Tales of Symphonia Regal Solo: Forcystus [No Items/Mania/No Damage]

Time to defeat Air Man :)
Game Modifications:
-Set Fanged Finality as an arte (still did proper set-up for the MA, this is just for consistency's sake)
-Modified the party
Strategy:
Forcystus is a pretty tough fight. He has a lot of range with his blaster shots and his spells. His Air Blade and Air Thrust are indistinguishable from each other until he casts the spell which is pretty rough because I have to play around these spells in different ways. Air Blade is the spell I prefer him to cast (basically just a re-skinned Aqua Laser) because he'll cast it in the direction he's facing which can potentially give me a lot of time to beat on his adds if I'm not positioned in front of him. His Exbones are flying enemies that only cast Wind Blade which makes them incredibly annoying. Wind Blade is an annoying spell to dodge because I have to be in motion to dodge it and I have to commit to my movement, if I spend even a little bit of time trying to turn around or something it'll hit me. Also, it'll catch me if I'm in the middle of doing my aerial attacks which REALLY sucks lol.
I start the battle by running and jumping towards the northernmost Exbone and hitting it to the ground. Then, I do my MA combo to kill it. Getting rid of one Exbone makes this fight much easier although I don't think it's impossible without it like Sylph is. After the MA, I jump over the remaining Exbone. I should be able to dodge the upcoming Wind Blade from the Exbone and what Forcystus does is pretty much RNG. He can shoot his blaster arm or use either of his spells. If he uses his blaster or Air Blade, I'm pretty much fine. If he uses Air Thrust, I need to spell cancel as I land and run to the right underneath the Exbone to dodge it and be in a decent position afterwards.
After the starter, I need to dodge out the Wind Blades from the Exbone and Forcystus's attacks while using Eagle Rage to slowly chip away at the Exbones HP. The thing I need to be most wary of here is just what attack Forcystus is using. I shouldn't commit too hard on the Exbone until after I know which spell he's casting (which is after it's been casted). If he's using his blaster, then I just need to keep moving.
When the Exbone goes down, I just combo Forcystus to death with Crescent Moon-Eagle Rage and Crescent Dark Moon-Eagle Rage. I hate comboing Forcystus because his hitbox is extremely awkward so I just went with my safest options here lol. My normals don't even work very well on him :p
BGM:
Hanatan - Airman ga Taosenai (Sound Holic Ver)

[@DodgeThisBam]

I have PTSD from trying to attack this guy from the front. Something about the timing on his auto’s and the range always caught me off guard.
Nice using eagle rage just as an Air Thrust went off to avoid it!

[@TailsGt1]

Man, Rockman Holic... Takes me back. Good usage of MA and movement! Forcystus couldn't handle this eagle's rage. ;)

[@HorangiTiger]

No boss can stand before the angry Eagle ;)

[@Number1JettDawsonShrimp]

god bless you for maintaining the Air Man song tradition for this one :p

[@HorangiTiger]

Lol, I'm glad you enjoy the Air Man usage on the Forcystus solos I've done.

[@Kolinichu]

"I cannot defeat Airman"... but you sure can!

[@Sonnance]

To this day, I can’t hear this song without thinking of the Nico Nico Douga Medley, lol.
Interesting to hear his hitbox actually makes combos wonky. I’d have assumed the extra volume of his megabuster would make hitting him easier.

[@HorangiTiger]

I had never watched the Nico Nico Douga Medley until just now and wow I did not think I would understand so many of the references in there 💀It references a lot of obscure stuff that I am/used to be interested in lmao.
That aside, Forcystus feels bad to combo because he has a decent amount of stagger resistance and the way he hunches over makes his hitbox feel really bad to combo. He's kinda short too so when he hunches over like that my air normals just kinda miss which really sucks because those normals are very good for Regal's combos.

[@Sonnance]

@@HorangiTiger Ah, okay. Makes sense.
And yeah, the Medley is a classic. A real time capsule of the era.

[@owenguy445]

it was not time to fly

[@HorangiTiger]

:(