3.

2 Spirit Chain (SC) and Blast Gauge (BG)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------The battle system in Zestiria uses two gauge points (or maybe I should include
HP and make them three, lol).The first one is called SC, and this works like
CC in Graces, but the scale is 100. Artes require SC, so when a character run
out of SC, he/she cannot perform an action. SC will recove by itself when a
character stays idle. Avoiding enemy attacks or succesfully defending against
special attacks will also recover SC. Some healing spells also recover SC.
<UPDATE>
Notice that when you end a battle with, let's say 44 SC, you will not find the
number 44 when you open the menu screen. You should see a different number.
That is called Initial SC. Initial SC is recovered by resting at the inn or
eating some cookings.
Initial SC will be reduced by 1 for each battle you enter. When a character's
initial SC is high, SC recovery rate of the character is fast, but when his SC
is low (for example he enters the battle with initial SC 20 or 30), the SC of
the character will recover very slowly despite your guarding action. So it is
important to keep your SC high throughout a long dungeon or you have to bare
with slwo SC recovery rate when your Initial SC has gone zero.
The second gauge is Blast Gauge (BG). Blast is a special feature of Zestiria.
Using Blast allows you to perform various battle actions, for example using
Mystic Artes, performing Armitization, and also recovering SC and continuing
combos. Battle Act details will be explained in its own sections. BG is charged
by attacking enemies or defending (using specific Battle Act).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.3 Combat Features
------------------------------------------------------------------------------There are many features provided for Zestiria battle system. All of these will
be explained in details in other sections. First of all, the party is limited
to only two humans and two seraphs. One human is partnered together with one
Seraph, resulting into two pairs. A seraph needs a human to participate in
battle. So, a party of two humans and one seraph is okay, but not a party of
one human and two seraphs. The second seraph will be automactically removed
from battle party.
Changing controlled character, seraph partner, seraph partner of the other
human, until forcing the other human to perform Armitization is possible during
battle. However, all of these needs the corresponding Battle Acts. For example,
changing controlled character during battle is only possible when 'Character
Change' Battle Act is equipped.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.4 Enemy Weakness
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tales of Zestiria still implements enemy weakness system, following the great
success of the system in Xillia. There are four elements in the game, which are
fire, water, earth, and wind. There is non-elemental element but it's not very
important. Every enemy has different elemental weakness, so using the correct
elemental attacks is the best road to victory. Attacking an enemy with fire
resistance with fire attacks will do A LITTLE damage. When I say a little, it
is really a little. The battle might take forever when you are fighting a boss
in Hard mode without paying attention to elemental weaknesses.
When you hit enemy weaknesses, SC consumption for artes is reduced by 30%.

a. Damage Display
When you attack an enemy, the damage pop-up will tell you the effects of your
attacks. Basically, there are four types of damage pop-up.
1. Normal

: when enemy is hit by attacks unrelated to its weakness and

resistance
2. REDUCE
: when enemy is hit by its elemental resistance
3. WEAK
: when enemy is hit by its elemental weakness
4. PENETRATE : although damage is given, interruption does not occur
5. INVALID : damage is cut about 90%
6. REFLECT : damage is reflected back
b. Status Relation with Elements
Relation between elements and statuses is as below:
Physical Attack
Special Attack
Physical Defense
Special Defense
Concentration

Normal
Fire
Earth
Water
Wind

Paralyze
Burn
Slow-foot (Cannot Move)
Poison
Fatigue

To summarize, an effect is doubled when the relation is in the horizontal

line. For example, if you attack an enemy with fire elemental weakness,
the probability of an attack that has property of inflicting Burn status or
reducing special attack is doubled. And when you attack the enemy whose
special attack is being reduced, the probability of inflicting Burn status
is 4x.
c. Unbalanced/Knocked-Down Enemies
When you attack an unbalanced enemy with Base Arte Level 1, your character's
BG will be increased 1. Remember that this only occurs ONLY for Level 1 Base
Arte. If you are in the middle of combo and unintentionallly hit the enemy,
you won't get extra BG.
===============================================================================
4. Battle Artes
[ART]
===============================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1 Basic Rules
------------------------------------------------------------------------------There are three types of attacks in Zestiria, which are Tokugi (Base
Artes), Ougi (Arcane Artes), and Tenkyoujutsu (Seraph Spells). Base Artes are
performed by pressing the circle button. Both humans and seraphs can use Base
Artes. Arcane Artes and Seraph Spells are performed by pressing the X button.
However, ONLY humans have Arcane Artes. The Seraphs get the spells for the
X button and Seraph Spells require casting time. These three work according to
below basic rules:
1. Base Artes CAN interrupt Seraph Spells casting.
2. Arcane Artes CANNOT interrupt Seraph Spells casting, Arcane Artes will be
knocked back.
3. Arcane Artes CANNOT be interrupted by Base Artes. Base Artes will be
knocked back.
4. When interrupted during Spell casting by Arcane Arte, casting time will be

reduced by half.
So, it works like janken (rock-paper-scissor).
Arcane Arte --> Base Arte --> Seraph Spells --> Arcane Arte
For number 1 and 2, I think there is no problem since you just have to use a
Base Arte when you want to interrupt the enemies' spellcastings. But number 3
is quite troublesome. If an enemy is trying to assault you with an Arcane Arte
and you are performing a Base Arte, you will be interrupted and damaged. On the
other hand, you can also do the same thing to enemies. Anyway, it is difficult
to differentiate whether an enemy is going to use an Arcane Arte or not. You
have to see and learn, then remember. Usually some Arcane Artes of enemies
require them to perform an energy-charging behavior (a wolf preparing to dash
or a backward movement).
Artes and spells have embedded effects, for example enemy stun. Combining this
and elemental weakness will be the key to finish a battle in a breeze. There
is also a specific Battle Act that increases the probability of effects.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.2 Tokugi/Base Artes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is basically the same as A-Artes in Graces. Base Artes input keys are
already fixed. Generally, there are 4 levels of Base Artes, and each of them
corresponds to a single input direction and the circle button. Base Artes
have to be performed in order from Level 1 to Level 4. You can just say these
are like normal attacks, but with more variety of attack animation.
The Base Arte menu screen is shown as something like this.
Blank
Up/Down
Left
Right

Level
Arte
Arte
Arte
Arte

Level
Arte
Arte
Arte
Arte

-->
-->
-->
-->

Level
Arte
Arte
Arte
Arte

-->
-->
-->
-->

Level 4
Arte
Arte
Arte
Arte

-->
-->
-->
-->

Of course, you can switch to different directions when chaining. For example,
after you perform two Blank Base Artes, you can use Left Level 3 Base Artes.
Usually the Up/Down-direction Artes are Artes that charge and press forward.
The Left and Right-direction Artes are usually either Artes that hits across
the battlefield to hit multiple enemies in a straight line, or Artes that move
in a left or right direction. Combining these artes will allow you to move
in battlefield while attacking.
Effects of Chain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Increasing number of Base Arte usage during chain will reduce SC consumption.