My First Platinum Trophy

Today will be remembered as the day I obtained my first platinum trophy on the PS3. *bow* Tales of Graces f 100% trophy completion. The last trophy I had to get before unlocking the platinum trophy was Fodra Queen in 60 Seconds (silver), arguably one of the most discussed trophies on Tales forums. I took 16 seconds to destroy the Fodra queen. Yes... 16 seconds. There are many ways people have found to achieve this feat, many of which can be found in Youtube guides and forums. Most of them use what is known as the piggyback method. I defeated her the standard way. Here's the summary of how my battle went; hopefully this will inspire anyone going for the trophy to defeat the Fodra Queen without cheating.

Fodra Queen in 60 Seconds

Difficulty: Easy

Party: Asbel, Cheria, Hubert, Sophie

Parameters: All level 200, all parameters 1000+ except Cheria's PATK and ACC, all HP 9000+ (Asbel 9999 HP) except Cheria at 7100HP.

Titles: 

• Asbel: Malik costume
• Cheria: X2 hourglass duration
• Hubert: B-arte critical rate +30%
• Sophie: mystic arte damage +40%

Artes: Toggle off all artes that do not have an ailment associated with it. Set 1 healing arte and 1 revival arte to party members with access to those artes and fill the rest of the shortcuts with ailment-inducing artes prioritizing petrify, paralyze, freeze, burn, poison then slow.

Equipment: All have ultimate armour, Hubert and Sophie have ultimate weapons while Cheria has strongest main arc weapon and Asbel has strongest Lineages & Legacies weapon. All weapons and armour have been improved via cooking (Beef with Red Wine Sauce) dualized repeatedly to achieve these effects when equipped alongside respective gems (all gems are either P or Q quality).

• base PDEF, CDEF and EVA of all armour are 400+.
• base PATK, CDEF and EVA of all weapons 300+ except Cheria.
• all weapons and armour have rank 7 qualities with only positive effects and have at least +15% damage dealt on weapons and at least -15% damage taken on armour.
• all party members have 15+ minimum CC to 30 maximum CC.
• all party members have 70%+ Reinforce effect (including bonuses learnt from titles)

Strategy: All leader's target, all B only, all aggressive, Asbel and Hubert  never defend/heal while Cheria and Sophie rarely defend/heal, all accel mode upon near-death.

Mixer (9999 capacity, 13 slots):

• Baked Potato
• Beef with Red Wine Sauce
• Mabo Curry
• Book of Suppression
• Book of Preemption
• Book of Metabolism
• Book of Satiation
• Book of Exchanging
• Book of Expansion
• Book of Friendship
• Book of Partnership
• Book of Frugality
• Book of Awakening 

Food: Funny story, I completely forgot to eat Mabo Eggplant prior to the battle. Remember to eat Mabo Eggplant to start the battle with immunity to all ailments.

Preparation:

• Have 15 arcane bottles and 15 hourglasses on hand.
• Fight the hulks on Hard or Evil (Chaos might K.O. some characters or force them to activate accel mode prematurely) to near the final save point to charge all accel gauges to maximum.
• Save.
• Set the Book of Solitude, enter a battle in Lhant Hill, use an arcane bottle to boost the eleth gauge to near maximum then escape form battle.
• Make your way back to the final boss checkpoint but DO NOT TOUCH ANY SAVE POINTS on the way (this resets the eleth gauge thus wasting an arcane bottle).

Summary of my actual battle against the Fodra Queen:

1. As soon as the battle begins, Cheria uses an arcane bottle, triggering eleth burst (twice as long due to Book of Awakening).
2. Hubert spams Aerial Barrage to petrify the boss with the help of Sophie and Asbel (in Malik costume).
3. Within 2 seconds, the eleth gauge hits level 3 and the combo meter reaches 96 hits.
4. Before I can activate Hubert's mystic arte, Cheria uses Punishing Blossom (level 3 mystic arte) and send the combo beyond 120.
5. At this point, the Fodra Queen alters form to melee. Cheria uses an hourglass (twice as long due to Cheria's mastered title).
6. Hubert activates Arrow Squall (accel mode) and spams A-artes while Malik and Sophie are still casting B-artes.
7. Eleth burst and the hourglass end simultaneously. Fodra Queen immediately uses Dual the Sol. Due to my shock and panic, I forgot to hold the buttons to activate the string of QTEs that lead to Blue Earth combined mystic arte.
8. Hubert is K.O'ed and the other three are left with 20% HP but all are immediately healed to 70%~HP from the Mabo Curry that was activated in the mxer upon Hubert's K.O. Asbel (in Malik's costume), Sophie and Cheria all activate their accel modes together.
9. Due to the combined Harsh Lesson instantly bringing the reset combo counter back up to 149 hits, EX Boost which instantly recovered all of Sophie's CC and Temporal Rift which stopped time for the Fodra Queen, one last Aerial Barrage from Hubert ended the battle with 169 hits.

Final battle time: 16 seconds

A Feast for... Vitality?

There are many ways to improve your party's parameters in Tales of Graces f aside from leveling, and this is especially important to further build your party after reaching the level cap of 200. These include:

• Herb bonuses from herbs e.g. Verbena, Chamomile, Red Sage etc.
• Plus skills from titles e.g. Mind Plus, Aim Plus, Evade Plus etc.
• Dualizing equipment repeatedly (each shard dualized to an equipment increases its parameters) to a maximum of +99
• Food (specifically Tuna Bowl, Beef with Red Wine Sauce, Eel Porridge, Sweet and Sour Eel)

Today, I will be covering the use of food to boost your party's maximum HP and equipment parameters with four often overlooked dishes.

Beef with Red Wine Sauce

Post-battle: mixer's eleth < 50%

Improves armour ability

I just learnt this today. If this dish triggers after battle, each party member who participated in that battle and was still alive at the victory screen will get a +1 boost to either PDEF, CDEF or EVA on their currently equipped armour. This is a very good way to build your party's armour and is way cheaper than dualizing. Best of all, it's easy to trigger! Just don't refill your eleth mixer unless it is completely drained. This is more suited to people who have acquired the Turtlez Flute and have a mixer with considerably large eleth capacity since the dish itself is very high on eleth consumption.

Eel Porridge

Post-battle: someone levels up

Max HP +1

HP is obviously not the most important parameter in Tales of Graces, but the difference of 1 HP can have life and death consequences.To trigger this dish, someone must level up at the victory screen after a battle from gaining EXP. If triggered, each party member who participated in that battle and was still alive at the victory screen will get a +1 maximum HP. Monitor your party's EXP closely after battles and swap this dish in whenever you feel that someone is going to level upon the next battle.1 HP may sound irrelevant, but considering the level cap is 200, and you have 8 party members to choose from, you're looking at a +1600 max HP boost if you time every level up with this dish on New Game +.  Set this dish when you are attempting the upper floors of the Zhonecage (floors 6 - 10) as those floors give so much EXP that you can be guaranteed a level up almost every other battle. Warning: this dish will lose its usefulness once you reach level 200 so start using it as soon as you can afford its eleth cost even during your first playthrough.

Sweet and Sour Eel

In-battle: when landing 50 or more hits in a combo 

Max HP +1

This dish works just like Eel Porridge, except that it is triggered upon landing a 50th hit in a combo during battle. As soon as you are confident enough to land consistently long combos, this dish should always be in your eleth mixer, especially just before a boss fight. Setting the difficulty higher will give monsters more HP and allow them to tank your combos. A very efficient way to boost your max HP when you are at extremely high levels is to challenge the Rockgagong on Easy, land a 50-hit combo and escape. Rinse and repeat. This requires you to have Cheria in your party to heal your attackers in case you can't land a 50-hit combo before the Rockgagong attacks. Control and move Cheria to the bottom left corner of the battlefield where she can't be hit by any of the Rockgagong's attacks. There is a small blindspot where she should stand but it's hard to explain so try it out a few times. Once you reach level 200 and are strong enough to kill the Rockgagong, you can do this max HP farming but instead of escaping, defeat the Rockgagong to earn 88k gald. This is a good way to grind arte usage (with the Book of Striking and duplicate titles), gald and max HP at the same time. On average, to defeat the Rockgagong with a fresh level 200 party with minimally improved equipment takes approximately 4 minutes.

Tuna Bowl

Post-battle: party's HP < 30%

Improves weapon ability

This dish works just like Beef with Red Wine Sauce, except that it gives a +1 boost to either PATK, CATK or ACC on your party member's weapons. However, this dish is considerably harder to trigger.If you can consistently end battles with less than 30% of your party's average HP remaining, then set this dish. I regret to announce that I have not devised a scenario where this is possible, though I think it can be done Inside the Rockgagong (the toxic pools deduct HP) and the Eleth Research Facility on Fodra (the gas cloud deducts HP).

Optional Bosses in Tales of Graces f

Okay, I just finished the Zhonecage floor 10 in Tales of Graces f today, clearing the dungeon with all characters maxed at level 200. Frankly, the EXP in floor 10 is ridiculous. At least 750k EXP per battle on Easy; with EXP-boosting food like Chilli Shrimp the EXP per battle easily reaches 1.5 to 2 million. I hit the level cap long before I even reached the Zhonecage final boss, Solomus. But I admit floor 10 is very large compared to the other floors, so it's recommended that you get the Turtlez Flute before you attempt floor 10. That way, you can set EXP-boosting food in your eleth mixer permanently and never have to worry about refilling it since you can just summon a Turtlez merchant.

Solomus is quite easily beatable at level 200 on Easy. He managed to get one mystic arte off on Asbel, which got knocked down but it barely even scratched his HP (Asbel had a 50% damage reduction title equipped and Book of Fortitude was set to the eleth mixer). When Solomus split himself into 5 copies, I had Asbel and Hubert take down individual copies one by one while Sophie distracted the others. Cheria was busy healing (wasn't really needed, she only cast one Healing Circle the entire battle) and casting Indignation. I just kept racking up 100-hit combos which allowed Asbel and Hubert to use their level 3 mystic artes in succession, ending the battle in 1 minute 29 seconds.

Defeating Solomus unlocks a new optional boss, Lambda Theos (upgraded version of the final boss, Lambda Angelus). This also locks all trophies associated with Lambda Angelus including the game clear difficulty trophies so make sure you obtain those before defeating Solomus. Lambda theos isn't all that he is hyped up to be on the Tales of Graces f forums. The upgrades that he gets from the original version are double HP (240k HP on Easy), massive boosts to PDEF, CDEF and EVA, but his PATK, CATK and ACC are just boosted very slightly. This means that his attacks will still be only as damaging as Lambda Angelus on Evil, but he will be very hard to stagger. So all you need to do is get a combo going. Once you start a good combo that reaches more than 100-hits, cycle through the characters and use everyone's mystic artes. I got lucky with an Eleth Burst at the same time as my combo reaching 150-hits so all I needed to do was spam level 3 mystic artes. Lambda Theos's mystic arte is not that painful if you have 50% damage reduction titles equipped and the Book of Fortitude (Book of Glory is not recommended since it saps eleth too quickly and this battle is longer than Solomus due to Lambda Theos's high PDEF and CDEF). I won the battle in 2 minutes 9 seconds.

I decided to attempt the Rockgagong, hearing about how unbeatable it is without the infamous piggyback method or X10 damage grade shop bonus. I am happy to announce that the Rockgagong IS beatable at level 200 on Easy and well within the 20 minute time limit. This is my setup:

Preparing for the Rockgagong

Party: Asbel, Cheria, Hubert, Sophie

Level: 200

Difficulty: Easy

Accel Mode: All at 100% when entering battle.

Strategy: All on Aggressive, Asbel on Rarely defend, Cheria on Always defend, Hubert and Sophie on Regularly defend, Asbel on B heavy, Cheria on B only, Hubert on A heavy, Sophie on Balanced, All on use Accel Mode when Near-death.

Artes: Turn off all artes except those that hit the Rockgagong's weaknesses. Leave Virtuous Radiance and Indignation on for Cheria. I controlled Asbel for the bulk of this battle so I set to his shortcut B-artes the following: Aurora Lotus, Gale Maw, Plasma Shock, Shattersteel Swarm.

Titles: All best 50% damage reduction titles.

Food: Seafood Stew

Eleth Mixer (9749 capacity, 12 slots):

• Seafood Curry
• Mabo Curry
• Chilli Shrimp
• Book of Preemption 
• Book of Fortitude
• Book of Metabolism
• Book of Partnership
• Book of Satiation
• Book of Growth
• Book of Friendship
• Book of Awakening
• Book of Expansion

Note: There is a time limit of 20 minutes for defeating the Rockgagong. I have no idea what happens after 20 minutes but I think it's an instant game over. Aslo, while you can enter Eleth Burst and Accel Mode in this battle, mystic artes are locked for this battle. The special effects you get when enter Eleth Burst or Accel Mode still occur.

Summary: Upon entering battle, I immediately controlled Cheria to move to slightly off-centre to the left furthest back from the Rockgagong. There is a spot where none of the Rockgagong's attacks will hit (I didn't manage to find it though, Cheria still got hit by a tornado attack nearing the end). I controlled Asbel to use B-artes hit any weaknesses of the Rockgagong that have not been hit by Hubert or Sophie, ensuring that most if not all his weaknesses were hit at all times. The Rockgagong is weak to A-artes so when his weaknesses were covered, I shirted to using A-artes and racked up combos with Hubert and Sophie. The Rockgagong's head bobs up and down so I had to time my A-artes wisely. The AI for Hubert and Sophie does this excellently. Don't worry about his attacks as Cheria will heal when anyone has been hit, and if the Rockgagong K.O.'s a character with a critical hit (which happens rarely), the food in the eleth mixer will bring them back to life instantly. It is quite easy to rack up 150 to 200-hit combos since the Rockgagong attacks very infrequently, giving you plenty of time to guard and continue the combo even if Hubert or Sophie gets knocked down.

Once his HP reaches below 50%, he will start to rest his head on the ground for a few seconds every once in a while. Use this opportunity to activate Accel Mode and go crazy with attacks. Hubert's Accel Mode, Arrow Squall, increases the combo counter to insane hits and carries on even if Hubert is knocked down. Asbel's Accel Mode, Spiral Surge, adds additional hits to every attack he makes. Sophie's Accel Mode, EX Boost, makes her attacks significantly more powerful and completely heals her HP and refills her CC to maximum upon activation. Cycle through the characters and activate their Accel Modes one at a time. Sadly, Cheria's Accel Mode, Temporal Rift, does not affect the Rockgagong since he is not considered to be *in* the battlefield and cannot be stopped by time. Try to finish this second half of the battle as soon as possible because the Rockgagong will start using more powerful attacks and he also starts eating melee characters, instantly removing them from battle.

The Rockgagong ate Hubert and Sophie nearing the last 1% of his HP. Thankfully, Cheria was in the middle of casting Indignation and with one more Aurora Lotus from Asbel, the battle was over.

Clear Time: 2 minutes 44 seconds

End Note: It really depends on when the Rockgagong decides to eat your characters. If he eats them too early in the battle, it might be wise to just reattempt the battle since it's harder to chain combos with less than a full party. The Rockgagong can only eat characters near its head dealing melee damage, so another strategy would be to use all ranged attackers like Malik and Pascal. Although my Malik and Pascal are both level 200 with all mastered titles, I rarely used them throughout the game so I wasn't confident enough to place them in battle not knowing the extent of their Accel Modes and artes.

It's Raining EXP

Just a small follow-up to my recent guide on grinding post-game in Tales of Graces f. I just cleared the Zhonecage floor 9 today and was amazed at the EXP. Whenever I try something new in Tales of Graces f, I usually set the difficulty to Easy to see how things go. On floor 9 in the Zhonecage with an EXP boosting food (I used Chilli Shrimp since it's very easy to trigger; post-battle: party HP > 80%), I was getting close to 1 million EXP per battle. This meant that I was levelling up once every battle. O_o' Even if your level is considerably high, the rate at which you level up is ridiculous. I haven't checked but I'm guessing the EXP to next level caps somewhere at 1 million EXP, meaning that if you can reach that amount of EXP per battle with food and good combos, you're practically levelling up every battle. This means that the Zhonecage is now the best place to max your levels. I went from level 131 to 173 in the space of 1 hour in the Zhonecage floor 9, and I wasn't even running into battles on purpose.

On a side note, I turned in my last inn request today and entered battle with the Gentleman. He isn't really as hard as some of the other optional bosses in the game (such as the chroma guardian dragons), but that's maybe due to the fact that I was ridiculously overpowered at level 173. He has no weaknesses however, so just throw everything you have against him. Don't waste Arcane Bottles or Hourglasses on the Gentleman because he goes down fast if you get a good combo going. One thing to watch out for is when he starts walking on air. He can't be hit by melee attacks in the air, but most B-artes will still hit him like Asbel's Aurora Lotus and Incineration Wave. The Gentleman drops 2.2 million EXP (!!!) and the Genius Staff (unique weapon for Pascal, second best shotstaff after her ultimate weapon, the Staff of Expiration). You also get to pick a material for dualizing either the ultimate armor, tunic or robe in the game. You can get these materials from shops where you have maximum stamps so don't worry about picking wrongly.

Grinding Postgame in Ephinea

Once you reach level 90+ in Tales of Graces f, EXP, SP and gald become very hard to obtain efficiently, even on Chaos difficulty. Here are some places and tips that I found while trying out different locations to farm EXP, SP and gald. Note: the following guide assumes that you have finished the entire story (main arc + Lineage & Legacies) at least once and you are on your second playthrough (New Game +). You do not need to be in the future arc to access these locations but you must have Zhonecage access for some locations listed below.

Grinding on New Game + in Tales of Graces f

• Objective #1: obtaining EXP to level up and reach level 200 (max)

Sandshroud Ruins and Ghardia Shaft on Chaos give around 50k EXP at level 100. But the monsters there appear in large numbers and it is very easy to get swarmed and if you haven't mastered the art of dodging, you can be ganked by several monsters and one by one your party members will fall.

A more relaxed location that gives loads more EXP is the Zhonecage. Even on Easy at level 100, floor 2 onwards in the Zhonecage gives 100k+ EXP per battle. Set an EXP boosting food to cook in your eleth mixer that you can be sure it will trigger to double the EXP gain from these battles to 200k+ EXP per battle. An example of such foods are Chilli Shrimp (increases EXP earned; triggers post-battle if party's HP is >80%). Once you get the hang of a certain floor, you can raise the difficulty to give even more EXP!

• Objective #2: obtaining SP to master titles

Battle at the Sandshroud Ruins or Ghardia Shaft on Chaos, whichever you can handle better. Set SP boosting food to cook in your eleth mixture that can be triggered easily such as Pasta au Gratin (increases SP earned; triggered in-battle when landing a 20-hit combo) and Chicken Curry (increases SP earned; triggered post-battle if eleth mixer is at <50%)

These locations wil lstart to drastically drop in SP gain past level 110. When that happens, go to Mt. Zahvert  and fight ONLY the snow goblins (those monsters that hide in snowmen and appear if you approach them) on Chaos with these items set to the eleth mixer: Pasta au Gratin (increases SP earned; triggered in-battle when landing a 20-hit combo), Book of Audacity and Book of Passion. The idea is to make a 20-hit combo and kill the snow goblin before it decimates your party with critical hits. Don't worry, this is very easy to do if you set all your party members' strategy to Aggressive and A Only arte usage. You can do a loop around the mountain from top to bottom starting and ending at the Amarcian Enclave to refill your eleth mixer and encounter at least 3 snow goblins each run. If you do a good combo on a snow goblin (~30 hits), expect to gain 3k+ SP per battle with that setup at level 110. You can repeat this for any single foe encounters you can find, but I haven't found one that gives that much SP for such little hassle yet past level 120.

• Objective 3: obtaining gald for dualizing weapons, gem fusing and gem polishing

Each floor of the Zhonecage has bosses that give bucketloads of gald regardless of your level. If gald is all that you're looking for, clear the highest floor that you can handle on Easy multiple times. The gald boost for doing a run on higher difficulties is minimal so unless you are looking for EXP as well, set the difficulty to Easy. The Book of Wealth doesn't give as much profit as you might xpect, since it uses eleth to generate gald, and you have to use gald to refill that spent eleth so profit is marginal.

Dualizing Like a Boss

In Tales of Graces f, to encounter the Gentleman optional boss, one must finish all inn requests in all towns. Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, the last request in each town is given by the Gentleman himself. As you can expect, these are all extremely rare weapons which require certain sidequests completion and expensive weapons sold only from towns where one has acquired a high number of stamps. That's not all. Once the specific weapon is dualized, it must be further upgraded to a certain high rank quality that often either requires an absurd amount of luck or patience in getting the required shard, or an equally absurd amount of gald and plenty of shards of varying qualities.

I was very frustrated at not getting any Magical shard drops after farming for 20 hours straight. So in the end I thought of a different strategy. Why not downgrade the weapon to a lower quality and build it back up to a desired quality? That way, I can use the shards I already have without wasting my time farming. 

Dualizing the Easy Way

Example, if I want a Dreamer's Flange (Perilous) for the final request by ??? in the Amarcian Enclave,

1. Dualize a Dreamer's Flange via Rare Shotstaff + High-Grade Crystal.
2. The Dreamer's Flange starts with Epochal quality. To make it Perilous, I need a Haughty shard, and I haven't seen one drop in almost 50 hours.
3. So, I erased the Dreamer's Flange's quality with a 6-letter quality, Barbed.
4. Temper and dualize the Dreamer's Flange (Barbed) with another weapon to enable it to be dualized again.
5. Dreamer's Flange (Barbed) + Stuffy shard = Dreamer's Flange (Untamed).
6. Repeat step 4.
7. Dreamer's Flange (Untamed) + Untamed shard = Dreamer's Flange (Perilous). YAY!

However, you need to do a stock take on what quality shards you have, and how many you have. Plan out your dualizing route beforehand and SAVE BEFORE YOU START DUALIZING. The reasons why very few people use this method are:-

• People are lazy, and one step sounds a lot easier than several steps.
• My way uses a lot more gald and shards than the direct path. (I used up 3 shards and who knows how much more gald, while the direct path  uses only one shard and minimal gald but at the cost of A LOT OF TIME).
• This way is highly dependent on the type and amount of shards you have at the moment. If you don't have much to work with, there's nothing I can do to help you. 

Practise a good habit from the beginning of the game. Set the Book of Acquisition to the eleth mixer as soon as you can bear its cost, cook food that increase sharp drop rate (Miso-Glazed Cod is a good choice) and set the game difficulty to as high as you can handle (higher ranked shards drop more frequently at higher difficulties). Also, the sharp drop rate is affected by the difference between your level and monsters' level, difficulty and the number of shards currently in your inventory. Sell unnecessary shards or dualize them onto equipment and resell but make sure you are not carrying more than 100 shards at any given time. If you have more than 100 shards, the shard drop rate is cut in half. If you have 190 shards, no more shards will drop.

Great Obstacles Offer Great Rewards

I haven't been online much lately because I'm trying to get all the trophies I missed during my first playthrough of Tales of Graces f on the PS3 a few months ago. This time, I'm a little smarter as to what challenges await me, which sidequests are missable and the solution to dungeon puzzles. Also, I'm on New Game + with X10 EXP rate, X2 item drop rate, X2 gald (currency in Tales of Graces f) drop rate, X6 SP rate, mastery bonus (X2 SP rate for mastered titles in first playthrough) and lots of other cool bonuses purchased from the Grade Shop.

I tried to experiment with Evil difficulty (I unlocked it by chance when I started New Game +) and I was amazed at the EXP, SP and shard drop rates. Needless to say, once you reach a moderately high level for your area, you should increase the difficulty to as high as you can survive. Even on Evil difficulty, my party was destroying enemies in less than 20 seconds per battle. It's a good way to grind levels, arte usage and master titles.

You can set food items that give huge HP recovery post-battle in the Eleth Mixer to eliminate downtime after battles at high difficulty since you're bound to suffer damage. I find Miso Stew is an excellent choice because it greatly boosts your Eleth Mixer capacity growth after each cooking, easy to trigger (> 50% eleth post-battle), gives near full recovery to the party (94% HP heal) and greatly increases tempering rate (X4) to help tempering equipment.

Set Miso Stew in the Eleth Mixer and couple it with Book of Potential for double Eleth Mixer capacity growth, Book of Smithery for extremely fast tempering of equipment and Book of Maintenance to restore up to 5% of maximum eleth after battle if no cooking is done (this maintains the equilibrium so you will always have enough eleth).

Rip to pieces! STAMPEDE.....

I found this neat article that lists every caption said by the characters in Tales of Graces f when performing their A-artes, B-artes, Accel mode and mystic artes. All credit for the article goes to Justin Liuzzi (list created on 22 March 2012).

Pascal

Wind Needle: “Greeeeeeen, and pointy!”
“Hither and yon. Wind Needle!”

Fearful Storm: “Gunna get freaky! Storm’s a coming!”
“Into the maw mayhem. Fearful Storm!”

Grim Sylphie: “Chaotic turbulence forms my wall of shattered peace! Grim Sylphie!”
“I destroy with fetchers of peace, hither to me! Grim Sylphie!”

Pyrogenic Ring: “Crimson flames! Hot hot hot!”
“Scorching flames, burst! Pyrogenic Ring!”

Infernal Prison: “Punishing flames! It’s high heat time!”
“Find redemption in hell. Infernal Prison!”

Bloodflamme: “Scorching flames, find redemption in my fists! Bloodflamme!”
 “I swing with fists of destruction, hither to me! Bloodflamme!”

Spread: “Azure seas! Spaaaloosh!”
“Drink the wellspring of fate! Spread!”

Maelstrom: “Round and round it spins. Twirly twirl!”
“Into the depths of the blue. Maelstrom!”

Cyandine: “Drink of the depths of the blue, strike with the purest of will! Cyandine!”
“I strike with the purest of will, hither to me! Cyandine!”

Trinity Bit: Red, blue, green! Unlock!”
“Protect me tri-color shield! Trinity Bit!”

Assault Sign: “Everyone assemble! Now go go go!”
“Sharpen our blades! Assault Sign!”

Rampart Sign: “Everyone toughen up! Fight with might!”
“Fall to pieces! Rampart Sign!”

Shining Field: “Team hug in the heal ring! High spirits everyone!”
“Healing for friends, retribution for foes! Shining Field!”

Enflame: “Lend me power my friend! Enflame!”
“Lend me power! Wheel of vigor!”
“Scorching winds!”

Magnetic Gate” “Lots of birds! Just one stone.”
“Door of origins! Magnetic Gate!”

Fangirl Dream: “Hither to me my newest creation! Fangirl Dream!”
“Bear witness to, my masterpiece!”

Celestial Eight: “Come multitudes of knowledge, over the Earth hither to me! Celestial Eight!”
“Scatter ‘em all over! Send ‘em flying, go!”

Accel - Runic Shield:
“Open, perfect barrier!”
“Totally invincible!”
“Totally invincible...ish!”
“A nearly perfect defense!”
“Runic Shield!”

Mystic artes:
"Y'okay! O lord of verdure, cut 'em to shreds!"
"Y'okay! O lady of azure, blaze a trail to the unknown! Sapphiring Squad!"
"Y'okay! Oh titan of crimson, smash 'em apart! Full throttle ahead! Ruby Inferno!"
"Y'okay! Hop along! Let's go! Da da da! Fever Dream---WOOOOOAH!"

Malik

Rock Lance: “Weapons of fury! Rock Lance!”
“Watch your step. Stone spear!”

Cluster Raid: “Cairn of kings, intur them in thy tomb! Cluster Raid!”
 “Behold. Crystal blade!”

Air Pressure: “O’ Cairn of kings, carve thine epitaph of doom! Air Pressure!”
“Settled your affairs? Ring of blight!”

Disruption: “Cairn of kings, thy rage made real, thou shalt act as both brave and digger! Disruption!”
“You messed with the wrong guy. Ushers of ruin!”

Photon Burst: “Flames are passion true! Searing heat!”
“Breaths of flame! Photon burst!”

Burning Strike: “O’ angry howl of the dragon gods! Burning Strike!”
“Let’s make it a medley! Bursting Flames!”

Phantom Flare: “O’ ghostly fury to ignite a weary soul! Phantom Flare!”
“Parting is sweet sorrow. Ghostly flames!”

Blazing Hearts: “O’ ever throbbing pulse of destruction, set thy steadfast hand upon this heart! Blazing Hearts!”
“You ready for this? Bright, burning valor!”

Cold Front: “O’ iceius of perils! Cold Front!”
“Keep it cool. Cloak of ice!”

Ice Spires: “Icy fang, pierce and pummel! Ice Spires!”
“A bit hot under the collar? Flash frost!”

Glacial Rain: “Icy fang, form thy lance and commence annihilation! Glacial Rain!”
“Last chance to flee. Pallid spear!”

Frigid Coffin: “Icy fang, form thy severing blade and strike down those who’d oppose me! Frigid Coffin!”
“Ashamed to part ways. Sword of purity!”

Spectral Chains: “O’ foul hex constrict them! Spectral Chains!”
“Ready to be ensnared? Iron chains!”

Deathmire: “O’ corrosion, butcher of hope! Deathmire!”
“Struggle no more! Dark chains!”

Culling Flare: “Wind, thou quickened dagger. No shield can repel thine unforeseen stab! Culling Flare!”
“Let’s get this over with. Assassin’s blade!”

Dragon Slayer: “O’ sacred sword, thine is the light that severes the gloom. Pierce the dragon and deliver victory! Dragon Slayer!”
“I claim the name Dragon Slayer! Holy Sword!”

Eleth Flare: “Look to me and then understand! Danger slumbers everywhere!”
“Erupt O’ rage of the Earth! Eleth Flare!”

Last Resort: “A willingness to fight is a will to live! Last Resort!”
“A passion that burns! Your fate beckons!”

Accel - Harsh Lesson:
“You ready!?”
“Harsh Lesson!”

Mystic artes:
"Let's begin! Calamity Rondo!"
"Let's begin! Dance with fire! Can you see it coming!? Blistering Waltz!"
"Let's begin! Embrace your pride and sleep! Dust to dust! Eternal Serenade!"
"Let's begin! Ready for this!? Tremorous Celestial Sundering Shredding Light of Cyclonic Butchery!”
"Let's begin! A man speaks with his back! Malik Beam!"

Cheria

Pixie Circle: “Strands of forbearance, give name to your radiance! Pixie Circle”
“Hear my plea oh tiny sprites! Pixie Circle!”

Healing Circle: “Strands of tranquility, give name to your miraculous soothing light! Healing Circle!”
“O’ miraculous soothing light! Healing Circle!”

Fairy Circle: “Strands of succor, give name to the effulgence that brings fortune to all! Fairy Circle!”
“Let the sprites give grace! Fairy Circle!”

Nurse: “Strands of love, give name to the brilliance that offers its nurturing hand! Nurse!”
“All shall bask in warmth! Nurse!”

Revitalize: “Strands of embrace, give name to the luminosity that begat this majestic land! Revitalize!”
“This task we shall never forswear! Revitalize!”

Resurrection: “Strands of rejuvenation, give name to the glimmer that burns eternal, never to be doused and instill it with hope! Resurrection!”
“We can’t lose yet. Right everyone? Resurrection!”

Remedy: “With this name your weight is lifted! Remedy!”
“Help’s on the way! Remedy!”

Recover: “With this name all curses are cast into oblivion! Recover!”
“Without a trace! Recover!”

Insight: “I instill thee with sharpened precision! Insight!”
“Couldn’t miss if you tried! Insight!”

Fleetfoot: “I instill thee with heightened speed! Fleetfoot!”
“Crux of evasion! Fleetfoot!”

Veil of Faith: “Cloak of blessed gossamer, reveal thy name! Veil of Faith!”
“A protective weave. Veil of Faith!”

Seraphic Bolt: “Bear this name in judgement. Strike!”
“Ready? Strike!”

Ethereal Rift: “Carve out a warning in this name! Erupt!”
“Sacred seal. Erupt!”

Lightning Blast: “Blessed droplet, drive away evil in this name! Lightning Blast!”
“How about this? Lightning Blast!”

Divine Saber: “Assemble blessed light, and in this name lay waste to our foes! Divine Saber!”
“Blessed bolts, seal our triumph. Divine Saber!”

Virtuous Radiance: “Reveal the name that shines upon us, not with rage or mercy but with simple truth! Virtuous Radiance!”
“You have forced my hand, now prepare to suffer! Virtuous Radiance!”

Indignation: “Darken heaven’s light. Bear this name as you open the gates of hell! Indignation!”
“Retribution shall strike! This is the final Indignation!”

Accel - Temporal Rift:
“Still the flow!”
“Temporal Rift!”

Mystic artes:
"It ends! I'll show you my true potential! Asterism Line!"
"It ends! Virtuous souls, gather in the garden of healing! Shine on! Garden of Innocence!"
"It ends! Swarm of infinite blades! Your dreams shattered in vain! Punishing Blossom!"
"It ends! Here it comes! It’s too late to cry! I won't hold back! Trillion Drive!"

Richard

Soul Reaper: “Come ghastly fangs! Soul Reaper!”

Sword Deluge: “Come rust of blades, draw out the pain! Sword Deluge!”

Shade Imperial:  “Come shadow kin, open the door to despair! Shade Imperial!”

Vengeant Fangs: “Fall before me! You’ll pay!”
“Fall before me! Emerald typhoon!”

Antidote: “Bond of purity! Antidote!”

Deathmire: “The fen shall claim your quivering feet! Deathmire!”

Lightning Blast: “Annihilate all who stand before me! Lightning Blast!”
"Annihilate any villain who stands before me! Lightning Blast!"

Infernal Prison: “Stand and thrall in your scarlet cell! Infernal Prison!”
"Stand and thrall at the bars of your scarlet cell! Infernal Prison!"

Holy Lance: “O’ divine spear, run my enemy through! Holy Lance!”

Shooting Stars: “The light of the heavens shall rain upon all who hinder me! Shooting Stars!”

Acce l- Arcane Vigor:
“Arcane Vigor!”
“It’s not over yet!”

Mystic artes:
"I'll settle this! Roar like the wind’s, shining blade! Vertex Rose!"
"I'll settle this! Destiny calls! Do you dare witness it’s aurora!? Majestic Gate!"
"I'll settle this! The blood of things royal! Sword of royal crimson! Spiral Ascension!"
"I'll settle this! Fall before me! Burning Phoenix!"

Sophie

First Aid: “Imbue the light of life! First Aid!”
“Let’s go! First Aid!”

Heal: “Healing light I call upon thee! Heal!”
“Shine! Heal!”

Cure: “Gather light of life, impart us with your healing glow! Cure!”
“Light come to me! Cure!”

Rejuvenate: “I beseech of you the gift of rebirth. Light take form and grant thy boon! Rejuvenate!”
“I can help! Rejuvenate!”

Invigoration: “We’ll prevail! Invigoration!”

Accel - Ex Boost:
“I will not fail!”
“Ex Boost!”

Mystic artes:
"Release! No escape! Critical Blade!"
"Release! Come forth! My heart roars! Infinitia Soul!"
"Release! Impale with light! Rise forth toward the sky! Zero Dissolver! Goodbye..."
"Release! It ends now! Watch me run with the wind! Arte! Shadow Moment!"
 "Release! Burn! Burn...ablaze!"

Hubert

Gravity Blast: “Gravity Blast!”

Cross Mirage: “Your fate is sealed! Cross Mirage!”

Beast Blaster: “You’re mine! Beast Blaster!”

Absolute Zero: “Face your fate! Freeze!”

Antidote: “Be cleansed! Antidote!”

Healing Wind: “Rays of life, shine upon us! Healing Wind!”

Accel - Arrow Squall:
“To Heaven!”
“Arrow Squall!”

Mystic artes:
"Prepare yourself! Dance like the damned! Instant Valse!"
"Prepare yourself! You've have angered me! You'll regret this! Tempest Arrow!"
"Prepare yourself! I'll give you everything I've got! And this! And some of these! Expiation!"
"Prepare yourself! It's now time! I show my ace! No Quarter!"

Asbel
Accel - Spiral Surge:
“Spiral Surge!”
“I won’t lose!”

Mystic artes:
"It's over! Rip to pieces! Stampede Strike!"
"It's over! Shining blade of triumph! Lunar Requiem!"
"It's over! No mercy! It's time! Expunging Sword!"
"It's over! You and me, Lambda! Pierce the skies! Radiant light, strike forth! Divine Conqueror!"

Current Version: 1.8
Last modified on: July 6th, 2012
Version 1- All currently learned artes are up.
Version 1.1- Fixed Pascal’s Wind Needle incantation.
Version 1.2- Added Sophie’s Invigoration incantation.
Version 1.3- Added Cheria’s Virtuous Radiance incantation.
Version 1.4- Updated Richard's incantations.
Version 1.5- Added Malik's Last Resort incantation.
Version 1.6- Added Malik’s Dragon Slayer incantation, and Pascal’s Fangirl Dream incantation.
Version 1.7- Added Mystic Arte incantations.
Version 1.8-Added Accel quotes.

Created by Justin Liuzzi
on March 22, 2012

Note: Asbel's list is incomplete. He has way more skills than that. But many thanks to Justin Liuzzi for compiling this list.

Tales of Graces f: Review

Gameplay

The battle system is a bit difficult to adjust to (especially if you have never played any Tales games before), but once you get the hang of it, battles become really fun. Basically, you have skills which you can chain into combos. Each skill has a cost of Chain Capacity (CC) which must be charged through moving, guarding and a variety of different ways. these skills are acquired through the course of the game via titles. Each title has 5 bonuses (either new skills, skill upgrades, stat boosts, CC boosts, special character-specific attributes) that are earned by gaining Skill Points (SP) by winning battles. Titles are gained via minigames, cutscenes (called 'skits' in Tales games), sidequests and as the story progresses. And later as the game progresses, more and more complex aspects of combat are introduced such as Mystic Artes (equivalent of Limit Breaks in FF games), Accel Mode etc. The battle AI for your party members is competent, but sometimes they are slow to respond to healing and reviving fallen party members. This isn't a big problem because later in the game there are a lot of damage reduction titles, skills and equipment that compensate for the increased damage from monsters. By that time, you also would have learnt how to evade attacks efficiently (the AI is very good in blocking and evading by the way).

Tales of Graces f is filled with puzzles and minigames. Every dungeon right from the start has puzzles specific to that dungeon. Some of these puzzles are quite difficult, but not entirely unsolvable even if you don't use walkthroughs. I pride myself as a decent puzzle solver and even I had to check online for help on how to pass one or two puzzles.

Minigames are abundant here to. There's even one which longtime Tales fans will enjoy (it involves recognizing characters from past Tales games and matching them based on voice-to-picture). I can't really comment on this as this is my first Tales game so it is practically impossible for me to finish that minigame based on blind guesswork. But the other minigames were all well though out and equally enjoyable. 

There is a restricted linear path in the early stages of the game but as you reach midgame, you get to explore the world on your own. If you get lost and forget what you were supposed to do to proceed with the story, holding the L1 button makes your current objective appear to remind you. Trust me, you will get distracted from the story. There's simply too much to do once you get full freedom of exploration.

Graphics

Tales games are known for their anime-style 3D ingame graphics. But I don't particularly like this kind of mix (anime and 3D) because it's a bit conflicting. However, that is just me (I'm used to CG ingame graphics from FF games). The FMVs are in full 2D anime graphics and are quite artistically drawn. The normal skits are all full 2D anime (colourful and cell-shaded-like).

Longevity

I clocked in my first completed run through the main story for normal ending at roughly 102 hours, and none of that was grinding EXP or SP or even item farming. When you finish the main story, a bonus chapter will be unlocked. Finishing the bonus chapter will give you the true ending (which is definitely worth the extra hours of gameplay). My total playtime taken to finish the main story and the bonus chapter: a whopping 145 hours. To put it in perspective, that is equal to 7 individual playthroughs from start to finish for FFXIII-2 (my initial playthrough for FFXIII-2 without any DLC chapters is 20 hours). The 145 hours of Tales of Graces f doesn't end there. After finishing the bonus chapter once, you unlock a bonus 10 floor high level dungeon with yet another optional final boss. I'm stuck on floor 2 of that dungeon, and my party is LV 74. That should give you an idea of how hardcore that dungeon is. The maximum LV in this game is 200.    

Music

The music score is one of the best I have heard in a long time. Every town, dungeon and battle soundtrack is a masterpiece and sets the mood nicely. Special mention: the normal battle theme is now one of my all-time favourite battle themes. The theme song 'White Wishes' ('Mamoritai' in the Japanese version) sung by BoA is one of the most beautiful theme songs I have ever heard (the last being 'Melodies of Life' from FFIX).

Replayability

If you completed the game 100% (which does require you to play New Game +, unlocked by finishing the main story once), there really isn't anything left to replay. But that 100% completion goal will most likely take you more than 200 hours. And after that, you might even wanna replay the entire game from the start. Yes, it is that awesome. 

Story

It's NOT only about love. Tales of Graces f's story focuses more on a story of friendship and how true friendship will persist through times of betrayal and hardship. That's something you don't see everyday. The plot is unique, for the lack of a better word. 

Trophies

PS3 trophy hunters will expect to get more than 10 bronze trophies by simply finishing the main story once. There is a silver trophy for just finishing the bonus chapter. For the gold trophies though, expect to put at least 175 hours as they are linked to 100% completion of some parts of the game such as gained every item, defeated every monster and boss, etc. The platinum trophy is for 100% completion of the ENTIRE game.

Conclusion

An excellent RPG by Namco-Bandai that ranks among the top 3 Tales games of all time (according to what I read on the forums). I dare say I enjoyed Tales of Graces f even more than the post-FFXII games by Square Enix. I am now a Tales fan.