Honestly, it's such a fricking joy to see the amount of work and time you put in this. And actual work, analyzing different outcomes of Artes, how to control the combo flow and not following the norm of what's ""known"" about Graces LMBS but instead learning your own way and finding the genuine ways the mechanics work. You've stressed and frustrated a lot through the making of this vid and Cheria but the outcome is totally worth it. Jesus I love so many things but noteworthy for me are: wonky Richard hitbox, Pascal's CC4 whiff, Hubert's excellent CG control using blue aura in a creative way, HUBERT'S INSTANT BEAST CHAINED IN A COMBO, the general amazing CC refill strats, Sophie's ridiculous arte skips and the Heal troll Fire Dragon cancel how, PHANTOM WOLF HYAH, the wisp control with Asbel is just delicious This is just beautiful, Muc. Congratulations, super seriously and no jokes should show how serious I am when I say it!
Norms are made to be broken ;D -(while Norn was made to break you)-. It was definitely much more work than necessary, but I always find excitement in trying to overcome the limits imposed by the system, as well as understanding what may seem random at first. Thanks for your support Kev. I'm so glad you enjoyed it a lot.
Hot damn, you just keep pulling out more surprises Muc, it's a genuine wonder to see your stuff. And always hilarious to see the essay-length rants afterwards, we all feel your pain XD.
Amazing vid as always with the super detailed description to add icing on the majestic ten story cake. I can't imagine a world without you at this point lol. ^_^ extra lols for the wittiness. The good idea line in Asbels description had me rolling XP. #TalesGoals
Muctales what is this "flattery" you speak of? I only speak truths. How ya been? Sorry for my lack of Skype use.....app is all kinds of busted for me and my comp is on the last of its life lol.
Awwwww. Each time I read one of your comment I always want to say awwww at the end because it's always so nice xD. I've been okay, despite an important health issue lately but now I'm alright. What about you? Eh, don't worry about Skype, I myself wasn't using it much lately since I didn't want to be too distracted when recording NDX.
Muctales oh wow. I had no idea. this a recent condition? Regardless I'm glad you are feeling better now. You are such a trooper ^_^. I'm doing good. Life is pretty chill....spending a bit too much time on the ps4 though. slowly working my way to streaming life.....though it stinks new tales games block the ps4 sharing feature. I try not to worry about Skype but Skype is the only means we have of communication (besides fun YT comments) so it kinda bums me out but glad to hear that focus of yours is still in top shape.
Yeah pretty recent. It happened on January. Oh you're going to stream games? Nice! Do you have a twitch account or something so I can watch you when I have some time ? Yeah sorry, I also close Skype most of the time because it's quite a ressource-intensive software and it gets in the way while recording. However, if you have Discord, I actually have an account there and I'm much more available than on Skype. My id is #7725. I also have a server which I'll use once I officially revive ToPII. I'll invite you once I'm done setting it up ;D
Richard - 0:39 Pascal - 1:32 Malik - 2:18 Cheria - 3:05 Hubert - 3:58 Sophie - 5:03 Asbel - 6:04 ► Richard Last character I ended up remaking because the previous version was shit. It now looks less clunky and has different spells. Richard is awesome no matter what. It's always a blast to play as him. He is heavily focused on spells so he definitely fits my playstyle. The beginning of the fight came quite naturally. Lightning Blade to knockdown, spell to OTG, Severing Wind to down again then Fiery Beast. I came up with Shade Imperial since it's a pretty underused spell in combos and unlike most of Richard’s spells, the enemy isn't pushed away allowing for an A-Arte follow up. Fiery beast doesn't link by itself. GentleEel will counter after the beast part so it's important to whiff it. The next part is unfortunately RNG dependent because the pillars of fire can hit more or less times screwing my CG up for later in the combo and throwing the enemy lower than expected. Infernal Prison is a great spell but it's hard to combo after it because it moves the enemy all over the place and you can't tell where the enemy will end at. Holy Lance prevents this problem because the enemy is stuck at the same place. Unfortunately, GentleEel is so light that he will slide to the ground after the first hit. You have to send him back into the spell.You can cast a spell or use an instant one and it will work. It doesn't even need to hit. GentleEel will just be thrown for some reason lol. Holy Lance is sooooo glitched but I think I already shown that in a previous video. After that I had to chain something while the enemy was falling which is a bit hard since you can't really see what you're doing due to the camera. With some practice, I got the timing to chain my A-Artes into Majestic Gate. Majestic Gate is a great MA but the big issue is that it will knockdown early and GentleEel will start recovering in the air (wtf). That means there's only around 1 second for you to OTG the enemy before he recovers. Vengeant Fangs fits the job perfectly. Now one of the reasons I wanted to remake this fight is that since I ended up very far away from GentleEel I had to whiff multiple A-Artes to keep him down while getting closer. It was pretty weird and it triggered one of my friends so hard that he threatened me to come burn my house if I didn't remake it (Not really but I want to make him feel guilty for having me suffer through Graces again :D). What I changed was the way I use Shooting Star. The spell can push the enemy back to Richard. However, the first star doesn't connect to the others and since it can OTG, the only way to combo is to trigger dizzy. However this is where the whole setup becomes difficult. Shooting Star sends the enemy far far away to the point you basically have to be to the opposite side of the battlefield to chain properly. That is to say I have to use backsteps at least twice to be able to chain A-Artes after Shooting Star. However, as everybody knows, using backsteps reduces your CG screwing the dizzy setup in the process. I used an instant Soul Reaper to deal an additional hit and trigger dizzy. 1 A-Arte to cancel post spell lag. Backsteps to go to the rear of the battlefield and finally A-Artes to continue the combo. Thanks to Shooting Star I get a very clunky hit with Harsh Rebuttal. I found it completely by mistake but it was too cool to not use it especially since those are quite rare in Graces. Backstep into Rising Phoenix makes it feel the combo could drop at any moment but didn’t. After that it's common spell chain ending with a down and a glitch cancel Antidote... Not only for the troll factor but also because it cancels my current chain, forcing the game to trigger Spiral Ascension instead of Burning Phoenix (which is rather uncool). ► Pascal I don’t really like Pascal. She is the complete opposite of a traditional spellcaster. While she has a very nice gimmick (pretty refreshing for the series) the importance of positioning and spells pushing/launching effects aren't as important. Pascal is more specialized in short combos and extending them can be obnoxious as hell. Thankfully she is a powerhouse and will kill everything in no time lol. The fight starts with an important dizzy setup. First, Nighthawk Talon doesn't connect into Vicious Circle naturally. You can do it by delaying the second A-Arte to extend the stagger-lock frames. After that I used a front step to max out the CG before the last hit of Vicious Circle. That way the last hit triggers dizzy, leaving tons of time to cast a spell. I delayed the spell to trigger burn later in the fight. The spell combo is pretty common. Infernal Prison pushes the enemy just above Pascal and it’s possible to let him fall behind to reverse the battlefield. Pretty useful since I need space. This part is one of the most retarded one due to how difficult it is. I need to recover CC and hit the enemy while he falls. For that I had to use 2 instant spells at a very specific time then backstep because the spells would pull the boss towards me. The following A-Artes are mostly a setup used to trigger a critical hit with Celestial Eight to deal insane damage. Unfortunately, while Accel into C8 has very long stagger frames, it's not long enough to combo by itself, meaning I need another A-Arte to extend the stagger duration. It's also mandatory since I need to get closer to the enemy for the next part (ie cancel spell recovery lag). Star Crusher has great stagger frames so it's perfect for that. Unfortunately most 4CC artes have terrible recovery and it’s basically not possible to combo after any of them… unless you completely whiff them. Considering that 2 of them are “full screen” and the other one is an homing one, it’s definitely not something easy. The positioning during C8 and delaying the Arte worked like a charm. I didn't think such a big laser could completely miss in a game like Graces! After that, I got closer to cast another C8 into Cyandine. That setup allows me to whiff one hit to completely reverse the downing mechanic of the spell. Normally, each hit triggers down but due to how down works in the air, hitting a down enemy mid air will OTG. Since the number of hits in Cyandine normally ends the spell on an OTG, adding or removing one hit will trigger knockdown instead. After that, I wanted to use Blood Flamme but the flamme part actually throws the enemy to the ground at the very beginning and it caused me quite a lot of fail attempts. The biggest problem with this Arte is that it sends the enemy far far away. Steps into instant cast loops are very useful for every caster as they keep the enemy staggered very long. However, this is fucking hard to do and it killed my hands to do those consistently. I couldn’t finish the combo with at least one Arte Skip so I used Splash for that job~. ► Malik Damn Malik is OP lol. Seriously, his damage output + number of hits for MAs (+ status ailments) always make him the main source of damage while being safer than Pascal. However, he lacks mobility and his A-Artes are not very good if you want to chain them into spells. Malik has access to knockdown quite early with Second Wind. This lets him easily setup a spell chain without wasting more CC into A-Artes. Burning Strike is an excellent spell despite its very long startup because it stays for a while on the battlefield and lets you cast a higher level spell more easily. The first dizzy setup was made after Cluster Rain, at this point I had already got every casting bonus and I could throw easily a Dragon Slayer into the mix. This spell is very nice because it’s quite long and throws the enemy into the air, giving me time to cast Blazing Hearts. I really like Blazing Hearts because the enemy stays around the same height. I was able to stabilize the enemy pretty high which is quite important for the next part. I then casted Eleth Flare and used Harsh Lesson, I will come later to that one. Thanks to Blazing Hearts, once I used Harsh Lesson, GentleEel was still falling, this had the effect to slightly modify the axis on which Malik is facing during Harsh lesson. This will have an impact a bit later on the combo. As you can see, Harsh Lesson slightly lifts the enemy with each kick. Towards the end of the attack, GentleEel would be so high that around 25% of the kicks would fail to connect. This is where Eleth Flare helps. It pushed the enemy back to the ground so that I can maximize the number of hits and the damage output from Harsh Lesson. More knockdown setup to use Disruption, Culling Flare to stabilize the enemy and finally Glacial Rain. I then used A-Artes to follow-up. They could only connect thanks to the Axis modification earlier. I could have used more A-Artes, but the dizzy setup was a pain to reproduce properly. Instead I did something more interesting after the MA. Spell cancel steps to go to the enemy fast then instant spell into the MA. You may see I triggered dizzy just before the MA and as you know, it means my combo was gonna be resetted during the MA. You can prevent this by using a MA that hits very early (while the enemy is still dizzy).
► Cheria God she sucks balls. ► Hubert I’ve never took much time to learn Hubert. for some reason, his style never interested me. He is actually pretty fun! But not my style at all. At the beginning of the fight I… Oh geez, okay I’m gonna do a real description for Cheria… ► Cheria I’m sorry but god she sucks balls. Unlike other characters, the fight was painful to record not because I was trying a lot of technical techs but because she just can’t do jack shit. Her stagger data on A-Artes are absolutely awful to the point she can hardly connect 2 Artes together and her spells just don’t have any good pushing effect to keep the enemy in the air. In the end, the only way to really be able to combo with her in this fight is to have the enemy constantly knockdowned, dizzied or stopped. This required a ridiculous setup and strategic use of MAs to be able to dizzy the enemy regularly. Start getting better Cheria and maybe Asbel will finally notice you. I had quite a lot of interesting ideas for her instant spells and Arte Skips but due to all the reasons above, I barely used them in the end. That’s one of the few times I wished I had Eleth Burst lol. I started the fight by skipping the basic useless A-Arte (because it can easily trigger burn and render this combo utterly impossible) and for the sake of having an Arte Skip. Ethereal Rift is an interesting spell because it can be casted quite fast, has good range and slightly lifts the enemy. Definitely Cheria’s best tool after Soul Brigade. I used Spectral Purge while GentleEel was in the air to knock him down and cast a high level spell. Unfortunately, GentleEel recovers pretty fast and could easily break the combo here. Thankfully, in Graces, you can extend the knockdown status even if the enemy just stands up by adding more stagger lock frames (usually with A-Artes). If you keep adding those frames without letting the enemy come back to his idle stance, then it will still be considered as a knockdowned enemy. Silly game~ why was that copy-pasted in Zesty and Bersy again? Oh yeah they didn’t change any mechanic out of laziness (actually they removed the 2-3 excellent sub-mechanics…wtf)~ Anyway back to Cheria, After Frozen Rain...errr I can’t do anything else because it means the combo will be dropped so… MA? Problem with Asterism Line is that the only way to combo after it is to use an instant Seraphic Bolt and if I want to combo after that, it has to trigger dizzy. Since the enemy is dizzy, I have to whiff the first A-Arte as it will cancel remove the dizzy status for additional CC. But since Cheria can’t combo shit, it mustn’t happen. Steel Baptism is pretty nice for juggling and keeps the enemy high in the air. Infinite Wave is very good against GentleEel because it lifts him and allows spells to Accel Mode more easily. One mandatory Indignation + random Healing Circle. I still whiff Artes to be sure I trigger dizzy with Scathing Harvest. The rest speaks for itself, just that the forward step is mandatory to combo with Majestic Salvo. For all the 3 melee characters I had to lower their accuracy for obvious reasons since I wanted to be able to combo. ► Hubert The fight starts with a kinda weird dizzy setup. First, I show how I can whiff parts of Aerial Barrage to keep the knockdown effect, though the real goal of this chain of Artes is to be able to trigger dizzy at the first hit of Dual Shredder. What I desired was to trigger that very specific hitbox where the enemy gets behind me. For that, I needed the dizzy setup as I wouldn’t be able to combo after it and I needed to send the enemy in the air thanks to New Moon. Since the enemy was dizzy, I took this opportunity to cast Cross Mirage, which has a slow startup but can knockdown and chained with Beast Blaster. What’s so great about this spell is that it sends pretty high in the air but also pulls the enemy towards the player which was exactly what I needed to chain into Falling Star. Since I needed CC I used a Glitch Cancel. It’s important to wait a bit and not cancel at the earliest possible point because you’d also cancel the earthquake-like part of the A-Arte which you absolutely need to keep. I instantly switched to Aerial Barrage. Since I was so close to the enemy I was actually gonna miss the entire Arte and get punished. However, the Instant Gravity Blast pushed the enemy back into the Arte but it was still far enough to whiff the second part of the Arte and keep the knockdown effect. I took advantage of it to use the most trollish Arte Skip ever : Antidote. I then OTG’d GentleEel with Gravity Blast and used another A-Arte to trigger dizzy. I displayed a little bit of Spell Cancel during the next chain. Waiting a bit before triggering the Artes allows me to recover every CC I spent, creating a real semi-loop. I then used Whirlwind Slash. By waiting a little bit before inputting the Arte, I was able to keep GentleEel in the air during the whole Arte. Vital Flair into Absolute Zero is a natural combo even without Rhythm so it’s pretty cool. The steps and the few Artes after that are mostly fillers to trigger another dizzy (because my CG was quite low and I needed that dizzy) but I was able to use new Artes. Since I could never connect Gale Fang into anything during that fight, it was the perfect Arte to use before a MA. The whole combo after the MA was just a setup to use my remaining Artes while triggering dizzy. Rolling Thunderbolt is great but it has terrible frame data and I will get punished for using it unless something triggers dizzy during the startup animation (that’s absolutely not a fucking specific way to combo lol). Worse is that I wanted and needed to make that Arte an Arte Skip. Hubert’s Arte Skips have an additional animations at the beginning so it’s hard to use them under normal circumstances. Anyway, I needed that Arte Skip for the last horrible part : Dualblade Dance. No matter what, Dualblade Dance will get you killed. You try to use Dualblade Dance when the enemy is dizzy? It will get you killed. You try to use Dualblade Dance during Arrow Rain? It will get you killed. You mention Dualblade Dance to someone who got frustrated playing as Hubert? It will get you killed. The conditions I found to be able to use it are ridiculous. So here is the whole thing. - The enemy has to be in the air at the beginning of the Arte to be able to connect the beginning of the Arte. - You have to use it during Arrow Rain. There are 2 hits during the Arte that will always reset the combo because they send the enemy back to the ground. Using New Moon and syncing with the Arrows will keep the enemy in the air and prevent those hits to stop the combo. - You must start the combo from a diagonal axis, behind the enemy. Dualblade Dance slightly moves the enemy to the left, and you’ll need to stay behind the enemy to keep the chain. However being entirely behind doesn’t work. - You have to chain the Arte into a MA because of the awful post-Arte lag. Beautiful Arte indeed lol. At least it made a pretty nice finish!
► Sophie Tales of Arte Skipping. I mean this fight has so many of them I hurt my hands once again recording this fight. Sophie has definitely more ease comboing compared to the other characters but thanks to GentleEel awful stagger rate, it’s not as easy as it is with other bosses. It’s especially obvious when things like Spirit Rush into Deadly Rush don’t work anymore. The first part of the combo is a setup to be able to combo with Angelic Ascent. With an Arte Skip and a few whiffed hits, I was able to get dizzy to happen at the end of the Arte. the 1CC Arte never connects properly in this fight. The only time it works is if you are behind the enemy, use the Up version and chain it into Dragon Dash. After racking up hits with Spirit Rush and the beautiful Slash Rose (Arte Skip) (yeah I’m getting tired of this description so I’m kinda summing up the whole thing) I used Critical Blade. This MA is rather unique because it doesn’t reset your current A-Arte chain and by using another Arte Skip after it, I was already ready to unleash a 3CC A-Arte! DualBlade Spin is great and also knockdowns. Be careful of your position or you could trigger another hit and cancel the knockdown. Demolition Drive is actually amazing to chase the opponent and you don’t even spin if you whiff the attack. I used it not only to reach the enemy but also to be able to use Deadly Force (since it can only be done after A-Artes). During the whole setup I made sure I was very close to getting a critical hit. Why? Because I could chain Dagger Sploosh. F*cking Dagger Sploosh. This Arte is worth nothing. It’s incredibly painful to combo since the only way to do so is to deal a critical hit at the beginning of the Arte after using an Arte with very long stagger lock frames. Not only that but the damage is crap. No wonder this Arte is inspired from Cheria. I had a bit too much fun with the following part because it’s literally weird. I used Bladerang Hurl to lift the enemy but I made sure it would only hit at the last possible moment when the enemy is still dizzy. I then used a Spell Cancel with Heal. As you can see I didn’t use any 4CC Arte during this combo and yet I was able to unleash Fire Dragon Rampage. That is because I used Heal to fulfill the requirements. I finally whiffed all possible hits of my Artes except the very last one to confirm the MA and it really feels disrespectful~ After the MA I had to wait before using Gauntlet Blitz. This is the only way to chain it into Elegant Flash. I don’t really know how this hitbox works but hey it worked and I was once again able to use a different Arte. The next part is a special setup to trigger dizzy with the Accel Mode release hitbox, that way I was able to cast Invigoration without being punished. The rest speaks for itself. Sophie was definitely one of the funniest one to record. I actually didn’t mention every Arte Skip in this take. Will you be able to find them all? ► Asbel Asbel is really the most shallow character of Graces. No Arte Skip except during Free Mode, No instant cast, No Glitch Cancel. I found him a bit boring. So since I couldn’t provide something interesting with him, I decided I would be using some of his Artes people NEVER use because they are shit. And damn, he does have a long list of terrible Artes : - Wing Crush - Gush Stroke - Wolfwind Fang - Phantom Pulse - Heaven’s wrath - Demon Fist - Ruinous Bloom - Abyssal Seal - Plasma Shock - Diabolic Rage - Incineration Wave - Aurora Lotus - Shattersteel swarm Yep that’s a lot of them. But where would be the pai… the fun if I was only using a few of them? Instead I decided to use ALL OF THOSE. Remembered when I had good ideas? Me neither. Anyway, in order to be able to chain those, a good knowledge of the Artes as well as dizzy setups and steps are mandatory. I start the fight by lifting the enemy with Stagger Strike so that I can chain Wolfwind Fang and keep the enemy in the Air. The Clash attack when you draw your weapon is pretty good at increasing the CG. I used it because it chains well after WF and triggered dizzy. Since GentleEel was dizzy, I got the time to recover CC and use Ruinous Bloom. Nothing special to say about the next setup except that Abyssal Seal has good stagger lock frames at the end of the attack… perfect to chain into a slow Arte like Diabolic Rage. Since the enemy is very high in the air, I have a lot of time to use Shattersteel Swarm. Combine it with a forward step to increase stagger since the Arte normally has a pretty bad recovery. The Gush Stroke part is pretty annoying because it can easily miss the enemy. I’ve never found out what was affecting the slight difference of position before the use of that Arte. Nonetheless, steps are mandatory to be able to chain after it since this is a rather bad Arte all around. You probably noticed but during the whole duration of Accel I rely a lot on the Lambda wisp effect to juggle the enemy or mitigate the different weaknesses of my Artes. Phantom Pulse is another terrible Arte, I was only able to combo when the enemy was kept in the air (using the wisp). By chance, I also found a very clunky hitbox so I made sure I could use it during the final combo. I still don’t know how to truly trigger it. Next Arte is the infamous Aurora Lotus. Cool to watch. Painful to use. There are 2 important things to setup. First the enemy must be dizzy at the beginning of the Arte. As you can see, the Arte pushes down the enemy to the ground, giving him the opportunity to escape the combo. You can’t cancel the recovery time after using the Arte so you will need the wisp to hit during that time to keep the combo alive. The following part is mostly a setup to use Demon Fist which is easily one of the most annoying Arte to use. I whiff on purpose the Wing Crush Arte. It actually moves asbel slightly to the left and closer to the enemy so it worked as a good positioning Arte. This helped me sync the wisp to chain Demon Fist accordingly. Then Mystic Arte Kaboom. Next dizzy setup was created to chain Heaven’s Wrath. The Arte lasts almost as long as dizzy so you are forced to trigger the ailment within the first 2 hits. The final is tricky since you need precise timing. You need to cancel knockdown with a clash at a specific height to fully connect the last Artes. The finishing Arte was kinda obvious :p Welp, with this I finally finished another one of my main 2016 goals (yep I’m late lol) which took several months. It was much more work than necessary and probably not worth it… but at least I know I can finally shelve Graces and never look back :p I would like to thank everyone who has been watching, supporting, commenting, liking, etc. my Graces content since… 2014! That was quite a fun ride. It really opened my eyes on this series and fans. Behind its extremely simple look the game is deceptively deep (for solos :p). There’s still a lot of things I do not like about it but I’ve been able to learn so much about it since I started running it… and all this knowledge and experience is priceless~
> no ultimate weapons DAT disrespect. I have nothing to say that won't be super shallow, so uh...THIS is a prime example (possibly the best) of the possible ways to play Graces. And it's wonderful, inventive and super fun to watch. I won't speak of how Mucy must have broken a finger or two by now, cause that's small potatoes. :P Also: Deadly Force OTG: I FUCKING KNEW IT Also also: Magic triggering Fire Dragon makes me happy. That trick needs more love Also also also: You remembered Dagger Sploosh ;______;
This is what I'll show people when they say Graces has no depth. P.S I assume the arte skipping is done by canceling a B arte(?) at a certain frame? I'm guessing it's something similar to Eternias cancels? By reading the description( and watching the video) it seems to be done by inputting a button within the first few frames.
Considering the numbers of salty haters vs blind fans, I'd rather not trigger more meaningless discussions xD Arte Skipping is just doing a Glitch Cancel with specific Artes. It works with every physical B Artes and with a few spells. Timing is a bit tricky since you must do it at the end of the previous Arte to cancel the recovery time.
Because they're using Narikiri Dolls. It means that they use Cheria's character disguised in another one to be able to use their artes. This feature is available during the F Arc and allows you to transform anyone into another character. This makes NG+ less frustrating if a character (let's say Richard for instance) leaves the party for a long time, since you can still play them even if they're not a part of the team. You can do some nice stuff like using 4 Cheria. Gameplay wise since iirc the character transformed keep their titles and stats, it can have some advantages (let's say Cheria has a title that decreases her cast time if her HP are low, now any character with spell can benefit from that title if she transforms into them).
Mainly French and English. I studied Spanish and Italian but haven't practiced for years. So while I can still decently read and understand them, I can't have any kind of conversation. Started studying Japanese too but I can just read Katakanas, Hiraganas and very very few kanjis
![Tales of Destiny DC - Arena Rank 6 [Philia Solo/No Damage/Chaos Mode]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nnoNbhtCQWI/mqdefault.jpg)
Honestly, it's such a fricking joy to see the amount of work and time you put in this. And actual work, analyzing different outcomes of Artes, how to control the combo flow and not following the norm of what's ""known"" about Graces LMBS but instead learning your own way and finding the genuine ways the mechanics work. You've stressed and frustrated a lot through the making of this vid and Cheria but the outcome is totally worth it.
Jesus I love so many things but noteworthy for me are: wonky Richard hitbox, Pascal's CC4 whiff, Hubert's excellent CG control using blue aura in a creative way, HUBERT'S INSTANT BEAST CHAINED IN A COMBO, the general amazing CC refill strats, Sophie's ridiculous arte skips and the Heal troll Fire Dragon cancel how, PHANTOM WOLF HYAH, the wisp control with Asbel is just delicious
This is just beautiful, Muc. Congratulations, super seriously and no jokes should show how serious I am when I say it!
Norms are made to be broken ;D -(while Norn was made to break you)-.
It was definitely much more work than necessary, but I always find excitement in trying to overcome the limits imposed by the system, as well as understanding what may seem random at first.
Thanks for your support Kev. I'm so glad you enjoyed it a lot.
Truly impressive CC management, especially on Pascal.
Thx for this. It was really cool to watch
Hot damn, you just keep pulling out more surprises Muc, it's a genuine wonder to see your stuff.
And always hilarious to see the essay-length rants afterwards, we all feel your pain XD.
I'm glad you enjoyed it ^^ As long as you don't get bored of my stuff, everything's fine :p
Amazing vid as always with the super detailed description to add icing on the majestic ten story cake. I can't imagine a world without you at this point lol. ^_^
extra lols for the wittiness. The good idea line in Asbels description had me rolling XP.
#TalesGoals
xD Flattery won't get you anywhere!
#TalesGoals~
Muctales what is this "flattery" you speak of? I only speak truths. How ya been? Sorry for my lack of Skype use.....app is all kinds of busted for me and my comp is on the last of its life lol.
Awwwww. Each time I read one of your comment I always want to say awwww at the end because it's always so nice xD.
I've been okay, despite an important health issue lately but now I'm alright. What about you?
Eh, don't worry about Skype, I myself wasn't using it much lately since I didn't want to be too distracted when recording NDX.
Muctales oh wow. I had no idea. this a recent condition? Regardless I'm glad you are feeling better now. You are such a trooper ^_^. I'm doing good. Life is pretty chill....spending a bit too much time on the ps4 though. slowly working my way to streaming life.....though it stinks new tales games block the ps4 sharing feature. I try not to worry about Skype but Skype is the only means we have of communication (besides fun YT comments) so it kinda bums me out but glad to hear that focus of yours is still in top shape.
Yeah pretty recent. It happened on January.
Oh you're going to stream games? Nice! Do you have a twitch account or something so I can watch you when I have some time ?
Yeah sorry, I also close Skype most of the time because it's quite a ressource-intensive software and it gets in the way while recording. However, if you have Discord, I actually have an account there and I'm much more available than on Skype. My id is #7725. I also have a server which I'll use once I officially revive ToPII. I'll invite you once I'm done setting it up ;D
Richard - 0:39
Pascal - 1:32
Malik - 2:18
Cheria - 3:05
Hubert - 3:58
Sophie - 5:03
Asbel - 6:04
► Richard
Last character I ended up remaking because the previous version was shit. It now looks less clunky and has different spells. Richard is awesome no matter what. It's always a blast to play as him. He is heavily focused on spells so he definitely fits my playstyle.
The beginning of the fight came quite naturally. Lightning Blade to knockdown, spell to OTG, Severing Wind to down again then Fiery Beast. I came up with Shade Imperial since it's a pretty underused spell in combos and unlike most of Richard’s spells, the enemy isn't pushed away allowing for an A-Arte follow up.
Fiery beast doesn't link by itself. GentleEel will counter after the beast part so it's important to whiff it. The next part is unfortunately RNG dependent because the pillars of fire can hit more or less times screwing my CG up for later in the combo and throwing the enemy lower than expected.
Infernal Prison is a great spell but it's hard to combo after it because it moves the enemy all over the place and you can't tell where the enemy will end at. Holy Lance prevents this problem because the enemy is stuck at the same place. Unfortunately, GentleEel is so light that he will slide to the ground after the first hit. You have to send him back into the spell.You can cast a spell or use an instant one and it will work. It doesn't even need to hit. GentleEel will just be thrown for some reason lol. Holy Lance is sooooo glitched but I think I already shown that in a previous video.
After that I had to chain something while the enemy was falling which is a bit hard since you can't really see what you're doing due to the camera. With some practice, I got the timing to chain my A-Artes into Majestic Gate.
Majestic Gate is a great MA but the big issue is that it will knockdown early and GentleEel will start recovering in the air (wtf). That means there's only around 1 second for you to OTG the enemy before he recovers. Vengeant Fangs fits the job perfectly. Now one of the reasons I wanted to remake this fight is that since I ended up very far away from GentleEel I had to whiff multiple A-Artes to keep him down while getting closer. It was pretty weird and it triggered one of my friends so hard that he threatened me to come burn my house if I didn't remake it (Not really but I want to make him feel guilty for having me suffer through Graces again :D).
What I changed was the way I use Shooting Star. The spell can push the enemy back to Richard. However, the first star doesn't connect to the others and since it can OTG, the only way to combo is to trigger dizzy. However this is where the whole setup becomes difficult. Shooting Star sends the enemy far far away to the point you basically have to be to the opposite side of the battlefield to chain properly. That is to say I have to use backsteps at least twice to be able to chain A-Artes after Shooting Star. However, as everybody knows, using backsteps reduces your CG screwing the dizzy setup in the process. I used an instant Soul Reaper to deal an additional hit and trigger dizzy. 1 A-Arte to cancel post spell lag. Backsteps to go to the rear of the battlefield and finally A-Artes to continue the combo. Thanks to Shooting Star I get a very clunky hit with Harsh Rebuttal. I found it completely by mistake but it was too cool to not use it especially since those are quite rare in Graces.
Backstep into Rising Phoenix makes it feel the combo could drop at any moment but didn’t. After that it's common spell chain ending with a down and a glitch cancel Antidote... Not only for the troll factor but also because it cancels my current chain, forcing the game to trigger Spiral Ascension instead of Burning Phoenix (which is rather uncool).
► Pascal
I don’t really like Pascal. She is the complete opposite of a traditional spellcaster. While she has a very nice gimmick (pretty refreshing for the series) the importance of positioning and spells pushing/launching effects aren't as important. Pascal is more specialized in short combos and extending them can be obnoxious as hell. Thankfully she is a powerhouse and will kill everything in no time lol.
The fight starts with an important dizzy setup. First, Nighthawk Talon doesn't connect into Vicious Circle naturally. You can do it by delaying the second A-Arte to extend the stagger-lock frames. After that I used a front step to max out the CG before the last hit of Vicious Circle. That way the last hit triggers dizzy, leaving tons of time to cast a spell. I delayed the spell to trigger burn later in the fight. The spell combo is pretty common. Infernal Prison pushes the enemy just above Pascal and it’s possible to let him fall behind to reverse the battlefield. Pretty useful since I need space.
This part is one of the most retarded one due to how difficult it is. I need to recover CC and hit the enemy while he falls. For that I had to use 2 instant spells at a very specific time then backstep because the spells would pull the boss towards me. The following A-Artes are mostly a setup used to trigger a critical hit with Celestial Eight to deal insane damage. Unfortunately, while Accel into C8 has very long stagger frames, it's not long enough to combo by itself, meaning I need another A-Arte to extend the stagger duration. It's also mandatory since I need to get closer to the enemy for the next part (ie cancel spell recovery lag). Star Crusher has great stagger frames so it's perfect for that.
Unfortunately most 4CC artes have terrible recovery and it’s basically not possible to combo after any of them… unless you completely whiff them. Considering that 2 of them are “full screen” and the other one is an homing one, it’s definitely not something easy. The positioning during C8 and delaying the Arte worked like a charm. I didn't think such a big laser could completely miss in a game like Graces!
After that, I got closer to cast another C8 into Cyandine. That setup allows me to whiff one hit to completely reverse the downing mechanic of the spell. Normally, each hit triggers down but due to how down works in the air, hitting a down enemy mid air will OTG. Since the number of hits in Cyandine normally ends the spell on an OTG, adding or removing one hit will trigger knockdown instead. After that, I wanted to use Blood Flamme but the flamme part actually throws the enemy to the ground at the very beginning and it caused me quite a lot of fail attempts. The biggest problem with this Arte is that it sends the enemy far far away. Steps into instant cast loops are very useful for every caster as they keep the enemy staggered very long. However, this is fucking hard to do and it killed my hands to do those consistently. I couldn’t finish the combo with at least one Arte Skip so I used Splash for that job~.
► Malik
Damn Malik is OP lol. Seriously, his damage output + number of hits for MAs (+ status ailments) always make him the main source of damage while being safer than Pascal. However, he lacks mobility and his A-Artes are not very good if you want to chain them into spells. Malik has access to knockdown quite early with Second Wind.
This lets him easily setup a spell chain without wasting more CC into A-Artes. Burning Strike is an excellent spell despite its very long startup because it stays for a while on the battlefield and lets you cast a higher level spell more easily. The first dizzy setup was made after Cluster Rain, at this point I had already got every casting bonus and I could throw easily a Dragon Slayer into the mix. This spell is very nice because it’s quite long and throws the enemy into the air, giving me time to cast Blazing Hearts. I really like Blazing Hearts because the enemy stays around the same height. I was able to stabilize the enemy pretty high which is quite important for the next part.
I then casted Eleth Flare and used Harsh Lesson, I will come later to that one. Thanks to Blazing Hearts, once I used Harsh Lesson, GentleEel was still falling, this had the effect to slightly modify the axis on which Malik is facing during Harsh lesson. This will have an impact a bit later on the combo. As you can see, Harsh Lesson slightly lifts the enemy with each kick. Towards the end of the attack, GentleEel would be so high that around 25% of the kicks would fail to connect. This is where Eleth Flare helps. It pushed the enemy back to the ground so that I can maximize the number of hits and the damage output from Harsh Lesson.
More knockdown setup to use Disruption, Culling Flare to stabilize the enemy and finally Glacial Rain. I then used A-Artes to follow-up. They could only connect thanks to the Axis modification earlier. I could have used more A-Artes, but the dizzy setup was a pain to reproduce properly. Instead I did something more interesting after the MA. Spell cancel steps to go to the enemy fast then instant spell into the MA. You may see I triggered dizzy just before the MA and as you know, it means my combo was gonna be resetted during the MA. You can prevent this by using a MA that hits very early (while the enemy is still dizzy).
► Cheria
God she sucks balls.
► Hubert
I’ve never took much time to learn Hubert. for some reason, his style never interested me. He is actually pretty fun! But not my style at all. At the beginning of the fight I… Oh geez, okay I’m gonna do a real description for Cheria…
► Cheria
I’m sorry but god she sucks balls. Unlike other characters, the fight was painful to record not because I was trying a lot of technical techs but because she just can’t do jack shit. Her stagger data on A-Artes are absolutely awful to the point she can hardly connect 2 Artes together and her spells just don’t have any good pushing effect to keep the enemy in the air. In the end, the only way to really be able to combo with her in this fight is to have the enemy constantly knockdowned, dizzied or stopped. This required a ridiculous setup and strategic use of MAs to be able to dizzy the enemy regularly. Start getting better Cheria and maybe Asbel will finally notice you.
I had quite a lot of interesting ideas for her instant spells and Arte Skips but due to all the reasons above, I barely used them in the end. That’s one of the few times I wished I had Eleth Burst lol. I started the fight by skipping the basic useless A-Arte (because it can easily trigger burn and render this combo utterly impossible) and for the sake of having an Arte Skip. Ethereal Rift is an interesting spell because it can be casted quite fast, has good range and slightly lifts the enemy. Definitely Cheria’s best tool after Soul Brigade. I used Spectral Purge while GentleEel was in the air to knock him down and cast a high level spell. Unfortunately, GentleEel recovers pretty fast and could easily break the combo here. Thankfully, in Graces, you can extend the knockdown status even if the enemy just stands up by adding more stagger lock frames (usually with A-Artes). If you keep adding those frames without letting the enemy come back to his idle stance, then it will still be considered as a knockdowned enemy. Silly game~ why was that copy-pasted in Zesty and Bersy again? Oh yeah they didn’t change any mechanic out of laziness (actually they removed the 2-3 excellent sub-mechanics…wtf)~
Anyway back to Cheria, After Frozen Rain...errr I can’t do anything else because it means the combo will be dropped so… MA? Problem with Asterism Line is that the only way to combo after it is to use an instant Seraphic Bolt and if I want to combo after that, it has to trigger dizzy. Since the enemy is dizzy, I have to whiff the first A-Arte as it will cancel remove the dizzy status for additional CC. But since Cheria can’t combo shit, it mustn’t happen. Steel Baptism is pretty nice for juggling and keeps the enemy high in the air. Infinite Wave is very good against GentleEel because it lifts him and allows spells to Accel Mode more easily. One mandatory Indignation + random Healing Circle. I still whiff Artes to be sure I trigger dizzy with Scathing Harvest. The rest speaks for itself, just that the forward step is mandatory to combo with Majestic Salvo.
For all the 3 melee characters I had to lower their accuracy for obvious reasons since I wanted to be able to combo.
► Hubert
The fight starts with a kinda weird dizzy setup. First, I show how I can whiff parts of Aerial Barrage to keep the knockdown effect, though the real goal of this chain of Artes is to be able to trigger dizzy at the first hit of Dual Shredder. What I desired was to trigger that very specific hitbox where the enemy gets behind me. For that, I needed the dizzy setup as I wouldn’t be able to combo after it and I needed to send the enemy in the air thanks to New Moon. Since the enemy was dizzy, I took this opportunity to cast Cross Mirage, which has a slow startup but can knockdown and chained with Beast Blaster. What’s so great about this spell is that it sends pretty high in the air but also pulls the enemy towards the player which was exactly what I needed to chain into Falling Star.
Since I needed CC I used a Glitch Cancel. It’s important to wait a bit and not cancel at the earliest possible point because you’d also cancel the earthquake-like part of the A-Arte which you absolutely need to keep. I instantly switched to Aerial Barrage. Since I was so close to the enemy I was actually gonna miss the entire Arte and get punished. However, the Instant Gravity Blast pushed the enemy back into the Arte but it was still far enough to whiff the second part of the Arte and keep the knockdown effect. I took advantage of it to use the most trollish Arte Skip ever : Antidote. I then OTG’d GentleEel with Gravity Blast and used another A-Arte to trigger dizzy.
I displayed a little bit of Spell Cancel during the next chain. Waiting a bit before triggering the Artes allows me to recover every CC I spent, creating a real semi-loop. I then used Whirlwind Slash. By waiting a little bit before inputting the Arte, I was able to keep GentleEel in the air during the whole Arte. Vital Flair into Absolute Zero is a natural combo even without Rhythm so it’s pretty cool. The steps and the few Artes after that are mostly fillers to trigger another dizzy (because my CG was quite low and I needed that dizzy) but I was able to use new Artes. Since I could never connect Gale Fang into anything during that fight, it was the perfect Arte to use before a MA.
The whole combo after the MA was just a setup to use my remaining Artes while triggering dizzy. Rolling Thunderbolt is great but it has terrible frame data and I will get punished for using it unless something triggers dizzy during the startup animation (that’s absolutely not a fucking specific way to combo lol). Worse is that I wanted and needed to make that Arte an Arte Skip. Hubert’s Arte Skips have an additional animations at the beginning so it’s hard to use them under normal circumstances. Anyway, I needed that Arte Skip for the last horrible part : Dualblade Dance. No matter what, Dualblade Dance will get you killed. You try to use Dualblade Dance when the enemy is dizzy? It will get you killed. You try to use Dualblade Dance during Arrow Rain? It will get you killed. You mention Dualblade Dance to someone who got frustrated playing as Hubert? It will get you killed. The conditions I found to be able to use it are ridiculous. So here is the whole thing.
- The enemy has to be in the air at the beginning of the Arte to be able to connect the beginning of the Arte.
- You have to use it during Arrow Rain. There are 2 hits during the Arte that will always reset the combo because they send the enemy back to the ground. Using New Moon and syncing with the Arrows will keep the enemy in the air and prevent those hits to stop the combo.
- You must start the combo from a diagonal axis, behind the enemy. Dualblade Dance slightly moves the enemy to the left, and you’ll need to stay behind the enemy to keep the chain. However being entirely behind doesn’t work.
- You have to chain the Arte into a MA because of the awful post-Arte lag.
Beautiful Arte indeed lol. At least it made a pretty nice finish!
► Sophie
Tales of Arte Skipping. I mean this fight has so many of them I hurt my hands once again recording this fight. Sophie has definitely more ease comboing compared to the other characters but thanks to GentleEel awful stagger rate, it’s not as easy as it is with other bosses. It’s especially obvious when things like Spirit Rush into Deadly Rush don’t work anymore.
The first part of the combo is a setup to be able to combo with Angelic Ascent. With an Arte Skip and a few whiffed hits, I was able to get dizzy to happen at the end of the Arte. the 1CC Arte never connects properly in this fight. The only time it works is if you are behind the enemy, use the Up version and chain it into Dragon Dash. After racking up hits with Spirit Rush and the beautiful Slash Rose (Arte Skip) (yeah I’m getting tired of this description so I’m kinda summing up the whole thing) I used Critical Blade.
This MA is rather unique because it doesn’t reset your current A-Arte chain and by using another Arte Skip after it, I was already ready to unleash a 3CC A-Arte! DualBlade Spin is great and also knockdowns. Be careful of your position or you could trigger another hit and cancel the knockdown. Demolition Drive is actually amazing to chase the opponent and you don’t even spin if you whiff the attack. I used it not only to reach the enemy but also to be able to use Deadly Force (since it can only be done after A-Artes). During the whole setup I made sure I was very close to getting a critical hit. Why? Because I could chain Dagger Sploosh. F*cking Dagger Sploosh. This Arte is worth nothing. It’s incredibly painful to combo since the only way to do so is to deal a critical hit at the beginning of the Arte after using an Arte with very long stagger lock frames. Not only that but the damage is crap. No wonder this Arte is inspired from Cheria.
I had a bit too much fun with the following part because it’s literally weird. I used Bladerang Hurl to lift the enemy but I made sure it would only hit at the last possible moment when the enemy is still dizzy. I then used a Spell Cancel with Heal. As you can see I didn’t use any 4CC Arte during this combo and yet I was able to unleash Fire Dragon Rampage. That is because I used Heal to fulfill the requirements. I finally whiffed all possible hits of my Artes except the very last one to confirm the MA and it really feels disrespectful~
After the MA I had to wait before using Gauntlet Blitz. This is the only way to chain it into Elegant Flash. I don’t really know how this hitbox works but hey it worked and I was once again able to use a different Arte.
The next part is a special setup to trigger dizzy with the Accel Mode release hitbox, that way I was able to cast Invigoration without being punished. The rest speaks for itself. Sophie was definitely one of the funniest one to record. I actually didn’t mention every Arte Skip in this take. Will you be able to find them all?
► Asbel
Asbel is really the most shallow character of Graces. No Arte Skip except during Free Mode, No instant cast, No Glitch Cancel. I found him a bit boring. So since I couldn’t provide something interesting with him, I decided I would be using some of his Artes people NEVER use because they are shit. And damn, he does have a long list of terrible Artes :
- Wing Crush
- Gush Stroke
- Wolfwind Fang
- Phantom Pulse
- Heaven’s wrath
- Demon Fist
- Ruinous Bloom
- Abyssal Seal
- Plasma Shock
- Diabolic Rage
- Incineration Wave
- Aurora Lotus
- Shattersteel swarm
Yep that’s a lot of them. But where would be the pai… the fun if I was only using a few of them? Instead I decided to use ALL OF THOSE. Remembered when I had good ideas? Me neither.
Anyway, in order to be able to chain those, a good knowledge of the Artes as well as dizzy setups and steps are mandatory.
I start the fight by lifting the enemy with Stagger Strike so that I can chain Wolfwind Fang and keep the enemy in the Air. The Clash attack when you draw your weapon is pretty good at increasing the CG. I used it because it chains well after WF and triggered dizzy. Since GentleEel was dizzy, I got the time to recover CC and use Ruinous Bloom. Nothing special to say about the next setup except that Abyssal Seal has good stagger lock frames at the end of the attack… perfect to chain into a slow Arte like Diabolic Rage. Since the enemy is very high in the air, I have a lot of time to use Shattersteel Swarm. Combine it with a forward step to increase stagger since the Arte normally has a pretty bad recovery.
The Gush Stroke part is pretty annoying because it can easily miss the enemy. I’ve never found out what was affecting the slight difference of position before the use of that Arte. Nonetheless, steps are mandatory to be able to chain after it since this is a rather bad Arte all around. You probably noticed but during the whole duration of Accel I rely a lot on the Lambda wisp effect to juggle the enemy or mitigate the different weaknesses of my Artes. Phantom Pulse is another terrible Arte, I was only able to combo when the enemy was kept in the air (using the wisp). By chance, I also found a very clunky hitbox so I made sure I could use it during the final combo. I still don’t know how to truly trigger it.
Next Arte is the infamous Aurora Lotus. Cool to watch. Painful to use. There are 2 important things to setup. First the enemy must be dizzy at the beginning of the Arte. As you can see, the Arte pushes down the enemy to the ground, giving him the opportunity to escape the combo. You can’t cancel the recovery time after using the Arte so you will need the wisp to hit during that time to keep the combo alive. The following part is mostly a setup to use Demon Fist which is easily one of the most annoying Arte to use. I whiff on purpose the Wing Crush Arte. It actually moves asbel slightly to the left and closer to the enemy so it worked as a good positioning Arte. This helped me sync the wisp to chain Demon Fist accordingly.
Then Mystic Arte Kaboom.
Next dizzy setup was created to chain Heaven’s Wrath. The Arte lasts almost as long as dizzy so you are forced to trigger the ailment within the first 2 hits.
The final is tricky since you need precise timing. You need to cancel knockdown with a clash at a specific height to fully connect the last Artes. The finishing Arte was kinda obvious :p
Welp, with this I finally finished another one of my main 2016 goals (yep I’m late lol) which took several months. It was much more work than necessary and probably not worth it… but at least I know I can finally shelve Graces and never look back :p
I would like to thank everyone who has been watching, supporting, commenting, liking, etc. my Graces content since… 2014! That was quite a fun ride. It really opened my eyes on this series and fans. Behind its extremely simple look the game is deceptively deep (for solos :p). There’s still a lot of things I do not like about it but I’ve been able to learn so much about it since I started running it… and all this knowledge and experience is priceless~
> no ultimate weapons
DAT disrespect.
I have nothing to say that won't be super shallow, so uh...THIS is a prime example (possibly the best) of the possible ways to play Graces. And it's wonderful, inventive and super fun to watch. I won't speak of how Mucy must have broken a finger or two by now, cause that's small potatoes. :P
Also: Deadly Force OTG: I FUCKING KNEW IT
Also also: Magic triggering Fire Dragon makes me happy. That trick needs more love
Also also also: You remembered Dagger Sploosh ;______;
I made sure to include a magic triggering Fire Dragon Rampage and one Dagger Sploosh just for you ;D
In a way, you're protecting the true potential of Graces... Right?
MAMORITAI
I like and love Richard
Asbell.466sopie .333malik .776 Richard.348 hubert.897 Pascale.234
This is what I'll show people when they say Graces has no depth.
P.S I assume the arte skipping is done by canceling a B arte(?) at a certain frame? I'm guessing it's something similar to Eternias cancels? By reading the description( and watching the video) it seems to be done by inputting a button within the first few frames.
Considering the numbers of salty haters vs blind fans, I'd rather not trigger more meaningless discussions xD
Arte Skipping is just doing a Glitch Cancel with specific Artes. It works with every physical B Artes and with a few spells. Timing is a bit tricky since you must do it at the end of the previous Arte to cancel the recovery time.
Probably explained it somewhere, but why is it that Cheria's portrait is in the hud for nearly every character?
Because they're using Narikiri Dolls. It means that they use Cheria's character disguised in another one to be able to use their artes. This feature is available during the F Arc and allows you to transform anyone into another character. This makes NG+ less frustrating if a character (let's say Richard for instance) leaves the party for a long time, since you can still play them even if they're not a part of the team. You can do some nice stuff like using 4 Cheria. Gameplay wise since iirc the character transformed keep their titles and stats, it can have some advantages (let's say Cheria has a title that decreases her cast time if her HP are low, now any character with spell can benefit from that title if she transforms into them).
Ahh
Yes my favorite tales game! Hurbert is bae!
Hey, bro, out of curiosity, how many languages can you read?
Mainly French and English. I studied Spanish and Italian but haven't practiced for years. So while I can still decently read and understand them, I can't have any kind of conversation. Started studying Japanese too but I can just read Katakanas, Hiraganas and very very few kanjis
@Muctales very cool.
Whats the song that plays in the video?
;3
英文發音真的好難聽。