "filial piety", in Japanese). Indeed, children rebelling against their parents expectations and finding their own way in the world (it even has its own TVTropes page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CallingTheOldManOut ), with the parents eventually coming to accept their children for who they are is a classic Western trope, whereas in the East it's far more likely that they would eventually come to their senses and obey their parents wishes.

Two is the importance of cultural status - status exists here, but not anywhere near in the same way it does in Japan. In Japan, your social status is determined by your cultural status - what school you went to, what grades you got, which company you work for, what position in that company you hold. Much of this is determined in school years and, as a result, many Japanese parents tend to push their children hard (sometimes too hard - Japan has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world) to excel.

Three is the duty of the eldest child (or sometimes just eldest son) to take on the family business, which remains a prominent cultural aspect in many parts of Japan (particularly the more conservative/traditional areas, to the point where it's not uncommon for a company owner who lacks and heir to formally adopt his successor into his family, even if that successor is a teenager or young adult).

This is all rolled into a single character in the Strict Japanese Father (tm). Though appearing uncaring and stern, sometimes to the point of borderline abuse, he relentlessly pushes his children into the role he has chosen for them in life. The children typically grow up to be very successful, but harbouring a deep-seated hatred towards their father. They then discover, often near or after his death, that he had previously kept a journal or confided in another character that he secretly hated doing this to his children, that he loved them and only did what he did because he wanted the best for them; invariably, the child will show regret at how they failed to appreciate the value of their father's stern conduct.

In the West, this resolution is deeply unsatisfying, because a parent who discards their child's love in favour of pushing them to financial, academic, and/or social success is a bad parent (indeed, Western culture would say he has missed the whole point of being a parent in the first place); in Japan, the character often has a tragic air to them, because they gave up everything - even the love of their children - in order to ensure their child's success. Not only would they be considered a good parent, they'd be considered a great one for sacrificing so much for the sake of their child.

It's not easy to explain, but Aston is one of the best examples of a character archetype that really lays bare some cultural dissonances between Japan (East Asia in general, really) and the West.
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PK_Spam posted...

The snow ruins are undeniable proof of the uninspired dungeon design in this game

Just wait till you try to go through the optional sand ruins, that place is even worse. Words of warning as well, you will not like a certain puzzle in said ruins at all.
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kelror13 posted...

PK_Spam posted...

The snow ruins are undeniable proof of the uninspired dungeon design in this game

Just wait till you try to go through the optional sand ruins, that place is even worse. Words of warning as well, you will not like a certain puzzle in said ruins at all.

Got to 'that room' at 2 in the morning during that playthrough, I was so tired but I wanted to finish the dungeon before going to bed and that puzzle kept me up for another hour smh

Geez. I BARELY won the fight against Polycarpus. Pascal was the last one left and was still a second away from dying. The boss's laser hit her RIGHT after my hit went through
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Don't tell me Emeraude is gonna be the real final boss

Oh, she's accompanying the party. Guess she's gonna join?
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Sorry to triple post but it bugs me that Pascal explicitly said that Fodra's gravity was way stronger than Ephinea's when they landed, but everyone was walking around and fighting like nothing anyway.
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Hopefully I can finish this game today. Suddenly found myself out of work again, so I'm gonna try to finish this today.

So the party has Emeraude and just found out what Lambda is. I assume I'm near the end of the game?
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PK_Spam posted...

Hopefully I can finish this game today. Suddenly found myself out of work again, so I'm gonna try to finish this today.

So the party has Emeraude and just found out what Lambda is. I assume I'm near the end of the game?

It's been a while since I completed it, but no, you're not super-near at this point. You're getting towards the end, but I'd say you're around 75% IIRC.
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Well I just beat Lambda's ass and saved Sophie. It was easy for me, but how the hell did Sophie kill him by herself at the end of Act 1?
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PK_Spam posted...

Well I just beat Lambda's ass and saved Sophie. It was easy for me, but how the hell did Sophie kill him by herself at the end of Act 1?

She did not exactly kill him.
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I mean, clearly. But she at least made him unable to fight for a little bit.
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Man, I just can't seem to figure out what stuff I need to move in the Bathus Citadel
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It's some hand-wavery that's tied to how she was designed as an anti-Lambda android.
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Ooooooh shit! Looks like emeraude is finally joining the party. She grew on me during the stint in Fodra
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Lol guess not. Guess that means she's gonna die
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Is... is Richard naked in his demon form thing?
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you know, i've owned this game for a long time now...

and i have yet to play it at all, ok?

and this thread... is not making me want to start, ok?
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I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all
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i'm living vicariously through you, ok?
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PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Wow spoiler alert

Real talk though it wouldn't be a Tales game if the final boss didn't join you for a bit.
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Muffinz0rz posted...

PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Wow spoiler alert

Real talk though it wouldn't be a Tales game if the final boss didn't join you for a bit.

That doesnt happen in tales of zest, xillia, vesperia, xillia 2, abyss, or berseria
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chaosbowser posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Wow spoiler alert

Real talk though it wouldn't be a Tales game if the final boss didn't join you for a bit.

That doesnt happen in tales of zest, xillia, vesperia, xillia 2, abyss, or berseria

Fine I guess it was an exaggeration, but the point was to show how the final boss typically starts as a good guy and/or helps you in some way to throw you off the trail of them being a bad guy
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chaosbowser posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Wow spoiler alert

Real talk though it wouldn't be a Tales game if the final boss didn't join you for a bit.

That doesnt happen in tales of zest, xillia, vesperia, xillia 2, abyss, or berseria

In at least one of those games, yes it does (assuming you mean "join" in a non-playable but still with the party sense). Possibly two, actually - can't remember if the Xillia final boss ever travels with you, although I don't think so.
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darkknight109 posted...

chaosbowser posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Wow spoiler alert

Real talk though it wouldn't be a Tales game if the final boss didn't join you for a bit.

That doesnt happen in tales of zest, xillia, vesperia, xillia 2, abyss, or berseria

In at least one of those games, yes it does (assuming you mean "join" in a non-playable but still with the party sense). Possibly two, actually - can't remember if the Xillia final boss ever travels with you, although I don't think so.

In Xillia 1, I believe Muzet does, but Gaius doesn't. Could be wrong though, been a minute since I've played that.
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Muffinz0rz posted...

darkknight109 posted...

chaosbowser posted...

Muffinz0rz posted...

PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Wow spoiler alert

Real talk though it wouldn't be a Tales game if the final boss didn't join you for a bit.

That doesnt happen in tales of zest, xillia, vesperia, xillia 2, abyss, or berseria

In at least one of those games, yes it does (assuming you mean "join" in a non-playable but still with the party sense). Possibly two, actually - can't remember if the Xillia final boss ever travels with you, although I don't think so.

In Xillia 1, I believe Muzet does, but Gaius doesn't. Could be wrong though, been a minute since I've played that.

Yeah, Muzet definitely does on Jude's route (and I think even on Milla's they're with you for a bit). Gaius is the one I can't remember, but I'm leaning towards no.

But yeah, the game I was referring to above was Abyss, given that Van joins you for a bit just before the Akzeriuth incident.
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PK_Spam posted...

I'm surprised you've read through this whole thing

And lol I knew it! Emeraude absorbed Lambda. Guess she's the final boss after all

Nope, but she can be quite hard to beat.
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