Part 2: Mordio's Mansion

Knight B: Yes, I heard something about it breaking and them collecting money to fix it.
Knight A: That's right, I hear that lot went so far as to sell their treasures to save up the money.
Knight B: Treasures, sir?
Knight A: Worthless junk, nothing more. They wouldn't have gotten more than one Gald for them.
Knight B: Not even one Gald?! I can't imagine what sort of treasures those would have to be. I'd like to have a look, myself...



Listen to those guys! Poor Hanks. Can't really argue with them about the junk thing, though.

Yuri decides the best way to greet those guards is throwing rocks at them to knock them out. Works, I suppose.





Knight B: What the... Who's there?!
Knight B: Oof!
If you can't understand the value of "junk," you're worth less than junk yourself.
Repede, can you find the trail?





...So they've been taking blastia cores from here, too. Looks like somebody's got some sticky fingers.
That's the royal quarter for you. A few blastia cores go missing, and no one even makes a fuss.
When just one is enough to throw the lower quarter into chaos.
If they've got cores to spare, they could stand to give us some!

Repede comes back from the left, indicating Mordio's home is there.

Found it!

Skit: Nobles
Looks like the nobles are living the sweet life, as usual.
Woof?
The lower quarter's right there, and they still don't give a damn.
It's not their loss, so what do they care?
They should act, you know, noble. Not just dress nice and hide in their mansions.
*Whine*

There's really nothing to do here except going to Mordio's mansion.




So this is where he lives...
It doesn't seem like there's anyone around...
I wonder if there's any other way in...?

Walking off to the side reveals a fairly obvious alternate entrance.






Still not much to do: All doors are locked. After checking one of them, however...




That must be...



Found him!





You are Mordio, right?



Mordio pulls out a smoke bomb and disappears. Would have been too easy, right? Repede manages to grab his bag, at least.

Good boy.
What the...! The blastia core is gone!
Let's go and get that core back! And give that mage a whooping while we're at it!
Woof!

Exiting the mansion, we run into some knights.

Watch the cutscene and battle!



Yuri! So it is you who are the cause of all this commotion.
I know he's poor, but breaking into an aristocrat's house... My, my, how the mighty have fallen!
Just what I needed, Tweedle A and Tweedle B.



Behind those two goofballs, we can see what's probably a carriage Mordio has escaped into, ready to leave.



There's no hope of escape! We've got you surrounded!
Does it look like I'm trying to escape? See, it's stuff like that that keeps you guys from getting promoted.
You did not just say that!
I say, you take that back!
Enough beating around the bush, I guess.



Stand back, Adecor! I'll handle this in the name of the Imperial Knights.
I say, I shall be the one to defend the good name of the Imperial Knights! Peons, I say, should stand back!
You're the peon...!
No, no, I say, I am your superior!
I appreciate the sentiment, guys, but let's cut the catfight and get on with it!

Alright, basic battle system tutorial. If you've ever played a Tales game most of this will feel familiar.

Battles in this game take place in real-time, with both your party and the enemies acting at once. Normally, you always control one character and the rest of your party is AI-controlled, but if you have multiple people around it's possible to let everyone control one party member. The party AI is pretty good and very customizable using the Strategy menu.
There's three control schemes you can use, which can be set individually for each party slot: Auto, Semi-Auto and Manual. Auto lets the AI control the character. Both Semi-Auto and Manual allow you to take over, with a few minor differences: Semi-Auto tries to sort of auto-aim your attacks, so if you attack while not next to the targetted enemy your character will automatically run to the enemy first, while Manual will make you just attack the air. Semi-Auto also disallows manual jumping unless you're also guarding. I personally prefer Manual.

Note that there's a lot more to the battle system than what's described here, I'll explain those things once they become relevant.



But enough of theory, let's get practical. You move around with the left stick, in a line towards and away from the enemy you're currently targetting. You can jump by pressing up.
By quickly pressing the target button (default: RB), you switch your target to the closest enemy. If you hold it, you can select the enemy to target.



By holding the Free Run button (default: LT) you enter a state called Free Run, which allows you to move around the battlefield independently of the currently targetted enemy.


Hey, let's go! You ready?



Nay, Boccos! You are, I say, clearly my subordinate!
I guess I just gotta whack these guys a little.


You attack enemies by pressing the attack button (default: B; you may notice that I customized my controls a bit to be more Gamecube Symphonia like). By pressing it multiple times, you can do a basic combo. The amount of hits you can do in one combo depends on the character; for Yuri it's three.



You can perform different basic attacks depending on the direction you hold the stick in while attacking.



If you attack while holding the Free Run button, you can perform an extra attack called the Free Run attack. This attack automatically changes your target to the enemy you hit with it, and can be chained at the end of a normal combo.


Owwww...
There, how'd that make you feel?
How dare you! Hitting someone in the middle of an argument is hardly proper manners!
Didn't you hear me when I said "You ready?" Or were you not listening?
Damn it!
Oh, brother...
Argh... You... Stop right there!
Does it look like I'm running?
You! Be quiet!
Oops, time for a little defense...




Hold the guard button (default: X) to block. You can only block physical attacks, magic will go right through your guard. When you get hit without guarding, you'll be stunned for a second, allowing enemies to combo you.




I say, Sonic Thrust!
Whoa... Come on, gimme a break...
Oooh! I say, how DARE you block my arte!
Man, you need to calm down... If you can use strike artes here, then I can too!




Press the Arte button (default: A) to perform an arte. Artes are essentially special attacks and magic. You can set artes to several different button combinations: Arte, Left/Right+Arte, Up+Arte, Down+Arte, and one on each of the four main directions of the right stick. Physical artes such as Yuri's Azure Edge here execute immediately, while magic artes require a cast time. If you get hit while casting you'll lose your charge and have to start over.
Artes require TP to use, if you don't have enough TP you can't use the arte. You recover one TP each time you hit a non-guarding enemy with a normal attack, and you recover a percentage of your maximum TP at the end of battle.

Let's try that again. This next one's gonna hurt...!




Physical artes can be chained at the end of a normal combo. In addition, some artes can chain into other artes: Artes classified as "base" can be comboed into those classified as "arcane", the latter ones usually being more powerful or flashy.




Aw, you're not giving up already, are you?



You have yet to see our true power!
...This next time's for real, guys.
That's my line, I say!
That's my line!


Aright, the actual battle begins here. But before that, let's take a look at our in-battle menu:



From left to right, we have Artes, Equipment, Items, Strategy and Escape, all fairly self-explanatory. The most important one is probably items, which allows us to use an usable item from our inventory. After using an item, you have to wait a few seconds to use another. I use two Magic Lenses here to get our enemies' stats.




Despite being very incompetent in the cutscene, these guys are actually fairly hard for the first enemies in the game. If you're not careful, they can and will combo you to death.






Thankfully, you don't have to win this battle, if you lose the game will just continue as normal. They don't even drop anything, so all you miss out on are a few EXP.




Once one of them goes down, the other one alone is easy.





You should thank me! I'm giving you some extra practice!

For winning a battle, we get a couple of things:
EXP: Experience Points, like in most RPGs gaining a bunch of those raises our level and stats.
Bonus: Bonus EXP, which are based on the combos we do in battle. The more hits our combos do, the more Bonus EXP we get.
Max Hit: Our highest combo in this battle.
LP: Pointless for now, I'll explain them once they become useful.
Gald: Money.
Time: Time it took us to win the battle.
Grade: The sum of our positive and negative Grade bonuses we gained in this battle. Grade bonuses can be pretty much anything, from not getting hit or hitting the enemy a bunch (positive) to hitting the enemy with an element he's resistant against or dying (negative). Grade are useless during a playthrough, but can be traded in for extra stuff when starting a new game after finishing it.






Looks like I won't be catching up with that carriage anytime soon.



C-Captain Cumore! I say, our apologies for this unsightly display.
I'm afraid the Imperial Knights have no use for you lowborn scum.
Uhh... P-please don't let Sir Schwann know about this, Sir.
I can't believe our taxes go to paying these guys...



There he is...
I say, that tops it all! Abandoned by his faithful pooch!
Gah hah hah hah!
Well, well, you've had a busy day haven't you, Mr. Yuri Lowell? I'm rather busy myself, but I suppose I can afford to play with you for a while. Gentlemen!
It's rats like you that make Flynn's job so difficult.
Flynn? A little suffering is just what that upstart lieutenant needs.
When you've finished with him, throw him in the prison as usual. Ten days or so ought to teach him a lesson.

Fade to black. Join us next time when we break out of jail!