Part 40: New Heroes

Part XXXIX: New Heroes

And it's time for the cameo battle update + ending! Like I said, just defeat the Elite Party Battle coliseum run. Once the final enemy has fallen...





It's party time! Since every cameo battle needs to be treated with respect, the new battle theme that plays only here (well, one other place) is Feast With Those Who Transcend Dimensions. Like with the Abyss cameo battle music, Everlasting Fight, it's a medley, of at least two songs I know. I looked through a Destiny soundtrack list on YouTube for the the first half of the song, but I confess I could not find anything that matches it. Just not that familiar with Destiny 1 or 2.

Post-posting update: With many thanks to Trasson for this information, Feast starts off with Common Destiny before transitioning into Unfinished World, both from Destiny, then goes to the Phantasia half of the song.

HOWEVER, I can definitely tell the Phantasia part of the song. It starts off with The Second Act (where a lot of games struggle to have one good overworld theme, Phantasia has three great ones!), and ends with the classic of classic Tales boss themes, Decisive. That particular song played over the first two battles with Dhaos, and the name is just great. Dhaos doesn't need any flowerly boss themes. Just a song playing, saying "This is the critical moment". Anyhow...

The new Tales Quintet is a tough bunch. In every gameplay sense, this is the true final boss of the game. You have to beat the game, beat the bonus dungeon, then make it to this pantheon. If you can beat the cameo fight, nothing can stop you. We've seen Cless and Stahn in action before, and you know what to expect from them.

For Mint and Rutee, the story is a bit different. This is not Cless or Mint's first appearance in a cameo battle, but Cless' last appearance was way back in Eternia, whereas Mint's been a more recent guest, featured in Abyss' cameo battle as part of that game's Tales Quintet. So you can probably guess how a character like Mint plays. She's constantly be running around the field, throwing out the occasional buff and attack (her staple of Pow Hammer is here, but she also summon, with a brief incantation, a much larger Pow Pow Hammer. Pretty easy to dodge, though), but mostly focus on running away from your attacks and healing her party with Nurse, which obviously you don't want.

Rutee, on the other hand, is an odd attacker. She'll hang out mostly in the air with quick, annoying combos, and throwing out Tidal Wave when she's in Over Limit. Tidal Wave is pretty devastating with Cless and Stahn continuing to bear down on you, and both of those dudes really hurt. It really hurts, and your allies aren't too concerned with avoiding as much damage as possible, because their AI doesn't typically work like that unless you are partnered with Rowen. And Rowen, sad is to say, is probably the absolute least most useful party member here. There's too much pressure and rapidly-shifting action for him to be of any use here.



So what's to be done here? There's two ways of proceeding, that would lead to optimal odds of success. One is focusing all your fire on Mint. Get the Hades Mallet -Darkness- so that all of your Hammer attacks on Mint are automatic Power Hits (she's weak to Darkness, Rutee is weak to Fire, strong against Water, and Cless and Stahn are weak to nothing), and just keep up the pressure on her constantly. It'll take a while to bring her down, but just make sure she's not allowed to throw out Nurse until she's down and out.

Now, even that might not be the end of her story. She *can* throw out Angel's Cry, which will revive her. I saw it on a previous attempt, but for whatever reason it didn't happen this time. Now, if she does come back to life after getting KO'd, just keep the pressure up, because the first thing she'll do is try to throw out Nurse.

The other strategy for playing this fight is to change Milla or another fast fighter's AI to constantly go after spellcasters and prevent them from casting. Usually how this works out is the attacker will throw out a couple basic attacks, Mint will jump back, and they'll go back and forth like that. It's actually a really good strategy to keep Mint on ice, because basically all Mint does is cast spells, while throwing the occasional basic attack. Hey, it's more than she did in Abyss. She literally never moved, unless you, the player, made her move.



While Mint is being annoyed under this second strategy, your job is to take out Rutee, but whatever means are necessary. Rutee's pretty fragile, so it doesn't take overly long. However, once one of her teammates are down, Mint will try revival. Mint also had a spell called Time Stop in Phantasia, and rarely you'll see this thrown out. Again, on an earlier attempt I got hit with one, but not this attempt.



And she's especially squishy when she gets hit with a full Power Combo + Ludger and Alvin's Bullet Crucifixion.





Even with being permanently down a member, don't underestimate them. Cless and Stahn bunching up for attacks on a group of your dudes can do a TON of damage, even with top of the line equipment. So Leia proves an invaluable member of the team, with her special skill that allows her to apply a single-target item to the entire team, but at an effectiveness reduction by half. But, this is not nearly the penalty you might think. So Leia can do much of what Elize can do, just with a single item. Syrup Bottle can protect everyone from future negative ailments, Life Bottle revives all downed teammates, Miracle Gel tops everyone off... You get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, I really like the first one there. Just totally madcap sometimes.

In the next image, I'm using an Omega Elixir, which you'll want to have 4-5 of in reserve for this fight. Omega Elixirs, as I've mentioned revives all fallen teammates, clears all negative status effects, and restores everyone's HP and TP. When you're in a bind, few better items. Just make sure Leia is always healthy, and doesn't put herself in harm's way too much.



Once Rutee and Mint are down and not getting back up, the fight basically turns into the same thing you saw in the Illusionary Darkness, just a bit harder because neither foe is weak to an element. Just tacks on a few seconds, because you at least have to charge up to Power Charge 2.

Which is to say, fairly easy. As always, just don't get careless and focus your fire on one legendary swordsman at a time, while keeping the other harassed and unable to support.





Nothing too special here, just wanted to call attention to this moment where me and Stahn were getting into a fight, but neither could land a hit on the other. It looked pretty rad.



What also was pretty rad was Milla and Ludger's Heavenly Crusader. This forced the Eternal Swordsman, Cless Alvein, a man who crossed through the halls of time multiple times to bring an alien from the far-off world of Derris-Kharlan to his knees, to finally yield.



Poor Stahn. He tried, but after his buddy fell, there was no hope left. You can guess how the remainder of this fight turned out.



Congratulations to Milla Maxwell, who delivered the final blow of this LP. I got:

Meadow Crystal (1), Iron Sand (1), Beast Dung (1), Migrant Plume (1), Wild Bird Egg (1), Sharp Pincers (1), Fossilized Shell (1), Mysterious Liquid (1), Big Horn (3), Rotten Bone (1), Silver Ore (1), Savory (1), Everbloom (1), Mushroom Powder (1), Buzzard Talon (1), Beetle Leg (1), Bee's Nest (1), Mysterious Bead (1), Chamomile (1), Gold Dice (1), Geode (1), Pointy Talons (1), Jasmine (1), Verbena (1), Sapphire Shell (3), Black Egg (4), Hair of the Sacred Beast (3), Dragon Ash (1), Blue Chamomile (1), Ancient Coral (2), Blue Verbena (1), Kitty Krisps (1), Heavy Treat (1), Navi Metal (1), Blue Savory (1), Omega Elixir (1, Mint dropped this), Hunter's Monocle (1, Rutee's item), Red Cape (1, Stahn dropped this).

Unfortunately, I only went 3 / 4. Maybe because the drop rate for those four is pretty low, and Ludger and Alvin were wearing Hunter's Monocles for this fight, just so I could get those items. Oh well, doesn't matter now. On to the finale!



They totally trounced us!

I felt something different from you... A stronger resolve than usual!

You have a special reason for being here, huh? You mind telling us what's going on?

Hm...

A very, very long explanation no doubt ensued...

So the Great Spirit Chronos... And the Origin's Trial, huh?

I had no idea that was happening in this world...

Remember, all Tales games take place in the same overarching universe, united by the World Tree, which is how heroes can be called upon and come into a new world. Bonus points if they're like Jade in Zestiria and wanting to get back to their own world. They even got Kirk Thornton back to voice him! Strangely enough, though, Symphonia's not real popular for cameo battle spots. Jude showed up in...Graces, I think?

Oh yes, and I promised a few updates ago there was a very unusual connection between this game and Symphonia. It turns out there was a Rutee model made in Symphonia but she never saw the light of day in the final game.

Also, apparently Lloyd, who late in the game was able to wield the same weapon Cless is using (but only in cutscenes and as a part of his Mystic Arte, of course), was evidently meant to have a lot more of Cless' Eternal Sword moves in the final version of the game, but ultimately went unused. The things you'll learn about this series.

I believe in forgiveness and all, but some bozo using a helpless little girl? I won't stand for that!

Again with the "hero" routine! You saying we should save her?

You bet I am!

Well, I guess we can't just ignore what's going on in this world... Ludger, why don't you leave this whole Origin's Trial problem to us, huh?



Well, geez. If they wanna help... We've already seen their ability. Don't think we've got much to worry about with this problem in their hands. Let's see what they can do. Also, nothing at all interesting happens if you choose R1. They just go "Well, we offered. See ya around!" and you get dumped back into the coliseum lobby with all your winnings. Nuts to that...

Ludger, everyone, just wait here!

Well, if we must, we must. I guess we'll help you guys out!

To the Land of Canaan!





Do not interfere with us!

Time Stop!

Final Embrace!

Phoenix!

Final Justice!

Graaaah!

Waagh!



All of them used their most powerful moves, but Cless' move, Final Justice, is special. See, as I mentioned, Cless was one of the cameo opponents in Eternia (the other was Arche, the pink-haired witch in Phantasia). Reid, the main hero of the game, had a special move called Dragon Demon Chaos, which did an enormous amount of damage upon hitting an enemy.

HOWEVER, if you used it against Cless, he would immediately counter with Alvein Finality, then instantly combo that into Final Justice. You can see this in action in this video. Again, Eternia, weird game, but actually pretty cool. That's a game with a TON of bonus content.

We saved Elle for you!

There wasn't really much to write home about...

It was a piece o' cake! "Canaan"? More like "Can-'n-Saw-'n-Conquered"!

Hey! I was gonna say that!

Is this really what you want, Ludger?

Uh...

Well....why not? Things seem to have worked themselves out... Somehow. Hey, she's not turning into a catalyst anymore, both Elle and Ludger are fine, Bisley and Chronos have been utterly humiliated and their plans in ruins. Not too shabby.


Cameo ending credits

Also, there's a post-battle skit, for defeating the cameo battle. R1 is the MUCH better choice here. You'll see why.