Battle Mechanism Tales of the Abyss: Pay Attention to Each Detail!!!

Battle Mechanism Tales of the Abyss: Understanding your battle menu!!

Hi Fellas! I am back with new info on helping you all get along with battle menu reserved for you during your battle phase.

Battle Phase for starters is an session of you and enemies engaging in fight in a closed circular space. This is the iconic feature of Tales series which all fans are already familiar with, and this seems restrictive to new players. However, this space is where you can see for yourself how well you fight, cooperate with teammates, and strategize your actions while running around freely. 

In this situation, you can press Triangle button then a menu of options will appear before you namely Weapons, Artes, Strategy, Escape, Items. Worry Not!! Since these Menu options do not differ from one tales series installment to another (same old same old). Regardless of Battle Menu from Berseria to Symphonia even Abyss, these menu options only change in terms of design or UI.

ARTES

Here is the menu that you will frequently use, in which you can customize your arte combos depending your battle situation. There are 8 slots for you to fill with desired arte combo. 

The first four slots can be activated by pressing Circle, LEFT D-Pad Up + Circle, LEFT D-pad Down + Circle, LEFT D-pad left or right + circle. Either way is fine to combo your artes as long as your finger + eye coordination matches with the timing to pin down enemies. E.g Crescent Strike >> Demon Fang >> Tiger Blade or Sonic Thrust >> Havoc Strike >> Raging Blast.

Artes menu helps you check which base artes you have not activated with FOF change ( This is pivotal due to great deal of hit offered), so you will be able to pick which arte works best to critically hit your enemies with certain elemental weakness. 

Also, you can find out exact Arte Usage Counter about how often you use base/arcane artes even spells as to inform you which arte you should try to repeat for better bonus. Let's say you want a Fang Blade Havoc, you will have to find out first how often you have used Fang blade + Havoc strike, then keep using both until a new arte is triggered by Learned new arte. 

STRAT

Strategy menu is indeed one of the most pivotal options to note. Whenever Battle becomes harder due to either battle difficulties or naturally strong bosses, you will want to re-manage where your party members are supposed to stand, what actions they should take for attacking, defending, or activating Overlimit, then how careful they have to be for their Health Points. 

Although the game is already convenient enough to provide you smart AIs party members to adapt with how the battle goes down, some flaws can still be noticeable, and you have to manage their battle behavior in case the the battle odds turn against you. 

E.g your party members got hit by enemy's massive spells or Mystic Arte, then you will not have him or her still attack by close, so you need to set the critically injured to look out for HP, attack from distance, then ask other party member to heal. In my case, healers suddenly attack with regular strike of her own Volition (why tho?) I was kinda frustrated when this happenned.

In Abyss, there will be a mini tic-tac-toe map on top right page which allows you to monitor which party members of yours stand in the start of the battle. With this you can plan any way you want to pick how many vanguards and supports you aim to place, then adjust how far your party members should stand from the enemies.

Equip

Again, you can still customize your gears whenever you feel at disadvantage during combat or forgot to equip recently purchased gears e.g weapons, armors, rings, shoes, accessories, you can always change then adjust your party members' gears to improve their status.

the difference can only affect boost in your status, and never expect any addition to your HP or TP in instant after equipping like certain accessories except for the ones that grant you gradual regeneration of HP and TP for 3% each as far as I can recall or Anise's doll in special case.

However, If you are so keen in farming Gald, GRADE, as well as Experience, changing equipments boosting your chance of doubling three categories above is still applicable and doable; hence, you can still change battle outcome. 

Plus, if situation gets dire, you can always try to change any character's accessories with Rebirth Doll for Backup plan in case of Low TP for resurrection. Also, if want to switch one weapon to another for activatimg 2md Mystic Artes, changing your weapon is doable, too.

Items

NOTE THIS WELL!! Item use in battle will result in temporal cooldown as long as 5 seconds (indicated by time on the top left screen). So, assess your situations first before you use any gels, magic lens, and bottles. 

I rarely used any bottles for any battles since bottles only acted as magical and phyisicsl ailment cure, but gels are the most frequently used items here for healing and TP restoration. 

Always HAVE OTHER PARTY MEMBERS throw items at you or others in need. When you throw items, you will pause your movements for a while then leave open window to enemies. Although there are many items you can throw for healing purposes as well as battle tide turning tool such as hourglass and all divide, you will not be able to consume herbs during fights.

Escape

This is TRICKY. In regular encounters in field, escape is always reserved for dire circumstances, and your time progress for escaping will be regular. In case of dangerous encounter (you got approached from behind by enemies in field), you time progress of fleeing will be longer as this was the rule.

There is no running away from boss fight if you feel discouraged or anything else. Hence, fight with all your might then die trying. The same goes for coliseum bosses or enemies also for Gelda Nebilim. Failure to flee due to getting Knocked Out or KO'd will take you to load game menu then you will return to your last save position. SORRY, there is no respawn here.

For few optional bosses, such as Behemoth in Inista Marsh or Sword Dancer, you can still escspe the fight by longer period of time. 

Escaping requires you to take 5 or 7 seconds to clear the battle without any bonuses (Gald, Exp, Grade), but you are alive!! Plus if you get hit or inflicted by status ailment, status ailment and health reduction will still follow. Sucks huh ?

In case of being KO'd, you can not perform escape and only alive party members can help you out.

I believe those are tips + advice I manage to gather, compile then share to you all for understanding in-battle menu in Abyss.

Do share me your thoughts and opinions if you feel the need for more info and tips about Tales of The Abyss gameplay!! Hit me up on talesofseriesforever@gmail.com