Though I know this will pretty much just be me and wax, i thought i'd start it so we didn't hog the what are you playing topic.

are you trying to fill your monster book by using the magic lenses, and are you trying to watch all of the cutscenes? there are achievements for those.

oh and get a load of this cameo: (these were taken from the guidebook)

look at the lower left box


err slightly more detailed. for some reason my camera wouldn't focus and i refused to get my good one out of the car.


the prince of all cosmos is an attatchment, lol.

you'll have to take a pic of your character with him equipped when you get him.

PRINCE!

Ha, ha! I haven't found that yet, but now I know it's out there, I'll have my eyes open!

i skipped the first couple skits. after you beat the game (twice?) you unlock the skit viewer and you can see them all for the achieve. the ones you missed will be in green.

im not too worried about the monster book either. i missed the first zagi so i wont be able to fill it 100% now anyway.
thats kind of what i get for just playing and having fun. not knowing the stuff like that until its too late. oh well. im still having a great time, and this is not the kind of game that i even could get 1000/1000. (edit: i missed a couple of early large monsters too that are one time only chances. now i DO identify all creatures and i do buy 15 lenses at every store though).

i never saw the prince thing yet. prob never will. attachments are rare and i think always must be synthesized (so it will be a long time until you get any).
the prince one doesnt even say how to make it... wonder how you get it? edit: if you find out let me know! i will try to syth one asap!

i skimmed the achieve list again last night to see what i will miss out on. there is an achieve for the highest level attained.... LEVEL 200!!!!! whow! i never saw a level max that high before! i have played over 20 hours and i am in the mid level 30s. crazy!!!! thats awesome.
i always hated hitting a max level in a game. never wanted to bother kill anything else. 200 is sweeeeeet!

so did you start playing? i didnt get to at all last night. prob will tonight and hopefully will get way further this weekend.
i now have my own boat so that is a major jump forward. makes me wonder how big this world map will be!

edit: sonya DO NOT sell any weapons. you wont be adviced of this until its too late a bit... to make strong weapons you will combining and sythesising together old weapons. just save them for a long time. if you do end up with like 12 weapons for one character then you can sell off the weakest ones.
a whole bunch of your new skills will be learned by using a weapon a bunch. some skills are great!!!! like free health and take less damage.

i played for about an hour and i was tired, so i quit. i only had one magic lens when i went to fight zagi and he has 2 forms so you have to do it twice. i already messed up. :glare

i'm not sure how much i like it yet, but it's only been an hour and part of that time was just learning how to fight. i don't think i could get to level 200 either. you pretty much have to play the game 3 times to get them all. the only way you can get the one boss at less than level 15 is by using the .5x multiplier, you can't even do it by not encountering random enemies.

hey buddy. i edited my last post a bunch. check it.

the game gets way better soon i promise. wait to decide until your party is 4 people. by then it changes a lot.

yea the monster book filled wont be easy. there are a BUNCH of encounters that are one time onlys. a whole bunch! its not easy to have lenses and always be able to view them and still win.

yeah, i read that about selling old weapons. thanks for the tip, though.

i haven't written off the game, getting started is slow in any game if you're getting used to controls and the way the game works, etc.

im so happy you are playing!!!!! i hope you enjoy it as much as i have been.
this is my first rpg as well so.....

i didnt read any tip any where but i did scan the achieve list on gamefaqs because most are SECRET. i have been learning pretty much everything just by playing and they tell you most things late (like lenses and dont sell weapons!!!!).

bus duty! see you!

this isn't my first rpg, but it's my first tales game.

i got the first secret mission achievement. i've been using a guide and it tell you how to get the achievement as you get close to it. i'm still mad it didn't tell me to buy all of the magic lenses. i have to see if my last save was before the other 2 enemies that i scanned that are everywhere. if they are then i'll reload it there and do the boss fight again. well, i'll have to do it again no matter what because i didn't save it, i just turned it off.

here's another tip if you didn't know: sleep in all inns even if you don't need to.

there's also an achievement for saving at all save points, but i do that anyway.

thanks.

i got the 1st secret mission too. i missed one of them. maybe 5? i dont know. its one where you have to knock the guy off of a boat! i just beat him down in 5 seconds and the fight ended. then i later got secret mission 6 and was like!!!!! i missed one!? i thought the key was to find and beat the boss guy to get it!
nope.
you have to have done something special in that fight to get it.
one is make sure the dragon hits the billysomething flower to put it to sleep...
things you just have to get lucky to do OR read it first.
that is why i read the achieve list in the first place. to see why i had missed a secret mission.
there are like 30 some secret missions too!

i need to go to best buy today and return something so i will buy the guide there if they have it. just for stuff like you know (like prince thing and some secret achieve help). do you think the guide is a good book overall?

i saw in the gamefaqs achievement help guide some dude wrote to sleep in all inns. i wasnt doing that for a good while because it is usually not needed at all.
so i was doing it....
and doing it....
and it never mattered....
but last time i played i slept at one like 3 times and a special cut scene came up so yea. it can lead to more story than normal i guess.
i only got a cut scene out of it, but i dont know what else i hd missed at the first 6 inns i saved in and left.

i have saved at every save point i have seen too, but i bet i will beat the game and not get that achievement. there will end up being some cave on some island that has a save point 30 stories underground that i never knew about.... :( oh well!
i save all the freaking time anyway though! on two save files back and forth just in case.... :smirk

keep me updated on stuff you find or see or learn buddy!

the guide has been ok. like it reminds you to look at everyone through the magic lens when you meet a new person, and it tells you what types of enemies are around to add to the monster book. in the middle of the boss section it told you about the secret mission, so i made sure i got that one.

what is tp? magic power? i haven't gotten that far yet.

forgot what it stands for but yea magic basically.

you will see three meters.
one is health.
one is tp (how many magic things/A button attacks you can do)
one is exp until next level up.

soon you will be taught how to cook. you can shortcut a recipe to the dpad and X for use right after each fight!!! DO IT! then with a single button you will make instant stat increases after each fight.
once you learn sorbet (i think that was the first of these) make it every chance you can. ALWAYS keep 15 of each ingredient!!!! soon you will be ungraded to pudding and more and more. each time you cook it, like after each fight you get a bunch of TP right back!
tp is naturally rebuilt by doing melee attacks, but you will always want more and more TP!
once you start doing loads of special attacks, and criticals, and some other thing i forgot with the dpad... you will want full TP all the time.
a sleep at the inn or in you tent later will refill you 100%.

thanks. i will get the guide today if i find it.

sounds interesting, i knew i would be cooking. i didn't realize tp was linked to the A button, i haven't been watching that meter at all.

i've only gone through about 4 pages of the guide, and half of the book is items and weapons. then there's the monster book and character guides. take a look before buying it. i haven't had too much experience with it, but so far so good. i've had other guides that i wouldn't recommend to anyone.

B button will do normal attacks. for Yuri it will be a simple 3 hit combo for a long time. now you can and will need to use a direction with B to do different attacks.
Up and B will swing up for flying enemies.
Down and B will swing down for all of those tiny things you will fight.

the A button at first will just do the aesir wave. a good distance ground fireball attack. in time that move will do like 1000 damage to enemies weak to wind.
you will need to assign the other moves you unlock to a shortcut.
they will be A, Up and A, Down and A and forward/back and A.
as you get moves you like just reassign as needed.

the X will block. i NEVER block now. i only did in the first fight actually. later you can move while you block and more.

Y will always open a menu and pause the action.

Right Button will pause and let you select an enemy to target HOLD the button to do it. took me a bit to realize that. you can then see its hit points and how close you are to a critical chance once you have learned that AND looked through a lens at it once before.

using an A button attack over and over and over will unlock more powerful attacks. do them often when you have enough TP just for the heck of it, so you get powerful moves early!!!! trust me!

a flick of the Right Stick will do another kind of move. a way more powerful attack that is usually several attacks in one. you will assign which moves to each direction later.

so in time you will do a combo with B, hit A and a direction to add a magic move, hit the Right Stick to do a big finisher, and later sometimes hit the Right Trigger to do a critical (sometimes one hit kill) move! it keeps getting more involved the more you fight.
awesome!

you will learn Overdrive soon. its a meter on the left side. that is activated by hitting the dpad in a fight. you will send a wave out to knock down or stun enemies. then for a brief time you can attack nonstop!!!! it is sweeeeet! it your TP is full you can do like nonstop Right Stick moves over and over for thousands and thousands of damage in seconds!
i could not have beaten the first tough boss. his name begins G and he looks like a dragon. he killed me like 5 or 6 times. i have never died anywhere in the game other than him.
when you get to a roadblock and have to flee through the field. he will be soon. be ready with lots of healing and tp potions.

being that i am level 30 something out of 200.... i bet there is still a ton that i dont know still.
this game is involved! sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! :flirt

sonya as soon as you meet judy (judith) let me know okay?

that was a lot of info :P right now pretty much i do something like B B B A and that's working for right now.

i'll let you know when i meet her, how soon was it? i just have estellise and repede in my party right now.

i know... sorry. but i have no friends with the game so now that you have opened the box i am going nuts talking to you!!!! :P
just trying to help you out too.
the game wont teach you somethings you are already able to do for a long time. so i am giving you a heads up i guess.

b,b,b,a is all you can do for a bit. you CAN do b with directions now but it wont matter much against a human opponent (not short, not flying, not 200 feet tall).

you have repede from the start (the dog), you met estelle (her nickname) next. then you will get another friend once you are in the woods. another in the cave town, another that comes and goes for a while when you are working with/ against the guilds, THEN you will work with judy! lol.... it will be a bit buddy.
you will meet her before then but not work with her for a while.
once she is on your team (i think she will be the 7th person) yuri and her are alone together for a while and you get to know her.
then you reunite with the team at a tower and THATS when i want to know really.

there was one of the funniest gamer moments ever for me and i NEEEEEED to share it with someone!!!!! but i want you to hear/see it before we talk about it.
ya know once you see it and i talk to you, you will probably be like... uh yea that was stupid! :lol

some of the friendship moments on the game i found very touching. not like the aeris dies thing from ff7, but still yuri and the team do some very honorable things for strangers and each other than made me happy.

yeah, i had some moments like that... building up to the point and then it was like... ok. lol. it's ok. i can't really talk about much now since i've only played it an hour... but i'll probably play a little more today and hope *fingers crossed* that i didn't mess up the monster book because if i did i'm not restarting the game. it's not worth the achievement to me for that.

i totally decided to screw the monster book achieve. too many unique creatures/people in the game to ensure i am always carrying 15 lenses. that just cant happen without planning ahead and knowing who is a one time and who will respawn forever.
without the guide book... it wont happen.

got to run.
hope you play and have fun soon.

i'll probably update this as i play it over the weekend...

first off, when yuri made fun of karol (which is such a girly name) about the eggbear in the kiddy voice i cracked up... also another part that i thought was funny was when rita karate chopped karol in the head. why does everyone pick on the poor kid?

did you go upstairs and try to check in rita's dresser? there was something apparently very embarrasing in there that only rita and estelle know about, and how dare they keep it from me?

ok, your whole combat and recipe thing make so much more sense now because i know what you're talking about, lol. everything seems more complex when you read it than when you do it for yourself.

ok, i *could not* get the stupid secret mission 2. i tried that boss battle 3 or 4 times and couldn't get it. i swear i should have gotten it one time, but eh whatever. i kept a save right before the fight so i can keep progressing and try to get it later if i'm up to it. the first one was pie compared to 2.... i had trouble with 4, too. i made a save right there and moved on again.

so, a thing about cooking which you may know because of the guidebook (if you got it) equipping certain recipes to different people gives different results. you will only learn a new recipe if estelle is making the sandwich, then if yuri cooks the rice ball, and karol cooks the beef bowl, etc... if you don't get the book i'll put them up here if you're interested.

oh yeah, i hate rita's voice acting.

i bought the book. thanks. :)
yea i knew about different people making things cooking but i still only let yuri cook. he has mastered half of the things i have learned.

there are some really funny parts!! i know! :) some touching parts at times too.

i am way through the story now i think. maybe nearing the end of part 2.
i have failed two secret missions i think. i dont even care. 5 points.... whatever!
i knew about one last night (cause i looked at the book when the fight started) and was like screw it. i think it was number 11 maybe.
several of the secret missions i passed (like #2) by luck i guess. that was why when i missed one i was confused and didnt know there were special things required.
guess i happened to hit the dude in the ankle and whatever...
i did try to do the candle one last night and got it. missed two yesterday though.


my yuri is level 44 now.

rita is the only person that will pick on karol forever it seems. they are the closest in age as well.


nan is cool. she looks like a soul calibur character so much!

i love gigantic monsters!!!! ohhh man fighting a thing that has 750,000 hp :lol cracks me up!

yea ritas dresser has all the boys excited on gamefaqs i saw. probably her underwear drawer honestly. funny though that that happened!

i like all of the voices!
watch the progression of the victories each time. notice the high5 theme and watch how it changes over time. rita will change her opinion on estelle. raven does some funny ones if girls are around.

i am loving playing through this but it seems almost too long!

i now can fly everywhere so that will speed things up more!!!!!! yay! :thumbsup

wow, 6 hrs at a time? lol. i only got to 10 hrs total, i see you're about at 50. i know what i'm doing isn't the main plot of the story, it's just too... superficial, so i'm sure the real business will start sometime soon.

so far the "dungeons" are very linear, do they get more complex later? i guess you could say i've been in 3, the last being the basement of the magistrate's house in the port of nor.

if it was just her underwear drawer then they shouldn't have been like "i can't believe you have that" kind of embarrassment.

you're still only letting yuri cook? but you get better recipes. i have quite a few now just from learning new ones. i think it's funny how the wonder chef appears as these totally random things throughout the game.

yeah, i couldn't get secret #2, i think when i did it i didn't kill him during the power up, i got him when he was performing the move... or something, interesting you got that one by chance.

hm, i started skipping through their talking after the battles because i kept hearing the same things over, maybe i'll see if they've changed any.

well i leave it on so it might get the 100 hour achieve. so when i make food or go to the bathroom, check email whatever its on. so yea.
i have played maybe 3/4 of that time?

more complex? yea i guess. longer. more paths with still one ending. some puzzles involved so you can miss lots of treasures.

i guess about the drawer... unknown! :)

i thought about letting others cook but was like whatever... i may still. i will read about it tonight.

i love that chef! he is awesome!!!!!

watch the endings!!!! they will change.

i wonder if that counts paused time? because i keep it paused so i know my actual play time. i have a weird thing about that. i don't like to let the timer run. most games that means saving and exiting to the menu until i get back, but this game actually pauses the timer which is nice.

well, the dungeons have generally been pretty simple, as have the forest areas. i go down all of the paths because it either leads to the end or a treasure. i try to get all of the treasures because they're usually new weapons or items i can use.

i must join the bunny guild!

OMG! I've just synthesised the King of All Cosmos's cloak! (You can get this after you've done the Zaude mission, and got all your characters back.)

Still haven't found the Prince, though.

I'm not even bothering with achievements, or looking up what all the secret missions are, on my first playthrough. I've got quite a few of them anyway, but I love the Tales games, and always have to play them at least twice, so I like to have a little something left for subsequent whirls through.

i hear you get the prince after joining the bunny guild and earning a certain amount of titles. the Bunny Guild Prizes go in this order...

Girly Bunny Ears => Small Pipe => Cute Bunny Ears => The Prince => Red Bunny Ears => Dog Jerky => Black Bunny Ears.

and i think to get the bunny guild achievement you have to be wearing the ears for a while... or so say some people on some other forums.

is the cloak an accessory to raise stats or anything? and wouldn't the king's cloak be a little big for yuri? lol.

socar you are way ahead of us! did you get this right as it came out!?

maybe start (pause) stops time. i know the Y button lets the clock run. which i do because i dont really care how long i played and how long i let it sit in a game this long.
if i was going for some speed record i would care, but i waste so much time when i play anyway. i check like every corner and bookcase .......

all of the dungeons are still easy for me as well. some bosses can be tough if you are not stocked up on a little of everything.
i went to one island way before i should have and all 4 party members were killed by a balloon!!!!!! :doh :lol he turned red in anger and blew us up for like 1000s of damage!

you will come across many paths that are blocked until you upgrade your ring to level 3 and 4. then you can move rocks and brush away.
like the gigantic monster back in the first woods that was blocked off. good thing too because he would have killed us quick.

have you guys met kowz yet!? what a freak that kid is! loves him some breasts i tell ya. he is funny. :smirk dont know his deal yet.

socar i think most all of the secret achieves are the secret missions, ie: beat a boss in some special manner.

im surprised you can join a bunny guild. unless late in the story the brave vespira guild disbands...? :( guild law states one can belong to one guild at a time.

socar are you on the third chapter or part or whatever? part 3 of 3.

sonya who is in your party so far? yuri, repede, estelle? and now karol?

haha, yeah, don't tell me too much that happens without warning me or something.

start does pause the time, i know it does. i was just wondering if the achievement goes by total time on your save file, or time with the game on. because if it's going by my save file, then i'll have to get it after my playthrough because i like my time to show actual time played.

upgradable ring, eh? haven't done that. the ring is kinda wimpy at the moment. are you trying to open all areas of the map? i think if you complete the map you get 50gs or something. not too shabby for not doing a lot of work.

i haven't met kowz yet. i have yuri, repede, estelle, rita, and i met raven, but he's not in my party, but i think he is later. right now he's just a jerk.

i have been trying to never say anything spoilerish at all. do you feel i have? sorry. i am being careful.

that achievement for 100 hours will be based on that time that is on your menu screen i imagine.

i mentioned the ring because i was so curious about those barriers all over the place. why can i see the treasure box but not get around this darn rock!!!!? your ring will do it later so ignore those paths blocked by a rock pile, brush pile, etc.

i didnt meet kowz until the desert and he was hidden there, but he is hilarious! seek that boy out!!!!

cool, rita is with you then. i thought karol came before her. lost track. from what i have seen in the end your party is a 7 max. 4 active. 3 follow.
if you get attacked from behind then you use the party leader and the 3 unactive ones which will throw you off at first!
i leave karol and estelle seperate because they are my best healers. raven can heal great too.
do you use yuri all the time as your main character? i do. i find him easiest to fight with. rita is hard to use!!!!!!

you can edit what your characters do in battle and should! i have estelle always stay away from trouble and always heal anyone when needed. she may use items whenever she wants.
repede, judy, raven, karol always go all out and attack, use up to 75% of their tp. help others when needed, etc... you can be very specific about how each member acts and even what spells you will let them use.

program your right stick to do magic attacks as well as the A button.
i use my right stick for the level 3 stuff, A for the level 2 stuff and B for just attack attack attack. made it easy for me to learn the flow of combat.

i have opened most all of the map but some is not possible until you can fly. i just got flight right at bed time last night so not yet. but i am like 92% opened by using the boat.
i floated around for maybe 10 minutes opening everywhere. hopping out to look in shells and logs for goodies. fighting random monsters i hadnt met (got killed by the one balloon!) :smirk

so sonya you know 6 of your 7 members but they didnt all join yet. and i mentioned judy long ago but you have no idea who she is for a long time. she is the blue hair girl in your bunny picture. you will get some great jokes relating to her "bounce" later :smirk

well, not necessarily too spoilerish, but borderline. i don't know much about the guild stuff. i mean, they've talked about it a little.

yeah, karol is with me, i didn't put him for some reason. remember, i said rita picked on him a lot? anyhoo...

i've never switched my lead character. i should try it sometime. i set the artes almost everytime i switch their weapons. so far we've done fine and i just switch mode of attack if i want. moderate, full force, defend, leave it up to me. i'll tell them to defend if i want to do the final blow or something, but i usually keep it on moderate and let them use all the magic they want. they actually have been handling it pretty well. i would change it if i thought they were stupid. not like donald and goofy in kingdom hearts. they were stupid AI if i ever saw in any. don't know if you ever played that game or not.

yeah, i knew who judy was, but i don't meet her for a long time i think. i'll try to do some more tonight, but we'll see. the longer i play it the more i want to play it, so that's a good sign.

played a little last night, but was watching the 2 new heroes episodes too so i was slow last night.
went up like one level cause i goofed around doing little things.

i did break the 50 hour mark. 50 more to get the 100 hour seems soooo far away.

here is cute crazy cowz so you all can see him in his coolness:


i spent a little time earning this for you sonya:

:smirk

i never switched lead characters until i was forced to. it was awkward!!!! you can switch in the coliseum to if you want to beat it with different people for different character unique prizes. playing as the magic characters is tough i thought! i am all about the melee.

i set my moderate to just be what i want all the time and never change it at all. i will sometimes tell estelle to do a certain spell though.

i didn't get to play long last night either, i took a nap, played about 2 1/2 hrs or so.

Raven is about to join my party, i met Judith, but she didn't say much. That's pretty much it.

you are catching up to me.
that will complete your party with those two.

what else is happening storywise for you?

let's see... what happened last night was... *raven gave us a clue as to where the blood alliance guild might be, we went into the broken down city and found the last guild that karol was in instead. the imperial knights tried to take estelle back to the palace and yuri was pardoned for his crimes.*

you will meet SOOOO many guilds as the story goes on too! like constantly new ones. you learn there are 5 main guilds and i was thinking maybe thats all there is... i have met or heard of like 20 in the last few hours. they just keep popping up.
seems instead of businesses and companys there are just tons of guilds that do specific things.

um sonya... no comment on my special achieve i got for you!? :smirk

was your broken city underground?

i saw that you unlocked the map, very nice :) it's definitely an easy 50g. no, it was above ground. um, there were a bunch of warp blastia.

:lol oh man i am so sick of the word "blastia" the whole story forever is about blastia this and aer that. :smirk

oh yea those cool little things that shoot you in a bubble? okay got you. so you just learned the one hit kill thing then.

ya know the whole map achieve was a little harder than i thought it was going to be.
while it was easy to fly all over very very quickly, it was impossible to see the tiny specks of map you have not hit yet on the menu map, the minimap, or the overlay map. i just had to wander around forever.
then i still didnt have it and was oh well forget it.
saw a log on the ground and landed to open it. hopped back into flight and pop! achievement unlocked! yay!

edit: added missing words. typing too fast.

yeah, i did, but so far it's kinda lame. i guess it gets better as you learn more artes? because you have to get them down to a certain point before you can do it anyway. oh i also learned burst arts from those 2 fools, man they're annoying. plus they pack more of a punch at lvl 15 than the stupid seed at level 30. of course i was by myself for that fight.

some achievements are weird like that. maybe you had to get out of the ... airship? ... and back in before it would register, i dunno.

i'm guessing i'm about halfway to where you are. if that's true then you must be leaving your timer on the whole time because i'm only at about 13 hrs or so.

yea my on timer is WAY past my actual play time. by far. by double i bet.
i was on like 11 hours sunday. the 6 hour mark you saw was i had died 6 hours hours earlier from the balloon fight. when you die the timer restarts for the current run.

use a lens on a monster. then hold R button. see the 3 color meters under the creature name and hp? those meters apply to how close a creature is to a an opening for the critical hit thing. each color = an attack type you are doing. do lots of A button attacks and the green meter empties fast opening for a green arrow attack.

airship... close! you will see. you will laugh when you see what it is and what you just called it sonya. watch.

okay 1st graders coming.
see you.

you actually don't have to use a lens to see that meter, but yeah, i knew that it had something to do with the types of attaks. i haven't successfully pulled one off since the tutorial did it for me. i haven't been in any long fights since then either.

well, i though that each arte was represented by a different color (red, blue, green) and depending on which arte you are using you can pull off different bonuses for using the end move. i'm guessing some artes drain the meter faster than others, but they also drain your tp meter too.

i just kinda guessed, i have no idea what you fly. most of the rpgs that i've played you are in an airship, so that's what i called it for lack of a better term.

youre right. the meter did show without the lens usually.
yea the artes are the color, but i assign each level arte to a different button (so i can combo in sequence and not get confused)... i think the green arrow is the weakest and the red was the most rare... from my experience.
yea you will begin to use the critical attack thing (forgot its real name) more as you progress and monsters get like 30,000 hp. and bosses and gigamonsters you might bust out 5 of those critical attacks for big damage.
some times your attacks will empty an enemies meter but not his ho in like 4 hits and you can lay the big death on it. sweet!

it pretty much is an "airship", but youll see. :P near the end of chapter 2 is when you get to fly.
are you technically still in chapter 1? (did you get the 100 point achieve yet?)
chapter 2 went by pretty quick for me so far, but i can travel faster as well.

as i flew around last night i landed at every log and shell i could see and looted it. and sometimes i got to fight the weakest monsters like back around the capital. awesome to kill 7 monsters in 3 seconds! nice bonus on the score as well (press Y at the win screen)