Tales of Grace F: marching toward the Platinum

I had to say that in the past 2 months I was so absorbed with Tales of Grace F that the majority of my free time were spent on this game, and hence giving me little time to play other games, watch anime (though I never missed Kuroko, Amnesia and Hyouka every week so far) or even DotA.  How do I describe it...ToGF is just too addictive that I couldn't help but wanting to finish the game asap, do most of the sidequests I could do, and then move on to the 2nd playthrough and enjoy all the reward I could get from the Grade Shop.

So So after completing the main game, I then spend some time completing the Lineage&Legacy chapter (damn the monsters in this chapter is crazy I couldn't quite keep up with them on Chaos), beat Fodra Queen, then reload back into the main game and complete Zhonecage dungeon. All in the last 2 weeks, but even then I still feel that there's quite a lot left for me to do. Such as....beating most of the end game bosses+Zhonecage on Chaos. Playing a second playthrough with lots of Grade Shop bonus. And most importantly...Platinum.

Currently I've completed 70% of the trophies available in the game. There's still 30% left, but they aren't really easy to obtain, at least not within the next few days/weeks. I need to complete all sidequests (curse you Weapon trait/nature); then beat the final bosses of main arc as well as Queen Fodra under 30 secs (possible on first playthrough, I just need to prepare my character better for the fight); then finish the last floor of Zhonecage and beat the boss, Solomus. That's all there is for my Platinum completion I guess. 

Now that I've finished the game, what kind of impression do I have about the game? Obviously a great one. The gameplay is fast, much faster than Vesperia, Abyss or Symphonia. The A and B-artes features made comboing much more fun, because you can chain a long combo, combining both type of artes as long as you have enough Capacity Chain (CC). The Accel mode available from the Future Arc made battles even more enjoyable, due to the fact that you can control when to activate it (unlike Eleth Burst). 

My character assessment:

• Asbel - I used him almost through the entire Adult Arc, and he's easy to combo, back and forth from A to B-artes. Aurora Lotus, too bad we got it so late in the game (unless you grind and grind and grind to lvl 100 quickly). A cool character but very dense when it come to love. I still prefer someone like Yuri Llowel though.

• Sophie - I used her almost through the entire Future Arc, because I kinda got bored with Asbel. Her A-arte combo was totally awesome. My fav B-arte combo: Gauntlet Blitz into Dualblade Spin. A pigtailed loli.

• Cheria - The main healer. I only use her when I want to revive a character, cuz her A-arte range was rather short, and her stronger B-artes (INDIGNITION!!!) take a long time to cast, unless I combo it with A-artes. The osana najimi type. I love using Rita Mordio's Magical Bee costume on her. If only I could get the DLC Natalia costume....

• Hubert - One of my favorite when it comes to racking up high combo count. He is the master at that. In fact, you can easily get 100+ combo by using him alone, provided that all your combo attacks managed to hit the enemy. His dualblade consist of sword, bow, guns, dualblade, damn it can turn into anything. Favorite Arte: Aerial Barrage (lol easiest skill for killing lots of enemies at once). The otouto. At first I kida dislike him, but over time his battle prowess proved that he is a must in my party.

• Pascal - the hybrid mage, or so I would say. Her weapon is a staff, but sometimes it can change into a pistol in battle. I rarely use her but she's a good crowd controller with her AOE spells. But she definitely needs some tanker in order to be more useful in battle, especially on Chaos. Oh, her Accel Mystic Arte is a LOL. The genius, Rita Mordio type, but without the tsundere trait, while also a crazy chick. Y'okay!

• Malik - I hate his bladerang A-arte. The backswing took quite a while to pull, so sometimes the enemies's attack might reach you before you can even start comboing. His B-arte spells are quite good though. The elderly in the party, he taught a lot of "unnecessary" stuff to Sophie lol.

• Richard - rarely used him since he's only available in Future Arc. More or less like Hubert+Malik combined, I'm not really a fan of spellcasting B-artes. Can't say too much about him, cuz he had major roles in the Adult Arc.

 Got a lot more in my mind to write about, but I guess I'll save it for the next entry.