COMBOS-how do they work and is there alot??

[Tetzuro]

so far the battle system looks awesome and from what ive seen theres no more repetative 1-2-3 hit sequence but whati wanna know is how intricate are the new combos , is it even a big change, like did they just change 1-2-3 to 1-2-3-4 lol and add specials based on PP which ive seen are not very vast, all the daggers seem to have the spinning move and the double sabers have the spiral attak thing, is there anything more??

[tihoa]

there are suppose to be a few different moves that you can get for each weapon but some of them are only available online. the npcs who join you in story mode seem to have some moves that you can't buy in the shop offline. i know the gun type weapons come with every known element attached to them.

[Tystys]

One of the main things I've been wondering about the battle system is if the whole "In order to perform a combo" thing, that you have to press the buttons in a certain time sequence for them to actually play out. I remember being a newbie, desperately trying to perform combos that other people were doing by mashing the keyboard's attack button until I figured out how the combo system worked XD.

[Tetzuro]

oo ok well aslong as i can earn more along the way, also another question i had is how the hell do u switch weapons and use them in battle, i was watching a video and i noticed a little down arrow on the lower right hand corner, and everytime the player would attack theyed press w/e button is allocated to that down arrow but then i noticed when thier sub weapon is highlighted they would use down to attack, do you attack with the D pad or somthing?? is main and sub weapons determined with triggers?

[A2K]

It seems like a lot of the Photon Arts available in Story for melee weapons are quite different from the ones available in Network Mode.

Anyway, some skills do combo themselves as two or so extra hits, but others do not. Offline it seemed like I could START with a PA then segue into a normal attack combo, but that could just be my RAM-starved machine's atrocious framerate playing tricks with me.

[Tystys]

I think there's a menu button you press. You pretty much use your regular move arrows to change weapons, which is why you see people stopping when they do change weapons....and which is also why I assumed it was a different buttons than the arrow keys, because if it were arrow keys, I'm pretty sure we'd be able to move around still XD

[Tetzuro]

naw im not talking about changeing weapons im talking about actually attacking and shooting for example sword and gun at the same time like how do u do melee then use ur hand fun so quickly

[Authenticate]

It's basically the same as PSO was, but it's much more fluid. You aren't stuck facing one direction while you combo, so if you need to you can change the direction of your swing to hit a monster before it hits you.

As far as I know, there are two different PAs per melee weapon. In offline mode the NPCs will give you PA disks sometimes if you S rank missions, but I'm not sure about online. I think you can only get the basic ones online.

Edit:
You can just mash the buttons to combo, but that's the lazy way to do it. Save your thumb/finger and learn the timing.

When you use a Saber/Gun combo, you hold down a button to switch between them as you need. On my controller, I have that set to R2. So I'd hold R2 while aproching an enemy if I wanted to shoot it, then let go when I got into melee to use my saber.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Authenticate on 2006-09-16 22:45 ]</font>

[LoneVandal]

The way it works on a PS2 pad is this (I think my setup matches the PS2 anyway, I'm on PC):

Square = Attack = Mash this here button to swing away or shoot guns as a Ranger. Hold it down to fire Machineguns. There is no timing involved to perform a combo and also no soft / hard attacking to worry about.

Triangle = Photon Art = super attack, which is weapon specific and which you must purchase from a shop and attach to your weapon. When you use this attack enough it levels up and at level 11 it allows you to extend into a real combo by hitting Triangle again. Each step of a Photon Art drains PP from your weapon, so if you kill a monster with the first part you don't have to extend and waste PP. The extensions are typically very, very powerful and worth the additional PP spent to perform them and the time to learn them.

X button = open your quick-swap / item palette = As long as you hold this button a list of 5 pre-configured weapon set ups and 5 (I think anyway) pre-configured items like Monomates, Moon Atomizers, etc.. (also Moon Atomizer targetting is automatic in this, just stand near a player and they'll receive the res. You won't actually see a target reticle.) No you do not need to stand still to swap weapons, because it does not use any directional keys or analog stick to work.

Circle = Interact with crap = Use this to pick up loot and activate doors / PP recharge cubes, etc..

R1 = Ready gun / change weapon in your Palette = If you hold R1 down when using a Saber and Handgun you will ready your Handgun, and it will fire when you hit Square instead of you swinging your Saber. If you hold X to open your palette then hit R1 you will move the menu up or down one, I forget, to the next weapon in your list. When you let go of X you will change to the weapon you selected.

L1 = Center Camera / Lock Target / Change Item in quick palette = interesting button, if you're using a melee weapon and you hold L1 while facing an enemy, you will begin to circle-strafe them when you move using your analog stick. As in, no matter where you move you'll always face the enemy. If you just tap it L1 will adjust your camera to face the direction you are. The item palette works just like the weapon, as soon as you let go of X you will use the item you highlighted. If you hit R1 or R2 while the palette is on the Item side you will cancel using an item and go back to changing weapons.

R2 = Chat Log / swap weapon in Palette = Hit this once to see a general chat log, hit it again to see a party chat log (yes you can do party only chat in lobbies now, which extends between people in missions and out shopping, etc..). It also moves your weapon selection in the palette in the opposite direction of R1.

L2 = Change item in palette and uh... not much else that I'm aware of.

L3 for me enables First Person mode

I set up my R3 to act like a keyboard key for my Ventrilo program's push-to-talk function.

Left analog stick moves you around, right moves the camera (YESSSSSSSSS CAMERA CONTROL), direction pad is used for menus. Start key opens the main menus.

L1 + R1 = Strafe! You continue to face one direction while moving whichever way you want (NOT LIKE LOCKON, THAT MAKES YOU FACE THE ENEMY NO MATTER WHERE YOU MOVE) This is awesome, if you hold these down while using a Handgun or Dual Handguns you can fire on the move while using the analog stick and tapping Square. If you're a FO this can help you with lining up spells tremendously, but they have to stop moving to cast them. With Handguns you can literally be firing at enemies WHILE you back away from them.

FO are special, instead of normal attacks and a Photon Art key (which they have access to while using handguns and sabers, etc..), their Square and Triangle keys can have your Techs assigned to them, and when using a Staff (which has 4 tech slots) they can hold R1 to access the other 2 Techs they've assigned to the Staff. So, if you then use your quick palette to equip a different staff, you just equipped 4 new spells to wreak havoc with, or the same 4 spells on a staff with full PP if that is what you want.

Whew, ok, book post but hopefully that answers the questions.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: LoneVandal on 2006-09-16 23:04 ]</font>

[Alisha]

they way vandal explained it to me on irc the combo system works almost exactly like tales of symphonia.

[physic]

it doesnt really work like symphonia, basically you can combo reg hist for up to 3 frames like pso, (some weapons its 3 attacks, some weapons its 5) you can also use photon arts and those too chain as they get higher they get more power, and mroe attacks chainable, but dif weaps have different limits on how high they chain. PAs have special properties some times, like knock down, knock up knock across room, and some do wild things, some have big ae, some have small ae but hit alot, also so far offline seems like most weaps have two PAs which can branch out differently