You know how just last video, I mentioned that the Culprit Mirage was probably my favorite boss in the game up to that point? That was because Excellus hadn’t been fought yet. This is an amazing boss battle because it has several unique traits that really reward making the best use of the game’s mechanics. There are so many little details to keep track of and consider here that on some turns I actually had to take a little extra time deciding what to do even with a set plan beforehand, which I always try to avoid when recording but this battle really forced my hand. Excellus is fought alongside Yashiro, who actually makes his second appearance as an enemy, although the first encounter was scripted and unwinnable. The two support one another with Session attacks when the party’s weaknesses are struck, but only Excellus must be defeated to earn victory. Yashiro only awards 10 EXP when defeated, so there’s no point trying to take him out anyway. Excellus’ main gimmick is that he progresses through different elemental phases every three turns, changing every time he uses his signature skill “All part of the act…!”, a somewhat weak party-wide almighty attack. He begins the battle in his Fire phase and enters his Force phase during Round 2, then his Ice phase in Round 5 and loops back to his Fire phase in Round 8. For most of the battle his only attacks other than “All part of the act…!” are Agilao, Zanma, and Bufula, depending on which phase he is in, and Yashiro will Session off of any of those if a weakness is struck. When Yashiro has taken a certain amount of damage he also uses a skill called “Let’s get a retake!”, which fully heals Yashiro at the cost of losing an equal amount of HP from his own health pool. Excellus’ weapon and elemental weaknesses also change with each phase. Additionally, he has a fourth phase that I’ll refer to as Orgia Mode, in which he stops using his other skills and instead uses two of Maragidyne, Mazandyne, and Mabufudyne per round until he is defeated, at the cost of becoming weak to all weapon types and elements. I’m not completely certain, but I also believe that Yashiro doesn’t Session from those skills either. Excellus uses “All part of the act…” to enter Orgia Mode upon dropping below 40% HP or so regardless of his progress in his cycle, or if Yashiro is defeated. In a normal playthrough, Excellus can be defeated easily in Orgia Mode by using a few Magic Mirrors since his attacks will reflect back on himself for a ton of damage, but without Magic Mirrors it’s much more problematic to deal with. Yashiro has a much simpler cycle. He begins Round 1 with Sukukaja followed by Counter, a defensive skill that allows him to avoid any single-target attack and counterattack for major damage. In Round 2 he uses Cleave followed by Counter again, then in Round 3 he uses Cleave twice and repeats the cycle. Excellus will Session off of Cleave striking weaknesses with the corresponding element of his phase, but cannot do so when he is in Orgia Mode. Yashiro is only weak to Lance skills and is nearly impossible to eliminate at this level, but it can be worth damaging him anyway since Excellus will absorb the damage he’s taken with “Let’s get a retake!”. It’s also worth mentioning that Sukukaja is a very minor factor in this battle, since I kept the Surefire passive ability on my entire team to maximize accuracy so attacks will only rarely miss. Since Excellus and Yashiro always use different skills in each round in a fully predictable manner, swapping party members in and out at the right times is crucial. Touma and Mamori are best equipped to weather most of the battle; Touma resists Fire, Force, and Cleave and can swap out or guard during the Ice phase, while Mamori is immune to Ice and is tanky enough to handle Cleave so long as Excellus isn’t in his Fire phase. Tsubasa, Kiria and Eleonora can swap in when it’s safe for them to do so, plus Kiria is a better option to withstand Orgia Mode than Touma. Prioritizing defense over offense is the most reliable approach here, but it also means that the pace of the battle is dictated by Excellus’ phase changes. Frustratingly, the party members that would usually be best to use offensively during each of Excellus’ phases often struggle defensively at the same time. For example, Mamori is weak against his Fire phase when he’s weak to Axe and Ice attacks, Eleonora is weak during his Force phase when he’s weak to Electric, and Touma is weak during his Ice phase when he’s weak to Lance and Fire attacks. Therefore, it’s important to make the most of every opening that presents itself. Early on, Touma can target Yashiro with Piercing Void or Javelin Rain to bypass Counter so that Excellus will transfer the accumulated damage to himself with “Let’s get a retake!”, and Itsuki should be attacking Excellus on almost every turn during the Force and Ice phases since the other party members can’t damage him as well. I was also able to create two more attacking opportunities with careful maneuvering: in Round 6 I brought in Kiria to use Agilao since she was guaranteed to be safe during the next round when Yashiro would use Sukukaja and Counter, but the really interesting tactic was when I swapped Eleonora in for Mamori in Round 3. While Eleonora could use Bolt Strike to begin a Session on Excellus during his Force phase, she would also be vulnerable to Zanma on the same turn. However, thanks to the unique Speed-based turn order mechanics, I was able to have Mamori swap out after Excellus had attacked thanks to her low Speed, attack with Eleonora, then swap back to Mamori before Excellus could use Zanma again since Eleonora’s higher Speed allowed her to act before Excellus. While the overall damage from this maneuver wasn’t overly impressive, I still think that the fact that it’s possible is really cool since I was essentially having Eleonora snipe Excellus from behind the protection of Mamori and as far as I know, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is the only game in the franchise with mechanics that allow for something like that. Anyway, I was able to lower Excellus’ HP just below half before he looped back to his Fire phase, and I even had to pass up a Duo Art activation to avoid pushing Excellus into Orgia Mode before I was ready for it. I didn’t attack during the second Fire phase and instead used it as an opportunity to set up buffs and have Kiria use Concentrate, since I wanted to be able to tear through Excellus’ HP in only a few rounds when he broke out Orgia Mode because Itsuki wouldn’t be able to survive the Maragidyne onslaught. In Round 12 I had Itsuki attack to push him into Orgia Mode so I could swap in Kiria when Yashiro wouldn’t attack, then in Rounds 13 and 14 I went almost fully on the offensive to finish him off. Kiria managed to survive a single Cleave from Yashiro thanks to the buffs and the lack of a Session attack from Excellus, and I was able to do just enough damage to finish him off. Tiki’s final attack was literally the last hit here, and if that hadn’t done enough damage then I would have lost since Yashiro was about to use Cleave twice on the next turn. Something else I actually didn’t realize at the time was that Excellus can actually use “Let’s get a retake!” to drop himself below the Orgia Mode threshold, which would have been a safer approach but also would have taken slightly longer to set up but it all worked out in the end anyway. There is another Master Seal awarded at the end of this battle, but so many more Master Seals become available in the next chapter that the entire party can be promoted to their first Advanced Class. By that time, nearly every tool the game has to offer will be on the table, and there’s still almost half of the game left to go.
Really love the fight against Excellus. I actually never got to see his Retake skill, so I pretty much fought him the hard way. I still love finishing him off with a Magic Mirror and seeing him take 600+ damage in a single turn.
You know how just last video, I mentioned that the Culprit Mirage was probably my favorite boss in the game up to that point? That was because Excellus hadn’t been fought yet. This is an amazing boss battle because it has several unique traits that really reward making the best use of the game’s mechanics. There are so many little details to keep track of and consider here that on some turns I actually had to take a little extra time deciding what to do even with a set plan beforehand, which I always try to avoid when recording but this battle really forced my hand.
Excellus is fought alongside Yashiro, who actually makes his second appearance as an enemy, although the first encounter was scripted and unwinnable. The two support one another with Session attacks when the party’s weaknesses are struck, but only Excellus must be defeated to earn victory. Yashiro only awards 10 EXP when defeated, so there’s no point trying to take him out anyway.
Excellus’ main gimmick is that he progresses through different elemental phases every three turns, changing every time he uses his signature skill “All part of the act…!”, a somewhat weak party-wide almighty attack. He begins the battle in his Fire phase and enters his Force phase during Round 2, then his Ice phase in Round 5 and loops back to his Fire phase in Round 8. For most of the battle his only attacks other than “All part of the act…!” are Agilao, Zanma, and Bufula, depending on which phase he is in, and Yashiro will Session off of any of those if a weakness is struck. When Yashiro has taken a certain amount of damage he also uses a skill called “Let’s get a retake!”, which fully heals Yashiro at the cost of losing an equal amount of HP from his own health pool. Excellus’ weapon and elemental weaknesses also change with each phase. Additionally, he has a fourth phase that I’ll refer to as Orgia Mode, in which he stops using his other skills and instead uses two of Maragidyne, Mazandyne, and Mabufudyne per round until he is defeated, at the cost of becoming weak to all weapon types and elements. I’m not completely certain, but I also believe that Yashiro doesn’t Session from those skills either. Excellus uses “All part of the act…” to enter Orgia Mode upon dropping below 40% HP or so regardless of his progress in his cycle, or if Yashiro is defeated. In a normal playthrough, Excellus can be defeated easily in Orgia Mode by using a few Magic Mirrors since his attacks will reflect back on himself for a ton of damage, but without Magic Mirrors it’s much more problematic to deal with.
Yashiro has a much simpler cycle. He begins Round 1 with Sukukaja followed by Counter, a defensive skill that allows him to avoid any single-target attack and counterattack for major damage. In Round 2 he uses Cleave followed by Counter again, then in Round 3 he uses Cleave twice and repeats the cycle. Excellus will Session off of Cleave striking weaknesses with the corresponding element of his phase, but cannot do so when he is in Orgia Mode. Yashiro is only weak to Lance skills and is nearly impossible to eliminate at this level, but it can be worth damaging him anyway since Excellus will absorb the damage he’s taken with “Let’s get a retake!”. It’s also worth mentioning that Sukukaja is a very minor factor in this battle, since I kept the Surefire passive ability on my entire team to maximize accuracy so attacks will only rarely miss.
Since Excellus and Yashiro always use different skills in each round in a fully predictable manner, swapping party members in and out at the right times is crucial. Touma and Mamori are best equipped to weather most of the battle; Touma resists Fire, Force, and Cleave and can swap out or guard during the Ice phase, while Mamori is immune to Ice and is tanky enough to handle Cleave so long as Excellus isn’t in his Fire phase. Tsubasa, Kiria and Eleonora can swap in when it’s safe for them to do so, plus Kiria is a better option to withstand Orgia Mode than Touma. Prioritizing defense over offense is the most reliable approach here, but it also means that the pace of the battle is dictated by Excellus’ phase changes.
Frustratingly, the party members that would usually be best to use offensively during each of Excellus’ phases often struggle defensively at the same time. For example, Mamori is weak against his Fire phase when he’s weak to Axe and Ice attacks, Eleonora is weak during his Force phase when he’s weak to Electric, and Touma is weak during his Ice phase when he’s weak to Lance and Fire attacks. Therefore, it’s important to make the most of every opening that presents itself. Early on, Touma can target Yashiro with Piercing Void or Javelin Rain to bypass Counter so that Excellus will transfer the accumulated damage to himself with “Let’s get a retake!”, and Itsuki should be attacking Excellus on almost every turn during the Force and Ice phases since the other party members can’t damage him as well. I was also able to create two more attacking opportunities with careful maneuvering: in Round 6 I brought in Kiria to use Agilao since she was guaranteed to be safe during the next round when Yashiro would use Sukukaja and Counter, but the really interesting tactic was when I swapped Eleonora in for Mamori in Round 3. While Eleonora could use Bolt Strike to begin a Session on Excellus during his Force phase, she would also be vulnerable to Zanma on the same turn. However, thanks to the unique Speed-based turn order mechanics, I was able to have Mamori swap out after Excellus had attacked thanks to her low Speed, attack with Eleonora, then swap back to Mamori before Excellus could use Zanma again since Eleonora’s higher Speed allowed her to act before Excellus. While the overall damage from this maneuver wasn’t overly impressive, I still think that the fact that it’s possible is really cool since I was essentially having Eleonora snipe Excellus from behind the protection of Mamori and as far as I know, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is the only game in the franchise with mechanics that allow for something like that.
Anyway, I was able to lower Excellus’ HP just below half before he looped back to his Fire phase, and I even had to pass up a Duo Art activation to avoid pushing Excellus into Orgia Mode before I was ready for it. I didn’t attack during the second Fire phase and instead used it as an opportunity to set up buffs and have Kiria use Concentrate, since I wanted to be able to tear through Excellus’ HP in only a few rounds when he broke out Orgia Mode because Itsuki wouldn’t be able to survive the Maragidyne onslaught. In Round 12 I had Itsuki attack to push him into Orgia Mode so I could swap in Kiria when Yashiro wouldn’t attack, then in Rounds 13 and 14 I went almost fully on the offensive to finish him off. Kiria managed to survive a single Cleave from Yashiro thanks to the buffs and the lack of a Session attack from Excellus, and I was able to do just enough damage to finish him off. Tiki’s final attack was literally the last hit here, and if that hadn’t done enough damage then I would have lost since Yashiro was about to use Cleave twice on the next turn. Something else I actually didn’t realize at the time was that Excellus can actually use “Let’s get a retake!” to drop himself below the Orgia Mode threshold, which would have been a safer approach but also would have taken slightly longer to set up but it all worked out in the end anyway.
There is another Master Seal awarded at the end of this battle, but so many more Master Seals become available in the next chapter that the entire party can be promoted to their first Advanced Class. By that time, nearly every tool the game has to offer will be on the table, and there’s still almost half of the game left to go.
Really love the fight against Excellus. I actually never got to see his Retake skill, so I pretty much fought him the hard way. I still love finishing him off with a Magic Mirror and seeing him take 600+ damage in a single turn.
microwaving heart always coming in clutch lol
the boss fight ft. Yashiro vibe check
""yuuuu gatao wa~"
annoying boss. good video