Tales of Xillia 2 Leia Solo: Aska [No Items/Unknown/No Damage]

This is certainly an interesting fight. I think this is the first fight I've done since Eternia Gnome with a "stage hazard."
Game Modifications:
-Modified the party
Strategy:
Basically, the gimmick of this fight is that there's a beam of light that spawns every 5 seconds and it's aimed near my current location a few seconds before it spawns. It's hard to see because of the map, but there is actually an indicator that appears on the ground that shows where the beam will spawn. It's not always centered on my exact location, it can be literally anywhere in my vicinity whether it's slightly in front of or behind me or even to the side of me. This is very difficult to play around since it's something I have to keep track of while I'm comboing. Luckily, Leia does have tools to change position mid-combo in Rending Quake (which sends me backwards) and Eagle Rage which I can use as a side-switch. Something I do in my first combo is using Rending Quake to dodge the beam and then suspending myself in mid-air until the beam dissipates to continue the combo. The beams are kinda annoying but they do make me get creative so it gets points for that lol.
Aska is only weak to guns and darkness, but I can luckily use Elemental Impulse to change my weapon's element to darkness to start combos. It definitely feels like Aska has a ton of iron stance, so my only real way of starting a combo was to use Elemental Impulse and then open him up with Soulstoke Spin.
Aska has two phases. In the first phase, he pretty much only uses this laser attack which I can dodge by just being underneath it. I like to use this beam attack to get a free Elemental Impulse off to start my first combo. When Aska gets below 50% HP, he will use Radiant Veil and get some new attacks. He gets to use his charge attack, Shining Veil, and a big AOE attack where Aska flies into the air a bit and then crashes down. Aska's charge attack and Shining Veil are very easy to punish with a Elemental Impulse empowered SS Spin so starting a combo even in phase 2 is no problem.
BGM:
The Ark from Patlabor the Movie

[@MrLemmy82]

Aska's flying and stage hazard is no match for Leia's mobility! And Elemental Impulse comes in to actually allow combos too, very nice!

[@HorangiTiger]

The stage hazard was really difficult/awkward to play around at first but it ended up being a fairly fun gimmick in the end. It's not often that you have to plan around beams of death while comboing!

[@Sonnance]

Now that you mention it, stage hazards are super rare in Tales, huh? Kinda surprising, feels like there’s a lot you could do with that.
Also, nice movement, as always! It’s cool to see how mobile Leia is in 2, having seen your X1 run to compare.

[@HorangiTiger]

Yeah I definitely think Tales could've played around with stage hazards more. Perhaps the reason why they didn't was because it'd be annoying to have to maneuver AI party members around them lol. Interestingly enough, Xillia arenas actually come in different sizes so I can't fault them too much for not trying to make the arenas more unique with that and Aska's death beams!

[@personontheinternet2164]

Man, I remember not thinking much of Leia way back when Xillis came out. Your videos have really opened my eyes and made me a big fan of her as a character!
Great work, looking forward to whatever you got cooking next 😄

[@HorangiTiger]

Thank you! While Leia will never be the best character, I still think there's a lot of fun to be had with her!

[@goldroger8536]

Never played Xillia so I don't know how hard this one is, but that one was quite the beating lol.
Nice work!

[@HorangiTiger]

Thanks! I would say this is one of the harder ones! Aska's stage hazard and quick recovery time make him a bit difficult to deal with compared to a lot of other bosses.

[@goldroger8536]

@@HorangiTiger I imagined that because usually these big monsters have a lot of AOE attacks lol.
Great work!

[@NottSaying]

Oh boy, the next video is going to be REALLY fun. Doesn't he have no weaknesses for 75% of the fight and then only get gun as a weakness?

[@HorangiTiger]

He has no weakness and then gains resistances later in the fight lol. Although he does in fact get a weakness to gun once his Trinity Bit resistances wear off, its obviously meaningless for Leia. Please look forward to it ;)